3 things I Wish I Knew Before I Started My Company – The Founders of Burrito Blanket

It’s been seen across the nation. Orders have been flying in to get one item: the burrito blanket. This hit product is viral on Instagram and millions of units have been sold. I had the opportunity to meet the founders, Andrew McCarthy, and Tyler Lubin, of The Burrito Blanket, and they let me in on five things they wish they knew before they started their company. 

• Outsource tedious tasks

When first starting a business you have to do it all yourself. You don’t usually have the income to hire others. However, it is easy to get used to doing it all yourself. While everything is done exactly the way you like it to be, there are still drawbacks. It eventually becomes harder to grow. One person cannot continuously do everything. There is a limit. Once you are able to, you should hire others to do tedious tasks or even some important ones. A good business owner should know what they are good at, or what is the best use of his/her time and outsource the rest. This allows him/her to continue growing the company.

• Hire an experienced content creator 

A content creator is responsible for how a company is perceived. They are in charge of every post or ad is seen on any media platform. This job is more important now than ever before. Today, your audience can quickly see anything in seconds. A vast amount of information is at their fingertips. One of the reasons the Burrito Blanket took off is because of its major presence on social media.  the idea of a burrito blanket came from seeing multiple images on Instagram of small dogs rolled up in blankets with the hashtag “burrito blanket.” After laughing at how cute the photos were, Lubin and McCarthy wondered how they could make such a concept go viral on social media. They soon realized that the best thing to do would be to make this figurative concept more realistic. The burrito blanket Instagram itself shows images of delicious burritos from all over the nation in addition to memes or pictures of the burrito blanket to bring the concept to life. 

• To get online distribution right, you must be able to answer these three questions: Who are you targeting online? Why do they go online? Where does your brand need to be?

One major thing people forget is to figure out their audience. Once you figure out what your ideal audience is, it is much easier to target them. Your audience can help you determine how much a product should cost, where you should be advertising it, and what type of content would work best. For instance, if you are selling something to college or high school students, you may not want to make the price point too high, or you won’t be able to sell as many units. Your audience is everything. Once you figure out who they are and how to cater to them your products can quickly gain momentum and take off.