Two Weeks Into ManThings: Sales Are Up 100%… Sort Of
Two weeks.
That’s how long ManThings has officially been out in the wild.
We’ve packed some orders, made some videos, trained some humans, gained a few followers and - technically speaking - increased sales by 100%.
Sounds impressive, doesn’t it?
Before anybody starts pricing up a yacht, we should probably explain that one.
We went from three sales to six.
Still. Growth is growth. We’ll take it.
More importantly, two weeks into the ManThings launch, we’re starting to see progress in the areas that actually matter to what we’re trying to build: training people, developing practical skills, testing products properly and slowly growing an audience around the whole thing.
TL;DR
Two weeks after launching ManThings:
- Sales have gone from three to six - technically a 100% increase.
- We’ve made serious progress on our first product testing videos.
- Our first trainee and volunteer has been learning AI-assisted scriptwriting, filming and content creation.
- He’s also been getting hands-on with warehouse picking, packing and dispatching customer orders.
- Followers, views, likes, shares and general engagement are all moving in the right direction.
- We know ManThings isn’t going to become enormous overnight - and that isn’t really the point anyway.
- The bigger goal is using ManThings and Achivo CIC to help people develop useful, practical and digital skills.
Sales up 100%. Three orders became six. Calm down, Amazon.
So, About That 100% Sales Increase…
There’s something wonderfully satisfying about being able to say your sales have increased by 100%.
It sounds like something that should be accompanied by graphs, champagne and somebody from the finance department nodding seriously at a PowerPoint presentation.
The reality is slightly less dramatic.
Three sales became six.
But when you’re starting something from scratch, those little numbers matter.
Every order means somebody has found the ManThings website, looked through what we’re doing, trusted us enough to place an order and given us another opportunity to test the systems we’ve spent months building.
Picking.
Packing.
Stock control.
Postage.
Customer communication.
Website management.
All the boring little bits behind an ecommerce business that nobody sees when they press the Buy button.
You’ve got to start somewhere.
And six is definitely more than three.
We checked.
Our Product Testing Videos Are Finally Taking Shape
One of the things we’ve been most excited about this week is the progress we’ve made with our first proper ManThings product testing videos.
The idea behind these is fairly simple.
We don’t just want to stick products on a website, copy whatever the manufacturer says about them and tell everybody they’re brilliant.
That’s not particularly useful.
We want to get products out, use them, test them and create content that gives people a better idea of what they’re actually buying.
Does it work?
Is it easy to use?
Is it well made?
Is there something annoying about it that you should know before spending your money?
And, perhaps most importantly:
Would we actually use it ourselves?
The first batch of testing videos is now taking shape, and we’re genuinely pleased with the quality of what we’re producing.
There’s still plenty to learn - there always will be - but it’s starting to look much more like the ManThings content we imagined when all this began.
A product description can tell you what something claims to do. Testing it tells you whether it actually does it.
ManThings Isn’t Just About Selling Stuff
This is probably the most important bit.
The shop matters.
Obviously.
Without customers buying things, it becomes rather difficult to operate an online shop.
But ManThings and Achivo are about more than shifting products out of a warehouse.
The business is also there to create somewhere people can learn.
And this week, that side of the project has started becoming much more real.
Our first trainee and volunteer, Phil, has been properly getting stuck in.
On the digital side, he’s been learning about creative scriptwriting using AI, developing ideas for content and working on filming in the studio.
Those are skills that increasingly matter to modern businesses.
AI tools can help with research, brainstorming, writing and content development - but learning how to actually use them effectively is a skill in itself.
Then there’s filming.
Planning what you want to say.
Turning it into a script.
Getting comfortable in front of or behind a camera.
Producing something people might actually want to watch.
It’s a very different set of skills from traditional warehouse work.
Which is exactly the point.
Then We Chuck Him in the Warehouse
Digital skills are only part of it.
Phil has also been learning the practical side of running ManThings:
finding products, picking orders, packing them properly and getting them sent out to customers.
Thankfully, the ridiculous amount of time spent organising our stock over the last year appears to have paid off.
Mostly.
With products properly organised and locations set up, he’s been able to find what he needs without disappearing into the warehouse for three days and emerging clutching the wrong screwdriver.
That might not sound particularly glamorous, but it’s real experience.
An ecommerce business isn’t just a website.
Behind every order is stock management, organisation, packaging, shipping and a whole chain of small jobs that have to happen correctly.
Learning those processes gives somebody a much better understanding of how an online business actually works.
The website is the bit customers see. The useful skills are often hiding behind it.
Social Media Is Moving in the Right Direction Too
We’re also seeing steady progress across the ManThings social channels.
Followers are up.
Views are up.
Likes are up.
Shares are up.
Engagement is up.
No, we haven’t accidentally become internet celebrities.
Nobody has recognised us in Tesco.
Yet.
But the important thing is that the numbers are moving in the right direction.
For a new brand, social media is partly about figuring out what people actually respond to.
What makes somebody stop scrolling?
What makes them watch?
What gets shared?
What disappears into the algorithmic abyss never to be seen again?
Every video gives us a little more information.
And every week gives us another chance to make the next one better.
Slow Growth Is Still Growth
We’re under no illusion that ManThings is suddenly going to explode overnight.
The website will probably grow slowly.
And that’s alright.
There’s a temptation with any new online business to judge success almost entirely by sales numbers.
Obviously sales matter.
But in our case, there’s another measurement running alongside them.
Are people learning useful skills because this exists?
If somebody learns how to use AI tools more effectively, that matters.
If they learn how to write a script, film a video or create content for social media, that matters.
If they learn how stock systems, order picking, packing and dispatch actually work, that matters too.
Those skills can go somewhere else.
Into another job.
Another business.
Another opportunity.
That’s a much bigger part of what we’re trying to build with ManThings and Achivo.
If the shop grows while people grow with it, we’re heading in the right direction.
Week Two: Done
So that’s the two-week progress report.
Six sales.
New product testing videos taking shape.
Our first trainee getting hands-on experience across digital content and warehouse operations.
Social media numbers gradually creeping upwards.
And an increasingly long list of things we’ve learned we need to do next.
Pretty standard startup behaviour, really.
Now we find out what week three has waiting for us.
Hopefully more orders.
Possibly more chaos.
Probably both.
Want to Help ManThings Grow?
This is the bit where we shamelessly ask you to press things.
Follow us.
Watch something.
Like something.
Share something.
Comment on something.
Tell your mate.
Tell your dad.
Tell that bloke at work who owns seventeen different drill bits but somehow never has the one anybody actually needs.
Or, if you really want to make our day, buy something useful from ManThings or chuck a few quid towards the project.
Follow. Share. Buy something useful. Chuck us a quid. We’re not fussy.
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Support Achivo
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Final Thoughts
Two weeks isn’t long enough to judge whether a new idea is going to work.
But it is long enough to see whether things are starting to move.
And they are.
The sales numbers are tiny.
The audience is still growing.
There’s a massive amount left to learn.
But products are leaving the warehouse, content is being created and somebody is already gaining hands-on experience from a project that didn’t exist before.
For two weeks in?
We’ll take that.
