This Strategy Revolutionized the Way I Do Business. Now My Brands Bring In Over $500 Million.

I was well into my third company when I met a mentor who revolutionized the way I do business. His advice was three words: “Start strat planning.”  

That may sound obvious. But like many entrepreneurs, I was so busy chasing sales that I didn’t have time — or I didn’t think I did — to map out a strategy with my team. When I did, everything changed.  

To explain: My first company was an internet appliance startup right before the dot-com bubble burst. Next I launched a business making products under a license with Amana, known for its refrigerators. Then in 2003, I founded Made By Gather. We develop high-design kitchenware brands including our bestsellers Bella (a market-share leader in small appliances) and Beautiful (created with Drew Barrymore); combined, they bring in well over $500 million in retail sales. Before those brands became successful, for years I operated with what I call “spray and pray” — we’d try everything, hope that 20% to 30% of the ideas would work, and then I’d just do more of that. In my mind it was simple: Sales growth and dollars drive the business; everything else will figure itself out.  

But in 2020, I met Laurence Franklin. He had led Tumi, Coach, and Frette. After investing in my company and becoming a mentor, he told me, “Strat planning is one of the most important things you can do as a CEO.” Then he showed me how. 

To be clear, there are all kinds of strategy planning frameworks — Objectives and Key Results (OKRs); Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS); Objectives, Goals, Strategies, Measures (OGSM), and more. The point is to find a system that works for you and commit to it. Laurence’s method is called SOAR (he’s coauthor of SOAR to Business Success). It starts with asking yourself where you want to be in three years. What are the opportunities? At first, I wanted to do all kinds of things, and he said, “No, you’ve got to prioritize. If you could do three or four things and really stand for that, what would those be?” Once you’ve nailed them, you figure out your “necessities” — what the business needs to do today and each year in order to achieve your goals. 

This process takes time. It requires days of pure focus for both you and your team. And in the beginning, that was painful. When you’ve been in hustle mode for years, it seems impossible to hit pause just to plan. But we did it. Our second and third year in, we decided to sunset some of our underperforming brands and really focus on reimagining Bella, leaning into our special sauce: thoughtful aesthetics, practical performance, and attainable pricing. That was hard; those other brands were making money, so we were turning off revenue lines. Giving up sales as an entrepreneur is not easy, but we decided that transforming Bella was more important. And we were right. 

Over the years, I’ve also simplified how I plan, especially when it comes to creativity. Earlier in my career, I’d fire off lots of new ideas to my team at once — and lose everybody in the first 10 minutes. Now I prepare my most important ideas and practice clearly communicating them before our meetings.  

These days, we do strategy planning three or four times a year. Our leadership team sets aside a day and a half for each session. There’s a lot of prep, and we always come away with a two-page plan. Laurence taught me that too: Your plan must be short enough to give every member of the team, and simple enough that they can refer back to it and find their priorities. 

Before we began strategy planning, we’d hit a ceiling of about $150 million in annual revenue. Today, with a team of about 220, we’re on track for about $400 million in revenue this year — and we have stayed focused despite tariffs and macroeconomic uncertainty. That took real discipline and prioritization. I’d say we’ve gotten where we wanted to go. But now we’re looking three years ahead.