Road to Vegas

[Fpm9]

Hey everyone,

I am going to start a business in the health supplement industry, hopefully very soon. I still have a slowlane job, but I can't see myself working in the corporate world for 40 years. I have a decent salary but the only reasons I keep working there are 1 - to pay the bills and 2 - finance my projects.

The supplement I am planning to design and sell is basically an upgraded and adapted version of another supplement that is only used within a small niche market. If I can adapt it successfully and market it differently, I'll be able to reach a broader audience.

I won't get paid until the first week of October so I can't spend too much, but my goals for the next few weeks are :

08/20 :
- Finish TMF ( I received it yesterday, read 1/3 already )
- Order ingredients I plan to use in my product, and a scale.
- Buy a domain name for my business ( I found a name for my company )

08/30 :
- Evaluate each ingredient separately ( I have personally used most of them, but I need to experiment with others )
- Start trying different formulas
- Do some research on other ingredient to see if I'm not missing on a key component
- Work on my website and brand identity
- Order Unscripted

09/30 :
- Have my formula ready
- Do research on the type of business I should start ( I don't know much about laws in my country about this ), and the paperwork required
- Find a name for my product
- Work on my website and brand identity
- Ask manufacturers for quotes
- Finish Unscripted

 

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[Jurica22]

Best of luck to you!

 

[Fpm9]

Update :

Done :
- Finish TMF --> good read, I was planning on reading in a week, it took me 3 days.
- Order ingredients I plan to use in my product, and a scale --> I'm waiting for my package
- Buy a domain name for my business --> Done, I've done a few things on my website and wrote my first blog post
- Order Unscripted --> Waiting for my package

08/30 :
- Evaluate each ingredient separately
- Start trying different formulas
- Do some research on other ingredient to see if I'm not missing on a key component
- Write 2 other blog posts
- Design the "About" page

My priority here is to develop my product and find the right formula, but I'll also have time to read Unscripted and work on the website.

 

[Fpm9]

The last few days were unexpectedly busy, but I should have more free time this week.
Here's my progress :

Done :
- I received all the ingredients I wanted to try for my supplement but I don't have the scale yet. I was able to try a few things, but I need the scale to have precise measurements. Hopefully I will receive it this week.
- Started working on a label design. I'm not satisfied with what I have now, but I believe I'll be able to do something cool.
- Worked on my website, it looks more professional and I wrote 2 more blog posts.
- Received Unscripted , halfway done reading it.

So hopefully I'll have found the right formulation for my product by the end of September. It would be even better to have it sooner, but I need some feedback from friends. I think this is the most important task, and when I'll be done with that, I'll be able to contact manufacturers to ask them for quotes.

Goals for this week :
- Receive this damn scale so I can accurately measure ingredient, and make more tests
- Finish the label design. If I'm not satisfied with my work by next week, then I'll hire someone on Fiverr
- Find a list of manufacturer, ask them for minimum orders

09/30 :
- Have my formula ready
- Do research on the type of business I should start ( I don't know much about laws in my country about this ), and the paperwork required
- Find a name for my product -> Done
- Work on my website and brand identity

 

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[Fpm9]

Over the last few days I wasted time action faking, and I know I could have been more productive. However I was able to progress a bit.

Done :
- Received my scale. I've tried several formulas and things are going well. I need to ajust the ratio of 3 key ingredients, and I had to remove another one since it was taking too much space in capsules for a limited effect. I'll also need more feedback from friends.
- I wanted to finish the label design by this week. I'm not 100% satifsied with what I have now but I think I should be able to do it by myself. Maybe I'll still hire someone from Fiverr.
- Read Cashvertising by Drew Eric Whitman. Then I realized what I wrote on my website was boring, so I reworded parts of it.
- Did research on the legal type of business I should start. Since I'll spend a long time in the train next week I ordered a book about the required paperwork and taxes.
- Added a FAQ page on the website.
- Finished Unscripted .

I'll need to find a manufacturer and ask for quotes. I think that was an important step I shouldn't have delayed. On the other side, I am short on cash right now and I won't be able my first order until at least my next paycheck, more realistically my second next.


Goals for september

09/30 :
- Have my formula ready
- Know what type of business I should have, how to fill the paperwork and how much I'll need to pay upfront.
- Contact supplements manufacturers

Edit : Maybe I should also set up a way to collect emails / preorders, or at least getting a feedback from the market. Any opinion on this?

 

[Fpm9]

Goals for september

09/30 :
- Have my formula ready
- Know what type of business I should have, how to fill the paperwork and how much I'll need to pay upfront.
- Contact supplements manufacturers

Edit : Maybe I should also set up a way to collect emails / preorders, or at least getting a feedback from the market. Any opinion on this?

I recently started a new slowlane job, so I was busier than expected but I've been able to work on my project :

- Improved my website by designing a landing page, so I can collect email adresses
- I wrote a 3500 words eBook that I can give away on my landing page
- I started running some fb ads with a low budget to find the right demographic target, and see if people will subscribe to my newsletter
- Read a book about different types of business in my country ( theres no equivalent to LLCs ). I'm gonna ask some friends who started their business already for advice.
- I still write 1 short blog post a week ( around 500 words ).

I'll see if my ads are working and I'll do more A/B testing in the future. I'll also keep the same goals for the end of September, this seems realistic.

 

[Fpm9]

Quick update :

My first Facebook ads campaign ended yesterday. This was a test run to see how Facebook ads works, I set a budget of 1€ a day. I don't have much data ( total reach : 1787, clicks : 19, CPC : 0.32€ ), but the worst part is that I have a bounce rate of 100% and 0 email adresses collected.

For the next few days I'll try :
- a different ad design while targeting the same audience.
- same ad design but targeting a specific part of the previous audience.

Edit : After a few hours, the ad with the alternative design has a CPC of €0.12, versus 0.32€ for the old design. I don't have much data, but it seems like a good improvement

 

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[Fpm9]

Wow.. its been a while..

What happened since last time :

- I read DotCom secrets by Russel Brunson, and about a dozen articles. Now I understand what "sales funnel" means lol. Realized my landing page sucked. It was not clear what my product does and how it could make my customers life easier. Also, it was hard to understand the purpose of the free ebook I am offering when subscribing to the newsletter. I redesigned it, and changed a few things on my website.

- My target audience was too broad. I narrowed down my target market ( still wide ), which will make advertising easier. I will write another short freebie that will be much more valuable to my new target, this should help collecting email addresses.

- I spent about $2 a day on facebook ads. I didn't gather much data but I noticed a few interesting things. I ran an ad for 3 days, CPC was about $0.21. Ran the exact same ad a few days later, targeting the same audience, and CPC went to $0.95. I am wondering how much data I should gather to draw conclusions.

- I found out that emailing manufacturer is easy. Getting a response is not. Maybe because I used my gmail address they thought I was not trustworthy...

Something important happened : Last night I received an email saying someone subscribed to my newsletter. Wow, this means someone is interested in either my product / my brand / the free ebook and was willing to give me her personal email address! This is the first email address I collect, I know this doesn't mean much but this got me pumped for the day.

 

[Fpm9]

It was hard to find time to work those last two weekends, but I decided to stop getting lunch with my coworkers and work during 45mins instead. I also realized that I could work on my way to the office, I bring a small notebook and a write down ideas I have, it saves me a lot of time after.

I still don't understand why I can't get quotes from some manufacturers, but a few got back to me. I found two manufacturers that have minimum orders of 10000 and 15000 pills, which seems reasonable. I gave them my requirements, wait for a price and I hope I'll be able to afford it since I don't have much money left on my bank account ( had an emergency recently ).

I kept working on facebook ads, not spending much money but I have now a decent amount of data. I found some facts Ivery interesting, for example I really thought that my product was going to attract mostly men, but I get 30% more results with women.

My goals for this month are :
- Deciding which manufacturer I'm going to work with
- Making sure my product respects all European regulations
- Gathering more data, experimenting more with facebook ads
- Gather more email addresses, I thought it was gonna be easier