First Failure
Arrgyle just settled up for the year with its first long-term client and our results bring to mind a quote…
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. — Thomas Edison
At the outset things seemed to make good sense — help an established small gift giving business of 15+ years sell their products online just in time for their busy season (the holidays). We cover tech & marketing expenses and they pay us with 25% of profit from the results.
Our decision to proceed was bolstered by the fact that they have strong margins, make at least 1/3 of their sales during the holiday season, and we had a 2 month window to work with.
So we jumped in with both feet — building them a graphically appealing website, taking high-end product photos, getting perfectly worded copy for product listings, doing targeted Facebook marketing, getting written up in and advertising on a popular local publication. And then we waited, watched usage data, and hoped for sales.
A few trickled in, but that was it. We got some user feedback, made some changes, and still saw the same results. We even worked up an alternative home page and tested it against the original. No dice.
All of this was transpiring as the small business owner was hit full-force by the retail boom of the season, leaving her incapacitated to work with us.
The holiday season came and went before we knew it and our numbers were less than spectacular. That is to say, Arrgyle spent more money that it earned, with ~$1,200.00 in expenses (not including our time) and $104.69 in revenue.
While part of me is bummed and a little freaked out, another part of me chuckles and chocks this up to a fairly inexpensive education. I learned so much in such a short amount of time and feel like no one could have taught me the insights I picked up by doing this. Or if they tried, I probably wouldn’t have listened.
The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. — Randy Pausch
Categorised as: Income Outcome