Who: Karen Walker, owner of SwaggerTag. SwaggerTags are identification tags that reflect your personality and help you keep track of your gear. By customizing with your own photo, image, or logo, you can let everyone know it’s your stuff. You decide what personal information to include and your SwaggerTag reveals the information only if it is opened. A SwaggerTag is water, weather, and impact resistant, with strong attachment points and ties to ensure it will stay with your gear. 

 

 

Business Highlights: Karen is hoping the best is yet to come, but she was really psyched when she received her initial inventory. It was a sign that all the things that went into product development came to life—getting the idea into 3D design and molds, arranging finances, sourcing an overseas manufacturer, arranging patents and trademarks, developing branding and packaging, and everything else that went into it. While Karen understood that she had a lot more to do for success, it was thrilling (and a little terrifying) for her to have her ID tags in hand.

 

Business Question: More than anything else, I could really use a strategic selling plan to help keep me on track and ensure I'm consistently filling my pipeline.

 

Spark’s Insights: Our advice to you would be to schedule time for sales. For each of your sales channels (your web site, brick and mortar stores, online stores) create a list of targeted, specific goals (e.g. get picked up by a specific large store, increase online stores by 15%, etc.) and then plan for how you are going to go after these goals. Next, make a date with yourself to get these plans going and put them in the calendar. Spread them throughout the year and make it a regular activity. Maybe, for example, Fridays are dedicated to sales in general and to following your sales plans specifically. By breaking down the sales process into manageable chunks, and setting aside time to get them done, we think you will find the process easier.

 

Karen’s Advice to Other Entrepreneurs: It's easy to get sidetracked by administrative tasks, but entrepreneurs need to concentrate daily on the all-important job of selling your product. And even though I know this, I still struggle with following my own advice.