Botboy141
Bronze Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Member For 3 Years
Member For 2 Years
Member For 1 Year
Member For 5 Years
Thinking of starting a juice line? Here's a short story for ya.
Ok, so I started vaping in 2009. It was more a less a failed experience. I was using a Provape 1 with standard 2.2ohm cartomizers. I wound up vaping 'Icy Menthol' on and off for about 2 years while continuing to abuse the analogs. I basically just vaped when I couldn't have a real smoke.
I started to DiY a little bit in 2011 as I was reading around and it seemed like the cool thing to do. I had a few failed experiments and then real life obligations took up most of my time and I abandoned it. Come December of 2012 I finally found myself a mentor in business and quit the analogs at his recommendation. I quit via vaping and finding an ADV that I could actually chain vape non stop (watermelon menthol by a local B&M).
Basically, I'm in sales, my mentor asked me something along the lines of: 'If 10% of people won't buy from you because you smell like smoke, is it worth smoking?' For one reason or another, I could never get myself to quit smoking for the sake of my health, I figured what the hell, I'm young, it's a long way off before it affects my health (I'll be 30 this year). Conclusion December 5, 2012 I quit smoking and started vaping full time. I will admit that I've had 4-5 analogs since then. Sometimes around family members who haven't been able/willing to make the transition yet. They don't taste good, that's for sure, but sometimes, while drinking with family, that different throat hit just sounds enticing.
Rolling into April of 2014 a new co-worker joins the company. The first fellow vaper in my office and he also dabbles in DiY. We get to talking after awhile and he suggests I should get back into DiY. I oblige and place my first order from Wizard Labs including ~60 flavors, Nic, PG, VG, all supplies for mixing by volume, etc.
Like most things I do, I tend to go all out. By the end of May I had spent over $2,000 on flavors and supplies. I'd spent 4-8 hours a day in front of my computer researching everything I could possibly find about mixing your own juice. I've read more threads that I can ever remember.
By July I had stumbled my way into a few exceptional recipes. I'm not a super original guy, my first couple of good recipes weren't fully original, it was usually taking something I saw posted somewhere, and making a bunch of adjustments to get it perfect for me. Once I realized how good some of these recipes were (via friends trying them and insisting I make them juice) I started dabbling with the idea of launching a juice line. First thing I did was to start putting together numbers. I'm a pretty analytic individual so this wasn't a challenge for me but was exciting. I realized there was definitely money to be made, but if and only if you are offering a top quality product. The money became a bit secondary to me when some certain things clicked for me professionally, I made a transition to a new company with a much more attractive pay structure both short term and long, and additionally it freed up a lot more time for me.
After a couple dozen or so people (including my biggest B&M local to me) kept telling me to sell my juice, I decided I'd finalize some details and get this thing off the ground. This was about 2 weeks ago that I made the decision, although I had done a lot of the work ahead of time.
Things to think about when thinking of selling juice (not comprehensive):
1.) Cost - Materials (consumable & non-consumable), web fees, payment processing fees, wastage, samples, R&D, lab testing, advertising, shipping, LLC, insurance.
2.) Market and Margin - online vs B&M sales.
3.) Product Quality, Originality and Presentation
4.) NAME - this was one of the hardest parts for me.
5.) TIME - this is likely the most important of all. Do you have the time to sit in front of a computer, manage orders, manage advertising, mix, develop new juices all the while making sales calls to B&M locations and online re-sellers?
6.) Supplier quality and reliability.
Those are just a few of the things to factor in. If you don't have 40+ hours a week to spare trying to start a new business venture, launching a juice line probably isn't for you. The good news is that there are alternative options if you search hard enough. There are companies that are crowd sourcing juices, companies that can do the mixing for you, companies that will basically do it all (granted you'll earn roughly $0.10 a bottle in comparison when they sell your juice).
Now, why am I sharing all of this? I've seen 100's of posts in the past few months, a handful here, a TON on reddit of people asking about starting a juice line. I have not done it successfully, but I am in the process so wanted to share some of this to help others through the same thought process.
______________________________________________________________________________
I also wanted to share pictures of my upcoming vapemail that I'm receiving in the next couple of days to step up production levels (perhaps the most exciting part).
Here is the first: http://imgur.com/gallery/yPSsH2V/new
This included a new 500g x 0.01g scale. Argon gas in the form of a 'wine preserver botttle' from amazon. 1000 pipettes (500 3ml, 500 1ml). 24 2oz amber glass bottles, 24 4oz amber glass bottles, 24 8 oz amber glass bottles (all wide mouth). 100 yorker drip tips for 4oz plastic bottles, 24 4oz plastic bottles, 1400 labels arrived saturday, 200 pairs of nitrile gloves and 2 respirators from home depot over the weekend...
Edit 9/29 @ 1:40PM - And my bottles just arrived: http://imgur.com/mJcOq2T
1000 glass bottles with droppers (now I have to clean & sanitize 'em all, ugh). Things are getting exciting. $600 order from BCV scheduled to be here later today.
Edit 9/30 @ 6:00PM - TFA stuff arrived early. Roughly 50 4oz bottles, 2 16ozs. Almost ready to rock and roll bitches.
Updated to include all pics in the same album. Updates linked here. http://imgur.com/a/lZ9mD
_______________________________________________________________________________
More pictures to come, I am happy to answer any questions folks might have for me. I will not be discussing the name of my juice brand here as I'm not writing this all for the purpose of advertising or anything like that, just wanting to help out others that might be having some of the same thoughts I've had regarding this step.
Good vaping everyone!
Ok, so I started vaping in 2009. It was more a less a failed experience. I was using a Provape 1 with standard 2.2ohm cartomizers. I wound up vaping 'Icy Menthol' on and off for about 2 years while continuing to abuse the analogs. I basically just vaped when I couldn't have a real smoke.
I started to DiY a little bit in 2011 as I was reading around and it seemed like the cool thing to do. I had a few failed experiments and then real life obligations took up most of my time and I abandoned it. Come December of 2012 I finally found myself a mentor in business and quit the analogs at his recommendation. I quit via vaping and finding an ADV that I could actually chain vape non stop (watermelon menthol by a local B&M).
Basically, I'm in sales, my mentor asked me something along the lines of: 'If 10% of people won't buy from you because you smell like smoke, is it worth smoking?' For one reason or another, I could never get myself to quit smoking for the sake of my health, I figured what the hell, I'm young, it's a long way off before it affects my health (I'll be 30 this year). Conclusion December 5, 2012 I quit smoking and started vaping full time. I will admit that I've had 4-5 analogs since then. Sometimes around family members who haven't been able/willing to make the transition yet. They don't taste good, that's for sure, but sometimes, while drinking with family, that different throat hit just sounds enticing.
Rolling into April of 2014 a new co-worker joins the company. The first fellow vaper in my office and he also dabbles in DiY. We get to talking after awhile and he suggests I should get back into DiY. I oblige and place my first order from Wizard Labs including ~60 flavors, Nic, PG, VG, all supplies for mixing by volume, etc.
Like most things I do, I tend to go all out. By the end of May I had spent over $2,000 on flavors and supplies. I'd spent 4-8 hours a day in front of my computer researching everything I could possibly find about mixing your own juice. I've read more threads that I can ever remember.
By July I had stumbled my way into a few exceptional recipes. I'm not a super original guy, my first couple of good recipes weren't fully original, it was usually taking something I saw posted somewhere, and making a bunch of adjustments to get it perfect for me. Once I realized how good some of these recipes were (via friends trying them and insisting I make them juice) I started dabbling with the idea of launching a juice line. First thing I did was to start putting together numbers. I'm a pretty analytic individual so this wasn't a challenge for me but was exciting. I realized there was definitely money to be made, but if and only if you are offering a top quality product. The money became a bit secondary to me when some certain things clicked for me professionally, I made a transition to a new company with a much more attractive pay structure both short term and long, and additionally it freed up a lot more time for me.
After a couple dozen or so people (including my biggest B&M local to me) kept telling me to sell my juice, I decided I'd finalize some details and get this thing off the ground. This was about 2 weeks ago that I made the decision, although I had done a lot of the work ahead of time.
Things to think about when thinking of selling juice (not comprehensive):
1.) Cost - Materials (consumable & non-consumable), web fees, payment processing fees, wastage, samples, R&D, lab testing, advertising, shipping, LLC, insurance.
2.) Market and Margin - online vs B&M sales.
3.) Product Quality, Originality and Presentation
4.) NAME - this was one of the hardest parts for me.
5.) TIME - this is likely the most important of all. Do you have the time to sit in front of a computer, manage orders, manage advertising, mix, develop new juices all the while making sales calls to B&M locations and online re-sellers?
6.) Supplier quality and reliability.
Those are just a few of the things to factor in. If you don't have 40+ hours a week to spare trying to start a new business venture, launching a juice line probably isn't for you. The good news is that there are alternative options if you search hard enough. There are companies that are crowd sourcing juices, companies that can do the mixing for you, companies that will basically do it all (granted you'll earn roughly $0.10 a bottle in comparison when they sell your juice).
Now, why am I sharing all of this? I've seen 100's of posts in the past few months, a handful here, a TON on reddit of people asking about starting a juice line. I have not done it successfully, but I am in the process so wanted to share some of this to help others through the same thought process.
______________________________________________________________________________
I also wanted to share pictures of my upcoming vapemail that I'm receiving in the next couple of days to step up production levels (perhaps the most exciting part).
Here is the first: http://imgur.com/gallery/yPSsH2V/new
This included a new 500g x 0.01g scale. Argon gas in the form of a 'wine preserver botttle' from amazon. 1000 pipettes (500 3ml, 500 1ml). 24 2oz amber glass bottles, 24 4oz amber glass bottles, 24 8 oz amber glass bottles (all wide mouth). 100 yorker drip tips for 4oz plastic bottles, 24 4oz plastic bottles, 1400 labels arrived saturday, 200 pairs of nitrile gloves and 2 respirators from home depot over the weekend...
Edit 9/29 @ 1:40PM - And my bottles just arrived: http://imgur.com/mJcOq2T
1000 glass bottles with droppers (now I have to clean & sanitize 'em all, ugh). Things are getting exciting. $600 order from BCV scheduled to be here later today.
Edit 9/30 @ 6:00PM - TFA stuff arrived early. Roughly 50 4oz bottles, 2 16ozs. Almost ready to rock and roll bitches.
Updated to include all pics in the same album. Updates linked here. http://imgur.com/a/lZ9mD
_______________________________________________________________________________
More pictures to come, I am happy to answer any questions folks might have for me. I will not be discussing the name of my juice brand here as I'm not writing this all for the purpose of advertising or anything like that, just wanting to help out others that might be having some of the same thoughts I've had regarding this step.
Good vaping everyone!
Last edited: