Everyone wants to start something.
Very few people want to do the actual work of making it credible.
Vegan Certification Authority is a certification body for products that are suitable for vegans.
Not a logo you can slap on a label for a subscription fee.
A genuine certification process with standards, assessment, and accountability.
Building this is hard.
Let me tell you exactly why.
Credibility Doesn’t Come From Declaring It
Any idiot can launch a certification body.
You register a business name, design a logo, build a website, apply to the ACCC, and start charging companies to display your badge.
Done.
This is what a lot of so-called certification bodies actually are, a certificate and a logo with no substance behind them.
Building something credible means building the substance first.
That means documented standards.
Clear criteria for what qualifies a product as vegan suitable.
A process that can withstand scrutiny from both the companies seeking certification and the consumers relying on it.
None of that is quick.
None of it is glamorous.
All of it is necessary.
The Market Needs It
The vegan product market is growing.
More products, more brands, more consumers who want to make informed choices.
And the certification landscape hasn’t kept pace.
What exists is either expensive and inaccessible for smaller producers, or so loose it doesn’t actually mean anything.
There’s a gap.
VCA is being built to fill it, accessibly, rigorously, and without the gatekeeping that prices out small ethical businesses.
Where It’s Up To
Honestly?
It’s a little past the foundational stage.
The standard has been written.
The structure is in place.
It’s almost open for business.
I’ll document this one closely as it develops, because the process of building something that has to earn trust from day one is one of the more interesting business challenges I’ve taken on.
There’s no shortcut, there’s no growth hack, and there’s definitely no coach who can hand me the answer.
This one gets built properly or it doesn’t get built at all.
Cameron is building four businesses at once and documenting every win, loss, and ugly middle bit in real time.
He’s the founder of Build Your Vegan Blog, the Vegan Certification Authority, Epiktet Supplies, and Dark Quill Agency.
He is also the voice behind NABB.coach, where he writes about the realities of starting and running businesses without the coaching industry’s usual spin.
No blueprints.
No gurus.
Just what’s actually happening.
We definitely do NOT need yet another vegan certifying body. Check the statistics and the grocery store isles, vegan products are decreasing.
Hi there,
I am not sure where you are, though where I am, and the vegans I have spoken to have said otherwise.
I believe that what we are seeing now with regards to the reduction in the number of vegan suitable products is the market correcting itself after the years of unnatural expansion.
When the market expands again, the consumer is going to be wanting a standard they can trust.
Being based on GFSI, I am hoping that VCA is that standard.