Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | October 2, 2023 | Worcester Business Journal 23 By David Oliva David Oliva is the general manager of Berlin manufacturer Organomation and winner of the 2023 Demand Gen Report B2B Innovator Award for the small business category. While strong emotional intelligence and relationship building best practices can lead to success, here are some worthwhile areas of focus related to forming and growing mutually beneficial distributor relationships. 5) Strategy. Manufacturers need to go beyond providing basic training on their products. Fast track distributor performance by sharing proven approaches from the internal sales playbook. It is reasonable to expect these tactics will need to be customized for the specific territory, but success is ultimately likely. 4) Collaboration. At Organomation, I represent a respected brand in the sample preparation instrumentation industry. While providing highly desirable solutions is ideal, in certain circumstances, it has led to prospective distributors overpromising in an effort to gain representation rights. Ideally, both parties will share market information and craft reasonable expectations together. 3) Investment. No matter how strong the product portfolio, sales in the territory will likely not increase solely due to having a new representative. Although an initial bump could come from distributors introducing the brand to their key accounts, this might not be a long-term growth driver. Manufacturers need to consider how they can best provide the distributor with leads beyond organic, inbound prospects coming through the manufacturer's website. As trade shows are still important in the laboratory equipment space, Organomation has benefited from presenting products at trade shows with a key distributor, within its sales territory. Achieved targets were lead generation, in-person sales training, and team building. 2) Support. Treat distributors like customers in terms of providing timely responses and an urgency in solving problems. Manufacturers do a disservice to all involved, including the end user likely behind the distributor's inquiry, if they do not provide expertise on demand. 1) Authenticity. Manufacturers should not be afraid to discuss the challenges they are experiencing. Whether it be a sourcing problem leading to production delays or a product deficiency relative to a competitor's offering, avoiding these truths harms both parties and hinders overall progress. K N O W H O W Legal details can make or break cannabis startups BY SUSAN SHALHOUB Special to WBJ T he startup phase always seems to get all the hype: It's the sexy, entrepreneurial, begins-in-the- garage, idea stage of a company's early beginnings. But when things ramp up and scale up, discipline kicks in. ings get more real. Leaders have to seriously hone in on their company's team mem- bers, missions, products, and services like never before. Here are things to keep in mind about scaling up. Make things repeatable. Scaling up is an in-between stage, says Justin Ferrabee in Forbes. "You're shedding the nimbleness of the startup phase, but you have not yet achieved the stability of the grown-up phase. You're establishing structures for predictable growth, but what you gain in reliability, you lose in flexibility and freedom." Ferrabee refers to scaling up in business as a period of trade-offs, a delicate balancing act as a company grows. Focus on marketing. Scaling is not a matter of chasing every potential angle, but defining a company's core audience and targeting that, Fawn Weaver, who started Uncle Nearest Premium Whis- key, told Inc.com. "You have to figure out which are the best opportunities and take your time doing that." If you're a leader, stop trying to make all the decisions. Shikhar Ghosh, a professor at Harvard Business School, says it's imperative to find and develop leadership during the growth phase. "You can't make every decision any- more. If you try, you'll not only become the bottleneck on projects, you'll get in the way of your employees' professional development. You, yourself, aren't a scalable resource," he tells Forbes. is creates a V-curve, and initially makes the main leader less efficient. But as the subgroup makes its mistakes and becomes stronger, it becomes more effi- cient and learns along the way, he says, which is better for everyone, including the company as a whole. 5 THINGS I know about... ... Partnering with distributors S C A L I N G U P Danielle Jurema Lederman is an attorney in Worcester law firm Bowditch & Dewey's employment & labor practice area. She represents employers in all stages of mediation, arbitration, and litigation at the administrative, state, and federal levels. BY DANIELLE JUREMA LEDERMAN Special to WBJ T he streets may not necessarily be paved with gold for cannabis entrepreneurs, but they are filled with regulations. In fact, the cannabis industry is so highly regulated in Massachusetts, businesses can easily lose sight of all the laws applying to them. While cannabis entrepreneurs are rightfully focused on all the zoning and safety regulations specific to the industry, many overlook the significant federal, state, and local employment laws. Even though it may be the last thing entrepreneurial spirits want to deal with, it's important to gain an understanding of applicable employment and labor laws, especially in Mass. – a very employee-friendly state. Creating an employee handbook can be a good start. At a minimum, a handbook should describe a company's policies, codes of conduct, expectations, and benefits at a minimum. It should spell out the various types of employment relationships, be it full- time, part-time, or temporary work. Ignoring employment laws can lead to disaster. While paying attention to laws about classifying workers as employees versus independent contractors may seem unimportant, startups making a mistake could be put out of business. at's because Mass. law levies hey fines for misclassifications (i.e.classifying a worker as an independent contractor when the worker is legally an employee), including but not limited to triple the amount of any wages and benefits the workers would be entitled to as employees. Damages mount fast. To avoid confusion over whether someone is an employee or an independent contractor, your business should reserve use of independent contractors for work performed outside the usual course of your business. In addition, an independent contractor's work should be completed without the direction and control of your business, and the independent contractor should have its own independent business or trade performing that specialized work. Once companies hire workers, the next challenge is retaining them, especially in these times when employee shortages are unnervingly common. Creating a great workplace culture can be key, focused on rules of respect and fairness. Competitive salaries, bonuses, and incentive pay are certainly important, but to be really attractive, more workers are favoring companies offering workplace flexibility and other types of work/life balance. Of course, businesses need to plan for worst-case scenarios, including discipline, layoffs, and employee complaints. To effectively prevent litigation and manage employee complaints, it's important to identify those ripe for early resolution and take prompt remedial action. Most cases resolve at some point: It's more a question of when, and how much of your time and resources you want to invest. e earlier you thoroughly assess and analyze any claims, the easier it is to efficiently strategize your approach and response. In the event of layoffs, consider whether voluntary buyouts are an option, since they can be much better for employee morale. You want to ensure your supervisors and managers know how to both appropriately reward employees for their successes and discipline poor performers. Running any company isn't easy, but cannabis startups will find if they consider the entire legal landscape before they open their doors, business will run more smoothly. And who knows? Maybe they will realize the promise of the cannabis industry and discover their streets really can be paved with gold. W W W

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