Anyone who runs a drinks brand knows that there’s a big difference between having a great liquid and running a successful business.

In the alcohol-free world there’s no shortage of excellent drinks that are struggling to turn their quality into breakthrough profit.

And even successful businesses could always do things better. It’s amazing how quickly those incremental gains can quickly add up to something significant.

This was the thinking behind WAFA’s first Business Accelerator Day. Our awards has always been about rewarding excellence in alcohol-free, by recognising quality liquid. Here we wanted to help committed businesses to thrive by giving them access to experts who could help them with making their business as five-star as what is in the bottle.

So we teamed up with business optimising experts Opply and drafted in a range of experts in branding, retail, packaging and technology for a day’s deep-dive into business success.

The attendees went away with excellent first-hand advice, and a long ‘to-do’ list. But for those of you who weren’t there on the day, here’s what we learned:

Don’t rush into big deals

Major retailers can step-change your business, but it can be dangerous to take on a big commitment if you’re not truly ready for it. Those numbers can be enticing, but if you get caught in a supply system that you can’t fulfil, there will be no second chance. Slower sales on a broader base – independent retailers, Amazon and hospitality - can be a safer strategy.

Data is king

Don’t fool yourself (or potential customers) by building your business on imperfect data. Buyers are about category performance and range performance. If you don’t deliver what they expect, you will be removed quickly, and you can’t unpick that damage.

Use AI to turbocharge your business

You’re probably using AI for some elements of your business. But it is an excellent – and cold-eyed - calculator of actual profits. You can easily build a tool that will factor in many diverse factors such as RRP, cost price, volume sales, VAT, retailer margins, carriage fee and promotional commitments to calculate actual profit. Increase or reduce one factor and you can see its impact instantly and help you calculate accurate break-even points.

Work your existing contacts harder

You’ve probably got thousands of contacts on LinkedIn. Download the data and filter it through AI to find exactly the venues, businesses and regions you want to connect with. It’s a quick, easy win.

Packaging appeal has to be instant

You have three seconds in which to give a consumer all they need to know to go from ‘disengaged’ through ‘interested’ to ‘buying’ according to the team at Starke Creative. Make sure your brand marque, product descriptor, abv and any features and benefits are clearly and unmissably visible. To do this you need to know who is buying your product, where and when.

You might not need to raise

Most business founders are attracted by the idea of raising capital. But you might not need to give away equity in your business to do it so investigate other credit options before doing so. As a golden rule, try to raise when you DON’T need the money, since then you are doing so from a position of strength.

If you’d like to come to our next Accelerator Day, or speak to any of the businesses who gave us such great advice, email us on info@worldafawards.com