Private Label Brand selling Ecological House-Hold Goods

[Champion]

Quick Update:

I have really got my shit together now. I have a long-term plan and reverse engineered how I will get there. Im using visualisation daily and dam, it really gets me excited and fired up to get this thing going, u guys have no idea!

Im currently in the process of incorporating to have limited liability, since I plan to sell my products online. Im estimating that the process will take around 2-3 weeks to fully complete. I paid some bucks to be assisted by an experienced lawyers office, in my opinion, the money already paid back (all the tips and information I got from them).

I have to admit, once you really take action, its a f***ing scary feeling, but rewarding at the same time... Theres no going back now...

I am pretty much putting ALL my savings into the company (besides money that I need for food and rent for the next 6-8 months). Worst case, if I fail, its getting another job to rinse-repeat the process. Believe me, I really dont want to fail at it this time around...

I am going to give it all I got and try to launch my product idea latest by early November. Plan is to sell it online and get a push in sales from the christmas business. I think my product is in a good price range for christmas presents and its deffinetly a product that adds value and is (for some weird reason?) not really popular or discovered yet in my niche, although it would be such a good thing to use.

Im confident that I can get my network of friends and family to push me with good ratings on amazon (30-40 reviews at least) for my product, once it is ready. Social Proof along with some ad spend should get me going with some sales to get started.

I have used amazon FBA before and since I dont want ANYTHING to go wrong with the logistics during christmas season, I will be relying on them to fulfill orders and ship to customers. Ofcourse, I will also store some products at my place and ship via DHL from there.

I am looking to produce my product locally (made in Germany), none of that Chinese shit.

Am looking forward to give you guys more updates soon. @maverick thanks for your kick in the a$$ to get me start taking action, its just what I needed.

Best,
Champion

 

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[Champion]

Quick Update from my side, since I havent posted in almost a month, I cant believe so much time has passed already!

I have been HUSTLING HARD, I fking love it.

The Idea I ended up with is different from the ecological household goods as initially intended. However, I am confident in this idea and im going all the way with executing it.

So far, I have done the following:

1. Started my LLC. (the process is not entirely done yet due to bureaucracy taking ages, but im getting there!).

2. Fully finished planning and envisioning my product. Its actually something which already exists in US and also kind of exists in UK (But it sucks in UK). In my country, this does not exist yet. My product will be better than all alternatives on the market and much better quality too. It will not be more expensive than the competitor from US.

3. I found an awesome local producer for my product.

4. Registered my business name Trademark at the german patent office so no competitors can jump on my listing on Amazon and also I will be able to use the ® Symbol next to my brand name. My business is in a niche where trust & credibility is very important, so its a big advantage to have the ® symbol.

5. Created the Value Array and Really put a lot of thought into the customers "NEEDS" which I am actually solving. I will use this to develop angles and hopefully good advertisements to get people to my online store.

An investigation of my current Business Idea using the CENTS model would yield following results:

Control -

YES. I will be producing my product with one supplier for now, however, there are many other manufacturers that can offer similar high quality and I can switch to them incase producer doesnt work. I will be mainly selling through my own website, however, I will also use amazon & Ebay to sell. In addition, I will be approaching retail stores to sell my products offline in their stores.

Entry -

I am a bit worried about this point. Technically, anyone could copy me. All they would have to do is find a producer for the product (Of which there is plenty) and copy everything im doing.... Lets see what happens.

Need -

I believe there is a need for this product. As mentioned, it already exists in US and I know people ordering it here to Europe from there, because its not available here!

Time -

Yes, can be leveraged

Scale -

Yes, can be leveraged in all of Europe and even Internationally.

Next steps to organize:

6. Create Branded Packaging for my product (Cartons and sealed bags, both need my branding!) I need to make the logo and also find the producer that will make the packagings for me.

7. Finish building the website

8. Convince friends to give some reviews on my product (I want to have at least 10 or more on Amazon).

9. Start running Ads to my online store

10. Approach retailers that can sell my product offline in their store

 

[Champion]

UPDATE:

Everything is moving along! I have finally reached a point where I will have my MVP (Minimum Viable Product) ready soon. I am going to have 60x of my product to sell.

Im shipping 25 of those to amazon and the other 35 I will keep for myself to sell on Ebay/Shopify store.

I almost made a huge mistake in this "testing MVP" phase and learned a very valuable lesson I want to share with you guys:

My product includes 8 different types of pills. Naturally, I approached Pill producers in my country. When I found a very legit one, that I suspect to be the supplier of other top brands in my country, they said they only produce 100,000 Pills minimum order (and thats for only 1 type of pill). For me that would have meant having to buy 800,000 pills.... DEFFINETLY NOT POSSIBLE FOR A TEST.

However, the Supplier also shared a contact with me (a partner company) that could provide me with smaller amounts (approx. 6000 pills per type).

I contacted this partner company and tried to negotiate down from 6000 to about 1000-2000 pills.

I tried to explain to them that I dont need that many pills to start with and I need to test first. All in all, it still would have been a 2500-3000 Euro order I would have placed with this company..... not that bad business. Anyways, I guess thats for them to judge if my order would be worth their effort, I just think the employee couldnt work or think outside the box. Anyways, they were very unflexible and insisted on minimum order quantity of 6000 pills.

Afterall, what im doing now, is that im buying the pills straight from my competitors (who also source it from these companies). Sure, its more expensive to buy it from them ,however, atleast I dont need to commit to huge quantities in the test phase, as I am able to buy just the small amounts that I need! This will allow me to create 60x of my product to test (all while only risking 300 euros).

Depending on how this test phase will go with the MVP, I can always make bigger orders later. Im really happy I didnt let that company push me into a corner and except the 6000 pills minimum order. I have to admit, I was going to do it!

After sleeping over it though and unleashing my creativity in the gym, I just decided on the alternative of buying it from competitors. On first site, that was an alternative that wasnt even visible to me though.

My lesson learned: Never lean yourself too far out of the window just to get a business idea executed quickly. Give it 2-3 days of sleep and look for alternatives. You might find a much much better way of getting what you need done. I think its really comparable to the "Quick-Fix" mentality. Be patient, look for alternatives if the current options are not the right solution you're looking for and most important: dont take any shortcuts. Always remember, business is a competitive sport. Therefore, build your product for a competitive market!

Will keep you guys updated!

Best
Champion

 

[Champion]

Weekly Update:

Things have been moving along, but everything is moving slower now.

I have been making some connections to people that have already built an online shop in a similar niche that im targeting. They actually raised a lot of legal & compliance points that I need to get sorted before rolling out my MVP. I think it will set me back by 1 or 2 weeks, not too big of a deal.

I already received all my raw materials for the first batch of the product.

I also ordered sample packagings which have all already arrived. Compared to my competitors, my product is going to be DOPE, I cant wait.

Things left to do before launching:

- From all my sample packagings I need to make a decision and decide on which one I want, then make the order

- Sort out Legal & Compliance issues that came up (I need to register my product with certain authorities and also legal text which needs to go on the packaging)

- I need to order "Stickers" which will go on the packaging. I already found a potential supplier for this. The sample is arriving next week Monday/Tuesday. If quality is good, I will make the order with them too.

- I need to apply for TAX ID through my accountant and also incorporation process is nearing towards its end stages now, should be through in the next 1-2 weeks.

Will give another update in a week!

Best,
Champion

 

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[Champion]

An update from my side, since i havent posted in a long while:

I have my website and product ready to launch, whats left now is 2 legal things that need to get done in order to start selling:

- Get my VAT Seller ID (already been applied for about 2-3 weeks ago and should come soon).
- Register the company for business in my niche with the authorities (sent the mail 2 days ago, im expecting this to be done next week).

What a journey it has been since April.

I started off with a completely different idea (wanted to produce ecological household goods) and ended up creating a supplements product for a niche of customers. I think that the customers will love the product, im only not sure about the price!

There is still a lot to do, the first thing of all is getting my first sale.

Then I will need to learn the following:

- Selling my product as profitably as possible on Amazon & Ebay
- Optimizing conversions on my shopify store to sell as profitably as possible on there
- Learn running google, facebook and insta ads to my store
- Learn to optimize these process and create automated systems
- Customer support
- Handle the logistics and shipping
- Build the brand up and create effective marketing


Looking forward to hear any input that you guys have!

 

[Champion]

Update from my side:

I have got all the legal stuff done now.

My Product and Packaging as well as Website are also ready. (Atleast MVP versions)

Its time to make my first sale!

I have a facebook and Instagram page where I got my close friends to give me likes.

I recently listened to the 1 Page Marketing Plan (By Allan Dib) and really resonated with it.

It felt like I found the book at just the right time when I needed it.

Its Audio version is only 6 hours long and very practical, easy to apply advice.

Im currently drafting my sales funnel / Landing pages etc and I will start launching online advertising campaigns in about a week. Im really excited!

Will keep you guys updated and let you know when I make my first sale!

Best

 

[Champion]

Hey Guys!

Here I am again with an update:

Im currently running and testing my first ads for a super "easy to convert" offer (Free Samples lol!)

I just started running the ads today, so no idea what the results will be. Plan is to let them run for 2 weeks and then sort the good audiences/creatives from the ones that didnt work as well. I also found out about the facebook carpetbomb method, which is really good for finding the right audience for your product.

Thats it for today!

Best
Champion

 

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[Champion]

Hey all, I havent checked in for quite a while, although I have been active on the forum, I still want to give an update on how its going with this business.

I have made a small pivot in my product (although its still serving the same industry). Production is already complete and the delivery should arrive at my place either tommorow or the day after.

My website is ready, all I need is great product photos, once the product is here.

I also still need to build my background email marketing infrastructure. I will do this in the coming break over new years, so that in 2020 I will be able to go full force.

I will be running a facebook carpet bomb campaign over new years as well, to find my niche audience on facebook.

Will keep you guys updated!

Wish you all a merry xmas and happy New years. May we all reach our goals in 2020!

 

[Champion]

Back from holiday!

Hey guys, I just got back from a two week holiday (went to Tbilisi and Istanbul) and im ready to get back into my hustle routine.

I cant stress enough how important it is to take a timeout every once in a while to enjoy the journey and recharge your batteries!

Before this holiday I was feeling completely stressed out and ineffective. Now im ready to rock and roll and continue working on the business.

Will keep you guys updated weekly on my progress.

 

[Champion]

Update from my side:

Its absolutely crazy how I always ignored this one advice, that people kept giving me about business:

"Surround yourself with like minded people and find mentors".

Since the new year, I have a membership at wework, which is basically a shared office space. Over there, I met people who are already a few steps ahead of me in terms of what im trying to achieve my business.

They have expert knowledge in building websites, writing good copy, running traffic to website, customer service and many other usefull skills.

I have pretty much spent the last month hustling away, learning shit tons of new stuff that there is to learn.

My life has become pretty unbalanced in the last 3-4 weeks though, unfortunately. I havent gone to the gym in a while (this is also because I was sick), but I realize that I have really started ignoring almost all other parts of my life, to hustle on the business.

Im so excited about all the new skills I was able to pickup in such a short time with the new guys I've been hanging out with and overall, I think it will be positive.

I just need to start re-implementing my health habits so I dont burn-out longterm.

Will give my next update in a week!

 

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