Recently in a talk where there were people from marketing, business, professors and doctors, they asked us if we had followed the business plan (hereinafter BP) that we had designed when launching the project.
There were several laughs, well, not for everyone, but we found it very funny and that's why we want to tell you about our BP.
When the project started , we are close to the first anniversary, we had a maxim, we are going to sell handbags and with what we get we will go to Burning Man next year.
For those who do not know what Burning Man is, they define it as follows: " A unique and distinctive culture emerges from the Burning Man experience. Rooted in the values ​​expressed by the Ten Principles, this culture is manifested around the globe through art, communal effort, and innumerable individual acts of self-expression. To many, it is a way of life." In short , it's a pretty crazy festival where art, creativity, good vibes and a bit of perdition come together. We would surely learn a lot.
That was a long-term goal, we had a year to get €6,000-7,000 (2-3 tickets) which is what it costs to go, counting planes, food, setting up your own house... everything.
As we are not very long term, we focus on going step by step. The supposed BP had to be modified.
The first two months we had 150 bags in the warehouse, then the BP was clear, we had to sell those 150 .
The following months the sales grew and the stock also. Now we had to sell 500. Step by step, order by order. We did not have a plan, we grew as the demand for our product increased.
Once we reached €6,000 we had to make a decision:
A- We were going to Burning Man.
B- We set up a company and threw everything.
Luckily the B came out, goodbye BP, hello reality. The BP changed again.
As the days went by we focused on selling, on bringing quality traffic, on knowing the acquisition channels that were best for our public and product, on setting up an efficient logistics center, on developing a service that was aligned with the values ​​of the brand. But, above all, in defining the bases of what we want this beautiful project to be. This process summarized in 3 lines is the complicated part of any ecommerce.
We continue with the BP:
One day they forwarded us a request to enter Seedrocket in Madrid, they asked us for data that we had never considered and that no initial BP was going to give us: This is how the conversations went:
  • Current billing : What do we put? How much did we invoice in the last 3 months? 15K. Multiply that by 4 and then by 2. We already had a goal: Invoice in a year between 100K and 120K. We were not sure how to achieve it, but beware that it is possible that we will arrive. Now you can know what we invoice by clicking HERE
  • Value of the company : ehhhhh...multiply the billing target x 3. Ok. Value 300k. Real or unreal... we'll leave that for another day.
  • Number of partners and involvement in the project : This is good. Two partners, at that time, one at 20% and the other at 45%.
We explain something like this and we will explain it when someone asks us about the famous BP that is so emphasized by doctors and professors who have never launched projects and who teach how to do it. We may talk about this topic later 😉
Our BP did not exist, perhaps there was not a fully defined marketing strategy nor were the brand values ​​100% clear at the beginning. We just wanted to jump in and play at setting up ecommerces . Maybe we had, or are having luck, but in our notebooks it is still written: "Sell thousands of wallets for Burning Man ticket"
Placing things on paper is very simple, developing them is complex.
Soon we will play to sell other products that we have been promising for a long time. One way or another, we will count on you.
Greetings to all the BPs that are still in a drawer today and nobody dared to launch ;)

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If you have questions you can contact us at hola@minimalism.es, we will respond in less than 24 hours.

  

September 04, 2018 — Pepe Martín Garcia

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