How Much £££ Revenue In The First Month? Planning & Scaling - Documenting the journey - Episode 2

Right, Boom, we're live. I nearly forgot to fucking record this this week. And it's probably a bit late because so much shit going on. I said that the first episode of this would be the longest. It probably will be. But yeah, episode two of documenting the journey and this be fucking interesting to look back on. I feel less mentally on form compared to last time. I felt like I was fucking sharp and coming up with some interesting shit and making this boring series or potentially boring series. Sound interest. But yeah, a week on, I guess I'm looking back. I mean, I'm pretty much publishing this when I record it, like on the same day at least right now. So I think that makes sense. On top of the pod. Fuck me. Time feels like it's flying. That's probably the first thing I want to say. Like, it's nearly June and I can't believe how quick shit's going. We're five weeks in since launching the brand. I think last time I mentioned we're four weeks in. So a month in now. We're five weeks in. The mindset in the first month was always going to be like, you know, see what happens. Get. Get the first set of sales in. We've done that now. Done, like the first thousand plus orders. Wasn't going to talk numbers, but, you know, we've done over a thousand orders in the first five weeks, which is good, especially given it's completely fucking bespoke product. Like, obviously, before I launched it, I spent a lot of time making it. Was very nervous about getting the initial reaction from obviously, people that aren't my mates buying it. Because there was always gonna be that organic reaction, which is why I said before, I think someone commented, like, why does organic not matter? I meant like organic, my organic audience. Because they're always gonna buy shit and it's not scalable in the same way. Granted, the pod will grow and so on, but I was keen to see how, you know, people that saw an ad, like, how they converted and that's gone pretty well. Like, we're still holding back on ad spend because of stock, but, yeah, like, to round up, like, five weeks in. I was viewing the first month very much as like a data collection exercise. I think I said that before and now I've actually started to look at the data and, like, change things. And one thing I'm trying to do now as a founder as well is be way more like planned and like documenting, not just on, like the POD and stuff. Although that is fucking useful as well, because it's like a Brain dump. But documenting what I'm changing and why I'm changing it because it's a very simple business compared to shit I've done in the past. Ultimately like the main things are like LTV to cac which I've said before, you know, ultimately we have one product right now. I could launch two new products that I have which is like a different powder and a gummy. I've made the executive decision which I'll come on to this, this sheet in a second to not do that. But yeah basically I'm trying to be very like run the business, have shit going on and like trying to get too bogged down into in the day to day of that but rather spend more mental energy and emotional energy and whatever making specific decisions because ultimately like that is your, that's the most, that's the highest value thing and that's how like the most fucking rich people in the world ultimately get paid the most or whatever. I'll build the most wealth is because they make a series of good decisions and I made bad decisions in the past for certain things. Scaling too quick, you know, whatever, not setting the foundations. So yeah like one thing I've actually been doing, I made this sheet called like Top level Vision Unicorn baby. I'm not gonna share the screen. Someone else said share the screen, maybe I'll do that at some point. But A it's way more fucking work like edit wise and B I'll end up just including too much shit and I'll end up putting something that I shouldn't have put on the screen. So right now I'm not sharing the screen. But yeah, I've made this sheet like things. I'm focused on how things going, what are the problems based on that, what changes did I make, how the problems being fixed and then what's next in the pipeline and really trying to be organized as fuck in that respect. So I guess as an update since like last week I made the decision to focus entirely on rainbow dust version 1:1 sku not even doing another flavor yet. Getting a lot of feedback around wanting another flavor. Want a caffeine free version which is all good feedback but it would mean putting loads of cash into new stock and stuff that hasn't sold yet, you know, having to make new content for that product specifically. Whereas right now I'd rather compound the content. I already have like the brand stuff and the UGC shit and just focus on that. So that's like the first major decision I kind of made. So for at least the next six Months. I'm not gonna release another product. At least I think that's the plan. Not like another hero main product. One thing I noticed was AOB was a bit lower than I'd like because we initially launched with trial, which is like one time for 49 quid you can subscribe on a rolling basis for. Well actually it wasn't that. So I set it up before so it was like a three month and a six month subscription which was 39 pound a month and 33 pound a month even though actually they're both just rolling subscriptions. So most people going for the six month because you know it said to cancel anytime so it didn't really make any sense firstly. But it was also letting people get in a subscription for like way less. 33 pound a month plus people using like 10% discount codes. So the AOB was sat around 43 quid and I was like that's a bit low. So I made one decision to sack off the 33 pound a month option and overnight that boosted the AAV. It's like 49 quid based on like two days data. So it was like valid. And then on top of that, another decision I made around subscriptions is I don't really know if this was massively logical or just like hype, but people were saying get off, recharge, start using Skio. So signed up to Skio, that's all gone live. It looks a lot better. Previously I'd set up with different Shopify product listings for different subscription options, which is a bad way to do it anyway. But that's now been changed so we have one product in Shopify which is Rainbow Dust version one. And then on top of that there's the standard one time purchase which I call a trial now 49 quid. This is the rolling subscription at 39 pound a month. And then a new option I've added which I kind of stole from your heights. Calm. I didn't steal it from them. I saw their shit and I thought that's a good idea. Shut up togs. Shush. My dog's barking. Why is he barking? Shut up. Shut up. Shush. And I added a prepay 99 pound for three months. So we'll see how that goes. Could that be an AAV boost as well? So, so that's one major thing I did. Been working quite a lot on site speed, like just basic shit like that they wouldn't really think about. Like I've tweaked the main product image from just like a basic packet one to like an in situ one with like the scoop and I've added the flavor because so many people are saying what flavor is the product even though it says chocolate on the packet and on the product listing. I've now put it on the image as well. These are all just like little things I've been doing in the past week. It's probably incredibly boring, but that's kind of the whole point of this series. It's just transparent and just is what it is. In terms of other admin things I've been working on, like I've had a few like private equity funds like reach out to me in like the first few weeks which was interesting. Got on a call with one of them, not gonna say who, and they really like the brand. Like it's kind of just planting seeds. Like I think I tweeted about this the end of the day, you know, if I want to take this like parabolic or you know, ultimately get acquired one day like planting the seeds with the right funds that can A maybe acquire the business or B invest into it or certainly see just generally help, you know that process is good. So spoke to a few of them this week, spoke to one of my investors and now kind of mentor Alex who's on the pod and we're gonna say we because this is actually helping me with it. Hire a portfolio fd which and I fucking all this financial shit to be honest, beyond like the basic P and L goes massively over my head. And yeah, just getting that in place, that's one thing I'm working on. But yeah, other than that I suppose kind of like starting to find my feet with what's working for the business, what's not. Early signs are good like in terms of scaling up to like the next level, which is where I really want to fucking be. We're literally just waiting on stock. We don't have enough stock to go beyond the scale right. Right now which is like a thousand pound a day I'd spend with a decent brass. So it's like a nice level. Subscribers has been pretty cool but we've got 175 subscribers now in the first five weeks. Which might not sound like a lot but you have to bear in mind like as a percentage of orders that's pretty fucking high. At least I think it is for like a new brand, completely new new product, etc etc and I'm thinking like long term, geez, if we can get this to like a hundred thousand subscribers, imagine that I'd like 4 mil a month in subscription revenue like 50 million a year. Like imagine that. That's a really valuable business. So that is kind of becoming like the North Star metric for me in a way is like LTV to cac, but also like how quick are we growing subscribers? And obviously that influences that ltv. So yeah, like everything I'm doing kind of plays into that. Like I'm working on website which plays into conversion rate which ultimately helps revenue and aov etc. Like different creatives. We're testing, still testing a footload obviously influencing like click through rates, people coming to the site. So there's, there's a lot of like strings to pull and it's just figuring out where is the string I can pull that makes the biggest fucking difference. Where is the biggest lever I can pull. Right now it's probably getting stocked to be honest, because that is the biggest reason we're not scaling beyond where we currently are. But yeah, I mean it's exciting being in, in like the early stages again. And I think because I've been here a few times, I know what to look out for when I start to scale like way, way, way, way more than I ever did in the past. And I definitely feel like I physically feel more experienced. I mean, I guess not physically but like mentally. Like everything just feels more familiar and it's way easier to spot when I'm like, ah, we need to change this or that's bad or Whereas in the past I was definitely shooting a lot more blind and these are the things you probably don't realize until you obviously get more experience and try something again. Obviously building a brand in my case. So yeah, I suppose I also started writing down like the fucking theme for like each month of like what I'm focusing on. So like April 2022 was established. Initial demand, prove the product is good. Fucking get live. Basically this month, May 22, the general themes on my sheet. Review the early day. Make changes where needed, double down on what's working, scrap the shit that's not working, get focused, constantly make improvements, start to scale up. That's the general theme. And yeah, we've been doing that. Oh yeah, one more big change I forgot to mention. So this is like pretty mad. Well pretty major at this stage. I'm changing my 3PO from the one I was using to another one. I'm not going to mention them because I feel like I don't want this to turn out to be like defamation in the future. But yeah, I'm switching to a 3 PL. I used to, I used to work with who are more expensive. But to be honest, like everything overseas has been terrible. We're only running ads in the uk, but overseas it's been fucking shit. With the current, current 3PO. But not only that, I just am like instinctually, instinctively not confident in their ability to like scale up with me long term. So I've chosen another three pl. But basically like the question in my head was, could this be the same 3 PL? We worked with 100 million revenue and I think potentially with this one, yes. Not with the one I started with. So that's bit of a ball ache but I've shipped like half the stock to the new place, will then go live with them, turn off the previous one and ship the rest of the stock. So it is a bit of an admin nightmare, but it's one of those things. I think this decision will pay off. Maybe not for six months. Maybe I won't see a massive difference for like six months. It's slightly more expensive as well, which might sound stupid, but cheaper isn't always better. So yeah, it's definitely something I've learned particularly when it's like massively customer impacting, such as obviously fulfillment, shipping and also just the ease of use. Like the dashboard. So much better. There's more like overseas warehouses, options, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So that's probably the only other major change that's happened in the past week alongside everything else I've already spoken about. And then, yeah, beyond that it's just like testing shit back in the fucking trenches. I feel like my days are very full again. There's always stuff I can be working on and it's kind of at that weird limbo stage where yes, I like, because people always say to me, like, how many people in your team? And in my head it's like just me. But it's not just me. I have Brad, my creative wizard who's basically full time. He's still freelance but he's pretty much full time with me and he works on the pod now as well. He's a fucking beast. Got a really good agency we work with. I've got guy that's doing customer service like part time. He's a fucking G as well. Who else? We've got my supplier that I work with and I. They're effectively an in house product dev team to be honest. So like there's probably like the equivalent of like three, four full time people right now. They're just largely outsourced and not necessarily in an office with me and a Paye salary, which would be really problematic in like I think overkill at this point anyway. So I'm intentionally keeping it lean. I've always kept it lean or tried to. And I think that's the best way to go. Like I hear about businesses these days so much I came across recently, which I'm not gonna mention, that are doing like numbers that aren't even much bigger than me right now. Five weeks in and they've got an office and like double digit staff on payroll and it's like what? And they're not profitable. And I just, I just don't get that. Like sometimes it's easy to lose perspective on the scale that I have done in the past and like my mates have done. Like me and Jack Flatmate were speaking about this. We were watching Dragon's Den the other night and it's like you don't realize that you're actually doing all right or have done all right in terms of like scale and especially at a young age relatively until you see what other like more formal businesses are doing. Like the sort of businesses that would wear a suit and have an office and it's like you can fucking do 10 million a year from a bedroom. Like I'm absolutely convinced. Or a kitchen. Like I was doing in 2020 with Neon working on that desk in the kitchen. So yeah, I think just keep it fucking simple. Yeah, my mind feels way better than it did a few months ago. Cuz I'm busy as fuck again. Like that is so powerful. I think just to like maybe wrap this up in a minute. But it's like so much healthier for your brain to be, to be actually like in like in the trenches building shit again. And that was the biggest problem I found last year when I got into really bad headspace was that I literally had like six months of or longer than that. But like six months. When I left the previous situation, previous business after that all happened to before I actually probably launched this, I was kind of like just twiddling my thumbs and now the podcast is busy as fuck. I'm trying to scale the shit out of that. Go subscribe down below. And then the brand's getting busy as fuck as well. So it's good trying to get away from the screen. I do a lot of running as everyone knows. Maybe I'll do it like a video about that shit. Cause I'm getting in pretty mad shape, which is nice. I feel like my aesthetics have actually decreased in the past weeks. I've been running too much. But I've been getting in good shape. Probably over training and yeah, back on the rainbow dust. Cause I ran out for a few days. It makes a big difference. Trust me to like training and shit. But yeah, this probably wasn't as coherent or articulate of a rundown as the first episode, but I feel like it was. It just is what it is. Like, it's one take. This is what's been happening. Drop a comment if you want to see like, particular shit. But this is the first week where obviously, like the last time I was just talking about kind of the. The run up to what I'm doing. This is the first, like actual episode of. This is either really fucking boring or it's fascinating to people that actually want to know what goes on. Because my life is pretty simple right now. Got a Marbella hustle house trip coming up soon, which would be fucking sick. And then Bali after that in like July or August. Not confirmed yet, but it's happening. So I think I'm getting the balance right right now. I enjoy the process of the trenches, obviously not all of it. I enjoyed it in the podcast. I see the fucking boys at the weekend. I drink red wine on the podcast. And yeah, shit's moving the right way. So let's just keep it going. Mind, body, soul business. And yeah, I'll see you in the next episode. Cheers for watching. Peace.