I had an eCommerce shop. We sold scale models.
We had a small range of goods and little orders. The product is not expensive. That’s why we had a big expense for one order.
Stanky_Toes44 on
I wouldn’t say I have failed but I’ve certainly procrastinated more than I should have. Trying to correct that habit now. I started an LLC and my plan has been to start with vending machines. I have two nice machines. I finally got around to configuring them this weekend but haven’t found homes for them yet.
TheBusinessBench on
Starting a business can be a rollercoaster, and many entrepreneurs experience failures before finding success. Here are some common types of businesses people have tried that often face challenges:
1. **Print on Demand (POD)**: High competition and low margins make it tough to stand out.
2. **Dropshipping**: Issues with shipping times, quality control, and market saturation.
3. **Tech Startups**: High development costs and rapid market changes can lead to failure if the product doesn’t fit the market.
4. **Restaurants/Cafes**: High operational costs and thin profit margins, coupled with location dependency, often lead to closures.
5. **Subscription Boxes**: High churn rates and difficulty maintaining customer interest can be challenging.
Failure is a learning opportunity. Analyzing why these businesses didn’t succeed can provide valuable insights for future ventures. Keep pushing forward, and don’t be afraid to try again!
Chet_put on
I used to sell Instagram likes & made $5 from it. Of course it failed. LOL
digitalstorm on
I started a local delivery on demand service in the early 2000s. If I had only been able to put more time and especially money into it…
txwr55 on
Restaurant based QR system , online tutoring.
ConcernedReflection on
Selling weed in high-school. It failed because I liked to smoke weed in high-school.
PutSimply1 on
The first thing I ever did was game servers, and phone repair, I was pretty young, both failed eventually
Though I learned record keeping, logistics, book keeping, handling data, expanding my thoughts constructively, building myself a virtual brain (good term for using technology to improve efficiency) and other “soft” skills like that
These are super valuable in my life now and support everything I do
TheAveragePreneur on
I bought several flat beds to rent out. Apparently where I am at there was not a need. Lesson learned. Would love to discuss this in our group of r/averagepreneurs
MVites on
Beauty products importing.
1. Huge pre-sale costs
2. Highly competitive
I learned that you should be EXTRA conservative with your sales projections, and EXTRA liberal with the costs side. It’s less painful to lose time, than to lose time AND money.
waazus on
We started a social networking app to always share up-to-date contact details with friends and family. We grew okay, but had no way to monetise so had to quit the app.
smcfarlane on
Mobile advertising.
Brand Management.
ccampb85 on
Any that I didn’t enjoy. It takes a lot of consistency. Even if something works well for someone else, it won’t work for you if you can’t keep showing to.
MJSvis on
I’d always had an idea that I wanted to set up a way to record and store casual interviews with my grandparents. My neices and nephews would likely only have snippets of videos and a few photos to remember them by, not being old enough to have known them tell their favourite stories, which was my experience with my great grandparents.
I then thought it could be an app, a mix between a family tree and a podcast where you and your family members are the interviewer and the interviewees. Whenever a family member would interview someone then theyd add it to the family members profile and it would be available for others in the family tree too.
I had done some website development in the past but realistically it was minimal so during COVID, after seeing someone else with an idea not too far from it I got worried that I’d be beaten to the chase.. I scoured to find an app developer and spent about £6,000 overall developing it I imagine it was. I’d done the design aspect myself, but soon fell into the difficulty that Google kept providing updates and the app would have to be updated to be in line with their security policies or it would be removed from the app store.
After spending a little while trying to keep it going, it just dropped off and I started to feel like it was just too difficult to get users. People liked the idea but unless they were with their family then it was “one for later”.. I still think it would be great for Christmas time and that we need to capture the stories of our grandparents (I learnt of some hilarious stories from my grandad that I wasn’t aware of so for me, it was worth it). Just felt a shame I didn’t have the skills to keep it going, hopefully in the future.
Now I’ve started just trying to share my knowledge of Excel and creating quick tutorials with the aim of implementing aspects of design into for people to stand out at work so feel free to check it out here, it’s very early days: https://www.instagram.com/learnwithernest?igsh=aHFpMHg1cmtxYzdk
Maecenium on
Photography for car dealerships in Houston.
If I say why, I’ll get 100000 downvotes
Technical_Ant_5296 on
Tried selling Watch Winders, for the ones of you who have no idea what that is – a watch box, which winds automatic watches, so that they don’t stop working. I failed due to the lakc of marketing, actually no marketing at all, I though that customers would magically appear out of thin air.
the_unded on
I started a car wash when I was in school. Of course, it failed because I didn’t have the time to manage the business plus school at the same time.
zitpop on
Created an airbnb for hotdesking your home office. Failed because the team was way too big added on complete mismatch of work styles and expectations. Also covid. Feel like it could have gone somewhere, but eh.
Not a fail per say, but I’m also making an app for swapping clothes and it’s still in the making so it might become a failure to launch, remains to be seen. This is a piggyback off of a physical swap meet I did many years ago with great success!
Missed opportunity, I had an idea a long time ago to monetize influencers where brands could do a self service order for paid content via a platform. Failed because we did not have the technical expertise back then.
Didn’t fail, but my co-founder wanted to pursue other things, so we shut down our digital content agency. Should have stuck with that one, that was 10+ years ago. Who knows where we could have been.
Shut down a blog portal, it wasn’t a fail, but just wasn’t viable in the long run also got bored of it. Shut down my own blog, same, just got bored of it.
Currently doing career coaching and recruitment as a consultant and looking at creating a glassdoor-ish something for my local market.
I find all of these fails were learnings in the long run!
papakrlo19 on
I’ve tried and failed with a variety of ideas, from reselling trainers and providing web services, to creating a clothing brand fulfilling with print-on-demand and reselling imported goods from China. What I’ve learned is that the labor-standards behind the product you sell is more important than the money you can make.
From other failed endeavours I’ve learned that timing is VERY IMPORTANT. + data-driven decisions are crucial. I.E. don’t try to sell NFTs right now.
FlappyKillmore on
Started a heat pump business that entirely relied on 1 person to do the installs. We (my dad and I) were going to help install the first couple and use that to fund him an employee then we were going to do sales since we didn’t want to quit our 100k+ jobs. Then once we got a few jobs under us he would train the new guys or be replaced so he could jump to sales with us. That being said he bailed because he didn’t want to install during the winter 😭
We had sold a 5 unit job for $24,000 that was $12,000 in material. We were going to be cooking. Multi-million dollar job market, I already had us registered as vendors for our state efficiency programs both residential and commercial.
We about broke even after 1 install for a friend of his at an extreme discount. These things are just like mounting televisions, and are highly unregulated as far as becoming licensed. As long as 1 person is licensed others can perform a lot of the work.
20 Comments
I had an eCommerce shop. We sold scale models.
We had a small range of goods and little orders. The product is not expensive. That’s why we had a big expense for one order.
I wouldn’t say I have failed but I’ve certainly procrastinated more than I should have. Trying to correct that habit now. I started an LLC and my plan has been to start with vending machines. I have two nice machines. I finally got around to configuring them this weekend but haven’t found homes for them yet.
Starting a business can be a rollercoaster, and many entrepreneurs experience failures before finding success. Here are some common types of businesses people have tried that often face challenges:
1. **Print on Demand (POD)**: High competition and low margins make it tough to stand out.
2. **Dropshipping**: Issues with shipping times, quality control, and market saturation.
3. **Tech Startups**: High development costs and rapid market changes can lead to failure if the product doesn’t fit the market.
4. **Restaurants/Cafes**: High operational costs and thin profit margins, coupled with location dependency, often lead to closures.
5. **Subscription Boxes**: High churn rates and difficulty maintaining customer interest can be challenging.
Failure is a learning opportunity. Analyzing why these businesses didn’t succeed can provide valuable insights for future ventures. Keep pushing forward, and don’t be afraid to try again!
I used to sell Instagram likes & made $5 from it. Of course it failed. LOL
I started a local delivery on demand service in the early 2000s. If I had only been able to put more time and especially money into it…
Restaurant based QR system , online tutoring.
Selling weed in high-school. It failed because I liked to smoke weed in high-school.
The first thing I ever did was game servers, and phone repair, I was pretty young, both failed eventually
Though I learned record keeping, logistics, book keeping, handling data, expanding my thoughts constructively, building myself a virtual brain (good term for using technology to improve efficiency) and other “soft” skills like that
These are super valuable in my life now and support everything I do
I bought several flat beds to rent out. Apparently where I am at there was not a need. Lesson learned. Would love to discuss this in our group of r/averagepreneurs
Beauty products importing.
1. Huge pre-sale costs
2. Highly competitive
I learned that you should be EXTRA conservative with your sales projections, and EXTRA liberal with the costs side. It’s less painful to lose time, than to lose time AND money.
We started a social networking app to always share up-to-date contact details with friends and family. We grew okay, but had no way to monetise so had to quit the app.
Mobile advertising.
Brand Management.
Any that I didn’t enjoy. It takes a lot of consistency. Even if something works well for someone else, it won’t work for you if you can’t keep showing to.
I’d always had an idea that I wanted to set up a way to record and store casual interviews with my grandparents. My neices and nephews would likely only have snippets of videos and a few photos to remember them by, not being old enough to have known them tell their favourite stories, which was my experience with my great grandparents.
I then thought it could be an app, a mix between a family tree and a podcast where you and your family members are the interviewer and the interviewees. Whenever a family member would interview someone then theyd add it to the family members profile and it would be available for others in the family tree too.
I had done some website development in the past but realistically it was minimal so during COVID, after seeing someone else with an idea not too far from it I got worried that I’d be beaten to the chase.. I scoured to find an app developer and spent about £6,000 overall developing it I imagine it was. I’d done the design aspect myself, but soon fell into the difficulty that Google kept providing updates and the app would have to be updated to be in line with their security policies or it would be removed from the app store.
After spending a little while trying to keep it going, it just dropped off and I started to feel like it was just too difficult to get users. People liked the idea but unless they were with their family then it was “one for later”.. I still think it would be great for Christmas time and that we need to capture the stories of our grandparents (I learnt of some hilarious stories from my grandad that I wasn’t aware of so for me, it was worth it). Just felt a shame I didn’t have the skills to keep it going, hopefully in the future.
This was the idea: https://youtu.be/igMnL43-_kE?si=e6COnoU646q8B9Kj
Now I’ve started just trying to share my knowledge of Excel and creating quick tutorials with the aim of implementing aspects of design into for people to stand out at work so feel free to check it out here, it’s very early days: https://www.instagram.com/learnwithernest?igsh=aHFpMHg1cmtxYzdk
Photography for car dealerships in Houston.
If I say why, I’ll get 100000 downvotes
Tried selling Watch Winders, for the ones of you who have no idea what that is – a watch box, which winds automatic watches, so that they don’t stop working. I failed due to the lakc of marketing, actually no marketing at all, I though that customers would magically appear out of thin air.
I started a car wash when I was in school. Of course, it failed because I didn’t have the time to manage the business plus school at the same time.
Created an airbnb for hotdesking your home office. Failed because the team was way too big added on complete mismatch of work styles and expectations. Also covid. Feel like it could have gone somewhere, but eh.
Not a fail per say, but I’m also making an app for swapping clothes and it’s still in the making so it might become a failure to launch, remains to be seen. This is a piggyback off of a physical swap meet I did many years ago with great success!
Missed opportunity, I had an idea a long time ago to monetize influencers where brands could do a self service order for paid content via a platform. Failed because we did not have the technical expertise back then.
Didn’t fail, but my co-founder wanted to pursue other things, so we shut down our digital content agency. Should have stuck with that one, that was 10+ years ago. Who knows where we could have been.
Shut down a blog portal, it wasn’t a fail, but just wasn’t viable in the long run also got bored of it. Shut down my own blog, same, just got bored of it.
Currently doing career coaching and recruitment as a consultant and looking at creating a glassdoor-ish something for my local market.
I find all of these fails were learnings in the long run!
I’ve tried and failed with a variety of ideas, from reselling trainers and providing web services, to creating a clothing brand fulfilling with print-on-demand and reselling imported goods from China. What I’ve learned is that the labor-standards behind the product you sell is more important than the money you can make.
From other failed endeavours I’ve learned that timing is VERY IMPORTANT. + data-driven decisions are crucial. I.E. don’t try to sell NFTs right now.
Started a heat pump business that entirely relied on 1 person to do the installs. We (my dad and I) were going to help install the first couple and use that to fund him an employee then we were going to do sales since we didn’t want to quit our 100k+ jobs. Then once we got a few jobs under us he would train the new guys or be replaced so he could jump to sales with us. That being said he bailed because he didn’t want to install during the winter 😭
We had sold a 5 unit job for $24,000 that was $12,000 in material. We were going to be cooking. Multi-million dollar job market, I already had us registered as vendors for our state efficiency programs both residential and commercial.
We about broke even after 1 install for a friend of his at an extreme discount. These things are just like mounting televisions, and are highly unregulated as far as becoming licensed. As long as 1 person is licensed others can perform a lot of the work.