The perils of starting a business
July 28, 2024 11:21 AM Subscribe
Simone Giertz: Was starting a product business a mistake? Shitty Robots may have paid for her house, but after her brain tumor, Simone Giertz (previously on MeFi) realized she needed to come up with a career that didn't involve looking for more fame and being camera-ready. How's that going?
Financially not well, "I want to close up shop and hide under my couch." She wants to be a true inventor, not a joke, and to be smart (and hot), and to keep making enough money to do this forever. But...it's also really fun having her own store, too.
On a related note, WaPo: Welcome to “Snark Tank,” where start-up founders like Prosina present their businesses — and comedians tear them apart for laughs.
As a person who's always told she should start her own business (hell, I was having a conversation with a lady last night about how she should do a custom costume/hat business), I'm always pointing out that this shit is hard, y'all. Simone points out that her prices are expensive because they have to be. Whereas the lady I was talking to with fancy hats said she was charging $15 for them and even I was all, "you could raise those prices for how much they look alone." But then again, I quit selling once I could only sell $1-2 pieces, so what do I know?
Financially not well, "I want to close up shop and hide under my couch." She wants to be a true inventor, not a joke, and to be smart (and hot), and to keep making enough money to do this forever. But...it's also really fun having her own store, too.
On a related note, WaPo: Welcome to “Snark Tank,” where start-up founders like Prosina present their businesses — and comedians tear them apart for laughs.
As a person who's always told she should start her own business (hell, I was having a conversation with a lady last night about how she should do a custom costume/hat business), I'm always pointing out that this shit is hard, y'all. Simone points out that her prices are expensive because they have to be. Whereas the lady I was talking to with fancy hats said she was charging $15 for them and even I was all, "you could raise those prices for how much they look alone." But then again, I quit selling once I could only sell $1-2 pieces, so what do I know?
I really love what Simone brings to the world and would love for her to be comfortably successful
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:44 AM on July 28 [10 favorites]
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:44 AM on July 28 [10 favorites]
Manufacturing in general is hard enough. Manufacturing niche, small quantity items is near impossible without an angle to market them to people willing to pay. That's where things like youtube and a strong internet presence could really help. There's an element of personality/showbiz that's a huge asset if you can pull it off. Or a back story. Or a legacy. Boutique industry depends on so much more than value and practicality.
posted by 2N2222 at 11:56 AM on July 28 [3 favorites]
posted by 2N2222 at 11:56 AM on July 28 [3 favorites]
I love Simone and want to support her, but in all honesty I haven't been interested in her projects on sale. They seem so...normal, compared to the potential weirdness this girl can do and how I got into her in the first place. I'm not saying she should sell shitty robots, per se, but her current vibe is very...normal. And when you combine normal + expensive due to manufacturing (honestly, not gonna pay $365 for the everyday calendar, I'm pretty sure I can find some other way to not break the chain), I can see why this is an issue for sales. Like I can see the coat hangers being a thing at Expensive Home Stores, and they solve a problem, but I dunno if I'm excited enough to spend that money on them. Who sees my closets?
Business is hard, yo. She has my sympathy, even if I'm not particularly into the products.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:13 PM on July 28 [1 favorite]
Business is hard, yo. She has my sympathy, even if I'm not particularly into the products.
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:13 PM on July 28 [1 favorite]
The part where she talked about pricing hit home to me. I sell a card for retro PCs that I designed myself, and it was very hard for me to set pricing. I first sold at 3x the cost of manufacture because I didn't want to feel like I was "ripping off" my customers, but only once I increased my price to 4x did it feel like it was actually worth my time selling it as a business instead of just a fun hobby. I hope she can get to that point because the 2x cost she mentioned seems unsustainable.
posted by zsazsa at 12:34 PM on July 28 [4 favorites]
posted by zsazsa at 12:34 PM on July 28 [4 favorites]
Was on the fence about watching this, and still am. Giertz is a great person and deserves at least a small fraction of the insane riches enjoyed by Lone Skum after her Truckla turned out to be a much more fun and useful vehicle than his own shitty thing. I don't like to see cool people fail.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:42 PM on July 28 [4 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:42 PM on July 28 [4 favorites]
Pricing is hard! There's not only how I was taught to do pricing financially, but you also need to factor in social stuff like "does this item seem like it's worth that expense?" and where they can get similar elsewhere and for how much they can get it there.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:50 PM on July 28
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:50 PM on July 28
I'm just saying I liked her because she was weird. Home stuff is normal and not my jam.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:50 PM on July 28 [1 favorite]
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:50 PM on July 28 [1 favorite]
I was thinking about (and still want to) go into manufacturing a complicated, expensive niche item with a small potential market, but the fact that I'm dead broke among other things has prevented that from happening. That aside, the other issue is that the one person in the space making these things (I know of) is long retired and doesn't need money, so sells their version for cost of materials (!). I couldn't do that, obviously, nor would I want to. So I'm kinda waiting for them to pass on (they're also very old) and see if there is still demand in the slowly diminishing market...
Anyway, business is hard, whether you're selling your time or a product. It's especially hard if you don't have independent wealth to see you through lean times. And if the lean times last a long time, welp.
posted by maxwelton at 2:05 PM on July 28 [2 favorites]
Anyway, business is hard, whether you're selling your time or a product. It's especially hard if you don't have independent wealth to see you through lean times. And if the lean times last a long time, welp.
posted by maxwelton at 2:05 PM on July 28 [2 favorites]
Huge difference between people who know you and would say “I’d buy that, you should sell them!” and people who don’t know you or your product or why they should give you money instead of someone else for a similar thing or just not bother.
This is the hump most artists / artisans / home businesses never get over. One you sell through to everyone who gives a shit about you, your innate market is gone and you have to make a new market from nothing, in competition with everyone else from other garage businesses to Chinese cloners to billion dollar corporations with teams of people constantly looking for the next thing to rip off.
It’s not gentle is what I am saying.
posted by seanmpuckett at 3:00 PM on July 28 [1 favorite]
This is the hump most artists / artisans / home businesses never get over. One you sell through to everyone who gives a shit about you, your innate market is gone and you have to make a new market from nothing, in competition with everyone else from other garage businesses to Chinese cloners to billion dollar corporations with teams of people constantly looking for the next thing to rip off.
It’s not gentle is what I am saying.
posted by seanmpuckett at 3:00 PM on July 28 [1 favorite]
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posted by Shepherd at 11:31 AM on July 28 [1 favorite]