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Posts by category
- Category: Bible and Commerce
- Category: Downloads
- Making microproduction work profitably: an example of printing labels in house rather than outsourcing
- “Newsletter” versus “Magazine” and marketing power words
- Creating and using a production log for producing a consumer product
- Marketing campaign goal metrics model: a simplified version of the most important financial model for any consumer product company
- One method for determining channel margins when you are not able to talk with industry insiders
- The Flow of Money in a Consumer Product Company (infographic)
- Equity Capitalization Model
- When is the right time to Kickstarter or crowdfund your consumer product company
- What is Tradespend?
- How are FMCG profit margins distributed across the supply chain?
- How to build your website supplement sales funnel
- What are the top KPIs for CPG companies?
- Do I spend the $50,000 on this TV commercial or not? Analyzing a TV commercial opportunity with simple metrics
- What are Whole Foods Market markup/margin numbers?
- Brand Development and Management Made Practicable
- How cost of goods sold (COGS) impacts a CPG company selling to retail
- Category: From The Desk of Eddie Soehnel
- Category: Inspiration
- The more an idea is tied to your identity, the more you will ignore evidence it is false
- Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I will take 4 to sharpen the ax
- Create your life rather than live it
- It’s not about what someone can do for you, it’s who and what the two of you become in each other’s presence
- How to make meaningful connections in life and business
- If you have the choice, always choose to sprint and then rest
- You are tough when your mood is not dependent on your conditions
- Don’t fight who you are. You will lose
- Science Has Confirmed That If You’re Not Outside Your Comfort Zone, You’re not learning
- Change happens slowly. Then all at once
- Before you try to increase your willpower, try to decrease the friction in your environment
- Consumers don’t want more choices, they want more confidence in the choices presented
- Embrace the shit
- Are you solving problems at the branch level or the root level?
- Research shows that power dulls you to risk
- The more precisely you define the problem the more easily you can find a solution
- Not being busy is a competitive advantage
- To take advantage of your brain’s natural gardening system, simply think about the things that are important to you
- If you can’t stop thinking about it don’t stop working for it
- What if I could only subtract to solve problems?
- What or who might trip me up or cause stress and how can I respond in a positive way from my highest self?
- Look at every action, task, situation, opportunity, event, person you meet and figure out how to leverage that beyond what is is on the surface
- What would you have done differently today and why?
- Will you regret doing or not doing this at end of life?
- What is more effective is not telling people what to do but stimulating their interest and curiosity with what you say
- Winning an argument
- When negotiating always leave money on the table…give more than you take
- An emotional example will convince more people than any set of statistics ever could
- Who can I surprise today with a thank you a gift or a moment of appreciation
- Be the best version of yourself
- The secret to success is rejection or specifically the willingness to endure it
- Find a game where the probabilities favor you and keep taking shots
- A few things you need to achieve exceptional results
- Do not tolerate problems
- Each problem is a puzzle that when solved gives a principle to avoid same problem in the future
- You drown not by falling in a river but by being submerged
- 40 percent rule
- If a decision is reversible the biggest risk is moving too slow; if a decision is irreversible the biggest risk is moving too fast
- If you’re not failing you’re not pushing your limits and if you’re not pushing your limits you’re not maximizing your potential
- It is a fundamental law of nature that you get stronger only by doing difficult things
- Your energy should go into building better habits not chasing better results
- Habits are crucial – they cast repeated votes for being a certain type of person
- How to define wealth
- Define what’s meaningful
- Definition of an expert
- If your choices don’t match other’s expectations, that is their concern, not yours
- Whatever gets measured, tracked and reported is more likely to improve
- Awareness is often enough to motivate change.
- Don’t stay in a place where no one sees your value
- If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead
- To make something great, the right way is the hard way
- Fighting against the existing reality
- People will forget what you said people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel
- On persistence and luck
- Consumption leads to thoughts leads to action – make better consumption choices
- All the good stuff happens when we act even if we don’t know for sure
- Category: Investments
- Category: Lean & Agile Framework
- Category: Finance
- How is e-commerce viable for low value products?
- How can I get better margins for my products in my e-commerce business?
- What is the ROI average for e-commerce sites?
- How do you calculate the ROI for channel sales?
- Startup fundraising: my thoughts on the process and tips on your fundraising pitch deck
- What are some barriers of entry to running a successful eCommerce business?
- What is the cost to revenue ratio of an e-commerce infrastructure in the retail industry?
- The North Star Metric
- What are Honest Co.’s gross margins (and some rules of thumb for figuring this out)
- Are you in alignment with your investors?
- Revenue strategies in the early days of your consumer product startup
- I am currently working on the development of an e-commerce that sells healthy dry food. What are the typical margins?
- What are good margins and markup for a food business?
- What are the profit margins on plastic storage containers?
- Key viability metrics for a startup CPG company
- When will competing on price as a small CPG work?
- Separate investment costs from your operating costs in the profit and loss statement
- How to use margins and benchmarks in financial statements for a CPG or consumer product business
- Category: Marketing
- What is the most important attribute of successful startup product marketers?
- Template for a graphic-based business plan
- Format for consumer product feedback surveys and how it can correct for problems with getting accurate and reliable data
- Simple model to determine success of product sampling in e-commerce
- Why do businesses redesign their product packaging?
- How do you find customers who will pay the highest price for your products?
- What is the advertising to sales ratio investors will look for in a direct to consumer e-commerce startup?
- How much of a role does the packaging of a product play in its sales?
- What is a good marketing start to sell goods in a luxury segment?
- How I use my customer data to help me retain my customers and maximize customer lifetime value
- My ecommerce sales funnel results
- How relevant is TV as an advertising medium for FMCG/CPG marketers (brand managers)?
- Retention marketing methods for consumer product companies
- What is the minimum statistically significant sample size for a direct mail campaign?
- Product reviews: we need them to sell, but we have to sell first to get them…what is a startup to do?
- How to use autoresponder sequences for all your marketing and sales
- Who is going to win the next election (hint: its about database marketing)
- Design your website layout based on the expected traffic sources (diagram)
- Review of Internet Trends 2017 Report in context of consumer products
- What is an effective way of creating a brand?
- How to know you are pushing the edge with your marketing
- Recent spikes in email marketing click through rate
- One way for testing a business idea even if you do not have a product to sell
- A 50% average email open rate and some other email marketing benchmarks – here’s some things that work for me
- A few notes on how I build my list of emails for marketing with high quality prospects
- Why sell the sizzle and fake it till you make it is a really bad way to grow
- Retail e-commerce data and what it means for your consumer product company
- Tools for product developers – the hackers – to also become marketers – the hustlers
- Marketing for a small farm
- How Facebook’s Reactions Is a Huge Step Forward in Marketing
- Why am I not getting online sales?
- How can I thrive in online marketing in textile / fabric?
- What are the biggest mistakes in CPG package design? How do you avoid them?
- The importance of packaging for a CPG product
- The two biggest hurdles for successful marketing
- When old is new in marketing
- How to supercharge growth in a CPG or consumer product start-up
- Who You Need To Help You Run A Direct Response TV, Radio, or Print Business
- Category: Product Development
- Template for product price and specifications list
- What factors should I consider in deciding which product size to first launch?
- I’m considering on starting a drop ship ecommerce online site. What are the best products to offer?
- What do I need to know if I want to be an egg distributor (especially) in South Jakarta?
- Early stage research steps for selling an online training product
- We have a great idea with many different ways to deliver it as a product, so which product do we roll with first?
- Characteristics of blockbuster products
- How we plan to position this product in a stagnant market in the home outdoor segment
- Research negative sentiment before landing on a brand name
- Market research plan for developing a home outdoor accessories product
- Standing out and capturing attention in your marketing
- Why you should ditch customer surveys and what to do instead to get product feedback
- Showing customers they have a problem vs. they seeing and experiencing their problem on their own
- Survive and thrive with captive customers
- What questions should I ask customers when testing the viability of a CPG or consumer product idea?
- Is it better to start with a low manufacture suggested retail price in CPG and increase them later on, or start high and lower them?
- Securing a name and filing for a federal wordmark for a CPG or consumer product startup
- Category: Production & Logistics
- Category: Resellers
- How do simple products with little to no differentiation get in major supermarkets?
- The evolving consumer product retail landscape and how consumer goods startups can best take advantage
- What is the go-to-market retail strategy for a consumer goods company that only has 1-2 products to enter retail, specifically snacking or nutrition snacks?
- What are things that can make or break an online retail business (a specific niche retail business)?
- Why do some retail brands fail?
- How much influence do places like Walmart, Costco, and Kroger have over package size of consumer products?
- What’s your concept of how retail stores could prosper moving forward?
- What is the mechanism behind supermarkets’ special offers?
- What happens to the connections a distributor has made with retailers for your product if you decide to replace him?
- How do I convince an established distributor to distribute my newly launched product when he already has many successful products?
- What is a list of consumer product markets/industries and their average markups?
- Retail Margin or Markup on Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) and Consumer Products (infographic)
- How can a local retail store survive, or prosper, in the age of superstores and the Internet market?
- Do most mega supermarkets charge $10,000+ one-time fees for newly registered suppliers?
- The correct way and the specific equation to use to determine markups and margin for resellers and retailers
- Is obtaining distributor pricing from a manufacturer purely based on your order volume with said manufacturer?
- On average, how much does Target mark up its items?
- What is the best strategy for introducing a new product (spirits brand) to a distributor?
- I surveyed some of my key retail brokers about bringing a new brand to retail and here is what they said
- How do I hire a product distributor to get my product into pharmacy stores?
- A ballpark guide to relative sales of items by retail channel
- How many products sold represent a good “market test” prior to taking a product to a large retailer such as Costco, Walmart or Target?
- What is the best way to raise prices of products selling to major retailers?
- Growing by bypassing online sales and instead, just selling through retail (even though I dislike doing it this way)
- What is the average price of an item at the grocery store and the average gross margin?
- How are wholesale prices determined?
- Does it make sense for brands to have their own E-commerce teams (direct-to-consumer online) or leave it up to the retailers to sell the products online?
- How does category management enable suppliers to add value to the retailer’s business and not just its own?
- How do I get my products into retailers like Nordstroms, Barneys, and Independent Shops?
- What is the typical margin that a lighting retailer in the US expects from a wholesaler?
- How do I find consumer product distributors?
- What is the best initial approach when selling your product to retail stores. Cold call, email or just arrive unexpected?
- Why You Should Not Sell to Whole Foods Market
- What are the retail legal requirements and considerations for selling a product I created (e.g. greeting cards) to retail stores?
- What are items to consider in setting up a relationship between a CPG manufacturer and distributor
- How big of a deal is securing a purchase order from Urban Outfitters
- How to sell to QVC
- What is the easiest way to take pre-orders at tradeshows?
- What is considered a healthy gross profit margin (both as a retailer and a distributor)?
- In-store advertising methods and strategies for a CPG company
- What are deduct from invoice fees with retailers?
- What do suppliers look for in their retail distribution partners?
- What is the ideal metric to measure the effectiveness of a sampling initiative by a CPG / FMCG brand?
- How not to sell an evaporative cooler installation (or anything else, for that matter)
- What is the process of getting a CPG product into retail stores like Walmart and Target
- Why its hard for start-ups and small consumer product companies to secure retail shelf space
- Strategies and tactics for selling to retail category buyers
- Retail CPG Brokers: When to hire, how to find and manage and when to fire
- Retail CPG Grocery Categories
- How small brands can sell to Costco
- How do I sell to Walmart or other retail giants?
- Get your product and company ready for retail CPG
- Category: Strategy
- Composable and leverage – both mean the same and important to consider in anything I do. Here’s why, and how to make this thought discussion practical for everyday use to increase wealth
- Toolset for analyzing risk, solving problems, making decisions and managing distractions
- Tools for discovering and analyzing trends
- Personality discovery template
- Spreadsheet enhancements to Personal Consumption Expenditures
- How has your brand used consumer insights to inspire product innovation?
- The best productivity tool I use
- The secret to business success
- What is a moonshot?
- How best can I introduce a product into the consumer market [wheat meals, oat meals and other cereals]?
- What are key success factors of new brand launch in fashion categories of cosmetic and jewelry?
- Consumer product growth strategies
- How could you use agile principles in consumer product development
- Are you staying professionally relevant in a changing world? Here’s how I do it
- How our business principles limit our growth
- What are the barriers to entry for CPG companies?
- What are a few up-and-coming CPG startups in the US? Is there a list or organization of any kind for CPG startups vs the well-established guys?
- My take on 3 characteristics that make for a great startup business idea
- The 3 problem areas every consumer product startup encounters and how to prepare to overcome them
- What is the best way to retain customers in hospitality/ retail business without a need of giving away free stuff and perks?
- Ask yourself this key question to keep emotions in check when making decisions
- When multiple growth opportunities distract – part II
- When multiple growth opportunities distract, which ones do you choose?
- Culture of Success
- How fast should you grow your company?
- Great examples for using a strategy to attack from below
- Is your startup the right match for your interests, passions and talents?
- Change the distribution structure for competitive advantage in consumer products
- CPG Manufacturers selling direct-to-consumer and undercutting distributors, retailers and other resellers
- What to do when growing your company is like pushing a 10,000 pound boulder up a hill
- Instead of selling, just try to make it easier to buy
- Running into doors
- Qualify an idea for a CPG or consumer product business
- Do whatever will get you closer to your customer
- Questions to ask yourself to help you innovate in your company
- How do I find commercial retail CPG distribution for my natural product?
- Which one of these start-ups would I join?
- Elements of a Company Vision
- Vision, mission (values), culture, goals and strategy
- The importance of knowing where a consumer or CPG category is going
- A simple and elegant way to figuring out how to succeed in a business
- Recommendations for a small established CPG food brand
- 25 CPG startups present at Pitch Slam event
- Should this CPG chocolate food company take the order?
- Recommendations for this early stage food start-up
- How This CPG food company gets to the next level
- The 4 levers of growth for a CPG business
- Marketing and Distribution For A CPG Natural Food Start-up
- Key elements for success in a CPG natural food startup
- Category: Systems
- Consumer product marketing database architecture
- Consumer product e-commerce sales funnel for wordpress and woocommerce with a rules/logic engine
- Standard operating procedures for website development and website changes
- Database architecture for operations, covering accounting, inventory, facilities and human resources
- Data science strategy for CPG and consumer product companies: what is it, why all companies (including startups) need it and how to develop one
- The top 3 marketing SaaS tools for consumer product startups I would recommend
- Category: Finance
- Category: Matthew
- Category: Miscellaneous
- Using the Functional Medicine Framework to maximize good health
- Book review: Buyology
- Book review: The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
- Book review: Locavesting
- Book review: Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money
- Year-end review and setting goals
- Book review: The Pumpkin Plan
- Colorado Trail Hike – Segment 1
- South Platte River Hike to Strontia Springs Reservoir
- Colorado Trail hike from the South Platte River trailhead
- Pike National Forest Wildfire Burn Areas
- Book Review: Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
- Book Review: Cure For The Common Life
- Book Review: The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It
- Category: Pemmican Food Startup
- Category: Photography
- Category: Uncategorized
- Category: Visuals
- Category: Web3 For Consumer Brands Knowledgebase Updates
- Web3 For Consumer Brands: Update 11/7/22-11/13/22 – The One Formula For Consumer Brand Success Using Web3
- Web3 For Consumer Brands: Update 10/31/22-11/6/2 – how a clothing brand is using web3 to facilitate customers creating their own micro-communities of fellow brand fans, which creates positive experiences for customers, which reflect back on the brand
- Web3 For Consumer Brands: Update 10/24/22-10/30/22 – major advertising paradigms: pre-web1 and web1=branding; web2 = direct response; web3 = back to branding
- Web3 For Consumer Brands: Update 10/17/22-10/23/22 – quick and concise differences between web2 and web3 that are worth reviewing
- Web3 For Consumer Brands: Update 10/10/22-10/16/22 – Prada’s NFT release strategy, while pretty basic, is done on a regular schedule and delivers on expectations
- Web3 For Consumer Brands: Update 10/3/22-10/9/22 – Kith using dynamic NFTs that showcase their clothing items, which change with new items, and which holders can claim