USA Today
Robert Siegel uses his hands to create brightly colored porcelain clay ceramics. But it was his feet that came in handy when he first tried to sell his wares.
"I literally got started carrying things into stores and saying 'Do you like it? Do you want to buy it? Do you want to sell it?' " says the craftsman. "It was boots on the ground." He carted his pottery in and out of New Jersey and Pennsylvania boutiques, and had mixed success.
Some places were like, 'Get out of my store. Don't even walk in here carrying a product again — make an appointment," he says. But others were receptive: "Some stores said, 'We'll take you in on consignment.' "
That initial success gave Siegel the confidence to show more of his goods at craft shows, as well as launch an e-commerce site. His next expansion opportunity comes soon. A friend of his parents hooked him up with a Neiman Marcus home decor manager located in Beverly Hills. In December, Siegel will display his pottery at an event for select shoppers.
"It's a big opportunity," he says. "Hopefully Neiman's picks me up nationally and I become a full-time vendor."
Small distribution steps are a big deal for growing businesses. Each new sales outlet is a potential path to increased revenue and brand recognition. "It's one of those major milestones ," says Thom Ruhe, director of entrepreneurship at the Kansas City, Mo.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which looks to bolster entrepreneurial activity. Companies can "can mark the day they made the leap."
Yet like many other successes in the life of a small business owner, it usually takes trial and error to determine the most lucrative sales path.
Entrepreneur Todd Greene says his first stab at selling his HeadBlade — a razor specifically designed to shave head hair — didn't turn out the way he had hoped. Greene brought 500 HeadBlades to a Venice Beach, Calif., sales booth. Eight sold.
Greene's takeaway: The touristy, entertainment-oriented ocean venue was a good place for selling pizza, t-shirts, sunglasses and novelty items — but not head shavers. He has since refined his distribution plan, and now sells his razors online and in the shaving aisles of major drug-store chains.
"My mission now is to keep growing," he says.
Sales stumbles are common as a company grows, says David Hennessey, marketing professor at Babson College. There are different factors to consider such as deciding where to sell the product and determining what profit margins will work. And there is always room for errors. Yet, Hennessey says: Do your homework.
"Use the research tools that are out there to determine market demand," says Kauffman's Ruhe. "See where there is interest and put your time and money there. You want to fish where the fish are."
Other tips on forming new sales channels:
• Get the company name out there: Tweeting, blogging and posting comments on review websites are great ways to build brand recognition, says Joan Broughton, interim executive director at the National Retail Federation's Shop.org. Online buzz can pique the interest of customers and retail buyers who might stock the product in their stores. "Just put yourself out there."
• Prove that a product is wanted: Creating an e-commerce sales site is a relatively easy — and inexpensive — method to build up initial sales for a product, says Rue. And those sales can demonstrate to wholesalers and retailers that the product is wanted. "You also want to try to show a little bit of traction," he says.
• Seek the advice of peers: Kathy Kramer, creator of the Invisibelt — a flat-clasped belt that doesn't have a bulky buckle — says she often talks to other business owners who specialize in the woman's accessories market to get sales leads. "I reach out to companies similar to mine," says Kramer, who has sold her belt in stores, online and through home shopping channel QVC. "You have to have the attitude of 'I have no shame, I will hunt anyone down' " to talk about business.
•Check the competition: See what sales channels competitors are using to get their products out there, says Rue. Shop.org's Broughton also says to check out competitor's e-commerce sites to glean information on what works for them. "Get a sense of what best practices are," she says.
•Tap into trade shows: Family team Carol Abersold, Chanda Bell and Christa Pitts say that face-to-face interactions at trade shows let them better explain how parents and kids could utilize their now popular 'The Elf on the Shelf 'children's book and toy and trade show displays. ( Elf on the Shelf, a toy and book based on a holiday tradition in the Abersold household, was sold at 18 retail outlets in 2005. The product is now available in more than 10,000 U.S. and Canadian outlets.
•Know when to say 'no': This family-run business had little financial resources at first, and the woman didn't want to take on more orders than they could handle. So they made a conscious decision to enter new retail markets at a slow, steady pace.
"We had a very strategic plan and didn't want to grow too fast," says Pitts. "We wanted to start locally, then build in our state (Georgia) and then expand to the East Coast. We had to grow in a way that supported our infrastructure. We had to be strategic in who we said 'yes' to."
"I literally got started carrying things into stores and saying 'Do you like it? Do you want to buy it? Do you want to sell it?' " says the craftsman. "It was boots on the ground." He carted his pottery in and out of New Jersey and Pennsylvania boutiques, and had mixed success.
Some places were like, 'Get out of my store. Don't even walk in here carrying a product again — make an appointment," he says. But others were receptive: "Some stores said, 'We'll take you in on consignment.' "
That initial success gave Siegel the confidence to show more of his goods at craft shows, as well as launch an e-commerce site. His next expansion opportunity comes soon. A friend of his parents hooked him up with a Neiman Marcus home decor manager located in Beverly Hills. In December, Siegel will display his pottery at an event for select shoppers.
"It's a big opportunity," he says. "Hopefully Neiman's picks me up nationally and I become a full-time vendor."
Small distribution steps are a big deal for growing businesses. Each new sales outlet is a potential path to increased revenue and brand recognition. "It's one of those major milestones ," says Thom Ruhe, director of entrepreneurship at the Kansas City, Mo.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which looks to bolster entrepreneurial activity. Companies can "can mark the day they made the leap."
Yet like many other successes in the life of a small business owner, it usually takes trial and error to determine the most lucrative sales path.
Entrepreneur Todd Greene says his first stab at selling his HeadBlade — a razor specifically designed to shave head hair — didn't turn out the way he had hoped. Greene brought 500 HeadBlades to a Venice Beach, Calif., sales booth. Eight sold.
Greene's takeaway: The touristy, entertainment-oriented ocean venue was a good place for selling pizza, t-shirts, sunglasses and novelty items — but not head shavers. He has since refined his distribution plan, and now sells his razors online and in the shaving aisles of major drug-store chains.
"My mission now is to keep growing," he says.
Sales stumbles are common as a company grows, says David Hennessey, marketing professor at Babson College. There are different factors to consider such as deciding where to sell the product and determining what profit margins will work. And there is always room for errors. Yet, Hennessey says: Do your homework.
"Use the research tools that are out there to determine market demand," says Kauffman's Ruhe. "See where there is interest and put your time and money there. You want to fish where the fish are."
Other tips on forming new sales channels:
• Get the company name out there: Tweeting, blogging and posting comments on review websites are great ways to build brand recognition, says Joan Broughton, interim executive director at the National Retail Federation's Shop.org. Online buzz can pique the interest of customers and retail buyers who might stock the product in their stores. "Just put yourself out there."
• Prove that a product is wanted: Creating an e-commerce sales site is a relatively easy — and inexpensive — method to build up initial sales for a product, says Rue. And those sales can demonstrate to wholesalers and retailers that the product is wanted. "You also want to try to show a little bit of traction," he says.
• Seek the advice of peers: Kathy Kramer, creator of the Invisibelt — a flat-clasped belt that doesn't have a bulky buckle — says she often talks to other business owners who specialize in the woman's accessories market to get sales leads. "I reach out to companies similar to mine," says Kramer, who has sold her belt in stores, online and through home shopping channel QVC. "You have to have the attitude of 'I have no shame, I will hunt anyone down' " to talk about business.
•Check the competition: See what sales channels competitors are using to get their products out there, says Rue. Shop.org's Broughton also says to check out competitor's e-commerce sites to glean information on what works for them. "Get a sense of what best practices are," she says.
•Tap into trade shows: Family team Carol Abersold, Chanda Bell and Christa Pitts say that face-to-face interactions at trade shows let them better explain how parents and kids could utilize their now popular 'The Elf on the Shelf 'children's book and toy and trade show displays. ( Elf on the Shelf, a toy and book based on a holiday tradition in the Abersold household, was sold at 18 retail outlets in 2005. The product is now available in more than 10,000 U.S. and Canadian outlets.
•Know when to say 'no': This family-run business had little financial resources at first, and the woman didn't want to take on more orders than they could handle. So they made a conscious decision to enter new retail markets at a slow, steady pace.
"We had a very strategic plan and didn't want to grow too fast," says Pitts. "We wanted to start locally, then build in our state (Georgia) and then expand to the East Coast. We had to grow in a way that supported our infrastructure. We had to be strategic in who we said 'yes' to."
