I started a business that I managed to kill in just a few short months.
My brother and I decided we would start selling coffee but for the gym. We believed we had found a niche and had a product that would suitably fill it. We were either wrong, or have given someone else a great idea for a business venture that has more knowledge determination, grit and experience than us.
Obviously that all fell through, I dissolved the partnership and de-registered all of our sites and social media that had only been around for at the very most 6 months.
You might think that was a terrible waste, but I did learn a few things that I would do differently if I was to try something like that again. If you want to avoid the mistakes I made, here’s how.
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Pick the Right Partner
Although from the start, enthusiasm can carry your idea forward, unfortunately that first month or two of interest very quickly dies down when your business doesn’t instantly become a worldwide hit. If you’re able to just keep your head down and keep grinding away, this shouldn’t cause you a problem. You may have noticed I said partner. My brother, my “business partner” was not quite as in the game as I thought he was. Getting consistent effort out of him wasn’t particularly easy and if half your effort is spent just trying to get half of your business to actually treat it as a business then you’re already sunk. So, no I wouldn’t work with my brother on something like this again, I just don’t think it’s how he works best.
Don’t Over-Commit Yourself
This is another easy trap to fall in in the early days, thinking you need to do all the really fancy business-y stuff from the get-go to make everything legit. This is a massive paperwork headache and kills the vibe exceptionally quickly. Nothing kills motivation faster than a 30 page tax return. So no, don’t sign up as a sole trader straight away, don’t worry about registering your business, just focus on what matters, selling. If you can’t even sell the product what’s the point in having a registered business. Do the fun stuff and the free stuff as early as you can, and essentially, get your minimum viable product selling as quick as you can. Only think about doing the legal stuff once you actually know you’re going to need it. Trust me you should be in no rush to be filling in any sort of legal paperwork, there’s a reason they pay people to do this stuff, it’s soul crushing.
Selling Physical Items is Hard
Physical merchandise is a pain in the backside and it’s no wonder you hear that the more experienced a business owner gets the better they get at creating an efficient supply chain. You could have the most world changing product but if you can’t get it to people in a time that completes with Amazon prime, you’re never going to get anywhere. Shopping has to be fast these days and people want a product in their hands as soon as is humanly possible. If I was doing this again I don’t think I’d be selling something physical and I certainly wouldn’t be selling something perishable. With a solid zero experience in supply chain operations, starting out with goods that not only require, storage and transportation, but also have a best before date, I was fighting an uphill battle from the start.
Sell the Idea Before the Product
Similar to the “don’t over-commit” idea but if you can’t even sell the idea to people why bother investing in creating the product. I should have tested the waters with some simple advertising of the product to see if it gathered any attention. Make a cheap store page that allowed people to register for pre-orders or something to see if I could measure any sort of interest. I bought stock almost straight away and if you haven’t sold the idea, the stock certainly isn’t going to sell. Marketing is a skill that I haven’t really got under my belt so if I was to go sell something now I’d take the time to learn how to market something efficiently whilst also not jumping right in to having a full blown product ready to go. Money’s tight, the less you waste the better.
Build in Private
Yapping about your business ideas is all well and good until you’re suddenly not so sure whether you’re that invested in the idea any more. It’s one thing for you to give up but to have all the people around you also see you give up just makes it worse. People don’t really need to know if you’re trying to build a business. Sure, don’t keep it a secret, if someone finds your business because it’s succeeding then that’s fine but just quietly plod away until then, you don’t need others getting involved and invested before you’ve actually got something that garners any attention.
Just Try Again
Although my first teeny tiny attempt at building a business was a failure but it’s not put me off doing it again someday. I’d like to potentially sell a digital product at some point, save myself all the hassle of supply chain issues and I’d probably take it on as solo project and although they say “build in public” I think although that includes the people you know it doesn’t need to “include” them if you know what I mean. Also it may have been a waste of time but given the lessons I learnt, I would consider it more of an investment. I’m sure it’ll pay off at some point…
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