Simulacra – cre8ica

I’m not a conventional business owner. I probably break most of the basic business rules. I never wrote a business plan. I never did sales projections. I never did a SWOT anaylsis.

I built the business on intuition and gut feeling and focused on products that customers asked for.

One other rule I break is I try not to outsource anything. I understand that there are experts out there that can help grow my business and allow me to focus on what i do best but I never take that option unless i have to.

What i do best is find solutions to business problems. I’m not a chemist, i’m not a marketer, i’m not a packaging designer, and i’m certainly not a sales person. What I am is a problem solver.

My drive comes from finding innovative solutions to every aspect of a business but because i’m not a sales person or much of a people person i choose not to be a business consultant. Writing this blog is probably the most vocal i’ve ever been about what i do.

Running a business allows me to work in a bubble and focus on innovating and problem solving every day of the week.

So back to my lack of outsourcing. Perfect example is sales brochures. Most companies would hire a marketer, who then would hire a designer who would then contract out the printing.

I look at that outsource cycle and see gaps and problems for my business needs. For one I develop multiple lines of products within different niches so need flexebility in my marketing material. Many of these niches start off as experiments for me to see if there really is a market opportunity i can grow within. So for me printing a thousand brochures for each product or market isnt enough. More importanlty it’s a waste of money and resources printing something that may change quickly.

My Solution is to purchase printing equipment that i can augment to keep ink costs down and allow for a cost effective on demand solution. Next i purchased a brochure folder so we can create different types of printed marketing material. Of course all design and copy was also done in house.

The same goes for packaging and labeling. We purchased equipment that allows us to creat a very professional looking product and can create very small runs to test out different markets. We don’t have to waste money printing many labels for a product that may not lauch or that changes mid stream based on customer feedback.

We do the same thing with production equipment to fill and cap bottles, make product samples for conventions, and even mixing equipment to speed up production.

I feel it necessary to have our hands physically in every aspect of the product cycle. It alows us to be intune with our customers needs and more importantly it allows us to quickly innovate and produce products for new emerging markets.

Once again i know this breaks most business conventions but i’ve been able to create a business model that still allows us to be price competitive and innovate quicker than most larger companies. The best part is we are able to stay true to our business principals while still being profitable and continue to grow with our success.