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I hit 2 years running my dtc brand last month. Made some money but also made some really dumb decisions that cost me. Sharing so maybe someone else avoids this stuff.
First mistake was thinking I could handle all the marketing myself. Spent 6 months posting on instagram and running terrible facebook ads. Burned through 15k with almost nothing to show for it. Finally hired someone who knew what they were doing and sales tripled in two months. I should have done that from day one but I was being cheap and thought I could learn it myself.
Second mistake was going with the cheapest manufacturer. Saved like 30 cents per unit but quality was garbage. Return rate was almost 15 percent and the negative reviews killed us. Took 8 months to recover our reputation after switching to a better supplier. That 30 cents ended up costing me probably 50k in lost sales and returns.
Third one I just learned about this year. Got a legal letter about our website not being accessible to disabled people. Had no idea this was even a thing. The lawyer wanted 20k to settle and we had to scramble to actually fix the site. Apparently this happens to a lot of small ecommerce companies and nobody talks about it until it happens to them.
Each of these felt like they came out of nowhere but looking back there were warning signs I just ignored. The manufacturer thing especially, I knew the quality wasn't great but kept making excuses.
Does anyone else have surprise expenses from stuff you didn't know you needed to worry about?
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