All,
Thank you for taking a minute to read this. I hoping to gain any feedback or constructive criticism I can from this community. The title of this thread is a single sentence description of where I'm at in my Fastlane pursuit.
Me:
29 year old happily married guy
I have 90k in college debt (worth every....)
My wife and I have 127k left on our mortgage
We're employed and sick of grind.... completely sick of the grind
What I'm working on...
Supplements... Actually just one supplement. I grew lifting and playing sports through high school. For about three years in college I thought I could be a bodybuilder without sticking a needle in my butt cheek. Can't. I tore up my neck in playing football and never really got it addressed; back has always had pain that comes and goes as well. Work, life, school and all the other typically excuses got in the way of continuing to workout. I've always been a big, strong guy but I became a big, less strong, fat guy. Back pain increased with the number on the scale.
This past year the pain got to a point where I needed to address it. Thankfully, my slowlane gig actually offers excellent insurance and my recovery has been very good while cheap as well. My physical recovery is improving weekly and have prevented my L5 bulge from becoming completely herniated.
I started looking into natural remedies for joint and muscle pain. Anything that with anti-inflammatory properties caught my attention. I stumbled on a YouTube video made by a amateur bodybuilder who created a cocktail of ingredients that tasted awful but did mitigate joint/muscle pain and also offered thermogenic benefits. My idea was born.
I researched the ingredients along with others in an attempt to make something palatable AND effective. I made a list, ordered the ingredients and IT WORKS! I lost on average 4 lbs per week while only exercising once or twice (during physical therapy-no approval to workout independently at that point). I'm eating much better and have recently started following a ketogenic diet. I think it's important to include that I have had stomach/digestive issues my entire life. If the only benefit from this supplement is that I wake up each morning with a flat stomach, zero to minimal body soreness that's a "win" for me. That happens after every dose but I'm losing weight!
Getting down to it...
1.) I'm working on finding a manufacturing partner to produce this supplement.
*Question for the forum: Best practices for getting a response from manufacturers? To this point I haven't created a website for the supplement; I am working on a Facebook page. What more can I do immediately.
2.) My target demographic, at least right now, is mid-income women (mothers preferably) between 25-40. Baby weight, sore joints and plateaus in fitness goals are the issues I'm trying to demonstrate a remedy for with this product.
*Question for the forum: Am I narrow casting with this approach? Suggestion desired on adjusting this approach if necessary
3.) Amazon vs Shopify vs Standalone product website
*Question for the forum: what have you personally experienced the most success with?
4.) I'm working on developing targeted Facebook ads specific to the demographic I'm currently pursuing. It's my understanding that these can be highly successful and from personal experience Facebook is a major hub for moms/baby pics.
* Question for the forum: Advice on approaching Facebook ads-I'm a novice-Any content that has helped you in your business.
5.) Co-Branding... Part of my motivation for pursuing entrepreneurship is to help other people. From the start I wanted to co brand my product with a non profit. I want to send a dedicated amount of profits to that non profit. Yes, this of course decreases net profit but I think being a good person is part of being a successful person. There's a local company my wife really likes and they donate a portion of their profits to a local non profit. I'm working on setting up an informational interview with them to gain some insight into what that tangibly looks like. Will update when meeting is done.
*Question for the forum: My question here is what does this community think about co branding with a non profit? What level of exposure do you think is appropriate. My thinking behind this is that I don't what to come off as using the effort of good people trying to remedy a real problem to sell my product. I want to be genuine in this pursuit.
6.) Affiliate Marketing... I have some connections with people who have a solid social network following (5k+ followers). None of them fit the target demographic that I, at least for now, think will really get on board with my product.
*Question for the forum: If I pursue these connections am I doing myself a disservice as these people don't fit my target?
*Is that a stupid question?
7.) My next step is to reorder and make significantly more product. Then, I want to hand out 30 day samples with the promise that each individual will commit to using it for 30 days and give me honest feedback.
*Question for the forum: In your experience, what is an adequate number of documented reviews from users. I will post the sample reviews to my website for proof of concept purposes. Is 10 initial reviews a waste of time? Is 30? I'm looking for a number that is effective starting out.
In closing...
My last order cost me $92 for about 75 days worth at 1.2 oz per serving ( I ordered minimum powdered amounts). At that price point the product isn't viable to pursue. I need to hear back on the 15 RFIs I sent out to manufacturers to get a real cost per unit at higher volumes. Right now I'm at $36.80 for a 30 day supply. Ideally, I'd like that number to be under $20 shipped. I found that I felt it worked better in smaller scoops. I started using roughly .8 oz and actually felt better. So lets say my initial order would yield 30% more if I had used 8 oz the entire time I would have had roughly 97.5 days of servings.
97.5/30 days=3.25
$92/3.25= $28.31
So there's a 23.1% gain there. Manufacturing in mass quantities "should" provide the desired margin.
That's all for now! Thank you in advance for any comments or feedback you may have.
Thank you for taking a minute to read this. I hoping to gain any feedback or constructive criticism I can from this community. The title of this thread is a single sentence description of where I'm at in my Fastlane pursuit.
Me:
29 year old happily married guy
I have 90k in college debt (worth every....)
My wife and I have 127k left on our mortgage
We're employed and sick of grind.... completely sick of the grind
What I'm working on...
Supplements... Actually just one supplement. I grew lifting and playing sports through high school. For about three years in college I thought I could be a bodybuilder without sticking a needle in my butt cheek. Can't. I tore up my neck in playing football and never really got it addressed; back has always had pain that comes and goes as well. Work, life, school and all the other typically excuses got in the way of continuing to workout. I've always been a big, strong guy but I became a big, less strong, fat guy. Back pain increased with the number on the scale.
This past year the pain got to a point where I needed to address it. Thankfully, my slowlane gig actually offers excellent insurance and my recovery has been very good while cheap as well. My physical recovery is improving weekly and have prevented my L5 bulge from becoming completely herniated.
I started looking into natural remedies for joint and muscle pain. Anything that with anti-inflammatory properties caught my attention. I stumbled on a YouTube video made by a amateur bodybuilder who created a cocktail of ingredients that tasted awful but did mitigate joint/muscle pain and also offered thermogenic benefits. My idea was born.
I researched the ingredients along with others in an attempt to make something palatable AND effective. I made a list, ordered the ingredients and IT WORKS! I lost on average 4 lbs per week while only exercising once or twice (during physical therapy-no approval to workout independently at that point). I'm eating much better and have recently started following a ketogenic diet. I think it's important to include that I have had stomach/digestive issues my entire life. If the only benefit from this supplement is that I wake up each morning with a flat stomach, zero to minimal body soreness that's a "win" for me. That happens after every dose but I'm losing weight!
Getting down to it...
1.) I'm working on finding a manufacturing partner to produce this supplement.
*Question for the forum: Best practices for getting a response from manufacturers? To this point I haven't created a website for the supplement; I am working on a Facebook page. What more can I do immediately.
2.) My target demographic, at least right now, is mid-income women (mothers preferably) between 25-40. Baby weight, sore joints and plateaus in fitness goals are the issues I'm trying to demonstrate a remedy for with this product.
*Question for the forum: Am I narrow casting with this approach? Suggestion desired on adjusting this approach if necessary
3.) Amazon vs Shopify vs Standalone product website
*Question for the forum: what have you personally experienced the most success with?
4.) I'm working on developing targeted Facebook ads specific to the demographic I'm currently pursuing. It's my understanding that these can be highly successful and from personal experience Facebook is a major hub for moms/baby pics.
* Question for the forum: Advice on approaching Facebook ads-I'm a novice-Any content that has helped you in your business.
5.) Co-Branding... Part of my motivation for pursuing entrepreneurship is to help other people. From the start I wanted to co brand my product with a non profit. I want to send a dedicated amount of profits to that non profit. Yes, this of course decreases net profit but I think being a good person is part of being a successful person. There's a local company my wife really likes and they donate a portion of their profits to a local non profit. I'm working on setting up an informational interview with them to gain some insight into what that tangibly looks like. Will update when meeting is done.
*Question for the forum: My question here is what does this community think about co branding with a non profit? What level of exposure do you think is appropriate. My thinking behind this is that I don't what to come off as using the effort of good people trying to remedy a real problem to sell my product. I want to be genuine in this pursuit.
6.) Affiliate Marketing... I have some connections with people who have a solid social network following (5k+ followers). None of them fit the target demographic that I, at least for now, think will really get on board with my product.
*Question for the forum: If I pursue these connections am I doing myself a disservice as these people don't fit my target?
*Is that a stupid question?
7.) My next step is to reorder and make significantly more product. Then, I want to hand out 30 day samples with the promise that each individual will commit to using it for 30 days and give me honest feedback.
*Question for the forum: In your experience, what is an adequate number of documented reviews from users. I will post the sample reviews to my website for proof of concept purposes. Is 10 initial reviews a waste of time? Is 30? I'm looking for a number that is effective starting out.
In closing...
My last order cost me $92 for about 75 days worth at 1.2 oz per serving ( I ordered minimum powdered amounts). At that price point the product isn't viable to pursue. I need to hear back on the 15 RFIs I sent out to manufacturers to get a real cost per unit at higher volumes. Right now I'm at $36.80 for a 30 day supply. Ideally, I'd like that number to be under $20 shipped. I found that I felt it worked better in smaller scoops. I started using roughly .8 oz and actually felt better. So lets say my initial order would yield 30% more if I had used 8 oz the entire time I would have had roughly 97.5 days of servings.
97.5/30 days=3.25
$92/3.25= $28.31
So there's a 23.1% gain there. Manufacturing in mass quantities "should" provide the desired margin.
That's all for now! Thank you in advance for any comments or feedback you may have.
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