Karen Waksman is the Founder & CEO of Retail MBA, a company dedicated to empowering individuals and companies interested in learning what it takes to get their products on the shelves of major retailers. She has taught over 10,000 entrepreneurs the path toward getting their products into retail through her programs. Her clients have gotten their products into stores such as Walmart, Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, and more.
Karen used to be a manufacturers’ rep selling products to the world’s largest retailers back in New York. Her current goal is to empower and inspire entrepreneurs to transform their businesses by providing them all of the necessary information they need in order to become chain store vendors.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Rich introduces his guest, Karen Waksman
- Karen talks about how she got started in her line of business
- What entrepreneurs need to get into retail
- How entrepreneurs can show retailers that their products can make the retailers good money
- What first time inventors need to know or have before approaching a major retailer
- How to use Google to get more information about working with a specific retailer
- Karen talks about submitting ideas online through retailers’ websites
- The benefit of pitching and having a followup discussion with retailers after submitting an idea
- Karen’s angles and strategies for getting retailers to pay attention to an individual’s products
- Karen talks about the most common things she sees with people who get their products into retail stores
- Karen’s advice to people looking to get their products into retailers
- Programs & resources by Karen for entrepreneurs
In this episode…
Retail chains are constantly looking for new and interesting innovations. They are hungry for new products. However, a lot of inventors wait until they have built their brand to start thinking of getting their products into these stores. Because of this, they end up missing out on a great opportunity. The smart inventors, even those with only one product, start working towards approaching these retailers early.
However, there are some factors to consider first before approaching the major retailers. These include things such as ensuring that you have the right type of packaging and setting the right price. Karen advises entrepreneurs to strike early as long as they have a new, unique & interesting product that will appeal to the masses.
Karen Waksman from Retail MBA is Rich Goldstein’s guest for the week. She has many years of experience helping people get their products into major retailers. In this episode, she talks about what these retailers want, how they choose the products to sell in their stores, and what entrepreneurs can do to get the retailers excited about new products. Stay tuned.
Resources Mentioned in this episode:
- Retail MBA
- Karen Waksman on LinkedIn
- Goldstein Patent Law
- Rich’s book: The ABA Consumer Guide to Obtaining a Patent
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by Goldstein Patent Law, a firm that helps protect inventors’ ideas and products. They have advised and obtained patents for thousands of companies over the past 25 years. So if you’re a company that has a software, product, or design you want protected, you can go to https://goldsteinpatentlaw.com/. They have amazing free resources for learning more about the patent process.
You can email their team at welcome@goldsteinpc.com to explore if it’s a match to work together. Rich Goldstein has also written a book for the American Bar Association that explains in plain English how patents work, which is called ‘The ABA Consumer Guide to Obtaining a Patent.’
