Whatever business you want to start, start small.

[andrea532]

Hi everyone, I hope this post can be helpful to all aspiring entrepreneurs like me who want to be free with their own time instead of spending 40 hours a week doing the same thing over and over again.

Today I want to share a story of failure with you.

My Story

As an aspiring entrepreneur, I struggled to come up with business ideas. The only ones that came to mind were online courses in the financial sector, where there are already 100,000 people involved.

Lacking ideas and not focusing on other activities out of fear or incorrect judgment, I stumbled upon an idea that my partner and I came up with together. So far, so good, except for the fact that it was in the lipstick sector.

How much does a man know about lipsticks? As far as I know, zero.

Since I couldn't think of any other ideas, and the idea of creating a no-transfer lipstick that doesn't dry out the lips seemed brilliant, I thought, "In such a big market, how can I not manage to sell a lipstick?"

So, let's roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Execution and Project

So, what do we need to start this business?

We need a laboratory to make the first samples. While searching for a lab, we wanted a small quantity to test the market, but here in Italy, or I believe in any country, they don't make small quantities. Standard companies make 10,000 pieces with a minimum estimate of at least 22,000 euros, which is an average annual salary in my country.

So, we researched until we found a lab that would make 400 pieces for us.

Great, it's done, right?

We opened a VAT number through a portal, which is a very convenient service with accountants ready to support you in every way, costing 450 euros + 244 euros for VAT registration.

We started making the first formulations. My girlfriend tested them and made more tests until we found the right one. Estimate: 1900 euros.

The product was ready, the formulation was okay, and we started working on the colors. Choosing the colors cost another 1700 euros for colorations and tests.

Meanwhile, as we worked on colors and formulations, we also created the boxes to put the lipsticks in, paying the graphic designer 350 euros for the design and 1210 euros for production.

A year had passed, so another 450 euros for accountants.

The final step after testing the product's stability in its packaging was production: estimate 4600 euros.

Now they were ready for sale.

Sales Phase

We were ready with 400 pieces for sale, created the website, and chose Shopify Start to avoid extra expenses and test the market.

We linked Instagram to the store, created content without showing our faces because I am a man who knows nothing about lipsticks, and my partner works for a lipstick company and therefore can't create content for others due to her contract.

We involved influencers, but nothing sold. I am trying to improve the offer and the website, but still no sales.

So far, I've had 150 visits to the site, mainly from Italians.

I am very demoralized and think I might have to sell off all the lipsticks and face failure.

Maybe for you, 10,000 euros is not much, but for me in Italy, it's quite a lot.

**Conclusion**

Never invest too much money in an idea. Always stay low, and when the first sales come in, jump in as fast as you can.

I'll attach photos of my product since it's not a sponsorship because I only sell in Italy.

 

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[Segawa]

Hi everyone, I hope this post can be helpful to all aspiring entrepreneurs like me who want to be free with their own time instead of spending 40 hours a week doing the same thing over and over again.

Today I want to share a story of failure with you.

My Story

As an aspiring entrepreneur, I struggled to come up with business ideas. The only ones that came to mind were online courses in the financial sector, where there are already 100,000 people involved.

Lacking ideas and not focusing on other activities out of fear or incorrect judgment, I stumbled upon an idea that my partner and I came up with together. So far, so good, except for the fact that it was in the lipstick sector.

How much does a man know about lipsticks? As far as I know, zero.

Since I couldn't think of any other ideas, and the idea of creating a no-transfer lipstick that doesn't dry out the lips seemed brilliant, I thought, "In such a big market, how can I not manage to sell a lipstick?"

So, let's roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Execution and Project

So, what do we need to start this business?

We need a laboratory to make the first samples. While searching for a lab, we wanted a small quantity to test the market, but here in Italy, or I believe in any country, they don't make small quantities. Standard companies make 10,000 pieces with a minimum estimate of at least 22,000 euros, which is an average annual salary in my country.

So, we researched until we found a lab that would make 400 pieces for us.

Great, it's done, right?

We opened a VAT number through a portal, which is a very convenient service with accountants ready to support you in every way, costing 450 euros + 244 euros for VAT registration.

We started making the first formulations. My girlfriend tested them and made more tests until we found the right one. Estimate: 1900 euros.

The product was ready, the formulation was okay, and we started working on the colors. Choosing the colors cost another 1700 euros for colorations and tests.

Meanwhile, as we worked on colors and formulations, we also created the boxes to put the lipsticks in, paying the graphic designer 350 euros for the design and 1210 euros for production.

A year had passed, so another 450 euros for accountants.

The final step after testing the product's stability in its packaging was production: estimate 4600 euros.

Now they were ready for sale.

Sales Phase

We were ready with 400 pieces for sale, created the website, and chose Shopify Start to avoid extra expenses and test the market.

We linked Instagram to the store, created content without showing our faces because I am a man who knows nothing about lipsticks, and my partner works for a lipstick company and therefore can't create content for others due to her contract.

We involved influencers, but nothing sold. I am trying to improve the offer and the website, but still no sales.

So far, I've had 150 visits to the site, mainly from Italians.

I am very demoralized and think I might have to sell off all the lipsticks and face failure.

Maybe for you, 10,000 euros is not much, but for me in Italy, it's quite a lot.

**Conclusion**

Never invest too much money in an idea. Always stay low, and when the first sales come in, jump in as fast as you can.

I'll attach photos of my product since it's not a sponsorship because I only sell in Italy.

"Women in Uganda love lipstick." And just looking at your product it gives me a sense that your target is middle class. Why not try outside Italy

 

[Stargazer]

'Liquid my Love' probably sounds great in Italian as most things do but in English this just sounds strange.

You would say for example Mare Blu and we would say Blue Sea. If you did literal word order translation it would be Sea Blue. So I rather dread to think that your product is called My Love Liquid and I know your audience so far has been in Italy but you have to think of this sort of thing.

And then it says it is liquid lipstick.

So does that mean it is literally liquid and applied using a brush like nail varnish. Is that what it is?

Because isn't one of the reasons modern lipsticks were invented was to avoid messy handbags 100 years ago?

Presumably lip gloss is also liquid as I see young women applting it with a brush I guess but there must be a reason the cosmetic companies use teh word gloss and not liquid.

Liquid just sounds messy.

Any of that make sense to you or your girlfriend? (I'm possiby 100% incorrect about all of the above though )

I agree with your overall premise that you could have started smaller though and especially get some pre-orders in first.

All is not lost though. Especially if I am right about the name.

'Men Hate Women' is a great book no one read. When an English publisher read it in Sweden and thought about the character and a distinctive mark she had on her, she changed the title to 'The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo' and it sold like hotcakes and got made into a big film such was enthusiasm for the book.

Only thing that changed was the title.

Dan

 

[andrea532]

'Liquid my Love' probably sounds great in Italian as most things do but in English this just sounds strange.

You would say for example Mare Blu and we would say Blue Sea. If you did literal word order translation it would be Sea Blue. So I rather dread to think that your product is called My Love Liquid and I know your audience so far has been in Italy but you have to think of this sort of thing.

And then it says it is liquid lipstick.

So does that mean it is literally liquid and applied using a brush like nail varnish. Is that what it is?

Because isn't one of the reasons modern lipsticks were invented was to avoid messy handbags 100 years ago?

Presumably lip gloss is also liquid as I see young women applting it with a brush I guess but there must be a reason the cosmetic companies use teh word gloss and not liquid.

Liquid just sounds messy.

Any of that make sense to you or your girlfriend? (I'm possiby 100% incorrect about all of the above though )

I agree with your overall premise that you could have started smaller though and especially get some pre-orders in first.

All is not lost though. Especially if I am right about the name.

'Men Hate Women' is a great book no one read. When an English publisher read it in Sweden and thought about the character and a distinctive mark she had on her, she changed the title to 'The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo' and it sold like hotcakes and got made into a big film such was enthusiasm for the book.

Only thing that changed was the title.

Dan

Hello, thank you very much for your input. Many times products don't always have names with a specific meaning. Starting small was very difficult because without packaging and without a product to show, I didn't know how to create pre-orders. Anyway, for now, I am testing the market with paid Instagram marketing, inviting users to click on my website. Gradually, I am improving the site and trying to understand what doesn't convert or what I can do to improve it.

 

[Keushei]

Hello, thank you very much for your input. Many times products don't always have names with a specific meaning. Starting small was very difficult because without packaging and without a product to show, I didn't know how to create pre-orders. Anyway, for now, I am testing the market with paid Instagram marketing, inviting users to click on my website. Gradually, I am improving the site and trying to understand what doesn't convert or what I can do to improve it.

Maybe you just did things a little too perfect for the first run. I get the notion of, if I don’t have x they won’t buy so I need to include that (good packaging) if I don’t have x they won’t buy (perfect colours).

The point is I think you could have bootstrapped a few things and just let your audience know that you’re a new growing company, and anyone who buys from you can expect early adopter advantages (discounts etc).

The product I’m about to release comes in brown boxes. Re packaging with a designer costs £500 for 300 boxes. If I designs myself, £250. Instead I bought 3 stamps (£80) and will cost a fraction of the price.

Point is you can bootstrap a lot and still be fine. I wouldn’t kill it off just yet, just be more economical with your decisions. I’ve invested about 2.6k total and that’s mainly stock. Product arrives in 3 days and then it’s go time.

 

[NIK4658]

Ciao Andrea,

First of all, great job for actually starting and executing everything you said towards your business.

As far as I know, I was in the same situation as you, I was always trying to prepare and create the perfect product and the perfect experience for the customer in order to provide the best value I could since day 0.

Time pass and I realised that it’s ok to not have a perfect product from the start.
You will not have a perfect product anyway, but with time and with feedbacks, you will improve it every single iteration.

The important thing to understand is that it’s not ok and it’a not a good thing to wait and wait before testing the product on the market and not getting actual real organic feedbacks

There are many examples of people in here that worked one year or more in a product launch before realising that there was absolutely no market for their inventions/items.

Get feedbacks, get sales, even with some prototypes and close that feedback loop as soon as possible.
Once you’ve done that, repeat and repeat, scaling over time.
Only with true feedbacks you will know what your customers wants and how you should improve the product. The market will tell you. The market will decide.

So far, I've had 150 visits to the site, mainly from Italians.

In my opinion, 150 visits are extremely low.
You can’t say the product is a failure because you didn’t have any sale with 150 visits.

Keep working on marketing, try other strategies, social media posts, paid ads, seo, this is your mission now, get your product in the face of as many dream customer as possible.

 

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[Mike Stoian]

150 visits is too little. average conversion rate is 2 to 5% for someone who knows what they're doing.

get 1k visits minimum. and put something like hotjar on the site for free so you can see what people are doing.

also, get out on the streets and give people free samples if you can. See if they like it and ask them how expensive they think it is. That might be very informative.

oh yeah and congrats for all the work youve done so far. you should be proud of yourself!

 

[Parks]

You have a physical product with a physical skew, how can you expect an online digital medium to be responsible for your success? I would say to try to get some hands on experience with potential customers and get their thoughts.

 

[akshayazariah]

Never invest too much money in an idea. Always stay low, and when the first sales come in, jump in as fast as you can.

I would say don't invest money at all until you're sure this is something the market NEEDS.

Obviously this is context-dependent; if you're selling a physical product, invest the LEAST amount of money possible. You can always optimize it once the sales start rolling in.

In either case, 150 visitors with 0 sales is far from a "failure", especially when selling niche products. Refine your marketing. Act, assess, and adjust.

 

[andrea532]

Updates: I am now running small ads on Instagram to target a specific audience by considering the followers of the Instagram page. So far, according to Google Analytics data, I have had a better conversion rate (meaning from the homepage to the product page), several who added to the cart and abandoned, and some who abandoned during checkout. I am now trying to improve the product page copy and evaluate. The photos, although they have converted better than the previous ones, I am still waiting for more data regarding the checkout process since I have limited data so far.

 

[FreakyThomas]

Hi Andrea,

To me it is wayyyyyy to early to call it a failure. Don't worry. Your first sale will get you pumped ! It's just a matter of time.
Try to sell it IRL+++. Isn't there a clothes market or some small stores in your area you could sell in person to ? Or even in the streets, or to your friends, or at your work. You HAVE to get your first sales ! Don't be shy and ASK FOR IT !!! Make them try the lipstick, may be they will love it !

You could ask the owner (if she is a woman) of a store in your area to try the lipstick and get her feedback. You could also make a partnership to expose your lipstick for free in their store. If they sell, they get 50% of the profit, if they don't sell you just get the product back after 2 weeks, so there's no risk on their side. You really did the hardest part, in my opinion. But now you have to GET OUT THERE, and SHOW YOUR WORK.
You can't expect to sell right away, after 100 visits, on a new website ! You need TRUST to sell online, reviews, track records... and you've built NONE. It takes TIME ! It's totally NORMAL that you did not make a sale yet. Keep working, it will come !!!

You'll figure it out, don't worry, you just have to put as much EFFORT in SELLING as you did in BUILDING.

 

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[thehawkman]

Maybe for you, 10,000 euros is not much, but for me in Italy, it's quite a lot.

**Conclusion**

Never invest too much money in an idea. Always stay low, and when the first sales come in, jump in as fast as you can.

I know how you feel. I think i've mentioned elsewhere how a lot of people internalize the BS from famous entrepreneurs like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs ("Apple was born in a garage" - No it wasn't as confirmed by the other Steve, Wozniak, if common sense didn't tell you it wasn't true). And then they go all in on an idea because "if that guy made it so can I, I'm smart"., Usually the kinds of people attracted to entrepreneurship are in some cases people who don't fit in with other people, hence they also hate corporate life and are aware it's slowlane for most of those involved in it.

 

[andrea532]

“I thank you all for the encouragement. In the end, I managed to make two sales, but the cost of advertising was higher than the revenue from the sales. I’m trying to improve the website and marketing.

As for Amazon, they are currently placing restrictions on the sale of products, and I need to resolve this issue.

I won’t give up even though it’s very difficult. Thanks again for the support!”

 

[FreakyThomas]

Great job! The machine is already started. Make sure to ask those 2 clients for a review. Now you just have to decrease your customer acquisition cost by optimizing marketing, value skew and you'll have a working product. Good luck