I ask because most of the posts I read here are from service providers. And while a decent amount of the info is relatable, I’d love to hear from people who sell physical products and have to deal with manufacturing, inventory, wholesale/retail/ecom sales, etc.
As for my business, I own and game company (board games, card games). My two current titles are aimed at kids 3 and up. My next title (going into production shortly) will be same demo, then the following two titles will be aimed at the whole family (ages 8+). While my business is mostly profitable, I’m basically investing every dollar back into the company (more inventory, more titles, more marketing/sales).
I’m just 2 years into my journey (mostly part time), learning an entirely new industry, and would love to hear stories from other people selling consumer goods.
Where are you in your journey? What struggles did you encounter/are you encountering? What was the hardest part in the early years? Hardest ongoing struggles? Did you have any aha moments that helped you turn a corner? Did you ever get to a place of any real profitability? If so, how long?
I don’t have much of a network of people doing anything similar, so thanks in advance…hopefully we get a good discussion.
That’s amazing! How are you generating those sales? Through social media and email? And are you doing that all yourself or hiring out people?
I tried selling DTC when I first launched, but it was costing more than my product cost. I was assuming that my price point wasn’t high enough for that to be profitable (24.99$). I’ve since been focusing on Amazon and wholesale/retail.
In toy and game, retail is dominated by sales reps. Adding more titles goes a long way to getting those groups interested. And Amazon is still a work in progress…but dominated by Hasbro in my niche.
All in all, I feel positive about the reaction we’ve been getting, but I need to focus on some smart/creative ways to continue to grow sales.