1. Launch Recap
So we finally officially launched. It was a weekend which came from years of work in the background - work I enjoyed doing actually. We had big W’s, major L’s and a lot planned for the future. Anyway here is a breakdown of the lanch.
End of Launch Stats
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44 Orders
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700 Website Visits
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1 Grateful Boy
Positives
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The support from people you know is incredible. The amount of people who shared stories, sent messages or chatted to in person is just unreal. Times like this makes you appreciate a community and the people closest to you. Fricking GOATS.
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I went in with the mindset to just enjoy this weekend - let go of any results or targets. I had no goals or expectations for orders or revenue in my head. Just enjoy the fruits of the last few months of work and have some fun. It's important to celebrate the small wins. Process > Product.
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Feedback. The amount of times I heard ‘great idea’ or people complimenting the marketing. I am fully winging the marketing. I have no idea what I am doing - just throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks. S/O to canva fr. The ‘great idea’ gives just a nice sense of validity that there is something there. It’s not just me in my head believing in it (a completely biased opinion ofc), that there is a need, problem, desire out there for something like this.
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I was really happy with how all my packaging turned out. imo the extra little add-ons/freebies make all the difference. Stickers for the win and Thank You cards cause if people spend the time to support they deserve it. Bring back hand written shih.
https://youtube.com/shorts/YfaqY6NKouY?si=alDr-imCGV4UONKO
Learnings
“You win or you learn”. Both can be true? There are learnings in everything. It's not a necessary thing to do but I made so many mistakes during this launch so here are the top 6 Stephen Fuck Ups… sponsored by You’ve Been Framed.
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For one, when the website went live, the products werent tagged and visible to anyone outside of Ireland (a massive fuck up tbh). It was only after a couple friends down under flagged it that it got fixed (1.5 hours after launch). Looking back this is a pretty massive error tbh, especially when you know that we had about 200 site visits between 10am-11.30am that morning. By far the busiest time - we live and we learn
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The conversion of visits to orders is about 6%... the above could have been a big factor in that but also means my website landing page needs some work. I asked ChatGPT and they actually said 5+% conversion rate is good but I am sure we can do better.
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Delivery on a bank holiday weekend represented its challenges.
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Not having the medium size here in the country wasn’t ideal. I had the preorder workaround done but when I saw a Medium order come in, it made me feel bad that it wouldn't be delivered to patrons for another couple of weeks. Time to double down.
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My ig page wasn’t notifying me if people shared my posts and they were sending any messages to the requests section. Not ideal. Aaaaaaaaaaa (Lila contributed that piece - nailed it).
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Lastly, not sharing my best piece of content very first at 10am of the launch was potentially a mistake. I thought holding it for the second day might help keep the momentum up, however, I didn't take into account the amount of people who would share the launch post (blessed). And although I think the launch tile looked cleeeaaannnn, I don't think it packed as much punch displaying the value proposition of the product compared to the introduction video.
Future
The future is exciting. This weekend marked the official end of the pre-launch phase. We are now in the launch phase. So what does that look like?
BMS (Brand.Marketing.Sales)
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Network: A lot less desk work I think and a lot more networking, relationship building, business development. Something I love - meeting new people, chatting shit. I did grow fond of the desk though I have to say. I will be going to a lot more events, fundraisers, society events. Meeting new contacts, building new relationships and trying to grow. If you know anyone in the golf or sports retail space, hit this sick puppy up.
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Sales: I am gonna have to learn the art of selling and pitching. I have watched an ungodly amount of episodes of the Apprentice and Shark Tank but I still got a lot to learn. Additionally, I want to take a bit of an old school approach… flyers, billboards, selling them out of the boot of my car. The Shoe Dog, Phil Knight made his hay on this with Nike, why can't we?
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Marketing: Content, Content, Content. At the start of all this I was v hesitant to be perceived in the influencer mold. But let's be honest, getting paid to go to events, travel and shih would be fckn class if it were ever to happen. I enjoy making some of the content, others are a major hassle like the long edits. I really don't enjoy spending time on my phone and social media - a necessary evil? Not sure yet - I am still trying to find the balance with this. The content side of things is still a bit cringey imo but before gaining society's objective definition of success, you are gonna have to put yourself out there. MBJ is living proof…
Product
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Next steps, is to get the M size in and fulfil the preorders and start to push these out. Also, get a third colour available.
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Other products, I have so many other products and product lines planned in my head and it would be like me to keep jumping from one idea to the next (self-diagnosed ADHD), however, at the very beginning of this process I read that most startups fail because they fail to focus on one single scalable idea. “Startups are about focusing and executing on a single, scalable idea rather than jumping on every good one which crosses your desk” – Rob Fitzpatrick. It's something I have had to show temperance with so far, to not get distracted - stay in the main river and avoid creating several tributaries… for the moment.
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Saying that… I might begin to plan some other fun product releases (eyes) keep those eels piled
Sole in One to the Moon 🚀 Let’s Gooooooo