My 3 biggest challenges in 2025

After an apparently decent 2024, lots of gaping holes in the business are apparent. I need to fix that asap to stay afloat and continue growing. What are these challenges? Hint - basics

👋 Hola! Welcome to Out of Singapore. This is Shan and I write every Sunday on business and marketing. 2024 has been quite a year. We were on the verge of shutdown a few times, but we managed to sail through. We scraped through most part of the year and, by the end of it, we reached a new high. I was hopeful of the year working well for us (on excel math) and it seemingly worked out (close, not perfect).

Here is a message from myself to me 😅.

Here are some 2024 highlight numbers before I get into the main topic.

1. Monthly revenue - 2.5x from Jan to Dec 2025.

2. Nov sales - We hit 90% of our target (it was a huge target) with no inventory for 2/3rd of the month. This means we missed significant amount of demand.

3. Customers - We added 15,000 new customers in 2024.

4. Products - NMN continued to dominate sales, while Magnesium brough most number of new customers. LPC Neuro has started on a good note at the end of the year.

5. Traffic - 2x more than start of the year

6. Marketing efficiency - We are now averaging 4x MER on our marketing spends.

7. Channels - We found winning channel in TikTok, while our website is on the second rank and growing fast.

8. Cash - From being cash negative, we are now cash positive.

Those are the things that has happened in 2024. It puts us in a good spot, and we need to leverage our strong position to grow. Grow big fast. This is not going to be easy.

Let’s start with the discussion.

#1 Build the team

I have a lean team. Two full-time staff, shared team members and a few remote staff. We have managed to achieve a lot together. We have all been upstarts - almost doing things for the first time or second time. We all started from scratch - that’s one common bond that keeps us going.

In 2025, our volumes are going to go up by 3-5x, conservatively. Do we need ambitious resources who have seen larger scale? Or experienced resources who have done it for several years. Or just more resources for every thing since we will do more of each. Tricky question, and I have tested these approaches in 2024.

My #1 challenge in 2025 is going to be hiring. Hiring right resources at the right time.

Hiring wrong people or too many resources can both impact the brain. I cannot completely avoid it, that’s for sure.

Who are the right people for the brand?

1. Hungry for success - Their primary goal is to achieve bigger goals in professional life. They could also be achievement-led monetary-gain-seeking people.

2. Challengers - They want to challenge the status quo, of their professional life or personal life. They could be seeking to learn and refine a new skill, for eg. - content creation.

3. Flexible - A startup or a new business does not work based on JD or contract. There is a “main role” of a resource and then secondary roles. These people know when to step up or support colleagues and the business.

The best people are those who imbibe these 3 characteristics. These people will learn a new skill if they need to. They will understand the most important need for a business and help in goal. They will always go above and beyond.

Finding such resources is time taking and difficult. Not everyone will agree to be these. So, I need to find 1-2 hungry, challenging and flexible people. Later when they outgrow their means (skills, time and mental bandwidth), support them with resources that do a few things very well.

Beyond the type of people, I need to identify where do I need them to help me. If you know someone who will be great for the brand, please reach out to me.

This team will grow in 2025

#2 Build product verticals

I believe we are ending the year on a good product assortment. With NMN, PX, and LPC, we are majorly sorted in terms of offering. PX and LPC are industry leading products, and saves us from unnecessary competition. Now the challenge is to make each of these a few million dollar business verticals.

Challenge is to split team, marketing, cash and focus across at least 3 product verticals (one product = one vertical). These three product verticals are

1. Protocol X - Longevity protocol series. Expecting to add a few more products under this series.

2. LPC Neuro - Omega-3 series targeted at brain health.

3. Pure Series - Led by Pure NMN, this will be large list of single pure ingredients available for biohackers to buy. This will provide the freedom to customise the supplement regimen, instead of sticking to PX.

PX and LPC are premium and novel products. We will treat them as such. While Pure series will be affordably priced and accessible. This makes it difficult since the brand cannot wear two hats - premium and accessible - at one time. I will need to learn how to navigate this challenge in 2025.

Building these three verticals will be a strategy, people, and cash problem.

#3 Channel (and market) expansion

We have a lot of demand left to capture in Singapore market. In 2024 we decided to focus entirely on Singapore. We stopped all our activities in the US market. That gave great results - our channels grew, we scaled with strong marketing efficiency and it gave us a decent volume.

At this point in time, we have to work on three fronts (otherwise it will be late).

1. Scale existing online channels - Existing channels have to grow 3x this year (at least). They will perform better due to the momentum we have already built. TikTok and website will do well, but Shopee remains a concern. Shopee has plateaued and it’s not a good sign.

2. Enter offline retail channels - I have never done offline retail and it is one of my biggest gaps. I have to make concerted efforts this year to get into either Guardian or Watsons. This will be a big boost for brand credibility. It’s going to be painfully expensive and operationally challenging. But we have to do it. (thinking if I should hire a BD person)

3. Test new markets - In 2025, we need to start testing new markets. These are China, UK and USA. There are some South East Asian countries in the pipeline as well. This entire effort will be challenging since Singapore was home, while in all these markets we will be fighting the already entrenched local and global brands.

Everything we do in 2025 will be to become strong as a brand in the minds of the people as well as banks. We have to scale our current cash flows and build a aspirational brand image. This will help us to scale further in our journey.

So these are three fundamental challenges that I need to work on in 2025. It is going to be fundamental year for us. I am going to both fail and win. I hope the scale of wins is much bigger that failures (time will tell).

For next week, I am working on 3 more challenges that we need to work on. So stay tuned!

Need to host more such events (coming up on next week’s post)

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Thank yo so much for reading until the end. Please share your love by liking this post. If you did not like the write up, please write to me or comment. Please 🙏

My writing routine has been disturbed after the move. I don’t have a Toast box or a quite coffee place nearby within walking distance. Actually there are some. I will take a bike next time. So, I need to set up a new routine so my writing does not get impacted.

I have been making short form videos on TikTok and Instagram for three months now. I am enjoying the process. However, I need to improve. I have crossed the threshold of making videos consistently. I need to improve on the content and video production. I will be working on these two aspects over next 3 months. If you are watching my videos, let me know your thoughts.

Finally my TikTok (and Instagram) needs a purpose. It needs a CTA, a destination. I am thinking of driving the viewers to my newsletter. Later on I can make courses. It’s not going to be easy, but I will try a few things.

I did not know about Lisa’s crab dance 🤐

Blackpink dominated 2024

1. Jisoo - Flowers still popular in 2024, and she was the lead character of this newsletter (and will continue to remain).

2. Lisa - Rockstar, first Blackpink singles release in 2024.

3. Jennie - Mantra, came towards the end of the year and dominating charts across the world. One of my fav.

4. Rosie - Apt. Do I need to share more about this? The cutest collaboration the world didn’t know existed. Bruno Mars and Rosie are a vibe!

That’s it for today! I will be back again next year. Till then, rest, relax, chill and enjoy the holiday period. Cheers! 🥛🥛🥛🥛🥛