no kidding, here was the first negotiation. I'm at the shed, in the front office with the farmer. We talk about whether this could work. We realize it might. I then bring up how to split money. From my side, it seemed fair to pay him more, so I suggested they keep 60% of profit, and I keep 40%. He nodded, and agreed. So we went with that. We changed it slightly over the years, but it still falls around that range. You wanna know funny thing? UPS makes the most on the entire transaction (as we roll in shipping costs on all our orders).
Not even. Tried to start a small (friends and extended family) coffee roasting business. Most of the margin shipping a 12oz bag of coffee after all other costs is eaten by flat rate USPS shipping. Only made economic sense at a much greater scale, or for orders > 5lb.