If you’re a friend, and like wine, please don’t buy my glasses.

First of all, you weren’t buying anyway. Friends and friends of friends made up 10% of my sales. I’m sure for start-ups like mine, at this stage, with zero marketing spend, friends and family typically make up the vast majority of sales. But for whatever reason, my wine-loving friends don’t seem to want to buy my glasses. Maybe @threads.co or @niu.body can tell us what their percentages are.

To be clear, if you’re not into wine, I do not want you to buy my glasses. If you drink wine less than $20/bottle, I don’t want you to buy my glasses. You are not the target market. If you drink wine >$20 and don’t have handblown glasses, you are doing it wrong. Good glassware is the cheapest way to improve the taste of the wine. It raises the “point score” by 2 points, which probably is like +25% to the quality.

Second, my product is universally adored by my customers. They understand how hard it is to make a glass of this quality, and bring it to the market, and the level of customer service that is offered, at the price it is currently offered at. My policy is pretty much if you don’t like it, I refund you. If it breaks, I send you new ones. I’m not trying to make money right now, I’m trying to create a brand.

If you are buying a glass because you think you are doing me a favour, don’t. When my normal customer buys glasses from me, they realize they are getting the best glass you can ever get at this price by a margin of 100% with the best customer service available. I want to sell products to people who want my product, and will love it. When my customers buy my glasses, they tell others about it. They generate more sales for me.

One friend found a brand name product on sale. My shipping cost to this jurisdiction was high, but I cut the price as much as I could. I got it down to a comparable price. He still opted to buy the brand name product. I have no doubt given the reviews I’ve received and the work we are doing to improve the product, we will change the glassware industry. We are already changing it, at least for the customers who have purchased and love the product. I would have expected my friends to be the first to give it a shot.

Then there are friends that ask for a discount code. I find that odd too, but maybe it’s not. Most of my friends are people who make 6 figure salaries, who would not notice if $1000 were taken out of their bank account. A friend just took a huge leap of faith, quit his job and started a new business, and you want an extra $20 off?

I even had a friend, who after being shown my glass, talked about a glass that was recommended on Wine Berserkers. Well someone has now written about them on Wine Berserkers. Will he buy my glass now?

With that said, I understand that I might be guilty of exactly what I am complaining about. For example, @thekhalidh and @virtualad have a great businesses and I haven’t contributed to them. But I would like to. If you have a business that I should be supporting please let me know. If I haven’t been proactive enough about spreading the word about your business, please let me know.