I have developed the tools, methodologies and content below from my experience over the years in growing companies. I use these tools myself and am adding to or updating them on a constant basis. It’s my knowledge-base for growing companies that I’d like others to use as well.
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Keystone Documents
These documents help organize many of the articles and tools I have listed below.
- Startup checklist: what to do to take your business idea from concept to reality
- Retail sales management from A to Z
- Developing a marketing strategy
Strategy
- Is your startup the right match for your interests, passions and talents?
- Startup checklist: what to do to take your business idea from concept to reality
- Qualify an idea for a business
- Vision, mission/values, culture, goals and strategy
- Leadership style
- Outline and elements of a good investor presentation
- Developing a marketing strategy
- Questions to ask yourself to help you innovate in your company
- Innovation Framework and Grid Tool
- Change your distribution structure for competitive advantage
- The importance of knowing where a consumer products category is going
- Project plan methodology for bringing a consumer product to market
- Trouble spots to watch for in growing a consumer products company
- Instead of selling, just try to make it easier to buy
- When is competing on price OK?
- Great examples for using a strategy to attack from below
Marketing
- Developing a marketing strategy
- Brand development and management made practicable
- Where is your marketing weak?
- Marketing channels master list
- What’s in a name, or your wordmark?
- The two biggest hurdles for successful marketing
- Marketing Metrics: BE, CAC, CLTV and MER
- Who You Need To Help You Run A Direct Response TV/Radio Business
- The importance of packaging for a CPG product
- Using franchise stores as the primary marketing for retail growth
- How do you market a web-only retail product?
- Survive and thrive with captive customers
- Showing customers they have a problem vs. they seeing and experiencing their problem on their own
Sales
- Retail sales management from A to Z
- How to determine where you will sell in retail
- Checklist for what you need to sell into retail
- An effective presentation format for sales
- Develop your retail (SRP) price
- Is it better to start with low prices and increase them later on, or start high and lower them?
- Develop your retail terms cheat sheet
- What are deduct from invoice fees associated with doing business with retailers?
- Consumer Product Sales Channels
- The importance of packaging for a consumer product
- What do suppliers look for in their distribution partners?
- Grocery Categories
- Channel, Retail and Distributor Pricing
- Consumer Product Forecasting Model
- Qualified Market of Retailers for Food/Consummables, Outdoor, Home/Garden & General Merchandise, and Toy & Educational Products
- Strategies and tactics for selling to retail category buyers
- Brokers: When to hire, how to find and manage and when to fire
- In-store advertising methods and strategies
- How small brands can do business with Costco
- How Do I Sell My Products To Walmart Or Other Retail Giants?
- Why its hard for start-ups and small consumer product companies to secure retail shelf space
- What is the ideal metric to measure the effectiveness of sampling initiative by a CPG / FMCG brand?
- Manufacturers Selling Direct-To-Consumer And Undercutting Distributors, Retailers And Other Resellers
- Selling to QVC
Finance
- Basic capitalization model for your startup
- Manage The Margins
- Don’t Co-mingle Funds
- How COGS impacts a CPG company selling to retail
- P&L Format for Consumer Products
- Consumer Product Forecasting Model
- ROI Methodology for Retail: not yet completed
- ROI methodology for taking your product international: not yet completed
- Inventory Forecasting Analysis: not yet completed
- Daily Ship vs Open vs Forecast: not yet completed
Other
