I shut down my online business.

Last month, I shut down my online business.

At the top, it made $10k / month and just over $56k in total sales. Pretty good for one guy handling sales, marketing, product, and support.

But not good enough to make a living.

Was talking with a friend about the decision. The pivot really killed it.

Here's what happened.

It started by selling animated social media logos to realtors. Simple, one-time purchase product. Had some great months, then back to zero. That stress was killing me.

Then I noticed something.

Customers started using the animated logos for instagram reels / tiktoks, but honestly?

Their content wasn't great. I thought, “I can do this better.” Faster, more engaging, less work for them. And charge a subscription!

So I prototyped a content service powered by human editors and AI. Realtors seemed excited - they downloaded betas, jumped on calls, agreed to buy.

I went all in. That was the mistake.

Two things I should have thought more about:

- Can I acquire customers the same way?
- Will this stay profitable as I grow?

The answers were no.

Why?

I used influencer marketing.

They loved promoting the animated logos, it was something new their audience wanted but they didn't have.

But content subscriptions? Most influencers had their own content services and mine was competitive. So my sales channel died.

The other problem, costs. The service was $500/month, but most that went to paying video editors.

The lessons:

- Assume nothing.
Even when building in the same market, treat it like a brand new business.

- Run the numbers at scale.
Even with 10x more customers, the margins weren't there.

Glad I tried and failed. Will build future products with these lessons in mind.