IKke's progress thread, advice appreciated

[Ikke]

Hi All,​

I have introduced myself over half a year ago and since then I have mostly been lurking around on here and I have slowly been growing my business. Today I finally officially registered my business with the chamber of commerce and bought my domain name. In this post I will explain what I have done and what I'm doing.

Have done:
I have imported a batch of 100 products in the past which i bind in a package of 2 pieces giving me 50 products to sell. They sold quite fast so that I sold out in about 3 months and left me without any stock. I have now imported another batch of 500 pieces this month for about 1.5 times the price of the initial batch. Markup on this product is is about 1000-1200% depending on how much I spend on packaging.

Currently:
Another product which I produce has very recently gotten a competitor which i’m not very happy with. The competitions product is slightly worse designed but the material that is used does give it a better finish. Also it’s priced at about 1/4th of what I ask for mine, although including shipping it’s about half (I offer free shipping).
Currently I sell my products on forums and eBay. Sales on the forums are slow and eBay has been picking up quite good since October last year. But the have almost completely dropped to zero since 2 weeks. I haven’t changed much other than adding listings. I'm quite confused and totally in the unknown why this has happened.

Yesterday I have been contacted by quite a big online retailer who is also very active on eBay. And he asked me if I would offer my product at wholesale if enough was purchased and what my terms are. I can figure out a price by using PatrickP’s write up on wholesale pricing but I have no idea what a normal mark up is in this industry.

Any tips or sharing experience on the wholesale part and the declining eBay sales are much appreciated.

 

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[Ikke]

I have offered the retailer a discount of 30% of the MAP and I offered to pay for shipping if he orders more than 25 units. I also found out that a 40-50% markup is more or less normal in this business so i'm curious on how the retailer will react on my offer.

 

[Ikke]

A little update.

I did a deal with the online retailer. He ordered 30 sets for a 30% discount on the MAP. Recently I was contacted by a British retailer. I offered him 25% discount and set a minimum order value and offered free shipping above a certain amount. It's been a week and I haven't heard anything yet.

So far I've had 3 sales in my ecommerce store which has been up for almost 2 months. Which gives a conversion rate of 0.13%. Which isn't great at all. But I don't have a clue on how to improve this. I'm going to (re-)write the about us, contact us and delivery and returns page, maybe add a privacy policy. But I don't know if that will help much.

Ebay sales in may were weak and about 2/3th of the previous 2 months. Again I don't have a single clue why this has happend. :sigh:

Holiday is here and I'm going to try and develop more products with the free time I have now and hopefully create some revenue. But I'm still wondering if it is possible to create a decent living out of this niche.

On another note, I have also started a second project together with my brother. The idea is to make certain equipment for the movie industry. He will do the designing of the products and also play a major role in manufacturing while I take care of marketing, sales and administration. I think this was the best way to go because he has to invest his time and effort first before I have to invest my time. I done it this way because he has lots of plans but very little execution.

 

[mentalic]

I have offered the retailer a discount of 30% of the MAP and I offered to pay for shipping if he orders more than 25 units. I also found out that a 40-50% markup is more or less normal in this business so i'm curious on how the retailer will react on my offer.

For wholesale I would never offer free shipping. It is a cost that is not dependent on you. What would happen if shipping costs increase? You are going to tell your customer "You have to pay for shipping now?". I have ordered some stuff wholesale at past and always paid for shipping. It is very common for wholesale so don't worry about it.

 

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[Ikke]

I'm shocked to find out that already 2 years have passed since I posted this thread. (Summary at the bottom)

Getting the job.
During my study and holiday I wasn't able to ramp up revenues and product enough before I finished school. After graduation my parents indirectly forced me to get a job which I found in the oil and offshore industry. I gained some good work ethic and got to know some great people. But also gave me great example of what a job can do with you in a more negative way.

The stuck co-worker.
I had one very friendly and social co-worker but he was unhappy and stressed about his job. He was in his 50's and didn't believe he could get another employer and he tries to ride his job out till his retirement. He was stuck in a place he could not escape from even though that was what he wanted the most. At a certain moment he had a light stroke at home from the stress he build up during work. He was down for several months and it took 9 months before he worked full time again. He is still there every day wishing he could emigrate to Spain to live a peaceful existence.

How the job ended.
While I was spending almost 11 hours a day on work+commute the company was re-organizing due to foreseen market changes and didn't renew my contract. While I was unhappy about being jobless I knew this was also an opportunity. I regained a more peaceful mind and was able to see the overall picture a lot better again. This also led to the choice of ending one of my ventures as can be read below.

Business wise
During my job I got inspired by all the stories on this forum of people importing and selling on amazon. It seemed so easy that I had to try it, at least it would be a interesting experience. So said so done, I started a 2nd business importing goods from china and selling online. I spend quite some time creating the brand. I had a hard time selling the goods and after a year some manufacturers started to open offices in Europe and in the States. I tried some more to sell to retailers and specific national markets. I had some success in certain geographical marketplaces but in the end it was just very much a me-too business. Because I spend most of my, by then, very scarce free time on this me-too business my initial business started to make less and less revenue. I even lost a supplier of 2 of my products in business #1 and was to busy with business #2 to find another one. My initial business was neglected and it showed. I have made the decision to slowly kill business #2 by letting it's stock run dry.

I still can't really understand what I was thinking but with the lack of time, focus and direction during my job created the space in where I was possible for me to think a me-too business was a good idea.

For now and the future
I will continue with my initial business and build it with additional new products.
Other than this I will look for other ways I can provide value in life.

The Fastlane dream is not dead!


TL;DR Summary:
Got a job,
Job took focus away
created a me-too business.
lost job
Got peace of mind, regained focus and direction
Killed me-too biz