The best revenge to those prats at the top of the food chain?

Taking your challenger brand seriously.

Whilst it’s not all about money. I see too many brands scraping by.

Running a product brand is stressful enough without it actually funding the life you want.

Making more money from your store opens up opportunities to donate to charities, take time out to protest, or take a break when the external noise is loud af.

But calling yourself “small”, acting like you’re on an Eastenders market stall and DIY’ing every aspect of your business is holding you back.

The early days ARE for being scrappy - of course.

It’s staying here that becomes a hindering choice.

After working with 100s of eCom brands, here's what I noticed:

The ones that become iconic aren't working harder.

They've figured out how to increase brand equity: the value your brand provides to the world.

So today, I’m diving into how the moves that take back pockets of revenue:

ORDINARY VS. ICONIC BRAND MOVES:

Ordinary brand move: Continuously launch new products, hoping one sticks. Or giving your entire range of products equal weighting.

Iconic brand move: One hero product that funds everything else (think: Glossier Boy Brow, Graza Olive Oil or ).

Or a few product champions and underperformers are slowly retired.

Ordinary brand move: X% off sales every other month when inventory needs shifting or you’re panicking about numbers

Iconic brand move: Waitlists, limited drops, strategic launch campaigns, prices that hold or increase (The Ordinary hasn't discounted in a decade)

Ordinary brand move: Spending hours churning out content.

Iconic brand move: Optimising your website to make the most of every single visitor

Ordinary brand move: Spend £5k on an influencer with 100k followers

Iconic brand move: Spend £500 on 10 micro-creators who actually convert and then track the data

THE REAL RICHES - NAPKIN MATHS:

Financial freedom = net worth growing without trading more time.

Brand freedom = revenue growing without spending more on acquisition.

If your customer acquisition cost (CAC) is £40 and your lifetime value (LTV) is £45, you're buggered. That's a broke brand.

If your CAC is £40 and your LTV is £400? Now you've got options.

You can turn down retailers who want 60% margin. You can stop the discount treadmill. You can build the actual business you want!

THE COMPOUND EFFECT:

Every site that I built last year increased in revenue (bar one who didn’t drive traffic) because I was obsessive about features that stack trust & make people want to buy:

THE LESSON:

Every brand decision either:

Builds equity → increases LTV, strengthens positioning, creates organic demand

Burns equity → trains customers to wait for sales, dilutes your message, has you spinning unnecessary plates (hello website)

Most founder decisions are accidentally burning it.

Want to know how to get out of the small founder trap.

I'm doing a free audit of 5 brands this week - reply "AUDIT" with your URL if you want help with where you're leaking equity.

What’s on at Web & Flo HQ:

Planning a coffee morning in SE London at the end of Feb:

Crumbly pastries, flat whites and a theme of ‘iconic ecom brand’

Enjoy the chill of the weekend.
Laura