Me and my friend started a business to sell special honey from our country to the states. Both of us are students in a low income country so money is tight. We each put in about 2k usd and managed to ship 60 jars of various sizes to our distributor (who is a friend that agreed to help us out)
Out of 60 bottles, ~15 survived the trip. Many leaked and broke. Is it a failure? Im not sure…
We had decent margins so we will still be in green if we manage to sell what remains. Even if all our products were damaged, it would still be a valuable lesson learnt. My friend feels the same way.
For 2k we learnt how to start a business and follow it through. I spent 10 times that in a college degree to do the same thing … LEARN.
Would it have been nice if we made good profit? Absolutely. Would I have given up if i was doing this alone? Absolutely. Do i look forward to doing this again and do it better this time? Absolutely!
I don’t know if I’m being overly positive, but despite the setback, i am excited to continue this. Hope other people in a similar situation feel the same and want to continue growing their business too!
That’s your first lesson. If you can figure out better packaging and transport going forward, it’s no longer failure, but becomes a funny story to tell for years to come. That is, I’d send a bill to UPS or which shipping company did this. Usually, you also can book shipping insurance. Perhaps you could also package more safely or use other packaging than glass? Not sure, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out.