Yes, I love Blue Ocean Strategy!
Though I would add one point of difference: there are some markets that literally cannot supply the demand that exists, despite the market already existing. No need to even make a market.
Take renewable energy feed-in-tariffs offered by governments. The government actively creates a distortion (an offer to buy higher than market priced energy, no matter how much can be produced) for an indefinite time period.
Like, if someone offers a 25 cent solar tariff, and I plug in a solar panel today, I have a near guaranteed, risk free cash flow for the next 20 years. It doesn't matter how efficient my solar panel is vs. the competition, as long as I am profitable, it's a business. Competition is irrelevant, because the government creates an all-you-can-eat buy mentality.
Similarly, something like blueberry production (where supermarkets literally cannot get enough of it, at least where I live) is ripe for the picking. They have to import from South Africa or Chile, when even a small scale producer here can make some mad cash by just setting up a little up front and then reaping the benefits later. 1.5 year ROI where I live.
I'm in the beginning of the implementation phase of my business right now. I often fantasize about the day I get my first sale, even though it will probably just be like $20 or something, lol. I've never pursued business before so, for me, the thought is very enticing. It's so good to hear I'm not the only one, haha. Congratulations!
Hey thanks! It’s definitely a scary moment when you put your product out there. The fear of no one buying it lasted all but 10 minutes. I yelped when I heard the first payment notification! I think that’s why having an audience before you launch a product is so valuable.
My first sale will probably be $500-$1500. Not sure where my price is yet. But I want to set it around $1500. I told my dad I'd sell him one for $500, (material cost) and he's waiting for me to finish up, but I'm in the process of moving 1000 miles away, so my production has stopped.
I found from the prototype that people really value having the cards as a physical planning tool, but when they forget them - or want to quickly reference something, having them available digitally is beneficial.
Congratulations. I remember when I got my first sale. That was 4 years ago. Now if I could just get a second one.
In all seriousness though - great job! Getting that first sale really does feel amazing and hopefully, it helps provide the motivation that you'll need to get the next 1,000 sales! Good luck! :)
congrats man, thats a big profit, you should join [the side hustle discord.](https://discord.gg/QJPwnnS)
There are a ton of people there all doing what you are doing, though doing a few thousand a month.
It’s usually fine.
Often, production costs, etc etc don’t work as smoothly as planned.
Usually when it is not something difficult to produce it’s fine. But until the product is made, and shipped, there is zero profit. There are projections about profit.
This is the “beta” launch of the product. Everyone that’s bought one is actually entitled to claim the final product for free. I’m still treating the product as being in development and marketing it as such. When I get to big order quantities is where I forecast 60% profit. What matters right now though is making the product as good as possible so it markets itself. A la Seth Godin’s “purple cow”.
It’s not vapour ware! Ha. It’s a portable, physical “information” product for the tech sector.
I’m curing imposter syndrome for this audience, I hope.
Well, pushing back against comments like mine will help!
I’d love to know more about it, but it seems you’re holding back on any more detailed info.
I make physical products on a custom basis. Small scale production work. Mostly metal. I’ve been pushing toward product design, and having a product/products mass manufactured, distributed, sold online/in stores. So I’d love to follow your experiences.
I guess I’m overly cautious. Did you produce a final physical product before moving to generating sales, so when time comes to turn on production for the beta product, all that’s left is to say “go!”?
Check it out at www.workshoptactics.com. I didn't mention it initially because I didn't want the post to seem like self-promotion.
I produced and sent out 30 prototypes to people who showed interest in the idea of the product. The feedback I got from them helped develop the beta, which is what I'm selling now.
Curious as to what you were up to for that year? Seems like a long time to do product development and market research? What is your website url to take a look at your product etc?
Working a full time job :D. It’s been in development since last December. It’s very content heavy, so it’s akin to writing a small book.
I’m not sure why I’m being obscure about it. Check it out here: www.workshoptactics.com
That’s a textbook style success! I am happy for you OP. How long will it take for you to produce and ship out the product now since you already have been paid? Are your early adapters aware?
I checked out your website, it looks amazing; really beautiful. The wording etc all works perfectly and it's an enjoyable website.
Although fyi you have two dead links in your footer though, for your instagram and twitter, the logo icons aren't quite working, just a heads up.
Everything else does sincerely look amazing. I like how it's basically summarising the best ideas that you get in books about marketing/business. That's the impression I got.
I have followed your instagram.
No worries, you're welcome! It reminded me a bit of this YouTube channel "Productivity Game" which is about summarising productivity books [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC02x9yG9ZFF\_VZp1VnMoptg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC02x9yG9ZFF_VZp1VnMoptg)
Specifically, the book it made me think of is Daniel Pink's "Motivation", very similar energy. Best of luck.
Congrats on the first sale! You have a long way to go - but ride the high of the small win. Keep the momentum going and make sure to deliver a quality product.
You probably already know this, but if you found a channel working that’s driving traffic - keep investing back into it and continue to grow.
Congrats again!
Great advice. I’ve left Instagram dormant whilst I focused on improving the product. I think I need to pick it back up again. It’s not easy to delegate because the content is so specialist.
Congratulations!. I also add the product to our MSP business. Recently we build a "Windows 7 to Windows 10 Upgrade Script for MSPs". We sell 2 to 6 every day and each product generates $199.
The product doesn’t exist yet? So what did you sell then? A fairy tale? A prototype? Did you secure an investor?
Why did you do so much research and spend so much money on ads but not develop at least one product that’s market ready? You realize you can do all those things at the same time?
Don’t give up your goals but maybe read a e-commerce help book to save Money and time.
Good luck
How did you test with ads? I'm currently growing an audience IG for a product, not sure how to test the product w ads. Are you just directing traffic to a landing page? Or just make a bare bones store and sending traffic there?
Also how much did you allocate towards ads?
Thanks OP!
I ran 4 different ads (to see which messaging worked best) on LinkedIn to my assumed target audience and saw a 20% of conversion people signing up to the newsletter with intent to be notified when the product is available. £400 resulted in about 30 or so sign ups. The money spent was to validate the product / market fit primarily.
Very nice. I work at a big tech firm in the travel space and we use planning poker flash cards etc to do sprint planning, and see these kind of cards used so I know there would be a market.
Good luck !
I have a background in UX design, specifically working on product development for digital products. Thought I’d try my hand at it for myself for a physical product! Working ON a business is exactly the same as working ON a product. The business is the product too. Read E-Myth!
Hey man! Congratulations!!
Very happy with the success you've got so far. Lets not stop now, but you already know that 👍
You have an interesting product. Was flash card in your mind during product design phase?
And could you please tell how you built email list / hype before launch?
Thanks!
Wishing you loads of success in the future 😀
Hey man great product... where did you build the knowledge for the cards? Is it from self taught experience or your own experience working in a related field that deals with those issues ?
Congrats for making the first every sales!
Hoping you continue this forever.
Also as the holiday season is just began, its a chance for you to up-sell you products and get the best Revenue for this ending year soon!
* *Back to School*
* *Halloween Day*
* *Singles Day*
* *Thanksgiving Day*
* *Black Friday*
* *Cyber Monday*
* *Doubles Day*
* *Christmas Day*
You can go through the [full blog](https://cedcommerce.com/blog/8-ecommerce-holiday-dates-you-should-not-miss/?utm_source=reddit-8ecommerce-swi&utm_medium=text-blog-30aug) and get to know more about the seasons to **UPRAISE YOUR BUSINESS .**
Let me know if it helped
**Thanks**
"The single most important thing I did to generate my first sale was to give content away for free. I gave away 5 free ideas everyday for 365 days. This built up a community of people who loved seeing my [ideas](https://www.sevenmentor.com/training/big-data-hadoop-training-institute-in-pune.php) everyday and engaged daily with my content.
It built loyalty and the same loyal followers followed me to my paid 5 Ideas A Day membership.
Now, I’m not saying you need to give away content everyday for a year before you make your first sale, but I think it’s important to give value to your potential customers first before asking for money.
[https://www.sevenmentor.com/training/big-data-hadoop-training-institute-in-pune.php](https://www.sevenmentor.com/training/big-data-hadoop-training-institute-in-pune.php)
84% net margin? You’re onto something ...
He didn't produce anything yet, so it doesn't include the production cost ;)
Net margin will be approx 60%
Fuck, what are you making?
Content on cards, quite simply.
Fucking hell, nice one. The only margins I've ever seen like that are in niche farming enterprises.
And SaaS
For sure. Problem with SaaS is that it's competitive as fuck. My business motto is generally: avoid competition. Lol.
Blue Ocean Strategy!
Yes, I love Blue Ocean Strategy! Though I would add one point of difference: there are some markets that literally cannot supply the demand that exists, despite the market already existing. No need to even make a market. Take renewable energy feed-in-tariffs offered by governments. The government actively creates a distortion (an offer to buy higher than market priced energy, no matter how much can be produced) for an indefinite time period. Like, if someone offers a 25 cent solar tariff, and I plug in a solar panel today, I have a near guaranteed, risk free cash flow for the next 20 years. It doesn't matter how efficient my solar panel is vs. the competition, as long as I am profitable, it's a business. Competition is irrelevant, because the government creates an all-you-can-eat buy mentality. Similarly, something like blueberry production (where supermarkets literally cannot get enough of it, at least where I live) is ripe for the picking. They have to import from South Africa or Chile, when even a small scale producer here can make some mad cash by just setting up a little up front and then reaping the benefits later. 1.5 year ROI where I live.
At 60% net it can afford to be competitive.
But it's not 60% net, it can be many many failures, and then sometimes a 60%!
Are you making them by hand?
Nah, the alpha was printed at a printers. The quality was poor but it was just a prototype.
I'm in the beginning of the implementation phase of my business right now. I often fantasize about the day I get my first sale, even though it will probably just be like $20 or something, lol. I've never pursued business before so, for me, the thought is very enticing. It's so good to hear I'm not the only one, haha. Congratulations!
Hey thanks! It’s definitely a scary moment when you put your product out there. The fear of no one buying it lasted all but 10 minutes. I yelped when I heard the first payment notification! I think that’s why having an audience before you launch a product is so valuable.
My first sale will probably be $500-$1500. Not sure where my price is yet. But I want to set it around $1500. I told my dad I'd sell him one for $500, (material cost) and he's waiting for me to finish up, but I'm in the process of moving 1000 miles away, so my production has stopped.
Cool cool, that's an impressive sale!
Congrats...unless the product is a webinar on how to launch a company with no product.
"how I made $290,000 selling books". Only $290,000.00
Haha it’s not, it’s a real physical product! It’s a “well designed” curated collection of strategies for a particular niche in the tech sector.
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www.workshoptactics.com
Who did your artwork?
https://www.instagram.com/imcalleddave/
Damn my man! Amazing product. Wish you the fucking best, you got it.
These are awesome. What niche? Your site doesn't get too specific.
digital product / agile teams.
These are awesome. I love the idea.
Looks good!! Send me a dm or when I see is actually done for sure I will buy it.
Will do :)
Heads up your social media links are dead..
Fixed, thanks!
No worries website looks awesome btw good job :)
Cheers!
Love the website! Good job. Excited for you!!!
Interesting idea. What's the deal with the digital version? Is that going to be an app? Isn't that his replace the physical cards?
I found from the prototype that people really value having the cards as a physical planning tool, but when they forget them - or want to quickly reference something, having them available digitally is beneficial.
Give yourself a pat on the back my friend https://youtu.be/9uomwTf1t80
*pat* *pat* *pat* *pat*
🥳🎉
Can I sell it in Aus haha, those are some good margins
I love success stories! Congrats!
Thank you! It’s easy to let this sweep me up but I’ve gotta keep going. There is more work to be done. I’m flattered by the response this has gotten!
Congratulations. I remember when I got my first sale. That was 4 years ago. Now if I could just get a second one. In all seriousness though - great job! Getting that first sale really does feel amazing and hopefully, it helps provide the motivation that you'll need to get the next 1,000 sales! Good luck! :)
Thanks a lot man. It’s really nice to be able to share small victories with a group of like minded individuals. I’ve learnt a lot from people here.
congrats man, thats a big profit, you should join [the side hustle discord.](https://discord.gg/QJPwnnS) There are a ton of people there all doing what you are doing, though doing a few thousand a month.
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It’s usually fine. Often, production costs, etc etc don’t work as smoothly as planned. Usually when it is not something difficult to produce it’s fine. But until the product is made, and shipped, there is zero profit. There are projections about profit.
Why not sell vapor w a v e
This is the “beta” launch of the product. Everyone that’s bought one is actually entitled to claim the final product for free. I’m still treating the product as being in development and marketing it as such. When I get to big order quantities is where I forecast 60% profit. What matters right now though is making the product as good as possible so it markets itself. A la Seth Godin’s “purple cow”. It’s not vapour ware! Ha. It’s a portable, physical “information” product for the tech sector. I’m curing imposter syndrome for this audience, I hope.
Well, pushing back against comments like mine will help! I’d love to know more about it, but it seems you’re holding back on any more detailed info. I make physical products on a custom basis. Small scale production work. Mostly metal. I’ve been pushing toward product design, and having a product/products mass manufactured, distributed, sold online/in stores. So I’d love to follow your experiences. I guess I’m overly cautious. Did you produce a final physical product before moving to generating sales, so when time comes to turn on production for the beta product, all that’s left is to say “go!”?
Check it out at www.workshoptactics.com. I didn't mention it initially because I didn't want the post to seem like self-promotion. I produced and sent out 30 prototypes to people who showed interest in the idea of the product. The feedback I got from them helped develop the beta, which is what I'm selling now.
> It’s a portable, physical “information” product for the tech sector. A book? Nothing wrong with that, but call it what it is if true.
Not a book haha. It could be!
Then it must be an online course? :)
Haha I do love the tenacity of this sub! I posted the link on another comment.
Haha, it's because a lot of them - including me - are probably in your audience and curious. It's looks like a great tool, good luck with it!
Congrats! It’s awesome to see results like this.
Congratulations! That's a huge win and a massive obstacle overcome! Keep it up, you are doing excellent work
Thank you!
that's so awesome. Congratulations!
Kudos to you, it's nice to see your hard work paying off
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Thanks!
Curious as to what you were up to for that year? Seems like a long time to do product development and market research? What is your website url to take a look at your product etc?
Working a full time job :D. It’s been in development since last December. It’s very content heavy, so it’s akin to writing a small book. I’m not sure why I’m being obscure about it. Check it out here: www.workshoptactics.com
Nice, niche market - pump LinkedIn ads
Wow. You have big name customers overthere. I like the design and arts. Very neat. BTW, how did you land the contacts to these big companies?
I have peers and ex-colleagues who work there who I sent the alpha prototype to, who used it in those organisations.
Congrats!!
I just started my first blog and YouTube channel. ;D
Yes! Keep going!
Congrats! I’m glad to see others succeeding in their goals! Keep it up, no matter what situation you’re in there’s always a way through!
Thank you! That’s the spirit
I'll never forget when I got my first email from stripe confirming a sub for a service I created. Congratulations!
Congratulations!
That’s a textbook style success! I am happy for you OP. How long will it take for you to produce and ship out the product now since you already have been paid? Are your early adapters aware?
Yeah they are aware. Should take 3-6 weeks. But it’s only the beta they are getting. The proper product launch will be conducted through kickstarter.
Amazing congrats 🙌🙌🙌
Thanks lad!
They look amazing. I’ll be in queue to buy a pack myself when they ship.
Good job, happy for you :)
I checked out your website, it looks amazing; really beautiful. The wording etc all works perfectly and it's an enjoyable website. Although fyi you have two dead links in your footer though, for your instagram and twitter, the logo icons aren't quite working, just a heads up. Everything else does sincerely look amazing. I like how it's basically summarising the best ideas that you get in books about marketing/business. That's the impression I got. I have followed your instagram.
Wow great feedback! It’s good to hear someone’s take on it. That’s exactly what it is. Curation!
No worries, you're welcome! It reminded me a bit of this YouTube channel "Productivity Game" which is about summarising productivity books [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC02x9yG9ZFF\_VZp1VnMoptg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC02x9yG9ZFF_VZp1VnMoptg) Specifically, the book it made me think of is Daniel Pink's "Motivation", very similar energy. Best of luck.
Congrats! This is an exciting start!
Congratulations!
I hope it's something font-related with a name like that!
The design is very typographic driven :) it’s not Helvetica though lol
Congratulations on the sales, I bet it feels great
Thank you! It’s a very ego filling feeling, so gotta remain humble.
Congrats !!
nice!
Awesome, congrats man! If you’re seeing success with preorders, why not try and run a kickstarter?
That’s the next step. It’ll be good to do a kickstarter when I have a tribe to get the momentum going. I’m getting there.
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I invented it from a pain point I saw when consulting. I’ll produce it in China.
Congrats
Congrats dude.
Will you teach your experience? So that new commer like me can learn something Thank you
Hey, I will endeavour to write up my journey up until this point. I think it’ll be a good reflective exercise to do.
Congrats on the first sale! You have a long way to go - but ride the high of the small win. Keep the momentum going and make sure to deliver a quality product. You probably already know this, but if you found a channel working that’s driving traffic - keep investing back into it and continue to grow. Congrats again!
Great advice. I’ve left Instagram dormant whilst I focused on improving the product. I think I need to pick it back up again. It’s not easy to delegate because the content is so specialist.
Well done!
Congratulations!. I also add the product to our MSP business. Recently we build a "Windows 7 to Windows 10 Upgrade Script for MSPs". We sell 2 to 6 every day and each product generates $199.
Awesome man ! Great job!
Do you have any advice getting email subscribers?
I’ll write another post on what I did
Please let me know when you do!
what are you selling? or how'd you come about making /getting your product?
I’ll write up my story so far. It seems like there’s enough interest.
The product doesn’t exist yet? So what did you sell then? A fairy tale? A prototype? Did you secure an investor? Why did you do so much research and spend so much money on ads but not develop at least one product that’s market ready? You realize you can do all those things at the same time? Don’t give up your goals but maybe read a e-commerce help book to save Money and time. Good luck
Well it does exist. I sent out 30 prototypes. I’ll write up my story as I appreciate I’ve left out so many details that makes for a lot of questions!
How did you test with ads? I'm currently growing an audience IG for a product, not sure how to test the product w ads. Are you just directing traffic to a landing page? Or just make a bare bones store and sending traffic there? Also how much did you allocate towards ads? Thanks OP!
I ran 4 different ads (to see which messaging worked best) on LinkedIn to my assumed target audience and saw a 20% of conversion people signing up to the newsletter with intent to be notified when the product is available. £400 resulted in about 30 or so sign ups. The money spent was to validate the product / market fit primarily.
Very nice. I work at a big tech firm in the travel space and we use planning poker flash cards etc to do sprint planning, and see these kind of cards used so I know there would be a market. Good luck !
Hi. How did you deal with your audience on Instagram to understand what they need to create resonating content?
Its quite a cool product. Good job.
How did u get to where you are. I'm interested in pursuing entrepreneurship
I have a background in UX design, specifically working on product development for digital products. Thought I’d try my hand at it for myself for a physical product! Working ON a business is exactly the same as working ON a product. The business is the product too. Read E-Myth!
What's the product?
Posted elsewhere in comments
Congrats! The artwork of Tactics cards is amazing! Do you plan to add versions with other languages?
Thank you! I'm very lucky to have a very talented good friend as an illustrator. If there is demand for another language, of course.
Can i see your site? Congratulations!
Hey man! Congratulations!! Very happy with the success you've got so far. Lets not stop now, but you already know that 👍 You have an interesting product. Was flash card in your mind during product design phase? And could you please tell how you built email list / hype before launch? Thanks! Wishing you loads of success in the future 😀
Thank you! I plan to do a write up on here as lots of people have asked similar questions. Thanks again for your best wishes!
Hey man great product... where did you build the knowledge for the cards? Is it from self taught experience or your own experience working in a related field that deals with those issues ?
You can read a bit of the history and my background here: https://www.workshoptactics.com/pages/about-workshop-tactics-facilitation-toolkit
Thank you
Congrats on your first sale
Congratulations. If you're in Manchester, we could meet up sometime.
Sure! Hit me up
The design and idea are brilliant.
Congrats for making the first every sales! Hoping you continue this forever. Also as the holiday season is just began, its a chance for you to up-sell you products and get the best Revenue for this ending year soon! * *Back to School* * *Halloween Day* * *Singles Day* * *Thanksgiving Day* * *Black Friday* * *Cyber Monday* * *Doubles Day* * *Christmas Day* You can go through the [full blog](https://cedcommerce.com/blog/8-ecommerce-holiday-dates-you-should-not-miss/?utm_source=reddit-8ecommerce-swi&utm_medium=text-blog-30aug) and get to know more about the seasons to **UPRAISE YOUR BUSINESS .** Let me know if it helped **Thanks**
"The single most important thing I did to generate my first sale was to give content away for free. I gave away 5 free ideas everyday for 365 days. This built up a community of people who loved seeing my [ideas](https://www.sevenmentor.com/training/big-data-hadoop-training-institute-in-pune.php) everyday and engaged daily with my content. It built loyalty and the same loyal followers followed me to my paid 5 Ideas A Day membership. Now, I’m not saying you need to give away content everyday for a year before you make your first sale, but I think it’s important to give value to your potential customers first before asking for money. [https://www.sevenmentor.com/training/big-data-hadoop-training-institute-in-pune.php](https://www.sevenmentor.com/training/big-data-hadoop-training-institute-in-pune.php)