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How to know when to quit my current business?

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

RoadTrip

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I really hope you guys can help me with this. I'm so stuck in my current business that I really can't figure out what to do next. Actually, not being able to figure out the next steps burned me out back in April. I'm almost better now and I want to make a final decision on this business.

I'll give you some background first...Last year I started a supplement business. I got the idea because I'm suffering from an autoimmune disease so I try every natural supplement known to man kind. This is when I stumbled upon an idea.

So I started selling using Facebook Ads and gained traction. To date I have sold around €25.000 worth of product. In the beginning with the FB ads turned on I used to sell a lot. These days I'm selling around €150 a month. Note that this is just in The Netherlands. I tried selling abroad but that didn't work out for me.

With sales decreasing I thought I should add another product. Which I did. It was selling but sales were not even close to what I sold with the first product. I had no idea what to do next and started doing market research. And then some more and more until I got completely burned out.

A month ago I decided to pull the trigger and quit the business. I didn't purchase any new ingredients to create the blend. Now that I'm out of stock, I'm receiving emails from customers inquiring when we will be back in stock. When I ask how our product is helping them they mention they feel a lot better using my product. Which puts me right back in doubt mode.

I have no idea if want to continue pursuing this business. I don't know how to grow, what other products to add, what new angles to try and whether I have enough passion for the market. But I do like the fact that I'm helping people with their health issues. My market is usually an older generation, which is usually also more into popping pills.

Based on the above, do you think it's time to move on? What do you suggest? This is my 5th attempt at business so I'm not afraid to call it a failure.
 
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NateKruse

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So I started selling using Facebook Ads and gained traction. To date I have sold around €25.000 worth of product. In the beginning with the FB ads turned on I used to sell a lot. These days I'm selling around €150 a month.

Why did you stop the Facebook ads?

Now that I'm out of stock, I'm receiving emails from customers inquiring when we will be back in stock. When I ask how our product is helping them they mention they feel a lot better using my product. Which puts me right back in doubt mode (They can probably just buy turmeric capsules and feel the same)

You have customers who want your product. Why does that put you in doubt mode? I would think that would be reassuring.
 

RoadTrip

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Why did you stop the Facebook ads?

They stopped converting after a while. I changed creatives, copy etc but after so many people have seen the product they start loosing interest. Google ads doesn’t have the volume in my country unfortunately.

You have customers who want your product. Why does that put you in doubt mode? I would think that would be reassuring.

Yes I would think so too. The problem is I only have around 5 recurring purchases a month now.




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GSF

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They stopped converting after a while. I changed creatives, copy etc but after so many people have seen the product they start loosing interest. Google ads doesn’t have the volume in my country unfortunately.



Yes I would think so too. The problem is I only have around 5 recurring purchases a month now.




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Could you not expand to neighbouring Eu countries?
 
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AgainstAllOdds

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I really hope you guys can help me with this. I'm so stuck in my current business that I really can't figure out what to do next. Actually, not being able to figure out the next steps burned me out back in April. I'm almost better now and I want to make a final decision on this business.

I'll give you some background first...Last year I started a supplement business. I got the idea because I'm suffering from an autoimmune disease so I try every natural supplement known to man kind. This is when I stumbled upon turmeric. I started creating Turmeric Latte and got the idea to sell a ready made blend. Which only requires (vegan) milk.

So I started selling using Facebook Ads and gained traction. To date I have sold around €25.000 worth of product. In the beginning with the FB ads turned on I used to sell a lot. These days I'm selling around €150 a month. Note that this is just in The Netherlands. I tried selling abroad but that didn't work out for me.

With sales decreasing I thought I should add another product. Which I did. I started selling an Energy Blend. It was selling but sales were not even close to what I sold with the first product. I had no idea what to do next and started doing market research. And then some more and more until I got completely burned out.

A month ago I decided to pull the trigger and quit the business. I didn't purchase any new ingredients to create the blend. Now that I'm out of stock, I'm receiving emails from customers inquiring when we will be back in stock. When I ask how our product is helping them they mention they feel a lot better using my product. Which puts me right back in doubt mode (They can probably just buy turmeric capsules and feel the same)

I have no idea if want to continue pursuing this business. I don't know how to grow, what other products to add, what new angles to try and whether I have enough passion for the market. I know I don't have passion for the superfood smoothie market (mainly young women). But I do like the fact that I'm helping people with their health issues. My market is usually an older generation, which is usually also more into popping pills.

Based on the above, do you think it's time to move on? What do you suggest? This is my 5th attempt at business so I'm not afraid to call it a failure.

€25.000 in the first year is a great success. Build upon that.

If I was you, I'd build the business up as much as I can, and then sell it on Empire Flippers at a 2.5x valuation.

After that, move on.

But as of now, there's no reason to quit. You spent a lot of time on this, and should go away with something - even if you don't want to operate the business anymore.
 

Fassina

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€25.000 in the first year is a great success.
That's revenue, so not bad, but I wouldn't call it a great success.

I have no idea if want to continue pursuing this business. I don't know how to grow, what other products to add, what new angles to try and whether I have enough passion for the market.
Try new flavors, bigger packages, automatic shipping (i.e subscription), premium versions, bundles, radio ads, magazine articles, affiliates, influencer marketing..

i.e pay a few bloggers to promote it, instagram maybe but remember instagram posts don't rank well on google and don't stick around for long. Facebook health pages etc.

I might give this a try myself.. ;P
 
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RoadTrip

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Thanks to everyone who replied to this thread. I appreciate it!

Every single reply suggests I continue to pursue this business. So that is what I am going to do! I am going to give this one last shot and give it all the attention I possibly can. Considering I am still recovering from a burnout it will go slow initially, but with even small steps growth is possible.

Try new flavors, bigger packages, automatic shipping (i.e subscription), premium versions, bundles, radio ads, magazine articles, affiliates, influencer marketing..

I will give this a shot. I especially see subscriptions as a great addition to the products I'm selling. I also never tried influencer marketing while I've always thought it to be a great strategy. I just didn't believe in my products enough. I'm lucky my brother runs an influencer marketing agency and is willing to help me.

The past week I already started thinking of the first next steps. This is what I'm going to focus on next:
  1. Figure out my future product line and target market
  2. Rebrand > required to reach the right target market and be in line with future product line
  3. Create the first product of the future product line. I've always had this product in mind and I'm going to make this a reality now.
  4. Try all sorts of marketing. Try and stick with the methods that work
  5. Add the additional products
  6. Expand internationally
  7. ?
  8. ?
 

njord

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why dont you contact your loyal costumers and ask for some feedback, on other flavors what could be better ect?
 

RoadTrip

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why dont you contact your loyal costumers and ask for some feedback, on other flavors what could be better ect?

I need to talk to my customers more. Especially the loyal customers. I will include this on my list. Thanks.


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Danny V.

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One year $25k isn’t bad. If you are able to, keep going. Took me 2.5 years to finally get stabilized. First 1.5 sucked and I doubted the business.


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Johnny boy

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You have a solution to a problem for a particular type of person.

Make content for people who have that problem and build an audience.

Make a youtube channel, a blog, and a facebook group and start posting high quality content for those people on youtube, your blog and for facebook. Write on quora and answer forum questions about the issues your audience members face. Eventually people will share their own opinions and will sell it for you from public reviews. Use re-targeting ads on your most engaged-with content and then scale it up. If it's any sort of real problem you should be making at least a hundred thousand a year in profit from this.

Anyone with that problem will be searching for it online, watching helpful videos about it and buying something that introduces itself as a solution to their problem. Maybe there's a better solution you can eventually offer to them. Maybe you'll learn about their other problems you can also fix.

Make 100 great videos, 100 great blog posts, and lots of facebook posts and get ad results from no less than 10,000 people before you think of evaluating whether or not you should quit. Read great blogs, watch great youtube channels, and read all you can to learn how to operate as a successful internet businessman.

That, or don't waste another second on it.
 

Blu H

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I hope your Health is holding up RoadTrip. I hope you didn't quit. You have a Winner on your hand... which people simply don't know about!

You're currently at the Marketing Hurdle. It's not your forte, and that's fine! If your health is there, Network you A$$ off with possibly Wholesalers since your product seems to be a non dazzling Health Product!

These type of non dazzling Health product do very well in Wal-Mart and OTC Pharmacy stores. Imagine if your product could get on there? You'd be Golden!
 
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RoadTrip

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Curious to know how the story unfolded.

Care to update all of us? @RoadTrip

Thank you for showing your interest! I had completely forgotten about this thread.

Back in April this year I have decided to quit the business due to the low amount returning customers. I had around 5 - 10 recurring orders every month despite having sold to more than a 1000 people. So I figured there must be something inherently wrong with the product. My assumption: it's too much of a hassle to create a warm Golden Milk drink for their purpose. Also, golden milk doesn't tend to be a very popular drink in summer.

So I faced a decision: completely rethink the product or quit. I had tried to think of how I could create a powder that would be easy to drink anytime of the day and almost doesn't require any preparation time. Even after experimenting I couldn't find a proper solution. The only other solution I could come up with are capsules for which there are many alternatives already. So in the end I decided to quit the business. And to be honest, I'm happy I did. I have to say, however, that the itch is still there and maybe someday I may look again the problem and see if I can find a better solution.

After quitting this business I decided to start selling my own private label products (non-supplements) on a local platform in our country. A platform very similar to Amazon. This picked up quite well and I'm growing every week. I'm fully focused on this right now and estimate to reach my first goal, giving up my FT job, somewhere Q1 next year.

So even though I gave up on the supplement business things are going really well. I haven't regret it quitting for a single moment so far.

EDIT: I also have to add that perhaps the most important in this business was to build an audience. Although this was suggested by Johnny Boy I had completely lost the drive and passion for the company. If I had to redo it again, this would on top of the list.
 

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