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Ian Schoen from The Valet Spot and Tropical MBA podcast joins us this week to talk about the various product manufacturing businesses they run along with success and challenges they’ve encountered with each one. Ian also shares his thoughts for those looking to get into product manufacturing and what he would do differently if he started over again today.
Topics Discussed:
- 03:30 – How Dan & Ian got into manufacturing valet podiums
- 05:00 – How to use potential customers to develop value propositions
- 08:00 – Challenges of selling $400-$2,500 products online
- 10:00 – The power of developing high friction relationships
- 12:30 – Why you must be ruthless with soliciting customer feedback
- 14:00 – Word of mouth in a B2B environment
- 16:00 – Why the phone is the most underrated business tool
- 18:00 – Moving up the value chain from physical to digital
- 23:00 – Lifetime value of a customer in B2B vs B2C
- 25:00 – Why building customers is more important than building a store
- 26:00 – Why Ian is bearish on drop-shipping
- 29:30 – Dangers of an untested and unvalidated idea
- 31:00 – Product manufacturing in 2008 vs 2013
- 34:00 – Is there such thing as a perfect niche?
Mentions in the Episode:
- Valet podiums @ The Valet Spot
- Modern Cat Designs
- The Portable Bar Company
- Minaal
- Jon Myers
- Episode #4 with Dan Andrews
- Millionaire Fastlane
- @AnythingIan
- @TropicaMBA
Episode Length: 37:23
Download Options:
- Direct Download: Right-click here and click “Save As” for a direct download
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