Here’s How I Grew My Business to $1M+ in Sales.
Most businesses fail within the first 5 years. We didn’t.
In fact, I’m fortunate to be a part of a small minority of businesses that have outlived the 5 year death sentence most of us try to avoid. My first business I started with my best friend after college has been in existence for 11 years now, more than double the amount of time most businesses fail to stay open. None of our success has been linear. We’ve had some dips, and some memorable peaks along the journey. What has allowed us to thrive is our steadfast vision for expanding our business long term, sticking it out for over a decade. Our continued growth is a testament to that vision and the dedication that comes with seeing a dream come true.
One of the most exciting milestones most businesses seek to achieve is the million dollars in sales milestone. Since being in business for over the last decade, we’ve surpassed well over a million in sales through our online business, our retail stores, our events and other revenue generating activities. In the past 6 months, we’ve grossed over $200k in sales with the release of our first licensed cannabis product.
To better understand how we’ve grossed well over a million dollars in sales, here’s an overview of how Kush Groove, a black owned merchandise and accessories brand, grew into a million dollar business, selling t-shirts and other cannabis related goods.
A brand, and a relatable message, our audience could trust
We spent a good deal of time defining our mission statement when we first started the business. At the time we brainstormed some ideas about what we wanted the brand to stand for, then we hired a family friend who was an English teacher to edit it down to something folks could digest. The ethos was simple: Kush Groove is a blend of style and culture, expressed through an urban fashion savvy. At our core, we create high quality lifestyle products inspired by the 420 movement.
With our ethos defined, it was easy to then create products, content and experiences that reflected what we were all about. Nothing gets lost in translation when the message is clear to the audience. With a clear message, we were able to establish trust. Trust is the most important element in the relationship of a brand and a customer. The customer has to trust what you say you will deliver to them and over the last decade, we’ve gained an immense amount of trust from our customers. To the tune of over 50,000 transactions since we launched. That’s a lot of trust.
Put community at the center of everything we do
Growing up in and around the Boston area, community is a big part of your livelihood. Most areas are broken down into neighborhoods and your neighborhood is what you represent and the people from your neighborhood, you show them love, as if they were no different from family. Every aspect of our business has involved community. Our founding team are all childhood friends. When we throw events, everyone is engaged. Our friends from high school cook empanadas and Caribbean plates. They also DJ the parties. Even our parents have worked the store register, helped fold t-shirts, or handed out tickets during a party.
We’ve found that when you engage a community properly, there’s a certain amount of love and support that’s achieved that’s really hard to quantify in traditional business terms. When community is engaged, relationships and connections are deepened, trust is built and overall value is extended in all directions. It’s benefited us tremendously over the years.
Pivot when the market requires
Technology has rapidly changed over the last decade, creating tools and software enabling people, and businesses, to communicate and conduct business like never before. When we first launched our business in 2011, our business model was supported by a few key factors: a social media environment where organic content could go viral before commercial advertising was integrated, an events platform of festivals and concerts to vend merchandise at and a community of customers who understood and supported the vision.
With the exception of our community disintegrating, all of these support factors ultimately changed as social media technology became more commercially viable to more people as more smartphones were developed, mass adoption of social media tools proliferated and competition in the field of merchandise and content creators increased.
Because of the changes, we had to pivot, and pivot quickly to survive.
We originally started with selling clothes and merchandise out the trunk of the car and at festivals and local events. This method allows you to build relationships and connect directly with customers, however, it’s laborious, time and capital intensive, and not scalable, nor sustainable, over time. Once we determined the pros and cons, we decided to pivot towards retail, which provided our own location to curate a retail experience customers can become loyal to.
After a few years of retail, and finding success with a few key product verticals, we pivoted towards a weekly in-store event that brought new customers, new revenues during off hours, and a new growth path for the business. This pivot was warranted for growth purposes, but as it turned out, it served as a method of sustainability. Right after we launched our in-store event, we learned right after that one of our key products, a regulated electronic smoking device, was banned for sales, accounting for roughly 20% of our business. If we didn’t pivot beforehand, we might have not survived.
To mark one of our most recent pivots, we’ve licensed our trademark to a few manufacturing companies over the last few months. Today, we’ve grossed well over $200k in sales with the release of our licensed products and we project to do close to $500k in sales by the end of 2022. Staying on our pivot has enabled us to continue to grow and thrive.
Know the customer intimately
Now, this doesn’t mean dating your customers. Although that possibility is there.
I’m talking about knowing the customers’ true needs, who they are, what they like and anticipating their needs so well that they then rely on you, the business, to service all of their needs that fall in line with your offerings.
We know our customers on a first name basis. We engage with our customers socially, outside of traditional business constraints. We party with our customers, we know their families. This level of intimacy refinroces the trust building aspects of having a clear brand message I mentioned early and it’s one of the main reasons we’ve been able to grow into a million dollar business.
Committed leadership team
The eye has always been on progress and the single most important trait that has sustained the growth of this enterprise is the vision and commitment of our leadership team. This company has all been self funded since day one, with the exceptions of a few friends and family loans amounting to no more than $5k. It’s entirely owned by my partner and I and we’ve taken what we’ve started with and turned it into a million dollar company. In addition, we’ve been able to open a new line of cannabis retail business, with a new entity, where we raised $3.5M in start-up capital. This is a true testament to what we’ve done so far, and where we plan to go with the next venture.
You can have a great brand message, pivot as much as you need, know your customer intimately and put community at the center of everything you do. Without a committed leadership team to drive the vision and lead from the front, your chances of growing into a million dollar business are slim and you’ll most likely end as a failed business, as 95% of businesses do.
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