Keep going or quit and move on? Any tips or feedback?

[RobinVL]

Hi everyone,


At the moment I am in a crisis. Feeling insecure about my business and not knowing if I should pursue or just give up and get to work as freelance IT Consultant.


About me:

• 30 years old
• Enough in savings and investments to not have to work for at least 2/3 years
• Ex IT Consultant (4,5 years of experience)
• Quit my job 1 year ago to start a business because I thought I had a good idea
• Living with my girlfriend that has a decent income
• Live (and born) in the Netherlands

I've been somewhat quiet on the forum for the past year because I have been focused on getting my business up and running. I have been in a struggle with myself for the past weeks because I don't know if I should continue trying to succeed with my current business or to give up and move on.. I have a devil on my shoulder saying I have dumb products that won't sell anyway, I don't know why, but this devil suddenly appeared.


Story:


I have been playing the guitar for 4 years, self-taught but just started taking lessons too. When I started playing, my nails would constantly chip and crack and I would have to grow new nails for weeks. I started to look for nail hardeners and other products to get stronger natural nails and could only find glossy nail polishes or fake nails as a solution. What I actually wanted was a discrete and invisible way to get my nails stronger. I decided to create my own nail care products especially for guitarists (Hope it's not a bad idea to just post my business idea here..).


I produced my products by hiring a cosmetic chemist to get working formulas, tested them until I had products that worked well, and went through a lot of work getting them approved to sell them on the European market. While I was in this process I also built a webshop to sell my products in shopify, now only selling in The Netherlands to start with.


I have gotten some orders (less then 10) over the last month but am having trouble getting people to my website. I have tried Google Ads, SEO, Facebook ads, but non of them have gotten me real results. I haven't invested a lot in it (around 150 euro’s) because I am worried to waste a lot of money. Just scared that it won't work out..


I would actually like to get some feedback if you think that there is any meaning in further pursuing this idea or if you think that the products I am trying to sell are not very likely to succeed and I should just abandone ship and move on to the next idea...


I might sound somewhat insecure in my post, but that is simply because I am. I am having problems with feelings of shame and insecurity for not succeeding like I was hoping to. Having put so much effort into my products and shop, I am afraid I haven't done enough market research to know If my products are something that enough people would want.


In my head I am thinking that I have the following options:

• Learn more about marketing myself and try to keep going
• Invest in someone doing my marketing for me and see what happens
• Abandon ship and move on (I already have a meeting planned with a recruiter for freelance IT Consultancy)
• Keep trying with the business and do freelance work on the side

What would you do in my situation? Does anyone have any tips?


If you got here, many thanks for reading my story. I hope someone can help me get this damn devil off my shoulder… If you have any questions please feel free to ask!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Trismigistus]

Ive played guitar for the past 20 years and have known a bunch of guitarists throughout my life, I have never heard of people's nails getting jacked up or cracking or anyhing like that, there are constant complaints of calluses, but never heard or saw anything about people's nails getting messed up, this is just me though. Have you done market research, do a lot of people get messed up nails playing guitar? If you have the capability to not work for awhile and you already dont have a job, why not keep going for it? Even if you do scrap this business, you could keep going with another idea and make it before having to get another job to put food on the table. Good luck man, keep trying til you crack the fastlane nut!

 

[Dufresne85]

Sounds to me you haven't really verified your solution and that is why you are scared to go all in.

Go talk to your ideal customers, invite them, give them free samples, find out if your solution is actually a solution they would pay for. After that, I'd think about making the decision to quit or not.

 

[RobinVL]

Thanks for your valuable feedback guys, I think you are absolutely right about not having verified my solution in the market and I know what my next steps are going to be.

I've made an appointment with the father of a friend that has a ton of experience in marketing. He told me to write down my positioning and value proposition and he will meet me this friday to talk it thru and help me with the next steps.

I think it is too soon to quit and I should test if my product is valuable enough for enough people to pay for it. If not, then I'll quit and move on to the next idea.

I will let you know how all went!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Panos Daras]

I think the product is not a bad idea. When I was playing classical guitar it was indeed a problem. I am not sure how many people play the guitar nowadays. I have a feeling that this number is declining.

First, validate that people will buy and then go all in. One idea would be to do something similar with the people as dude wipe in regard to marketing. Basically, it is a product mostly used by women, but yours is for musicians playing guitar (mostly men).

 

[Jrjohnny]

For me, when ever I stroke a guitar, the very few times I have, my nails do hurt, but so do my cuticles, I had an idea of almost like leather finger gloves, but dropped it.

You can maybe proceed with that, another idea I had since I do play piano are some hand exercises to stretch out fingers.

I thought of some machine of which your put your fingers in and it stretches your fingers.

There are so many ideas out there in the music industry.

I like this idea, but I’m not a guitar guy.

So, best of luck.

 

[Mikkel]

I don't play guitar, so I have no clue whether or not this is a problem in the industry.

Regardless, validation is important.

A few suggestions, go to local music stores. See if they will carry your product. I can't imagine it will take much space in a music store.

Also, people that play guitar are certainly not the only people who have problems with chipping or breaking their nails.

Quick research tells me that about 20% of people are affected with nail plate brittleness. This population is most common with women over the age of 50. Your product might work for some guitar players, but if you ask me, you might be targeting the wrong population.

Easy solution, creat two different packages for your product. One targeting guitar players and the other targering older women. See what sells and what doesn't. Validate them both.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[jclean]

Your idea is good and more widely applicable than you suspect.
Good margin, product requires little space to stock, you can do a lot with it marketing-wise.

Maybe you can take a patent on your product.

Here is a link from a Dutch newspaper

Cristiano Ronaldo met nagellak in de sauna: waarom doen topsporters dat?

Dat Cristiano Ronaldo goed voor zijn lichaam zorgt, is geen geheim. De 38-jarige superster pakt regelmatig uit met zijn indrukwekkende fysiek op sociale media, maar deze week viel iets anders op: de Portugees poseerde in zijn sauna met gelakte nagels. Het is niet de eerste keer dat hij zijn...

www.bd.nl

It's about the fact that professional athletes often use nail polish.
I can imagine that not every male athlete likes a flashy color like the one cristiano ronaldo uses.

Your product is perfect to send to a lot of famous athletes and if they like to use it and start talking about it...

I would continue with it !

 

[RobinVL]

Thank you all for your time and effort, responding to my story. I appreciate your input more than you can imagine. It's motivating and I'm learning a lot!

Update from my side:
I went to my friends father for some marketing advice, he is a real nice guy with a whole lot of experience and I learned a lot just by talking to him for only an hour. We made a plan for me that exists of walking into music stores and asking them what they think about my idea, and if they would be open for putting some products on the counter to see if people would buy it.

@Mikkel so actually just like you suggested. Don't know why I didn't think of that myself earlier. Think I was living in my own safe little bubble, validating my own products..

I have been to 2 music stores yesterday, 1 owner said no immediatly (bit of a weird guy, not kind at all). Had a nice chat with the owner of the 2nd store and he told me that he thinks there is a market, but not big enough for him to try anything with it. He adviced me to ask a shop that specializes in classical/spanish guitars. So that is gonna be my next step in the guitar nail care story.


Another path:
I like the suggestions made by you all, about trying a new target audience. First step will be women of age 40+. Funny thing is that I have heard this feedback earlier but I just let it fly by me. My mom and aunt told me that they themselves + some of their friends have a problem with fragile, dry and splitting nails. I think one of my products is already perfect for them (did some research).

I asked them if they could ask their friends to try my product and ask them if they would purchase it and recommend it to others. Very curious what will come out of it. If they like the product I'll design a quick brand, logo and packaging and put that on a market place like Amazon or something like it to keep the cost down and see if it sells. If it sells I can continue building.


Thanks again for all of your valuable input, will keep you updated!