(#5) Midyear kids journal business update

Can’t believe we are halfway through the?year!?

It’s been a wild 6 months so I thought I’d do a raw and messy brain dump of how 2024 has progressed for my small business, surprises, roadblocks and what I’m focusing on for the next half.

If you're here as a product based entrepreneur, have aspirations to start one, or you're just following along on my journey, I hope this offers some insight into what it's like or that it helps you in some way. Please feel free to ask me anything as I'd be happy to help as I truly want to see other entrepreneurs succeed.

Before I get into it, if you’re new here, I fell into making family journals after my son's dad and I split up. In looking for a way to support my son's mental health, help him with his scheduling and help everyone communicate and stay connected as a co-parenting family, I created the Home Sweet Homes journal. Non-coparents loved it too and asked me to make a version any family could use so now I officially have two journals under my belt, the second all inclusive journal being All About Me, by Us.

Alright, let's get to it!

Synopsis

Overall, I can honestly say things are going well-ish. For being a one woman show, and doing literally everything for my biz myself (yes, I know, not smart), I'm so lucky and grateful to have built a business that generates revenue (nearly) every single day and is showing strong growth rates.

Something I still find so incredulous is waking up to sales as that truly is the dream - to make money passively. That, PLUS getting to make a meaningful impact on the lives of others.

In the past 6 months, I've gotten many emails, messages and reviews from my customers who tell me how helpful and special my journals are. It's truly an unmatched feeling, that affects me on a deeply, profound level.

I believe there is so much more potential and opportunity to scale up but am also battling severe burn out and overwhelm from also being a single parent. So I really need to work smarter not harder this second half.

By the numbers

When I say this year has been wild, I truly mean that. I've made $4K in a day, had my first, second, and nearly third $10K+ month (had I not run out of inventory) but I've also had lots of days where I've made nothing. The inconsistency is very unsettling!

Some notable observations/wins...

• I've already doubled sales in these first 6 months vs my entire 2023. There is an element of things getting slightly "easier" as you become more established (due to more buzz, content, shares, referrals, etc.) which is a very welcoming feeling.
• I sold out of all my co-parenting journals in February. I got a small restock in March but they all had an error so I ended up liquidating everything in 4 weeks (I wrote a newsletter article about that a few editions ago). Just two weeks ago, my largest journal shipment arrived (as pictured above). Figuring out the logistics as you scale is quite tricky especially when you live in an apartment and don't have anywhere for it to be delivered. I had rented a storage unit but ended up having to get a second unit - a ground floor drive up so my entire palette could be delivered.
• Hit all 50 states for my co-parenting journal!?Super proud of this, it's been so fun to include my son in the process and have him color the map! (Fun fact, the last state we needed was VT!)

E-commerce platforms:

I currently sell via my own Shopify website and TikTok. Feel like I should be on Etsy too but am on the fence about joining. While I'm currently not selling on Amazon, I had a lot of thoughts/rants to share just so you all know what it's like to be a seller there.

• Amazon: Had been selling there since 2022 but recently got kicked off, due to inactivity (I think? they don't even list the reason.) I was doing FBA (where I shipped my journals to Amazon's distribution centers to fulfill) but sold out of all my inventory in Feb. Restocking takes 2 full months (manufacturing + international shipping) and when I tried to send a shipment to them in April, I found that I was no longer authorized to sell my own product! Amazon is an absolute nightmare when it comes to any sort of support so the issue is unresolved. Another huge pain point is that FBA fees have gone up and you don't even know what you're paying for. Their cut used to be around 40% but now it's ~50% (and oftentimes more) if you incur fees (plus they lose your inventory!) Their newest fee is so infuriating because not only were they already charging for long-term storage fees (which makes sense), but they now charge you for too little inventory! Talk about damn'd if you do and damn'd if you don't! Honestly,?I know it's important to have a presence on Amazon but it's gotten progressively more confusing, painful and expensive. I will probably see if I can get back on at some point but am not prioritizing it.
• ?TikTok has been my primary source of discovery. I prioritize posting here daily as it is free advertising. However, it's super dangerous to rely so much on TT that I've been focusing more on growing my email list. In some good news, I'm close to my 1000th journal sale on the platform! Yay!

Growth opportunities, redirection and other thoughts...

How you spend your time, money and energy is always a top of mind question for entrepreneurs. So in keeping with my goal of working smarter not harder...

• For the second half, I'm focused on streamlining operations and more automations for better efficiency. I am such a paper planner girl at heart but just started using the productivity app Notion that's an all-in-one workspace. I'm enjoying getting my business and life organized!
• Thus far, I've been growing my business purely organically and really need to start advertising. One of my biggest mistakes is getting stuck in the chase of constantly making new content which is contributing to my burn out. I'll need to look into TikTok and Meta ads but if anyone here is an expert in any of those and is willing to have a convo, please message me!
• I also recently started my own affiliate program. I’m already a part of TT’s affiliate program and it's cool to see someone sharing your product!

Honestly, I have so many ideas, things, and new products I'd like to pursue but for now, they're on one of my many lists in Notion whenever I'm able and ready to tackle them.

It's crazy to think that when you're an entrepreneur, you truly never know what could happen next. The unknown for me is both scary and invigorating but I'm excited to see where the next six months takes me.

#entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #founder #femalefounder #startup #smallbusiness #womenownedbusiness