In this is a 4-part story I will take though my journey from creating & opening my own business to closing it, an entire product / business lifecycle, and all from an Entrepreneur & PM Point-of-View (PoV).
Each part will address a different set of milestones in the product's lifecycle, and contain a link to the previous part, for the readers who’ve missed the previous part and want to catch up.
In this part will cover the product’s End-of-Life (EOL) lifecycle phase.
Part IV – EOL
Part of a product's lifecycle is its end-of-life. Just like in real life…
One of the hardest responsibilities & tasks a PM has is to identify that the EOL time has come for the product.
But before close the curtains, let's sweeten the pill with one more success story first:
During one the ‘Carnivore Nights’ I held I noticed a couple of women who came together, so I went to talk with them a bit - as I usually do - and see what brought them and from where;
One of them was 9 months pregnant at the time;
I learned that they’ve heard of me both online & from friends, so they decided to travel all the way from Kfar Aza (a kibbutz near the Gaza border) to my house (up north), just to participate in the unique & tasty experience (as they put it).
So why did I shut down the business with such success stories?
It was never about the money as the primary objective. Money was a result.
Throughout the years I've been told, by friends & suppliers in various occasions, that I can increase my profit margin if I would use lower-quality meats. My response was always the same: I would rather close my business permanently than decrease the quality of my product, raw material & ingredients included.
There came a time where a few things occurred at once: as I climbed up the ladder in my "day job" in the hi-tech industry, I had less & less time to invest in the business; meat products prices have risen significantly, to a point that I had to raise the price per person per event to a price I was not comfortable charging my customers; a flood of similar businesses, creating a very bloody ocean; and COVID-19. All these combined brought me to the sad realization that it's time to "close shop".
If memory serves me correctly, the last meat-event I held was during July 2020; it was a theme night of meat & whisky – cooperation with a known liquor importer & provider.
It was a night to remember…
So there you have it — the connection between ‘Carnivore Nights’, entrepreneurship, innovation, and product management.
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