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José Paulo – Ideal Decision José Paulo – Ideal Decision

bought bags in wholesales in Pari, Sao Paulo, spent nights printing same problem I had in my previous business, so I was enhancing
out the brands in the bags with a machine and drew processes I this subject in my professional career. However, even with this
designed myself to optimize production and costs. enhancement the major brands did not look at sales of hairsty-

The business kept itself, but it did not grow. I was able to meet le products on the internet with good eyes. Then, with so many
demands up to 2 or 3 thousand bags by working all night, also, mishaps and instabilities, I decided to close this company.
there was a competitor that could offer a much more accessible pri- You can analyze that I always tried to offer something that hel-
ce than mine and had a much more robust factory process. While ped the customer in my businesses, especially by selling courses
my machine printed out bags in one color, they could make it in and by the wellbeing through cosmetics, which always made me
four colors; the shopkeepers would then prefer something cheaper think about transformation. In the next chapter you will have a
and more modern, but even so I was able to keep operating for a better understanding of this vision and mission.
year and a half.
Following that thought, in 2000 a partner and I opened a gym
My second company lasted a little longer, it was five years with inside a large condominium on the south side of Sao Paulo, a con-
much persistence, it was an e-commerce called Superando Limites dominium with dozens of buildings. At that time, not all condo-
(loosely translated as Overcoming Limits), that resold courses of miniums had gym equipment and we offered a complete structure
personal and professional development. Despite the good quality to the residents, as well as better price and payment conditions to
of the courses, I lacked experience to work with internet sales. Be- work out there.
cause I did not have means to invest in it, I did not have traffic It was a lucrative business and we were already thinking about
and, therefore, few sales opening new gyms in several condominiums in São Paulo and
To make it even more difficult, the franchise model was not even in other states in Brazil, however, we were caught by surprise
well set, there was not a fair pricing policy so each franchisee could in the seventh month. Despite having a three-year contract signed
sell for how much they wanted, which ended up demoralizing the with the condominium, the council had decided in assembly that
business with unfair price competition. the gym should give way to a nursery and we simply had to dis-

I also launched an e-commerce called Cosméticos Beauty (loo- mantle the structure.
sely translated as Cosmetics Beauty), a sales platform of professio- With this event we realized that we would always be at the mer-
nal cosmetics with the leading brands in the market. The greatest cy of conventions and councils at any condominium, which would
difficulties were the suppliers. Because many products were im- make the business, although profitable, unsafe, because we could
ported, there was lack of stock; the dollar fluctuation was also a have to leave the business overnight, as happened.
challenge, so there was a big fluctuation in the price too.
These were the four cases of failures I have selected to tell you,
It was an extremely competitive market, especially in the digital but, although this is the chapter’s title, I see them as big steps
world. I learned a lot about internet traffic and conversion, the of learning. I learned a lot about the digital market, packaging,

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