Tag: business scaling

I get this question a lot from my clients because wholesale products require the sharing of profits with the retailer, so the margins are lower in your business. While it isn’t right for every business, I have helped several clients with very successful wholesale and consignment lines of business that rapidly grew more income, greater audience following, and ultimately a larger retail base.  Here are a few reasons that wholesale and consignment can be great for your business.

 

 

 

Wholesale Products: Larger orders than individual sales

 

When any customer buys you should do a happy dance. But when a wholesale customer buys it’s a bigger order and a bigger happy dance. If a customer buys one, a wholesale order can buy 12. Even with the loss of margin, you have more volume, and you make more income.  Just make sure your numbers are right on the wholesale and retail prices.  Know your production, packaging, and labor costs.  I have several clients with retail margins over 60-80%, so wholesale margins are still beautiful even sharing 25-40% with a retailer.  Take the time to build a solid relationship. Give them the product knowledge and watch how your business customers begin to promote YOUR product when people ask for suggestions.

 

 

Wholesale Products: Introduction to their audience

 

And the reason you don’t mind giving margin to the retailer is… because you are being introduced to their audience! They are paying for their storefront, labor, overhead, etc., and you get to be an option for the customer base they spent time and money building.  They are making something, and you are still making something. It is a win-win. You get shelf space, physical or virtual, and the visibility.

 

 

Wholesale Products: Reordering more frequently

 

Another aspect of wholesale is that there are more frequent orders from the buyers. Individual consumers buy maybe a few times a year (depending on the product) but businesses are going to order as they are selling. A key here is to be organized and to be a great account manager. Know the business owner’s intentions with your product. Learn what is selling and what isn’t.

 

Again, build that relationship. Make suggestions, call, and ask for the reorder (don’t make them run out first), and for the love of all things holy, don’t take it personally if an item isn’t a hit with their audience.  The reorders from a business are generally larger than an individual order, so more volume, more income, more chances to serve the business owner and their audience.

 

 

Converting fans to direct retail

 

This happens frequently. After a time, the customer may begin to order directly from you, at retail.  This happened to us with the coffee business. People bought our product from a local store, then joined our Facebook group, then directly ordered from us.  I’ve seen this happen with several clients of mine as well.

Make sure to have your website or online store on your product label.  But please note: DO NOT undercut your wholesalers with deep discounts online. It’s very disrespectful and will cause you to lose wholesale business fast. The retail price is the retail price. If you buy from me, from them, or from the other them. The ONLY time I’d think about discounts would be if something is discontinued or you are discounting wholesale as well, the margin remains the same for the retailer.

 

One last thing, consignment can be a great way to test out a relationship with a potential wholesale customer. Offer to let them try it out in their business for a time, say 30-60 days, and after it sells out, you would be happy to have them as a wholesale customer. The difference is that on consignment you are paid only after an item sells. In a wholesale account the business customer owns the item once they are purchased at the wholesale price.

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As entrepreneurs, we are often asked if we have a “business strategy” for just about everything. Social media, marketing, growth, operations, and on and on. But what does it mean to have one? The word strategy, as defined by dictionary.com means, “a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.”

 

business strategy meeting

 

In all honesty, it can feel a little overwhelming to think about everything that needs to be planned in your business. On the other hand, operating without any plan, that is, just winging it in your biz, will cost you time, energy, and money because you will be trying to hit your targets in the dark. The truth is that you need an overarching plan for your vision, then mini-plans in each of the action areas.

 

 

 

 

Must Fit Into Your Bigger Vision and Goal

 

You want to go from New York to Los Angeles in the car. That’s the goal, get to LA. There are so many different routes to get there, but we can probably agree that you need to have a starting road and you need to be going west. Without looking at a map or GPS or having a strategy to get to your destination you could end up anywhere else costing time and money.  It is true that your starting route may change, and you may end up on a different interstate- but as long as you hold the vision of getting to LA, you will be ultimately moving west. Make sense?

 

My question to you. Where are you going? What does this look like in the future? What is your vision? This is your very first strategy assignment, create a picture of where you are going. This is where people look out 3 months, 6 months, a year, five years. But for now, just pick a timeframe within 2 years and grab the picture in your mind. Now we need to hold that vision to create a plan to get there. Write down this vision and your goals.

 

 

 

 

Must Lead Into Action Plan

 

Some of us love to plan. I do. Unfortunately, sometimes we replace action with planning. Planning is preparation, and I am so guilty of this when I have any fear or resistance around taking the next step. The best use of strategy is to translate your plan into actions that you take every day, week, month, towards your vision.

 

This is where multiple strategies are developed. For example, the social media strategy, marketing strategy, and webinar strategy must nest within the bigger vision. To do this, look at your written vision and goals and describe what each plan needs to do to support your journey. If your business is product-based you may have a strategy that includes sales to both wholesale and retail audiences, so your sales strategy needs to address how to support both.

 

The actual number of plans will vary by business. If you are in manufacturing, you will have strategic needs that aren’t necessary in the coaching world. At a minimum, however, I think just about every business needs:

 

  • A marketing strategy (with a social media plan)
  • A sales strategy
  • A customer acquisition, service, support, and retention strategy
  • A clear strategy for delivering the products and services to market

 

With these four strategies defined for your business, you can make decisions and take action every day aligned with your bigger vision.

 

 

 

 

Must Be Reviewed At Least Twice A Year  

 

It is so true that businesses start with one thing and ultimately evolves. You may start with a single idea and grow it into several lines of revenue. You may need to meet your customer a different way as the industry changes. The strategy will also evolve and grow with your business.  So, creating your strategy isn’t a “one and done” event.  Reviewing it twice a year is a great way to see if your goals and vision are still aligned based on the daily real-world business things.

 

If you aren’t a natural planner, I get it. I hope you see how important it is to have an overarching map and strategy to get to your vision.  You’ve been given a vision, and your entrepreneurial purpose is to reach it. If you need some help with planning your next moves, grab a spot on my calendar for a chat, I have an intensive 3-hour session available that is intended to get your plan reviewed and if needed, back on track to support your goals.

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Creating your signature offer is one way you can be sure you reach the right audience and hone your message. One that you will be known for.  One that people will seek you out for.  Your signature can be a course, program, flavor, color, packaging, template, the sky is the limit. 

 

No matter your business or industry, your voice, your values, and your point of view are unique to you. Your message will resonate with some people, and not with others. And that’s just fine.

 

Creating Your Signature Offer

 

The one thing about creating your signature offer is that it needs to be on-brand. It needs to be cohesive with your voice, message, image, and values. Make sure you know these things for yourself before you start creating your signature offer. To start crafting your signature offer, answer the questions below.

 

 

 

What do you want to be known for?

 

It’s the Profit Accelerator for me. The programs, the (upcoming) podcast, the book, all of it. I want to be the go-to for entrepreneurs who want to make more money and keep more profit by starting with their numbers. I know profit creates impact and I want small business owners to have a tremendous impact in their communities and in society.

 

 

 

 

What change or transformation do you want your clients to have through your signature thing?

 

I want people to be empowered with their money. Confident in making financial decisions. I want them to walk away from my signature Profit Accelerator experience with positive permanent changes that make entrepreneurship better for them. You need to be very, very clear about what your clients will experience through your signature thing. Your answers in this step will help you define the actual offer in the next step.

 

 

 

 

What’s the best format for your clients to get that change?

 

In the program I created, it is a hybrid between 1:1 sessions and group coaching for a six to twelve-week timeframe with the singular goal of generating revenue and keeping the profit. For some of you, it will be a course, whether online or live. For others, it will be with your products. You know your audience, make sure you are meeting them where they are so you can help them get to where they want to be.

 

 

 

 

What feels good for you to deliver?

 

The final question has to do with alignment. Your signature offer must represent you and you must feel good delivering it to the world.  If you are not a webinar and PowerPoint person, you can’t force your signature offer into that format. Really think about this. The way you deliver your signature thing is the way people will remember you.

 

There are still two weeks left for 2020, why not take a little time and create the thing you want to be known for in 2021. Daydream a bit if you need to. Visualize it, feel it, and outline whatever you need to in order to bring your signature thing to the world in 2021.

 

Did you enjoy what you read today? Follow me on Facebook and Instagram for more useful content!

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We hear the word, “scale” thrown around a lot in business, particularly online when they say you need to scale your business.

According to The Startup Finance it means: “Make more revenue faster than it takes on costs.”

Using that definition, you want to start scaling as soon as possible. That is how you can become more profitable because you will have more income at a ratio to lower costs.

That is actually always a good place to be in business. Here are a few tips you can start using now if you want to start scaling your business.

1. You can create very low overhead products these days.

One way to add revenue with minimal costs is to create a digital course or product that can be sold online.

Another popular low overhead service is online memberships. By adding revenue, and not adding costs to produce each item, this can help to scale your business quickly. You are serving more people without taking on more costs.

2. You can create multiple reasons to buy from you with multiple offers.

Again, without increasing costs you can create a new offer that can be resold to your existing audience. Or perhaps an existing offer can be repackaged for gifts. Or maybe you can add a fun bonus to an offer and give your audience a new chance to buy from you. You are serving your same people again without taking on more costs. 

3. You can keep the costs low by minimizing debt.

Small businesses and start-ups can begin to scale more quickly if they keep business debt very low, or if possible, non-existent.

Using my Breakthrough number approach, everything above the business four walls is profit, and from that amount we must pay debt. Without debt you have more revenue and more money going into those profit parking lots.

4. Scaling can cause short term bottlenecks to push through.

This is one side effect we don’t talk about but, as you are generating more and more revenue, if your systems aren’t in place, it may cause a bottleneck where you can’t generate more or serve more without more money for systems.

It happens and a way to minimize this risk is to have some support in place as a temporary or project-based cost until you get to the next income level. You cannot scale all by yourself. You need support.

5. Always watch your pricing.

Increasing revenue without being aware of any potential profit leaks can defeat some of your scaling efforts.

Generating income at a faster rate than you take on expenses is a beautiful thing! Keep your eyes on the profit margins as your business expands.

Remember that every line of business should be profitable, but they don’t all have to be equally profitable.

Need to get your Breakthrough number? Join us inside First Steps to Profit to get your finances organized, learn your numbers, protect your business and scale your business. Visit this link for more information:

https://entremoneycoach.kartra.com/page/firststeps