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Two things happened this week to me to make me write this post. As you know, MJ's book talks about creating value and solving problems. If you do this, your path to making money becomes very easy.
I started a business last July, which began selling on Amazon in September. I'm lucky enough that I have another business that is doing well, so that I did not need this second business to actually make any money. This business was started to solve a problem.
So I set out to solve this problem without any regard for profit. My only caveat was that I don't lose money. In fact, I was calculating a less than $1 profit per sale. My margin has since increased due to my increasing my purchase volume.
In December, I started getting 1 star reviews on my product. I found out that my manufacturer cut some corners on my 2nd shipment which caused some of my products to fail.
So I did 4 things.
1) I informed each buyer that this potential existed during the purchase.
2) I replaced AND refunded any buyer who received a bad product
3) I implemented a lifetime warranty
4) I offered to send all buyers an updated "corrected" version once my next shipment arrived in May
Obviously at a $1 margin, these things would have put me into the negative. But I didn't care, I just wanted people who paid for my product to have the best possible experience. Because I could not deliver a high quality product at this time. All I could do was give them their money back and give them another to try.
So from January to now, I have not been advertising my product. I figured, why advertise it when I DON'T want to sell that many. All I am trying to do is to limp along until my next good shipment arrives.
All I do everyday is check to make sure I don't have any more 1-2 star reviews. If I do, I immediately contact them, give them a refund and offer to send them a new one now, and a new and improved one in a few months.
I don't really check my sales. In fact, I don't care about them. The only reason I haven't pulled all my stock is because it is not all bad. But at Amazon, I don't know what's good and what's bad. Also, I don't want my listing to just disappear. I am just trying to hold my spot as long as possible until I get the new product. My listing ranking has slowly slid back to page 2.
So yesterday I walk into the bank to send a wire to China. I make my wire out and tell the lady, I'll probably have to deposit some money into this business account to cover this wire. I ask her to check my balance. She says I have $23,000 in the account. LOL I thought I had $3,000-$4,000 max. She says that's a nice surprise! Yes it is.
Today, I log into my Amazon account and see one of my biggest days ever.
The reason I am writing this post is that I have done nothing in this business that was profit driven. I have concentrated 100% on value and solving a problem. I have also focused on customer service without regard to the bottom line.
The result of all this work is that I have a business that is now making money without me even trying, $23k in the bank and my best selling month to date.
Now imagine what it would be like if I put some effort into sales!!
I started a business last July, which began selling on Amazon in September. I'm lucky enough that I have another business that is doing well, so that I did not need this second business to actually make any money. This business was started to solve a problem.
So I set out to solve this problem without any regard for profit. My only caveat was that I don't lose money. In fact, I was calculating a less than $1 profit per sale. My margin has since increased due to my increasing my purchase volume.
In December, I started getting 1 star reviews on my product. I found out that my manufacturer cut some corners on my 2nd shipment which caused some of my products to fail.
So I did 4 things.
1) I informed each buyer that this potential existed during the purchase.
2) I replaced AND refunded any buyer who received a bad product
3) I implemented a lifetime warranty
4) I offered to send all buyers an updated "corrected" version once my next shipment arrived in May
Obviously at a $1 margin, these things would have put me into the negative. But I didn't care, I just wanted people who paid for my product to have the best possible experience. Because I could not deliver a high quality product at this time. All I could do was give them their money back and give them another to try.
So from January to now, I have not been advertising my product. I figured, why advertise it when I DON'T want to sell that many. All I am trying to do is to limp along until my next good shipment arrives.
All I do everyday is check to make sure I don't have any more 1-2 star reviews. If I do, I immediately contact them, give them a refund and offer to send them a new one now, and a new and improved one in a few months.
I don't really check my sales. In fact, I don't care about them. The only reason I haven't pulled all my stock is because it is not all bad. But at Amazon, I don't know what's good and what's bad. Also, I don't want my listing to just disappear. I am just trying to hold my spot as long as possible until I get the new product. My listing ranking has slowly slid back to page 2.
So yesterday I walk into the bank to send a wire to China. I make my wire out and tell the lady, I'll probably have to deposit some money into this business account to cover this wire. I ask her to check my balance. She says I have $23,000 in the account. LOL I thought I had $3,000-$4,000 max. She says that's a nice surprise! Yes it is.
Today, I log into my Amazon account and see one of my biggest days ever.
The reason I am writing this post is that I have done nothing in this business that was profit driven. I have concentrated 100% on value and solving a problem. I have also focused on customer service without regard to the bottom line.
The result of all this work is that I have a business that is now making money without me even trying, $23k in the bank and my best selling month to date.
Now imagine what it would be like if I put some effort into sales!!
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