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Foray into E-Commerce

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

blackbrich

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Firstly please forgive my writing, it will probably feel disjointed and abruptly change in subjects.

E-Commerce is something I've wanted to try for a while. Five years ago, when I heard about Alibaba I instantly realized what it could mean for small businesses thought I should try it. But of course I never did and up until a few days ago I had never contacted anyone on Alibaba.

1 key advantage I'm glad I have is(For mindset at least): My stepdad is a serial entrepreneur, so this fastlane stuff has never seemed like magic or impossible. He typically specialized in eCommerce and imports things from China. He usually has more capital and uses loans however.

Before trying this things I have tried are (I use tried very loosely). If you can get any of the ideas to work for you go ahead. If I didn't execute and you can, that's my fault.

1. PC Repair delivery - Essentially I would offer a few services on my semi-limited knowledge of computer repair. My only real knowledge was spyware and virus removal, my Unique Selling Proposition was I would come to where you were, fix it and deliver it back to you. It still is a cool idea, but I was working fulltime to make ends meet and couldn't swing it. I also did really not want to do it. I posted to craigslist and someone tried to scam me from somewhere in Africa. It's cool I strung them along for about a week or two and wasted their time.

In my mind it violated the commandments of:
Need: My entire game plan was to compete on price. If that's all I had to offer, it probably wasn't needed.
Entry: I threw up a site in a few hours, and had very little knowledge of computers to actually repair.
Time: It would be a phenomenal waste of time trying to do a bunch of different tasks I could barely do or scouring google trying to figure it out. mistake was I like computers so "Hey I should do what I love, I love computers, Let's repair computers". No. Just. No.

2. Paralysis Analysis - I read all about importing, signed up for a mid quality course, read the StartupBros blog posts, downloaded a few books, watched a lot of YouTube, and got a few books on Kindle. What ended up happening is I researched for about 2-3 months on Alibaba looking for the perfect product. <sarcasm> Surprisingly I couldn't find this magic product. </sarcasm>

I vacillated between selling on Amazon, EBay, my own store, in flea markets of a product I didn't have nor had a clue of. Was thinking 8 steps ahead and not on the step that I needed to.

3. Internet Marketing - I read a lot of books and blogs about Internet Marketing. To make a long story short I only was really learning it to hock shoddy clickbank products on anyone I could drive to my site. I could never drive anyone to my site anyway because a) I never did any off page SEO for reason b) I was looking for the site to just have hundreds of visits a month with no particular work on my part. I also had no clue about the niche "blogs" I started(Only made 1 blog post or two per each) nor really cared to know. Did not give a damn about my customers at all.
I could never get any of it off the ground.
I'd like to tell myself that I have a hard time promoting bullshit to other people. It was probably laziness.
During this time I read lots of marketing blogs and books. So it was at least not a 100% waste of time.

Now - I finally have decided to act upon the knowledge I gained during my 2 period. And honestly I knew pretty much every theoretical thing about importing 1.5 years ago. Any thread I read here gives me a bit of new information, but most of it is reinforcing what I knew.

Actually about 4 months ago I made my first purchase with the intent to resale. It was selling on Ebay for about 25 dollars. I ordered 20 from Aliexpress. 20 days later they were selling for 4 dollars or less from US shipping addresses with free shipping. The product was a cheap glasses case.

Recently I ordered some Chinese branded cheap watches from Aliexpress with the intent of also reselling. My plan was to have a website and sell them there. The watches just got here yesterday, but before they arrived I ran a small test. I threw up some copy and pictures from a few Chinese watch companies. After that I started a PPC campaign on Google Adwords and PLA. I put my maximum bid as then most I was willing to pay for a click based on a conversion rate of about 2%. What I learned was the market was not interested in my price from my PLA listing. I learned from my adwords campaign that either people wanted to buy that brand from Amazon for much cheaper or my USP (90 day guarantee and free shipping) was weak.

I may sell them on Amazon at cost at some point and make some money back.

I also ordered another product from Alibaba Wholesale with the intent of testing the Ebay market place and giving a generic brand my own brand. Upon reading through Vigilante's thread I decided I probably won't go down this avenue, because there are three main competitors who are way ahead. Two having their products in stores already. One having a good brand story and USP. The other leading brand having a the USP of having cool looking designs(Though so does the other).
But if my tests work at a price I can deal with, I may give it go. But have to test first.

I also contacted another seller directly on Alibaba. Asking about getting samples for a product that seems to have no real competition in the US. Hopefully all goes well with it and Ill brand it and sell it.

My plan for the moment
Stop wasting about $100-150 a month on F*ckery and devote that to product testing.

One question I have for anyone who happens to read this thread.

I have a degree in Engineering from 2 years ago, but I have a low paying job and have never been hired in engineering(I used the resume blast approach, didn't work, never networked in college). I now work a desk job after searching for quite a while.
If I had a job in engineering I could get paid significantly more, and have a lot of extra money for testing.
But I probably would have a lot less time to read at an engineering job. I can spend about 80% of my time at work now reading threads here and researching products.

P.S. I also thought I'd throw up this link to my Profit Desired calculator I made for excel. Its not pretty but it has been helping me get a feel on if a product is worth bringing in and at what price.
Profit Desired Calculator
 
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blackbrich

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Looks like I'm about to finally get my first sample. I have their PayPal account and now it's just a matter of sending them the payment.

The unit prices they quoted were about 60% higher than their Alibaba list price quoted so I guess in the future I can completely ignore that.

Also the sample costs were higher than the quoted price for unit price. So that is worrying. But I think I'll continue on with it even if just for the sake of experience.
 

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Nice post. Ive tried purchasing just 1 or 2 things on alibaba but finding out detailed information on a product is so frustrating because of the language barrier and such. Grrrrrrr.:arghh:
 

blackbrich

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Nice post. Ive tried purchasing just 1 or 2 things on alibaba but finding out detailed information on a product is so frustrating because of the language barrier and such. Grrrrrrr.:arghh:

I guess because I haven't asked for too much detailed info I haven't run into that...
That might be a bad sign on my part.

Me said:
I also ordered another product from Alibaba Wholesale with the intent of testing the Ebaymarket place and giving a generic brand my own brand.

The product I was speaking of finally arrived. It wasn't generic as I anticipated, but rather had a brand of another competitor in this space. I don't think they'd be happy to know this was going on. I thought of selling it through Amazon, but more than likely my listing would be taken down. I'll probably try to see how much I can get for it on Ebay. I would really like to sell something like it though.

The quality really impressed me, and gave me a good feeling about working with that company in the future.

Next I'll be ordering my next product. I'll see how that goes. Hopefully this can be one I can brand myself.
 
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blackbrich

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Still chugging along. Sent my money to the Alibaba seller for the samples of the low competition product.

Should be here in around a week or week and a half. I went through with the purchase, but I doubt if it will be worth the unit price they sell it for. But I do hope for that I'm wrong.


Going to continue scouring for more product samples to test the market. Considering trying to find some manufacturers away from Alibaba as well, and maybe try to email them for a catalog.

Apart from that I've been reading/listening to a few books some members have recommended/I already had:
Great By Choice
Why People Buy Things They Don't Need
Blue Ocean Strategy
The New Rules of Marketing & PR
Start With Why
 

blackbrich

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I'm still at my slowlane at the moment, but my grandparents(where I chose to receive the samples) informed me that my package arrived. I'm somewhat excited to see how they turn out.

Hopefully the quality is there. I'm gonna give it a decent run through and make sure it can hold up to everyday use. I'll update in a few days how they turn out.
 

blackbrich

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And it looks like I won't be doing business with this company. Either they f*cked up my order or they sent bullshit they felt like sending. Either way F*ck it.

Lesson learned: I doubt if I'll be paying for samples in the future.

2 orders from the Baba. One bad seller one good.

Edit: I've contacted them and will see what their response is. Anything less than them paying for my shipping and handling both ways is unacceptable.
 
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Walter Hay

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And it looks like I won't be doing business with this company. Either they f*cked up my order or they sent bullshit they felt like sending. Either way F*ck it.

Lesson learned: I doubt if I'll be paying for samples in the future.

2 orders from the Baba. One bad seller one good.

Edit: I've contacted them and will see what their response is. Anything less than them paying for my shipping and handling both ways is unacceptable.
Your first big product sourcing mistake was to take the almost universal advice found on this forum, other forums, blogs, and in courses or books by importing "experts." Alibaba is a very difficult B2B site to use for product sourcing and Aliexpress is even harder.

Whatever you have learned about importing and knew 1.5 years ago is either wrong, or if it was right, you have forgotten it.

From what you have written, I would say that you have a lot to learn about product sourcing and importing. You might like to spend a bit of time looking at my AMA thread
Sharing my lifetime experience in export/import. Product sourcing specialist.
where maybe you could start to learn from someone who has been there done that. In case you think I am blowing my own trumpet, here is what a member posted on my thread recently: "I really respect your knowledge, experience and opinions about importing, and realize you are a walking encyclopedia on the subject."

Please note I am not an internet marketer and can't help you choose a product or sell it.
 
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blackbrich

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Edit: I don't want to come across as a know-it-all with no results. Sorry if it comes across like that.

Firstly thank you for contributing to my journey. I would first like to ask, apart from dealing with Alibaba, do you see anywhere else I may have misstepped? I'd like to avoid those if at all possible as well.

When I said I had learned enough about importing. I was talking more along the lines that everything I read at the beginning was more or less the same things I had read later. And I would also ask, how is Aliexpress harder? Alibaba to a complete newbie is very odd because it's not structured. Aliexpress on the other hand is like any other large e-commerce site(less organized). But then again it is B2C.

Unless you were referring to prices? In which case I agree wholeheartedly. A few years ago I thought I'd just order some crap from Aliexpress then sell on Amazon for easy profit. It was a fool's errand. Most products would have made little to 0 margin(or negative). I realized I was just being lazy.

I definitely know I have a lot to learn about product sourcing and importing. Mainly because before this started I had 0 to 3 accounts of real-world experience, vs a lot of theoretical knowledge. No amount of reading could get me ready for actually doing this. Now that I have at least a handful of experiences with this I can go back to some of my past resources with new eyes.

After every little experience I've had with importing, I've gone back to my resources and learned something new from the same old information. It just meant more after.

Also I do thank you for your AMA, it was definitely one of my resources I used when learning about importing(I obviously didn't follow all of it). I've probably read at least 50%-60% of it. Apart from the being very anti-Alibaba(not an insult), I didn't see very much of anything that I hadn't already seen. I've read countless threads, books, courses, blog posts about importing. There may have been a 5-10% difference in all of them. Usually a matter of holistic view, vs focus on A, focus on B, etc.

One of your bits of advice and also Vigilante's advice I definitely subscribed to was the always order samples first. I did and I saved myself a good bit of money over ordering the MOQ.
 
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blackbrich

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Heard back from supplier today. They say there was a mistake with DHL and they will pay for my shipping fees for the wrong items to a US address.

They have not divulged how they will pay for those fees yet, so I am still in a state of distrust.

Even if they do actually get me my goods, unless the samples knock my socks off. I doubt that I'd source from them. Not a fan of messing up a small test order, I also feel like if there's a problem you take responsibility not shift the blame onto the "DHL Agent".
 
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Walter Hay

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Edit: I don't want to come across as a know-it-all with no results. Sorry if it comes across like that.

Firstly thank you for contributing to my journey. I would first like to ask, apart from dealing with Alibaba, do you see anywhere else I may have misstepped? I'd like to avoid those if at all possible as well.

When I said I had learned enough about importing. I was talking more along the lines that everything I read at the beginning was more or less the same things I had read later. And I would also ask,1 how is Aliexpress harder? Alibaba to a complete newbie is very odd because it's not structured. Aliexpress on the other hand is like any other large e-commerce site(less organized). But then again it is B2C.

Unless you were referring to prices? In which case I agree wholeheartedly. A few years ago I thought I'd just order some crap from Aliexpress then sell on Amazon for easy profit. It was a fool's errand. Most products would have made little to 0 margin(or negative). I realized I was just being lazy.

I definitely know I have a lot to learn about product sourcing and importing. Mainly because before this started I had 0 to 3 accounts of real-world experience, vs a lot of theoretical knowledge. No amount of reading could get me ready for actually doing this. Now that I have at least a handful of experiences with this I can go back to some of my past resources with new eyes.

After every little experience I've had with importing, I've gone back to my resources and learned something new from the same old information. It just meant more after.

Also I do thank you for your AMA, it was definitely one of my resources I used when learning about importing(I obviously didn't follow all of it). I've probably read at least 50%-60% of it. Apart from the being very anti-Alibaba(not an insult), I didn't see very much of anything that I hadn't already seen. I've read countless threads, books, courses, blog posts about importing. 2 There may have been a 5-10% difference in all of them. Usually a matter of holistic view, vs focus on A, focus on B, etc.

One of your bits of advice and also Vigilante's advice I definitely subscribed to was the always order samples first. I did and I saved myself a good bit of money over ordering the MOQ.
I like your approach to criticism. Being willing to learn that way is difficult for most, but it can pay handsome dividends.

I am not an internet marketer, but I have started up and run for many years 2 highly successful businesses and that experience leads me to suggest that you are adopting a scattergun approach rather than employing good market research. Sourcing products overseas and importing them will be the easy part. Marketing is the tricky bit, so you need to be sure that your product is marketable at profitable margins.

Now to your other questions/comments:
1 In addition to being a retail site, Aliexpress is even more notorious than Alibaba for scammers. They even know how to exploit the loopholes in the Aliexpress Buyer Protection system. On Alibaba it is now for legal reasons called Trade Protection. Based on many reports I have received, Aliexpress sellers supply defective goods even more often than sellers on Alibaba.

2 I don't publish in my posts everything in my book. The difference between me and others claiming to be importing experts is not only real experience, but specializing. I don't market products any more, but I continually monitor the product sourcing and importing world. For example, I am a registered vendor on Alibaba, although I don't sell anything there. This gives me the inside running on how they function. I recently also registered as a vendor on another big B2B site just to update my knowledge of their system.

When in my AMA title I refer to a lifetime experience, that began when I left college and I am now 76. I exported my own products for 10 years and I ran an importing business for 22 years and it was so successful that I franchised it in 4 countries.

In my first AMA post I wrote: "There are myths and misinformation in abundance on forums everywhere. I am here to dispel those myths and correct the misinformation that I see being published daily in business forums." I suggest you look at my recent post Gurus-in-Training here: Sharing my lifetime experience in export/import. Product sourcing specialist.
Some people pay thousands for courses that feed them costly mistakes.
 
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blackbrich

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Thank you again Walter for your insights. And I thank you for your kind words.

I would say I do have a sort of shotgun approach at this point. All things included I typically try to find 40% Margin including all other fees. But my last set of items that I haven't yet received, did not fit within it. Why I kept going ahead is mostly just a hope and pray strategy when I take a step back and asses the purchase. Hope that its decent quality and pray that my initial research was off and dynamite marketing could improve my price point.

And in regards to the Aliexpress "Buyer Protection System". I do vaguely remember reading something about it on your AMA if I remember correctly. Luckily I had never come across con artists before. Apart from a couple of fool-hardy purchases for intent on reselling. I mainly use it like other B2C platforms now. But I'll definitely be ore cautious now when I do order.

I am not an internet marketer, but I have started up and run for many years 2 highly successful businesses and that experience leads me to suggest that you are adopting a scattergun approach rather than employing good market research. Sourcing products overseas and importing them will be the easy part. Marketing is the tricky bit, so you need to be sure that your product is marketable at profitable margins.

To be honest with myself, marketing is the part that scares me a bit. But it IS the business so eventually I'm gonna have to attack it head-on.

Also, thank you for that link to the Gurus-in-Training post. I'm also sure I know of at least two of the courses you are referring to. I took a course but it was not near that amount.
 

blackbrich

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An update to the wrong product fiasco.

They said that they're sending the correct product today, and they are willing to refund my shipping charges to my PayPal account. I'm still waiting on my tracking # to be sure it is actually sent. I also know with PayPal I have recourse if this happens to go way south.

Still reading and learning in the background. Still looking through products to get more ideas, researching different niches plugging margins into my calculator.
 
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blackbrich

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Not much new has gone on. Most of this week has been wasted on hanging out with friends. I don't regret it, but I now need to re-focus.
Still working with the other importer from Alibaba.
Also recently bought Walter's book from his sight, haven't had much time to read through it yet. This weekend I'll finish it.
 

blackbrich

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A lot of nothing recently. I got my samples finally of what I actually asked for. They've repayed me my shipping and we're all even. But what I knew would happen did.

But I was expecting it, so it didn't blindside me. I wanted to get this sample to get an feel for how much my money would get, quality-wise, for a certain unit price. I was actually pretty impressed with the quality of the sample, but I can't legally sell it. This was a consumer electronics product and I know enough about regulations to know it would probably be illegal to sell it.

But I know in the future, assuming I work with a decent supplier I can get decent quality electronics for a decent price.

Recently got a raise, so I can do more experimenting with products. I'm going to have to go way out of my comfort-zone as far as product sourcing is considered. What I know about is consumer electronics, but it seems like too much of a crap-shoot to hope suppliers are 1) passing regulations, 2) passing them at the current time, 3) passing them with my batch, or 4) telling the truth.

Also a side note. I've done it again. There is no magic book, website, pill, audio course, or video course that is going to circumvent process. I've been searching for 6 years, it doesn't exist.
 

blackbrich

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This was mostly a failed attempt. I didn't have the drive, nor the capital really.
I also had a fear of failure attitude that kept me procrastinating on unnecessary things.
I also had a fear of success (ex. If I do x, then I'll have to do y, but I can't handle y, so I should just say F*ck x until I can handle y), that put also made me abandon some things.

I chose too many products that I would like, but I couldn't legally sell them in America. I researched before hand, knew it, and bought them anyway on hope. Very stupid of me. it may have just been unconscious sabotage so I could say "Hey look I tried, and look what happened!"

I put down my entire e-commerce biz. Didn't really get started, but I believe I'm done for the moment.

Silver lining:
I learned a bit more about PPC campaigns. I taught myself about the Display Network, and now I'm familiar with that. Learned some more things I'm sure, but these are the main ones that come to mind.

In other news, my next idea has been to start a business service business.
Have made the website. I'm currently testing digital marketing with PPC. Trying sending people directly to my services page or to a landing page touting the benefits of my service.
Using the Google Display Network as opposed to search network because not many are searching for the service, but I still think the service is useful. I may have to change my marketing strategy.

But, that's where I am now.
 
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blackbrich

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Have been collecting names and addresses for small law firms. Thinking that would be a vertical I would market to.

My problem now is an issue of knowledge. I know larger firms use and need this service but not sure if smaller firms do.
So would be unsure if I would try selling more towards the product or myself.
A friend of mine knows a lawyer of a small firm so I think I'll network and try to glean some insight from him.

Tapatalk を使用して私の SPH-L720 から送信
 

blackbrich

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Currently reading Dan Kennedy's book on direct mail.

Going to be taking that approach to advertise to businesses as opposed to Adwords.
No one seems to be searching for it, and I don't have the budget to try to use Adwords to generate demand.

Waiting on my friend to introduce me to an acquaintance so I could ask him a few pertinent questions about his profession.
 

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@blackbrich Hey man, I'm DEFINITELY not an expert in the matter as I'm just starting out as well. The one thing that comes to mind though is that it seems like your hoping around A LOT. Just take a look at your ecommerce example. You got 2 samples, they were not what you were hoping for and then....you gave up!

I was in this exact same boat back in 2012. Vaporizers/ecigs were all the rage and I wanted to hop on the bandwagon, so without even thinking twice I ordered (what turned out to be counterfeit) vaporizers to sell on Amazon. Little did I know that they aren't allowed on Amazon and, similar to you, that caused me to just close up shop. Now here I am 3 years later kicking myself for not pursuing another product or niche. Had I pushed through then, who knows where I would be today. I don't regret my decisions as it was a great learning experience, but I definitely regret giving up at the first obstacle. If there's one thing everyone here preaches, its fail your way to success. You failed with your two products, but you're failing fast. Keep failing fast and you'll hit it eventually. Lesson learned here, I believe, is to do a bit more due diligence on your product selection as the consumer electronics product was most certainly not a good path to go down.

I don't mean to rip into you, but you seem to be in a similar spot that I was 3 years ago and all I can say now, looking back, is that I wished I kept on going.

Best of luck!
 
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blackbrich

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@fluffhead Sorry it took me a minute to get back to this thread.

I've actually run through 6 or more samples. Most were crap. One was actually good, but I just couldn't afford to bring many in, the profit margin didn't seem worth it, and it was borderline illegal (similar to your e-cigs).

My main issue is just a lack of capital. It's my fault and can't be really angry at anyone but myself.

Too many bills (student loans, ill-advised and foolhardy car loan, apartment (didn't really need it, but after living with grandparents for a year, I couldn't continue. Felt like a bum, even though I had a job, the rest is utilities and food. I could spend less on food, but I know I won't.), and not enough income.

That's one of the main reasons I wanted to try my hand in a service based business. For one, I don't need as much start-up capital. Mostly sweat equity.

I feel if I can learn to make this service business work, then I could transfer that to other businesses.
I really want to learn more about marketing and selling, but there's only so much reading about it can help me do.

But I definitely have not given up on e-commerce long term.
I've seen too many examples of it working, including a family member.

Also as an update.
About to send the letters off within the week, possibly do some cold calls for prospecting as well.
I feel like my service would target an under-served portion of the market.
 

blackbrich

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Funny update.
I put up some product on Amazon a few months ago. Forgot about it till recently. Then 2 days ago I got an order and today I got another.
Broke even on it, but It felt good.

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blackbrich

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One of my biggest weaknesses is fear of the loss of money and lack of self-confidence.
I believe that's a major reason I waffle between ideas. It doesn't take much to convince me that an idea doesn't work.
I also seem to self-sabotage by going into things that I lack the resources to do.
But I always seem to come back to e-commerce.

Self-analysis out of the way.

During the time I imported a few more junk samples. Knowing full well that it wouldn't possess the right certifications.

But recently I finally pushed myself into a more certification-less class of product. I've imported a few of those samples and if they look alright and can sell, then I'll use Alibaba wholesale to buy in bulk.
 
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blackbrich

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Still here, still swinging, still shooting my shot.

Have moved on from e-commerce for the moment.
Don't feel like I have enough capital to add any real value to anything existing, also don't have enough capital to go private label and climb Amazon rankings.

So during the past few months, I've started various businesses, most in my head. Never really did much apart from building a barebones site.
Flirted with doing a SEO agency, could never get a site near the first page, even with long tail. Don't really feel comfortable selling crappy services or services I'm not 100% of myself in, also don't feel comfortable outsourcing the SEO to someone that may potentially screw-up someone's SEO for the longterm.

So my latest venture is a commercial cleaning business.
So far what I've done is:
  1. Sent out direct mail to about 300 businesses (If I could get a response rate of .05% that'd be at least one lead, I'll see how that goes)
  2. I have a free trial to a virtual receptionist service to answer the calls and make an appointment for getting a quote
    • I actually have misgivings about the service. I work full time, and cannot realistically answer these calls at any given time. I also can only schedule the appointments at 3 different time slots per day. I've told the virtual receptionist this, but I don't know and feel like they'll randomly schedule someone for a time I can't actually make. May just be unnecessary fear.
  3. I've made some estimates about the market size, average monthly revenue per account, total manhours needed based on accounts. I've figured up till 3 people I could handle after work myself. 4-10 I'd need one additional worker. 10-50 I'd be a manager for the workers and not necessarily doing much of the work. At about 20 accounts I think I could become fulltime at this. 50+ I could hire a manager and get started on focusing more on growing the business (hiring salespeople, customer service).
It really hinges on how well I execute on the direct mail. If I can send out direct mail at a semi-consistent response rate, I'm pretty sure I can make the business scale.
 

blackbrich

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After a year of F*cking around, psyching myself out and making excuses.

I've sold 3 products on Amazon this week. Using Amazon PPC ads.
Funny enough, I sold 2 the day before Prime Day and 1 the day after.

I only bought enough to test initially, but I've already bought a larger order and its on the way.

Making my first dollars felt really good. Hoping for no returns as well.
 

blackbrich

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Got my second more substantial shipment of 20. Gonna be checking them tonight and getting them prepped for FBA and send them out in the morning.

Also have been building out my brand website. Looking at Facebook as my main channel to promote my website. Think I'll hold a few back for my site.

Sent from my LGLS775 using Tapatalk
 
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blackbrich

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Just finished lugging my product from my grandparents house to my apartment.
Tired. Havent worked like that since i worked in retail. But my grandad, by himself, put my stuff in the basement after it arrived. He da real MVP.

Edit:

Also finished getting my shipment ready for FBA tomorrow morning. W00t.

bed6914718116ed0563e29a397ae98f0.jpg


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IAmLegend

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as i was reading your thread, it made me sad that you are giving up too early but i am really glad to see that things started to work for you, good luck for your new batch and keep us updated

Can you elaborate on Amazon PPC ads? CPC/Daily Budget? etc.
 

blackbrich

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Before I ran out of stock my ACoS was 15% for my manual campaign. I ran another automatic campaign for the purpose of finding keywords that made nothing back.

I had my budgets at $7 and $7.50 for thr automatic but i never really got close to my daily budget.

My CPC for my manual campaign was around $0.35 and$0.28 for the auto.

Full disclosure. I shut down the automatic earlier because i started getting results on the manual. I may start it up again on my next shipment at a lower per day spend.

Tapatalk を使用して私の LGLS775 から送信
 
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blackbrich

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A new problem that I hope I have soon.

I work all day. I can't ship the pieces to my apartment.
I've been shipping the orders to my grandparent's house, but if they keep increasing in size, I'll need to find another solution.
Can't keep having my granddad lifting heavy boxes.

I'm considering renting a self storage that can receive packages during the day.
 

blackbrich

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I've debated bothering to post this, since I still have no sales in this current venture.

Since the last post, I stopped private labeling that product. I lost about 10% of my money on the endeavor. Ended up selling one to my coworker.

Lots of stuff tried since then, but rarely stuck with anything long enough to make a dent. Typically convinced myself it was too saturated, had no demand, or some other excuse before ever really attempting. Don't know if I really have changed much since the beginning post on this thread.

That aside, recently at my current job, a coworker died out of the blue one day. I had just talked to him the day before about him not having had a chance to try kimchi yet. Next day he was gone, 4 kids and a wife. I felt bad for his family and it weighed on me. His health wasn't the best (overweight) and my health isn't the greatest either, I look healthy but am pretty unhealthy underneath.

After about a week it made me finally make a change. I've been going to the gym to workout before work, getting up at 5:20am to go to the gym near my work at 6:10am, for 3 weeks so far, 5 days a week. Apart from health it was also meant as an exercise in building discipline. On a plus note, it energizes me all day.

Also, after my workout, I have been working on my latest venture: a drop-shipping store. I've decided to use US drop-shippers rather than Chinese Aliexpress drop-shippers because I feel like I wouldn't add any real value by having 10+ day shipping times for customers. Also I don't trust the quality.

This venture has pushed me out of my comfort zone, I've actually spoken to company reps directly and have been approved by 3 suppliers. Talking on the phone has always been a weak point for me and has usually given me anxiety and I would usually procrastinate for days. Now when I make the calls to these companies, I'm not really that nervous.

I'm now working on getting products uploaded to my store. Luckily I'm pretty good with excel and know a bit of programming logic from high school/engineering degree, so I've created some ways to speed up the import process. Only problem I have now is that most business is not done from 7:30am-9:00am and it's difficult to get ahold of anyone on the east or central time and near impossible of the Pacific coast. Luckily I have a vacation scheduled soon and can get a lot of calls in.

Some things I've noted from calling these companies. It's like some companies hate making money. I called a company and they answered me "Hey" and knew nothing about the company or who to contact for anything. Or have people on the front lines who will just lie if they don't know the answer to a customer's question.

tldr; Failed, bullshitted, action-faked, and gave up before trying for a year or more. Coworker died. Started working out gained more energy. Started new venture, stepped out of comfort zone, gained new skills and found out a few new problems I didn't know within companies.
 

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