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Should I sell my abandoned side-project/business? [~$9k in 5 months]

My problem is that I spread my focus over to much. I started so many projects at once that I came to a moment where I got stuck and need to get rid of some.

So, I am thinking of selling UX Store and it's social accounts which have more than half of million followers on Instagram.

I acquired https://uxstore.com on August 10th, 2018 from the guy called Marc which at that moment running a store he had passive earnings of ~$500/month. Not bad considering that he didn't invest anything in paid ads. It was all organic.

And here is a story of how I got an idea for this business. Well, it was ~6 am after none sleeping night, I was waiting for server guys to finish some work for another experimental project I was trying at the time, while on another hand I had already 2 main things to focus (Vanila.io and Automatio.co).
So, I didn't wanna waste time while waiting for them, and just like that, I decided to start a new side project, which will be an e-commerce dropshipping business. I always wanted to give a shot.

Since I had a big network of followers on Instagram, I wanted to use that and make some extra $$.

I bought a domain name, built a shop in ~2h and added some demo products, just to get an overall sense of how it gonna look and feel. And then, I decided to contact Marc (at that time UX Store owner) to see if there is a possible way to work together.

I was very direct and said something like: "Hey Mark, listen I am in the process of building my store like yours, what's your plan and status with the current business?".

And seems I came to the right moment, cause he was already thinking about selling it. We were talking about the store, how he started, was checking the sales and traffic stats. At one point we agreed on $6k. But, before I bought it, I wanted to see how much sales a store can make if I do full promotion for 24h on my whole Instagram network.

We did it, and he reported that promotion resulted in ~$600 worth of a sale. Just from one-day promotion. That was it, I am buying it. In the end, Marc saw a lot of potential in me running the UX Store, and he offered me a partnership. He wanted to get 5-10% for and to lower the prices by 50%. So literary I ended getting a store for $3k and giving away 10% of equity.

That was such a good deal.

From that day, I exposed my mind and body to extreme exhausting and pressure. I literary stopped doing work out, going with friends on the lake and having normal habits.  I also screwed my sleeping schedule completely which resulted in burnout.

On another hand, I started doing all kinds of improvements and things for the UX Store, such as redesigning a store 3 times to enhancing the overall visual and user experience. Since my targeted customers were UX designers, it needed to be solid at least.

Edit: I forgot to mention one very important thing: This was not a classic drop-shipping method using AliExpress or something similar. The products are pre-made in China, by custom designing it and getting all products in house (Marc house) until I didn't solve this problem using Third-Party Service.

I didn't acquire just an online store. I got the physical products as well. Bunch of big boxes full of items. I asked Marc (previous owner) if he can continue fulfilling and shipping the products, but he wanted to get rid of it, cause it was taking a lot of space in his apartment and obviously time.

So, I needed to solve this issue, since I didn't wanna have touch with products as well, especially to go to the post office every day, waste time there waiting in order, just to ship them.

After days of research, I found out exactly what I was looking for. The Printful Warehouse service https://www.printful.com/warehousing-fulfillment .

Thanks to them, the whole business is now fully automated. When the order comes, Woo-Commerce is sending it to the Printful, and then they are fulfilling it for you. As I said, everything is happening fully automated, my work from that point is just to get traffic, which will convert into customers.

I am paying $25/month fee + additional fee for each order

Their pricing:

The minimum fee per each order is $2.95 ($2 - order fulfillment fee; $0.95 - per each item from the warehouse).

Here is their pricing https://www.printful.com/faq/warehousing-fulfillment/242-how-do-the-warehousing-fulfillment-fees-work- .

I wanted to do a lot of things. I am crazy (sometimes) and in the cost of self-destruction, I will do things I aimed, no matter the price. Below you can see how the UX Store Trello board looked like. https://www.screencast.com/t/y5D4gl6xJC.
I don't wanna go into details what all I did, cause I could talk about it for days.

Let's get to the numbers.

So from the moment I acquired store (August 2018) till the end of the year, the store had 165 orders (520 items sold) which resulted in ~$9k gross sales or ~$8k net. Check the screenshot https://www.screencast.com/t/3MFBvw7y
Not bad for a period of fewer than 5 months.

Note: From the period of when I acquired store till today, the UX Store had ~$13k in gross sales, 250 orders and 732 items purchased https://www.screencast.com/t/krPRq3XZHt

At the beginning of Dec. 2018, I already sold most of the products and some were out of the stock already or at least very low. That's the period where I was burning out. I got tired of everything, especially social media (managing 5 accounts). I stopped doing daily promotions and driving traffic to the store. I didn't post anything on the Instagram network for a few months. Since the Instagram network was growing at ~1000 followers per day, I lost 100k-150k followers due to inactivity.

I also needed to prepare and manufacture the products, but I didn't wanna just to order the same one which was at the moment already old.

Since my network was very influential at the time, and a lot of really good and influencer designers were using and promoting UX Store products, I wanted to design, improve and manufacture new products. which will be even more useful and align with the current state of the UX Community.

From that period I left the UX Store completely and didn't do any work, promotion, etc. It's literary collecting dust, while overtime some sales come in organically through SEO and SMM for few not very popular products left.

Few things to consider. I was doing most of the work alone. I did everything from designing, web development, social promotion on 5 accounts, a bit of SEO and other growth hacks, to talking with customers, answering emails, messages, etc. 
I also bought a mini photo studio, just so I can take professional-looking photos for a store. Not sure if it's worth it, cause it took me to much time and money. I had some help from Marc (previous owner), but it was just a tiny bit of help. As well from my ex GF like some HTML/CSS fixes, but as I said, I did 95% things by myself.

I am saying this just so you can picture it how much could be done if there was at least one more guy like me doing everything its need to reach the goals.

So I am thinking of either to sell a store or partner with someone.

If I would sell whole business including the Instagram Network (600k + followers https://uxstore.com/get-featured-on-instagram/) I would consider getting it something in the range of $25k-$30k.
If I would to partner, I would ask min $10k investment to join and of course to take over most of the work which is needed for store to operate.

You can reach me via email: stefan@vanila.io or Twitter: https://twitter.com/shtefcs

on October 16, 2019
  1. 2

    Yeah, I was also wondering that to do with a community I've grown -- and decided that, since I'm not planning to get back to working on it anytime soon, it will be better off in someone else's hands.
    So good luck with your sale!

    1. 1

      Sometimes thats the best thing. We need to make space for new things coming to use. Going back to the old projects, habits, thoughts will drain energy and keep us stuck.

      I don't regret anything about UX Store. It was a fun project, and still having lot of potential for a business. But sometimes we need to make decisions. Whatever it happens, it was a good ride.

  2. 2

    Wow, that's a pretty interesting, and at same time a cautionary story! Thanks for sharing it @kinder.

    I'm afraid that I'm also heading burnout. Thankfully, I'm noticing some warning signs.
    Just 2 days ago I got a newsletter from James Clear with an article on setting an upper bound. I think you may also find it helpful: https://jamesclear.com/upper-bound

    1. 1

      Thanks for sharing this post. Honestly, I am the guy who always setup lower bound. I always tried to do more, even its not necessary. That kind of mindset leads to overloading and burning yourself.

      I guess I am learning it hard way.

  3. 2

    You want to sell the instagram accounts like UI/UX, Vanila.Design, Wireflow etc. part of the network? Btw, UI/UX has 462k followers, which is not reflected on the screenshot.

    1. 1

      Yes, probably most of the accounts except Wireflow.

      Yeah, the screenshots are not updated with Instagram followers, but the one who is interested to check will notice that screenshots are not updated and that accounts have grown significantly.

  4. 1

    Hi @kinder can you share your email address? I have some question & ideas 🙋‍♂️

    1. 1

      Hey Marko, I already did at the end of the post :)

      1. 1

        Haha, I read it twice, but didn't noticed email at the end. Thanks 🤦‍♂️

        1. 1

          hehe, no problem :). Waiting for your idea to hear ..

  5. 1

    This comment was deleted 5 years ago.

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