Dan

Dan had built his ecommerce homewares business over seven years. fourteen people. $5.2m revenue across direct-to-consumer, two major retail partnerships, and an emerging trade channel serving interior designers and property developers. the business had a strong product range and a growing brand. Dan was the bottleneck in almost every function.

product development ran through Dan - every new sku, every supplier relationship, every range decision. marketing ran through Dan - every campaign brief, every paid media decision, every influencer relationship. the retail partnerships ran through Dan - every buyer conversation, every range review, every promotional negotiation.

he had a marketing manager who was capable of running campaigns independently. she had been asking for more autonomy for twelve months. Dan had been giving her tasks rather than authority.

the trade channel had potential Dan had never had the time to develop. interior designers and property developers bought in volume and at full margin. Dan had three trade accounts. the pipeline had not grown because there was no dedicated resource and no structured development process.

the marketing manager ran three independent campaigns in months three and four. two outperformed the prior equivalent campaigns Dan had run personally. the trade development manager signed seven new trade accounts in the first four months. trade channel revenue grew from $180,000 to $640,000 in twelve months. overall revenue grew from $5.2m to $7.1m. Dan spent the growth phase on product range strategy and two new retail partnership conversations he had been unable to pursue while managing operations.

the marketing manager had been ready for more responsibility for twelve months. the trade channel had been sitting as an underdeveloped opportunity for two years. neither required new capability, they required a structure that gave existing capability the authority to move.