Transforming a Distressing Brand to A Successful One How do you take a distressed company and turn it into a profitable successful business? What best strategies should you use when doing a complete restarting and transformation of a brand? Transforming a brand from failure to success requires immense work, strategy, and patience from those who are willing to take the chance. In this episode of Page One Podcast, Luke Peters speaks with Matt Damman about his success in transforming a distressed company and making it successful in a very short amount of time. Matt is the CEO of Commando Lock company in Michigan, a growing manufacture of military-grade padlocks and security systems, and an entrepreneur. He turned the face of Commando Lock. Listen in to learn how Matt transformed Commando Lock into a quality brand that resonates with the people. You will also learn the importance of recognizing and acknowledging operational challenges that will be more apparent after you start making sales.   Key Takeaways: How to turn a distressed money-losing company into a profitable business. How to convince investors to take a bet on a highly risky product. Learning how to run a company and handle the division of labor during its initial stages. Episode Timeline [1:59] Matt explains the size of his company and its customer base online and offline. [4:18] Why they’re looking into diversifying their client base and not solely depend on anyone plus how they landed a military deal. [5:54] Matt describes their heavy-duty padlocks, other security product lines, and their future target market. [8:34] He explains how they restarted Commando Lock Company doing things all over again from the start. [13:45] How they pitched to the investors using their world-class product even though it was a risky venture. [17:34] The process they used when relaunching Commando Lock by making the product resonate with the people. [19:53] How to divide the labor at the beginning when you cannot afford to hire experts. [22:14] Learning how to deal with operational challenges that are going to arise when your product becomes successful. [23:26] The process of prototyping that they engaged in before they had a quality finished product within a short period. [30:12] The lessons he borrowed from working in large companies about operating businesses. [33:13] The mistake he made with Commando Lock of using one data point and not doing his due diligence before relaunching. Quotes: “That’s what I like about being a small company versus the big company, you move quickly and impact change immediately.”- Matt Damman [32:22]