Business
Episode 284: Getting Products in Big-Box Retailers with Ann Anderson “New products are hitting store shelves every two minutes,” says Ann. How are entrepreneurs gaining expertise quickly? By hiring a retail specialist. Ann Anderson, MBA, and founder of Retail Partner Solutions, LLC, gives a brief overview on what we need to know about getting our products on Big-Box retailer store shelves like Walmart, Costco, Lunds & Byerlys, Hyvee, Petco, Target, Specialty Stores, to name a few. Entrepreneurs with new product brands need Ann’s retail expertise, resources, and strategies that accelerate growth. She has a proven record of succeeding across many categories, including launches of kid’s snacks, home essentials, pet products, coffee, ethnic products, and beverages. Here are some of the questions Ann answers: What is needed to get your finished product ready for Big-Box Retailers? Why not approach Big-Box Retailers yourself? When is a good time to hire a retail specialist? Do you have your channel strategy worked out? What is the priority of your brand from a channel perspective? What is the timeline to get new products on retail shelves? What elements do you need to organize? Online operates differently; in what ways and what do you need to consider? What is involved before and after getting our products on store shelves? I ask Ann about closing the door on corporate employment and planting her feet solidly in business ownership. It is an essential step in succeeding with a new venture after leaving a fulfilling legacy in corporate America. Owning each part of how you redesign your future is exercising bravery. Listen to her answer. DOWNLOAD A Note About The First-Year Pandemic Toll on Small Business Ann Anderson is not alone in starting a new business during these unpredictable times. In 2020, the Census Bureau cited “an explosion in new business applications, reaching nearly 4.5 million by year’s end—a 24.3 percent increase from 2019 and 51.0 percent higher than the 2010-19 average.” Before 2019 new business applications hovered around 2.5 million. In July of this year, the Federal Reserve released a report on the number of small business closures during the first year of the Pandemic to be below 200,000. Historically normal levels of annual closures are around 130,000. The 200,000 closure number is about one-quarter to one-third above routine establishment exits. If you compare the historical percentages of new businesses formed and closed in 2020, you can see we gained more new businesses than those closed. That’s the good news. If we further analyzed the numbers to look at the industries hardest hit in 2020, it would definitely be restaurants and storefront retailers, and they are still recovering if they haven’t closed. Entrepreneurial activity fuels our economy promoting innovation and evolution, critical in helping us quickly adapt to local and global changes. I am hopeful about our economic future, even with the Delta variant moving through our communities. From the above statistics and talking with experienced and new business owners, we know how to keep people safe while doing business: taking the vaccine, wearing masks in public inside spaces, physical distancing, and hand washing. The Work Ahead: What we need to do now is focus on women and minorities. Women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic globally, as tracked by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). GEM has over 22 years of data tracking entrepreneurial activities across geographies. Wendy Teleki of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) believes in women as change agents, job creators, and drivers of economic growth. Her team is sponsoring, along with others, GEM’s 2020/21 special report on women’s entrepreneurial activity. They will find out the effect of the pandemic and learn more of what entrepreneurial women need going forward. What Wendy knows right now is “COVID-19 has exacerbated existing barriers that h...