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Setting Goals: Lessons from My Nine-Year-Old
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My son, Ty, has saved up about $500 – mainly from birthday gifts and, more recently, from helping...
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Test Everything
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As marketers, it's normal to want total control - brand image, aesthetic messaging, and more. Aft...
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Establishing a Bootstrap Mentality
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Can an employee buy into the same bootstrap mentality that the business owner has? And how does a...
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Quickly and Easily Increase AOV
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Your site is getting the traffic. Conversion rate is healthy. Yes, you want to continue to focus ...
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Early Days of Paddle North
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The early days of Paddle North were - and I use this word fondly - scrappy. The only way I've fou...
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Are Giveaways Worth It?
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Are giveaways worth it?It depends. We've participated in a variety of giveaway promotions over t...
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The Crucial Role of Cash Flow Management in Small Businesses
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Cash Flow management is a core skill you need to master to be a successful business owner. It can...
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Pete's Book List
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If you're looking to level up this summer, this is your power reading list.
Here are the top ten ...
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90 Days of Email: A Recap
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As a part of your email marketing strategy, it's essential to constantly evaluate your most impor...
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Hiring
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Each summer, as our demand for seasonal help surges, we at Paddle North gear up for a hiring spre...
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Setting Goals for Your Business
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Goal setting has been a key driver in my life and our business. We set monthly and yearly goals a...
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DTC Essential Tools
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When building and growing a direct-to-consumer brand, there is an infinite number of tools at you...
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Brand Power
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"I love your brand."
Those words are earned, by providing excellence over an extended period of ...
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Product Page Essentials
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You've got a product you want to sell online. How do you get more people to convert?While priorit...
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Networking and Mentorship
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As our business has grown we’ve faced new challenges. We’ve never really had a mentor or particip...
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Apparel Production: Outsourcing to Owning the Process
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Most people know us for our hard goods-- paddle boards, kayaks, surf boards and utility docks. Di...
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Integrity in Interviews
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My first job out of college was in a tough work environment. After giving it about eight months, ...
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Entrepreneurship: A Family Tradition
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People often say something is in your blood. As if you were born to do or predestined to have a c...
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Improve Email Open Rates
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Our email inboxes are inundated more than ever. We sign up for newsletters to hear from brands w...
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$0-$1 MILLION: LESSONS LEARNED
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Paddle North started as a side hustle originally intended to be a fun way to make some extra cash...
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Made in China
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We contract manufacture some products in China.
Why?
Yes, cost-effectiveness.
But also so much mo...
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Let's Talk About Email
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Let's talk about email in 2024. Has it changed? Yes. Does it still have value? Absolutely.Despite...
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Matt's Startup Story
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In 2009, I graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth and immediately started working ...
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Focus On Your Business
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A new idea is a business owner’s enemy.
It walks around in your brain, voraciously consuming your...
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On Work Life Balance
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Finding Balance is an ongoing process.
Growing up, I idolized the hustlers for their work e...
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Winning Social Media Content
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What content performs the best?
There is no-one-size fits all strategy. It depends on the brand, ...
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Lego Kits & Business Partners
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Lego kits seem like a paradox.
My family and business partner like them -- not me though.
I grew...
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Lets Talk About Sunglasses
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We sold $102,200.27 of them in my last report.
About ~73k of that is profit.
3,475 pairs, spread ...
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Personalize Your Emails
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There's a reason why massive companies put so much effort into appearing smaller than they are......
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Start a biz on paternity leave?
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Yes, I started Paddle North during my two-week paternity leave. My wife, Bridget, was supportive ...
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Lessons from 141 Trade Shows
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Paddle North's origins are filled with grit - like the “ pack a truck and dive into trade shows” ...
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We Closed Our Mall Stores
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The Year We Closed The Mall Stores.
From 2016 to 2023, we operated retail stores in four differen...
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