Testimonial Paul Crawley
After 7 years, I knew that my business had hit a ceiling. It seemed no matter how hard I tried I could not get our business to the next level.
The next level for my company, The Net Return, LLC., was moving from direct sales (via our website) to selling to the big box retailers. This would require a whole new set of skills, from contacting retail buyers, negotiating contracts, managing overseas manufacturing, setting up distribution, etc.
These were all skills that I and our employees did not possess. For the first time as a company, we needed to “look outside of ourselves” for the expertise we required.
After learning about Becky from a talk she had given at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, I decided to reach out to her. Looking back, this was the best business decision I have ever made.
After listening to my story and understanding our business, Becky offered insights and guidance that can only come from first-hand knowledge and experience in the retail arena.
After contracting Becky to assist with our transition, I quickly realized how good she really was.
Becky first started out by clearly defining our long-term goals and objectives for the business and the day to day strategy that was required to get us there.
For most business owners when we hear the words goals, objectives, strategy, etc. our eyes “glaze over”. Just more of the same business talk...
But here is what separated Becky from all the rest. Not only had Becky started (from zero), built and sold multiple million dollar retail businesses, but she has the unique ability to “reverse engineer” what needs to happen inside a business – basically taking a long-term goal/objective and turning into a daily action set.
Becky accomplished this by building a Financial Model for our business from the “ground up”. We reviewed every piece of data in detail that went into building this Financial Model. This included not only our own internal financial data but also every piece of data that Becky extracted from our retailers and distributors prior to opening up our product line to them. She left no stone unturned.
It was these tasks along with countless others that Becky “deconstructed” inside our business making the process both fun and easy. Two adjectives that can be hard to find inside the world of entrepreneurship!
We now have insight into our business we never, ever had. For example, imagine knowing in August what your cash position will be the third week of December...
In Summary
In a few short months with Becky as our guide, we have agreements with major sporting goods and toy retailers (Amazon, Toys R Us, Costco, etc.), established international distribution and have overseas manufacturing in place. Revenues are on target to double next year and double the year after that.
More importantly, I was a business owner am now the “Captain of my ship, not a captive within it.”
That is powerful. That is Becky Anderson.
Paul A. Crawley
The Net Return, LLC.