One of the most painful moments small business
owners can face is when they realize: It's not working.
It could be a product that's not succeeding, business that's
taken away by a competitor, or changes in the economy that threaten
a company's survival.
When something has gone awry and sales are taking a hit, company
owners have to make big changes to turn things around - and they
usually can't afford to waste time. Large companies often have
enough revenue coming in from a variety of products and services
that they can weather a problem in one area of their business.
Smaller companies typically don't have that cushion.
Reinventing a company, large or small, is not an easy task and
can't be done overnight, but many business owners have been able to
pull it off.
Arnulfo Ventura and his business partner, Jose Domene, decided
while getting their MBAs at Stanford University to start selling
aguas frescas, beverages made from plants like tamarind and hibiscus
that are popular in Mexico.
The partners called the drink Bonadea and ordered the first batch
of 3,000 bottles from a manufacturer by the time they graduated in
June 2008. They found several customers: six delis and natural food
stores in the Palo Alto, Calif., area.
Over the next year, the duo attracted enough money from investors
to increase production, working their way up to a run of 15,000
bottles. They got a distribution company in the Los Angeles area,
and Bonadea was in hundreds of convenience and small grocery stores.
Things seemed to be going well.
But Bonadea, priced between $2.49 and $2.69 a bottle, didn't sell
as well as hoped. Sales were up by hundreds of percentage points
from the first batch, but Ventura expected an increase in the
thousands by then.
"The brand wasn't moving off the shelf," he says. "I wasn't sure
if it was the price point or the marketing."
In January 2010, Ventura and Domene showed Bonadea to focus
groups. Based on the feedback, the partners realized they had to
change the way the beverage was packaged and marketed. One problem
was its name, which had no real meaning. People didn't connect with
it. And the 16-ounce bottle looked too much like the ones that
contain Snapple, one of the top-selling iced tea and juice drink
brands in the country.
Over the next nine months, they considered many names and label
designs and eventually came up with a new name, Coba, a Mayan city
on the Yucatan peninsula, and decorated the labels with images of
flowers and fruit.
In March 2011, they took Coba to a trade show in Anaheim, Calif.
On the show's last day the organizers surprised the partners by
announcing that they had picked Coba as the best product in the
show. Coba also caught the interest of retailers.
Coba is now sold in Whole Foods stores in Florida and the West.
It's also at delis, convenience stores and restaurants, priced
between $1.99 and $2.50. Sales are up five times from Bonadea's best
levels.
