Is it possible to improve these numbers?!
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Classic people pleaser. Been dealing with this for a long time as well.
Trust that you are a good person not because you bend over backwards to help people, but because you’re a good fucking person. Doesn’t mean you should be poor or always get the short end of the stick.
If people are truly your friends, they will pay full price for what you do (just make sure you do it well). If they need a friend discount, then they don’t appreciate your true value (just your value to them by saving them some money in the moment).
Self worth is a tough one, but nobody else will give you your worth. You must create it and then command it. If you don’t believe in your worth, how could anyone else?
If you TRULY believe in your worth, you’ll communicate it in many ways (non-verbal). If you don’t, you’ll communicate it in many ways (and you probably already have been).
Good luck, you can do this.
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Here’s a few books that really made a big difference for me, maybe they will help you as well.
Awareness - By Anthony DeMello - I prefer the audiobook of this one personally, as it’s based on a talk he held (the printed book is just a transcript of the talk in the audiobook).
Breaking The Habit Of Being Yourself - By Dr. Joe Dispenza - this one uses neuroscience to help us understand how we create (or get imprinted with) our patterns and programming. It really shines a light on not only how important the subconscious is, but also how it works. With tools to help you re-program it so that the programming you’ve already picked up doesn’t keep fucking you up.
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So much effort. Lmao. Excuse my comedy.
I just find this pursuit hilarious 
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Reminds me of this lol
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She bae bae.
Comedy9000
“Which one?!”
What does your drunk posting have to do with improving 80-90% gross margins?
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Those margins were more ‘when things go as planned’ from a production efficiency standpoint. For a long time, things went as planned.
Had some management changes & efficiency drove further & further from planned over time until I took over management of production & reigned it back in over the last 9 months. Big learning experience —made it up as I went along / brute forced 110 hrs/wk. Labor costs had risen to 2x to 3x what they once were, but now only ~10% off peak.
Also brought gummy making in-house, lowered OpEx enough to boost net margins ~20%, and tightened up inventory levels.
Gross margins haven’t changed too much from where they were a year or 2 back — I’d say they’ve moreso stabilized. And we’ve weathered changing consumer preferences well so we can keep them.
Net margins + FCF are fantastic now. Comforts of high gross margins led us to be a bit complacent for a while. Consistency is key…
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Thanks for the update 
iS iT PoSsIbLe To iMpRoVe ThEsE nUmBeRs!?
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The sober adults are talking bro
You are directly involved with production now?
Were efficiency issues coming from your management’s leadership or from selection of the wrong labor crew?
How many months of direct involvement did it take to reverse the inefficiency trend?
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Both.
It took about 6 months. But happened alongside 2 major brand / product line launches.
I am not experienced with this stuff. I made it up as I went along. Paid some idiot taxes.
I took over management. Doubled the staff immediately — just needed bodies to produce starting allocations for new products.
Dwindled staff down to a quarter of that, or half the original headcount. Fired no one. Just set high expectations.
Low performers didn’t like coming up short. Complained & made excuses incessantly but I never capitulated. They stopped showing up.
High performers were increasingly happy with increasing density of high performers amongst their colleagues.
Big lesson was to ignore excuses & general nonsense spewed by non-performers / under-performers, and optimize for the high performers.
I’ll do anything for my high performers… loan my car, offer a room in my house, have food / meds delivered when sick, buy them a hotel room, pay for their meds / docs…
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Very generous of you boss
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What about giving raises so they don’t need to ask their boss for favors? That sounds pretty surreal to me.
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Have you ever tried assuming good in others until proven wrong?
I paid better than anyone in town for this level of labor up until COVID / Fed stimulus.
I give raises out freely with efficiency gains. Generous Christmas bonuses. Random thank-you bonuses in sales up-swings.
Maybe you’re too detached at this point from the financial realities of a median wage worker in the US.
I would be stunned if you pay your ‘wooks’ — as you call them — so well that they don’t experience financial difficulties over the same matters.
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once upon a time woe, before I learned to research people’s claims
Your high performers sound like they are really going thru it. I hope Things improve for them
I’m detached from median wage workers, but I pay my workers the federal average wage. The lowest paid cart farmer makes at least 1k/ week.
Wooks are for the traditional market , and on the traditional market, a super intimate work situation is understood. I am under the impression you are not in the traditional market though, so it doesn’t make sense comparing w2 employees with piece work wooks that tend to make 2-500 per day. One is low risk/low reward, while the other is high risk/high reward.
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Thank you for this great information. I am new to this game but jumped on with a person who has over 15 years in the business. He’s the scientific brains behind the operation and he asked me to join him to provide business administration, sales and marketing. As I am new to this vertical I am interested in talking with people like yourself that can help flatten my learning curve. Are you for hire and/or consultation?
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idk bout no golden rule, but this is gold right here.
Thank you for sharing. What value proposition can we offer when trying to get our product into smoke shops? Is it a consignment offer, is it a wholesale offer, or is it a profit split offer?
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I’ve found it productive to think about it from the POV of the shop - what’s in it for them for stocking your product? What does it do differently, what people does it appeal to differently, etc? What do you bring to the table in terms of product that nothing else they sell does?
In general, stores are always down for new products that sell, and (about 1.5 years ago in this thread, sheesh!) I dropped some free game on how I got my products into stores when I was first starting out. It worked, and a lot of sales-type training works really well for this.
If you haven’t gotten into /any/ stores yet, I’d first pitch them buying product off you to keep your cash conversion cycle (look this up) as short as possible, and if they’re not willing, then offer it on consignment. Keep MOQ low to start before you have a name, and make sure to give free samples, training material, and window stickers, pamphlets, etc. People can’t sell what they don’t know. Make sure you have a decent idea of your customer, and build relationships with the people on the floor actually selling your product to start. The ground-level employees enjoy their egos being stroked as taste-makers, play into this and make sure that they know you’re asking them to do this because you know people trust them.
Attempted to link my reply here, if it doesn’t work then just pm me or search “link” in this thread.
https://future4200.com/t/how-to-build-multi-million-dollar-brands-ask-me-anything/138055/144
Lurk through this thread for more answers, and in terms of ~business mindset~ I’ve really found the “How I Built This” podcast by Guy Raz on NPR to be really inspiring and useful. They’ve had the founder of 5 Hour Energy, Airbnb, etc on there going through their process. Really inspiring, especially when you find out they started from a place of knowing essentially nothing. If you’re selling cannabinoids and you’re on future4.2k you’re already ahead of 90% of the field. You got this.
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Solid discussion. Thanks for sharing the knowledge!
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