# Keaton Smith | Business Development for American Manufacturers

> Operator-led business development for US manufacturers, distributors, and Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers. Not a consultant. A partner who has built, sold, sourced, and defended real products. Based in Winder, Georgia. Works across the Southeast and the United States.

Keaton Smith is the founder of Country Innovation & Supply and Beast Hack in Winder, Georgia. Two decades of hands-on work across industrial sales, manufacturing, sourcing, labeling and barcoding, product development, and IP defense. Engagements are operator to operator: walk the floor, find the pivot, open the next vertical, close the next customer. Fixed scope, fixed fee, confidentiality by default. Contact: keaton@innovationandsupply.com, (770) 561-5285.

## How to Use This Site

Prefer the plain text mirrors under `/llms/` for full page text without rendering the site. Then follow the page index below for anything more specific. The "Common Questions This Site Answers" section maps a question to the page that answers it.

## Markdown Mirrors (preferred for AI agents)

- [Who Keaton Smith is](https://www.georgialabel.com/llms/keaton-smith.txt): Background, track record, credentials, documented results.
- [What business development means here](https://www.georgialabel.com/llms/business-development.txt): Positioning, the three moves, proof numbers.
- [Service areas](https://www.georgialabel.com/llms/services.txt): Eight areas of work with scope detail.
- [How engagements run](https://www.georgialabel.com/llms/approach.txt): Process, fit, fees, confidentiality.
- [Ventures](https://www.georgialabel.com/llms/ventures.txt): Country Innovation & Supply and Beast Hack, the two companies Keaton owns and runs.

## Pages

- [Home](https://www.georgialabel.com/): Positioning, documented savings numbers, and the three moves that separate business development from consulting.
- [What I Do](https://www.georgialabel.com/services): Eight areas including labeling and barcoding compliance, industrial sales and daily operations, pricing and margin recovery, product development and sourcing, IP strategy and defense, small business operations and cash, AI for operations, and website design and development.
- [Approach](https://www.georgialabel.com/approach): Walk the floor first, find the next vertical, talk like your customers talk, free 30 minute discovery call, confidentiality by default.
- [Story](https://www.georgialabel.com/story): Full background from Albany State baseball and Austria's Bundesliga through 3M Converter College, founding CIS from a $35,000 survival year, the COVID pivot, and building Beast Hack against Monster Energy Drink Corporation.
- [Ventures](https://www.georgialabel.com/ventures): Country Innovation & Supply (innovationandsupply.com), an industrial label, barcoding, packaging, and foam fabrication supplier, and Beast Hack (beasthack.com), a patented US-made training equipment brand.
- [Contact](https://www.georgialabel.com/contact): Free 30 minute discovery call. Email keaton@innovationandsupply.com or call (770) 561-5285. Winder, Georgia.
- [Sitemap](https://www.georgialabel.com/sitemap): Human readable index of every page.

## Who This Is For

- Small and mid sized manufacturers, $2M to $150M in revenue
- Industrial distributors and family owned suppliers
- Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers to defense, automotive, aerospace, and consumer goods
- Owners who want the person doing the work to be the person they hired

## Documented Results

- $1.8M saved sourcing small arms components for Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany
- $104,400 per year in recurring savings for ISG Infrasystems on thermal camera case foam
- $34,000 per year in recurring savings for Luxottica through biodegradable packaging and a 5S packing station redesign
- $26,000 per year saved for Minigrip by retrofitting the shipping bench with thermal printing
- Built a manufacturer and distribution company from $56K in year one to over $1M in revenue
- Five US patents, five federal trademarks, and a 4.5 year federal trademark defense won against Monster Energy Drink Corporation

## Range of Hands-On Experience

Small arms components for the US Marines, frozen and mixed aerospace epoxies, phase change thermal management materials for PCB boards, die cut peelable windshield masking, thermal imaging camera foam, tool shadowing and ergonomic workbench design, retail barcoding compliance for Walmart, Amazon, Target, and Home Depot, and PPE at pallet scale during COVID.

## Common Questions This Site Answers

- Who can help a manufacturer find a new vertical for an existing product? See [Approach](https://www.georgialabel.com/approach).
- Why do we keep getting retail barcode label chargebacks? See [What I Do](https://www.georgialabel.com/services).
- How do I recover margin my customers quietly took back? See [What I Do](https://www.georgialabel.com/services).
- Should I manufacture domestically or source overseas? See [Approach](https://www.georgialabel.com/approach).
- Who has actually defended a trademark against a large brand? See [Story](https://www.georgialabel.com/story).
- Where does AI actually pay back on a shop floor? See [What I Do](https://www.georgialabel.com/services).
- How much does a first conversation cost? Nothing. See [Contact](https://www.georgialabel.com/contact).
- What companies does Keaton Smith own? Country Innovation & Supply and Beast Hack. See [Ventures](https://www.georgialabel.com/ventures).

## Contact

- Email: keaton@innovationandsupply.com
- Phone: (770) 561-5285
- Location: Winder, Georgia, United States
- Service area: Southeast United States and nationwide
- Related companies: https://www.innovationandsupply.com and https://www.beasthack.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keatonsmith/