OK, OK! I  gotta tell you, I’m geeked out just talking about this. Let me walk you through how I landed on this whole vertical acquisition thing.

It started on Instagram. I kept running into this lady breaking down acquisitions, and she was talking about Amazon; how their downstream acquisition was Whole Foods, and how they strategically built out community Amazon pickups, lockers, and so much more. That alone was crazy to me, but I never connected it to my own business.

Then I’m listening to Sam Walton’s book, Made in America, and boom, there it is again. Walmart was expanding to the East Coast, and instead of starting from scratch, they acquired Kuhn’s Big K stores. But that wasn’t all. They took it further, building distribution centers to make sure stores got their inventory on time and customers got what they needed. That’s when it clicked.

Within a week, all this info started coming to me from different angles. Then one night, the Lord showed me exactly how this applies to my business. Now, I don’t know how He talks to y’all, but with me, it’s like that scene in Iron Man, you know, when Tony Stark is moving stuff around on the screen, piecing everything together? That’s how my mind was working.

I jumped out of bed the next morning and started researching upstream and downstream acquisitions. Let me break it down real quick:

• Upstream acquisition – This is when you take over a supplier. So for Unapologetic, that could mean acquiring a textile company to control material costs and quality.

• Downstream acquisition – This is when you take over a distributor or retailer. So for a brand like mine, that could mean owning a screen printing facility or even our own stores and fulfillment centers.

Man, let me tell you, I talked about this to everybody I saw that day! This opened up my mind to so many possibilities for making my business more efficient, cutting costs, and expanding in a smart way.

If you’re an entrepreneur, I challenge you to think about this. What’s the upstream and downstream move for your business? How can you own more of your process instead of relying on outside companies?

Stay motivated. Keep building. God Bless The Entrepreneur.

God Bless The Entrepreneur