I have been noticing that a whole lot of business people are on the flakey side. As a consumer I feel I need to be my own advocate, educate myself and not hold the hand of some stranger and expect him to lead me where I want to go. It's bad enough that I hold a similar, not same, position with my Dr. Even. It's a new thing still and many are feeling their way. I was told the mark up is about 60%
All things considered during that conversation it's no doubt higher. But to do the math, say they charge $10 a bottle, make no less than $1.00 on shipping ( depending on what they charge, how many bottles so on and some would be making no less than quadruple that.) they need to sell 10 bottles to make $70 Now I could not support myself on $70 a day these days but IF it takes an hour to make 5 bottles that's still $35 hr. I'm using figures that are conservative and not talking about variables like business good then business bad then need to hire help. If they paid one person a nice $10 an hour to follow a recipe because the business was brisk enough but still worked side by side that figure would go down to $30hr. If I were young and had a talent to make juice I'd be in on it....of course due to start up costs etc they say a business wouldn't break even until after a year generally speaking. So on and so forth. There is a pretty decent income to be had and might not even be too boring the 1st year or so.
I'm kind of in a similar business of a juice vendor, some very big differences, but I run the production in our family business. We sell basically one product, about a dozen different types but all of our expenses turn into one single stream of revenue. We go from raw material to a finished product, and at times I have had customers with a similar attitude you put forward here.
Let me just say no business is as simple as you have just made it out to be. Their labor isn't just in mixing your liquid and shipping it off. You are paying for the time they have spent learning to blend their liquid, coming up with the blends they sell, building their website, promoting their product, ordering their supplies, possibly paying employees or hiring people to help them. In my case it is the labor that is basically impossible to explain to someone outside the business. There are times where I am literally working on things like planning or scheduling every waking hour seven days a week.
I know you are not alone at thinking these people are possibly making a fortune in this growing industry. There's a good chance some of the juice vendors in business today may build an incredibly lucrative business. There's also much more of a chance that many of the juice vendors out there will give up on it and move on to something else. I can say there is definitely an art to making this stuff, and I'm sure many of these guys are very passionate about what they do. I'd be more than willing to bet when their hobby they loved so much became a job. And running a small business, no matter what type it is, is difficult to say the least.
We all perceive what has value Oh u. You found value in Provari. It is what could regarded as an overpriced device, beautiful but high priced. There are many devices that will deliver 4.7v on a consistant basis at close to half the cost.
Is the Provari charging too much?? Obviously many feel the same as you and find value in it. Could they sell it for less and save you money ??? Sure they could. But they found a price point that works for them.
In the end vaping boils down to what we taste and I think most of us have had juices that have tasted terrible. I would rather pay more for something that tasted better to me. Now if I can find the same taste at a better price, all the better.
I have never tried Mrs T's juices but I know many who love her juice. And they find value in her juice.
I recently say Zen interviewed, I'm sure if some people walked into his production facility and saw a robot cutting out the parts for his mod they'd say "This guy sits on his ... while these parts get popped out of a machine and we pay him $250 a piece for these things!"
But realize he's probably invested over a half million dollars in his machinery alone. I wouldn't even begin to estimate the labor he's put into development or his other costs associated with his business.
