Office Space Expenses

$0

$7,000

Employee & Freelancer Expenses

$151

$352

Website Costs

$223

$7,215

Business Formation Fees

$600

$4,700

Equipment & Supply Expenses

$63

$200

Retail Business Expenses

$1,250

$11,650

Inventory Expenses

$350

$14,750

Advertising & Marketing Costs

$75

$4,786

Software Expenses

$150

$2,719

Total Startup Costs

$2,862

$53,372

EarthHero

earthhero.com

71,892

Sustainable Brands

sustainablebrands.com

81,005

Fairware Promotional Products

fairware.com

304,870

KINTO USA, Inc

kinto-usa.com

320,652

Eco-Products ®

ecoproducts.com

334,781

Lazer Designs

lazerdesigns.com

429,044

SustainAble Home Goods and Accessories

yoursustainablehome.com

479,770

ITG Brands – ITG Brands site

itgbrands.com

501,281

Paper Water Bottle

paperwaterbottle.com

688,881

Natural Home Brands

naturalhomebrands.com

836,125

Cars and Coffee, Inc.

carsandcoffee.com

875,662

Flexibility

You can put as much time into the business as you'd like. If you like the work and have some initial experience, you can start small and manage all aspects of the business on your own.

Scalable

With businesses and processes changing daily, there will always be demand for new features, products and services for your business. Additionally, there are several different business models and pricing tiers you can implement that will allow you to reach all types of customers.

Meaningful business connections

You never know who you will meet as a sustainable mug brand. This could be the start of an incredible business opportunity!

High customer retention rates

Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer.

High margins

The gross margins for your sustainable mug brand are typically around 82%, which is considerably high and allows you to grow your business and manage costs easily.

Easy to encourage "impulse buy"

In the sustainable mug brand, you have a much higher chance of encouraging your customers to buy on impulse - you can easily alter the price, placement, packaging, and promotional value to influence the decision of your buyer.

Motivation of employees

If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees.

High employee turnover

In the sustainable mug brand, employee turnover is often high, which can be quite costly and time consuming for your business. It's important to try and avoid this as much as possible by offering competitive pay, benefits, and a positive work environment.

High overhead expenses

With starting a sustainable mug brand, there are overhead expenses that come with selling a physical product. You will want to make sure you strategically budget for these overhead costs. We discuss this more in the startup costs section below.

You may need to charge sales tax

If you are selling your products in various states, you may be required to charge sales tax. Although this may not impact your financials specifically, it can be a headache to create a process and procedure for this. To learn more about sales tax, check out this article

Time commitment

With starting a sustainable mug brand, all responsibilities and decisions are in your hands. Although this is not necessarily a negative thing, work life can take over at times. This can place a strain on friends and family and add to the pressure of launching a new business.

Difficult to build trust with your customer

With starting a sustainable mug brand, there can be minimal face-to-face interaction, which means it can be a lot more difficult to establish trust with your customers. You'll need to go the extra mile with your customer to grab their attention and business.