This video is an update on Vino Cards six months after launching it on Amazon. Ariana and I will share what the relevant numbers are as well as the big mistakes we made.

Numbers
So far, we have sold 590 boxes on Amazon which is equal to $14,409.10 in revenue. However, there are still a lot of costs that are associated with that. One of them is buying the product. We bought 2000 units of the product and cost us $10,992.61. There is also the Amazon FBA Selling Fees. They charged us about $2,000 for the shipping of the products. Also just for using the platform, they charge about 15% of the revenue. Aside from these, there are also other random fees that Amazon charges which is about $1,000. We also paid $1,085 for Amazon PPC. In total, we spent $18,307.34 for all these different costs. So far on Amazon, we lost $3,898.24.

Expenses
Aside from all those fees, there are still other expenses that are associated with running a business. One of them is developing the product. For Vino Cards, Ariana needed to hire a sommelier to go over the wine facts. She also hired a designer to do the logo and the product. Another cost is shipping the product from China. There are two options: sea shipping and air shipping. It depends on how much time you have. If you want express shipping to get the product quicker, that would be much higher than if you were to have enough time for sea shipping. We did both and for air shipping, we spent $719.25 for 500 units of products while for the sea shipping, we spent $1,461.62 plus $400 for the annual bond.

Another one was getting the DBA. We went with LegalZoom for the DBA which was $152. Ariana also got a trademark for the logo which cost $225. The reason for this is to get on the Brand Registry on Amazon. This is to make sure that no one else can modify your Amazon listing and it also allows you to add images in the description.

The last expense is what we call Random Fees. This included things like buying the domain name, hosting, business meals, gas, tolls, parking fees, office supplies, and others. All these amounted to $273.61. At this point, we’ve lost $9,280 so far selling on Amazon.

Currently, we still have 1300 boxes in storage. Those boxes still have value which would be at least $7,000. The total lost so far is $2,244.73. However, Ariana also launched the product on Kickstarter to raise money. She was able to raise $5,125. Out of that money, she had to pay $513 in fees plus $652.93 for shipping to the people on Kickstarter. The total profit from Kickstarter was $3,960. If you add all the numbers in, the company technically made $1,715 in profit.

Story
The first step was coming up with an idea for a product. We were learning about wine and thought about having flashcards with all the essential information about wine. We played around with the name and eventually came up with Vino Cards. After that, we came up with a design of the product. We had an initial prototype and tested it out with friends.

The next step is getting customers that are interested in your product. Ariana created an Instagram page to build an email list and get people to join a Facebook Product Launch Group. The point is to get potential customers into the group. The Product Launch group is important because you are able to get feedback and know what the customers really want. The people in there will help you build your product and get them invested.

Ariana then launched on Kickstarter. A lot of the people on your Kickstarter will be from the Launch group. The money Ariana raised on Kickstarter helped pay for the initial production run. After the Kickstarter, Ariana had the product made. She had a great time working with the designer because he was able to bring Ariana’s vision of the product to life. For the manufacturing, she was also terrified because she doesn’t know all of the logistics. The process was relatively easy though and it helps that she knows someone she can ask questions to.

Mistakes
One of the first big mistakes we made was we waited a long time. If we are to do it all over again, we would definitely start the process sooner. Because we waited too long, we ended up having to air ship the products to receive the product quicker. Air shipping is extremely expensive. We also did not double box the products so there were damages.

Another mistake was that Ariana spent too much time with the product because she wanted it to look perfect. This was unrealistic because there were still mistakes in the end.

Growing Sales
Since the last update, Ariana has been reaching out to influencers and wine companies, just collaborations in general because these will get the word out to audiences that Ariana would not have reached on her own. She’s also spending more time to focus on the business and does a weekly meeting on her own. It’s a gamechanger because she is able to see the actual progress in real time. For new sellers, one tip is to dedicate hours to growing your business. Another tip is to hire a VA. The VA can send emails, keep up with Instagram posts, reach out to influencers and more. Also, surround yourself with people that are in the same boat as you. You help each other and give each other a boost of confidence especially when you feel that things are not going well.