G.T. Dave’s company began in his mother’s kitchen. His family had been drinking kombucha, a little known Asian elixir, for years believing it increased energy and cleansed the body of harmful toxins.
Convinced the sweetened tea had helped his mother beat back advanced breast cancer, Dave thought he could sell the drink, which is made by combining a yeast and bacteria culture with a mixture of black tea and sugar, as a health supplement.
No clinical studies have demonstrated any specific health benefits of kombucha, and Dave quickly found that deciding to sell a product is very different from actually selling it.
Although Dave spent long hours handing out samples and persuading local health food stores to carry the product, the business didn’t hit full stride until years later.
After toiling for years, Dave scored a big break by landing a distributor for Whole Foods Markets Inc. as a client. Today, Dave’s Beverly Hills-based Millennium Products sells more than a million bottles of GT’s Organic and Raw Kombucha in more than 1,000 stores.
Learning to sell is as important to the lemonade stand as it is to a red-hot start-up. It’s an age-old but elusive skill that takes creativity, courage and plenty of persistence.
The No. 1 rule for a small business is to find a niche free of larger rivals and then relentlessly convince customers that your product is distinct from what’s currently on the market,
Because most small businesses don’t have money to spare, it’s also essential for them to find ways of getting their name and product out cheaply.
One idea: word-of-mouth marketing. Research shows that loyal customers are often a small business’ most powerful ally. Some increasingly popular techniques include giving customers discounts on future purchases or commissions for sales leads.
Photo by Millennium Products.
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