Wright Toys

Let me tell you about my first business venture. I was 16 and decided to sell toys on Amazon, because I had seen on Facebook and Instagram how loads of people were making money selling items on Amazon. I thought "how hard could it be"? I was 16 and the world hadn't slapped me in the face at this point. I went on Ali Express where I purchased £1500 worth of slinkies, puppets and games etc.

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Turns out it wasn't the million pound idea I thought it would be. It took over 3 months to get the goods from Ali Express. On the arrival day I opened the box and was horrified. All the toys were broken and quite frankly shit. They had no value at all. I made a complaint to Ali Express and had months of back and forth emails, until they finally gave me a 50% refund of £750. Not great but as good as I was going to get.

 

As I was still down £750 I had to work out what to do next. I made the decision to go to a car boot sale and make the rest of my money back, (haha), I thought. Selling shitty FAKE Chinese toys for 50p each didn't go to plan - I made £15 from standing there all day. I finally managed to sell half of the remaining stock wholesale for £250 and the rest I gave to a charity shop. 

 

So I made a loss of £500. Not bad for a first business attempt, lol. I learned loads in running this business at the age of 16. 

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From this business I learned: 

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1. If something looks too good to be true it probably is.

2. Always agree a delivery date when buying (especially overseas). 

3. Be sure to understand the refund policy (B2C usually refundable, B2B usually not). 

4. Learn to get back up - "you win some you lose some".