hi I’m Evan Carmichael welcome to
another edition of ask Evan in today’s
episode I’m going to answer a question
from one of my newsletter readers Kim
who has a cat toy idea and wanted to
find out how she can sell to the major
cat toy manufacturers or companies to
help them you know launch her company so
she wanted my advice on how to do it you
think she has the next great cat toy and
wanted some help on how to make this
company take off so Kim thanks to the
question a couple things for you and in
terms of getting on the radar of a lot
of these bigger companies who are in
your market the two things I would try
to do one is look if they have demo days
and not all companies will have this but
a lot of them will well they’re they’re
looking for new suppliers and they have
a demo day that they’ll have everybody
come in to a certain location could be
their office it could be a hotel room
and you pitch your idea you bring your
product and you have five minutes to
talk about you know what it is you’re
doing and you know why they should
partner up with you so it done I would
look at the sea and try to get on their
screen if if you know if they do have
demo days if they don’t then you can
start just contacting individuals at the
company and try to find somebody who’s
in your peer mentors on the purchasing
side a website that you can use as
jigsaw and there is you know lists of
different people who are different
companies you could search by company
name and by position find the person you
pay I think fifty cents a lead to get
the the telephone number and email
address and you can just start reaching
up to some of these people in terms of
what they’re going to look for it’s a
good idea to have some momentum built up
you don’t I wouldn’t recommend just
going in cold not having anything beyond
just an idea but trying to build up some
momentum to give you some extra leverage
and they’re more willing to listen to
you and take you seriously so you want
to kind of build up as much momentum as
you can what I would try to do is
produce some of this product try to get
it in stores even local areas show that
it can sell right she let people willing
to buy it even on a small scale just
having a little bit of sales will
separate you from
ninety percent of the other
entrepreneurs who are pitching who just
have an idea so that’s what you want to
do we sit from the venture capital world
that I come from most entren came in
pitches never had any sales so just had
a business plan idea and the ones who
hide sales immediately you know our ears
perked up and we got a little bit
excited because if you can show you can
make even a little bit of sales it
separates you from almost everybody else
so try to get a little bit of sales
going on even it’s only on your local
area to is try to build up momentum from
there so as an example my website we
have almost 7,000 people who write to my
website and when we first started it was
a bit of a struggle to get people to
want to contribute content and I had a
goal of wine and Donald Trump to be on
my website and you know he was one of
the biggest names in entrepreneurship
but it didn’t go straight to Donald
Trump what I did was I started on a
smaller scale so i started local here in
toronto and got people who i knew who
were business coaches marketing experts
to contribute content and then built up
from there showed that we were able to
get some traffic able to build up you
know some some business benefits for
them to be a part of it and it started
going after bigger name people so we got
Guy Kawasaki and and Seth Godin involved
Tom Peters and we just started building
up from there and by the time we were
ready to go after Donald Trump we had
lots of traffic lots of authors we had
some big-name authors and so he was you
know able to come on board and say yes
because we had all this momentum built
up behind us so that’s what you want to
do as well you have that vision to go
after the big company but start on a
smaller scale show that your product is
works in successful people love it and
be able to build up from there and it’s
going to be hard for those big companies
to ignore you because you’ve had a track
record of success the next thing we do
to build momentum is try to get some
viral marketing going especially with
cats I would try to get a YouTube
campaign going so have some cats you say
your cat toys the best thing ever and
the cats are playing it with it you know
for hours on end so film cute cats
playing with your toy and turn into a
YouTube video and get people to watch it
and look at it and then again if you can
get a lot of views on your videos
then the companies will take notice any
of these videos with tons of views and
cat video is trying to do well on
youtube so if you especially really cute
cats the production quality doesn’t have
to be fantastic you do it yourself on a
camcorder put some music on there and
just try to build a little bit of viral
marketing as well and then the last
thing in terms of building up momentum
is try to get some advisors so the
companies might look at you and say okay
one person show maybe it hasn’t done
anything entrepreneurial before so
that’s a risk but if you can get some
advisors who have some business
experience who can be a part of your
company not in a formal way but just as
an advisor then that adds a little bit
more credibility to your company and
again increases the chance that they’re
going to want to work with you and say
yes finally in terms of what they’ll
need to you know make that deal happen
from a from a structural point of view I
would make sure that your cooperation I
don’t know what your legal setup is but
I would set up as a corporation and not
a sole proprietor because you know you
look like a really amateur company if
you’re a sole proprietor instead of a
corporation so make sure you get your
legal structure right and then for the
manufacturing if you are planning on
doing it yourself then I make sure that
you have the ability to scale that’s
going to be a question that they’ll
they’ll have you know if they’re not
going to make it themselves as a rely on
you to manufacture then they’re going to
see that you have the capabilities to
make not you know a hundred of these
things but a million of these things how
are you going to go from 110 million so
you want to Q how some of those
relationships lined up or some ideas at
least on how to do it so hopefully that
helped a lot of questions and a lot of
answers here for you hopefully this some
nuggets of wisdom in there you can use
to grow your business is very exciting
if you guys like the video for those
watching please give it a thumbs up
below makes me want to make more of
these videos for you guys and if you
have a question or if you want to leave
a comment to share your experiences
please leave it in the comment section
below and we’ll see you on the next
episode
you
another edition of ask Evan in today’s
episode I’m going to answer a question
from one of my newsletter readers Kim
who has a cat toy idea and wanted to
find out how she can sell to the major
cat toy manufacturers or companies to
help them you know launch her company so
she wanted my advice on how to do it you
think she has the next great cat toy and
wanted some help on how to make this
company take off so Kim thanks to the
question a couple things for you and in
terms of getting on the radar of a lot
of these bigger companies who are in
your market the two things I would try
to do one is look if they have demo days
and not all companies will have this but
a lot of them will well they’re they’re
looking for new suppliers and they have
a demo day that they’ll have everybody
come in to a certain location could be
their office it could be a hotel room
and you pitch your idea you bring your
product and you have five minutes to
talk about you know what it is you’re
doing and you know why they should
partner up with you so it done I would
look at the sea and try to get on their
screen if if you know if they do have
demo days if they don’t then you can
start just contacting individuals at the
company and try to find somebody who’s
in your peer mentors on the purchasing
side a website that you can use as
jigsaw and there is you know lists of
different people who are different
companies you could search by company
name and by position find the person you
pay I think fifty cents a lead to get
the the telephone number and email
address and you can just start reaching
up to some of these people in terms of
what they’re going to look for it’s a
good idea to have some momentum built up
you don’t I wouldn’t recommend just
going in cold not having anything beyond
just an idea but trying to build up some
momentum to give you some extra leverage
and they’re more willing to listen to
you and take you seriously so you want
to kind of build up as much momentum as
you can what I would try to do is
produce some of this product try to get
it in stores even local areas show that
it can sell right she let people willing
to buy it even on a small scale just
having a little bit of sales will
separate you from
ninety percent of the other
entrepreneurs who are pitching who just
have an idea so that’s what you want to
do we sit from the venture capital world
that I come from most entren came in
pitches never had any sales so just had
a business plan idea and the ones who
hide sales immediately you know our ears
perked up and we got a little bit
excited because if you can show you can
make even a little bit of sales it
separates you from almost everybody else
so try to get a little bit of sales
going on even it’s only on your local
area to is try to build up momentum from
there so as an example my website we
have almost 7,000 people who write to my
website and when we first started it was
a bit of a struggle to get people to
want to contribute content and I had a
goal of wine and Donald Trump to be on
my website and you know he was one of
the biggest names in entrepreneurship
but it didn’t go straight to Donald
Trump what I did was I started on a
smaller scale so i started local here in
toronto and got people who i knew who
were business coaches marketing experts
to contribute content and then built up
from there showed that we were able to
get some traffic able to build up you
know some some business benefits for
them to be a part of it and it started
going after bigger name people so we got
Guy Kawasaki and and Seth Godin involved
Tom Peters and we just started building
up from there and by the time we were
ready to go after Donald Trump we had
lots of traffic lots of authors we had
some big-name authors and so he was you
know able to come on board and say yes
because we had all this momentum built
up behind us so that’s what you want to
do as well you have that vision to go
after the big company but start on a
smaller scale show that your product is
works in successful people love it and
be able to build up from there and it’s
going to be hard for those big companies
to ignore you because you’ve had a track
record of success the next thing we do
to build momentum is try to get some
viral marketing going especially with
cats I would try to get a YouTube
campaign going so have some cats you say
your cat toys the best thing ever and
the cats are playing it with it you know
for hours on end so film cute cats
playing with your toy and turn into a
YouTube video and get people to watch it
and look at it and then again if you can
get a lot of views on your videos
then the companies will take notice any
of these videos with tons of views and
cat video is trying to do well on
youtube so if you especially really cute
cats the production quality doesn’t have
to be fantastic you do it yourself on a
camcorder put some music on there and
just try to build a little bit of viral
marketing as well and then the last
thing in terms of building up momentum
is try to get some advisors so the
companies might look at you and say okay
one person show maybe it hasn’t done
anything entrepreneurial before so
that’s a risk but if you can get some
advisors who have some business
experience who can be a part of your
company not in a formal way but just as
an advisor then that adds a little bit
more credibility to your company and
again increases the chance that they’re
going to want to work with you and say
yes finally in terms of what they’ll
need to you know make that deal happen
from a from a structural point of view I
would make sure that your cooperation I
don’t know what your legal setup is but
I would set up as a corporation and not
a sole proprietor because you know you
look like a really amateur company if
you’re a sole proprietor instead of a
corporation so make sure you get your
legal structure right and then for the
manufacturing if you are planning on
doing it yourself then I make sure that
you have the ability to scale that’s
going to be a question that they’ll
they’ll have you know if they’re not
going to make it themselves as a rely on
you to manufacture then they’re going to
see that you have the capabilities to
make not you know a hundred of these
things but a million of these things how
are you going to go from 110 million so
you want to Q how some of those
relationships lined up or some ideas at
least on how to do it so hopefully that
helped a lot of questions and a lot of
answers here for you hopefully this some
nuggets of wisdom in there you can use
to grow your business is very exciting
if you guys like the video for those
watching please give it a thumbs up
below makes me want to make more of
these videos for you guys and if you
have a question or if you want to leave
a comment to share your experiences
please leave it in the comment section
below and we’ll see you on the next
episode
you
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