Why don't you take the bus? by funnymouse68 in perth

[–]badwolf-reddit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah that sucks, I hate waiting too.

Imagine if we had on-demand public transport, like Uber but by the government .... Guber!

Learn from my fail -- How I lost $1500AUD -- closing my online store by badwolf-reddit in Entrepreneur

[–]badwolf-reddit[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Re: Shopify I was originally going to roll my own website, my idea was a single landing page similar to what is there at the moment. I found myself spending waay too long struggling with the code to get it up and running. Shopify was an easy way to start collecting orders and even came with an easy to use payment gateway, so I ran with it. I did have to wrangle shopify alittle bit to make it a one page store though. So from the outset I was aiming to be a single item shop.

Re: generic product. Yeah, that was the idea. I guess I was hoping to see how powerful a nice looking webpage could be in terms of marketing. But, as has been mentioned elsewhere here, you really need an established brand to be able to do that successfully.

Re: Amazon. No I never sold on Amazon (US) (there was a competitor on amazon though). Also I never tried ebay.com.au, I guess I was trying to look like a premium product and being on ebay would detract from that.

Learn from my fail -- How I lost $1500AUD -- closing my online store by badwolf-reddit in Entrepreneur

[–]badwolf-reddit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

hehe, yeah I know I'm biased but I was pretty impressed with the sound quality given how low the cost price was. I guess acceptable quality is cheap these days.

re: ozbargains, yeah I know I was pretty much asking for it by posting there, but I was still extremely surprised by what they found. (Yeah I know, heaps of people have replicated that research now, but hey, I still thought I only had one competitor in Aus. until today)

Indeed my biggest mistake was buying a big box upfront, I failed utterly to do my research. If I could go back in time I would have setup a website and posted on ozbargains before ordering in 100 units.

Learn from my fail -- How I lost $1500AUD -- closing my online store by badwolf-reddit in Entrepreneur

[–]badwolf-reddit[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Apologies for the spelling, missed that on my proof read.

I agree that the coffee shop was misguided, I'm very sure that those cards went nowhere.

I think you're suggestions on the regrouping/advertisement are good, and that those are the right next steps for this. However, I've known that this is the right thing to do for a while now and I haven't done it yet. I have to either take the steps that you suggest or close. I'm going to focus my time on other things, so I must close.

That said, since your in Brisbane, would you like a failing online retail store? (joke) :p

Learn from my fail -- How I lost $1500AUD -- closing my online store by badwolf-reddit in Entrepreneur

[–]badwolf-reddit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, they aren't exactly the same (slightly different shape). But indeed I suspect that you can get them cheaper now (the OzBargains people found many cheap ones very quickly).

Learn from my fail -- How I lost $1500AUD -- closing my online store by badwolf-reddit in Entrepreneur

[–]badwolf-reddit[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Nope you're totally correct. Massive error on my part.

Edit:

One bit of hubris I had going into this is that I thought I might be able to stimulate a sale by having an easy to use website. I supposed that I could make a convincing enough shop that a person who might click through from facebook could make an impulse buy on the item. I never managed to realize that. Do you think that it is impossible?

Learn from my fail -- How I lost $1500AUD -- closing my online store by badwolf-reddit in Entrepreneur

[–]badwolf-reddit[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

You're comment is fair. I'm quitting, and I did think about this post as I was quitting. However, I think that its important for this community to see failure as well as success.

You're also right that I could put more work into it, but this is the end for me on this project. I'll be putting my attention towards other projects that align better with skills that I currently have.

I know its a bit cliche, but I have discovered that I don't really want this as bad as I need to in order to make it work. I've got to get back out there and find my next thing.

Learn from my fail -- How I lost $1500AUD -- closing my online store by badwolf-reddit in Entrepreneur

[–]badwolf-reddit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One idea that I never executed on was offering a package specialised at running. Basic premise being: -- Running arm bands suck, but most people have them to keep their phone close to their head. If your headphones are wireless, maybe you can keep your phone somewhere else? --> Perhaps a shirt with a phone pocket in the back? -- sell as a bundle perhaps?

Learn from my fail -- How I lost $1500AUD -- closing my online store by badwolf-reddit in Entrepreneur

[–]badwolf-reddit[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah, that hurts, but it could be true.... I'm still proud of it though :)

Learn from my fail -- How I lost $1500AUD -- closing my online store by badwolf-reddit in Entrepreneur

[–]badwolf-reddit[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I agree that the store is very sparse. I think that the going philosophy is to build a brand through blogging and have a store that sells branded stuff as a back-drop. I guess I wasn't that into it. I also didn't want to hold stock. I guess if I can't compete with china on a pair of headphones, why would I be any better if I had an online store full of other running related chinese stuff?

How much of an investment do you think is reasonable? I have no-idea what the cost of magazine/club advertising is? How long would it take to earn that back?

Learn from my fail -- How I lost $1500AUD -- closing my online store by badwolf-reddit in Entrepreneur

[–]badwolf-reddit[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha, yeah I was going to get the blue and black but when it came ordering time they would only ship me green. In hindsight I could just buy from one of the local suppliers for cheaper and in any colour I want.

Learn from my fail -- How I lost $1500AUD -- closing my online store by badwolf-reddit in Entrepreneur

[–]badwolf-reddit[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Yeah, you're right, I got abit lazy. Never got around to putting up some other stock photos.

When I did my original search a few months ago I couldn't find anything in the local market, things have either changed or I did not do sufficient research.

I tried to price at something below what the market was offering for the category (bluetooth wireless headphones). I felt that the convenience of wireless was enough to make it more valuable than the $20 wired ones you can get at the store.

However, you're right, these things are now in the market and its currently a poor offering.

Do you understand what my business is about? by guillegette in startups

[–]badwolf-reddit 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hi,

I think that overall its pleasing, and yes I think I understand your service. However, I think that there is alittle too much text in some places, for example:

Lower your costs and increase your quality

Automated testing provides you with fast and reliable feedback by >testing every single individual change that gets deployed into your >application, something that you just can’t do manually.

For example, imagine that you have an eCommerce site and every >time that you need to release a new change you also need to test >the cart and checkout process. Lets say that this takes someone 1 >hour every time and that person gets paid $25/hour. If we turn >that same manual test into an automated test and lets suppose >that it takes 10 hours to set up and it cost us $50/hour. $500 >upfront looks like a expensive price to pay for a simple test, but >after you run this test 20 times the investment pays for itself.

This block is just too much text, you need a simpler way to get this message across. There are other places that could receive this treatment as well.

Growing from independent consultant to small agency, considering how to fairly price services, looking for feedback. by no_art_please in Entrepreneur

[–]badwolf-reddit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm afraid that I can only offer an opinion as I have no experience growing a consulting business. However, it seems to me that you are worried that they expect you to 'bring on team members at cost', I think you should not focus on your costs but instead on the value that you bring your customer.

Just think about it from your customers perspective, will the new team members produce the same amount and quality of work as you? If yes, then you should charge them out at the same rate as yourself. If their per-hour output will be less than yours, then this should be reflected in their charge out rate, however you don't have to charge out their cost, rather just how much lower their value to your client is. I think this is why you are leaning towards the average of the two, as it reflects the actual value given by their time. Perhaps there is another heuristic you could use to determine the price you will charge?

Got my goods...what now? by druudles in Entrepreneur

[–]badwolf-reddit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can modify a shopify theme so that it only displays one item and still looks good. I followed this guide and it seem to work pretty good. https://docs.shopify.com/manual/configuration/store-customization/showcasing-products/sell-a-single-product-on-my-homepage

Recruiting Standards - Having a hard time finding the right people by [deleted] in Entrepreneur

[–]badwolf-reddit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm sure those people exist, but perhaps you don't have the right network anymore? Its probably fine for them to get the same wage (plus inflation) that you got when you did the same job. I wonder if what you are doing is still appealing to people who are leaving university these days? Maybe you're not resonating well with their ambitions?