Let's Fail, A Lot!
1) During this past semester, there's been many times outside of this class where I have experienced continuous failure. One specific time was when I was interested in learning how to drop ship products from a site like Alibaba.com, and advertise the products through social media platforms to sell out my inventory. I quickly learned a lot about suppliers, product distribution and storing inventory, while I was still slowly understanding social media advertising, such as Facebook and Instagram ads. After negotiating deals with suppliers on inventory products such as mini projectors, keychains, phone chargers and more, I experienced my first business lesson in not taking into account my product inventory and where I was going to store everything until it was sold. This led me to search around for a service that would house my products and distribute them when a transaction occurred. I found a way through Amazon to advertise on their platform and have them house my inventory until orders were placed, which would then have Amazon ship out for me at a small connivence fee. Over time, I started to realize a second issue with the cost of housing my inventory as the cost started to exceed my revenue I was generating from the actual sales of the products. I was stuck in a situation and decided that the best decision for me was to shut down all operations in order for me to figure out how to successfully drop ship, while still focusing on school and my grades.
2) In the end I learned that, even though I experienced failure multiple times, there are still important life and financial lessons to be obtained while trying to operate any start-up company. These experiences and resources will only benefit me in the future as I now understand the importance of planning and actually taking the right steps to setting-up and creating a successful company. Not only does this include the specifics like inventory selection, web-designers or product distributers, but also helps the entrepreneur take into account the financial and management risks that come along with dedicating any time and effort to working on a start-up business.
3) As I was excited to finally start generating revenue, the reality hit that I would never actually fulfill the figures that I was hoping for because of how I planned out my company. In my case, I was very emotional and disappointed because of the high hopes I had for this start-up distribution company with popular products. Additionally, I would say that this experience encouraged me to want to understand more about what I did wrong and learn from that knowledge to utilize my skills and drive on something that I'm dedicated to. Not only did the drop shipping business motivate me to want to take more risks, but ENT3003 has actually helped me define myself as an entrepreneur and find what avenue of business I want to study. I can confidently say that I am more likely to take a risk now than I was a few months ago because of how comfortable I am with the business process and how fueled I am with determination because of the experience I initially had with drop shippings. Mr. Pryor's class has ultimately taught me that failure is just as beneficial as it is consequential if you learn to adapt and put in effort to find the good from your mistakes.
Hey Cade, I really enjoyed reading your post to this assignment. I thought your explanation on the drop shipping business and how taking this class with Dr. Pryor has informed you on the biggest lessons of failure and how to cope with it. You seem like you're a risk taker, especially with your business, so I think you'll handle failure in the future with a grain of salt. Overall, great job!
ReplyDeleteHi Cade,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. It’s great to hear that this class has helped you define yourself as an entrepreneur and has made you more likely to take risk. Those are two very important things that you’ll need to be successful. I completely agree with you, failure can be as beneficial as anything else if we handle it in the right way. It’s sometimes difficult to realize that but the exercises in this classes are a big help. Great post!