What epic fails have you seen from people starting their own business?

At a place I used to work, we supplied printing companies with their ink.

Being that digital printing is well and truly established at this point,

there wasn't a whole lot of business for this kind of ink anymore,

so there was a lot of competition between suppliers.

One of the technicians somehow weaseled his way to the top despite having no business experience.

When he was told very simply just to make more money rather than go out and find new customers,

his bright idea was to make our company's ink weaker with the intention that our customers would just have to buy more product to complete their

jobs. Surprise, the customers didn't like that and went to the competitors. Business was closed

within a year. The CEOs of the parent company in Japan weren't fully aware of everything this guy was

doing to run the business into the ground. There was a lot more stupid crap he'd pull. I could probably

full a book with stories from that place. It was not a sound business plan that you could compare

to other products and companies, because we were already getting some complaints that some of our

colours were weak. This is what gave the guy the idea to make them weaker. He was told by several

people it was a stupid idea and that it wouldn't have the desired effect,

and that it would just drive our clients away.

He was certain, though, that they'd all just accept the crappier product and pay more for it.

The Banana Pudding Store.

One day, my ex-boyfriend and I were taking a stroll downtown in the city that we were living in at the time.

We passed a store

that was called the Banana Pudding Store, or some such, I don't really remember exactly.

Well, I say, let's go in. I'm sure that they sell more than just banana pudding. You know,

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