When I was 26, two mates and I opened and ran a handmade business - we made creative craft kits 🎨

It didn't take us long to notice one thing: buyers almost always reorder from the suppliers they've already worked with.

Not because the product was better, but because it felt safer and more familiar.

Whoever got in first had already become "their guy" - and competing with that turned out to be harder than just making a great product.

Yes, part of it is about reliability and proven relationships. But honestly, a lot of it just came down to inertia. Nobody wants to change what already works.

But what an experience it was 🙌

You're a genuine one-man band: sourcing supplies, designing and developing the products, receiving everything at the warehouse, assembling the kits by hand, on the phone selling, prepping samples for retail chains, shipping orders, running the marketplaces.

All of it on you.

There’s a lot I look back on fondly - the buzz of launching, the feeling of building something from scratch with friends, and loading your first shipment onto a truck that’s about to deliver it to store shelves.

And there’s plenty I don’t miss - the endless “no”s on the phone, taking back defective products from suppliers, realizing the delivery truck is already downstairs while only half the orders have been assembled, and having to tell a supplier that, despite promising delivery within two days, no carrier can collect the shipment for another three.

My journey into secondaries was pretty unexpected, but I’m grateful - I think that experience toughened my character and made me who I am today.

I learnt that:

1️⃣ A great product matters, but people buy from those they trust. The relationship is part of the product 🤝

2️⃣ Don't be afraid to take on everything at once. When you do every step yourself, you understand a business in a way you never could from the outside 💪

Looking back on those days with a lot of warmth ✨