For Jay Klein, chief executive and founder of Toronto-based PÜR Gum, getting traction on a new idea didn’t happen right out of the gate. Before founding this newest venture in 2010, he learned that big sales numbers don’t necessarily translate into success if the infrastructure isn’t in place to support growth. With PÜR Gum, he says he is taking the lessons learned from his earlier ventures to build a growth strategy that’s sensible, sustainable and doesn’t get ahead of itself. PÜR has become the leading chewing gum in the health food market worldwide and the company is set to hit $10-million in revenue for 2013. Following is an edited version of his take on how it happened.
We started small. We went from store to store with sales of $50 to $100 at a time and made sure store owners, staff and customers understood what our product was all about. We didn’t force minimum quantities. We were simply focused on traction and building loyalty. Lowering those barriers gave us an edge and we ended up establishing a repetitive ordering pattern. By the end of the first month [May] we had 33 local health food store customers as a base...Now, we are in 10,000 stores in 20 countries, and a pretty significant distribution pipeline. We’re just starting to introduce ourselves to some larger retailers.
http://business.financialpost.com/2...ur-gum-shares-its-bite-sized-growth-strategy/
We started small. We went from store to store with sales of $50 to $100 at a time and made sure store owners, staff and customers understood what our product was all about. We didn’t force minimum quantities. We were simply focused on traction and building loyalty. Lowering those barriers gave us an edge and we ended up establishing a repetitive ordering pattern. By the end of the first month [May] we had 33 local health food store customers as a base...Now, we are in 10,000 stores in 20 countries, and a pretty significant distribution pipeline. We’re just starting to introduce ourselves to some larger retailers.
http://business.financialpost.com/2...ur-gum-shares-its-bite-sized-growth-strategy/
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
Access Restricted: Unlock 1,000,000+ Posts
Stop Peeking Through the Keyhole.
Open the Door.
You hit a wall because the best advice isn't free—it's earned. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has been active here daily (99.9% active rate), building a war room for entrepreneurs who refuse to settle for mediocrity.
- Active Daily: Life-changing content posted dozens of times every day. No dead threads.
- MJ's Inner Circle: Direct access to the author of The Millionaire Fastlane.
- Vetted Network: Connect with founders scaling to 7 and 8 figures.
- Proven Roadmaps: Strategy over motivation. Execution over "hustle porn."
"SCALED TO 6-FIGURE MONTHS"
"Tips and advice here saved me from huge mistakes, others allowed me to scale my business to 6-figure months."— User MitchC
"INSANE QUALITY OF PEOPLE"
"The number of high quality people I've met from this forum has been insane. All of it predicated on building real value."— User Richard Peck
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with."
Are you surrounding yourself with success?
