From the previous post, you learned about how I came to begin Moenavi Clothing LLC. In this post, things start to get amusing, as I fumble my way through the process of actually forming the company. I suppose it had to happen this way, mostly because I put the cart before the horse.
The large swings in strategy, I attribute largely to the enthusiasm one has for any new business. It can be quite blinding. Let’s face it, if you have ever had a business idea that you want to see happen, it takes control of you. It’s a gambler’s mentality. It convinces you that it will be an instant success that will exceed your wildest dreams. Ha! Well, I certainly got hooked by my own ideas. They held me in a full nelson for a couple of months, and I still have the bruises to prove it!
I also attribute my initial craziness to the fact that my timing was all off. You see, what Moenavi does is manufacture and then sell warm winter wool hats; I had the idea to form Moenavi in the first week in December. You might be thinking, “Perfect! That’s just when people will be buying hats.” But no. The fact is that retail stores have their winter inventory lined up in late Spring. So they are not looking to add more in mid December. Also, I began Moenavi in mid December, but I did not actually start to market them until January, after most people would have already bought their hats for the winter season and after any thoughts of buying a hat as a gift were well past. They already had a new hat, so no need to purchase another. Christmas was done, gifts had long been bought and opened. Lions 2, Moenavi 0.
I also got trapped by my own desperation. I knew the timing was a bit late, but I figured I could catch the tail end of it. I knew I had missed the boat with sexy print ads, like in Backpacker or Powder magazine, not to mention that I nearly choked to death when I learned how much those ads cost! Nearly my entire yearly salary! So scratch that idea. Instead, I did what I could do at that time, which was to put together a website and to forge ahead tackling the world of e-commerce. I quickly learned that this was not something you do casually. But hey, I can figure this out. All I need to do is just read a bunch of current books and dive in. This I did. Although it’s not rocket science, internet marketing is an art that takes a fair bit of experience to get right. It also takes time and lots of tweaking. I’m still working on it.
So there I was. I had chased my tail for nearly two and a half months with little to show for it. Sales were nearly non-existent, and I was out a big chunk of cash and time. I was tired of being my own worst enemy. Time to throttle back, take stock, and do things correctly.
See my next post for more juicy details!
