#Entrepreneurship #StartupLife #BusinessStruggles
Hey there! Being an entrepreneur is tough, and it can definitely take a toll on your finances. I feel your pain, and I want to share my own experience as a solo entrepreneur who has faced some serious financial struggles. As a software and web developer, I’ve always been passionate about startup ventures, and I recently launched a laundry pickup and delivery service in my country. It seemed like a unique and promising idea, but I made some critical mistakes along the way that have left me in a tough spot financially. Let me share my story and the valuable lessons I’ve learned in the process.
The Costly Mistake I Made
When I started my laundry service, I invested all my savings of over $12k without even creating a minimum viable product (MVP). I was so convinced of the uniqueness of my idea that I went all in without testing the market or gauging customer interest. I rented a space, bought all the necessary equipment, hired staff, and even developed a website, only to realize later that I hadn’t considered the actual needs and preferences of my potential customers. My lack of thorough market research and validation led to a huge financial setback, and now I’m struggling to keep the business afloat.
Lessons Learned the Hard Way
1. MVP is a must: I learned that it’s crucial to start with an MVP to test the market and gather feedback before fully investing in a product or service. This would have saved me a lot of time, money, and effort.
2. Don’t blindly trust consultants: I also learned the hard way that not all consultants have your best interests at heart. Some may be more interested in making a sale or pushing their own agenda rather than providing sound, unbiased advice.
3. Customer needs come first: Building a product or service based on what I think is cool or innovative is a big mistake. It’s essential to always prioritize the needs and preferences of the end-users to ensure the success of the business.
Struggling to Stay Afloat
Currently, my laundry service is running at a loss due to heavy discounting and operational costs. I’m offering a 50% discount in a bid to attract customers, but it’s putting a strain on the business’s finances. At this point, liquidity is a major concern, and I’m facing significant challenges in keeping the business operational.
Moving Forward
Despite the difficulties, I’m determined to turn things around and make my startup a success. I’m open to taking on software, web, or mobile development projects to generate additional income and support my struggling business. If anyone has any opportunities or gigs available, I would greatly appreciate the support.
In conclusion, entrepreneurship can be a tough and lonely journey, especially when financial uncertainties arise. I hope my story serves as a cautionary tale for fellow entrepreneurs and startup enthusiasts, encouraging them to prioritize thorough market research, validation, and financial prudence in their ventures. We all make mistakes, but it’s how we learn from them and adapt that ultimately determines our success. Stay resilient, stay determined, and don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. Together, we can overcome the challenges of entrepreneurship and build thriving businesses. Thank you!
You’re a terrible businessman for starters. You’ve done it all wrong and are paying the price. I don’t think there’s one thing you’ve done in the right way to be honest. But you already know that so here’s my advice.
1. Stop discounting immediately.
2. Spend all your time on sales and marketing. Find customers. If you can get some corporate accounts, eg some hotels to start offering your service to guests it will help.
3. Sell any equipment you don’t absolutely need. Streamline everything to be efficient and cheap. Cut the dead wood.
4. Create a 6 month cash flow forecast and monitor it daily. You will live or die by this.
5. Rewrite your business plan to take into account your new situation and make it realistic. Get out of your head any idea that you’re changing the world. You need to create a sustainable, real business.
Only read to the point where you invested your savings into it without doing due diligence because you are excited.
That’s the folly of youth and a valuable lesson to learn.
Pick yourself up and try something else. Understand you’re probably not going to be successful in your twenties. You don’t have enough experience or develop skill sets to think around the corners ahead of you yet.
You got this be patient.
That’s a tough story to read, I was looking at the exact same business concept in my city and decided there were too many risks to feel comfortable moving forward.
The benefit of the idea is that you can grow via guerilla marketing alone. Get rid of the discount and bust your ass for full price instead. Go to HOA’s, apartment communities, door to door, whatever it takes. You don’t need to do gig work, you need to get out there with 100 flyers
I mean this isnt horrible, I did this same thing on a much smaller scale, loosing about $1000 in one of my first start ups at 22 years old. I’m only 26 now and have come a long way in terms of boxes I need to check before investing a dime.
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Its not over, youre just beginning
Running a laundry startup is tough, especially as a solo entrepreneur. In Western countries, laundry services are booming, but in your country, it’s a bit different. People there usually have in-house laundries or affordable local options, i guess.
I started a successful dry cleaning and laundry company when I was 18. I started with $400ish. I bought 100 laundry bags for a small sum from a laundry supply company. I went to 3 or 4 dry cleaners near me and asked them what % of their machines were empty when they ran them. Generally it was 30 – 50% empty. I offered them a % of my sales to do all the cleaning for me. Then I just went to banks and law firms and places I thought people with money and nice clothes would be. After a few weeks the math was about $50-$100 per bag per week. I did this for years working 1-5 hours a week picking up and dropping off the clothes. I wasn’t very motivated in this space but it was great pay for minimal work.
This is totally a viable business model. I think you are on the right track. I think when starting from scratch you should have found and utilized local cleaners. I don’t think branded bags was worth the expense. The giant poly nylon type of bags from the laundry supply stores are cheap and last forever.
The biggest key is finding places where tens or hundreds of fancy people with nice clothes are, so one pickup is grabbing 10+ bags which is $500-$1000 per stop. Don’t focus on the small one or two bag pickups.
Good luck!
Personally, what reading this tells me, is that your intelligent, ambitious and have a work ethic. The mistakes you made I think are just the learning curve – no one is born an A* businessmen, they either get training or have a few broken projects first.
I think stick with your ambition and keep going, would be surprised if something doesn’t materialise at some point for you.
I appreciate the insightful discussion and valuable input from the community. Are there any established guidelines or checklists that solo entrepreneurs should consider? If so, could you kindly provide links or references for individuals like myself who are relatively inexperienced to review before embarking on a new venture?
Thanks
See I’ma tell you, like Wu told me. Cash rules everything around me. Dollar dollar bill y’all. Some live for da bill, some kill for da bill. She whined for the bill, grind for da bill. Some steal for da bill if they gotta pay the bill. (Where my money at?)
Hi, my advice is to outsource the “washing and drying” part of your service. Instead of doing it inhouse—contract out 5-6 local laundry shops to do it for you and just set up a computer system there for the shop owner to receive a notification of an order to be done. Or if you still want to do it inhouse, go to an actual laundromat instead. It will cut out lots of costs. I agree with those who have mentioned being of assistance to hotels and etc.
Best of luck!
So…. If you’re under capitalized to launch the business…. You have to be careful what you decide to do/what you decide to cut
You should have put money towards marketing, and done all the work yourself by picking up laundry and washing and folding it at a laundry mat…
You could have done that for less than a couple grand and ran it like that for 3-6 months to know what you’re potential actually is
As a solo entrepreneur you need to approach each idea as either I am going to invest all the necessary money and it will sink or swim …. Or I’ll invest as little as I can up front, and grow organically through sweat equity….. Anything in the middle is almost certain to fail
If you can 5 major life lessons for $12k at 23, you did well.
Yes entrepreneurship is hard. Solo is harder. No one is right all the time. All persistent entrepreneurs eventually figure out that mistakes are lessons to do better on next time. Each next step of building a business requires taking serious risks that comes with potential of failure. So, don’t beat yourself up, ignore the folks that are giving you “business@ advice, learn from your own mistakes.
Are you passionate about your startup ? If not, don’t waste another minute or dollar on it. This is often the biggest lesson. You have to be an expert in your space. That requires passion or a need to keep at it until you are able to become an expert and carve your niche to make a successful business.
Good luck.
You just payed 12k for some real-life business schooling. It was not a waste, and you now know what not to do moving forward. Take that knowledge, and when the time is right, start something esle.
Most entrepreneurs fail a lot. That’s how you learn, but when one hits, it feels so good.
You’re young, and if you keep at it, you will look back as a successful business person at how stupid you were and laugh at your young self.
Pout a little bit, cry if you must, and keep going. Don’t stop.
Why would ANYONE start a business that they know nothing about?
Why would you start a business with yourself in mind?…rather than what you think customers would want or need?
Your business model needs to make sense for operations and scaling.
Solopreneur is a super niche and only works for some services and products. Most of the time you’ll need to build and grow your own team, and you’ll definitely need the funds or sustainable business model to do that.
But yeah the biggest mistake here you’ve already covered. Talking to an industry veteran is good, but don’t ever commit hard to stocks and equipment without testing the market. Borrow or rent equipment or even use consumer grades if you want, if the response is good only it justifies investing more resources.
And without growth capital, don’t ever use growth strategies like discounting until you’re barely breaking even or making a loss and can’t operationally fulfill the service. You’ll burn your business to the ground on speed run.
Drop me a DM, I can’t seem to get through to you. It would be good to chat about web development work. I own an agency that serves clients in Europe. If you have a portfolio or some examples, I would like to see!
It is going to be a tough sell with subscription based models.
Many are getting subscription-fatigue.
Also, you should have used the cloud and not buy machine for an unproven idea.
Great list! You forgot “don’t offer discounts that you can’t afford”. It’s one thing to offer discounts on your spare capacity when your fixed costs won’t change and variable costs are minimal, but offering discounts that burn cash that you don’t have to burn and make you operate at a loss on every sale is just baffling. There is even an old joke about losing money on every sale but making it up in volume.
Much has already been said. Here is a simple lesson: everything you do tells customers something about your brand.
**Do your staff wear black suits and drive in BMWs and you can only book an appointment to meet someone at your company?** What Customers think: this is high-end and they are busy. I should sign up before they raise prices!
**Do you deeply discount your services?** What Customers think: this is not a premium product. I guess they are competing with others and have to discount. I will shop around and look for a deal. Maybe they will discount another 10%.
Messaging is a key part of business so make sure you are sending a message you want to send.
Discounts don’t do you any favors.
I never discount my consulting. Ever. Only by my choice for non-profits, women led companies, etc. If a Customer asks me for a deal, I usually end the call in 2 minutes or less and never chase them. I don’t even take them on if they call back. Even if they pay more. Discount shoppers are a nightmare for solo, or small businesses. The stress isn’t worth it.
Go watch this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frnHptKkzNs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frnHptKkzNs)
My family ran a business similar to this and were extremely successful, if you haven’t given it up yet and would like some advice please let me know. I can’t promise anything but I’ll do my best to aid.
Also I may be in the market for some web dev/mobile work!
Another point is while you do the customer research, be mindful and just ask people on facts only, and avoid asking their opinions. If you product is new then only you know the most about it, other opinions are probably wrong and are more harm than help.
Just wanted to raise a few ideas, did you market your product online and did you promote to individuals in corporate. I worked in a bank years ago and we mostly do refer each other to the best laundry service. Point is you’re not in the wrong business you may need to do some more outreach and marketing. What country are you in, if you don’t mind?
“While seeking for inputs for your startup, please do well to communicate with folks in your area or field.”
It’s best to stop seeking input from anyone especially online.
It’s not a secret that most people are not practicing what they are preaching..
Also you should not take advice from a person who doesn’t have skin in the game when it comes to what you are doing.
Anyways thanks for sharing this post.
Best to you
OP, entrepreneurship is not for everyone. And there’s a reason why people say this. Clearly you are being tried . in this journey, you will have only one day before you go out of business, and then a breakthrough happens. All I can say is don’t give up , do what you need to do. And most importantly, keep the good attitude and mindset. If I may ask, which country are you from?
I pay for an identical service and its one of my favorite services I use. I think you should shut down the current company and restart under a different name and get customers at a reasonable price.
You pick up, wash/fold, and drop off the laundry off yourself. You will be the only employee. Do this until you have enough customers to where 2 full days of the week are packed with work. Hire someone to do that pick up wash/fold drop off route.
Go out and find more customers, run those yourself, get maxed out, and hire one more person. Etc. Keep going. This can be run with text messages, no software necessary, and no capital investment needed. It’s a pure profit service.
The good thing is you are young and able to work again. If you really prep yourself for big tech company interviews, your savings can be used to fund your next business in the future.
Hats off to you for trying. Please don’t be too hard on yourself. You’ve made mistakes, but that’s totally normal, and the fact that you’ve acknowledged them means you can learn and adjust course. I think it’s wise to keep your freelancing going as it reduces your personal financial risk. Keep going with the other business though and find a way to make it work. There are lots of ways to market services without much capital. In fact, the lack of capital will force you to be creative (think partnerships, referrals, etc.). Keep going!
I did something similar like you but in a different industry. My business has been doing well (very well actually, and we are at a point where we are thinking of either expanding or closing it down to start something else because the industry I’m in is too physically exhausting).
What worked for me was to reduce my cost as much as possible. I stay in an extremely high cost of living city (constantly ranked one of the top in google) and its not uncommon to see asking prices of commercial renting spaces at upwards of $5k for a 400sqft area. I started the business at home itself and started building my portfolio there, playing around with sales and marketing and spreading the word to neighbours, friends, etc.
So basically if I were you, I would’ve started the laundry business with my own home washing machine and only buy the machines I need in addition to that like maybe an ironing board and a drycleaner. Don’t hire employees until you’re working 12 hours or more a day. It takes time to build up a portfolio of clients and you won’t be serving 100 clients off the bat anyway.
Sorry to hear that bro, but as a fellow undeveloped countrymen, I always recommend do not start a local targeting saas business if you dont have the connections in not-rich countries. Resources are scarce, competition is fierce, legal protection is almost non existent.