Ten Steps to keep Cool after a Big Hit.

Has your product become a hit and are orders pouring in? This 10-step survival guide will help you think fast and react quickly when you wake up one morning to find the world beating a path to your door.

Take a Deep Breath:

While it’s only natural to want to celebrate the good news, remember that a big contract or great press doesn’t mean dollars in your bank account — at least, not today. So hold off on that Ferrari or exotic vacation. Also, remember that the additional sales you ring up will probably require you to lay out more money for people, materials and overhead — and may require you to borrow additional capital as well.

Map out a Strategy:

Make a to-do list, crunch the numbers and marshal your human and production resources. It’s always easier to fight a battle on paper than to shoot first and ask questions later. No matter how much pressure you’re getting from your customers to deliver the goods right now, you need to take the time to sit down and map out a plan of attack.

Get the Money:

Before you go on a hiring binge or start placing orders overseas, it’s important to figure out how much working capital you’re going to need to meet the market demand. Because employees and manufacturers generally won’t wait until you’ve sold the products and collected the money before you pay them, you’ll need a source of capital that you can tap immediately.

Reach out for help: Call on suppliers, personal contacts and use the internet to find extra hands to help you. If you think you can do it alone, think again. No matter how hard you work, there are only 24 hours in a day and you’ve got to sleep during seven or eight of them. That’s why it’s important to reach out to people who can help you. If your company already has employees, ask them to put in extra hours to help you get over the hump. If you’re a one-person show, you can reach out to friends and family members to help you or hire freelancers. But don’t commit anything for the long term.

Forge production partnerships: While there’s no shortage of suppliers listed on the internet, a reliable manufacturer that delivers high-quality goods is not so easy to find. Your best bet may be to contact your industry’s trade association and its leading trade publications for consultants and referrals.

Create a Distribution Network: As news of your product or service spreads, you may start getting orders from consumers and retailers all over the country. If you’re like most businesses, you’re going to need help selling and servicing those accounts. Rather than hiring a national sales manager and opening offices in major cities, a more cost-effective option may be to sell your product through manufacturers’ representatives. These reps (or rep firms) act as independent sales agents for multiple product lines and work on a commission-only basis.

Communicate with your Customers: Communication is the life-blood of any business relationship, but it’s even more important when your product or service suddenly takes off. The biggest mistake a business owner can make is failing to warn customers of shipping or production delays until it’s too late. This is especially critical in the apparel and toy industries where seasonality is important. Manufacturers who fail to communicate with key retail and wholesale customers may find themselves not only with egg on their faces but with unsold inventory in their warehouses as well.

Leverage your success: The hardest thing about achieving over-night success is keeping it going. The last thing you want is to get stuck with a warehouse full of pet rocks. Creating line extensions like the Chicken Soup books or the ‘For Dummies’ series is one way to keep your brand alive. Another is to find new markets for your products and services or new ways to publicise them.

Invest for the future: While it may be tempting to reap the profits from your hit product right away, it’s important to reinvest some of those profits. Whether this means paying down debt, buying new equipment, hiring another employee or opening an-other location, don’t pass up this opportunity to make your money work for you. It’s always cheaper to put your own cash to work in your business than to borrow money from a bank or give up equity to an investor.

Learn from your mistakes: After the excitement of the initial sales rush has died down, take a few hours to sit down with your staff to figure out what went right, what went wrong and what you think you could do better in the future. This will help you put a strategy in place for the next time you come out with a hit product — which could be sooner than you think!

Reference:

Entrepreneur.com