This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Hey, hey, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. So glad you're here. Thank you for tuning in. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
This is our weekly Failure Friday segment. One of my favorite things to work on, it's because I believe we can learn as much from failure as we can from success. So the whole theme of this segment has been shining a spotlight on mistakes, missteps, disasters, and of course, failure. Last week, we had this epic disaster story of a guy who was selling weighted blankets and had 17,000 orders that were not delivered in time for the holiday season, basically stuck on containers. That was episode 1672.
Probably one of the biggest disasters, at least one of the most epic that we have had since beginning this series. Today is a little bit different, but it also begins with a faulty assumption. In the case of last week, the guy basically assumed that he had plenty of time to get his shipments and he was wrong about that. Today, you'll hear about a different assumption. Here's what I thought would happen.
Here's what actually happened. And of course, what the person learned along the way. So as I said, I love working on these segments. I really appreciate the courage and vulnerability of our Side Hustlers who have been sharing. Today's short story features Amy McCord Jones from Oklahoma City.
We told the successful story of her project on episode 863, wedding planner earns passive income with DIY flowers. Super cool project, I'm a big fan of it. And like so many of us, she's had some struggles along the way. So let's hear from what she calls one of her biggest fails, one of her struggles that involved an early assumption that proved faulty. So over to Amy.
I'll come back at the end with a few brief comments. [Music]
My name is Amy McCord Jones and I'm the owner of Flower Moxie. Flower Moxie is an online business that sells flowers to DIY couples or brides for their wedding. We teach them how to put it all together with online tutorials, with recipes, and we dropship the flowers to them the week of their wedding. So my biggest fail was underestimating how visual people are.
And what I did was when I initially began my business, I was very, very bootstrapped and it started out as a side hustle. I think my initial investment was $5,000. I started it at my kitchen table and I only had enough money to take pictures of like a few different color palettes. And so my thought was, I can just take a picture of this white bouquet. And on the website, I will tell them that they can have this bouquet in these eight other color options.
So maybe if you want blue and cream or blush and cream or peach and yellow. And I learned really quickly, nobody was buying it if there wasn't a visual representation. They couldn't imagine it in another color and they probably didn't feel confident and I don't blame them. I think what's funny to me now is that that surprised me in the moment. I thought, well, why can't you just see that you can get it in any other color that you want?
And I'm thinking how many times have we watched "House Hunters" where people will legit not buy a home because there's an ugly red wall that they can't get over, like they can't see past it. And so that was like the lesson that I learned. And since then, of course, I've shot all of the color palettes. We have all of the representations. And I think it's so important, especially in the online world, that if you're going to sell everything, you need to show every variation.
And I think that we're seeing that much more as we go, even with clothing. So I tend to like brands that have more body representations because all of a sudden I'll know what that outfit is gonna look like on my body versus the side zero model. So that was my fail. That was my learning lesson and it was a good one. [Music]
That is a great lesson.
Thank you so much, Amy. Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. Also show them the colors, show them the variations. Like Amy said, don't underestimate how visual people are these days with the standard online. If you're gonna sell variations, you need to show every variation.
Maybe lastly, this is also why you need to start quickly and adjust along the way. Because in retrospect, like Amy said, we can look back and say, well, of course she had to show the colors. But when you're living in your head, as we tend to do, you make assumptions. And perhaps you wouldn't make that particular assumption but you're gonna make some assumptions that will probably be wrong. And the way you discover which assumptions are faulty is by getting something out there and then adjusting along the way.
If you never do that, you're never gonna see, oh, here's what I really need to do. Oh, I thought this was the case, but turned out it was something different. Or this thing is actually a really big hit. Could also go that way, right? It could be like, I thought nobody would buy this, but then it turned into a whole business.
We've had multiple examples throughout the years here on Sadosville School of Accidental Businesses. Little things that have started or maybe not so little things that initially the person thought there's no way this can make money and it turned out that it did. So you gotta get something out there and see what happens. I'm grateful to Amy for helping us out with this segment. Her business is called Flower Moxie.
Check out her website at flowermoxie.com. That's M-O-X-I-E. Or follow her on social. See some pretty cool photos in lots of different colors at Flower Moxie. If you've got a question for us or you'd like to update us about your Sadosville, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions.
That's it for today, but I will be back tomorrow. I hope you'll subscribe or follow. Thank you for tuning in. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Sadosville School.
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From the Onward Project.
