Today, we are going to talk about what I think is the best way to start a physical business. By physical business, I mean an ecommerce site selling physical products.
There are rules, sequences and steps that you should be following and sadly, most of us ignore them.
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My girlfriend and I are working on starting a jewellery brand, and we had different options of where we could have started. So I told her that I actually have a huge database in France, as you guys know, and it would be very easy for me to just start the business there and have some emails created and send it to my French audience.
And I definitely would have made a lot of sales. So that was a very good option that I actually put forward.
And she reminded me of some stuff that I don't know. I got just very enthusiastic and maybe I forgot the thing. Very often when you start a business, you want to be everywhere, right? You want to be in the U.S., you want to be here. You want to be there.
And you don't
The biggest mistake when starting a physical product business is choosing where to sell before validating what to sell. Audience first, product second, platform third.
Starting a physical ecommerce business with a warm audience gives you a data advantage that no amount of paid advertising can replicate.
The right way to start a physical business is to validate demand before investing in inventory. Every shortcut around this principle costs more money than it saves.
In This Episode
actually know the challenges associated with the country in question or having to manage a few countries. And if I start a business in the U.S., I don't necessarily know Americans because I'm not one of them. There are a bunch of things that, you know, you don't necessarily master. If people want to return something.
And very often when you start a business, you want to be in the U.S. you'll be in Canada. You want to be in the U.K. You want to be all over the place and you don't actually think the like all the ramifications associated with it.
So that means there are a lot of problems that can arise that are related directly related to that specific country that you have absolutely no idea about and that you could be facing afterwards. What you want is to start something where you can learn some lessons.
And then afterwards, once you master that, you can extend it to some something else. If you think that you can just jump start the business and skip a few steps, instead of going for your local market, go straight to the Internet and stuff, you can definitely do that. It's easier to do it with digital products.
People just download them. It's not like they have to return it. It's not like Customs is going to be on your back. But when it’s physical products, then there are a lot of these things that come into play.
So what she told me was like, well, you know what? I can get a lot of sales directly from the French market using the database. But the thing is, you know, I don't know anything about these French people. I don't speak French because she doesn't speak French.
How am I going to handle support if they’re not happy? So what she wants to do and which is very smart is to start small and store it in her own country where she knows people. Once she’s learned some lessons and stuff, then she can extend to another country and another and maybe another. And if you look at big brands, this is what they do, right?
How to start a physical business the right way
They don't go and open 300 offices in 300 countries. They start on a market. They conquer that market. They master it. And then afterwards, they will open another office somewhere. Because trust me, these countries are very, very different. The expectations, the type of clients is so different that if you try to be in every single market at the same time, then it's a recipe for failure. Right.
So it is a very, very good reminder that she just gave me of, well, you know what? Let's focus on the one market first and then afterwards, once, we know everything we learned from the customer feedback, we learn about some of the problems that can happen.
That's what you want to do, is that you want to start a business and you want to see every possible problem that can happen. You want to identify those. And then afterwards you master those so that when you get into a new market, you're already prepared for it.
But if you're all over the place and you have to handle that kind of stuff, learning what the problems are in like, you know, three, four different markets, it's really, really not sustainable. So it's very, very smart.
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What I would check before opening a physical business today
You do not start a physical business by signing a lease. You start by proving demand while your risk is still cheap. I have built four companies, and the one rule I would not break is this: never buy the expensive version of an assumption you have not tested. Before any storefront, I would sell the thing manually, take real money from real people, and only then commit to rent, inventory, and staff. A physical business punishes guesses harder than an online one because the costs are fixed and they arrive monthly whether customers do or not. So I front-load the proof and back-load the spend. I have talked through this on my YouTube growth hacking series and on the Freedom by Choice podcast, where founders who did it the right way, and the wrong way, tell the truth about both. If you want the fundamentals in plain language, Stripe Atlas covers the legal and money basics, and the HubSpot blog covers demand testing. Prove people will pay first. The building comes after the evidence, never before it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best way to start a physical product business?
Start by validating demand with your existing audience before purchasing inventory. If you do not have an audience, build one first around the niche you want to serve. A warm audience converts at dramatically higher rates than cold traffic.
Should I start with a local market or go directly to ecommerce?
If you have an existing audience in a specific market, start there. Selling to people who already know and trust you reduces your customer acquisition cost to near zero, which gives you the cash flow to scale properly.
How do I validate a physical product idea before investing?
Pre-sell before you buy inventory. A landing page with a waiting list, a social media poll, or a presale offer tells you precisely what real buyers will pay before you spend a single dollar on stock.
What are the most common mistakes when starting a physical product business?
Buying too much inventory before validating, competing on price in a commodity market, ignoring unit economics, and launching without an existing audience are the four most expensive mistakes new physical product entrepreneurs make.
What is the best way to start a physical product business?
Start by validating demand with your existing audience before purchasing inventory. If you do not have an audience, build one first around the niche you want to serve. A warm audience converts at dramatically higher rates than cold traffic.
Should I start with a local market or go directly to ecommerce?
If you have an existing audience in a specific market, start there. Selling to people who already know and trust you reduces your customer acquisition cost to near zero, which gives you the cash flow to scale properly.
The biggest mistake when starting a physical product business is choosing where to sell before validating what to sell. Audience first, product second, platform third.
Starting a physical ecommerce business with a warm audience gives you a data advantage that no amount of paid advertising can replicate.
The right way to start a physical business is to validate demand before investing in inventory. Every shortcut around this principle costs more money than it saves.
In This Episode
How do I validate a physical product idea before investing?
Pre-sell before you buy inventory. A landing page with a waiting list, a social media poll, or a presale offer tells you precisely what real buyers will pay before you spend a single dollar on stock.
What are the most common mistakes when starting a physical product business?
Buying too much inventory before validating, competing on price in a commodity market, ignoring unit economics, and launching without an existing audience are the four most expensive mistakes new physical product entrepreneurs make.
About the Author
Martin Ebongue is the founder of martinebongue.com, an online business and lifestyle design blog focused on helping aspiring entrepreneurs build location-independent businesses. Since 2014, he has been creating and scaling online ventures across multiple niches, from digital products and affiliate marketing to SaaS and content platforms, while traveling the world. He shares the real-world strategies, tools, and systems that work, with a particular focus on AI-powered automation for solopreneurs. Follow him on YouTube, X (Twitter), and Instagram.
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