Important business lesson learned
My online shipping business, which I hadn’t done much with due to lack of time because of school, was sitting online waiting for me to work on. I had finally gotten all of the bugs out of the code, the finishing touches put on, and a killer ordering system in place. It was ready to go. I was about to start dumping money into advertising and hopefully start churning a pretty penny. And then it all fell apart.
My suppliers went out of business. A bridge was closed in our town, causing the traffic to literally come to an end. Their road was on a dead end now, and there were no customers. They closed up shop, and left me out to dry.
All of this could have been avoided. Not their unfortunate closing, but mine as well. I feel like this is a mistake that far too many entrepreneurs make. I had all of my eggs in one basket with these guys. Here are some possible scenarios that could have played out:
- Personal relationship with the owners crumbles, they stop helping me out and I lose my product supply.
- They strictly control the price of the products and I have no choice but to agree because they know that I have no where else to go.
- Their business gets shut down and I’m left with a useless website.
- They decide to get into online shipping as well, ending their agreement with me.