This is one in a series of posts where I document my startup journey. If you just landed here, go to this link and you’ll find all the other posts in the series.
It’s been a little more than one-hundred days since we launched Bear Appeal. What started with Black, Navy Blue and Grey crew neck t-shirts has now expanded to a couple more colours of T-shirts. We’ve also introduced socks, and begun production of our underwear. We have served 141 customers, made a considerable number of mistakes, and most importantly, enjoyed building this business.
Early lessons: Supply chain woes and unkept promises
The very first day itself — May 20th — was an eye opener. Before we got our hands on the first set of t-shirts, we decided to start selling them on the website. After all, asking people to “pre-order” felt way cooler than opening for business right away a couple of days later. Our supplier had promised us the t-shirts by the 25th, so we told customers that we’ll start shipping on that date.
As these things do, the deadline turned out to be one the supplier couldn’t meet. That we panicked would be an understatement. It was our first experience selling real products to real consumers. An unkept promise seemed like a bad way to start.
We contacted the few people who had placed orders to let them know that shipping will be delayed by a couple of days. Thankfully, they understood.
We promised ourselves not to get too excited future product launches. It was clear that preparing for unexpected delays was necessary. We also realized that making promises we cannot keep, especially to the customer, should not be done at any cost. It’s true that we didn’t run into any trouble this first time, but we surely would’ve if we didn’t nip it in the bud.
Selling is easy if you believe in what you sell
It really is. Up to this point, 58% of our sales have been the results of us talking to people one-to-one, mostly on social media. We haven’t spent any money on advertising yet, because we haven’t felt the need to. I’ve come to realize that for a business just starting up with little or no money to spend on advertising, talking to as many people as you can directly can be a game-changer.
There’s a catch. You can only sell to random strangers when you believe what you’re selling actually has the value you’ve assigned to it. The confidence (or the lack of it) shows. Our early products had problems, we’ve identified and eliminated many of those, and we will continue to perfect the products as long as the business lasts. It’s the only way to win.
Fighting complacency at all costs
The first twenty-five days were rather fun. We felt absolute joy seeing new orders coming in, and we enjoyed delivering the products ourselves. Sales was taking off, and it was mostly our friends who bought, and their friends in some cases. As you’d have already guessed, this didn’t last long.
We didn’t see it back then, but small businesses should realize that the first few days (or months — this could vary depending on the business you’re in) and the first hundred-thousand in revenue (this too, could vary) doesn’t take much effort. Your friends and family will become your customers, and their friends too will come to you. This is the point where you become complacent and begin to (wrongfully) judge the game as easy business. The truth is, if you don’t break in to the next circle (outside your friends and family) soon, you will loose.
The first hundred-thousand doesn’t take much effort. Your friends and family will become your customers, and their friends too will come to you. But if you don’t break in to the next circle soon, you will loose.
Our sales dropped by 12% in the 2nd month, but as we realized this and started putting in more effort, sales has increased by 95% and 76% in the subsequent months.
This is scary, now that I think of it.
Engaging is practical
I don’t intend to complain, or claim distinction for ourselves here, but many local businesses I know are reluctant to engage with their customers sincerely. When we started, we promised ourselves to be accessible and open to customers as much as we can, and we have kept that promise. We’ve talked to each and every one of our 141 customers, and one thing they seem to agree on is the level of service we provide.
If this comes across as boasting, do check out our Twitter profile where we frequently share the comments that customers send us. For me personally, it’s something I can be proud of.
There’s a lot to be said about keeping this same level of engagement with all customers, especially if you think it’s impractical as a business scales, but that’s for another time.
Not every business is a Rocket ship, not every one needs to be
We’re still a two-person team, and we operate out of a bedroom. It’s all too easy to wax poetic on the glam entrepreneur life and valley-style startup culture, but they are largely myths. Building a business is a slow process. I’m rather bullish on bootstrapping the business ourselves without seeking external funding (my business partner, Pavithra, is not — I can be rather egotistical at times) so it’s even slower in our case. (This might change in the future, and we might be open to funding after all, but this is the current state of affairs.)
If you care to dive into the literature, you’ll find that Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia grew AirBnB slowly for over two years before the business entered an exponential growth phase. Uber conquered San Francisco, and then one city at a time before becoming the poster child of the Sharing Economy. We’re no Uber, but the Rocket ship that will eventually take off and take us to the moon doesn’t build itself. It takes time.
I feel that I should write about this journey more often. In the next few posts, I will go into a bit more detail about how we handle the supply chain, our order fulfillment process, our customer experience philosophy and all the things founders need to care about when building a business. All I can offer is my experience as I live it, not business advice.
If you’re an entrepreneur yourself, please do share your experiences with me. I’m positive the conversation will be productive.
Originally published on LinkedIn.
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