Indie Brand Builder: how to build a successful business online

The financial formulas for scaling a consumer product business are really only applicable if your goal is to build a scalable venture. If you're just looking to run a lifestyle business you can disregard this article -  but if you want to build a scalable consumer product business,  these are the numbers that you need to understand.

Use the financial formulas to compare the efficiency of each channel in your consumer product busin...

So you’ve got your amazing product idea, and maybe you even have a prototype. But now you’re considering larger scale manufacturing and you’re speaking with factories that are halfway around the world where English is not the native language. You’re also talking about spending tens of thousands – or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on your production run, and it’s starting to dawn on you how much could potentially go wrong – a...

Hiring decisions are some of the most crucial decisions you will make as a small business owner. A great employee can take your business to new heights and open up new opportunities for growth, while a poor hire can set you back months and thousands of dollars, causing undue stress and frustrations.

In this how-to podcast, I’ll lay out a step-by-step hiring process for small business that will help give structure to your decision ...

Julie Ellis a co-founder of Mabel’s Labels, one of Canada’s greatest small business success stories.

Back in 2002, Julie and her three partners Julie Cole, Cynthia Esp and Tricia Mumby decided  they could do better than the scribbles on masking tape that were being passed off as labels to keep track of for kids clothing and personal items. So, after much research, they brought a brand new product to market in the form of person...

Want to quickly ramp up your sales while generating extra cash to finance your next production run? Then it’s time to grow your global distribution channel.

Finding distributors for your products in foreign territories may seem like an overwhelming prospect if you’ve never done it before, but it’s certainly possible.  SoYoung now has distribution in 8 territories including Mexico, Australia, The Netherlands, and Korea – with more ...

Over the last seven years, Joseph Hanson has built and sold four e-commerce based companies and is currently a managing partner to three businesses that help sellers succeed on Amazon Buy Box Experts, Prosper Show, and Marketplace University.

It was Joseph’s experience as an Amazon expert that put him on my radar, So I’m excited to get his insights on what for SoYoung is of one of our single biggest revenue sources also  the mo...

If your products have a proven audience and you are ready to start driving serious traffic to your site, the 2 biggest games in town are Google and Facebook.  In assessing Google vs Facebook advertising for consumer product brands, I’m going to share my experience in marketing our line of lifestyle bags. Other products and businesses may experience very different results

We pri...

• Professional Voiceovers: $200 We hired a premium voiceover artist. There were others out there that were much less expensive that probably would have done a comparable job.
• Background Music: $50 – through premiumbeat.com

• Sony A6000 Camera: Aprox $600 – shoots great stills and video, and includes autofocus in video mode
• Amazon Tripod: $30
• Final Cut X Video Editing Softwa...

Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, we didn’t put all of these strategies together over a weekend. It’s been a slow steady, incremental layering of tactics combined with a whole lot of trial and error. A marathon rather than a sprint. However, the combined effect of having these systems in place has helped us dramatically increase eCommerce traffic and conversions, which continue to grow upon themselves. In this article, I’ll lay o...

This is a personal lifestyle choice - but be clear on which you have chosen.  As a craftsperson, you can be perfectly content creating handcrafted products in low volumes and selling them to a niche audience. If this describes you, you can ignore the rest of this post. You just need to cover your material and living expenses in order to continue doing what you love.

However, if you are an...

Mike Paton has spent most of his life  learning from entrepreneurs.  Today, he spends all  his time giving back - as an Author, award-winning Speaker, certified EOS Implementer & the Visionary of EOS Worldwide.  Specifically, Paton helps entrepreneurs clarify, simplify and achieve their vision – by mastering the simple concepts and practical tools he’ll be sharing with us today.

I first met Mike Paton at a digital agency confer...

The key principle in selling wholesale to retailers is to invest time upfront in planning your approach and sales materials. This will allow you to prioritize and focus so that you can go deep into a few areas that will deliver the highest return on your time investment, rather than spreading yourself too thin and getting frustrated.

While it’s tempting to pursue every retail cat...

Browse any high-end magazine like a Vanity Fair or Vogue for a reminder of how much premier lifestyle brands value photography.  It is one of the most important assets in your marketing arsenal and a critical factor if you want to improve your brand image

Generally, you can break your photography down into two categories (I’ll cover both):

1. Product photography, whose primary purpose is to provide detailed views of ...

Will Leonard and his mother Victoria started the Blu Kicks brand with the simple idea of creating a better travel and vacation shoe, Inspired by the fish they encountered on a family trip to hawaii, Will and victoria began producing an ocean themed line of colourful slip ons that featured original fish artwork and cool laid back designs. The Blu Kicks collection has now grown to include loafers and chukkas that retain the casual, c...

It was a rude awakening for us to realize that the more success we achieved with SoYoung,  the more cash we were going to need to finance production and growth - but if you’ve never raised capital before, the process can be daunting

Well fortunately the times are changing and there are some new funding platforms emerging in the consumer products space that make it much easier for small businesses to raise capital by helping to b...

In this week’s podcast I discuss how to get the most out of your trade show marketing with TIm Patterson. Tim is the head of Trade Show Guy Exhibits where he helps clients excel at trade show marketing.

Tim also runs a blog, www.tradeshowguyblog.com  and has authored a book called Trade Show Success that’s a great resource for small to medium-sized businesses looking to take their trade show marketing to the next level. You can dow...

Sam Miller first moved to Shanghai in the early 90’s to teach at the university there. He then went on to manage the office of a major American home textiles company. He has since worked in the ceramics, gifts and furniture industries offering his experience in sourcing, product development, management and logistics. He currently works with a variety of small business to teach them how to manufacture products in China and help them...

Catherine Choi is the founder a president of SoYoung, a line of eco friendly bags for families which includes lunch boxes, cooler bags backpacks and diaper bags made from natural fabrics. Since starting the brand nearly 10 years ago she has grown SoYoung into a 7 figure business with products that are sold all over the world including in about 500 North American retailers. SoYoung has been featured in Oprah Magazine, Martha Stewart...