我去年创办了一家企业。如今我正被压得喘不过气来。尽管所有人都劝我别这么做，我去年还是开了一家网店。一位投资人朋友警告我说，这会是“资本焚烧炉”。他说对了。我卖出了产品，却艰难地赚取每一分钱。花在一百美元在线广告上只带来了100美元的销售额。我唯一的利润来自在派对、酒吧和优步上跟陌生人聊天，这虽然有趣，但遗憾的是，并不能让我过上富裕的生活。
I Started a Business Last Year. Now I’m Getting Crushed. I opened an online storefront last year, even though everyone told me not to. An investor friend warned me it would be a “capital incinerator.”He was right. I sold my product and I struggled to earn a dime. A hundred dollars spent on online advertising brought $100 in sales. My only profit came from chatting up strangers at parties, at bars, in Ubers, which was fun but, sadly, not going to put me on Easy Street.
自疫情以来，包括电子商务在内的新企业开业数量激增，但其长期可持续性存疑。像亚马逊和Meta这样的大型科技平台正在加紧对美国家庭式小型网络企业的挤压，并赋能像Quince这样资金雄厚的超级零售商——《纽约时报》的一封通讯将其称为“品牌良好的仿冒品百货店”。这减少了消费者的选择，并限制了我这样的千禧一代及后续世代向上流动的路径。
New business openings, e-commerce included, have exploded since the pandemic, but long-term viability is questionable. Big Tech platforms like Amazon and Meta are turning the screws on American mom-and-pop online businesses and empowering deep-pocketed mega-retailers like Quince, which a Times newsletter called a “well-branded dupe emporium.”That’s reducing choice for consumers and limiting paths to upward mobility for millennials like me and generations that follow.
与我为此文章交谈的所有其他电商运营商一样，我最初坚信消费者会被我精心打造的品牌产品所吸引。去年，我偶然发现了一种由牛奶蛋白纤维编织而成的柔软面料，并看到了商机。美国人每年在美容枕套上的花费超过2.5亿美元，包括那些用于对抗毛躁的丝绸和缎面款式，但我觉得它们看起来俗气且油腻。
Like all the other e-commerce operators I spoke to for this piece, I was initially convinced consumers would be drawn to my thoughtfully branded product. Last year I stumbled across a gentle fabric woven from the protein fibers in milk and saw an opportunity. Americans spend more than $250 million annually on beauty pillowcases, including the frizz-battling silk and satin varieties, but I thought they looked garish and greasy.
凭借一点资本、金融背景以及近乎天真的乐观，我下了第一笔订单，并在德克萨斯州的一个牧场进行了一场异想天开的摄影拍摄（奶牛……懂吧？）。我的朋友们给出了好评，我还得到了健康领域网红Alexis Page对产品的赞誉。我只需要买家。
Armed with a bit of capital, a finance background and an optimism bordering on naïveté, I placed my first order and put together a whimsical photo shoot on a ranch in Texas (cows … get it?). My friends gave rave reviews, and I got a glowing product nod from the wellness it-girl Alexis Page. All I needed were buyers.
考虑到可能会购买我枕套的客户类型——对健康感兴趣且拥有可支配收入的女性——我知道我必须在Instagram上购买广告。我预算每天50美元用于广告购买，并等待销售滚滚而来。
Given the kind of customers who would likely purchase my pillowcases — wellness-curious women with disposable incomes — I knew I had to buy ads on Instagram. I budgeted $50 in daily ad purchases and waited for sales to roll in.