Nardo’s Natural Survived and Thrived from Appearing on TV’s Shark Tank |  |
- Nardo’s Natural Survived and Thrived from Appearing on TV’s Shark Tank
- 5 Things You Need To Have To Survive Local Search
- 3 Reasons Why Businesses Fail at Marketing
- Emerging Markets for High Tech Ideas
- Small Business Ideas Can Come From Anywhere
| Nardo’s Natural Survived and Thrived from Appearing on TV’s Shark Tank Posted: 19 Mar 2012 02:30 PM PDT The dream of many small business product companies is to appear on the popular ABC reality show Shark Tank, where entrepreneurs present a business plan to a panel of five savvy self-made multimillionaires and billionaires in hopes that one or more of them will invest in the business, not just with their money, but also with their connections.
In exchange for an investment from the Sharks, those entrepreneurs willing to enter the Shark Tank offer a percentage of their companies' equity. The Shark Tank members are colorful personalities, and are often brutally tough during discussions and negotiations with the entrepreneurs. In Season 3, the four Mastronardo brothers, owners of Nardo's Naturals, presented their offer to the five Sharks, including billionaire Mark Cuban, owner and chairman of HDNet and outspoken owner of the 2010-2011 NBA championship Dallas Mavericks, real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran, technology innovator Robert Herjavec, fashion and branding expert Daymond John and venture capitalist Kevin O’Leary. Read on for the story of how these brothers made it out of the Shark Tank alive — and are thriving. Background: How Nardo's Natural Came to Be In 2008, D.J., the oldest Mastronardo brother (now 30), while working as a health and nutrition guru, and taping a "Healthy Cooking" segment in New Mexico, burned his hand. His mother, a certified wound care specialist, suggested that after the pain stopped, he put coconut oil on the burn to heal. D.J. was amazed at how well his hand healed in just a few days. He told his brothers, and they came up with an idea to create a skincare company using all-natural ingredients. Since each Mastronardo brother offered a different skill set, they decided that, working together, they could create a successful skincare company. Nardo's Natural was officially launched in 2009. Two of the brothers, Kyle, 28, the operations / visionary guy, and Danny, 26, skilled in marketing, P.R. and design, worked full-time in the business. D.J. provided health and nutrition insight, and youngest brother K.J., 24, with an accounting background, contributed financial expertise while working full-time at a corporate job to help provide funding for the start-up business. The Products The brothers began by creating all-natural and organic formulations in their kitchen. They made all of the products themselves, by hand, and did all the labeling, packing and shipping, as well. Revenues from 2009 to 2011, however, were only $30,000, from online sales and local spa sales. Most of the brothers' time and money was spent creating formulations without parabens and toxins, that provided a healthy alternative to daily skin care. They offered a variety of skin care products, including moisturizers for the face and body, skin and body scrubs and cleansers, lip balms, a cream for pain relief, and even an organic bug repellent. Getting on Shark Tank In April, 2011, a friend sent the brothers a link to an episode of Shark Tank. Despite their hard work, there was not much money coming in, and they realized that being on the show would be an amazing opportunity. That very night, Kyle sent an email submission to Shark Tank. Nardo's Natural made it through the first round, and for the next several months, the brothers went through an intense screening process along with tens of thousands of other Shark Tank hopefuls. They had to make a video, complete surveys, get background checks, and provide extensive information, each time making it through another round. Finally a producer from Shark Tank called in June, 2011, and a month later the brothers went to Los Angeles to tape a segment. What Shark Tank is Like "We were incredibly excited, but also nervous," says Kyle. "Here we were with this huge opportunity, and we were just a bunch of brothers negotiating with these big-time entrepreneurs." The taping process is similar to those of other reality shows. Many entrepreneurs were taped, but not all made it onto the televised show. Actual negotiations with Nardo's Natural and the Shark Tank panel took much longer, but the segment was cut. What was included during the televised show was some video footage of the brothers and their hometown, including a spa esthetician using their products, and the brothers, shirtless, at the beach. However, "there were some really critical things that viewers didn't see," Danny points out. Mainly, the reaction of the Sharks to Nardo's Natural products. "Every Shark had our products in their hands, and they were trying them out," says Danny. "Barbara Corcoran really loved the vanilla body lotion. And in addition to other factors, she tends to invest in products that she personally likes and connects with." That kind of reaction may have helped viewers understand why Barbara Corcoran invested in a company with only $30,000 in sales, with the male Sharks shaking their heads at the numbers. Just for the record, Corcoran is laughing all the way to the bank. According to Danny, she has the best track record of all the Sharks, with her Shark investments profiting the most in the group. "She also tends to invest in very small businesses and helps them grow nationally, and our business fits that profile." Whether you get a deal or not, there's no guarantee that you'll be on the televised show. Luckily, the Nardo brothers not only made a deal with Barbara Corcoran, they also made it into the March 9, 2012 televised Shark Tank show. What Happened After the Deal "We weren't allowed to let anyone not directly involved in our business or in our business activities know about our deal, until the show aired," says Danny. So what happened between July, 2011, and the show's airing in March, 2012? The short answer: plenty. First on the list was to set up a legal agreement with Corcoran as part of the due diligence process. During the show, the brothers had originally offered a 12% equity stake in their business in exchange for an investment of $75,000. Corcoran asked for a 50% equity stake in exchange for a $75,000 investment, which the brothers agreed to. However, when the brothers met with Corcoran after the show, they let her know that all of the brothers would be working full-time in the business, which led Corcoran to "sweeten the deal a bit," notes Danny. Once an agreement was reached, Corcoran offered her advice and contacts, as well as the expertise of her team. Due to the large number of businesses she invests in, Barbara has a team that provides expertise to her companies, in the areas of design, marketing, operations, and more. Product Recommendations and Changes "Barbara's team was incredibly helpful. They would do everything from showing us pictures of competitors' products, to putting our products on a table across the room to determine what stood out about them," offers Danny. Barbara and her team's input (and Barbara's funding) led the Nardo brothers to change their labels, bottles, even cut down their product line, to focus on core products. One suggestion was to make the "Fourever Young" kit the Nardo's Natural flagship product. The kit contains four items that can be used in a complete skincare regimen: a face cleanser, mask, moisturizer and lip balm. And instead of the brothers bottling the products by hand, Barbara's team recommended finding a company that could do this on a larger scale. Wanting to "keep it local," the brothers found a company in their area that they contract with to hand-pour their products. And while the TV show included Barbara's comment that she "hated the name Nardo's Natural," the name stayed. "Barbara never brought it up again," says Danny. Sales Strategies As all of us in business know, nothing happens until you make a sale. "Barbara is amazing," says Kyle. "Not only does she have a top-notch personal network that she worked on our behalf, and a great new business development team, but she also connected us with the other Shark Tank businesses she invested in, to get some sales activities going." "We speak to Barbara often, and also communicate via email," notes Danny. "The other day she sent us a note asking us to send a bunch of our products to her contact at Disney, as they are interested in checking them out." She also gives some advice that is out-of-the-box, such as her suggestion that the brothers do a calendar. At first they joked about it, then realized it was a "pretty cool branding idea." The calendar featuring the four young, good-looking brothers is selling well on their Website. What are some of the larger deals pending? "Barbara is working to get our products on QVC," says Danny. And since the brothers are near the headquarters of HSN in Tampa, they are also pitching their products to HSN. The brothers are also talking with top retailers and distributors. The Power of Shark Tank Exposure While much has happened in the months between the show's taping and its airing, the actual show airing on March 9, 2012, had an amazing effect on the business. Says Danny, "The exposure was monumental." And not just the exposure. In a 24-hour period after the show aired, Nardos Natural got 1.1 million Website hits, more than it had gotten in the company's entire time in business prior to that. Hundreds of orders came in during the show, and their Merchant Account briefly shut down their credit card processing function on their Website, suspecting fraud. After fixing that glitch, the orders kept coming in, as did congratulatory emails, questions, and more. Advice for Shark Tank Hopefuls Since the show aired, the Nardo brothers have been inundated with questions from Shark Tank hopefuls. Here are some tips:
What's Next The brothers will continue to work even more closely together. Though they are Philadelphia natives, three of the brothers moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, after Danny graduated from the University of Tampa. K.J., the youngest, moved to St. Petersburg recently to work full-time in the business. And there's another exciting venture on the horizon. "Now that we're all here, we will be working on a pilot for our own reality show," says Danny. Is it hard working so closely with family members? "Sure, there are challenges, but the four of us are close. We really love each other, and always work things out," notes Kyle. So with all of these activities, what are the sales projections for the company? "In the next two years, we're on track to make $4.8 million in sales," says Kyle. Thanks to Shark Tank, the brothers have pending deals with shopping networks and retailers, a calendar, a reality show and more – all while working and living near the beach in Florida. Truly the American dream for the four Mastronardo brothers from Philadelphia. And one that many of us hope to achieve. Shark Tank Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| 5 Things You Need To Have To Survive Local Search Posted: 19 Mar 2012 11:30 AM PDT The landscape of local search can be confusing, especially for small business owners with little or no time to navigate through it. Local search is different from general organic search in more than a few ways.
These differences can make it very hard for small businesses to decide where to invest their Internet marketing budget, and what to expect from local search in general. Here are 5 things you need to do to make the best out of local search: 1. Keep Your Online Business Information Accurate And Up-To-Date This is where your local search efforts must start. Your business can’t grow if your business information on the web sends potential customers to the wrong addresses. Also, people don’t react very well to out of service phone numbers. The bad thing about local search is that no one will ever take care of these issues for you, only you can do it. The good thing about this is that it's not very difficult. That can be accomplished by systematically correcting the business information in more important local search platforms like Google Local, trusted data providers like InfoUSA and any other site people might use to find local business information. 2. Make Your Website The Best It Can Be Self-evident or not, your website must be performing at its best. Without it, you are always in risk of getting almost nothing from local search. This is important for many reasons, but I will address only two. A large portion of traffic generated from local search engines like Google Maps, or Internet yellow pages (IYP sites) like SuperPages will end up on your website. There is no use in making a business omnipresent in local search space if its website can’t convert the traffic to customers. The second reason is simple. Most people still use general search engines like Bing or Google to find information about local businesses. Every visitor that doesn’t click the maps in the universal search engine result pages, but clicks the regular search engine results, has a potential of landing on your business website. Having an easy-to-navigate, credible and search engine friendly website is crucial. 3. Be Ubiquitous Local search space is very fragmented. On top of that, people use IYP sites, general search engines and local search engines differently — even expecting different results when searching for information about local businesses. Being ubiquitous in the local search industry means having a strong presence and being prominent across the many different search platforms people use to find information about brick-and-mortar businesses. For a small business owner this means: • A website that ranks very well for a wide array of local search terms Your industry directories, local business sites and local guides are all places you should place your business information. This is important for two reasons:
You shouldn’t throw money at every local search engine or site that solicits you just because they claim to be a perfect fit for your business. The rule of thumb here is – if they solicit you, they are not that good. But certainly take advantage of free profiles, and consider paid upgrade options on the most popular ones. 4) Make Local Profiles Represent Your Company Impressively Having incomplete profiles, with badly written descriptions, lacking images, videos and other signals that boost your credibility (example: a good rating on your BBB membership) — all such deficiencies speak volumes about your business. To make the most out of your business profiles, make sure that they:
Keep in mind that optimization of your profiles on third party sites also plays a significant role in how much business local search can generate. Well optimized profiles and listings on high authority sites tend to rank very well. 5.) Get Reviews Only a small fraction of small business owners had ever done anything to encourage people to review their business. Why are reviews important? People use reviews and ratings as one of the most important factors when deciding who to contact and where to purchase something. The reviews are also important when it comes to your local search rankings. Reviews are a strong ranking factor in two of the biggest local search engines and that reason alone should be compelling enough to do something if you have a local business, but lack the reviews.
From Small Business Trends |
| 3 Reasons Why Businesses Fail at Marketing Posted: 19 Mar 2012 08:30 AM PDT When it comes to marketing a business the frequent complaint from small biz owners is that marketing rarely works or just isn't worth the expense. For those business owners I offer the reasons below as to why that may seem to be true.
1.) You Try to Do It Yourself Yeah, I know, you'd get marketing help if you could trust it, or afford it. Yes, it's true that many marketing firms are beyond the financial reach of many small businesses. However, if you truly believe in the benefits of smart marketing there are professional resources that your small business can afford. You just may have to invest the time to find and qualify them. And, the better you're able to qualify them, the more you'll be able to trust them. One business owner who knew the value of investing in marketing expertise was Steve Jobs. Apple incorporated on January 3rd, 1977, and within the year was running ads created by an outside agency. Great, creative marketing has been a driving force behind Apple’s stellar success ever since. As the very wise Anita Campbell, Founder of Small Business Trends, says:
2.) You Hire Marketing Help, But it’s the Wrong Marketing Help Unfortunately, most small business owners don't know what they don't know, which makes it easy for them to be misled. It's kind of a Catch 22. Because while they may be smart enough to know they're not marketing experts, it's very tough to be smart enough to know who is. Getting referrals helps, but it's not enough. So, to know how to qualify marketing help here's part one of a three-part series on it. 3.) You Don’t Have a Realistic Definition of What Success Is "Success" can mean a million different things to a million different people. Plus, every situation is different. For example, if you're offering a coupon or running a sale it's easier to define success than if you're rebranding your business with an upgraded logo, tagline or website. Obviously, that doesn't mean that an upgraded logo, tagline or website is any less important. My point is that the idea of "success" is something to be discussed upfront. This is where an outside professional perspective will definitively help. Because not only will they know more about marketing than you, but they'll also have a more objective perspective. And, that objectivity is key. Assuming you're able to come to an agreement about what a successful effort might look like you'll then be in a much better position to move forward with confidence and try to achieve it. It's unfortunate how often business owners and outside marketing resources move forward without doing this and then end up equally disgruntled. It truly kills me to see frustrated and jaded business owners struggling because they’ve never figured out how to resolve their marketing issues. Hopefully, this will help. Failure Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| Emerging Markets for High Tech Ideas Posted: 19 Mar 2012 05:30 AM PDT Why don't inexperienced entrepreneurs with high tech business ideas sell those ideas to existing companies with the knowhow and resources to exploit them successfully? Since companies like Apple and Cisco have shown their skill at bringing new products to market successfully, having them exploit entrepreneurs' new product ideas should leave everyone better off.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Kenneth Arrow explained why entrepreneurs rarely sell their new product ideas to established companies better able to exploit them. His answer has become known as "Arrow's Information Paradox” and goes like this: If you try to sell someone a piece of knowledge, like an idea for a new product, they won't buy it unless you also provide evidence that the idea will work. Otherwise, the buyer risks wasting money on ideas that go nowhere. Therefore, to sell an idea to someone else, an entrepreneur needs to disclose information about it. That's the problem. Ideas cannot be taken back once they are revealed. However, once someone has been told an idea, any incentive to pay for the idea evaporates since the information the information just provided for free cannot be rescinded. This is the paradox: Ideas cannot be sold if they aren't disclosed, but once they are disclosed no one will pay for them. Professor Arrow explained that the patent system helps to solve this paradox. If you have a patented technology, you can disclose it to see if a buyer is interested. If the disclosure peaks the buyer's interest then he or she will have to pay to use it. As long as the patent cannot easily be worked around, this legal protection precludes others from pursuing your idea without paying for it. Companies are getting much better at avoiding Arrow's Paradox than they use to be. While markets for technology remain a very tiny share of all economic activity – the World International Patent Organization (WIPO) reports that they totaled approximately 1/3 of 1 percent of world GDP in 2009 – they are growing very rapidly. The WIPO found that when measured in constant (2009) dollars, the total spent on royalties on licensing was $15.5 billion in 1970, $44.3 billion in 1990 and $180 billion in 2009. Alongside the rise in the magnitude of markets for technology, a variety of organizations that help match buyers and sellers have emerged, including IP clearing houses, technology licensing offices at universities and government agencies, IP brokerages, and auction houses, WIPO reports. Moreover, big, established companies have become more active at soliciting technologies developed by independent entrepreneurs and academic institutions. And more companies are forming to make money solely from the development and sale of intellectual property, letting others use their IP to make and sell products. In short, in high tech, more businesses are selling ideas as companies are using the patent system to get around Arrow's paradox.
From Small Business Trends |
| Small Business Ideas Can Come From Anywhere Posted: 19 Mar 2012 02:30 AM PDT If you’re looking for a small business idea, you won’t need to look very far. Here are some of the basics you might consider when hunting for that next venture. Opportunity FrontierWhere did you get your latest small business idea? This “accidental entrepreneur” was inspired to create a business around decorative cast covers after her daughter suffered a variety of childhood calamities resulting in multiple casts. Yahoo! Shine Three biggest entrepreneurial opportunities. Whether you’re looking for the next big idea for a new venture or for a great direction in which to expand your existing business, don’t miss these important opportunities for entrepreneurial growth. Inc.com From Idea to ExecutionBrothers’ franchise idea is catching fire! A bad experience with a potential franchise investment caused these brothers to come up with a better plan on the spot. The theme and the food were both drawn from their firefighting past. Entrepreneur Unique concept is the key. There may be plenty of businesses in your market, but what do you offer that they don’t? Here’s an example of a unique approach to a traditional business model. Business Opportunities Weblog Network Providing ValueSharing expertise as business model. Of course, the simplest way to expand your business is to share your expertise with others. Here is how one WordPress blogger turned his expertise into a business model. Basic Blog Tips Remember who’s important. No matter what business idea, product, service or brand you may have dreamed up, don’t forget, the customer service is where the magic really happens. Does your business idea incorporate a strong customer service component? Small Business Trends Trends to WatchWeb offers abundant opportunities. When considering how to build a business online, the possibilities are truly endless. BizSugar contributor of the week Scott Dudley has been steadily building a blueprint for online success. Here is a look at his journey. BizSugar Blog A look at consumer trends guiding sales. When considering how you will sell your product or service either business to business or direct to customer, how will customer trends transform the sales process? Will your idea fit in? Act-On Software Reality CheckIs your big idea ahead of its time? This can be both a good and bad thing. For example, if your idea requires too much investment or will take too long to generate profits, it may be a problem. There are, of course, potential solutions. Open Forum Blogging as a business (infographic). Whether you use blogging to promote your small business or as a small business, blog publishing is certainly one huge opportunity for business development out there. The cool infographic at this link tells you more. Infworm From Small Business Trends |
Some of the differences are:
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