Another month, another report. And a late report at that. That’s because I’ve had the last 3 weeks off work. I go through phases and have been doing some questioning about why I do any of this. I realised that I don’t think I have ever taken any extended time off work before. Even on my honeymoon there were a few fires I had to put out.
Because why am I doing this after all? Because I want to. If it ever becomes too much of a burden I should stop or at least take a break. So I took a bit of time off, and will probably take some more soon.
Well I am kind of back now. But the time off meant I haven’t released many podcasts episodes lately, this post is late, and I have a big backlog of other work I want to do. Still April was a fairly average month for work.
Pipehouse Gin
April was a good month for my craft Gin brand Pipehouse Gin. At the end of March we launched our new flavour, Pink Grapefruit & Thyme and it has been doing really well.
We had our best ever month for trade and online sales and we have been getting some good attention. We were invited to go on Dragon’s Den (which we declined) and are starring in a nationwide window campaign for Fenwicks.
In April we built a webpage for our brand on Amazon. Although we make less money from each sale on Amazon than through our own website, we get a lot more sales. Remember it was always the plan to target online with this gin.
In April we also did our financial accounts for the first year of Pipehouse Gin. Although we only launched our first product in June, the company was created in November. I am pleased to report we made a profit in our first year.
We did the accounts ourselves, which I don’t really recommend, but check out my post on running your UK business without an accountant.
If you want to support us please buy a bottle of the new gin from Amazon. And if you like it please leave a review!
Relevant Posts:
- Starting a Gin Brand Episode 1: Doing The Research
- Starting a Gin Brand Episode 2: Creating The Recipe & Branding
- Starting A Gin Brand Episode 3: Delays & Legal Schmeagols
- Starting A Gin Brand Episode 4: Labels, Packaging & Marketing
- Starting A Gin Brand Episode 5: We Have Finally Launched Pipehouse Gin!
Table Tennis Brands
I run two table tennis brands. Mid-range Palio & high-end Eastfield Co and April saw a growth in sales and profit for both.
That’s good, but Palio in particular is down on both last year and the year before. The mid-range market has got more and more competitive and we are turning into victims of our success. It’s hard to sell more when you’re already the bestseller and because we’re well known we are getting targeted from all sides. Copycats and reputational espionage. Add to that a bit of neglect on our behalf and our slowly dropping numbers make sense.
The online market has also changed since we launched Palio back in 2013. We were one of the first people to use Amazon FBA and online shopping wasn’t yet centralised on Amazon. So while there was still a lot of competition, we were competing against reseller websites. Nowadays everyone is on Amazon.
Don’t get me wrong. Palio still pays my bills and makes a remarkable amount of money considering how much time I spend on it (about 10 hours in May). I’ve just got to accept it probably won’t make as much as it used to.
Relevant Posts:
The Lazy Entrepreneur Podcast
On each
And April started really well. I try and release 1-2 episodes a week, and while I was doing that the podcast got more and more traffic and did well in the charts. Peaking at #42 in business:
Pretty amazing really considering I’m a nobody and don’t have any impressive guests on.
But while I released 4 episode in the first 2 weeks I have only done one episode since then. And my traffic and rankings have slumped as a result. If I want to keep growing I need to keep up the momentum.
More episodes = more views = higher chart rankings = more views.
In April I published 5 episodes:
- #39: Why You Should Get A Job And Not Start A Business
- #38: Marketing Is The Hardest Part
- Bonus: Consulting Call With Owen Franks
- #37: If You Can Plan A Wedding You Can Start A Business
- #36: The Power Of Naivety & The Benefits To Ignorance
If you want somewhere to start, #37 is a good one.
I still haven’t done much more to try and monetise the podcast. Eventually I will get round to it!
Listen to The Lazy Entrepreneur Podcast now:
Blog
In April I neglected the blog. I wrote a monthly report and released one other post.
International Logistics: How To Run A Global Brand From Your Bedroom
A companion post to podcast episode #7: How To Manage International Logistics As A One-Person Business.
The post was the result of a collaboration with a reader of the blog – Daniel Grosso of Developer Rocket – who commented on my last month’s report. We have started to work together to turn some of my podcasts into blog posts. Hopefully in May and June we will get quite a few out!
The blog made £2,628 in April, a slight decrease on March but another indication that the trend is down down down. I averaged over double that a month in 2017.
I have a lot of behind the scenes work that I meant to do in April, but didn’t bother with and will now do in May.
Relevant Posts:
- Start A Blog In Under An Hour – A Step-By-Step Guide
- What It Takes To Create A Successful Blog – Including how I market the blog
Conclusion
Well, there we go. Another month another monthly report. I took time off and ignored a few things. But regardless we had a smashing month with Pipehouse Gin and The Lazy Entrepreneur Podcast. And a less than stellar months for the blog and my table tennis businesses.
Not really surprising. The older businesses I have got a bit bored of and am neglecting are on the way down. The new exciting business that I am spending all my time on are doing great. I suppose there is a lesson there somewhere.
Thanks for reading.
