We talk a lot about brand strategy and how to bring that strategy to life in the frontend of your business, but your brand strategy is also important to influence decisions on the backend of your business.
For example, the backend business decisions you make impact your brand reputation and relationships with suppliers and retail outlets. As you pursue opportunities for growth it can be tempting to jump at each and every one, eagerly working to drive sales.
Not all opportunities are created equally though, so taking on the wrong opportunities – or even the right opportunity at the wrong time – can have the opposite effect, hindering and even damaging your business by frustrating existing accounts, suppliers and employees. It takes careful planning and consideration to grow and it takes some “no’s” to say “yes” to the right opportunities.
Layne Booth, Owner and Operations Catalyst for Small Businesses at The Project Booth, has made it her mission to help business owners navigate these tricky waters and has outlined 3 areas of consideration you should be thinking about and discussing with your team as you assess each opportunity for growth within your food business. This includes things like how this opportunity will affect profit margins, if you have the right amount of inventory, how to scale up production, and more. By following her suggestions and taking the tips Katie and Layne discuss in this episode of the podcast into consideration, you can start closing the door on the wrong opportunities to make sure that you will be ready when the right ones open that truly align with your business goals.
You can listen to this episode using the player above, or on iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher. Don’t forget to hit SUBSCRIBE in your favorite podcast player so you’ll be the first to know when a new episode is released!
Download Layne’s 5 Profit Mistakes to Avoid When Scaling Your Business.
In This Episode:
- Questions to ask when assessing new opportunities for your business
- How will this affect your business on the backend?
- How will this affect your bottom line?
- What will you be saying “no” to by saying “yes” to this opportunity?
- How will you need to scale up with staffing?
- How will this affect your supply orders?
- How much inventory do you need?
- Can I negotiate any flexibility with my suppliers and partners?
Quotes:
“We talk a lot about brand strategy and bringing it to life in the frontend of your business, but your brand strategy is also important to influence the backend of your business.” — Katie Mleziva
“At the end of the day, you’re in business to be a business, not to be a hobby.” — Layne Booth
“The goal is to make opportunities a win/win on both sides.” — Layne Booth
“If you are going to increase your sales, that means you need to increase the amount of product for these opportunities.” — Layne Booth
“Make sure you’re bringing profits to your bottom line. If that’s not going to be the case, that’s a pretty easy ‘no.’” — Layne Booth
“When you have a product with a short shelf life, having multiple outlets will be extremely advantageous.” — Layne Booth
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