If you don’t know much about the main company I run, check out my company website sandshack.com. Also, consider reading my About page.
Sand Shack's logo
My main point in writing this entry was just to give you a quick update on the progress I have made with Sand Shack in recent months despite being faced with possibly the worst economy I will ever have to live through.
The progress that I have made is an accomplishment I am fairly proud of.
Sand Shack products can now be found in 22 states across the United States in over 125 stores.
The milestone was getting into over 20 states nationwide. The last time I counted Sand Shack products were in 12 states. And although I crossed this milestone a few weeks ago it wasn’t until a few minutes ago that I actually counted all my accounts and realized this.
As the US has 50 states, my products can almost be found in half of the country!
If you see Sand Shack products this summer be sure to let me know.
So that’s it! That’s all I want to say!
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Brian,
That’s awesome man, keep up the good work! I didn’t realize you had so many accounts, you should be very proud. You’ve accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. It just shows you how some determination and smarts can go a long way.
Best regards,
Adam
hey Adam,
haha, Yea, it’s been a fun ride and things are going well. Thanks for checking in!
-Brian
Yeah congratulations. But this is also what is special about you. You don’t sell high-tech, weight-loss-pills or some new age weird stuff, no, you sell ‘CLOTHING’. A product that has been on the market for the last couple of hundred years. You haven’t invented something, you weren’t the first guy who sold stuff store-to-store or through ecomerce. This is what’s really encouraging. Now I believe I can be successful with dogfood or oversized lingerie. And this fact will open you a lot of oppurtinities in the ongoing years. Because your concept is so graspable people will want to know how this works and BAM your consulting business is on.
Hey Brian,
I wonder if you could use your rapid expansion across the states as a cool marketing tool. You could have viewers of your website send in pictures of them purchasing various Sand Shack products from around the nation. Maybe you offer a simple price (piece of merchandise) for the first person in a new state or area to send a picture of them buying your product? You could create a cool map feature that allows people to see all the locations that your stuff is sold and then a picture of people buying in that area, similar to how google maps has people post pictures of various points of interest. Maybe you tie it together with one of Sand Shack’s larger missions (saving the ocean) and have viewers send in pictures of them sporting your gear and saving the planet. You never know, maybe it’d create some weird cultish following of ultra loyal Sand Shackers who advertise your product at every opportunity…can someone say residual marketing?
@Jens – haha, yea, a consulting business would be fun to start eventually. I think you made a good point though, you don’t have to have an innovative product to build a business from, hard work and unique branding works just find.
@Scott – Glad to hear from you!! You know what…that is a great great idea and I think that it is really something I will try to implement. However, in order to do that successfully I will need to be able to connect directly to my endline customer, who I usually don’t see or meet as I sell to retail stores and then they resell to the endline customer—but I will definitely look into it and try to implement something. Thanks for the idea!
You’re right, it would definitely require a new connection with the end user that may not be established at this point. I wonder if you could generate some interest through your Sand Shack website, I’m sure that a certain percentage of people end up hunting you down online to find out more about the shirt they just bought. Maybe you have your shop in China print the Sand Shack website on each of the tags so that when someones does their laundry they see it and eventually curiosity kills the cat. If nothing else it at least draws the interest of your end users to the mission behind the brand ‘Sand Shack’ and makes them apart of something bigger than just a shirt or a hat.
Congratulations, that’s great news. It’s encouraging to hear good news like that especially with how the economy is. I want to do well but something keeps holding me back.
@Scott, Your idea sounds great – I’ll be sure to make sure the web address is on all product labeling as that is the best way to connect with the endline customer.
@Aulelia – Thanks so much! The one great thing about starting something in this economy is that despite being faced with difficult circumstances, a new or small business has no where to go but up!! Think about it, the news is filled with the failure of the big businesses, but a small business has little overhead and if it is growing…a bad economy may slow growth but it can’t make me fail…or so I think!
Hey Brian, got another question for you. It seems like you have your product for the most part sold in smaller boutique type stores, where it isn’t too difficult to get in contact with the persons who own them. How would you go about getting your product sold in a much bigger chain of stores? Like say for example, you wanted to get Urban Outfitters to sell Sand Shack products. How would you go about making that happen? I assume it is near impossible to get in contact with the owner of a big store like that.
The way I see it, I guess you could either continue to build your brand through smaller stores and hope it gets picked up by a bigger store, or send a personal letter to the owner of the big store and pitch your product to them through the letter, maybe even give them some samples.
Also, do you think it may be worth the effort to start off big rather than small? Make an effort to get your product in a bigger store first, which should give you instant credibility, then let smaller stores come to you, requesting your product? Do smaller stores actually do that? Look for products to buy, or do they only buy from people who pitch to them?
I’d like to hear your opinion on this. Thanks.
Regards,
Adam
@Adam
Sorry for the late reply – I’ve been out and about in NYC and haven’t been able to use my computer much. I sell my products to small to medium sized companies. I sell to some very small boutiques, but also sell to some middle size, regional chain stores. These middle sized chain stores have a buying team and separate offices that you have to track down and get a meeting with a buyer. I am not in any large stores like Urban Outfitters or Macy’s, but the ways to get into stores like that are showing your products at tradeshows…you have to choose the larger, national tradeshows where you know the buyers for big companies will be. You can also get into larger stores by contacting them directly and trying to set up a meeting. Another way is sending a package with your sample products, catalogs, and a letter…you mentioned ’sending a letter’, however just sending a letter won’t do much without physical, sample products. Getting into a lot of smaller stores is a good way of showing the larger stores the strength of your products. So although I think that if you have the chance to get some big stores early on, you should, but getting into small stores is a lot easier and a good way to build your brand. Like you said, when you walk into a small store it is easy to get in front of the decision maker. Oh, and small stores very rarely request your product – everything is about selling. Even if you have a great product you still have to be able to approach your customers and sell it to them. You really have to pitch to everyone.
Hope that helps! You are giving me some great ides for future articles I should write! Thanks!
-Brian