(#1) 500 imperfect journals… and it wasn’t a bad thing.

I made a mistake.

Before I get into it, for those that are unfamiliar with what I do, I help parents build a healthier, stronger and more connected relationship with their kids. And I empower kids, helping them become their best self by developing their emotional intelligence, cultivating a positive mindset all of which begins with a healthy parent-child relationship.

I do this with my line of kids/family journals, Home Sweet Homes. They are truly the journal I needed as a child.

At the beginning of the year, (mid January), I was running low on our co-parenting journals so I placed a small order of 500.

Fast forward to March 9, they arrived and were desperately needed as I had had a viral?video on TikTok and I was completely out of journals at home and Amazon. I had even begun taking preorders on my website and was eager to get things going again. I replenished my stock on TikTok, it did it's magic and orders began to roll in.?

Things were going seemingly well.?

Except... about a week later, I got a customer message.

"Hello! I purchased 2 Home Sweet Home journals and LOVE them. I was wondering though if my copies were missing some info on the week pages or if that is standard. I have attached a picture of the missing day headers."

Oh... no.... F*#@!

My heart sank. And my mind swelled with questions.?

How did this even happen? And what do I do from here?

After calming down and?thinking about it rationally, I decided I'd liquidate the entire Imperfect stock. I discounted them all to $20, over half off my retail price.?

TikTok has been my primary marketing tool, so I made a video explaining the situation, posted it and waited. Would anybody want to buy it? Would I be stuck with this inventory forever?

Well, less than 4 weeks later, all 500 were sold. A record number of monthly sales for my?small business.?The truth is, mistakes will make you feel like crap, and you'll likely beat yourself up over it to some degree, but with mistakes come the most valuable learnings.

Here were my top 3 lessons from my mistake as a founder of a product based business:

Lesson 1. How you handle a mistake matters.

I wanted to make things right so I messaged everyone who bought a journal. I took accountability and offered 3 options; return, partial refund or get a free replacement.?

And you know what? Customers were beyond gracious and understanding. I have to send out lots of replacements, but it is 100% worth it to make sure they are satisfied and happy. A customer even left me a really nice testimonial which goes to show you, how you handle a mistake matters.

Lesson 2. Pay attention to your data.

I had never sold my journals at such a low price, but noticed that from these 500 journal?sales, I was getting many orders for multiple journals (2-3). The takeaway here was that the retail price for my journals was/is unaffordable for my target demo, co-parenting moms who have multiple children.

Going forward, I'll hold flash sales, offer coupons and have other tactics to be more mindful of parents with multiple children. Afterall, I am a mission based business and want all children to have access to my journals.

Lesson 3. Embrace your mistakes, it's part of the growth process.

Does it suck to have made a mistake? Absolutely. Did I lose a lot of money? Yup! But there were many silver linings to my mistake, particularly that so many co-parents and kids now have a journal who couldn't afford it before. This truly made me happy. This experience was also very validating, that my co-parenting journal is a very unique and needed tool in this world.

Mistakes are an inevitable part of whatever we do. As a result of my mistake I'm a better founder/CEO because of it.

"Mistakes help me learn and grow" is an important mindset to have no matter how old we are, whether we're 4 or 40! This mantra is just one of the 12 monthly affirmations kids get to practice in my journals. I carefully selected each one because I felt these were some of the most crucial words, beliefs and attitudes that'll serve us for life.

My family journals can be found at https://homesweethomesjournal.com/

IG/TT @homesweethomesjournal3

LinkedIn: Home Sweet Homes Journal

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