It was 2008, I was a junior in college, I had been coding on-and-off for a few years (for hire) but was anxious to do my own thing.
I decided my "killer idea" was to sell safe-sex supplies online (condoms, lube, toys, etc). I built a site called "OrgasmSafely.com" and then opened 5 credit cards and bought about $15,000 worth of inventory.
I was renting a tiny room near campus, and my inventory filled it up. Boxes and boxes of condoms, gallons and gallons of lube. I had to put my bed against the wall. I slept in a ball in the corner.
I ordered dozens of T-shirts that said "OrgasmSafely" and handed them out on campus. I printed up thousands of flyers and handed them out at nightclubs. I setup an affiliate program. I ran google adwords campaigns. I setup an ebay store. I wrote to the school newspaper for feature stories, etc etc etc.
Nobody came.
Within a few weeks the minimum payments of the credit cards overwhelmed me. They were all maxed out. I was toast. I couldn't even afford to pay for hosting. I shut it down and walked away, with destroyed credit.
Sigh...
Post-mortem lessons: Don't buy inventory up front. And don't start a business you can't afford to keep running for awhile.
It was 2008, I was a junior in college, I had been coding on-and-off for a few years (for hire) but was anxious to do my own thing.
I decided my "killer idea" was to sell safe-sex supplies online (condoms, lube, toys, etc). I built a site called "OrgasmSafely.com" and then opened 5 credit cards and bought about $15,000 worth of inventory.
I was renting a tiny room near campus, and my inventory filled it up. Boxes and boxes of condoms, gallons and gallons of lube. I had to put my bed against the wall. I slept in a ball in the corner.
I ordered dozens of T-shirts that said "OrgasmSafely" and handed them out on campus. I printed up thousands of flyers and handed them out at nightclubs. I setup an affiliate program. I ran google adwords campaigns. I setup an ebay store. I wrote to the school newspaper for feature stories, etc etc etc.
Nobody came.
Within a few weeks the minimum payments of the credit cards overwhelmed me. They were all maxed out. I was toast. I couldn't even afford to pay for hosting. I shut it down and walked away, with destroyed credit.
Sigh...
Post-mortem lessons: Don't buy inventory up front. And don't start a business you can't afford to keep running for awhile.
...Also don't sell condoms on the internet...