Kizzyboutique

Just short of Kizzyboutique's sixth birthday we have officially closed this business.

We started the business from scratch with no stock, no contacts, no experience but built up our knowledge and connections to build the business to just short of $400k in total revenues.

Sadly though Covid forced the closure of our main supplier and alternate suppliers had already proved impractical, so we knew that 2021 would be our last year burning down what was left of dwindling stock supplies.

It was good whilst it lasted....and now on to the next business!

It's been a tough 15 months with Covid forcing our suppliers to close down to resellers like us and it has actually forced the closure of a number of retro clothing re-sellers here in Birmingham.

However, we have been able to gain access to a small amount of stock we had in storage but couldn't access because of Covid.

It's meant we've been able to re-open this business for a limited period. We've actually been able to hit $40,000 in the past 12 months which isn't near what we'd normally take in a 12-month period but it's a nice bonus considering how difficult things have been.

So its taken this businesses total revenues to $370,000. I'd really love to hit $400k with this in its current format but not sure we have the stock to do it.

My wife @chinspil73 mainly operates this business day-to-day and we've got a few ideas on how we might reboot it before the end of 2021.

So perhaps there might still be some life in Kizzyboutique.

2020 has been a struggle but we got hit with another blow yesterday with the news that our main supplier has decided to close its doors and not supply independent traders anymore.

Their business had been in the hands of the same family for 100 years but had been under new ownership since 2019 and the Covid-19 situation has forced them to reevaluate how their business operates and with whom it trades with.

So with no notice they simply shut down their relationships with dozens of Indie-Traders like us.

So a blow to us and many other businesses that traded with them.

The obvious answer would appear to be to find another supplier, but the hard fact is that this company dominated the market and most of the other suppliers in this niche are much smaller and are also spread across the country, so it's just not cost-effective to travel large distances for small caches of stock.

We'd built up a lot of domain knowledge on these products and the customers that like them but it looks like we need to park that now and move on.

It's sad news as I've also had to retire a SaaS product this month too.

But it's now time to look ahead to 2021.

A lot of focus will be now shifting to zubbit.io our URL LInk Shortener business I run with @ronperkins and also a 2nd eBay business I've not got round to adding to Indie Hackers yet.

I know a lot of the businesses are SaaS on Indie Hackers but are people interested to hear about eBay type businesses? if so I'll add my other new eBay business on too.

As for Kizzyboutique, well we have a brand with lots of followers and we have a well-established eBay account with a lot of feedback so we might be able to come up with some ideas on how to leverage those.

So maybe its story is not quite over.....Let's see.

I'm most sad for our partner in this business as he'd been trading with this supplier since 1980 and they literally closed the door in his face yesterday and destroyed his 40-year old business with no notice or thanks or anything.

Life and business can be tough for sure!

2020 has been a pretty bad year for this business.

Our main suppliers moth-balled their business back in the March UK Lockdown and didn't really reboot and are still more or less closed now.

So we made the strategic decision to hold onto all the stock we had back in March and keep it to sell through October-December when we knew we traditionally got better prices for our products.

So a hard decision to make to moth-ball our business for over six months but it was the best way to get the most of what we had.

Well, this month we've finished the month on $6819 in sales which is pretty much our best month ever, so it looks like the decision paid off and is helping us salvage something from the year.

So the lesson is I guess always think longer-term rather than short-term if you can.

2020 has certainly not been our best year.

We've had our suppliers close down because of Covid-19, and our sales plummet, but we did have some stock in reserve, which we held back to sell during the busy run-up to the Christmas period.

So not the best year by any measure but we have just passed over £260k in total sales ($350,000 USD) so pleased with that milestone.

We started the business from zero with no suppliers and just an idea and we've worked hard to slowly build this business up so really pleased with passing this revenue milestone.

I don't know what 2021 will bring but here's hoping the world bounces back next year.

After been closed since the original United Kingdom Covid-19 lockdown started, we've decided to reopen and sell the stock we have.

The weather is getting cold and Christmas is looming so the demand for our jackets should spike over the next month or two.

We've not got the levels of stock we should have for this time of the year but we've got enough to salvage something.

We are now well into the summer but there is no sign of our suppliers going on stream again.

They have reopened but on a very low capacity.

Basically, the bulk of the product they trade goes to Africa and that market is currently cut off to them. The "Good Stuff" that's too good to go to Africa is what's sold to traders like us, but its too small a part of their business to be worth them getting their staff back and going live again.

So, for now, we continue to wait.

So lockdown has now ended in the UK and we wait to see if our suppliers re-open and reboot.

As it's now the summer it's hard to sell the product that we have stored so we will most likely stick the plan we had, which was to hold onto the stock until into October when the weather gets colder in the UK and demand starts to rise.

With the national lockdown in the UK, our suppliers and source of stock has now been cut off.

So we've made the decision to hold on to all the stock we have and keep it till post-October when we can get better prices for it.

We have to think long term and about how we can get the best return on what we have, even if it means the business goes flat for 6 months or more.

2019 ended well, with another great year of sales.

One of the things we did do this year is to try and improve the lighting and quality of the photos we take of the products.

We also worked on decreasing the returns rate by improving the accuracy of the descriptions.

Current return rates sits at 1.22% which is far lower than when we first started.