Update on "the process" - Part II

[Aragorn]

Yesterday, I started sharing with you experiences of roughly the last year. My post was too long for the 2’000 letter limit. This is why I decided to split it in two parts. You can read part I here.

Part II continues the bucket list of ToDo’s we had to check during the process from idea via prototype to a marketed product in the hair care industry. At this point in time our products have been manufactured and sit in our manufacturer’s storage room waiting to be shipped to Amazon for FBA.

• Amazon I. Our plan said to ship our products to Amazon and get rich quick. This wasn't thaaat easy and we're still waiting for the rich part. It was a piece of cake to set up a business account. I did this already last year because I had initially planned to be up and selling by November 2018 the latest. In January 2019 I received a mail from Amazon that due to some EU regulations every seller would need to provide a VAT-number. I got that through my German tax advisor. Time spent: zip. Costs: zip. A VAT-number in Germany requires a monthly tax statement. Note: I still didn't sell. Time spent per month: 10 minutes to prepare all documents. Costs: 90 Euros per month. Anyway, I bought a book for 50 bucks that in all detail explains the Amazon universe. Once more a fascinating piece to learn. With the help of the book I registered our products and clicked on shipping plan. I knew already that selling FBA in a restricted category such as "beauty" would require the GO from Amazon, but then my drama started. I provided them with what I figured were all necessary data. But computer said "no". I checked the forum and learned that one ABSOLUTELY needs to provide data in a particular way. I checked my workflow and didn't see a problem. I contacted Amazon. Now, there's a policy that if one wants to sell on the German Amazon marketplace one should contact them ideally in German. But when I looked at the answers I more often than not got the impression that Google translator had its fingers in the play. The translations weren't bad, but the answers were too imprecise. Do you know the feeling when you ask for directions to the station and get a general description of the city as an answer? I soon learned two things: (i) I always contact them in German and English. This GREATLY improved customer service quality! (ii) I learned that I would need to provide chemical security documents before they could give me green light to sell FBA. This would be easy to obtain, since my manufacturer would have these documents on stock. The problem was that I was the mastermind manufacturer and I had to either source this out for another 4-digit figures. Or I would write them myself, since I am qualified to do so. I settled for the latter and digged into the world of chemical security. Not many chemists call this their calling. It is boring legal stuff. VERY boring, but admittedly necessary. I digged and learned and learned and learned. And finally was done with the documentation. All written during evenings and early mornings. Each document 18-20 pages long. Time spent: 4 weeks. Money spent: zip.
• Amazon II. I had to call my manufacturer who was sitting on eight boxes of products several times to tell her that we were "still in the process of getting green light for FBA". I was calmed on that front to focus my energy on convincing Amazon to give us their GO. I uploaded the documentation and whenever you do so Amazon takes four days to reply. They answer in time, but always minutes before the deadline. In other words you provide them with information which takes minutes if not seconds and need to wait four days for an answer. This is an ideal training for a mars mission. Anyway, at some point I got pissed with this process and required an immediate decision, since from my perspective I had done everything necessary. It took another day and I got the okay. I learned that working with Amazon is okay, but their reactions are sometimes cryptic and take their time. I would have never thought that deciphering their messages would be a major part of my work for weeks. In June 2019 we finally got our green light to sell FBA and send our stuff to the warehouse. Time spent from first try to decision: 4.5 months(!!!). Money spent: zip. Nerves spent: What nerves???
• Amazon III. Once I got Amazon's GO the products were still blocked for providing a shipping plan. Once more I inquired and learned that I would need to re-register our products. Sounded a lot like Windows in the old days. But I was willing to sell there so I did as told and, voilà, my path to richness was wide open. The shipping plan was quickly set up. My manufacturer was relieved to get the boxes finally out of the cooling room and my Amazon account was soon charged with shipping costs. I was waiting for our products to turn from "inactive" (not available) to "active". I waited and waited and waited. I contacted Amazon again asking what the reason was. They merrily answered that it would take up to two weeks to book my products in. After ten days I saw something happening. This time the numbers of shipped units didn't match my shipping plan. I contacted them once more and learned that the units were distributed to several warehouses and that by July 25 everything should be okay. Since I am writing this piece on the morning of July 12 things must have taken another twist. Indeed, on July 10 we were all set! Time: 3 weeks. Money spent: 17 Euros shipping cost. Nerves: I was used to it.
• What next? First, this weekend I will finish editing texts for our website with web shop and Amazon. Second, my wife and I have bought studio gear. Microphones, lamps and stuff, since we want to shoot our own video blogs. Marketing is our next big thing. We didn't go out and market our products yet, because we couldn't deliver. We could - and did so - sell in Switzerland. But outside Switzerland delivery wasn't really possible. This has changed now. Our EU-customers can now order via Amazon. So marketing it is. I looked already into product photography and filming interviews. I have booked several udemy courses and subscribed to a bunch of Adobe apps. I also started looking into animating characters. My next metamorphosis will be to learn and execute smart marketing. I hate superficial marketing speech and tactics that stink 5 miles against the wind. Our credo is "marketing through educating". It requires more effort and time, but suits us on several fronts:
  • Most consumers have no clue what they eat or use on a daily basis. Quite a few want to know though. We'll tell them.
  • We set ourselves apart from our competitors who show beautifully photoshopped men and women who look so unrealistic that it is hard to believe that people fall for this.
  • We don't want to get engaged in bullshit. We provide honest products and honest information. If you neglected your body and health for decades we cannot cure your hair loss over night. But if you are willing to take up the challenge we are here to help.
  • Time spent: so far 3 weeks. Money spent: 600 USD.

Summary:

For those readers who sticked with me this far: Thanks heaps for your time!

As a company we still have to find many more customers. We have put enormous effort, time, and money into this project. Doing some rough math and putting conversion rates between CHF, EUR, and USD to 1:1:1 we spent something in the ballpark of 28'000 to 29'000 CHF/EUR/USD. If we add education costs for me alone we are talking about 35'000 CHF/EUR/USD and counting. How do we pay for this? As a family we have downgraded our lifestyle for the past two years. No vacation, almost no restaurant visits, clothes are replaced when necessary, no gadgets, rare meet-ups with friends (since most of them don't understand why we are doing what we are doing). Most of our savings and spare money went into where we stand right now, except for a reserve if something breaks.

Are we living a good life? Hell yeah! My bread and butter job isn't anymore the drag it used to be. I go there with a totally different spirit, do my work, do it actually better than before, cash my check, and return home to work on our future. Even if from today on we wouldn't sell a single unit of our products this journey would have been worth taking. I learned so much - and still am - that I could easily apply these skills to any other idea. I am not in the Fastlane yet. I rather see myself in a twilight zone between the slow and the Fastlane. My mind has changed. My work habits have changed. Our family has committed itself to this project. What is currently missing is incoming cash. But I am convinced that we will take this final hurdle as well.

One last thought that I wish to share with you. If you engage on the route to entrepreneurship it will change your very self. My wife and I have always taken responsibility for our lives (no side walk). Today, however, we feel much more empowered. We not only take responsibility, we shape our lives. This adds a totally different aspect to our lives. Old friends and family ties go. New ones form. We always worked out. Now, we are working out with the clear goal to stay healthy. We are both at an age when sixpacks are less important than getting up without pain in the morning. We are both 50+, work out, eat extremely healthy (low carb and gluten-free; I bake my own bread). Neither of us takes medication. No smoke. Very rarely alcohol. Of course, no drugs. Enough sleep. I am convinced that we would live a healthy life regardless of our decision to start a business. But in doing so we needed and still need more energy to cope with our day's workload. This requirement made it necessary to "optimize" our lifestyle. But more on our diet in another post.

Thanks, MJ, for writing your books. They have been an inspiration and in dark moments they are the ideal kick in the butt to keep on going!

Thanks a lot for reading and I'd love to read your comments. Always eager to learn...

 

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[pawon]

gepvetvod tvusz.

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[Aragorn]

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