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all 34 comments

[–]_vvvv_ 22 points23 points  (8 children)

Seems irresponsible to be spending so much of your budget on candy. There are bigger things to focus on.

Just kidding, nice post. Curious what your ltv and average lifetime is for subs. Do you have any idea how you compare to other "boxes" in this regard?

[–]bemmu[S] 7 points8 points  (7 children)

I'd have to crunch the numbers again, but last I checked it was about $50 and that's what I've been using as a minimum break-even when thinking of ad campaigns. I have no idea how other boxes are doing, since it seems no-one else is stupid enough to share these numbers.

Here's a retention chart I did ages ago: http://i.imgur.com/0kN7jAv.png

Recently I've started sending more expensive items, so may have to adjust the LTV down (unless it's now compensated by better retention). For instance the next box will have premium wasabi kit-kats in it, which will probably erase any profit for that shipment, but I've been really wanting to let people try those.

[–]Xsythe 6 points7 points  (3 children)

Have you tried Trello for project management? It's 100% free.

[–]bemmu[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Gave it a short try, could consider it as an alternative once this text file no longer cuts it.

[–]Xsythe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Additionally, I highly recommend setting up a Lootcrate-esque referral program and sending boxes to gaming YouTubers.

[–]flamebringer17 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In terms of to-do lists I would recommend Asana. Its free and syncs with google calendar

[–]_vvvv_ 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Do you have any of the candy producers on board directly? I'd be looking into that if I were in your position. They might be very interested in an opportunity to make their products famous internationally and/or move overstocked goods. This could really cut down your costs.

[–]bemmu[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I'm not sure if I'm doing the volume to make it interesting for them. This is still on the scale of what a small countryside supermarket sells. Right now I'm at ~770 subscribers. I might visit one of those candy expos to see how they feel.

[–]_vvvv_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you don't think the volume is interesting yet then don't bring it up until later. Get them hyped on growth stats and the fact that these people are huge candy fans willing to pay constant sums of money and wait. Get them interested enough to run a small experiment and work from there. That's what I'd try to do.

[–]tim_schaaf 6 points7 points  (1 child)

You could automate the flows between a bunch of these tools pretty scrappy like by using Zapier.

Customer sends a question to Zendesk. Zapier posts it to your free Slack, or Trello, or whatever.

Customer makes a payment, Zapier sends a message, and logs it into Google Sheets or wherever you keep the books.

It's super powerful and incredibly cheap for what it does.

[–]bemmu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the suggestion. Friend who runs http://www.washibox.com/ uses this for good effect to keep track of new subscribers.

[–]WingsOfWayn3 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I like the price point.

What's amazing is the discrepancy between thinking of this idea yourself and actually hearing about it.

I'm not exactly a japan fan. I don't dislike it, I simply don't care as much as others, but having heard about this, I'm really inclined to this, just because it sounds really interesting to see what candy from japan is like. What's holding me back is the time it takes for the product to arrive (about 5 weeks).

Had I had this idea myself, I'd have discarded it as a shitty idea. Reading about the service, on the other hand, sounds pretty cool.

[–]notafishtoday 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Where do you live?

I'm living in Japan right now and eat lots of lollies. The taste is different from back home.

It's against my visa to set up and kind of business like that. Have you had similar issues?

[–]bemmu[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Spouse visa allows it, so I've had no issues there. I pay taxes here, have an accountant and report everything to the best of my ability.

[–]JeffFBA 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are you shipping everything from Japan to the consumer directly? If so have you considered shipping the entire batch to a warehouse in the US where the boxes are waiting and then packed and shipped?

Would that even save money? Just curious about the logistics.

[–]zck 1 point2 points  (1 child)

A few recent relevant tweets from Patrick McKenzie:

https://twitter.com/patio11/status/695647948525309952

You cannot cut costs into a successful software business. You cannot cut costs into a successful software business. You cannot cut costs...

https://twitter.com/patio11/status/695648971818020864

There's a place for having disciplined growth, particularly in team size, but saving on G&A or optimizing servers <<<< selling more software

[–]TweetsInCommentsBot -1 points0 points  (0 children)

@patio11

2016-02-05 16:43 UTC

There's a place for having disciplined growth, particularly in team size, but saving on G&A or optimizing servers <<<< selling more software


This message was created by a bot

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[–]Hactually 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Really cool you tried GAE, I have used it at www.cravecoffee.co.nz and was really impressed.

How was the PayPal effort, I ended up using Braintree for payments but it was a fair bit of work in the backend.

[–]echocubed 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Wow thanks so much for sharing! I have a question regarding your suppliers, do you deal with them directly and buy in bulk or how do you keep up with the inventory?

[–]bemmu[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't keep inventory. I ask them for the specific amount we need each time. My supplier is just a store nearby. I bicycle there and even settle payments in cash, very oldskool.

[–]george-lolomg 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi, Bemmu! Great post, was your subscriber a few years ago. Glad to see you sharing such intel, and good luck!

[–]barryfc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great breakdown, thanks for sharing!

[–]WingsOfWayn3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Who are you using for shipping? I can't find anything remotely as low :(

[–]buangakun 0 points1 point  (10 children)

a bit late, but were you incurred any taxes when you send something to the States? if not how did you circumvent it?

[–]bemmu[S] 0 points1 point  (9 children)

What kind of taxes?

[–]buangakun 0 points1 point  (8 children)

I'm not exactly sure, but according to a few documents that I've read (below) and few posts on Reddit, importing food items to the State for business purposes is subject to import tax.

http://www.fedex.com/cgi-bin/content.cgi?template=mt_pr&content=about/pressreleases/emea/usfoodimportrules&cc=mt

http://www.fedex.com/us/promo/food_import_regulations.html

And may I ask you other questions, if you don't mind.

[–]bemmu[S] 0 points1 point  (7 children)

Yes, if you order something from a foreign online store such as say Alibaba, Amazon Japan or j-list, if the value of the package is high you may have to pay duties on it.

When I lived outside of Japan (in Finland), I would often have to pay duties on my orders from Japan, but only if the value of the packages was high enough. I have never been on the receiving end in US, but I imagine it would work similarly.

If you want to first ship product to your warehouse inside US, I'm not exactly sure what that would entail, but probably paying customs duties and possibly meeting some labeling requirements.

I hope this helps.

[–]buangakun 0 points1 point  (6 children)

Thank you very much, sir! My wife occasionally sells her handicraft items to the States and has never had this issues, so I was wondering whether food items will be treated differently.

I'm guessing if the amount is small enough it'll go unnoticed.

As for the other question (apology if I'm being presumptuous, please ignore it if you think I am) I actually am planning to start my own Subscription Box business but based in South East Asia.

The questions are;

  • How did you start your own business?
  • What problem did you encounter first? and how did you tackle it.
  • How do you promote your products?
  • How long did you break-even?
  • Do you have any other jobs? or does you business is enough to sustain your daily expenses

[–]bemmu[S] 0 points1 point  (5 children)

If your wife is the one sending the items, then she hasn't encountered any problems because she is not the one importing the items. The person on the receiving end is the importer.

[–]buangakun 0 points1 point  (3 children)

I see, but some of our friends in the States also bought it and they had never mentioned/complained about import duties.

I will check with them again.

[–]bemmu[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

If the amount of duties is lower than a certain amount then they are not charged, at least that's how it is in the EU. If the amount of customs would be less than 10 euro then it is not applied.

[–]buangakun 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Thank you again.

[–]bemmu[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I found some new information for you. The minimum amount exists also in USA, it's called "de minimis". I received this email today from some company called PitneyBowes:

Good news for US consumers! Starting March 10, 2016, imports of merchandise up to USD 800 will be allowed into the United States free from duties and taxes.

The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 raises the de minimis threshold for low value shipments. Section 901 amends the Trade Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1321(a)(2)(C)) to raise the limit on amount of exemption from USD 200 to USD 800. This amendment applies to merchandise imported or withdrawn from the warehouse for consumption on or after the 15th day after the date of enactment of the Act. The enactment date was February 24, 2016.

[–]buangakun 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Also, you've never had this problem in running your company?