Keeping It Simple
The fastest, simplest ways to grow your business - no jargon, no fluff. Practical strategies that actually work for SME owners in the USA, New Zealand, and worldwide.
Monday, October 05, 2026
There is no single best business coach in the USA. Here are five criteria for choosing one, a fair look at the main formats, and why an outside perspective can change what you see in your own business.
Every FMCG and product-based SME owner eventually faces the same fork: chase wholesale distribution and give up 40-50 percent of your margin for volume and shelf presence, or build direct-to-consumer and keep the margin but carry the full cost and risk of finding every customer yourself. Most owners never actually decide. They drift into doing a bit of both, badly, and wonder why growth has stalled despite doing "more" of everything.
The "More Channels" Myth
The instinct when growth slows is to add a channel — if wholesale isn't compounding fast enough, add DTC; if DTC is expensive, chase a supermarket listing. Industry analysis of small manufacturers and FMCG brands repeatedly shows the businesses with the healthiest margins are not the ones present in the most channels — they are the ones with a clear primary channel and a deliberately limited secondary one, matched to their actual operational capacity. Spreading working capital, marketing spend, and founder attention across three channels at once usually means none of them gets funded properly enough to actually work.
The enemy is not wholesale or DTC. It is trying to run both at full intensity with the working capital and attention built for one.
The Channel Mix Audit
This is the framework I use with FMCG and product clients weighing this exact decision.
1. Calculate true margin by channel — not headline margin, but margin after the real cost of servicing that channel: wholesale's trade terms and slotting fees, or DTC's acquisition cost and fulfilment overhead.
2. Match the channel to your actual capacity — wholesale demands supply chain reliability and cash flow to fund inventory ahead of payment terms; DTC demands marketing skill and content output most small teams underestimate.
3. Pick a primary channel and fund it properly — commit the majority of your growth budget and attention to the channel your margin and capacity analysis actually supports, and treat the second channel as a deliberate, smaller bet, not an equal one.
"Kevin's knowledge and intellect on all things business — no matter what industry it is — he just seems to find gems that you can focus on. I catch up with Kevin once a week and it is definitely the highlight of my week. He just sees different opportunities so clearly. I would not have considered the B2C market as an opportunity before working with Kevin and now it is a major focus for us. He has opened up so many new opportunities for us."
— John Roberts, Co-owner and COO, Oragene
Why This Decision Gets Avoided
Choosing a primary channel feels like closing a door, and most owners would rather keep every door open "just in case." But every unfunded channel you're technically "in" is quietly draining attention and capital from the one that could actually be working. This is a decision most owners can see clearly for someone else's business and struggle to make in their own, because it's their own inventory, their own cash flow, and their own risk on the table.
Real-World Proof
- FMCG brands that commit fully to wholesale distribution typically see faster volume growth but need two to three times the working capital runway of a DTC-first brand at the same revenue.
- DTC-first brands typically carry higher gross margin but need genuine marketing capability, not a side project, to acquire customers profitably at scale.
- Brands running both channels well almost always started with one, proved it, and added the second only once the first was funded and stable.
Key Takeaways
- Calculate true margin by channel, after the real cost of servicing it — not the headline number.
- Match the channel to your actual working capital and operational capacity, not your ambition.
- Commit to a primary channel and fund it properly before adding a second.
- Sequence channels — prove one, then add the next — rather than running both half-funded.
If you're trying to fund wholesale and DTC equally and neither is compounding the way it should, that's a channel-strategy conversation worth having before your next quarter.
Kevin D’Ambros-Smith
Kevin is the founder of Simple-Growth and a business growth coach with experience at DDB, Ogilvy, and Saatchi & Saatchi. He has co-founded 9 companies, coached 200+ business owners one-on-one, and holds a 9.5/10 NPS. Every article on this blog reflects real-world experience - no theory, no fluff.
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