How Small Businesses Can Think Like a Fortune 100: The Framework to Get Your Product to Market Faster and Leaner with Jim Moran

0:02Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level Level, the all in one sales sales and marketing. platform. Today, we'll be breaking down how small businesses can think like a Fortune 100, the framework to get your product to market faster and leaner. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought to Jim Moran and EO Fire Studios. Jim helps small businesses get to market and scale like Fortune 100 using his starting line, streamline, finish line framework built from 20 years plus leading global product launches. And today, we'll be talking about the three stages of our path to product success.

0:36We'll talk about the Fortune 100 strategies and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sparsing today's episode goes to Jim and our sponsors. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, HighLevel, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. These days, your business needs total visibility from global shipments to tariff impacts to real-time cash flow. That's NetSuite by Oracle, your AI-powered business management suite trusted by over 42 ,000 businesses.

1:20Download the free ebook, Navigating Global Trade, three insights for leaders at netsuite.com slash fire. Jim, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hey, howdy, Fire Nation. So here's something I believe about product success that most people disagree with. You don't need long 60-minute or even 30-minute team meetings to launch a successful product. I mean, we've all sat in those 30-minute meetings just to wait for our turn to say, yeah, no updates, right? So that's not an efficient use of your team's time, right?

1:59So I've led product teams at Fortune 100s and small businesses, and some of the most effective calls I've had were five minutes or less. In fact, JLD, my record is two and a half minutes. Wow. We left the call clear with what needed to be done, what needed to be escalated, and what tasks were next. In fact, we even may have spent 30 seconds talking about the weather. It was so good too. The president of the company messaged me afterwards to say, man, that was awesome. Yeah. No one ever complains when you end a call early, right? It helps them just get right back to work. And yeah, so that's kind of what we're diving in today, right?

2:37Is how small businesses can think and operate like Fortune 100s to get their products to market faster and leaner. And a key way to that is five minute meetings. And Fire Nation, that is what we're talking about. How can businesses think like a Fortune 100? Because Jim, the reality is this. So many small businesses, they struggle to get their product to market. Why is this the case? Jim, we're an consultant. We help small and medium-sized businesses get physical products to market. And some reasons that we find that they're struggling to get their amazing product to market is we know that it's not that they lack the idea, right?

3:17They usually lack resources, experience, a supplier network, or general know-how of how to get there. A key member of their team usually has multiple duties, so they definitely lack the time to put into making sure they're headed down the right path. And, you know, these small businesses can often be working inside a bubble. So maybe it's a family business that's always done things a certain way, or maybe they've only worked in a startup culture and haven't seen what else is possible. They don't know how to source something overseas or how to reshore something to avoid tariffs. And I mean, what vendors can you trust out there?

3:58Right. So and the main thing is they think I can't they think they can't afford to hire help. They've never heard of a fractional expertise or realize, you know, that they can rent a CPO, COO, CXO, C-whatever-O without blowing their budget, right? So, I mean, I had a client just like this great product. Customers were begging for the product, but they had no idea how to get it built. They came to us at JMC just in time. I mean, they were about to burn a ton of time and cash going down the wrong road. So we used this path to product success with our framework to kind of help them define the market and pricing, build a smart supply chain, spend each time smartly and validate their product.

4:43And now their product is selling like hotcakes to the point that they're scaling and thinking even bigger, right? So, you know, getting to market is not just about hustle. It's about thinking like the big guys. And that's kind of what we bring with your path to product success framework. Well, speaking of frameworks, you have three stages to your path to product success. Walk us through those stages. Yeah. So getting a product to market successfully doesn't have to feel like you're wandering in the wilderness. In fact, our logo at Jim Moran and Consultants is literally a path, a path through the wilderness.

5:22And with my team's big business experience and our big business network, we've kind of developed a simple proven roadmap for your path to product success. And we call this the starting line, streamline, finish line framework. And it really guides you from concept to cash flow. So we like to think of it like an Olympic sprint, right? So first part of it is the starting line. And this is the moment before the big race. It's so critical. This is where we get in position to win by building our teams, setting our budgets, defining the game plan, creating the structure for collaboration, validating the idea, doing all this before spending any real money and a ton of time.

6:06It's the planning, research, and foundation building phase, and it really shouldn't be skipped because it's really how you avoid a face plant in six months. And the next part is the streamline, right? So the gun goes off, now you're sprinting forward. Here we're fast, lean, and smart. We're accelerating until we're moving at max efficiency. So here we're finalizing designs, finding and locking in the right vendors, collaborating with speed, checking things off of our task list, holding efficient five-minute meetings. But here it's not just about speed, it's about a controlled speed with confidence and clarity.

6:48And when you move with that speed, you quickly approach the finish line, right? So the third part of the starting line, streamline, finish line framework, the finish line, we're bringing it home to get across that finish line, right? So this includes product testing, customer validation, making sure all our specifications are met, aligning with customer requirements. It's really all systems go to get our product to the market. But, you know, you don't just stop at the finish line, you kind of decelerate as you pass a finish line. So we look back and see what can be improved. We look and see what's next.

7:27What can we debrief, improve? How can we set you up to win again? Because this isn't just a one-time race, right? So that's the thing, right? Your path of product success could be at any of these stages right now. So knowing where you are kind of tells you what to do next. So here's a question for Fire Nation. is which stage are you stuck in right now? What's your next move, right? So if you are unsure, we do offer like a free product success barometer, which in five minutes, you'll know what phase you're in, starting line, streamline or finish line. And you'll be able to gauge if your product launch is set up for success or the stumble at the finish line.

8:11So you can find that on our webpage, jimmoran.net slash barometer. So let's say we get to our first product success. How exactly does that success change everything? Yeah. So your first product success is not just validation, right? It's the fuel. Product success creates revenue, confidence, and capital to really power your next move. So I told you earlier about the client who had a great product, but was about to head in the wrong path. Well, we got them launched and their product to market within six months. And they had products in their customers' hands quickly before the competition, right?

9:00Well before the competition. So thanks to the successful product launch, they actually realized an ROI in just one quarter, right? So that's three months to pay back tooling, startup costs, including my team's fee. which is really unheard of, especially in big business. They're happy with two-year ROI. So with this added revenue and with the new confidence and the path to product success that we taught them, they were able to now take on new projects that had just been sitting there for years. So for instance, they're scaling the new product from three sizes to 10. They took on two automation projects to improve their employees' operational throughput.

9:41it. And they created a list of 10 more projects to attack when these ones are completed successfully. So it's really changed the structure and attitude of their business. And they're headed for their best years yet following years of stagnant growth. Fire Nation, a lot to learn from all of this we're talking about here today, which is the three stages of your path to product success, how that success changes everything. And we have a lot more to talk about around these topics when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Okay, let's talk about a platform that's completely changing how entrepreneurs are running their business.

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13:53So I would love to know how can we actually leverage Fortune 100 strategies on a small business budget? Yeah, really, you don't need Fortune 100 money to use Fortune 100 strategies. So it's not about spending more. It's about thinking bigger. Most small businesses think they can't afford to bring in high level talent with fortune 100 experience. But really, I think that's just thinking small. So the first way to leverage fortune 100 strategies is to rent the expertise, right? Fractional consultants, like my team at GMC and others in my industry, they let you have access to fortune 100 playbooks without adding a single person to payroll.

14:37So, you know, find someone who used to play with the big guys and let them be your fractional PMO or product manager or whatever. Right. And you're not just paying for advice. You're really buying speed, clarity and in a ready-made network, right. Someone who's done it all before and can see the big picture. And then really the same thing kind of goes for your supply chain. So the second thing is that you don't really want to, the big companies don't really chase the lowest quote. They build relationships with suppliers they can grow with. So small businesses can do the same. The cheapest vendor often costs you the most in time, quality or delays.

15:19And what you really need is a supplier you can trust to deliver on time. You can trust to hit quality targets and they can scale with you as you grow. So that's where experience matters. someone like me who helped analyze and build supply chains at fortune 100s can step in and help you build a supply chain that's affordable reliable and ready to scale and then finally it's a documented process as you go right fortune 100s run on systems and small businesses usually run on memory but if you take the time to create simple templates and repeatable steps early you don't just launch once, you build something you can do again, you can do better and you can do faster, right?

16:07So that's the difference. So results really don't require a fortune 100 budget, they just require the right decisions at the right time, and usually the right help to guide you. Now you've mentioned supply chains, and I know that's a very daunting situation for most entrepreneurs, because it just seems like there's so much that goes into that. So Can you share some real specific supply chain mistakes that will absolutely destroy momentum? We're going to talk about what happens when you don't take a Fortune 100 approach to your supply chain, because mistakes here are expensive and hard to fix once in motion.

16:44For example, I have a new client building a truly amazing and innovative product right out of their garage. They sold about 2 ,000 products, but earlier this year, they lost a huge order. because their key vendor was unreliable and could not deliver. And this vendor was stunting their growth. So that's the impact that a poorly designed supply chain can have on a small business. So here are three big supply chain mistakes I see over and over with small businesses. The first one is just choosing the lowest quote over the most reliable supplier. So you save 30 cents per unit and then lose three weeks in delays or the quality is not what you desire.

17:29So every day you're late to market is lost revenue and one more chance for your competitor to get ahead. So remember, you get what you pay for. So trust and reliability to me is worth so much more than just piece price. So the second thing is overcomplicating your supply base. More vendors doesn't mean more control. It means more chaos, more risk, more work for your buyers and QA team, more chances for something to fall through the cracks. My philosophy is that the simpler your supply chain, the more efficient your operations become. This usually looks like an OEM to do sub-assemblies, or in many cases, one of your vendors excels at value-add services.

18:14So I have a patent on one design where an injection molder also purchases all the components, metals, o-rings, et cetera, and performs the assembly. They've been a quality vendor for this product for 15 years now. So there's only one PO and the vendor handles the rest. And then the third thing I see is something people don't usually think about too much is failing to negotiate milestone-based payment terms for tooling and equipment. This can be a painful one. So I had a small business client who, before I started working with them, didn't know any better and negotiated a month-to-month payment instead of clear milestones.

18:58This meant each month that work was done, they were then billed for the work done that month. And believe it or not, that project is now 200 % over budget and more than a year behind schedule. So milestone payments really protect your budget and keep your vendor motivated. So a typical structure is like 30 % down at PO, 30 % at first sampling, and then the rest after production is approved. So it creates accountability with the vendor. It helps you stay in control of your budget and helps you stay in control of your timeline. So really with these three mistakes we need to avoid because they can really be momentum killers.

19:43So that's why supply chain strategy is baked kind of right into our path to product success framework. There's a phrase that I love that is tasks will expand to the time allotted. But in this case, it also fits that tasks will expand to the money allotted. And you just have this open wallet with no monetary milestones like you're talking about, Jim. The tasks, it's just going to magically expand and expand and expand. So let's say Fire Nation really appreciates everything you've been dropping value-wise today. And they're ready to take the next step towards their path to product success. What is your call to action?

20:18What do they do? Yeah. So Fire Nation, you've got the product idea. You've got the hunger. You have to get this product to market, right? but your product may be stuck in the mud or you're just not sure what's next. Well, this is your moment to move, right? The first step is figure out where you are and what you don't know. So that's why I created the Product Success Barometer. It's a free tool that helps you quickly assess whether your product launch is on track or headed for trouble. Just go to JimMoran.net slash barometer and it'll take you five minutes to figure all that out. And then secondly, I have four EO Fire listeners only.

20:56I'm offering something I usually don't do, which is a free product success assessment. This is with me, one-on-one. So normally it costs like$250. But if you're serious about getting your product to market faster, leaner, and with maximum profits, you can get on my calendar now for free. Again, that's jimmoran.net slash EO Fire. Because listen, you don't have to figure this out all alone. your small business can think like and act like a Fortune 100. So let's find out where you are in your path to product success and let's get moving. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

21:32You've been hanging out with JM and JLD today. So keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com slash Jim in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. And once again, Fire Nation, that offer from Jim, I mean, that is a$250 offer for free. That's a conversation with Jim for free. Jump on his calendar. Jim, one more time, give us that call to action with the URL. Yeah, that is the free product success assessment. That is, you can go to jimmoran.net. That's J-I-M-M-O-R-A-N.net slash EO fire and get on my calendar now. Jim, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today.

22:15For that, we salute your brother and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks, John. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Jim for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation. Over the last decade, I've interviewed more than 4 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs and I've created a revolutionary 17-step roadmap to your financial freedom and fulfillment. I put it all into my first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, personally endorsed by Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk. The Common Path to Uncommon Success is the step-by-step guidance that you need to achieve the lifestyle of your dreams.

22:51Visit UncommonSuccessBook.com. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. These days, your business needs total visibility from global shipments to tariff impacts to real-time cash flow. That's NetSuite by Oracle, your AI-powered business management suite trusted by over 42 ,000 businesses. Download the free ebook, Navigating Global Trade, Three Insights for Leaders at netsuite.com slash fire.