Building an Amazon business from the ground up!

[fluffhead]

Hey all -

Long time lurker, first time poster here. By way of introduction, I'm a 26, soon to be 27, year old Manhattan-ite, working full-time in the world of finance. I've always been enthralled in building my own business and have tried multiple avenues and have failed each and every single time. These include: (1) day trading penny stocks; (2) real estate wholesaling; (3) Amazon private label.

In no particular order..

Being that I am in the world of finance day in and day out I initially thought day trading penny stocks was the way to go -- boy was I wrong. I bought courses, studied technical analysis and dove in head first...I quickly lost $2,000 and decided against sinking any more fund into a business I clearly wasn't getting the hang of.

Next, I tried my hand at real estate wholesaling. This encompassed me hand writing, yes I said hand writing, HUNDREDS of yellow letters to send to a list of individual home owners that I purchased. These "leads" were people who were either under water in their mortgage (had a ton of equity) or people who owned a 2nd home. I initially got some traction here -- every weekend for two months straight I went to NJ to visit potential leads, but nothing turned up. Either the seller wanted too much money or the buyer would negotiate me down to the point where I was making under $100 profit. Not to mention that traveling from NY to NJ every weekend was costly and time consuming.

Finally, about two years ago I got into the world of Amazon. I was selling everything I could find around my house initially and I was hooked. At this point I was FBM but that wasn't stopping the sales came in. This was about the time that oil vaporizer pens were coming into the spotlight and I saw an opportunity. With doing little to no research what-so-ever, I ordered sample of "brand name" pens from China. They came, I realized they were faux pens, but that didn't stop me from trying to sell them. What did? The fact that Amazon didn't allow these products to be sold on their site. I wish I did more research and stuck with it because I would be somewhere completely different from where I am today.

Now onto the good stuff...

Over the past 3/4 months I have dabbled in the retail and online arbitrage worlds. I have some money in my savings account that I was willing to risk and it's worked out for me. Not that I'm now a millionaire but I made a couple thousand dollars from the endeavor and learned a decent amount about seller central and the overall FBA process. Enter private label.

Within the past few weeks I've consumed just about every single possible podcast and blog about Amazon private labeling and since then I've been obsessed. I'm about half way done with TMF as well and it's opened my eyes to look at things from a completely different perspective. I WANT TO BE IN THE FASTLANE!

I figured that, in order to keep myself accountable, I would create this progress thread (read: journal) to track my progression. So with that said...

Where I am today...

Since I opted to join the private label world I've joined a few groups on facebook to bounce ideas/questions of of. I figure those would be my best option before I actually start selling product and join a mastermind group (still looking for one of those).

• I found a partner. Seeing as I am a finance guy, I wanted to bring someone on board who I know personally and who is involved in marketing/advertising...enter my lifetime friend. He will be taking care of everything marketing related and is funding 50% of the investment.
• I began researching products tirelessly. From kitchen products to sporting goods I was searching it all. I set out a list of criteria I was trying to reach, including average BSRs within the top .005% of the entire group, average reviews <300, over 50% sell through and >5000 unit sales per month. I ended up finding a product, albeit not a "sexy" one.
• I reached out to suppliers. Since finding my product, I reached out to a number of suppliers. They are ANNOYING. A lot of them advertise one cost and send a complete different invoice to me upon reaching out to them. Nevertheless, I found two suppliers that I felt were good and I ordered two sets of samples, which are on their way to me now.
• I started a social media campaign. Seeing how my goal is to create a brand, I figure there is no better way to create a buzz then to get a following on facebook/instagram. My partner will be taking the lead on facebook (this group hasn't been created yet) and I have been starting to develop a following on instagram (@bulkupbros). I'm only a few days in, but I've gotten upwards of 75 organic followers and feel that I can grow my follower base by 20-30 on a daily basis for the foreseeable future -- ANY TIPS TO GROW FASTER WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED
• I've employed a friend to create a logo. Not much to say here -- my friend will be developing a logo for my brand
• I've formed an initial 'launch' strategy. Everywhere I look, all I hear is that reviews are paramount to just about anything else. With that said, I will be initially giving away product for reviews to jump start the process. I believe that 25-50 initial reviews is more than enough to get some organic sales going and I plan on doing this via friends/family and either a blast service or a review group. I'm a little weary about using the latter two as Amazon has clearly been cracking down on these types of reviews.

That's essentially where I am right now. Once we receive the samples, we'll choose a supplier, start taking pictures (neither of us are a photographer, so this should be interesting) and start creating/optimizing our listing. Wish me luck and I hope to hear from some of you!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Paul David]

Be very careful about starting an 'amazon' business per se. Start a business by all means but don't have it revolving around amazon.

They can close your income and business down with a click if of a button.

Don't have all your eggs in one basket with it. Use it to leverage at the start but then spread your wings. Diversify.

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

 

[H. Palmer]

Thanks for your honest account. Keeps us posted about your progress!

 

[MoneyDoc]

Please don't say "I am starting an amazon business" but rather "I am starting a business that utilizes amazon as one of many sales channels".

Wishing you all the best.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[AllenCrawley]

Welcome to the forum and solid first post.

Within the past few weeks I've consumed just about every single possible podcast and blog about Amazon private labeling and since then I've been obsessed. I'm about half way done with TMF as well and it's opened my eyes to look at things from a completely different perspective. I WANT TO BE IN THE FASTLANE!

@Paul David mentioned already about an 'amazon' business. I shutter inside everytime I hear someone say this. Seeing as you're still reading TMF you may not have read about 'Control', one of the 5 commandments @MJ DeMarco teaches us about. Amazon is an amazing platform to launch your business with but ultimately has too much control over your business. I'd suggest adding more distribution and sales channels as quickly as possible so you can gradually regain some of that control.

I began researching products tirelessly. From kitchen products to sporting goods I was searching it all. I set out a list of criteria I was trying to reach, including average BSRs within the top .005% of the entire group, average reviews <300, over 50% sell through and >5000 unit sales per month. I ended up finding a product, albeit not a "sexy" one.

I really hope you picked a product that actually provides more value than what is already on amazon. Branding is no longer enough to differentiate yourself on amazon especially with a competitive product.

I've formed an initial 'launch' strategy. Everywhere I look, all I hear is that reviews are paramount to just about anything else. With that said, I will be initially giving away product for reviews to jump start the process. I believe that 25-50 initial reviews is more than enough to get some organic sales going and I plan on doing this via friends/family and either a blast service or a review group. I'm a little weary about using the latter two as Amazon has clearly been cracking down on these types of reviews.

The amazon review slap has already started. Many reviews from these types of promotions are being deleted and in some cases accounts have been suspended. My review group has been developed over time. They are engaged social media followers of my brand. When I launch a new product I'll reach out to my followers and email list. Yes, this takes time to build but is the longer term, more legit and sustainable strategy. And the best part is that I no longer have to provide a massive discount to get those purchases. I tease about a new product launching soon and people are all too eager to get their hands on it.

I started a social media campaign. Seeing how my goal is to create a brand, I figure there is no better way to create a buzz then to get a following on facebook/instagram. My partner will be taking the lead on facebook (this group hasn't been created yet) and I have been starting to develop a following on instagram (@bulkupbros). I'm only a few days in, but I've gotten upwards of 75 organic followers and feel that I can grow my follower base by 20-30 on a daily basis for the foreseeable future -- ANY TIPS TO GROW FASTER WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED

Taking a look at your instagram page looks like you're in the fitness or supplement niche. Please tell me you're not starting yet another supplement company.

 

[fluffhead]

Welcome to the forum and solid first post.
Taking a look at your instagram page looks like you're in the fitness or supplement niche. Please tell me you're not starting yet another supplement company.

Thanks to all who replied. I will be developing a website shortly after launching on Amazon as I agree with each and every one of you that I need more control over my business. Again, Amazon will be a great 'launchpad' but by no means am I counting on that channel to be my only source of sales.

To the quoted point above, I AM NOT starting a supplement company, although I don't think supplements are completely out of the question once I create some brand equity. I am in the fitness category, but chose a niche within the category that I believe has room for additional competitors. To be quite frank with everyone, I didn't add many bells or whistles to my design as of yet. First and foremost, this product of mine is simple enough where it additional changes to it don't quite exist (that I can think of as of now). I also want to ensure that the demand I believe is there, is actually there, before I go ahead and try to tweak some things. Trust me, I already have products 2-10 in mind, most of which will have significant changes to them.

 

[seojims]

Hey man, I seen you tried resell business by exporting from china via the vapor pen, My question is why haven't you stick to that and kept trying to get into the niche. Start an eCommerce around that and 5 - 6 you have passive income. And you won't be reliant on amazon 0.04% commission.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[fluffhead]

Well it's about that time for an update. First and foremost, I have FINISHED TMF and I am amazed at how great of a read it was. I sent this book to at least 20 of my slowlane friends so hopefully it changes their mindsets as well. On to the next read (either Ready, Fire, Aim, Ca$hvertising or Cash in a Flash: Real Money in No Time."

Anyhow, I digress..

Since my last post I've taken a few key strides forward.

• I've received my samples. I ordered two different samples from two different manufacturers. One of them was horrible, so that just wasn't an option. The other, however, felt and looked great. Now, don't get me wrong - I ordered the #1 competitor in the category's product and it felt decently better than my product, however, not THAT much better. And at about a 40% discount to the #1 competitor's price, I think we have ourselves a good product to launch.
• I've decided on packaging and colors. I had the option of a fancier, however slightly more expensive, packaging option and I took it. I want my product to look more professional and at a price of about $0.15/unit, my margins can handle that. My samples color scheme wasn't too pretty so I changed that up to be better looking.
• I've received first versions of my logo. Our designer has taken what we said and put it into a logo. Granted he only worked on it for about 15/20 minutes, we were impressed with what we saw. I will be going to his office on Saturday to sit down and dive into it so we can get it done. He will be designing a logo as well as the box our product will be going into.
• I have the order process started, but can't place the order until my design is done.
• I've started the process of creating my LLC. My partner and I didn't want to take another step forward until we knew we were protected under a corporate entity. We created a LLC in the state of Delaware (business friendly from what I understand) to shield us from any liabilities arising from our business. I know this isn't a necessary step at this point, but I'd rather get it done sooner than later. It also finally feels like I AM CREATING A BUSINESS now. Seems much more official.
• Our social media platform has started to take hold. Our instagram following has reached upwards of 3.5k followers in under 3 weeks. My goal was to hit 5k before we launched our product, but now I'm hoping to get closer to 10k, which would be huge. Facebook, on the other hand, has been struggling. We have about 50 followers in about a 2-week time period. We've tried Facebook ads and consistent posting and neither seem to REALLY drive up the likes. I do think, however, that we need to stick to an ad campaign for a week or so and see what happens. All we've done up until this point was let it ride for a day or two and then shut it down because we didn't like what we were seeing.

In any event, I hope to have my product launch no later than October 1, and am striving to achieve 20+ sales per day. In the mid-term (and by mid-term I mean in the next 3-5 months), I expect to have product 1 doing between 20-30 sales per day, while having both products 2 and 3 sampled with initial orders on the way to Amazon (by January). At that point, I will hopefully have close to 100k Instagram followers, at least 5,000 Facebook likes and a website that will be in the early stages of being designed (with a lead page already up and running to capture e-mails). Longer-term (now I'm talking a year or two down the road) I am expecting to have at least 10 products under each of my first and second brands, generating enough income, on a per month basis, across Amazon, Shopify, Ebay as well as my own e-commerce platform for me to confidently leave my current full-time position. I want to have put down a down payment on a 20-unit apartment complex that will generate cash flows of $8-10,000 per month (I'm not sure if that's realistic or not but that's the number I have in my head). The cash flow generated from my real estate ventures will be placed into a safe equity portfolio that is dividend driven. When all that is up and running I will look to create another standalone business that can REALLY place me into the fastlane.

I look forward to keeping you all in the loop on my journey and if any of you have any helpful tips/tricks/comments or overall advice, I would greatly appreciate hearing from you!

 

[snappyhappy]

Well it's about that time for an update. First and foremost, I have FINISHED TMF and I am amazed at how great of a read it was. I sent this book to at least 20 of my slowlane friends so hopefully it changes their mindsets as well. On to the next read (either Ready, Fire, Aim, Ca$hvertising or Cash in a Flash: Real Money in No Time."

Anyhow, I digress..

Since my last post I've taken a few key strides forward.

• I've received my samples. I ordered two different samples from two different manufacturers. One of them was horrible, so that just wasn't an option. The other, however, felt and looked great. Now, don't get me wrong - I ordered the #1 competitor in the category's product and it felt decently better than my product, however, not THAT much better. And at about a 40% discount to the #1 competitor's price, I think we have ourselves a good product to launch.
• I've decided on packaging and colors. I had the option of a fancier, however slightly more expensive, packaging option and I took it. I want my product to look more professional and at a price of about $0.15/unit, my margins can handle that. My samples color scheme wasn't too pretty so I changed that up to be better looking.
• I've received first versions of my logo. Our designer has taken what we said and put it into a logo. Granted he only worked on it for about 15/20 minutes, we were impressed with what we saw. I will be going to his office on Saturday to sit down and dive into it so we can get it done. He will be designing a logo as well as the box our product will be going into.
• I have the order process started, but can't place the order until my design is done.
• I've started the process of creating my LLC. My partner and I didn't want to take another step forward until we knew we were protected under a corporate entity. We created a LLC in the state of Delaware (business friendly from what I understand) to shield us from any liabilities arising from our business. I know this isn't a necessary step at this point, but I'd rather get it done sooner than later. It also finally feels like I AM CREATING A BUSINESS now. Seems much more official.
• Our social media platform has started to take hold. Our instagram following has reached upwards of 3.5k followers in under 3 weeks. My goal was to hit 5k before we launched our product, but now I'm hoping to get closer to 10k, which would be huge. Facebook, on the other hand, has been struggling. We have about 50 followers in about a 2-week time period. We've tried Facebook ads and consistent posting and neither seem to REALLY drive up the likes. I do think, however, that we need to stick to an ad campaign for a week or so and see what happens. All we've done up until this point was let it ride for a day or two and then shut it down because we didn't like what we were seeing.

In any event, I hope to have my product launch no later than October 1, and am striving to achieve 20+ sales per day. In the mid-term (and by mid-term I mean in the next 3-5 months), I expect to have product 1 doing between 20-30 sales per day, while having both products 2 and 3 sampled with initial orders on the way to Amazon (by January). At that point, I will hopefully have close to 100k Instagram followers, at least 5,000 Facebook likes and a website that will be in the early stages of being designed (with a lead page already up and running to capture e-mails). Longer-term (now I'm talking a year or two down the road) I am expecting to have at least 10 products under each of my first and second brands, generating enough income, on a per month basis, across Amazon, Shopify, Ebay as well as my own e-commerce platform for me to confidently leave my current full-time position. I want to have put down a down payment on a 20-unit apartment complex that will generate cash flows of $8-10,000 per month (I'm not sure if that's realistic or not but that's the number I have in my head). The cash flow generated from my real estate ventures will be placed into a safe equity portfolio that is dividend driven. When all that is up and running I will look to create another standalone business that can REALLY place me into the fastlane.

I look forward to keeping you all in the loop on my journey and if any of you have any helpful tips/tricks/comments or overall advice, I would greatly appreciate hearing from you!

What strategies have you used to build up your Instagram following so quickly?

Personally I think it's a waste to spend money on FB Ads to increase Page Likes. Organic reach has been shrunk because FB want you to spend money on 'boosting' your post to your own audience. The ROI isn't there so it's not worth it in my opinion.

FB Dark Posts backed with content, and then retargeting leads with a call to action (once you've launced) is a better strategy I've found.

I'd also recommend focusing on depth not width in regards to Intsa/FB numbers. Eg. Instead of aiming for '100k followers' or '5k page likes', make it a priority to engage with your active followers, build relationships and create a sense of community. This is more valuable than top line numbers.

 

[eliquid]

I wish you luck.

Don't give up too soon/early though if tit doesn't take off. Instead of quitting if that happens.. PIVOT!

Some of your backstory gave me hints you gave up too quickly in those ventures maybe.

• $2k spent on day trading loss ( not enough )
• 2 months on finding leads for RE wholesaling ( not enough )
• Selling a product not allowed on amazon ( ok, but why didnt you try another place beforing giving up? )

Of course, it's valuable to know when to say no too.

Also, don't make it an "Amazon business" but your business that has a sales channel on Amazon.

Find/test a way ( try at least 3-4 different pivots ) to make it work before you quit.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[fluffhead]

I wish you luck.

Don't give up too soon/early though if tit doesn't take off. Instead of quitting if that happens.. PIVOT!

Some of your backstory gave me hints you gave up too quickly in those ventures maybe.

• $2k spent on day trading loss ( not enough )
• 2 months on finding leads for RE wholesaling ( not enough )
• Selling a product not allowed on amazon ( ok, but why didnt you try another place beforing giving up? )

Of course, it's valuable to know when to say no too.

Also, don't make it an "Amazon business" but your business that has a sales channel on Amazon.

Find/test a way ( try at least 3-4 different pivots ) to make it work before you quit.

I'm the first to admit that I quit my prior "side gigs" way too early, but I believe all of them that it was the right move to make. The trading fiasco - I just wasn't experienced enough, didn't have enough spare cash to keep throwing money into it and my industry is highly regulated and was only a matter of time (which has happened) where I couldn't trade as much as I wanted. The real estate gig seemed like it would work out eventually, however seeing that I live in NYC it just wasn't as practical as it could've been. It required a lot of time on the phone (while at work), which was fine, but it also required that I write/send 20-50 yellow letters a day, and get on the road at least 3-days a week to look at properties. Given I don't have a car at the moment and I was studying for my CFA exam (requires 300+ hours over a 4 month period), it again just wasn't feasible for me. I do, however, plan to get involved in real estate as soon as humanly possible. Finally my first Amazon business. I was young and most certainly naive. The products I sourced were counterfeit and I wanted no part in that business.

 

[fluffhead]

What strategies have you used to build up your Instagram following so quickly?

Personally I think it's a waste to spend money on FB Ads to increase Page Likes. Organic reach has been shrunk because FB want you to spend money on 'boosting' your post to your own audience. The ROI isn't there so it's not worth it in my opinion.

FB Dark Posts backed with content, and then retargeting leads with a call to action (once you've launced) is a better strategy I've found.

I'd also recommend focusing on depth not width in regards to Intsa/FB numbers. Eg. Instead of aiming for '100k followers' or '5k page likes', make it a priority to engage with your active followers, build relationships and create a sense of community. This is more valuable than top line numbers.

My instagram strategy is a simple one. I merely follow the max amount of people I can per day (then unfollow my non follow-backs) and post 3-4 informative pictures per day. I usually am hitting anywhere between a 30-40% follow back rate.

 

[AllenCrawley]

FB Dark Posts backed with content, and then retargeting leads with a call to action (once you've launced) is a better strategy I've found.

I'd also recommend focusing on depth not width in regards to Intsa/FB numbers. Eg. Instead of aiming for '100k followers' or '5k page likes', make it a priority to engage with your active followers, build relationships and create a sense of community. This is more valuable than top line numbers.

ALA, Gary Vaynerchuk
https://www.youtube.com/user/GaryVaynerchuk

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[snappyhappy]

ALA, Gary Vaynerchuk
https://www.youtube.com/user/GaryVaynerchuk

Yep, I love Gary.

 

[fluffhead]

Another update here...

First and foremost, the generosity of a FLF member here (you know who you are) has been remarkable. This person saw that I had not acquired my company's domain yet and took it upon himself to buy it. When I e-mailed the domain's owner to see if I could purchase it, he merely signed it over for free. Talk about paying it forward! This will not be forgotten, so thanks again for the help!

Anyway, to the juicy stuff..Since my last post, I have officially placed my first order. It's not a HUGE order, but its 500 units of 1 product that myself and my business partner are uncontrollably excited to sell. The order was placed today and should arrive at my doorstep within the next 30-40 days. I've seen a slight up tick in competition but I feel that our product is differentiated from most -- it completely shakes up the way these products are marketed and packaged.

Speaking of packaging...Our box is AWESOME! It's simple, eye catching, get's the point across AND has some humor in it. By humor, I mean that it has an fictitious quote made by a fictitious person (with BRO in it). We hired a copyrighter to put together a number of quote options for us to choose from. He sent over some great material that we plan on including on each and every one of our products. We will also be bringing him on board for when the time comes for us to create our website.

Beyond that, my LLC is still in the midst of being formed. I received the state required paperwork late last night and will be signing/sending it back later today. Next step...Internal LLC Agreement - My lawyer acquaintance mentioned that that is the (much more time consuming) part 2 of the process. Does anyone have any insight on what this agreement is? Is it simply the arrangement between my partner and I?

Next up, marketing...Instagram is going strong. I'm averaging about 1,000 new followers per week and am looking to increase that figure, but haven't really been able to get there. Facebook is struggling even more. I think this will require us to put some $ towards Facebook to actually get some visibility -- I'm just wondering whether or not the juice is worth the squeeze with that one.

Finally, web design. I don't want to spend too much time/effort on this yet as I should focus on pushing inventory out the door through my existing channel. With that said, I want to, at the very least, have a splash page that can capture e-mail, name, and interests. Building an e-mail list is of up-most importance for me and I want to waste no time there. I don't have ANY web design experience, so with that said, does anyone know of the easiest way to teach myself the necessary coding? My designer friend would be more than happy to do the design of the splash page, but the actual functionality falls on me.

Until next time!

 

[fluffhead]

Bored at work (yes, my job requires me to work from 7AM-10PM+ at least 2 nights per week), so why not give you guys a bit of an update. Similar to last week, not much to report as we wait for our product to complete the manufacturing process.

In any event, the main thing I am trying to do right now is find a way to differentiate my product from the competition. It's hard to do with this product as its basic and not much customization can be done. The one area that I want to concentrate on is providing a free PDF with every sale. I know this has been done time and time again on Amazon, but believe it or not -- NO ONE does it with the product I'm selling.

Now I've found a number of resources online (PDFs, articles, other published documents) that outline exactly what I'm trying to say. Would it be legal for me to pick and choose certain segments from each document and compile it into a PDF that is branded by me as long as I correctly list each source? Does this actually provide much value to the customer?

Our landing page. I've created a VERY simple landing page using launchrock.com until our designer can create one. It captures e-mails, however, no bites yet. Without much else on the page, I'm not quite sure how to start ranking and all that good stuff -- looks like I have a bit of homework to do over the next few weeks.

Social Media: Well, I hit my Instagram goal about 3 weeks earlier than anticipated. I'm already over 5,000 followers and the #'s keep coming in. I've purchased a bot to keep the #'s going up but it seems that I've had better results going at it manually. Can anyone offer advice on how to set these up to yield the best results? My plan here is to every once in a while post a picture pertaining to my product and hopefully convert .5-1% of my followers. Facebook is still tough, but I attribute that to the lack of original content my partner is putting up. It's tough when we both have full time jobs to get meaningful content posted, so once we're profitable we will be looking to hire at least 1 blogger that can create some content for our site, which we will then post on FB.

**OUR SHORT TERM GOAL** Yesterday evening, my partner and I met up to talk progress and lay out next steps. As we have both agreed to not pull out ANY money from the venture for some time, we figured that setting a goal for us to hit (with a reward that follows) is a great motivational driver. So here it is: WE WILL HIT $50,000 IN CUMULATIVE SALES BY MARCH 1. It's not going to be easy to hit by any stretch, as it would require us to achieve close to 15 sales/day pretty quickly. With that said, however, I think that with enough tenacity and dedication -- it can be DONE. If and when we hit this goal, we will be taking an all expenses paid trip out west for a weekend to snowboard. We agreed to keep it VERY reasonable and will likely still pay for hotels out of our pocket.

--NEXT STEPS--
Over the following weeks a few things will need to be done:

1) This upcoming Saturday, my partner and I will devote some time to create our very own lightbox. If anyone has a good DIY tutorial, please send it over. We figure that this will not only save us money, but will allow us to get quality pictures uploaded in a much shorter amount of time.
2) Listing Optimization: This is the reason I brought my partner in to begin with -- to optimize our listing. We've set a deadline of 9/25 for him to be done with it, which should coincide with our product being fully manufactured and on its way to us.
**I will allow be reading a few books on copy writing to ensure that he is holding up his end of the bargain (any recommendations will be greatly appreciated**
3) Landing page: Our designer will be creating a landing page for us. Or would you guys recommend just going through wordpress?

In any event, we're trucking along. I'm finding my biggest problem to date is that I'm always thinking 10 steps ahead, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I know that I have to focus on the task at hand before moving on to the next. I guess it's good to keep pushing me forward.

**I'm also on the lookout for a NYC based mastermind group to surround myself with some likeminded individuals. If anyone knows of one, PLEASE point me in their direction**

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[fluffhead]

It's been a little while since my last update, and for good reason -- I don't have much of one.

With that said, to keep myself accountable, here is what has happened since my last update.

1) Our first 500 units have been ordered and SHIPPED (as of today). We will be receiving them on Monday and plan to inspect them and send them to Amazon no later than Thursday.
2) Our "art project" of creating a light box was becoming too costly, so we ordered one off of Amazon for much less and believe the quality is FAR superior to the one we would've created.
3) Listing has been optimized (for now). Without seeing it live there isn't much testing we can do, but again this isn't my area -- it's my partners. He used Google trends/analytics/competitor listings to create our keywords/title/listing. We utilized one of Scott Voelker's podcasts where he and his guest (I forget the woman's name) break down how to optimize listings. I think we're in pretty good shape here.
4) Increased our instragram followers to 8,000. The growth rate of followers has significantly slowed, from about 1,000 per week to about 500. This isn't due to lack of content or lack of trying. This is solely due to me being maxed out on who I can follow at any given moment, so I need to devote a decent amount of time to unfollowing people (which also comes with some people unfollowing me).
5) Found potential product #2 to get up and running. Of course I want product 1 to be maxed out before I do this, however, the same manufacturer has another product offering that is highly sought after (and not saturated), so I asked them to include some samples in my shipment.

---What I've learned so far---

• Throughout my entire life, whenever I tried to create something of my own, I would reach a point where I got frustrated/bored and gave up. That is the #1 place where I can pinpoint me NEVER getting something off the ground. Upon starting this, I told myself that no matter what I wouldn't give up, and I've done just that. It's been a month since I placed the order and things at work got busy and this and that happened in my life. I felt the boredom coming and I was certainly frustrated with the amount of time it was taking to get my goods, but I NEVER STOPPED MOVING FORWARD. Although I'm not sure that this will work (I'm hopeful and will do everything I can do to make it work), I am positive about one ting -- I WILL NEVER STOP DOING ANYTHING I WANT TO PURSUE EVER AGAIN. Even if this fails, this one little nugget is worth every penny I've spent and will spend on this venture.

 

[AustinS28]

From another fellow Manhattan-ite that is trying to do a lot of the same, best of luck. I'll be following.

 

[piesandak47]

god damn, Amazon today is like SEO back in 2007.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[fluffhead]

Okay guys, overdue update here. So we finally got all the items into Amazon's system 2 Fridays ago. Took longer than expected, but we made it! Put them up, turned on PPC and......NOTHING. Not a single sale. Rather then get frustrated, I reached out to a review group and got 25 people to pick up my item at a discount...This got things moving somewhat slowly. I've since been at 2-3 organic sales a day, 1-2 more coming from PPC.

The REAL KICKER is that I've been using 3rd parties to garnish a TON of sales. We've been offering 50% off discounts (still profiting about $15/unit) to people across a ton of social media outlets/forums/you name it. Honestly, averaging 8-15 additional sales PER DAY through this 'guerrilla' type marketing. It has seriously helped out our ranking (we entered a market that was far more competitive than initially anticipated). So all in all, since we launched, we have about $2,200 in sales, which I'm happy about, but I WANT MORE!

With that said, I see a lot more grinding ahead until I get where I want and that's fine -- I'm actually having a ton of fun doing this. I'm looking for other sources of potential 3rd parties I can post on that could drive some incremental sales. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking along the lines of FB groups and forums.

Also, with my product being in the fitness category, I have an old highschool friend (who I haven't spoken to in YEARS) that owns a pretty large gym network across the east coast. How would you guys suggest I approach him to try to get him to carry my product(s)?

Hope to have an even better and bigger update for you guys in the near future, but wanted to hold myself accountable.

Action items for now:

1) Keep pushing sales through all means necessary
2) Start researching a 2nd product that is related to product 1, maybe even something over sized
3) Do some digging on keywords/PPC/listing optimization
4) Look into ways to contact my old HS buddy
5) Start looking at freight forwarding/shipping overseas

 

[fluffhead]

Oh and of course, starting to research how to funnel sales away from Amazon. This is obviously a few months away but I have a few ideas...

1) Include an insert with all shipments asking for customers to sign up for a 1-year warranty on our site. They will, at the very least, have to provide their e-mails, helping to build up our e-mail database (currently sitting well below 100 right now)
2) Offering free shipping services along with free supplements (we eventually want to sell supplements)
3) Social media building. We have about 9K instagram followers and about 1K FB page likes. Directing them to our site (once completed) is a big priority for us.

 

[Carnage]

You are working your butt off! Good job. When do you plan to get your own website?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[fluffhead]

You are working your butt off! Good job. When do you plan to get your own website?

I'm not too sure at this juncture. I have a web developer buddy who can help out, but he wants a pretty healthy amount of money. Money that I would much rather be purposing toward generating more products and sales. With that said, I've been using Shopify for my educational product offering (update coming this week as well) and the ease of creating a website on that platform is second to none. So in the near future, I may venture to create a shopify site. Before I spend the time/money on that, however, I need to come up with a plan on how to drive traffic to the site. I don't foresee me being able to spend an exorbitant amount of time on developing this aspect of things just yet, as I'm working on pushing sales, finding more products, tweaking PPC to optimize its keywords, creating an educational product (unrelated) ALL WHILE WORKING 90-100 hours per week at my job within finance. I'm hoping to sometime soon (next 2-3 years) be able to leave the rat race and focus on my own things, but until then I could REALLY use some more time in every day. haha.

 

[Havox]

I have been interested in this recently, keep us posted!

 

[wholehog]

Be very careful about starting an 'amazon' business per se. Start a business by all means but don't have it revolving around amazon.

They can close your income and business down with a click if of a button.

Don't have all your eggs in one basket with it. Use it to leverage at the start but then spread your wings. Diversify.

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

This is so true. I have started an Amazon business before (supplement business) and after building it for a year I was shut down for soliciting reviews from family members. One of many of my failures. All that hard work gone! Use Amazon but be super strict about following it's Terms and Guidelines and like you said....diversify quickly. Get out of there!

Please don't say "I am starting an amazon business" but rather "I am starting a business that utilizes amazon as one of many sales channels".

Wishing you all the best.

Amen! I started a business in Oct 2013. Used Amazon to begin and immediately blew up! 600k/mo in sales and growing. I quickly used the profit from these huge months to create multiple other sales channels. I didn't rest until my off amazon sites were generating more sales than my on Amazon site. The more sales channels you create and build the more valuable your company is down the road when you sell.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[fluffhead]

Time for another short, but sweet update.

Being in business for just about 5 weeks and we have generated slightly more than $5,000 in sales. I wanted to move quicker, but can't say I'm displeased with our performance thus far. We are still very much pushing sales through 3rd parties and have even sent out a few samples of our sleeves to some potential partners of ours. We misjudged the amount of 1 variation the product and will likely be sold out for 2-3 weeks before we get replenished. It's a problem, and one that I misjudged, but a good one nonetheless. We have placed our 2nd order for an additional 500 products and will be completely even by the next time we receive a check from Amazon -- that's right, we'll be profitable from our first shipment! Likely will come close to doubling our investment when it's all said and done. With that said, we don't plan on taking a cent out of the business until we have 10+ products and at least 1-2 other sales channels up and running.

We also started developing product #2. We found what we want, as it's directly related to product 1, but need to offer an improved design, which could take a bit of time.

In other news, I tried applying for Jet.com and have had no success getting approved to be a seller. Has anyone had experience with this channel? Is it worthwhile to keep pursuing?

Keeping my head down and moving forward. MAN OHH MAN DOES PASSIVE CASH FLOW FEEL GOOD!

 

[wholehog]

Time for another short, but sweet update.

Being in business for just about 5 weeks and we have generated slightly more than $5,000 in sales. I wanted to move quicker, but can't say I'm displeased with our performance thus far. We are still very much pushing sales through 3rd parties and have even sent out a few samples of our sleeves to some potential partners of ours. We misjudged the amount of 1 variation the product and will likely be sold out for 2-3 weeks before we get replenished. It's a problem, and one that I misjudged, but a good one nonetheless. We have placed our 2nd order for an additional 500 products and will be completely even by the next time we receive a check from Amazon -- that's right, we'll be profitable from our first shipment! Likely will come close to doubling our investment when it's all said and done. With that said, we don't plan on taking a cent out of the business until we have 10+ products and at least 1-2 other sales channels up and running.

We also started developing product #2. We found what we want, as it's directly related to product 1, but need to offer an improved design, which could take a bit of time.

In other news, I tried applying for Jet.com and have had no success getting approved to be a seller. Has anyone had experience with this channel? Is it worthwhile to keep pursuing?

Keeping my head down and moving forward. MAN OHH MAN DOES PASSIVE CASH FLOW FEEL GOOD!

Nice work! Building the Amazon business takes time as you already know. One of my businesses is an Amazon business and it's really gaining traction. It took at least 6 months though of doing a really good job with reviews. It's all about consistency. There always a handful of guys out there looking to sell your same product and to beat you. As long as you are consistent with reviews and good copy writing you will win out.

I like that you are looking to add more product. I have about 60 sku's now in my store (about half with review and building). It took a while to build them up. I am actually starting to see a lot of momentum in store sales as well. People that bought item A are now checking out my store and buying item C as well.
It really starts to get fun at that point.

 

[fluffhead]

So we are officially out of 1 variation of our product and our sales figures have slowed down as a result, which was to be expected. I'm just pleased that (so far) we've been able to consistently generate 4+ sales per day of the remaining variations!

We have product 2 being designed right now and already know what products 3/4 are going to be (those are VERY high margin items). Things are moving forward although I want it to go faster!!! My goal is to generate $10K of AFTER-TAX income per month by the end of 2016. In my back of the envelope calculations, that should be able to be achieved between products 4-6, so we have a ways to go. That would be split between my partner and I, but would put my partner and I in a place where we can begin to invest in real estate and enter phase 2 of our plan (multi-unit apartment complexes). Again, something that's down the road here, but that's where I see me going.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Envision]

This is so true. I have started an Amazon business before (supplement business) and after building it for a year I was shut down for soliciting reviews from family members. One of many of my failures. All that hard work gone! Use Amazon but be super strict about following it's Terms and Guidelines and like you said....diversify quickly. Get out of there!



Amen! I started a business in Oct 2013. Used Amazon to begin and immediately blew up! 600k/mo in sales and growing. I quickly used the profit from these huge months to create multiple other sales channels. I didn't rest until my off amazon sites were generating more sales than my on Amazon site. The more sales channels you create and build the more valuable your company is down the road when you sell.

Hey,

Can you explain how you got shut down for the soliciting reviews from family members? I am about to get my first shipement into Amazon and I am in the supplement niche. Im just interested in how Amazon goes about looking into that.

 

[fluffhead]

Quick update time..

Christmas is over and it was definitely a fun season to participate it! We were selling 10+ units a day for quite some time, and it was nice to see the profits roll in. With that said, sales have really taken a cliff dive since then. We're still missing our #1 variation (should be shipped tomorrow), but are averaging about 4-6 sales per day, with once in a while selling 12+. There has been a new competitor in the space, however, that clearly did a BIG launch. They're already ranking above us in 2 of our main keywords, but I suspect that they will be falling back shortly as they did the launch after Christmas, which is quite possibly the worst time to do it.

With that said, I think we're going to be giving away a ton of product this time around. I've found a simple, yet effective strategy that I believe I can give a 50% discount, where I will still be profiting, and push about 100 quick sales through the pipe. On top of that I think we're going to be giving away an additional 50 or so so we can begin to rank higher for our keywords and hopefully tackle this competitor.

Our 2nd and 3rd products are still in the development phase and we hope to have samples sent to us within the next week or so.

Happy Holidays everyone!