I’ve always wanted to start a business. Apart from my 9-5 currently remote work, I wanted to have an extra source of income. I just never knew how to go about it or what I should even sell.
One of my friends sells perfumes and she makes very good sales, like she’s getting good money from it. I spoke to her and she told me it’s very lucrative, I should go into it.
Guess what? In split seconds I made the decision to go to the market the next day. Took money from different places and even took out of my savings just to start selling perfumes.
I never knew anything about why she started the business or anything about meeting a significant need and all that. I just wanted to have a business and I wanted to have an extra source of income.
I got the perfumes the next day, created a page, did massive publicity on my platforms, to my friends and all. Set everything up very well.
I was really expectant that I’d start making sales but the first two weeks were very dry. The third week someone barely bought my perfume.
What’s wrong? What’s the problem? Why are people not buying from me? Will I get my 100k back? I started getting worried but there was really nothing I could do because I had to give it time.
I kept making videos with the perfumes and posting the pictures yet no buyers. I had to maintain my 9-5 job as well so it’s not like I gave it all my 24 hours.
I decided to slash the prices of the perfume, I did sales, advertised free delivery to any location within Lagos yet no customer. Then finally, I got two customers. They bought one perfume each. Well, it’s still something from someone who had been getting little to no sales at all.
Right now, I am tired of the business, I just want to make my 100k back (inserts tears and sad face). I realized that my mistake was that I didn’t do any form of research, I wasn’t seeking to meet any specific need.
I wanted to make money and that’s a good reason but that shouldn’t have been all there was. If I had taken my time to examine the market, see if I would have customers or other areas I could have ventured into, I’m sure it will be better.
I don’t think I’ll buy more after this stock finishes, at this point I just want to get my money back. Maybe I’ll just look into something else or conduct a proper research and then revamp the business entirely.
I’m still hopeful. Hopeful because I need that money back but not really hopeful to do it again. Who knows, something might just happen and then I sell out fast and customers start coming…. well, let’s see how it goes. If that happens, maybe I’ll really consider continuity. But for now, nah.
