Becky J. Anderson

I am thrilled to introduce you to Brandon Love, CEO of Crumbleco.com.  Brandon is a 23-year-old CEO that has gone from startup to a million dollar business in under five years.

Today on the podcast Brandon shares:

How he started Crumbleco.com and what motivated him to keep it going when things were tough.

How he uses trends and the blue ocean strategy as well as data to make products that fly off the shelf.

How he uses Facebook groups to build a community that gobbles up his wax the minute he posts his products online. 

How he has double the average eCommerce order size and so much more.

Listen on iTunes here or on iTunes here, Stitcher here.

Make sure you join our Facebook Group Product Biz Made Easy here.

I get asked a lot about how to land a big box retailer since I've sold my products to so many large retailers. 

We all dream about it and envision our products on a retailers shelf.  Today I'm going to share with you what I learned doing it and what it really takes to sell to big-box retail stores.

The only three things a retail buyer cares about.

I'll share all about why you need to know your unique selling proposition inside/out and be ready for questions about it. 

What the financial obligations will be if you sell to large retailers.

What the gross margin is those big-box retailers will expect to get when you sell to them.

What EDI is and why you need it to sell to large retailers.

How you can avoid getting chargebacks.

Why shipping to a large retailer can be a sticky situation if you don't have proper processes in place.

How far ahead a big box retailer buys for.

How to perfect your pitch to the retail buyer and so much more.

I hope you'll join us and...

I am so excited to introduce you to Lucy Splichal.  She is a Co-Founder of Cheeky Physique.

I had the privilege of interviewing Lucy on the Product Biz Made Easy Podcast.  She and her partner have been able to grow their product-based business to six-figures in the first year.

In the interview, you will learn all about:

How they were able to grow so quickly.  They have sold to thousands of customer in over 40 countries.

How they use tradeshows to scale their wholesale sales.

How they found their first wholesale sales rep.

How they found a large International distributor.

What social media platforms perform the best for them.

How Amazon has given them visibility and exposure for sales on their own website.

How pulling the trigger on hiring a PR firm paid off.

How giveaways helped them re-engage their list and increase conversions.  

How they were able to increase their list by 560 with one giveaway and the acquisition cost was only 25 cents and so much...

I am so excited to introduce you to Annie White Brown.  She is the CEO of Natural Annie Essentials. 

I had the privilege of interviewing Annie on the Product Biz Made Easy Podcast.  She was able to quit her 9-5 this year and start working full time in her business.  We talk about the following on today's podcast:

How pop up shops helped her grow.

How she uses Instagram and Instagram Stories to grow her business.

Where most of her sales come from.

How she sells wholesale and finds new customers and so much more.

Annie's website:  naturalannieessentials.com

Instagram: @naturalannieessentials

Is your business on Pinterest? 
 
Well if it's not, it should be. Today, we're talking about reasons why your business should be on Pinterest.  

When it comes to Pinterest, there's a lot of misconceptions. 
 
Only women are on Pinterest.  That's not true. There's a lot of men on Pinterest, and more and more getting on every day. 
 
People only pin food things, and wedding content, and girl stuff.  That's not true either. There are all sorts of businesses on Pinterest that appeal to both men and women. 
 
My target audience isn't on Pinterest. Yeah, guess what? They are. Just about every business model is on Pinterest. 
 
Another thing I hear all the time is, "I don't have time for another social network." Well, you need to take time for this one. The user base of Pinterest is growing so fast. Right now, there are 150 million users with over a billion boards on Pinterest. That is something you don't want to miss...

The quickest way to scale your product-based business is to sell wholesale.  Rather than try to increase the number of customers you sell an individual product to, you sell a large number of items to a handful of wholesale buyers.  The best way to find new wholesale customers is through sales reps.

All about Sales Reps and they work.

Sales reps present merchandise for the lines they represent.  They work out of a showroom, or they travel within the territory they cover.  They will have exclusive sales rights in the area that you agree to in the contract.  If sales reps are not successful with your products, they will not continue to sell them.  The reps are paid strictly by commission so they tend to show the retailers lines that will sell well, so they get re-orders.

Sales reps take orders and then forward the orders to the manufacturer who then ships the order.

Sales reps require free samples and marketing materials to help them sell your...

We all want to increase our online sales and grow our product-based business.  Today we are talking about benefits vs. features and how focusing on the benefits will increase your sales.

We are always looking for new people to buy our products.

People don't buy products. They buy the results that your product gives. 

You need to make sure that you are marketing your product with the benefits it delivers.  For example, my husband sells a product that is an odor eliminator. 

He markets his products to police officers to use on their bulletproof vests because they can't wash them.  He is selling the solution to the stinky vest. He is not selling an odor eliminator. 

He is solving their problem. The police officers come home; their partners don't want the vests in the house because they smell. 

Just spray the product on the vest and it no longer stinks. His product is selling a solution.  

What is the solution that your product solves?

Next,...

Did you know only half of the businesses that start will make it five years?

And only one-third of those that make it five years make it to 10 years.

Today we're talking all about why businesses fail, and how you can make sure that this doesn't happen to you.   

One of the top reasons businesses fail is they have a complete lack of a unique selling proposition. 

What is a unique selling proposition? It is what sets you apart from the competitors. How do you run your business in such a unique way that you're different from the competitors, or how are your products different? You want to be thinking about this because this is one of the most important things for you to do to make your competition irrelevant. If you don't have a unique selling proposition, then you're just a me-too and part of the pack. You want to be figuring that out so that you can separate yourself from the competition.  I did a webinar on this, Blueprint To Building A Product Brand That...

 
I wanted to share with you a resource list of retail trade magazines today.  Trade magazines are one of the best ways for learning what is new in your industry.

The magazines are also a way to see new trends in product development as well as finding new resources for your business.  You can stay up to date with trade shows, discover new manufacturers and more.   You can subscribe to the online version as well as order the magazine.

If you are an online shop looking for wholesale products to resale you will find many new resources in the magazines.

One of my favorites is Gifts and Dec.  This magazine serves retailers, manufacturers, and vendors of general gift products, decorative accessories, stationery and greeting cards, collectibles, personal care products, jewelry, and gourmet food items.  

This magazine talks all about retail industry news, wholesale trade show news, new product introductions, and trend information. ...