So here's the quick history. For years we had what I'll call a hobby business. We made a luxury product (menswear space) that enabled us to travel to Italy 3 or 4 times/year, enjoy all the benefits of a home-based business, and make a little money. In years 3-4, we were juggling more than we could handle with sick parents, other businesses, jobs, employees, and got overwhelmed. When we shut it down (website, mail servers, etc), our employees assured us that all business was final, i.e. all customers, suppliers, etc were taken care of. Naive, I know.
So last fall, I decided to relaunch the website (because it was primarily a web-based business) and clear out our remaining inventory to make a little extra cash. I was stunned (mortified?) to find that we had a LOT of unfinished business with customers whose opinions had not only festered. They had taken to online forums (where we'd previously been quite popular) and made us somewhat of a punchline... but not a very funny one. I rectified all outstanding issues by sending double orders and double refunds to anyone/everyone who claimed they were due, which seemed to quiet the restless natives and at least partially restore our credibility. But in the process, I kinda lost all energy and enthusiasm to deal with this very particular marketplace. I was reminded why we burned out in the first place. It wasn't fun anymore.
This brings us up to last month. Someone from one of those forums contacted us wanting to buy-out or come to work for the business. He stated that he was amazed that with the bashing we had taken that our brand was still so strong, and thot it had/has a lot of potential. I agree. We never implemented 90% of the marketing plans we had originally conceived (back in the day). We still have a high Google ranking, and are (3 years later) still mentioned in the company of the most expensive, exclusive and popular luxury brands in the world by that very small niche of aficianados who care about such things.
OK, the history wasn't so quick after all. I hesitated to air all the dirty laundry, but I think it's an integral part of the reason we are considering having a new manager take it back to market. Anyway, that brings you up to speed.
Today, I'm trying to figure out how to structure a compensation plan to bring this guy onboard. He's just leaving graduate school (MBA in marketing with focus on branding), so he hasn't the money to buy us out. We don't want to / can't pay him what a COO/Marketing director of a small business should make (salary). So I'm trying to figure out some way to either offer up a draw against commission, with possibility of equity at certain benchmarks so that he has some longterm skin in the game. We would continue to do the design and production (the part we enjoy and excel at), and he would take over the daily operations, marketing and sales (the part we don't like/aren't good at/don't have time for). We bring the connections (in Italy), the brand, the inventory, the web presence, and the capital. He would do most of the work.
I'm not even sure he is the right guy. But he did get my rusty cogs to turning. Oh, and one more thing. The challenge I'm having right now, is that unless I run a promo, the sales are close to zero, because the inventory is stale (3 years old) and anyone on our customer list has already seen them many times. So I'm having trouble establishing a baseline. If we had all fresh inventory, sales would pop dramatically.
So, I'm open to any ideas / suggestions. Base his commission just on new wholesale (b&m) accounts? Partial commission for web business? Or web-based promotions only?
So last fall, I decided to relaunch the website (because it was primarily a web-based business) and clear out our remaining inventory to make a little extra cash. I was stunned (mortified?) to find that we had a LOT of unfinished business with customers whose opinions had not only festered. They had taken to online forums (where we'd previously been quite popular) and made us somewhat of a punchline... but not a very funny one. I rectified all outstanding issues by sending double orders and double refunds to anyone/everyone who claimed they were due, which seemed to quiet the restless natives and at least partially restore our credibility. But in the process, I kinda lost all energy and enthusiasm to deal with this very particular marketplace. I was reminded why we burned out in the first place. It wasn't fun anymore.
This brings us up to last month. Someone from one of those forums contacted us wanting to buy-out or come to work for the business. He stated that he was amazed that with the bashing we had taken that our brand was still so strong, and thot it had/has a lot of potential. I agree. We never implemented 90% of the marketing plans we had originally conceived (back in the day). We still have a high Google ranking, and are (3 years later) still mentioned in the company of the most expensive, exclusive and popular luxury brands in the world by that very small niche of aficianados who care about such things.
OK, the history wasn't so quick after all. I hesitated to air all the dirty laundry, but I think it's an integral part of the reason we are considering having a new manager take it back to market. Anyway, that brings you up to speed.
Today, I'm trying to figure out how to structure a compensation plan to bring this guy onboard. He's just leaving graduate school (MBA in marketing with focus on branding), so he hasn't the money to buy us out. We don't want to / can't pay him what a COO/Marketing director of a small business should make (salary). So I'm trying to figure out some way to either offer up a draw against commission, with possibility of equity at certain benchmarks so that he has some longterm skin in the game. We would continue to do the design and production (the part we enjoy and excel at), and he would take over the daily operations, marketing and sales (the part we don't like/aren't good at/don't have time for). We bring the connections (in Italy), the brand, the inventory, the web presence, and the capital. He would do most of the work.
I'm not even sure he is the right guy. But he did get my rusty cogs to turning. Oh, and one more thing. The challenge I'm having right now, is that unless I run a promo, the sales are close to zero, because the inventory is stale (3 years old) and anyone on our customer list has already seen them many times. So I'm having trouble establishing a baseline. If we had all fresh inventory, sales would pop dramatically.
So, I'm open to any ideas / suggestions. Base his commission just on new wholesale (b&m) accounts? Partial commission for web business? Or web-based promotions only?
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