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ajakupi

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Hi to all of you which will read this,
My name is Arjan and I'm from Croatia. Tbh I am still a nobody, I haven't built a business yet nor do I have anything special to provide except my mindset.
I am driven to become libareted from time, locations and liberated financially. But I don't want to be another jerk in our world which is full of them.
I have started developing a energy drink company which will stand for men in terms of stoicism. I want it to be natural and organic and I want to actually provide value for other men.
I am from Croatia and all my life I've worked as a waiter and now as a software enginner. I have to say that I come from privileged situation as my parents have a restaurant which does very well but it isn't something that I have built which I am trying to do.

Regards.

EDITED:
I want to thank all of you for reading this post. I have developing the website and the product design for the last few months. Would love to get your feedback on the webpage (haven't bought the domain yet):
OMNI - NATURAL ENERGY DRINK FOR MEN
 
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Last edited:

beres8011

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Hi to all of you which will read this,
My name is Arjan and I'm from Croatia. Tbh I am still a nobody, I haven't built a business yet nor do I have anything special to provide except my mindset.
I am driven to become libareted from time, locations and liberated financially. But I don't want to be another jerk in our world which is full of them.
I have started developing a energy drink company which will stand for men in terms of stoicism. I want it to be natural and organic and I want to actually provide value for other men.
I am from Croatia and all my life I've worked as a waiter and now as a software enginner. I have to say that I come from privileged situation as my parents have a restaurant which does very well but it isn't something that I have built which I am trying to do.

Regards
Welcome to the group.

The first thing that struck me when I read you post is this question: "How can a drink stand for stoicism?" The two ideas seem so very far apart.
 

ajakupi

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Welcome to the group.

The first thing that struck me when I read you post is this question: "How can a drink stand for stoicism?" The two ideas seem so very far apart.
I have fallen in love in last few years with stoicism. I think it’s one of few timeless philoshophies that actually make a change within us.
Stoicism as a philoshopy, values simplicity, strength within and resilience against adversity.
I am creating a natural and organic energy drink without chemicals (unnatural coffein, taurin and other “ingridients”) instead my energy drink will be made from three plants: guarana, ginseng and green tea. Without artificial colors or sweetners.
With these ingridients I am utilizing simplicity, I am providing sustained boost of energy (promoting resilience and endurance durring diffuculties) and most importantly a healthy energy drink which demonstrates control over our choice by choosing natural.
Maybe the drink doesn’t “practice” Stoicism but at least I am trying to allign it with its values.
 
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ajakupi

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Dobar Dan Arjan, I'm in Croatia visiting. You have an amazing country and culture!
Thank you , would love to host you maybe one day. Maybe we can get in contact?
Either way, Thankful for your time to read my post. God bless
 

FastNAwesome

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Welcome to the forum and best of luck on your path to fastlane!

Big fan of energy drinks here, so wishing you much success with that too:)
 

beres8011

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Hi to all of you which will read this,
My name is Arjan and I'm from Croatia. Tbh I am still a nobody, I haven't built a business yet nor do I have anything special to provide except my mindset.
I am driven to become libareted from time, locations and liberated financially. But I don't want to be another jerk in our world which is full of them.
I have started developing a energy drink company which will stand for men in terms of stoicism. I want it to be natural and organic and I want to actually provide value for other men.
I am from Croatia and all my life I've worked as a waiter and now as a software enginner. I have to say that I come from privileged situation as my parents have a restaurant which does very well but it isn't something that I have built which I am trying to do.

Regards.

EDITED:
I want to thank all of you for reading this post. I have developing the website and the product design for the last few months. Would love to get your feedback on the webpage (haven't bought the domain yet):
OMNI - NATURAL ENERGY DRINK FOR MEN
Please do me and yourself a BIG favor..... Do not call yourself a nobody!!!! That type of mindset is very harmful. It can be just as harmful as taking drugs. Rather than a nobody you are a wonderful, vibrant, smart somebody and as such you want respect.
 

ajakupi

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Please do me and yourself a BIG favor..... Do not call yourself a nobody!!!! That type of mindset is very harmful. It can be just as harmful as taking drugs. Rather than a nobody you are a wonderful, vibrant, smart somebody and as such you want respect.
I still a long way to learn but that how I welt sometimes. Thank you for your kind words.
 

nasevnikola

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Bok buraz, i am not sure if i can write on another language here but let's write in English.
It looks amazing to be honest,i like the design and the website so far and i can't wait to test it when it's out.
I am just curious is this product for Croatian marketplace or ?
It looks nice with all natural ingredients.
I am from Serbia btw and i wish you luck with it hopefully i see your product across the Balkan area.
 
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ajakupi

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Bok buraz, i am not sure if i can write on another language here but let's write in English.
It looks amazing to be honest,i like the design and the website so far and i can't wait to test it when it's out.
I am just curious is this product for Croatian marketplace or ?
It looks nice with all natural ingredients.
I am from Serbia btw and i wish you luck with it hopefully i see your product across the Balkan area.
Bok buraz haha.

Let’s continue speaking in English as it looks more professionall.
First of all, thank you for your positive feedback.
Are you working on some project as well?
OMNI is targeted for the beginning for Croatian and Balkan if all goes well.
I’ve tried the drink and it is very good, it tasts very natural but it is not as strong as RedBull and others…
 

nasevnikola

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Bok buraz haha.

Let’s continue speaking in English as it looks more professionall.
First of all, thank you for your positive feedback.
Are you working on some project as well?
OMNI is targeted for the beginning for Croatian and Balkan if all goes well.
I’ve tried the drink and it is very good, it tasts very natural but it is not as strong as RedBull and others…
You are welcome my brother,also i find it really inspiring to find someone on the forum who is from Balkans.
Currently i am researching and learning about business and different industries, networking not really on to something yet.
It sounds like a good idea from what i saw on the web, hope the people like it and you make thing out of it.
I am just curious how did you manufacture the drink i mean did you invested in manufacture facility doing it by yourself or someone else is doing it for you in croatia or import it from other country ?
Also if you have any social media you can send me link on private chat here so maybe we can be useful to one another in future. Network is net worth.
 

Xeon

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One thing I realized recently, is that if a product needs a lot of content marketing to sell it to get the message across to your target audience, and there's no cost-effective way to reach that target audience, it's going to be a very very hard uphill climb with low odds of success....

That, and the branding message on the website is confusing, and the whole 'stoicism' and the product doesn't gel together at all....
 
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Devilery

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Yeah, don't call yourself a nobody, reading your post, I expected something different, but wow - the product's design looks incredible, and the whole site looks really clean too.

I've seen this on TikTok a lot (same concept not the same philosophy and industry) - post stoicism-related content - self-improvement, growth, success, mentality, all that and more, and every 5th or 10th video, feature your product.

Daily inspiration videos, stoicism quotes, "bring back the good times", there are endless content ideas. Sure, creating quality videos takes time or costs money but I can imagine this getting traction with only TikTok and reels.

Btw, just went to Croatia, it was so nice that if didn't already have tickets for another destination I might have spent a few months there.
 

ajakupi

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You are welcome my brother,also i find it really inspiring to find someone on the forum who is from Balkans.
Currently i am researching and learning about business and different industries, networking not really on to something yet.
It sounds like a good idea from what i saw on the web, hope the people like it and you make thing out of it.
I am just curious how did you manufacture the drink i mean did you invested in manufacture facility doing it by yourself or someone else is doing it for you in croatia or import it from other country ?
Also if you have any social media you can send me link on private chat here so maybe we can be useful to one another in future. Network is net worth.
It's good to know that there are people with the same kind of vision in the Balkans (the Wild East). I don't think people on this forum know beautiful life in the Balkans is.

I didn't manufacture the drink because there is a ton of regulation that the drink need to respect to sell in the EU especially. Also, my goal isn't to provide value with manufacturing but rather with creating sports/self-improvement/team-building events and creating a market for a natural energy drink.

I've done some research and found some Poland manufacturers that are experts in the manufacturing field, so they take care of production.

I am thinking of changing my tactics for OMNI. I strongly believe I could be very wrong about this but either way, I strongly believe that kids and men are becoming more and more incapable of doing sports, talking, and making friends. To add up, I feel like Western society has ruined a bit the father's role in the family. I am from the Balkans but I see it happening also here. I have a great dad who I am thankful for and I would love to create OMNI events where fathers with their sons could compete with other families and win something. These kinds of events would help market OMNI and what it stands for.

What about mothers?
I have all respect and love for all mothers. But for now, I want to focus on father-son connections.
For me, a strong family bond is the main pillar that holds my life together. Can't imagine my life without family.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this...
 

ajakupi

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One thing I realized recently, is that if a product needs a lot of content marketing to sell it to get the message across to your target audience, and there's no cost-effective way to reach that target audience, it's going to be a very very hard uphill climb with low odds of success....

That, and the branding message on the website is confusing, and the whole 'stoicism' and the product doesn't gel together at all....
I am thinking of Adjusting the vision. Creating fathers-sons/friends events where OMNI will be sold and given free for the participants.

I know a lot of people who go to running events (Wings for Life, etc..) across Croatia just to compete. I believe I can use these kinds of events to market OMNI and our Stoic vision.

I don't know how familiar are you with Stoicism but I want to use these events to have participants build self-control, calmness, fortitude and etc... which as an after-effect will give them postponed pleasure. This postponed pleasure is 100x more effective in marketing because it's subconscious and if people have this positive subconscious association with OMNI. Boom...
 
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ajakupi

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Yeah, don't call yourself a nobody, reading your post, I expected something different, but wow - the product's design looks incredible, and the whole site looks really clean too.

I've seen this on TikTok a lot (same concept not the same philosophy and industry) - post stoicism-related content - self-improvement, growth, success, mentality, all that and more, and every 5th or 10th video, feature your product.

Daily inspiration videos, stoicism quotes, "bring back the good times", there are endless content ideas. Sure, creating quality videos takes time or costs money but I can imagine this getting traction with only TikTok and reels.

Btw, just went to Croatia, it was so nice that if didn't already have tickets for another destination I might have spent a few months there.
Glad you liked Croatia. Not sure where you are from but in some places in Croatia you can live very cheaply and the environment is clean as f... haha.

Imagine this, OMNI social media accounts never promote the drink only showcase the participants of OMNI events but yet you buy the drink. You've seen the OMNI events and tried the drink there. and couldn't believe how strong (mentally and physically) people came out of the event. It inspired you. That's why you buy it. Now you want to meet people like you or people on their self-improvement journey but where do you find them? You know the answer and you will pay for participation.

I believe this is our vision. Build a strong community and I want to use social media for that case only. I want only to give until people start asking for the drink and events.
 

Muhammad Ibrahim

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Hi to all of you which will read this,
My name is Arjan and I'm from Croatia. Tbh I am still a nobody, I haven't built a business yet nor do I have anything special to provide except my mindset.
I am driven to become libareted from time, locations and liberated financially. But I don't want to be another jerk in our world which is full of them.
I have started developing a energy drink company which will stand for men in terms of stoicism. I want it to be natural and organic and I want to actually provide value for other men.
I am from Croatia and all my life I've worked as a waiter and now as a software enginner. I have to say that I come from privileged situation as my parents have a restaurant which does very well but it isn't something that I have built which I am trying to do.

Regards.

EDITED:
I want to thank all of you for reading this post. I have developing the website and the product design for the last few months. Would love to get your feedback on the webpage (haven't bought the domain yet):
OMNI - NATURAL ENERGY DRINK FOR MEN
bro that website is absolutely lit. i loved it. every bit.
But i agree with some other users about the stoicism part. it's hard to understand how stoicism links to a drink and if it's also hard for your customers/leads, your sales will suffer. no point of a wonderful message if no one understands it.
from what you explained, it seems that the brand is more about organic products, natural, against artificial bs. i don't see how that links to Marcus Aurelius, i do see though how that links to the "organic-natural products" branding.
still if you can find a way to make the message more coherent and understandable it can work great.
and again, the website looks absolutely fire.
 

GatsbyMag

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I'm going to be a major annoyance here....

Drop this idea and project, you are too emotionally invested in it.

Energy drinks for men is a terrible market for you to start in unless you have some insane unfair advantage.

This will never work. I'm not trying to motivate you, this genuinely will not work. Find something more practical that can generate you money in your first week/month.

UPDATE: I just re-read your post, OP you are the worst, your parents literally own a business and instead of learning the ropes and applying your software engineering and waitering experience to optimize your family business, you're going to start a 'stoicism organic energy drink company'. It's easier to go from $1000 to $100,000 than $0 to $100,000. Go help your parents they're getting old. Doesn't matter if you're not passionate about restaurants, we're not in this for passion.
 
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Devilery

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I'm going to be a major annoyance here....

Drop this idea and project, you are too emotionally invested in it.

Energy drinks for men is a terrible market for you to start in unless you have some insane unfair advantage.

This will never work. I'm not trying to motivate you, this genuinely will not work. Find something more practical that can generate you money in your first week/month.
I'm not sure if you're serious, it reads like you are but it's hard to believe. You didn't state any facts, thus you're "suggestion" was based purely on how you feel about the product and market as well.

OP, you have to test it. Nothing matters but data/sales. A few hundred in Facebook Ads or influencer marketing would help you get feedback from actual potential customers, and that is the only thing you should care about in this stage.
 

ajakupi

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I'm going to be a major annoyance here....

Drop this idea and project, you are too emotionally invested in it.

Energy drinks for men is a terrible market for you to start in unless you have some insane unfair advantage.

This will never work. I'm not trying to motivate you, this genuinely will not work. Find something more practical that can generate you money in your first week/month.

UPDATE: I just re-read your post, OP you are the worst, your parents literally own a business and instead of learning the ropes and applying your software engineering and waitering experience to optimize your family business, you're going to start a 'stoicism organic energy drink company'. It's easier to go from $1000 to $100,000 than $0 to $100,000. Go help your parents they're getting old. Doesn't matter if you're not passionate about restaurants, we're not in this for passion.
Maybe it will maybe it won’t but the thought that I never tried is the burden I can’t live with.

I don’t know how familiar you are with tourism but we only work for 6 months, other 6 I am free to work on projects I want. You can’t really optimize the restaurant, ads don’t work because our guests are mostly elder people and families. We have a good offer and a good word of mouth, only thing that needs to be optimized is electricity bills which can’t be legally done for now as the city doesn’t allow solar panels on the roofs in the center of the city. I’ve talked with my father and brother about what can we do to optimize and that is the only thing they said that drains money. So unless you have some connections, panels for the moment are out.

Also, who said I don’t care about the business. I work in the restaurant since I was 13 and I’ve learned a lot about managing people. I am just trying something else, if people on the forum suggest that you can’t even try something that is hard, perhaps I may leave the forum.
 

ajakupi

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I'm going to be a major annoyance here....

Drop this idea and project, you are too emotionally invested in it.

Energy drinks for men is a terrible market for you to start in unless you have some insane unfair advantage.

This will never work. I'm not trying to motivate you, this genuinely will not work. Find something more practical that can generate you money in your first week/month.

UPDATE: I just re-read your post, OP you are the worst, your parents literally own a business and instead of learning the ropes and applying your software engineering and waitering experience to optimize your family business, you're going to start a 'stoicism organic energy drink company'. It's easier to go from $1000 to $100,000 than $0 to $100,000. Go help your parents they're getting old. Doesn't matter if you're not passionate about restaurants, we're not in this for passion.

“I know of no better life purpose than to perish in attempting the great and the impossible.” Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
 
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ajakupi

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I'm not sure if you're serious, it reads like you are but it's hard to believe. You didn't state any facts, thus you're "suggestion" was based purely on how you feel about the product and market as well.

OP, you have to test it. Nothing matters but data/sales. A few hundred in Facebook Ads or influencer marketing would help you get feedback from actual potential customers, and that is the only thing you should care about in this stage.
I agree with you. If the data shows that the market won’t buy and other bad indicators I will drop the idea no matter how attached I am.
Can’t be emotional about business but I’ve got to try.
 

Muhammad Ibrahim

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I agree with you. If the data shows that the market won’t buy and other bad indicators I will drop the idea no matter how attached I am.
Can’t be emotional about business but I’ve got to try.
go for it. he's right about not being emotionally attached but wanting to build something everlasting and impactful is not an indicator of naivety, as long as it is to provide value and not just to have a business for vanity.
try this: grademybusinessidea.com
mj made it
help your parents but you have no obligation to have to join their business
 

DCG

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I agree with you. If the data shows that the market won’t buy and other bad indicators I will drop the idea no matter how attached I am.
Can’t be emotional about business but I’ve got to try.
Before you drop the idea, see if you can find more problems and painpoints people are having about energy drinks and solve them. I really like the idea and you did a really good job
 
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Muhammad Ibrahim

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Before you drop the idea, see if you can find more problems and painpoints people are having about energy drinks and solve them. I really like the idea and you did a really good job
Agreed. The design is great and can be turned into something but i showed it to my friend and he had the same reaction
"STOICISM AND DRINKS? WTF?"
Change the message
 

ajakupi

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Before you drop the idea, see if you can find more problems and painpoints people are having about energy drinks and solve them. I really like the idea and you did a really good job
Thank you for your feedback. I have some ideas how to fix that.
Agreed. The design is great and can be turned into something but i showed it to my friend and he had the same reaction
"STOICISM AND DRINKS? WTF?"
Change the message
Hmm. Interesting. I will fix it.
 

Cano

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This will never work. I'm not trying to motivate you, this genuinely will not work.

"If I fail, that just means the market didn't like what I had to offer. And if that happens, then I'll just go do something else. And if the market likes what I have to say, then I'll keep doing it. That's business, right? The market decides." -BizyDad/MJ

ajakupi wait for the market feedback and then decide if you keep going or do something else.

i would also say that an "energy drink" is hard to establish but who knows how it turns out?

try it, fail (or not) and then try again on something else (or keep going).
 
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SchmingusBingus

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Ok, I don’t want to be too rough but I have to say some things.
1. I’ll parrot the things others said but yeah, stoicism doesn’t really mesh well with a thing that grants you instaint satisfaction. I think a true stoic would just try to fix his sleep sceduel instead of drinking energy drinks.
2. You are fantasising a tad bit too much. While it’s nice to think about all the things you could do, I think you are putting too much of your own selfish desires into the priduct (I do this all the time, it’s natural). The father/son thing, the sporting events and so on.
3. I don’t think that people who drink energy drinks care about ingridients (when I pick up a can of Monster to finish a uni project late into the night I already know that I’m doing something unhealthy, staying late up at night, so I won’t care too much about ingridients). It’s the reason why healthy fastfood options fail (protein pancakes that oppened in Belgrade near the gym I go to). If I want to eat healthy I’ll just cook something. If I want to be healthy I won’t drink energy drinks, I’ll just go to bed at the right time.
4. The website is DOPE! Its really well made so I do think that it might work. Definetly drop the “only for men part” because youre ignoring half of the market.
5. For ads go and advertise on TikTok
6. Also maybe market it as a sports drink rather than an energy drink?
7. Good luck, there is deffinetly an audience of people, especially younger men who would drink your product.
 

ajakupi

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"If I fail, that just means the market didn't like what I had to offer. And if that happens, then I'll just go do something else. And if the market likes what I have to say, then I'll keep doing it. That's business, right? The market decides." -BizyDad/MJ

ajakupi wait for the market feedback and then decide if you keep going or do something else.

i would also say that an "energy drink" is hard to establish but who knows how it turns out?

try it, fail (or not) and then try again on something else (or keep going).
Exactly. I once watched an Shark Tank episode where Mark Cuban said it is one of the hardest industry to compete but I am willing to try and fail. But I'll be damned if I don't try at least.
 

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