When I started Mountain Keyboards one of the things I wanted to do as a company was to share the financial side of the business to the best of my ability. I started selling goods in August of 2021 so really this blog should be “5 months of financial data”. Unfortunately I can’t reveal everything regarding costs of products as that could cause potential problems for other vendors/suppliers.
Why?
I’ve always been someone who is absolutely fascinated with business and money. There’s something about financial information that just gets my brain ticking. Being able to share and discuss information around this topic brings me great joy, whether it is talking about stocks, bank account interest or credit cards, I love talking about it. I think everyone has that thing in the back of their mind that makes them curious around how much someone is making - hopefully this will satisfy it around this company. Finally, as the hobby continues to grow I think more and more people will look to potentially start a business of some variety in the hobby, whether that is another vendor, a new designer or some other way to turn their hobby into a side gig. Hopefully seeing these numbers may help you decide if it’s right for you.Total Sales
During the period I was selling products last year I sold just under $24,000 in goods (note: this includes the shipping, taxes and refunds of orders removed). September being a significantly higher month due to the launch of my in-stock board the Let’s Tango.
Sales Breakdown
Here’s a deeper break down of the sales numbers providing an actual gross sales number of just under $23,000. Over $2,000 in discounts is quite a wild number, these discounts are primarily from purchases coming from a few of the great Aussie community streamers that I’m very fortunate to work with to make this community a great place to be in. My returns (refunds) for last year were relatively low I believe, most of that value came from 2 different orders which after ordering changed their minds.
Average Order Value
An average order value of $140 isn’t a huge surprise as orders are regularly within that $100-150 for things like switches + switch opener + shipping.
Sales by Traffic Source
When purchasing an item, Shopify tracks how you were directed to the site. As far as I know clicking a link from a Discord server (thank you SNZAG Keys <3) counts as a direct traffic source.
Taking a more granular look into social sources, Facebook was the best place for me to land sales (thank you AUMK <3).
Other Stats
Here’s some other stats I thought are interesting if compressed into this blog.
Conclusion
That’s it! Overall, honestly I’m not sure how I feel about the overall performance of the store so far. As a first time business owner this has been a wild ride so far with some amazing highs and some crushing lows. I think started into this with high hopes and set myself up for disappointment. I know businesses aren’t usually profitable for a couple of years and that helps ground where I am at. As a reference, in a personal blog of mine I went through my spending in 2020 where I spent over $26,000 acquiring goods for the business. Since then, I’ve spent a much more significant amount in business goods but that is best saved for a future blog if there’s interest. Hope you enjoyed this, this is the first time I’ve done this but if it doesn’t land me in any hot water I’ll probably continue to share similar information.