How Failure Can Help You Build a Smarter Business
From This Is Small Business by Amazon
June 9, 2026 · 16 min · Season 7 · Episode 104
About this episode
April Wachtel discusses how her initial business failure led to the successful launch of Cheeky Cocktails.
Your first business might not work out but it can show you how to build a better one. After years in hospitality and teaching cocktail classes to thousands of people, April Wachtel saw a gap: people wanted bar-quality drinks at home, but didn’t always have the time, tools, or ingredients to make them. So she launched Swig and Swallow – a cocktail batching and delivery business that didn’t quite work and eventually evolved into Cheeky Cocktails , a nationwide brand creating bar-quality syrups and juices for home bartenders. In this episode, April breaks down how she turned a failed manufacturing run into a full brand reset, relaunched during COVID, and used Amazon programs like Vine and FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) to build trust, increase revenue, and grow smarter. If you’ve ever had to rebuild, or start again – this episode is for you. Watch the full conversation on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@Thisissmallbusiness In this episode of This Is Small Business, you’ll learn: (01:26) — How to turn your experience into a business idea (03:21) — Andrea tries Cheeky Cocktails (04:17) — How a struggling business pivoted into a smarter business model (07:06) — How a product reset…
People in this episode
Host: This Is Small Business
Guest: April Wachtel
Topics covered
- business failure
- entrepreneurship
- cocktail industry
- business pivot
- brand growth
- COVID impact
Keywords
- business failure
- cocktail delivery
- entrepreneurship
- brand reset
- Amazon programs
- revenue growth
- home bartending
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Swig and Swallow, Cheeky Cocktails, Amazon, Vine, FBA
Books & works: This Is Small Business
Places: COVID
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