This is the story of me and my friend fail for business and never regrets. I ever made a business with my friend once, when I study in Yogyakarta. Back at that time, people just love to buy cassava fries that taste like cheese, people called it "Singkong Keju". We thought that if people like cassava fries, why not we made a frozen style of the cassava fries that people can fry on their own at home. We name it De'Frocass, The Frozen Cassava Fries.
Once we brainstorming about the idea, we made experiment with how to make the best taste of cassava fries. We googled the recipes, made several times of different ingredient and cooking style, and failed several time either. But finally we found one of the best recipe after all. Fyuh..
But how can we sell the cassava without packaging? Well, we latter learn about different plastic type for many kind of food packaging. We can't use same plastic for oil and coconut juice, water, ice, and dry ingredients. After picked the right plastic we went to the design.
Here's the concept of packaging design:
We happy with the response of people. They order our product and also tell their friends to buy De'Frocass. There are one reseller that make repeated order too. But after three months, there are significant decreases order. We're not confident with everything we've done. In the end, we closed for business.
What made we fail is, we running out of fund. We made many stock of the product, but when it comes to expired date, the stock still in the store. People just get the first hype and never buy again. Maybe we just busy with making the product and never hear what they feel.
The best part is we learn many things that people trough in growing a business:
- Launch immediately. Don't hesitate to launch because you also can get feedback immediately.
- You have to understand your customer, hear about their feedback and improve.
- Be confident with your price, sometimes you think you've made overpriced or underpriced. The right way to choose the best price is compare with your competitors.
Hope you enjoy my story. If any of you ever experiencing the same issue, I really look forward for your story.