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

There is always a way to do things... if we really WANT to do it

Lessons of the Square Watermelon

Japanese grocery stores had a problem. They are much smaller than shops in the USA and therefore don't have room to waste. Watermelons, big and round, wasted a lot of space. Most people would simply tell the grocery stores that watermelons grow round and there is nothing that can be done about it.

That is how majority of people would respond. But some Japanese farmers took a different approach. If the supermarkets wanted a square watermelon, they asked themselves, "How can we provide one?" It wasn't long before they invented the square watermelon.

The solution to the problem of round watermelons was not to solve as the farmers did not assume it was impossible - and simply asked how it could be done.

They found out that if you put the watermelon in a square box when they are growing, the watermelon will take on the shape of the box - and grow into a square fruit.

This made the grocery stores happy and had the added benefit that it was much easier and cost effective to ship the watermelons. Consumers also loved them because they took less space in their refrigerators which are much smaller than those in the US meaning that the growers could charge a premium price for them.

What does this have do with anything in life or at your job? There are a few lessons that can you can take away from this story which help you :

Don't Assume:

The major problem was that most people had always seen round watermelons so they automatically assumed that square watermelons were impossible before even thinking about the question. Things that you have been doing a certain way your entire life have taken on the aura of the round watermelon and you likely don't even take the time to consider if there is another way to do it. Breaking yourself from assuming this way can greatly improve your overall life as you are constantly looking for new and better ways to do things. This was one of the most difficult things for me to do because most of the assumptions I make, I don't even realize that I'm making them. They seem perfectly logical on the surface, so I have to constantly make an effort to question them.

Question habits:

The best way to tackle these assumptions is to question your habits. If you can make an effort to question the way you do things on a consistent basis, you will find that you can continually improve the way that you work. Forming habits when they have been well thought out is usually a positive thing, but most of us have adopted our habits from various people and places without even thinking about them. I have changed a large number of habits that I have had after taking the time to question them and continue to do so. Some of them I have know idea where they came from while others I can trace to certain people or instances in my life. It's a never ending process, but by doing this, you can consistently strive toward making all aspects of your life more enjoyable instead of defaulting to what you have now.

Be creative:

When faced with a problem, be creative in looking for a solution. This often requires thinking outside the box. Most people who viewed this question likely thought they were being asked how they could genetically alter water melons to grow square which would be a much more difficult process to accomplish. By looking at the question from an alternative perspective, however, the solution was quite simple. Being creative and looking at things in different ways in all portions of your live will help you find solutions to many problems where others can't see them. I am not a creative person, but I've found that the more that you look at things from different perspectives, the more creative I have become. It's a learned art and builds upon itself.

Look for a better way:

The square watermelon question was simply seeking a better and more convenient way to do something. The stores had flagged a problem they were having and asked if a solution was possible. It's impossible to find a better way if you are never asking the question in the first place. I try to ask if there is a better way of doing the things that I do and I constantly write down the things I wish I could do (but currently can't) since these are usually hints about steps I need to change. Get into the habit of asking yourself, "Is there a better way I could be doing this?" and you will find there often is.

Impossibilities often aren't:

If you begin with the notion that something is impossible, then it obviously will be for you. If, on the other hand, you decide to see if something is possible or not, you will find out through trial and error. Take away the lessons from the square watermelons and apply them to all areas in your life (work, finances, relationships, etc) and you will find that by consistently applying them, you will constantly be improving all aspects of your life.

I am sure we can bring about change if we really want to.