I did it, and it's equal parts terrifying and awesome. My company's going to do six figures of revenue this year, which is amazing, but I'm having to figure out things like scaling fulfillment and manufacturing that are entirely foreign to me (my background is in enterprise software, now doing ecommerce). Never a dull moment!
Feel free to reach out (email in profile) if you want to chat. I grew an e-commerce distributor to 8-digit revenue with in-house fulfillment and software development.
Edit to add: It can be such an isolating experience. We had no clue what we were doing half the time. Hard to find anyone willing to talk that had been through it.
Honestly, I've become a bit scared of growth, as that just means more work, more responsibility, more hiring. Whatever happened to my nice little lifestyle business!!?!?
This is what I struggle with. We did well this year and I think I can possibly hit my life goal of hitting my first 7 figures sales next year, but I'm not sure if I just want to stand pat and lifestyle the business or try to go for it.
My reasons for going for it are 1) parents are aging and I want to help them with retirement 2) ride the wave b/c you never know when it will stop and 3) yolo.
My reasons for not doing it are 1) it's a bunch of extra stress and work I don't want to do. Lol.
The problem is, if you don't grow, eventually your business will dry up and be out competed by competitors that do grow.
The problem with growing, is that the more you grow, the more attention you'll attract from established big players, who will eventually jump into your game and likely destroy you.
It seems to me that running a small business can never really be a sustainable, long term venture, unless you get very lucky with a niche that no one else notices. You either have to plan to eventually be destroyed, or grow into a giant.
Even big businesses don't last forever. Eventually they get gobbled up by a competitor or a new leaner arrival disrupts their business or the market changes.
>You either have to plan to eventually be destroyed
I suspect letting go is difficult for a lot of people.
Sure - it's dog treat mix: coopersdogtreats.com. Our best selling product is https://coopersdogtreats.com/products/pupsicle-starter-kit, which makes frozen treats - just combine the mix with water, pour into the ice cube molds and freeze. Ingredients are all whole and sourced from the US, product is made in the US and all that good stuff!
Thanks! It's dog treat mix - our most popular product is a powdered mix that you combine with water and freeze for frozen treats.
I had pretty close to zero expertise. I was an enterprise software PM, so things like setting up Shopify and finding a contract designer were in my wheelhouse, but everything involved with actual, physical goods has been new to me. Manufacturing, shipping, inventory management, fulfillment - been figuring it out from scratch. Largely going well, but definitely some hiccups along the way!
The nice thing is it's not an especially crowded space. There are a handful of treat mix products out there, and most are for baked treats (which we also sell, but definitely not at the level of the frozen stuff).
On the frozen treat front, the biggest one is a Purina product called Frosty Paws, and I think my stuff is an easy sell against that for a few reasons. First, it's made with all sorts of unpronounceable ingredients, where my stuff is made with whole, high-quality ingredients (freeze dried meat, egg powder, whole wheat flour, etc.). Their form factor is also bigger - it basically comes in a cardboard cup that you'd get a scoop of ice cream in, which is big for a dog, compared to my bite-sized treats. Theirs is more of a birthday treat, where mine can be given regularly.
