Fullfilling fullfilment

Two weeks ago, I got my first revenue in for my new macadamia nut brand. The feeling of getting that first money in the bank account felt really great! However, it also came with an obligation, an obligation to actually deliver the product. Makes sense of course!

Basically, I had to create an MVP and ship my product. Of course my customers knew that I was just starting my business and that this was basically the first product I shipped. Nevertheless, I was not going to ship something mediocre. It was time to step up my game.

For me there were three important things I would learn from my MVP:

1. Process map of making my product

2. Ball park unit costs

3. The holy grail…. FEEDBACK!

So lets start baking!

1/ How do I create my product

Of course, I had an idea of how I would make my product, but when you actually make it, you find out how much you have to arrange before getting your product to your customer and you’ll see the pain points. For me, I found out the following:

1. You need a recipe that is easy to make and delicious

2. Where can I get the best Macadamia Nuts, for the best price

3. Delivery is an issue (and costly)

Nevertheless, you are a start-up and you have to experience it yourself in order to gain these insights. So that is what I did! Bought Macadamia’s at the market, found some recipes online and started baking.

I created two flavours:

• Feeling Spicy, a salty spicy macadamia nut flavoured with several spices.

• Dark Chocolate: A macadamia nut covered in delicious Swiss 80% dark chocolate.

Honestly, I enjoyed it a lot being busy with the nuts and trying to make the perfect ones and it was of course very satisfying to make you own product and actually liked the result I produced.

Now the question was, am I actually making money with this

2/ Who wants to be a millionaire??

Having an idea of how much you product cost is very important (of course!). Before I started with initial plan, I already did some quick math on whether or not I would be able to make money out of macadamia nuts. And honestly, the answer was yes. The margins are actually quite good.

But, this is just quick math. Now, it is time to actually make some real money. My initial customers already paid me, so I got money in the bank account. Now it’s time to see what is left after I finished and what it actually got me. This is actually a good test, because when you only make 10 products, and still have some money left. You know that once you scale, your margins will become better.

That is also what happend to me! For my first batch, I barely made whole. But some of the packaging I needed only came in larger amounts than I needed. So, for my second batch, I ended up with more profit, because I had spares!

This for me was confirmation that, if I scale production, I would probably be able to make a profit out of it!

3/ Striking entrepreneurial gold: Feedback

Last, but certainly not least, was the feedback I received from my customers, because although is made financially sense, you always need you customers to like it and make sure that you are able to improve your product.

So what I did was put a QR code on my packaging which lead to a google form with some questions about the products. Very easy, but it immediatly create a feedback loop and I noticed what my customers found important.

This was feedback of one of my customers:

The lack of crunch came back in other reviews as well. This is super valuable information to improve my product. First, because there is a clear preference in the taste, and second, because crunchiness if very important for people eating nuts apperantly!

5/ The other kind of validation

This… was… FUN! So far, this journey of creating my own business was a lot of fun. Here is a picture of me smiling when delivering my macadamia nuts in Amsterdam (sorry the lighting is terrible, but if you look real good there is a smile)!

So the biggest validation so far, is that I am on the right track. I really like doing this and I cannot wait to start working on it every single day. I know its going to take some time for this and it will be a struggle as well. But I believe that this it right path to pursue and whether or not macadamia nuts is going to be it or something else, we will see!

PS. If you want to try these tasty nuts, please send an email to [email protected] and you will be included in the next batch!