57 - How to Get Your Product Into Large Retail Stores | feat. Julianne Ponan

So you’ve listened to all the podcasts.... Perhaps even taken my course, Crowdfunding Domination... You had a successful crowdfunding launch and now it’s time to create a real business. Now what? How do you transition from having a “campaign” to having a “business”? If you are looking to eventually get your product into large retail stores, then this episode will provide the blueprint. Julianne Ponan is the owner of Creative Nature Superfoods based in the United Kingdom. Five years ago, at 22 years old, she bought the company off of her father. It had £56,000 (~$75,000 USD as of publishing) in debt, and was also losing money month over month. “It was a bit stupid, and when I look back it would have been easier to start from scratch....” - Julianne Ponan The first thing she did was cut back on unnecessary expenses, eliminated almost all the products they were selling, and focused on hypoallergenic superfood snack bars. Julianne then methodically built a group of loyal repeat customers with local retailers, but she had eyes on going national. After hundreds of phone calls, trade shows, pitch meetings, she was finally able to secure listings in Tesco, the #1 grocery retailer in the UK. Creative Nature products are also in Ocado, Asda, and Sainsbury’s, as well as a host of other smaller health food stores. So how did she do it? She got “Creative”. In this episode and you will learn some unconventional tactics, like “ethical stalking” and strategic brownie baking, that allowed her business to explode. You’ll hear stories about her biggest mistakes so you can avoid them in the future.