Hey!
So I will start this very first post by clarifying a couple of things. First of all- I would like to not reveal the name or location of this business for personal reasons. Second- this wasn't technically a failed business but rather just not a "great success" that one would want to show off. Having said all this, lets begin.
Before it all began...
Right around ripe age of 15 my dad approached with an ultimatum, that I will now be attending this new all fancy private school in my hometown in my good old 3rd world country. The school was offering great international college prep program. Little did I know, my perfect score in English language class wouldn't even allow me to survive a day in that fancy international program. So I had to learn really fast. Being put in the situation of adversity and forced growth I was able to really jump-start my entrepreneurial spirit. In less than a year I was doing all the homework for one of the rich kids in a class and a bit later I already had a couple of clients from classes of 1 and even 2 years above me. Unfortunately, due to barely legal nature of that business (obviously thats cheating, and cheating is BAD, duh) I was not able to scale it. Frankly, I did not even know the meaning of the word "scale" back then. Hell, I was 16, give me a break !
1 Big Mistake. 1 Big Luck.
After finishing the school with average grades (I was only ever interested in studying just enough to not drop out) the time came to apply to university. My parents have allowed me to choose and apply anywhere in the world. Though, when presented with my desire to go study in North America they weren't thrilled. "Anywhere" really meant anywhere in UK, as its only a 2 hour flight away from my home country. I wasn't too sad about that and applied to UK. Got in everywhere. Unfortunately, I wasn't destined to go study there due to personal reasons. So I had to skip a year and during that year I ended up working in PR department of the major newspaper. 1 year later I applied to an American University and ended up studying there.
My first year of university went uneventful. I didn't have a lot of money to spare and did not have a right to take employment. So, most of the time was spent in the gym, classes and internet. That when Ive learned a lot about nutrition and fitness, but this is topic for another post.
Starting The Business.
During my second year of university I was really worried about not being able to find a good paying job while studying in university at the same time. It was important for me to find a source of income and a couple month later the universe has delivered! Literally "delivered", because my friend and I have started a delivery business. Our initial idea was to open a delivery business for local stoners and students, who really need a sweet fix close to midnight most days. Keep in mind, that we didn't even have a business plan (or any plan for that matter). So we went to Costco and bought $300 worth of snacks and chocolates. The whole next week we were posting all the items we bought to the website. My partner has even made a lowkey soft box for better quality of pictures. Also, all the supplies were kept in our 1-bedroom apartment, which looked something like this:
Unfortunately, we blew our whole budget on supplies. No marketing was done. So we addressed the only resource we had left-friends. 10-20 repost and likes later we had our first order....that we misses, because the notification system wasn't set up properly.
Eventually the snack idea evolved. About a week into delivering snacks one of the customers asked us to deliver him some McDonalds. Hungry for money, we agreed! The next thing we knew, he told all his friends (note, this was before UBER delivered food) started ringing us up asking for Mcdonalds delivery. We quickly went from 1-2 deliveries of snacks a day to running not stop from noon to midnight. My partner- on a car and I rode an electric scooter we bought with our first profits.
Within a year of ups and downs we were running an operation with 2 part-time drivers and both my partner and I running on our own cars ( we need up buying a car for business). By that time all mention of snacks was removed from our website and we advertised "delivery from anywhere". And thats what we would do. 4 people were running 12 hour shifts delivering Mcdonalds, Booze, bandaids and condoms, luxury restaurants and food trucks goods all around the city. Some time later we started getting commercial requests and many mornings were filled with commercial deliveries that would from that on constitute a recurring source of revenue. The whole thing went on for 3 years...
The Fall and New Beginnings.
We closed our business 3.5 years after opening it. We made some money, we lost some. At the very least we were able to pay for our lives for quite a while. We provided jobs, services and made things move around us. Yes, we did not make mind blowing sums of money, however it was never really a reason to start a business. Honestly, the reason to start one was to START A BUSINESS. Just that. It seemed fancy and cool at the time and we were "prepared" for the grind and hustle. Boy, we didn't even imagine how intense it could get.
We did not fail. The business was running and was making some money. However in the world of UBER and other international players moving into delivery space the margins were falling and customers were getting more picky. Go online and try review UBER or DoorDash. You can't really. Theres numerous sites where you can leave a review, but most of the time you would be reviewing UBER Sacramento or DoorDash PonnyHills. Plus, everyone knows a big company would mess up from time to time. In our case EVERY negative review online would make us look like total incompetent jerks.
But im not blaming reviews or big companies for us failing. The key moment that constituted our failure was when we had 6 drivers running at the same time...and at that very point we failed to pivot, leave the unprofitable accounts and activities alone and SCALE. We didn't scale at the right time. And that was the end of it.
REMEMBER KIDS-KNOW THE RIGHT TIME TO TURN YOUR LIFE TO 11 AND DO IT WHEN THE TIME COMES.
Depression and Resolution.
It was hard to get over closing the business. I was used to work 18 hours a day. I was used to eat fast food because i didn't have time to get home and cook. I was used to sit on my ass for 18 hours a day ( you cants stand in a car). I was used to being stressed. I was used to having no social life. I gained way too much weight. I lost all my charm and charisma that ladies liked so much. I think I lost the fire in my eyes and for quite a while I was not able to find myself and get myself back. (I know, thats way too many "I's")
6 months later I have regained my health. I used everything I knew to become happy and fit. Now, Im stronger than ever. Fitter than Ive ever been. Not the richest yet though!
I will be happy to share my knowledge and experience with Steemit community. Follow me to learn about fitness, weightless, happiness and business- all coming in future posts.
If you have any comments or questions- feel free to fire away in the comments section below.