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!

  • founderscurve@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    good lessons and a good way to look at your mistakes on this time.

    you’re doing fine, so long as you keep learning and (IMO more importantly) discovering what cause the failure and WHY, treat it as learning to walk.

    the only conditions you should set are - if you’re going to fail, fail FAST! and dont repeat the same mistake twice.

    remember failure isn’t the goal though, the goal is to succeed, but failure are a byproduct of trying.

  • TZER_Tunes@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I’m having a hard time understanding how you end up in the green from only 15 jars of honey on a $2k investment. I’m guessing these are very large containers that are being broken into smaller jars?

    Either way, love the perspective and wish you the best of luck!

  • Arin_azo@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    From where you belong I also belong to developing country Man you just need to upgrade you packing i think all is good you are gona make a hell of money

  • Focus_Forge@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I totally agree! My first business took over 3 years to gain any traction, but the learning that took place during that time was invaluable! I’m actually just starting a project making a monitor to help researchers monitor hives and was at a beekeeper convention last week haha. It’s definitely an amazing market to be in, there’s so much potential.

  • 4to20milliamps@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Really good post, please update us on this in the future. Nice bit of motivation was gained, best of luck!

  • shaqule_brk@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Out of 60 bottles, ~15 survived the trip. Many leaked and broke. Is it a failure? Im not sure…

    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.

  • travelguy23@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Speak with some shipping agents and get advice on how to package your honey properly. You made a good start so just fix the issues and carry on.

  • -oncore-@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Congrats on the sales but having 15 survive sounds like a logistics niightmare after the sale. Maybe you should be researching the delivery method and figure out the reason for the breakage. If you can get the majority of products to the final destination, it sounds like you may have a winner here.

  • londontown84@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    It’s a start, and keep the positive mindset. Focus on selling those 15 jars as that is the key thing - finding a customer base and getting sales.

    Having setup a nationwide online farmers market, jarred honey and preserves were products we used to ship nationwide (using DPD). Small tweaks to your packaging- outer protection- to make the jars completely immobile in transit, are easily found and implementable.

    I would also consider fully recyclable plastic jars (ideally already made from high percentage recycled plastic) to really make the transit fool-proof.

  • randomreader-007@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Not a failure at all. Just a regular bump in starting up. You’ll figure out how to pack the next set honey better. Maybe buy a roll of foam to cut and fit into the box. I’ve also mailed glass in bulk. Get more honey and repeat.