The Online Community for Food and Beverage Startups

   Building a Business vs. a Brand   

Hey , 

Happy Monday and welcome to our first official Foodbevy newsletter of the year! I'm really excited because today is the first day of the Foodbevy Founders Circle Beta group, where 25 founders have been matched into 7 mastermind groups of 3-4 people. This was our MOST requested benefit for the year, so we'll be using this month to refine the program before we officially launch in February. If you want in, you can still join the waitlist here.

  Don’t build a great BRAND at the expense of building a great BUSINESS.

One of the greatest mistakes I see new founders make is investing all their time in creating an awesome brand, telling good stories, posting on social media, and getting press, all at the expense of building a solid business foundation.I'm guilty of doing this myself too. With TeaSquares, the fundamentals weren't quite there, and honestly, it was really stressful. It was much more fun to focus on things like tweaking our email copy or website design than solve the real hard issues.What does a solid business foundation look like?✅ Solving a problem for a sizable and reachable group of customers✅ Creating a product that provides true value✅ Finding product market fit✅ Having great margins and a clear path to profitability✅ A solid financing planDon’t get me wrong, I believe building a great brand is an incredible asset, but not if your business can’t survive. So make sure you have the core fundamentals developed before you prime your business for growth. 

WEEKLY UPDATES

   FINANCING STRATEGY       REVIEW FOR       FOODBEVY COMMUNITY    

Financing for 2023 is one of the biggest challenges for CPG brands according to early data from our State of the CPG Industry Survey. That's why I partnered with Keith Kohler to help every founder in our Foodbevy community create a 2-3 year financing strategy including debt, equity, and alternative investments. I went through this with Keith myself and it was so helpful.It's not just a general overview or sales call either, you'll actually walk away with a specific plan for your business. Keith is offering this session at no cost. If you'd like to go even deeper after the call, Keith can actually help you secure debt financing as well. REQUEST AN INTRODUCTION TO KEITH

   REMASTER YOUR DIGITAL       MARKETING STRATEGY   

Are you still struggling with your digital marketing strategy for 2023? It feels like we're all reeling in the aftermath of the iOS changes and there's no clear way forward. If you need help, talk with Andy. He's a master of Google Ads, Data Tracking and Analytics, and digital marketing strategies.Book a free call with Andy with PPC Pitbulls to get:

• Clarity on how you can use paid ads and email marketing to build more authentic customer relationships and sales online

• Actionable insights and strategies that you can apply to your digital marketing TODAY

• Your one best next step to help you achieve your unique goals ecommerce goals

   KEEP YOUR DTC RUNNING   

This one is for the DTC-heavy brands. Our new partner Trackstar monitors your entire e-commerce stack for hard-to-catch problems. Increase your profitability and sleep better at night, guaranteed. Check them out to see how you can save on leaky costs.Request an introduction

   INFLUENCER OUTREACH       MASTERCLASS  

CPG brands can scale to 7-figures in 2023 by leveraging influencer marketing. Yet most brands sabotage themselves in the outreach process… Instead of wasting time, steal this winning outreach process that helps get 1000s of influencers a year for DTC brands See 40% reply rates with this - save it!Watch an In-depth video walkthrough

   CFO SUPPORT       FOR EMERGING BRANDS  

Looking to get a hold of your finances but can't afford a CFO?myPocketCFO is building a digital CFO for emerging CPG brands. Alice built the service to support accounting, analytics, reports, forecasts, integrated financing, and capital options.Trusted by:- B.T.R Bar- Nemi- Twrl M!lk Tea- KindrootTry out their financial services for just $99 for 3 months (a Foodbevy Special), then just $199/month after. Click here for an introduction.

STARTUP TO SCALE PODCAST

84. Building a Profitable Business

What does it take to build a profitable business?I sit down with Kyle Koehler, Co-Founder of Wildway to find out. Wildway is now 10 years into their business and became profitable after their 5th year in business. I talk with Kyle about what it's like to run a company without raising capital, self-manufacturing, and growing using debt financing.

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

DISCOUNTS

Stripe is now providing $70,000 in fee-free processing for new and EXISTING customers. Save over $2000

NielsenIQ Byzzer platform provides data for emerging CPG brands. You can access 3 free reports using this link.

Mindful Goods is an awesome Amazon expert that can quickly get you started or optimize your pages for strong ROI. Get 10% of their services  use code FOODBEVY.

Maverick allows you to create individually personalized videos (with a customer's name) welcoming them to your community.