BrickDrop.co

Our monthly revenue has jumped dramatically! While we're super excited we really want to continue to grow our business. Even with 40+ customers we have a lot of Lego that is just sitting on the shelf waiting for someone to choose them! In addition to the ones that are on the shelf we are also always updating our stock because we know that so many new and exciting sets are going to continue being released.
We've moved into a new space which has helped make it simpler to clean, dry, and put sets away. The only difficulty that we're now running into is keeping our desk area clear when we are not sorting sets by color. We'll hopefully expand into another area so that we have more table space and another area to place a drying rack. We're usually able to clean 5-8 sets each time that we clean, but the bigger sets cause a bit of a back up as we're trying to keep them sorted by color which isn't always feasible.

We're moving the office and closet space that is currently housing our office and shipping area from one place to another. It's allowing us to put some more planning into what we'd like the space to look like. We're also giving ourselves the chance to buy some items specifically for the business rather than working with what we have (like folding tables and old bookshelves). I'm excited to see what it will end up looking like as I sometimes have a hard time envisioning how something will end up.
It does mean that there is a lot in shambles right now and it's not my favorite to deal with clutter, but I'm hoping we'll get this sorted within the next week!

Like many others I've always heard about the Better Business Bureau. How you utilized them if you had a massive issue with an organization and how they signified a company who was 'true & honest.'
As a business owner myself I felt it imperative to sign up and become accredited with the BBB. I did not realize that it came at a cost, which now makes sense. We went through the process of becoming accredited so that we could continue to show to our customers and prospective customers that we are serious about our business. This is something that we wish to grow as quickly as possible while continuing to have a remarkable building and customer experience. Here's to our accreditation and here's hoping that we continue to see the growth that we do so that we can provide everyone with an epic Lego experience!

If you would have asked during our first week of opening where I thought our business would be revenue wise after 2 months, I know that I wouldn't have believed we'd be at 1k MRR!
Not that I don't have confidence in our plans or in myself, but because I'd not want to get my own hopes up. Now that we have reached this milestone I cannot help but wonder where we will be at the end of 4 months!
While it's exciting to be here there are some pain points we're still brainstorming through. First we've come to realize that the strength of our bags were not up to par. We've had several bags returned with punctures and looking really worn. Not something we want to happen as they are housing our previous Lego! We've already notified our customers and those signed up for our newsletter that we've recognized this issue and are going to be purchasing better bags. We've already found a solution and will be using them for all future sets. I'm thinking we'll have the old bags cycled out in a month or two.
Secondly there is the rather painful progression of washing and drying sets. It's easy enough to verify the sets and get them washed and set them out to dry. The issue that we're having is the space needed to dry them. We're thinking of getting a baking rack where we can set up trays of Lego that need to be dried and place a box fan on top to help. Our current method of laying out sets onto a table works fine, but doesn't allow us to do as many sets at once.
I hope to have more updates as we continue and am still to grateful that others are trusting us to provide them with an amazing Lego experience.

We've got our first press release for Brick Drop circulating online right now. My hope with this is that it will not only increase the amount of folks we get coming to our site and signing up, but that it will bring a level of comfort to those who haven't used us yet because they're not sure about our credibility. If you'd like to review the press release yourself please go here:
https://apnews.com/press-release/ein-presswire-newsmatics/indianapolis-0b28b48011c02445ca3cf7d431e54c0f

We sadly got our first cancellation. We completely understand where this customer is coming from and thankfully their reason for canceling has really lit a fire in us. The gist for them is that while they appreciate our service and enjoy what we're doing they are not in a point in life where they can easily sort through an entire set that has been separated by color and leave pieces around due to have younger kiddos. They signed up for our premium plan and received one of our biggest sets. They stated they would have preferred being able to build the set by the actual numbered bags that Lego provides because they'd be able to do a bag or two in the evening versus trying to sort through a massive amount of pieces to find one in particular.
Currently there's no database that shows what pieces are in each bag, something for us to consider maybe? We are thinking about making and using a sorter to help us quickly sort through pieces and maybe we can teach the system to recognize pieces and sort them by bag versus by color or type.
We're going to be sad to see this customer go, but we promised to keep in touch with them once we're able to do what they're asking in the future. :)

We've got 100+ subscribers to our newsletter where we share inventory updates and other information that we think would benefit those who join read us. It's so great to see so many folks join us and want to know more about us.
There's just one tiny problem.
We can't get them to convert to an actual paid user. We tried a promotion on what was supposed to be our first day, 4/3/2024, where we sent out a broadcast letting these folks know they could join today for 25% off their first month. There were no takers. Which I can understand we didn't do a good job of prepping the announcement, we woke up and just decided to do it. However I had hoped there would be at least a few takers.
For those who have had similar problems, how did you get your readers to convert to customers?
To preface, we are going to be asking those who are using our service to provide reviews as we know that's important. We're also making updates to our site to show which sets are currently being rented.

Monday was spent enjoying the solar eclipse with our family, Tuesday was spent fulfilling a big order and then the first swim class of the year! Today needs to have some time dedicated to the cleaning, meal prepping, and other things that a household of 4 needs to have done!
So I gave myself a timer this morning after fulfilling another order (yay!). I've got a small amount of time of resetting the office for another shipment (manifesting here) and doing some quick discussion of the company.
We've so far filled more than 5 orders! We've only been open for 10 days so that truly feels like a major accomplishment. My goal is to continue putting our name out there for those who enjoy Lego or are curious about Lego to sign up with us so they can begin building sets to their hearts content.
Additionally I'd also like to start setting down some ideas about what we will do once we have a more consistent revenue coming in so that we can work with charities or schools to provide Lego for children. I was raised with the belief that we should help whoever we can whenever we can and this belief is what is driving me to create a game plan of how we'll help. Whether this would by giving a percentage of our revenue or helping to purchase Lego for those that work with children to provide to them.
I have seen some great entrepreneurs who are younger create non profits that repurpose donated Lego to children in hospitals or repurpose Lego to give it new life and sell small sets. I think it would be amazing to partner with one of them to provide assistance in whatever way possible and give us both a chance to spread the word about our businesses.
Has anyone done something like this? I'd love some input.

We had a pretty great first week. I'm trying not to be too hard on myself as I was hoping to have double the amount of sign ups that we did, BUT the fact that we had sign ups on the first day is enthralling and I need to keep that in mind.
Right now we're trying to figure out the best places to market our business. Sadly BrickWorld just rolled through the area in March so we missed the opportunity to market there with all the publications in our area. Right now we're focused on Facebook, Google, Reddit, and Instagram. I'm doing as many posts as possible on TikTok to try and gain more followers so we can get to the point where we do lives.
If anyone has any other suggestions I'd love to hear them. We do have some paper cards that some great places near us are letting us leave on the counter, but I'm trying to think of other ways/places we can do this.

Our launch didn't go without a few hiccups which was expected. We had an issue with our customers being able to complete the sign up page and then we had to diagnose an issue with connecting our shipping company to our site, but we got it fixed in the end. We had three orders total come in which means that we shipped out 11 Lego sets!! I cannot wait to hear back from our customers and determine what else we can do to make their experience seamless.
On our end I created a rental checklist where I can write down the account name, the sets that were going to be rented along with other items we want to ensure get into the customer's package like a brick separator, our one pager with information, a free sticker, return tape and label, etc. I also have a section for writing down the size of the box and the weight so I can quickly print out the shipping labels.
Today I'm waiting for more orders to hopefully come in and keeping busy by prepackaging sets, working on getting more ads out the door, and filming for social media posts.