Guest post written by Sean Bandawat, President of Jacob Bromwell
I developed the Jacob Bromwell business plan with my business partner, Eric Stanton, who graduated from USC a year before me. Eric and I worked on several businesses prior to Jacob Bromwell, but were not fully satisfied with the results and potential of those businesses.
Rather than start a business from scratch, our goal became to acquire an existing company with net losses, identify inefficiencies, take over management, and streamline it to maximize its profitability as quickly as possible. After years of searching for the right deal, we decided on Jacob Bromwell, Inc., which was established in 1819 and is the country’s 34th oldest continuously owned and operated company.
For the last decade, the company suffered major losses in customers and sales. It took nearly six months of due diligence to truly understand why. After analyzing the business from every angle, we actually discovered that the company’s decline had nothing to do with a decline in demand for its products, but was actually due to lack of attention and execution by the previous owners. There actually couldn’t be a better time than now to grow our distribution.
Immediately after I graduated, Eric and I have remained laser-focused on executing our business plan. We’ve made numerous improvements to the company’s organizational structure, which include instituting new accounting and inventory software, outsourcing operations to third-party manufacturers, hiring a direct sales force, cutting inessential products, and repositioning the brand with Forty Agency, a nationally-recognized marketing agency.
We’ve already secured sales agreements with QVC and reputable catalogue companies such as The Vermont Country Store, and we’re now targeting specialty retailers nationwide. With the economy being so uncertain, consumers now more than ever want to buy American-made products that remind them of the past and bring them back to simpler times. That’s the real story behind the products we’re selling. Jacob Bromwell is so much more than just a line of cookware products. We’re selling an emotional journey into nostalgia and tradition.
About the Author:
Sean Bandawat graduated from USC and is now President of Jacob Bromwell, an iconic American company recognized as America’s oldest cookware. To learn more about their specialty housewares company that manufactures authentic campfire, kitchen, and fireplace products for families of yesterday, today, and for generations to come visit www.jacobbromwell.com.
1 thought on “Buying a Business vs Starting One From Scratch”
Love the Jacob Bromwell story Sean! I’m actually watching an awesome documentary on Netflix right now, “America: The Story of Us”, which reminds me of your company. If you have Netflix, I definitely think you would enjoy this series. I think it originally aired on the History Channel.