Closing my company – Post-mortem analysis so you can learn from my mistakes

[windchaser]

It was a good experience for you and for some of us which are read it.
Good luck with your next business and thanks for sharing

Many thanks! I am glad you found it helpful!

 

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[windchaser]

The problem is that 95% of people (including 60% of medical doctors) interpret results of medical tests incorrectly.
This leads in some cases to incorrect diagnoses and in some cases to fatal results.

If you want to learn more about this and related problems in medicine, here are some books to read:

[1] Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them, Joe Graedon, MS, and Teresa Graedon, PhD, Graedon Enterprises, Inc., 2011.

[2] Misdiagnosed: One Woman’s Tour of and Escape from Healthcareland, Jody Berger, Published by Sourcebook, Inc., 2014

[3] When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error, Danielle Orfi, MD, Beacon Press, 2020.

[4] Epidemic of Medical Errors and Hospital-Acquired Infections: Systemic and Social Causes, Ed. By William Charney, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2013.

[5] Catastrophic Care: Why Everything We Think We Know About Health Care is Wrong, David Goldhill, Vintage Books (a division of Random House LLC), 2013.

It looks line an interesting topic, but it looks like some expertise is required to execute well on this.
In my case, I prefer to look for opprotunnities in areas in which I have expertise.
But thanks for the input anyway!

 

[Practic]

I agree, although, it is also important to focus on willingness to buy. There are many things people need but they still do not want to pay for them, (we humans are irrational creatures), or sometimes they don't even realize they actually need them.

This is a good point, we sometimes do irrational things, but in extreme conditions we are forced to survive and make rational decisions.

 

[Practic]

It looks line an interesting topic, but it looks like some expertise is required to execute well on this.
In my case, I prefer to look for opprotunnities in areas in which I have expertise.
But thanks for the input anyway!

You are right. It is best to focus on what you are best of.

"But thanks for the input anyway!"

You are welcome!

 

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[windchaser]

This is a good point, we sometimes do irrational things, but in extreme conditions we are forced to survive and make rational decisions.

Even so! Also, another crucial part is choosing your target customers. Not everybody is your customer and have the same situation.

 

[Practic]

Even so! Also, another crucial part is choosing your target customers. Not everybody is your customer and have the same situation.

Agree on this point, but nobody expect that everyone will be their customer.

 

[Scithe]

It was a good experience for you and for some of us which are reading it now.
Good luck with your next business and thanks for sharing. I am going to click here for more stories like yours and also for the ones with the "happy ending". Life is not simple but it makes it even more fun, right?

That link looks like a profile page for a website instead of a link to stories like this. Were you just trying to link build or am I missing something on that sales page?

 

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[KAA]

Thank you for sharing your story! I am very impressed with you that you are viewing this as a learning experience and moving on quickly to your next effort. Last year I had to shut down operations for my traditional business. I am still devastated and have only begun the process of looking at what to try next. You have reminded me to do my best not to take the setback personally.

 

[windchaser]

Thank you for sharing your story! I am very impressed with you that you are viewing this as a learning experience and moving on quickly to your next effort. Last year I had to shut down operations for my traditional business. I am still devastated and have only begun the process of looking at what to try next. You have reminded me to do my best not to take the setback personally.

Glad to hear it helped you!
In life, the only think you can control is your attitude towards things.
Even when the worst comes at you, attitude is a very powerful weapon.
Focus on the good and the learnings from your failed business and keep persevering!

 

[windchaser]

Hello again! I have an update on this.
I am finally shutting down at the end of this month, it took longer than expected because, instead of liquidating all stock of clothes in a flash sale, I saw an opportunnity to monetize my brand and remaining stock of materials in a better way.

Here is what I did:

January and February I carried on with regular sales as usual. As generally, thise are good months where my clients buy a lot (even with 15%-20% discounts), so I saw no need to do an aggressive flash sale to shut down quickly.

Also, I barely have fixed costs (less than €1,000 per month) so no big hurry to shut down as fast as possible.

And the original plan was to announce on March we were shutting down and liquidate inventory, but Irealized we still have some fabric left that was used in some best-sellers that have been out of stock for long. It is true that our niche was smaller than expected to make a fastlane business out of it, but it is big enough for a small limited edition last collection.

So, we created a Legacy collection, on-demand, no returns. We made a selection of products that sold well and we "easier" to be manufactured together at smaller scale, and gave the clients a period of time to pre-order. Then we manufacture the products and send them to them. That way we could sell an additional collection without unsold stock risk and the die-hard fans of the brand get closure and can stock up their favourite garments for their kids.

We announced we were shutting down in March and we received a lot of love (that does not pay the bills but it was priceless to see how we made so many people happy). We started with a 3x2 promo and we sold 65% of remaining stock in 2 days. We also announce we will do a last special Legacy collection and they loved the idea.

At the end of March we announced the Legacy collection and it was a total success. We just gave 5 days for all orders and in those days we almost sold out the units we estimated we could manufacture with the remaining fabric, we even need to close orders for a couple of best-seller after the first day. The FOMO was real.

Than, we cut everything and realized we had some fabric left of those best-seller and reopened orders for those specific products. Same effect.

During April and May we are producing the clothes and sent them to clients as we receive them, and we keep liquidating the remaining stock, we have almost nothing by now. At the end of May we will shut down.

I still beilieve the company cannot be saved but even in that case, there was a way to monetize its assets while creating additional value for my most loyal customers, a win-win.

I also have another remaining important asset (the instagram account) but I have not decided what to do with it. I received a couple of offers for it, but I think I could do better with it. We will see!

As for my next venture, I have tried three different ones during these months (with business partners), but they were dead even before launching (mainly due to issues with the business partners), so my next adventure will be alone.

Thanks for reading

 

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