Lessons from a Failed Subscription Box Service Venture

Guest profile 

Brandon Gaille is an entrepreneur who has founded five multi-million-dollar companies over the past three decades. Currently, he runs a self-named Internet marketing firm that helps clients acquire more customers through SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. He also has a thriving online course that teaches people a blogging system that propelled his blog to more than 1 million monthly visitors in less than two years. The man and his businesses have been featured in nationally and globally recognized business publications Fast Company, Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, and Adweek. He is also the host of The Blog Millionaire, considered one of the most popular business podcasts on the Internet. On a personal note, he lives in Houston, Texas in the United States, with his wife and two sons.  

“Let go of a loss and then accept it and move on right away.” 

- Brandon Gaille 

Young millionaire takes ride from riches to rags to ‘code blue’  

In his 20s, Brandon built several million-dollar businesses, earning him the reputation of having “The Midas Touch”. But as he approached the age of 30, he began to suffer some inexplicable health problems, resulting in losses of mental and physical agility. With a move from Texas to the United Kingdom, he aimed to take a break, recover from his illness and return. But after a year-and-a-half, he had churned through all the money from his earlier victories because without the same body and brain power, he had apparently lost the ability to make money, evidenced by some severe mistakes. He returned to Houston and was admitted to hospital several times. After several “code blues”, years of seeking a diagnosis and dozens of specialists, he was told he had a rare disorder called dysautonomia.  

Hits keep coming as pregnant wife diagnosed with advanced cancer  

The discovery that allowed him to be treated and lift his mental limits could not have come sooner. His wife had just become pregnant and was also handed a diagnosis – stage-3 inflammatory breast cancer (this means it has spread beyond the breast, making it harder to treat than cancer at an earlier stage). Luckily, he was functioning well enough to be there for his wife. Their child was born healthy and his wife was cleared a year later and has been cancer-free ever since. Brandon says such experiences have equipped him well for dealing with challenges, losing it all and he adds that health plays a big role, which makes for a great lead in for his worst investment ever story.   

“I have a good idea about dealing with failure … and health plays a big role.” 

- Brandon Gaille 

 

Story  

It all started and ended with an employee’s blog 

Several months before this, one of the staff at his small marketing company asked him to look at her blog. His company was progressing fairly well, but looking at her blog made him realize his need for a blog because he felt he was treading water and doing too much of his company’s work. So he delved into the world of blogging, researched all the good ones and reverse engineered what they were doing well. He then launched his own and, after four months, was getting more than 100,000 monthly visitors. All the while he was wondering: “What can I do to make more money from my blog?”  

Busy blog sidelined as new idea blinds the boss 

At first he was using his blog to get more clients for his marketing firm, but his ultimate goal was to monetize the blog as another revenue stream to set himself free from his firm. At the same time, he came up with another business idea. Subscription boxes were hot and his contribution would be a motivational book on CD about how to get a mind set for success.  Called “Motivation in a Box”, and like many entrepreneurs, he thought it would be an instant hit as each month customers would get box on how to get charged up and build their business.  

Investor forgets testing and jumps right in  

All the excitement made him completely forget a crucial step – the testing process. Ready to go (he thought), he simply decided it was going to work and was too impatient to test it. He jumped right in, hired a firm in China and they designed the box. He accepted the minimum order and had a thousand boxes designed and shipped to him. In his haste, he even paid the extra freight cost.  

 

“I need all those boxes because the orders are going to be coming in like crazy.” 

- Brandon Gaille 

Then he contacted a company that publishes audio books. He saw he would get a discount if he ordered at least 500 so he again said: “This is a no-brainer”, ordering more than 500 audio books to fill the first 500 boxes, along with tissue paper and logo stickers. Everything was perfectly packaged down to an expensive “thank you” note that would be in every box. The unboxing of subscription boxes