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K1 Lambo

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My business partner and I recently sold our successful online business for 8 figures. You can see @fastlane_dad intro page here, and mine here. We have had businesses in alot of categories, but have limited experience in old fashion "shaking hands" type businesses. Our primary expertise is online sales, marketing, marketplaces like Amazon (and others), bootstrapping, and mindset. One way we want to give back to the community is by guiding people that are still on their entrepreneurship path.

We figured one of the more impactful ways we can do it is by answering peoples questions publically versus in DM's or personal consultations. So if you want our opinion/advice about your personal situation, we will be happy to read through your questions and give you a personalized answer. But it has to be public. That way everyone can read and discuss our answers. If we don't have experience in a topic, we will let you know.
Is it true that making your first $1m is harder than making $10m?
 
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NeoDialectic

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Still very much in the idea/design stage, but I'm thinking of a design of mens underwear - specifically seamless ones (I find them irritating), since most are not, and even ones which say they are, are not...
The main doubt I am having is about how much it would really be wanted, since I'm more fussy about the comfort than most. However, I think that if people were to try it, they would feel how much more comfortable it would feel, and perhaps a productocracy could be generated from them telling others about it. I think this could have a lot of potential considering how important the comfort is for most, but it's whether most would currently really care about it enough to switch to a different product - it is a very crowded market in mens underwear.
So the main issue I think is about the total addressable market - which I am currently investigating.
Do you have any other points of view on this?
Thanks!
Unfortunately sometimes you won't know till you try. You can try testing the market by adapting the TESTING methods I post there.

With the power of Amazon and Google, you don't have to wait for months/years to know if the product will be good enough based on word of mouth. You should be able to invest a little into advertisement to see if an audience is interested.
 

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Is it true that making your first $1m is harder than making $10m?
I agree with the sentiment but I'm not sure I would go that far. The next $1m is easier than the first $1m, but not the next $9m combined.

Maybe what your quote is getting at is that it may just be that difficult to even get into the producer mindset instead of the indoctrinated consumer mindset. So much of business is having the right mentality, experience and disposition. That first million you have so much working against you. You're business dumb, you have been a consumer your whole life, you don't have any experience, you don't have the right mindset, and whatever business you are just starting doesn't have a life and momentum of it's own. By the time you have made $1m , you have likely became alot smarter, honed your instinct, got your mindset in the right direction, and your business has some momentum to it. But not 9:1 easier in my opinion!
 

K1 Lambo

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I agree with the sentiment but I'm not sure I would go that far. The next $1m is easier than the first $1m, but not the next $9m combined.

Maybe what your quote is getting at is that it may just be that difficult to even get into the producer mindset instead of the indoctrinated consumer mindset. So much of business is having the right mentality, experience and disposition. That first million you have so much working against you. You're business dumb, you have been a consumer your whole life, you don't have any experience, you don't have the right mindset, and whatever business you are just starting doesn't have a life and momentum of it's own. By the time you have made $1m , you have likely became alot smarter, honed your instinct, got your mindset in the right direction, and your business has some momentum to it. But not 9:1 easier in my opinion!
Yes, I was thinking of the mindset thing. Like you said, in the beginning there is so much to learn like sales, marketing, hiring the right people, learning about people's psychology, providing your customers with the right service/product and realizing how far they can go and screw you, failure, small wins etc. I haven't made my big mark yet but that's just a matter of time really. It's like a dichotomy shift for you from being a person that only consumes to a person who produces 90% of the time(everybody consumes), the goal is to get to a point where you're making so much and consuming something like a $400,000 car becomes a tiny percentage of your revenue and so on. I see that you own a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, man that car sounds awesome.
 
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Yes, I was thinking of the mindset thing. Like you said, in the beginning there is so much to learn like sales, marketing, hiring the right people, learning about people's psychology, providing your customers with the right service/product and realizing how far they can go and screw you, failure, small wins etc. I haven't made my big mark yet but that's just a matter of time really. It's like a dichotomy shift for you from being a person only consumes to a person who produces 90% of the time(everybody consumes), the goal is to get to a point where you're making so much and consuming something like a $400,000 car becomes a tiny percentage of your revenue and so on. I see that you own a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4, man that car sounds awesome.
Yep, that all sounds right!

(Gallardo LP560-2 though)
 

K1 Lambo

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Yep, that all sounds right!

(Gallardo LP560-2 though)
That's awesome! One of our neighbors bought himself a black Gallardo LP560-4. It's still a headturner, even after all those years! And the sound is truly something else. My goal is also to buy my Lambo one day, specifically an Aventador S roadster in orange. Lambo is like the ultimate fu you car. Sure, there are cars that are a little faster from 0-60 but the road presence it has crazy. Murci is nice as well! Are you happy with the car so far?
 

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That's awesome! One of our neighbors bought himself a black Gallardo LP560-4. It's still a headturner, even after all those years! And the sound is truly something else. My goal is also to buy my Lambo one day, specifically an Aventador S roadster in orange. Lambo is like the ultimate fu you car. Sure, there are cars that are a little faster from 0-60 but the road presence it has crazy. Murci is nice as well! Are you happy with the car so far?
I ended up selling it a year or so ago!

It was a GREAT car....but after a few years of owning it, I found myself driving it less and less. There was months at a time where it just sat on top of my 4 post lift. It became a running joke that I basically just owned it to improve the Feng Shui of the garage like a Van Gogh. At one point the hassles of yearly maintenance and guilt from not utilizing the car started being more than the benefit of having it. So I sold it.

But really...it was a FANTASTIC car and I would highly recommend it! My model specifically was RWD and one of 50 manual G's ever made. So driving it was a blast.

It's just not that useful for a busy dad with 2 kids in diapers. (That is actually trying to participate in their lives and not just shove it on his wife)
 
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K1 Lambo

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I ended up selling it a year or so ago!

It was a GREAT car....but after a few years of owning it, I found myself driving it less and less. There was months at a time where it just sat on top of my 4 post lift. It became a running joke that I basically just owned it to improve the Feng Shui of the garage like a Van Gogh. At one point the hassles of yearly maintenance and guilt from not utilizing the car started being more than the benefit of having it. So I sold it.

But really...it was a FANTASTIC car and I would highly recommend it! My model specifically was RWD and one of 50 manual G's ever made. So driving it was a blast.

It's just not that useful for a busy dad with 2 kids in diapers. (That is actually trying to participate in their lives and not just shove it on his wife)
Awesome stuff man.

That's a very common thing I've noticed with successful people like you and others on this forum. You'll never hear them say stuff like "Oh, you shouldn't want that". Every guy who I know of who has had that kind of life will always tell you to go and get it. Even Andy Frisella said something similar on one podcast episode: "Absolutely, you should own ten of them. There ain't nothing better than pulling up to a bar full of 30k millionaires, flipping the doors up and giving the fu to everybody there".

It's always the people who don't have it who tell you that it's bad to own one or aspire to an affluent lifestyle. My mom's family tree always used to shit on people who have money like "Oh, they're evil" or "Money won't make you happy". And yet, these people are very broke and pretend like having more money won't help them. You know, it's kind of hard to disconnect that paradigm when you've been told that stuff ever since you were 5 years old.
 

James Mayhew

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Unfortunately sometimes you won't know till you try. You can try testing the market by adapting the TESTING methods I post there.

With the power of Amazon and Google, you don't have to wait for months/years to know if the product will be good enough based on word of mouth. You should be able to invest a little into advertisement to see if an audience is interested.
Thanks for the reply - as my first 'proper' idea I've been thinking about, it's likely to be a bit iffy, so I'll take the time to test the market and if it doesn't work out I'll move to thinking of a different idea.
 

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Check uniqlo’s airism underwear.



When it comes to this we’re biased. We tend to overlook that other brands are already doing this.


( You can’t find seamless underwear on Google, right? ) :rofl:
Yeah I agree that I am probably rather biased to how I feel it to be rather than what most people feel - I bought uniqlo's airism one, but found it irritating - a part of it had the same effect as a seam. I've also bought another 'seamless' one from a different company but it had an annoying seam... I'm buying a different one now to test, but overall, as I said, I need to consider how much the me-bias towards my feeling of it is lowering the potential of the idea.
 
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NeoDialectic

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Awesome stuff man.

That's a very common thing I've noticed with successful people like you and others on this forum. You'll never hear them say stuff like "Oh, you shouldn't want that". Every guy who I know of who has had that kind of life will always tell you to go and get it. Even Andy Frisella said something similar on one podcast episode: "Absolutely, you should own ten of them. There ain't nothing better than pulling up to a bar full of 30k millionaires, flipping the doors up and giving the fu to everybody there".

It's always the people who don't have it who tell you that it's bad to own one or aspire to an affluent lifestyle. My mom's family tree always used to shit on people who have money like "Oh, they're evil" or "Money won't make you happy". And yet, these people are very broke and pretend like having more money won't help them. You know, it's kind of hard to disconnect that paradigm when you've been told that stuff ever since you were 5 years old.

I see the "flipping the doors up and giving the fu to everybody there" mindset to be just as shallow as the "making money is evil" mindset. Frisella is probably just trying to motivate the people listening to him and ego can be a great motivator. Showing off certainly feels good. I'm just saying I see that as a weaker mindset than just doing what you want to do because you want to do it. Trying to show off or trying to prove something to an audience is more a sign of insecurity than of strength. We all do it. But we are talking about being aspirational here....May as well aspire to actual virtue!
 

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I'll give this a shot. Idea is for a startup that provides small businesses with no HR presence yet with documentation relating to onboarding, off-boarding, etc. My partner is the HR expert, and I will take care of building the website initially. I've tried to work through the CENTS model to evaluate whether it's fastlane or not and I'm just not sure.

Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated!
Are you still doing this? Please try to find a way to provide more value than other companies eg Slite, SignRequest or Notion
 

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My business partner and I recently sold our successful online business for 8 figures. You can see @fastlane_dad intro page here, and mine here. We have had businesses in alot of categories, but have limited experience in old fashion "shaking hands" type businesses. Our primary expertise is online sales, marketing, marketplaces like Amazon (and others), bootstrapping, and mindset. One way we want to give back to the community is by guiding people that are still on their entrepreneurship path.

We figured one of the more impactful ways we can do it is by answering peoples questions publically versus in DM's or personal consultations. So if you want our opinion/advice about your personal situation, we will be happy to read through your questions and give you a personalized answer. But it has to be public. That way everyone can read and discuss our answers. If we don't have experience in a topic, we will let you know.
It should be a great feeling, that i haven't experienced of... Also your will to give back to others shows how very deeply you understand and don't forget the difficulties that others face that are still within the "maze"...

Question: Would you believe that acquiring existing online businesses, could be equally successful as what you have already done?
 
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Hi there, I wanna start off by thanking you for giving us such an opportunity.

I have several questions in mind being;

1. What do you think of being a web developer as a way to go fastlane?
2. How did you find your specific niche and why did you decide to go for it? I'm struggling more than ever to find a specific niche I could go into whose market is also vast.
3. Do you think there is anything I could use my age (14) as an advantage for starting out? I'm not yet sure how I could use my age as an advantage and the only skillset I partially have is programming (javascript, html & css but a long way to go for me to be proficient at it)

Thank you very much!
 

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@NeoDialectic Knowing what you know now, in 2022, if you had 100k cash to start, would you go into ecommerce? What avenue would you take?
 

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It should be a great feeling, that i haven't experienced of... Also your will to give back to others shows how very deeply you understand and don't forget the difficulties that others face that are still within the "maze"...

Question: Would you believe that acquiring existing online businesses, could be equally successful as what you have already done?
I think that acquiring existing online businesses and making them equally successful is a slightly different skillet but can definitely be just as successful. In fact, many MUCH more successful people do just that.

@fastlane_dad and I are heavily considering purchasing some kind of business and growing it, but we have not yet made the final decision on it as it can be a big commitment. @MTF has a Thread that is a wealth of knowledge on getting into a smaller commitment (micro business). So we may go the route of starting with something smaller and less time intensive at first. Will let you guys know!
 
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NeoDialectic

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Hi there, I wanna start off by thanking you for giving us such an opportunity.

I have several questions in mind being;

1. What do you think of being a web developer as a way to go fastlane?
2. How did you find your specific niche and why did you decide to go for it? I'm struggling more than ever to find a specific niche I could go into whose market is also vast.
3. Do you think there is anything I could use my age (14) as an advantage for starting out? I'm not yet sure how I could use my age as an advantage and the only skillset I partially have is programming (javascript, html & css but a long way to go for me to be proficient at it)

Thank you very much!
1. Can you be more specific? I don't think working for a company as a web developer or working as a contractor as a web developer is fastlane. However, web developments skills are a BIG plus in entrepreneurship and working as a contractor can be a good jumping off point to larger things.
2. I have a thread specifically addressing "How to find an idea" . Let me know if you have any more specific questions on it.
3. You have some MAJOR advantages. They are that you minimal responsibilities, you have parents there to catch you when you fall, you will likely have more free time now than any other point of your working life, and you have so much time ahead of you. So what could taking advantage of that look like in real life? It means you should be taking as many risks as you can (not physically!), putting as much time as you can towards trying different ideas, and when not doing that focusing on broadening your skill base.
 

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Hey @NeoDialectic,

Do you think there's an avenue for an ECommerce-specific ERP? I've looked online and there doesn't seem to be anything like it currently, but I might've been looking for the wrong thing. Something like BaseCamp but specifically for Shopify stores.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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NeoDialectic

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Hey @NeoDialectic,

Do you think there's an avenue for an ECommerce-specific ERP? I've looked online and there doesn't seem to be anything like it currently, but I might've been looking for the wrong thing. Something like BaseCamp but specifically for Shopify stores.
Since you can integrate BaseCamp with Shopify, I am guessing you talking about building one that integrates better and more intimately with Shopify specifically? What do you think your value proposition would be. Why you over BaseCamp? At a more basic level, why your product over whatever Shopify already provides(especially with free available plugins)?

Unfortunately, I don't personally know enough about ERP to really speak on it though. Hopefully someone else on here can step in and help. (or start a thread to get more visibility!)

Upgraded to GOLD, thanks @NeoDialectic and @fastlane_dad for the wisdom sharing!!
Thank you MJ. Just following in your footsteps on the road you paved for all of us!
 

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My business partner and I recently sold our successful online business for 8 figures. You can see @fastlane_dad intro page here, and mine here. We have had businesses in alot of categories, but have limited experience in old fashion "shaking hands" type businesses. Our primary expertise is online sales, marketing, marketplaces like Amazon (and others), bootstrapping, and mindset. One way we want to give back to the community is by guiding people that are still on their entrepreneurship path.

We figured one of the more impactful ways we can do it is by answering peoples questions publically versus in DM's or personal consultations. So if you want our opinion/advice about your personal situation, we will be happy to read through your questions and give you a personalized answer. But it has to be public. That way everyone can read and discuss our answers. If we don't have experience in a topic, we will let you know.
Thank you so much for helping us out. We appreciate it.

I have small industrial degreaser manufacturing business in South Jersey. I currently sell directly to Pressure Washing Equipment Distributors, Restaurant Hood Cleaning Companies, and Industrial Tank Cleaning Companies (in 55 Gallon Drums). I am planning on selling my products on Amazon, Walmart, and my own website as well. However, I have no idea on how to approach Amazon or Walmart. I will be super grateful if you can guide me in this process.
 
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I am guessing you talking about building one that integrates better and more intimately with Shopify specifically
From my research, a lot of the integrations are done through Zappier or manually, requiring technical knowledge of the two platforms you're connecting.
I'm calling it an ERP but in simpler terms, I'd describe it as a Store Management Solution.

Core features would be:
1. Task creation and management that is Shopify-Aware which means you're easily able to reference entities in your Shopify stores (Orders, Products, Customers, etc...)
2. Automation of task assignments based on events happening in your store (customer review, new order, failed checkout). Say you have 4 people in charge of fulfilling orders, each time an order comes in, tasks related to that specific order (and products in the order) could be created and assigned to one of the 4 people in your team.
3. Management of long-term goals for the store, create quarterly targets for Key Metrics such as Revenue, Conversion Rates, Customer Reviews and have the progress of these goals be automatically tracked through the integration.
 

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Thank you so much for helping us out. We appreciate it.

I have small industrial degreaser manufacturing business in South Jersey. I currently sell directly to Pressure Washing Equipment Distributors, Restaurant Hood Cleaning Companies, and Industrial Tank Cleaning Companies (in 55 Gallon Drums). I am planning on selling my products on Amazon, Walmart, and my own website as well. However, I have no idea on how to approach Amazon or Walmart. I will be super grateful if you can guide me in this process.
All you do is sign up. Shopify makes it extremely easy to start your own website. Walmart is a bit of a pain to get a seller account and I would recommend waiting till you have something on other platforms. For Amazon, you sign up to a Seller Central account. Then you list. That's it! If you want to sell DIRECTLY to Amazon, that would require a Vendor Central Account. I'm not sure if they would accept you without big brand recognition or history of sales on the Amazon platform, but it's always possible. Regardless, I generally dissuade most people from going the Vendor route as the 3rd party route (seller central and FBA) is usually much better for most.
 

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@NeoDialectic & @fastlane_dad thanks for the great thread!

I'm getting closer to solidifying my path to an exit (Saas company) and it would be extremely helpful if you could speak more on your exit, specifically things like...

- Did you start with the exit in mind?
- How did you determine when you wanted to exit/why did you exit instead of staying with the business?
- How did you determine your company's evaluation? (What was the metric used)
- Exit structure, as in was it a lump sum or payout over time? (If you can disclose)
- Were you required to stay on with the business for a period of time?

And anything else you could shed light on would be very much appreciated. :rockon:
 
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@NeoDialectic & @fastlane_dad thanks for the great thread!

I'm getting closer to solidifying my path to an exit (Saas company) and it would be extremely helpful if you could speak more on your exit, specifically things like...
Great questions. @NeoDialectic and I have been working on writing something that goes in depth on our selling experience and things to look out for.
- Did you start with the exit in mind?
Actually no. We only realized this years into the game that we can cash out (sell) with XXX our yearly profit multiple, that is also TAXED different (capital gains - hugely advantageous vs. taking it as profit yearly).

A huge LIGHT bulb went off when this happened of how POWERFUL building a business and then SELLING actually is. From the moment we 'pondered' the idea of a sell until our business sold was ~ three to four years. The numbers needed to make sense to pull the trigger.

Our start was always simple - make $3 in profit and grow from there. Our mindset on creating/growing/selling a business completely revolutionized post of our exit. Some of the multiples are actually pretty incredible today in the FBA space (and other industries as well).

Considering we 'bootstrapped' all of our businesses and never took on debt OR investors - creating this 'saleable' cash flowing asset that others want is just pure wonderful.
- How did you determine when you wanted to exit/why did you exit instead of staying with the business?
Multiple of factors - anything from achieving the 'goal' we set out for ourselves (financially), freeing up some time (we are both dads now!), to changing up a bit what we do. By the time we sold we were working more 'in' our business rather than 'on' it. It was time to move on, and we both knew it. We knew what needed to be done to grow the business, but were unwilling to take those next steps as well.
- How did you determine your company's evaluation? (What was the metric used)
Fairly standard multiples in the e-com FBA world. A known M&A Firm walked us through the entire experience beginning to end. We learned tons in the process, including what we would do the same and different next time.
- Exit structure, as in was it a lump sum or payout over time? (If you can disclose)
Again - structured in typical fashion of x percent cash, the rest in earn out and a note spread over years. Very common to this industry - where the only thing that changes is the percentages of these numbers one way or another. This can also be structured different I suppose on a 'smaller' exit or a business.
- Were you required to stay on with the business for a period of time?
Yes - we had an agreement of support over the following year or so time in decreasing intervals of our commitment.
And anything else you could shed light on would be very much appreciated. :rockon:
Any other questions please feel free to ask and we will update when our longer guide is done!! Congrats on your future exit and update this thread with your experience and progress.
 
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NeoDialectic

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@NeoDialectic & @fastlane_dad thanks for the great thread!

I'm getting closer to solidifying my path to an exit (Saas company) and it would be extremely helpful if you could speak more on your exit, specifically things like...

- Did you start with the exit in mind?
- How did you determine when you wanted to exit/why did you exit instead of staying with the business?
- How did you determine your company's evaluation? (What was the metric used)
- Exit structure, as in was it a lump sum or payout over time? (If you can disclose)
- Were you required to stay on with the business for a period of time?

And anything else you could shed light on would be very much appreciated. :rockon:
Looks like @fastlane_dad answered most of your questions. If you have any specific questions about selling your business that would help your business sale, let us know and we can try to answer it.

The more general exit questions, things to look out for, lessons learned, ways to negotiate and more is something that we have on our to-do list to write about. It's a lot more than just a reply post could fit. Sounds like you are exactly the person that the piece would be aimed at helping, so if you have any good topics/questions that you think we should explore in it, we would love to hear it as well
 
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Guest-5ty5s4

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Hey @NeoDialectic ! Would love your feedback and advice. I have a patented product I’ve been selling for a couple years. Veryyyy slow growth. I’ve had a couple huge customers approach me but no deal inked - yet. Potentially closing something really soon with one. I took my product off of Amazon completely due to shipping costs though.

There is a thread I have on the inside with more details. Do you have any advice for me? I know that’s kind of vague, sorry. My main problem is the costs I’ve been facing - it seems like the product is pretty hot and there’s a great market for it, but getting the costs down and price up has been very difficult!

I can show you the product, website, all of it privately!
 
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Itizn

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@NeoDialectic

Over the past few years I've built a business servicing energy companies, finding them rare and hard-to-locate items on an international scale.

I have completly lost interest in this industry but the skill set developed of finding niche things seems one to keep on developing.

Does anything come to mind on how to start pivoting to another industry? Or how to generally market this niche skill of mine?
 

NeoDialectic

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Hey @NeoDialectic ! Would love your feedback and advice. I have a patented product I’ve been selling for a couple years. Veryyyy slow growth. I’ve had a couple huge customers approach me but no deal inked - yet. Potentially closing something really soon with one. I took my product off of Amazon completely due to shipping costs though.

There is a thread I have on the inside with more details. Do you have any advice for me? I know that’s kind of vague, sorry. My main problem is the costs I’ve been facing - it seems like the product is pretty hot and there’s a great market for it, but getting the costs down and price up has been very difficult!

I can show you the product, website, all of it privately!
Send me a DM with some more info. If it's something I think @fastlane_dad and I could provide any advice on, we would be happy to jump on a quick call to help a fellow dedicated forumer out!
 

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