Donuts: A Recession-Proof Business?

Sweet News: Ed Chastain, who's been making donuts for more than 22 years, says the donut business is practically recession-proof these days.

Thursday, June 3, 2010 1:32 GMT

National Donut Day is this Saturday (Jun. 5), and according to donut-making vet Ed Chastain, the sweet treats are worth celebrating.

Chastain – who’s helped dozens of folks open donut shops – says the donut business is recession-proof because it requires little cash to break into but yields major profit.

He says the complete set-up to get started, including a donut- making machine, costs about $2,500. Ingredients are dirt cheap, since one donut from prep to icing only costs 12 cents to produce.

In an eight-hour work day, Chastain thinks you could make 200 dozen donuts using semi-automatic equipment.

Because of the cheap materials and high productivity, he says a donut business is “easy to monetize” and could succeed quickly.

Chastain assures that making donuts is easy after learning the basics and offers instructional DVDs on donutedvd.com.