Why I turned down a $2k order
For about a year now, I’ve been chasing a marketing opportunity with a large subscription sample box. Essentially, their business model is that folks sign up for monthly boxes containing curated beauty samples. They can then buy them from the website.
I’ve been going back and forth with them for awhile now, pricing different products and thinking about what would work best. In December I got the news that their latest subscription model requires 20,000 – 30,000 samples. That definitely makes you take a step back when you’re small potatoes, like me.
The allure of it, however, is the wholesale order they place with you to showcase the full size products on their website.
So I began to price my costs as accurately as possible and came up with: 20,000 samples of the product I wanted to feature (which only had 4 ingredients and could be packaged in foil packets to cut down on costs of jars) would run me $8500. I would need to take out a business loan for that but I surmised that, if the wholesale order they placed at least matched that then I would do it. (They’ve been known to place orders in the $10k area)
Their opening order was just under $2,000…so I turned it down.
Bad idea? Maybe…I know there is money to be made through that venue, and I know that it’s all marketing, which costs money. But I felt like I was trying to rush myself into this without really being able to handle it. I would’ve had to do 3 batches an hour, 8 hours a day, every available day (including weekends), to meet their deadline…and that was just for samples. I hadn’t been able to factor in the full sized products as I hadn’t known how much they were going to need.
It may have been amazing, or it may have blown up in my face with a $8500 loan on my back.
Though I’ve always been willing to work crazy amounts of time for my business, and throw money at good opportunities, I’m not really disappointed to tell them “no.” I know that it’s not my time, and when I have more capital and a better workspace situation I can look into it.
I know I talk a lot about “oh shit” moments and not being afraid to take the jump, even if you’re scared. But there’s a practicality in all large business moves that needs to be a determining factor, too. If there was an 80% chance I would’ve broken even then I would’ve gone for it. But there wasn’t anywhere near that and I decided that instead of taking the “Oh Shit!” moment I would take the “Maybe Later” moment instead.
- business stuff
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