8 Eyewear: From Idea, to Launch, to Growth (And Quitting the Job)

[Vick]

I hope this is his reaction:

Lol Ya something like that

 

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[wade1mil]

Wow Vick. Read the thread the last two night. @TheTruth recommended I read it. Amazing job is an understatement. I really respect your commitment to this process and sharing with everyone here. Witnessing your progress really puts entrepreneurship into context. I also think it's great that so many members of this forum offered their help, which is probably due to your kick a$$ tenacity.

You obviously think things through, so I'm sure you've thought about all of this, but I just wanted to dump a few things that crossed my mind while reading your thread.

In regards to Facebook, there may be truth to it not converting well because of the price point like @theag mentioned. It may also never perform as well as Instagram, but I think it's still worth diving into further once you have time. I'd start by split testing multiple landing pages to see if you can increase it, but I'd start with the largest differences first. What I mean is, instead of testing the color of a link (for example), I'd start by testing different concepts completely. I might create one that is graphical and modern, one that is basic and text, one that tells your story, etc. By the way, @JasonR created a new landing page for his website that looked better, and the conversion rate dropped. But what I'd do is test which concept works best. Once I have a concept that is performing better than the rest, I'd make different versions of that concept, again focusing on the largest differences. And basically I'd work my way down the list (going from most dramatic difference to least dramatic) until I found my winner. It may even result in an increase in CR for Instagram as well.

In regards to shipping to countries like Australia, this may make sense to use Amazon FBA in Australia. Assuming their costs are the same as in the United States, you're looking at about $30-35 for them to pack, ship and handle returns for you. In order to do this, you'd need to get your defect rate to 0% like you said, but it may make sense to hire the third-party inspections company in China for AU orders, and have them ship it directly to Amazon's warehouse in Australia. At least temporarily, you're only paying $30-35 per order rather than the $70-109 or whatever it was you paid.

Beyond that, just wanted to say great job and thanks for your follow along.

 

[ddall]

Vick,

I forget where I read this, likely multiple sources and many here are already familiar with what is termed a 'buying frenzy' first hand. It is the psychology of an individual whereupon once they have made a purchase, clicked buy/complete etc, and have experienced the subsequent and gratifying dopamine rush that accompanies this action, for a brief window of time they are more primed than ever to make another purchase.

I read and listen to many books in my free time, and recently on audible.com I have enjoyed examining their efforts to leverage this human behaviour and was thinking how it may be applicable to my own website and perhaps yours and others as well.

What happens is this: The user buys 3 credits (basically three books as a bundle) and following this purchase a colourful popup fills the screen with a "SURPRISE! Flash Sale $4.95 book, pick one book and it's yours for less" with a "special sale cart" .

You can bet Amazon has split tested this to death from color, to copy, to location and timing. Point being, in the buying frenzied state of having just made a purchase, this may be a worth while strategy for you, others and myself to emulate. Amazon does this because it is so successful in adding to customer LTV. They are masters at sales and split test EVERYTHING as most amazon retailers can attest with the near daily changes and tweaks they make.

Perhaps in your case after a purchase is made, you can offer a "flash sale" popup for a discount on eye cleaner, or other ancillary products, or even a discount on a pair that is not a major seller. Point is with little effort you can likely increase your bottom line and lifetime customer value.

 

[putinwork]

Vick,

I forget where I read this, likely multiple sources and many here are already familiar with what is termed a 'buying frenzy' first hand. It is the psychology of an individual whereupon once they have made a purchase, clicked buy/complete etc, and have experienced the subsequent and gratifying dopamine rush that accompanies this action, for a brief window of time they are more primed than ever to make another purchase.

I read and listen to many books in my free time, and recently on audible.com I have enjoyed examining their efforts to leverage this human behaviour and was thinking how it may be applicable to my own website and perhaps yours and others as well.

What happens is this: The user buys 3 credits (basically three books as a bundle) and following this purchase a colourful popup fills the screen with a "SURPRISE! Flash Sale $4.95 book, pick one book and it's yours for less" with a "special sale cart" .

You can bet Amazon has split tested this to death from color, to copy, to location and timing. Point being, in the buying frenzied state of having just made a purchase, this may be a worth while strategy for you, others and myself to emulate. Amazon does this because it is so successful in adding to customer LTV. They are masters at sales and split test EVERYTHING as most amazon retailers can attest with the near daily changes and tweaks they make.

Perhaps in your case after a purchase is made, you can offer a "flash sale" popup for a discount on eye cleaner, or other ancillary products, or even a discount on a pair that is not a major seller. Point is with little effort you can likely increase your bottom line and lifetime customer value.

I wonder how hard it would be to make a pop-up for another sale when the transaction already went through. I wonder if there is a Shopify app (since this is one of the most popular platforms) if they have a 1 click enable button for this exact reason. Great idea to implement!

 

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[tafy]

I wonder how hard it would be to make a pop-up for another sale when the transaction already went through. I wonder if there is a Shopify app (since this is one of the most popular platforms) if they have a 1 click enable button for this exact reason. Great idea to implement!

Im planning to add this feature personally, once they have bought the item you pitch the upgrade version at a discount

Example: Basic Widget £50 and Upgraded Widget is £100

User buys basic widget, after checkout user get success screen with an offer to upgrade to the upgrade widget at a 50% discount (£75) with a 2 minute countdown timer.

Technical issues: You need to pre authorise payment instead of taking it outright and charge the card after the offer time is up, this solves the problem of doing 2 card transactions. I would pre-authorise the card for the full £75 then take the £50 or £75 depending what the user has chosen.

 

[MitchC]

The book you read that in is called Ready, Fire, Aim


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BlakeIC]

Vick do you ever plan to roll out with bigger frames? I have a greek nose so i can't wear just any glasses because of the bridge of my nose

I am a minority though as a greek nose isn't common

I would buy a pair if I didn't have this issue

 

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[MTF]

How are things going, @Vick?

 

[Vick]

How are things going, @Vick?

Apologies. Alot Goin on. We're buying a new home. And it's been quite the ordeal seeing as we're self employed. Alot of loop hole games we have to do. It's been the hardest struggle thus far. I promise I will have añ update when we are settled.

 

[SlowlaneJay]

He's back!

 

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[Vick]

He's back!

Lol always been here. Just silent. I have about 30 min a night of alone time. I just prefer to spend it relaxing and not typing huge updates that take me an hour to write.

I thought being free from my old job would givee more time. It's been quite the opposite. Alot of work is involved when you scale. And move. And deal with China's bullshit. And inventory issues. And social media. And answering emails. Etc etc. When the business grows your time gets thinner and thinner.

Business is still strong. New inventory in a few weeks. Then another huge inventory in Sept. Defect issues has been solved hopefully. I'll know in a few weeks. If that's the case. Then we can start to scale rapidly with our supplier.

Dealing with a mortgage has taken up alot of our precious time. As well as depleted my bank account significantly. But we have to move. Our 2 bedroom condo cannot support the business and my family anymore. We need space. 4000 units in a small space doesn't work.

We found a home. Put an offer in and it was accepted. Now where waiting on financing. Which is very hard with self employed. Anyway it was a huge issue. More on that later for people interested in obtainING mortgages with business in Canada. Probably different in US.

Aviators got canned. HUGE issues with China. Had to back out. Wasted 4 months with them. Again, long story. We decided to make our own Aviators from scratch. Other designs are also in the works.

More later my friends.

 

[tafy]

We decided to make our own Aviators from scratch

Im glad you decided not to cheap out and go design a proper unique version. Good going!

 

[Aidan]

Glad to see things are booming Vick. Hopefully you'll be at a point eventually where you can see what hours you're able to free up.

Do you find that social media takes up a lot of time? Would you consider/trust hiring someone to manage your social media?

 

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[MTF]

Just curious - if a company offered to buy you out for a few million dollars (or anything you consider your final figure), would you sell your business or is running your business too fun and enjoyable to sell?

 

[Vick]

Do you find that social media takes up a lot of time? Would you consider/trust hiring someone to manage your social media?

yes, social takes up a lot of time, so focus on maybe 2-3 networks. and no, i would not have someone else do it, but thats just me. we only really use FB and IG. when your followers size scales so does your private messages and comments, etc.

 

[The-J]

Just curious - if a company offered to buy you out for a few million dollars (or anything you consider your final figure), would you sell your business or is running your business too fun and enjoyable to sell?

I think we all know what company is going to end up coming to him with an offer that he can't refuse... I give it three years tops.

 

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[Vick]

Just curious - if a company offered to buy you out for a few million dollars (or anything you consider your final figure), would you sell your business or is running your business too fun and enjoyable to sell?

Lol I'll be honest I thought about this alot.
Its fun to build something cool and offer it to the world. And I do enjoy it for the most part because of that.
With that said. If someone offered me 10 mil+ one day it would definitely need to be talked about realistically. It's a large number and should be given a great deal of thought.
But right now I love where we are. I finally have an equilibrium in my life and feel good.

 

[Vick]

New colors and inventory are up back to full throttle again.
http://iwear8.com

Sales are gaining again already. Be a couple weeks until we get our monthly revenue back up to 60k where it was.

Also have another ad and marketing plan to get sales over 100k by October. I'm basically just going to double up what's working, budget wise, and test out some other ad channels. I couldn't before because I didn't have the inventory.

Tornado Hunters airs in September so that should give us a boost. The main star on the show wears our shades. Although for the first episodes he will be in Oakleys. We came in later on to replace his Oakleys thanks to a friend in Toronto that hooked us up with the Producer of the show. So that should help the brand a bit.

Oh and we got house everything is finalized. It was extremely hard on us mentally and physically. It was quite the battle. But we got it. We will be moving to Peterborough on September 30th. Which also means we have a TON more space for inventory. The house is 5600 Sq ft which is alot better then our 2 bedroom condo. Anyway I'll have some pics of the place when we move in. Here is a video of the house in its current state. Not our stuff in there.

Cheers

EDIT - I could never have owned a house like this working my old job. It would take me 10 years to save and I probably still couldn't buy it. Finding the path to freedom and entrepreneurship has been the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Never give up my friends.

 

[MTF]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing! Always good to read your updates.

 

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[James Thornton]

Now those are some kickass shades!

 

[Dark Water]

Sneak peek.

The VORTEX

Aviator frame. Matte Black - Green

This will be our next model. Slated for this summer.

View attachment 9078

Congrats on the home. Just checked out the Facebook page for the first time.

Family members of mine living on different sides of the country are fans of your page. That's progress.

Is this Vortex still slated for the summer?

 

[Jake]

Awesome Vic!

I passed through the outskirts of Toronto on the way to the airport a few days ago and Townhouses were being advertised for $550k or so. I don't even want to know what that place cost. Nevermind. I just saw the end of the vid.

 

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[Vick]

Awesome Vic!

I passed through the outskirts of Toronto on the way to the airport a few days ago and Townhouses were being advertised for $550k or so. I don't even want to know what that place cost. Nevermind. I just saw the end of the vid.

The house is about 1.5hrs from Toronto in a city called Peterborough. A house like that in TO would cost about 1.5 - 2mil probably, considering the land size and Sq feet. That's why I moved lol. TO is way to dn expensive to live. No need to live in an expensive city. I no longer have to work downtown TO. Thank the universe.

 

[Vick]

Congrats on the home. Just checked out the Facebook page for the first time.

Family members of mine living on different sides of the country are fans of your page. That's progress.

Is this Vortex still slated for the summer?

Thanks.
And no. The Vortex is on hold. China issues. It will be developed from scratch. 2016 it will make its appearance. Along with the Vapor. And possibly the VX.

 

[Bigguns50]

Damn glad to read your updates @Vick ! Congrats on your continued success...I'll be following. Great looking pad !

 

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[RHL]

Sales are gaining again already. Be a couple weeks until we get our monthly revenue back up to 60k where it was.

I almost wish this was "outside" just so it could be linked the next time some MLMster drops in to tempt us with the awesome $40 commissions he's earning.

 

[blackhat]

I almost wish this was "outside" just so it could be linked the next time some MLMster drops in to tempt us with the awesome $40 commissions he's earning.

But this took a lot of time and effort to build. I can just send the MLM company a check and start selling the same products that 10 of my friends are trying to peddle to our circle. Much easier.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Which also means we have a TON more space for inventory.

Not sure how Canada works, but this means part of your home expenses might be tax deductible. Congrats on the big move and awesome biz updates!!!!

I no longer have to work downtown TO. Thank the universe.

One of the benefits of entrepreneurship that isn't so readily seen. I'm sure you don't get stuck in traffic much anymore either.

But this took a lot of time and effort to build. I can just send the MLM company a check and start selling the same products that 10 of my friends are trying to peddle to our circle. Much easier.

I went to a swap meet a few weeks ago. After walking several aisles, I started to get anxiety and wanted to leave. Why? Most of the vendors were selling the same stuff and the whole thing just reeked of desperation. When 20 people are selling the same shit on the same block, the same price doesn't win-- it's the lowest.

 

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[RHL]

Not sure how Canada works, but this means part of your home expenses might be tax deductible. Congrats on the big move and awesome biz updates!!!!

+1. 30% of my house's ft^2 qualifies for a legitimate tax deduction because of this. It won't change your life, but it's an event that can set off a process of saving. Look into it.

One of the benefits of entrepreneurship that isn't so readily seen. I'm sure you don't get stuck in traffic much anymore either.

Guys who ditch the 9-5: Go to the gym and the grocery store and stuff at weird hours. Like 10:30PM on a Monday night. It will change your life. I haven't stood in a line to buy something in over a month.

 

[Jake]

I was walking around a mall today and had a pair of 8's sitting on top of my head. A guy ran up to me and complimented me on them and asked where I got them from.

He said something like "cool motorcycle shades, man"