I ask because most of the posts I read here are from service providers. And while a decent amount of the info is relatable, I’d love to hear from people who sell physical products and have to deal with manufacturing, inventory, wholesale/retail/ecom sales, etc.
As for my business, I own and game company (board games, card games). My two current titles are aimed at kids 3 and up. My next title (going into production shortly) will be same demo, then the following two titles will be aimed at the whole family (ages 8+). While my business is mostly profitable, I’m basically investing every dollar back into the company (more inventory, more titles, more marketing/sales).
I’m just 2 years into my journey (mostly part time), learning an entirely new industry, and would love to hear stories from other people selling consumer goods.
Where are you in your journey? What struggles did you encounter/are you encountering? What was the hardest part in the early years? Hardest ongoing struggles? Did you have any aha moments that helped you turn a corner? Did you ever get to a place of any real profitability? If so, how long?
I don’t have much of a network of people doing anything similar, so thanks in advance…hopefully we get a good discussion.
I’ve been growing my business for 4 years now, sell physical things on e-commerce only store. I had a terminal velocity moment a year ago when I realized I could own the niche I was in, and my business exploded from 50K revenue a year to 400k after I took some fairly risky moves by majorly expanding using debt, and I’m looking to double again to 800k in 2024 hopefully.
I put everything I make back into the company, it costs a lot of money to manufacture my items, and unfortunately when you sell a physical thing it simply just costs money, it takes money to make money. You also need a place to store items, I’m lucky that I live on an acreage and I run my business from my home.
Struggles? Constantly stressed about competition, but at this point I am the big boy on the block so I have only myself to blame if I give up my spot. I also stress quite a bit about going too slow, so I’m always pushing myself harder and harder to grow faster and faster. If you’re not growing your dieing… and this is what my brain thinks which causes me to grow hard.
Yes I’m profitable, I make anywhere from 100-200% on my products. On average after shipping costs, credit card fees, website costs, I make about 50% of my revenue, so 200k on the 400k this year would be considered profit. but I put every spare penny right back into the company to grow it so I never see that money, I don’t live lavishly, I drive a piece of crap car that is rusting out. I can’t bring myself to spend money on anything other than the company. This life isn’t for everyone, it’s hard, it’s mentally tough and draining, but If you can own your niche you can make the company of your dreams.
My plan after robust growth pays off is to finally rest a few months but let’s be honest, a real small business owner can’t sit still ever, so I might have to sell to relax, not sure. I also have an exit plan should I choose to sell my company in 3-5 years, I already am plugged into the manufacturing supply chain of the company I would court to sell to, to make it easy for them to acquire me.
Sorry I have a lot of stuff to say if you have questions just ask. Made this Burner account to reply.
How many employees? At 50k you can do by yourself. But you gotta be hiring or outsourcing something to be doin your numbers now right?
No employees just myself and my wife at this time. But next year we might have to hire someone.
I don’t like wasting money and unless we absolutely have to, I won’t hire any employees. Being as busy and stressed as I am is a decision, and a sacrifice, I could hire someone to help with shipping but I’d be losing 30-50k a year, so instead we do it all ourselves and use that money to grow, for R&D and prototypes, and inventory.
This is motivational - Well done
Also feel free to check out my Tiktok/ Instagram - You’ll find it in one of my recent comments lol
Is that $200k after a base salary? I’m about to start making products out of my decade old service based company and curious about the margins after all the overhead. Also, how many employees do you have. I really have probably 100 questions but I know we’re all busy as hell here.
So you’re doing $400k in sales and have $200k to pay your two salaries and/or reinvest with? That’s not a bad business for the family.
That’s amazing! How are you generating those sales? Through social media and email? And are you doing that all yourself or hiring out people?
I tried selling DTC when I first launched, but it was costing more than my product cost. I was assuming that my price point wasn’t high enough for that to be profitable (24.99$). I’ve since been focusing on Amazon and wholesale/retail.
In toy and game, retail is dominated by sales reps. Adding more titles goes a long way to getting those groups interested. And Amazon is still a work in progress…but dominated by Hasbro in my niche.
All in all, I feel positive about the reaction we’ve been getting, but I need to focus on some smart/creative ways to continue to grow sales.