We had been consistently scaling our offer.

Everything was going according to plan.

In fact, we were going to hit $1M in rev that month!

And then...

The p*ndemic started.

"Sooo. You guys listening?"

Lilly our Chinese factory agent was on the other side...

"We're closing down production for a while"

Shiiiiiiit.... For real??

Now what???

My partner and I had a quick chat.

They can't stay closed for a long time right?

I mean, the whole world would come to a standstill if China took a month off...

They'll probably close for a week and come back... RIGHT???

F*ck it. Sales are good...

We're scaling this f*cker!!!

We were doing about 1,000 orders per day at that point.

And were already a little backed up.

Meaning we had almost 10,000 open orders waiting to ship out.

But when you're young and dumb...

You move fast and break things, and then you hit the gas!

So we scaled... Hitting 2,000 orders per day…

For a little over a month.

Eventually reaching right around 80,000 open orders, waiting to be shipped out.

Yeah...

We were standing in front of a football stadium full of people who had bought from us in the past month. With absolutely no way to fulfill their orders.

Faaaaaaaccccckkkkkk...

But we kept our cool.

And implemented a retention plan!

We sent regular email updates to every person who bought from us.

Hired more support agents.

And personally spoke to customers, reassuring people that things were going to be alright.

Some customers wanted their money back.

Some called us a scam.

But in the end, after long days and sleepless nights...

The factory reopened.

And our efforts paid off.

We ended up saving over 90% of sales.

Hit our $1,000,000 mark (by quite a lot).

And got a free lesson (almost free) in crisis management.

So the next time you're down in a hole...

Be thankful you don't have 80,000 angry clients with pitchforks coming after you.

Stay strong.

Come up with a plan and execute like there's no tomorrow.

Because sometimes there really isn't one.

Claw and fight.

And climb out!