$100k 2017

[sparechange]

Alright here's an update so far, still a bit behind schedule but things don't always go as planned right!?

#1 For the past few months when I moved to Calgary, I sourced a product (Alibaba) whilst working a shitty job.

#2 Imported this product (had to save up a bit for this)

#3 Have ** sales ** with this product


(Still have inventory on it) Tried increasing price and got some sales although the marketplace isn't responding as strong with the pricing so believe a lower price point is more efficient.

Not really sure what to say, ''my timeline'' puts me at being financially dependent on my business income right now although I have not achieved that, some setbacks on the way sure, just need to keep working at it.

Wanted to make a grand finale post saying I'm free from the script but its still a part of me, now though its possible for me to see the future more clearly, starting off as shoveling snow & ending up in online sales is quite a difference.

My current plans for now & the future are to focus on selling off the rest of my inventory while creating my own products. In the process of doing this right now.

Thank you to all of the people that have contributed in this thread, even though I'm not free yet, the belief in myself that I can do it is through the roof having been the process of importing my own product, marketing, selling it, building & buying traffic etc.

A small fish in a big sea........

 

[Longinus]

I'm sorry but you are delusional here. I think that you are still making excuses. The main reason that yours did not sell is because you didn't put any effort into it at all.

Let's look at your reasons (and I'm really doing this to help others who cannot figure out why their "same" product is not selling $40k a month like the #1 listing).

1) One thing on my website that I don't have customer reviews (oops) although I only had a couple of customers reply back with one of them stating my toys got ripped apart by they're dogs within the first day.. Yeh, made in China quality.

You could have easily "made up" some reviews. Come on, it's your own website, you control the content.

You got one reply and blame it on made in China quality. Well your competitors are made in China aren't they? Guess why your quality was bad? It's not because of China, it's because of you

2) Still have struggled with my advertising, looking into the Delomo glove I actually have a higher skew value than the product since my bundle includes toys with the glove at a cheaper price, no one will buy it if they don't know about it right?

So your crappier glove was cheaper and you included a toy? You really think that that is a value skew? If I'm trying to buy a dog comb, I want a dog comb. Not a crappier dog comb and a toy. I don't need a toy.

3) I haven't offered a money back guarantee as Delomo offers.

I don't know how much more this converts, but why didn't you? It's not like this is a hard thing to do. You could have typed up a single sentence on your website.

4) The main reasons Delomo kicked my a$$ would actually be they did a more efficient job at marketing the product. My strategy has been IG/FB linked to my website, that's all. Oddly enough this company doesn't even exist on facebook? Or at least I cant find them.

Are you comparing your website to your website or to their Amazon listing? How do you even know how much they sell on their website? I bet that they sell 99% on Amazon.

The reason they kicked your butt is because they rank very high on Amazon and have good reviews. It's not because of their social media strategy.

5) I was never on youtube showcasing the product as when I tried it out the product sucked as mentioned before. As bio stated they do have a better product.

Finally you get to the real reason. Your product sucked. It has zero to do with youtube. They have 2 videos, 11 subscribers and 26k total views on Youtube.

6) Also they have affiliate marketing plugs on youtube/websites with direct link buy box to AMZ (I haven't done any affiliate marketing)

This is irrelevant.

7) They're copy write is a bit better than mine.

Again, pretty irrelevant

Here's what you should have done:
1) Order the top 10 gloves from Amazon
2) Test out the top 10 gloves from Amazon
3) Choose the best glove out of the 10
4) Find the best features out of the 10
5) Try to incorporate some of these features into the best glove
6) Find 5 manufacturers that make that glove and add your features
5) Find a way to differentiate your glove (I would have done it by color)
6) Take great photos of your glove. Make a good video
7) Make a good Amazon listing
8) Launch at a lower price, breakeven
9) Get reviews
10) Run PPC
11) Breakeven on your first 500 units
12) Raise price
13) Profit

This is what you did
1) Contact one manufacturer in China
2) Order gloves
3) List on Amazon
4) Make a website
5) Twiddle thumbs

I'm sorry to be so hard on you, but it's clear that you aren't learning your lesson. The fact that you listed "I had a sh*tty product" as your #5 reason tells it all. You don't give a sh*t about the people purchasing your product. You don't care if it works or not. You just want money.

All your reasons put the blame on your marketing, website or social media. The truth is that if you actually sold 10 a day on Amazon, it would have lasted one month because you would have 50 1-3 star reviews and get shut down by Amazon.

This post alone quadruples the value of this entire thread. OP I hope you learn from this.

 

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[Waspy]

hello, just a quick update, my networth is around $800 or so atm (N) just got paid from my job yesterday.

ive been growing my fb page altho it isnt growing as rapidly as imagined...im thinking of doing a gift card give away or something like that to generate interest and gain popularity (who doesnt like free stuff)

i will be updating this until dec 31st, looking to post a picture of $100's scattered everywhere (preferably in a beautiful porsche)

the amount of money i have/will/should/could have is in proportion to the amount of people i have positively impacted

cheers!

You have 352 days, to make $99,200.

That's $281.82 everyday.

So, what's tomorrow's plan?

 

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[Longinus]

Since your thread title says "100k 2017", I decided to read your first post again.

alright, this will be a fun goal to achieve, i recently did my first ever entrepreneurial startup with $0 (got a shovel and made $57 in a few hours work clearing snow, its completely alien to me to make money from nothing..i was brainwashed to get jobs and be an employee...anyways i just wanted to make this thread for my dream of making $100k and tracking it every once in a while

i have a few business plans that i will be executing in the spring/summertime (maybe winter time to) and believe i can achieve this magic number...ive been broke all my life, ''rich'' to me was holding a few grand in my hand...will be really nice to hold $100k, ill prolly take a bath in it and go swimming, until then..im just at $55 net so far, guilty of spending $2 for a hot chocolate and peanut butter bar so theres $99.945 to go..there will be multiple streams of income so if i can get some to take off i can hire people to do the work for me whilst i work on other things/enjoy my life...

good luck to everyone on theyre journey to freedom...

[work hard & make people HAPPY] ''some guy in a red ferrari f430''

Not much changed for you in almost 2 years. I think you were and still are money chasing. You also don't seem to take advice. Ecom isn't going to pay your bills in the short term.

If you won't change anything, your situation in 2020 will still be the same. Your thread (22 pages long for F*ck's sake) is a waste of time for everybody who reads it and the reactions prove it. This thread might reflect your real life too. You seem like a guy who's just messing around and hoping something will work eventually, like @maverick states. Get your shit together.

 

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[ManlyMansNegator]

Word on the block is my 2 year anniversary is coming up shortly.........

Sad to say I am not anywhere close to as ''successful'' as planned out, ha! I cant say plans generally, well goto plan.

Reviewing with a friend of mine our goals and talking to each other the reasons for our failures. Another friend of mine has 0 interest in engaging with the discussion. Nice!

To be quite honest the past ? 3 ? years of my life have been a major struggle of poverty. Hilarious considering I have mostly been working full time.

I'll write a full description sometime in the future..leaving out some bits.

In the tail end of 2015 I moved out from my parents & got a crappy job for minium wage washing cars in January of '16. Fast forward about a year I got fired in December, my life literally revolved around going to work, paying rent and barely feeding myself. Sometimes I wouldn't even eat because I had $0...Literally I've been there.

Discovered TMF in November of 2016 and began my action faking plan. Dont think I need to go into detail if you have been following this thread from the beginning.

2017 came around and I got a really cool job working at a ski resort, kinda put my life ''on hold'' and had 4 of the best months of my life.

Summer came around and I launched my ''second business'' the original being shoveling snow knocking on doors making some side cash....which led me into landscaping mimicking the same strategy.

Didn't make all the billions of dollars as expected although hey, I worked quite hard on it although could of come up with a more efficient system. Anyways savings were getting low so I went to get a job doing laboring for a construction company.

Tail end of 2017 was quite rough and needed to get away so managed to move to Calgary in December.

Start of 2018 was a complete nightmare and couldn't find a job for about 3 months, yet again being broke as sh*t was no fun. Ended up finding a crap job and saved up enough money to start importing products from Alibaba. Basically dumped all of my money into this along with a little bit of degenerate gambling (still sitting on some inventory)

And yet again for 2018 in the tail end I'm still in the broke as sh*t category.

On the + side I do have a ''business'' although hasn't scaled as quickly as imagined. Simply I need a better product to sum it up.

Considering making another thread or continuing here, my whole back story is rooted in this thread so believe it would be nice to continue here although at the same time it is quite cluttered. (suggestions welcome)

Leaving out some bits of my story as they are more personal

Plans for '19 are to increase my sales, along with the addition of new products and finally reach this ***** 100k mark.

If I'm to continue the past over again it is literally a cycle of barely getting by and being exhausted from working all day while having some time off to work even more on my own business & barely pay my bills.

And TBH I'd rather not as my mental health from grinding it out is super low.


*** Sorry for the long post, wasn't that long when I had it in my head ***

You are not learning from your mistakes instead repeating variations of your previous failures.

Take a maths problem:
x+1=7
You try to solve by dividing by 7 continuously
x/7 + 1/7 =1

Hey that didn’t work? So you begin dividing by 8 and then 9 and so on.By the time you finish you end up with an even worse problem.Yet you keep going all the while muttering Maths is a sham.

If you learnt from the initial mistakes and moved onto a different process completely you would solve the problem! For instance in our case the problem wasnt reduced by changing the size of the numbers.So don’t bother scaling.Find your problem @sparechange and then attack with completely different methods.

For 2019 perhaps you need to change the method of attack.For example I have always done YouTube and twitter etc yet got not even one retweet .found my problem and attacked it using “quantity “ approach where I spammed quantity content.Then I brought follow for follow approach and finally the quality content with hashtags approach.The last seems interesting as I see results ( random people retweet and like it ).Try doing eccomerce but use another tactic.

Maybe your products shit? Or maybe your marketing is bad? Or maybe your mindset is bad? They all are different underlying problems with different solutions and thus different methods.Find your problem! Define it ! Then attack it from every angle!

Good luck and Godspeed brother.

 

[biophase]

Sell a product that doesn’t suck in 2019.

 

[MTEE1985]

I'm sorry but you are delusional here. I think that you are still making excuses. The main reason that yours did not sell is because you didn't put any effort into it at all.

Let's look at your reasons (and I'm really doing this to help others who cannot figure out why their "same" product is not selling $40k a month like the #1 listing).

1) One thing on my website that I don't have customer reviews (oops) although I only had a couple of customers reply back with one of them stating my toys got ripped apart by they're dogs within the first day.. Yeh, made in China quality.

You could have easily "made up" some reviews. Come on, it's your own website, you control the content.

You got one reply and blame it on made in China quality. Well your competitors are made in China aren't they? Guess why your quality was bad? It's not because of China, it's because of you

2) Still have struggled with my advertising, looking into the Delomo glove I actually have a higher skew value than the product since my bundle includes toys with the glove at a cheaper price, no one will buy it if they don't know about it right?

So your crappier glove was cheaper and you included a toy? You really think that that is a value skew? If I'm trying to buy a dog comb, I want a dog comb. Not a crappier dog comb and a toy. I don't need a toy.

3) I haven't offered a money back guarantee as Delomo offers.

I don't know how much more this converts, but why didn't you? It's not like this is a hard thing to do. You could have typed up a single sentence on your website.

4) The main reasons Delomo kicked my a$$ would actually be they did a more efficient job at marketing the product. My strategy has been IG/FB linked to my website, that's all. Oddly enough this company doesn't even exist on facebook? Or at least I cant find them.

Are you comparing your website to your website or to their Amazon listing? How do you even know how much they sell on their website? I bet that they sell 99% on Amazon.

The reason they kicked your butt is because they rank very high on Amazon and have good reviews. It's not because of their social media strategy.

5) I was never on youtube showcasing the product as when I tried it out the product sucked as mentioned before. As bio stated they do have a better product.

Finally you get to the real reason. Your product sucked. It has zero to do with youtube. They have 2 videos, 11 subscribers and 26k total views on Youtube.

6) Also they have affiliate marketing plugs on youtube/websites with direct link buy box to AMZ (I haven't done any affiliate marketing)

This is irrelevant.

7) They're copy write is a bit better than mine.

Again, pretty irrelevant

Here's what you should have done:
1) Order the top 10 gloves from Amazon
2) Test out the top 10 gloves from Amazon
3) Choose the best glove out of the 10
4) Find the best features out of the 10
5) Try to incorporate some of these features into the best glove
6) Find 5 manufacturers that make that glove and add your features
5) Find a way to differentiate your glove (I would have done it by color)
6) Take great photos of your glove. Make a good video
7) Make a good Amazon listing
8) Launch at a lower price, breakeven
9) Get reviews
10) Run PPC
11) Breakeven on your first 500 units
12) Raise price
13) Profit

This is what you did
1) Contact one manufacturer in China
2) Order gloves
3) List on Amazon
4) Make a website
5) Twiddle thumbs

I'm sorry to be so hard on you, but it's clear that you aren't learning your lesson. The fact that you listed "I had a sh*tty product" as your #5 reason tells it all. You don't give a sh*t about the people purchasing your product. You don't care if it works or not. You just want money.

All your reasons put the blame on your marketing, website or social media. The truth is that if you actually sold 10 a day on Amazon, it would have lasted one month because you would have 50 1-3 star reviews and get shut down by Amazon.

Damn.

@Andy Black @Fox

Make this post or the 13 step process a new notable thread? “Biophase’s Quick Start Guide to Amazon”

This could save hundreds or thousands of people massive headaches and money.

 

[MidwestLandlord]

i want to build a small business in landscaping/residential property upkeep, do all the hustle myself > acquire customers > then hire people to do all the physical labour for me and branch out (build repeat customers)

Make sure your service SUCS. (it's in Mj's book)

I have 2 lists for plumbers, electricians, handyman services, snow removal etc. (I'm 100% brick and mortar, so lots of upkeep)

First list are the one's I use. Good service, timely, they answer the bloody phone when I call, and I can trust that the job will get done correctly even if I am not there.

Second list are the one's I will NEVER use EVER again.

Don't be on the second list.

Also, advertise your services to property management companies. Most of the time they have their own plows and such, but if they get behind they often call in the cavalry and hire local companies. A big need for property managers is backup they can trust.

 

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[Rinzler]

ok so the past few days ive been doing nothing rly, (well went snowboarding) been waiting all year... was gonna take a trip to a nearby island but got on the bus and was it was to crammed so i freaked out and left...i was considering moving cities but am thinking of just staying for now, getting a couple of jobs..clocking 80 hours a week to just have a few grand then go from there....what do you guys think, id like to get a car to make my life a bit easier

Just my 2 cents
It seems like you're moving 100 miles an hour! You just got fired from a job, man. Like another user mentioned before, you might want to have a part time first to ensure you're making some money, even if you're making money elsewhere. It definitely takes money to make money, and hopefully using credit cards / loans isn't an option for you.

I'm all for enjoying my freedom after getting canned. I've done that once or twice before. But the reality is still the same.
As of right now, you're a 25 year old college student with big plans. You're going to want something to financially fuel those plans!

People on here are just going to say don't get a car if you don't 100% need it (Because of public transport, bikes, ubers, etc.) but if you can afford to buy a beater in cash to hold you over, then I say go for it.

Also, how much of the advice you've gotten on here have you actually applied?
You've managed to get the attention of some heavy hitters. I wouldn't take that lightly!

 

[Raoul Duke]

Make sure your service SUCS. (it's in Mj's book)

I have 2 lists for plumbers, electricians, handyman services, snow removal etc. (I'm 100% brick and mortar, so lots of upkeep)

First list are the one's I use. Good service, timely, they answer the bloody phone when I call, and I can trust that the job will get done correctly even if I am not there.

Second list are the one's I will NEVER use EVER again.

Don't be on the second list.

Also, advertise your services to property management companies. Most of the time they have their own plows and such, but if they get behind they often call in the cavalry and hire local companies. A big need for property managers is backup they can trust.

 

[ZCP]

It is one thing to buy a box of Girl Scout cookies they don't need. It is another to have some kid with power tools jacking up their yard.

If you want repeat business from the wealthy, you need to be / look like a business, have insurance, and provide great, consistent service. If you also 'have a story', then you have a leg up.

The way you describe your current pitch, you might get an odd job here or there. No repeats. They need service, not another mouth to feed. Look at it from the other side.

 

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[100k]

You have selected a bad product. Your copy is off and or your targeting is off.

From 170 impressions you only have 5 engagements. If all those things were on point then you'd have at least double the engagement. Cost per engagement needs to go down to around $0.30 from the $1 it is at currently.

Send me a PM if you want me to take a quick look and give you tips on how you can improve the campaign.

 

[Merging Left]

After reading your updates for a week or so now, and the other comments in this thread, I think that it's becoming abundantly clear that you're having trouble staying focused. You jump around to a new idea/product/brand every few days and throw money at Facebook hoping something will stick. STOP CHASING MONEY

You need to spend some real time thinking about what problems people face and how you can help them, and I don't mean by being the cheapest lawn-mower in town. Don't focus on yourself and what you want. You know that you want the lifestyle that wealth brings - that's great. But you don't get it by wanting it badly. You get it from helping people. Read TMF & UNSCRIPTED if you haven't. If you have, re-read them, but this time take notes in the margins and highlight things that resonate with you. It'll help you internalize the information.

It's counter-intuitive, but by only thinking about others, and giving, giving, and giving them value, you will be immeasurably rewarded.

---------------------------------------------

Okay, so you're going into the pet supplies space. Great - it's a huge space with lots of room for new products. I would highly recommend you narrow in on your demographic. Your demographic for a dog jacket cannot be "pet owners". If I owned a dog, I would never buy a dog jacket (especially a cute one...) unless it was for the dog's safety (i.e. keeping them warm in snow). I would be a "pet owner" but I'm not in your demographic even remotely.

Maybe your cute dog jackets are for "young fashionistas who use their purse-dogs as fashion statements". That's fairly narrow.
Maybe your demographic is "owners of small dogs who live in cold climates" and your jacket offers protection against the cold.

If you go onto facebook and advertise to "pet owners", you're going to waste a lot of time and money (as you've been doing with your other ideas...). Don't spend money on advertising to discover if your product is valuable to someone. Solve the value equation and confidently present an item that says "I made something that will absolutely improve the quality of your life - come check it out".

 

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[lowtek]

.... why are you talking about 2018 when it's only Nov 19?

Why aren't you hitting the end of the year hard to at least get somewhere?

And also, why would you lower your goal? Was the first goal not good enough?

I'll give you one thing: you've shown tenacity by posting in this thread consistently. I truly hope you turn into a great success story.

 

[CareCPA]

Ok. I would defer to your judgment. Brainstorm session over, now the evaluation of the idea... no worries if they ended up being ideas that need to be tossed out due to factors that I didn't see.

Just out of curiosity, you said you thought you could sell these if they were yours. How would you approach it?

I can't speak to @biophase's method, but in general:
- Order multiple samples and competitor products (if they exist)
- Actually use the product - this step is vital
- Determine what works and what doesn't
- Make changes and get new samples
- Test again
- Once happy, consult with family and friends (or better yet, target market) to ensure the product meets the needs of others
- Repeat until everyone is happy with the quality
- Order small batch and make a sale
- If successful, order more and repeat

 

[lowtek]

Glad to see you back dude, I'm rooting for you. Best advice I can give is to spend 2020 stockpiling cash. Given what you've been through, it would be prudent to put a business on the back burner and just get some stability in your life. You know more than anybody that it's going to be impossible to succeed in business with the specter of homelessness hanging over your head. Since you've finally caught a lucky break, make the most of it and make sure you never live that reality again.

just my $0.02

Either way, it's the makings of a truly great rags to riches story. Keep at it, better days are coming.

 

[csalvato]

Yeah, but it's a $1,000.

$300 down.

Probably won't have to pay the $700 until March when the Chinese come back from CNY. By that time he'll have saved up some cash and have a cushion for his stable life.

What got @sparechange into this situation wasn't a business failure. It was low self-esteem and action faking. If his identity is tied to entrepreneurship (which it probably is since he's been on this forum for four years), then taking action for $300 could be more beneficial than anything else.

Him not taking action won't lower the stress.

Thankfully I’ve never been homeless but I have been in the unfortunate position of my new business taking my personal accounts all the way to zero and alienating me from others.

It’s absolutely terrifying.

After that, I took a year away from entrepreneurship after hustling for 5 years. I saved money in my warchest. Got my head right.

Maybe I’m a pussy. I sure felt like one for that year while I was getting back on my feet.

Pussy or not, that year I transformed into someone making more than 90% of the country. I also became a business leader. Having a job and crushing it for an employer is a form of taking action.

It let me build a team around me that is now following me into a venture where we all feel fairly treated, with a solid mission and awesome product...without the stress of trying to make ends meet or finding the next product to sell to keep a roof over my head.

Maybe your answer is the best for him. Maybe it’s not.

I just empathize...the notion that you have to be putting your last dollar on the line all day every day to live up to the entrepreneur identity really hurt my progress and my recovery. I’d hate for it to hinder his.

It’s a lot of needless pressure.

 

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[Almantas]

alright, this will be a fun goal to achieve, i recently did my first ever entrepreneurial startup with $0 (got a shovel and made $57 in a few hours work clearing snow, its completely alien to me to make money from nothing..i was brainwashed to get jobs and be an employee...anyways i just wanted to make this thread for my dream of making $100k and tracking it every once in a while

i have a few business plans that i will be executing in the spring/summertime (maybe winter time to) and believe i can achieve this magic number...ive been broke all my life, ''rich'' to me was holding a few grand in my hand...will be really nice to hold $100k, ill prolly take a bath in it and go swimming, until then..im just at $55 net so far, guilty of spending $2 for a hot chocolate and peanut butter bar so theres $99.945 to go..there will be multiple streams of income so if i can get some to take off i can hire people to do the work for me whilst i work on other things/enjoy my life...

good luck to everyone on theyre journey to freedom...

[work hard & make people HAPPY] ''some guy in a red ferrari f430''

 

[sparechange]

i have great news everyone to following.

today making my way to a previous client i got a call!! FINALLY! the call ive been waiting for!! my flyers are working!!!!!!!!
did an acquisition client, and made my way to a previous client, finished and got ANOTHER acquisition text !!!!!!! Have a client scheduled for Saturday!!

as long as i hustle my a$$ off i can scale this more and more. extremely happy to see my hard work is finally paying off, i have felt exhausted going around and seeing no results.

cheers

 

[Merging Left]

just a funny story, not an update. had a client i pitched for $25, trying to increase my price and said client declined my offer, so i quickly repitched for $15 lowballg myself and he accepted....after he payed with a $20 asking for $5 change lol. i said i only have a $10 so he GIVES ME $25 AND asks for a $10 back...ha!

done this a few times at an old sales job i had..repitched at a lower number and would close...best one i had was getting a solid *NO* 4 times in a row & then closing that person.

What am I missing here? You didn't get $25. You got $15. Why are you saying "ha!" like you tricked him into paying you $25?

You mentioned several pages back that you pretended to be an interested client and got a quote for $80 for a lawn job, right? Why can that guy charge $80 and you can't even get $20?

If your value for mowing lawns is that these extremely wealthy people feel sorry for you, you're going to have a difficult time making anything substantial. As you've said, these people have a ton of money. They spent a fortune on their house. Don't you think they'd be willing to spend MORE money to ensure their house looks fantastic? It's a status symbol. Don't frame your offer as "they don't care if they spend $20" - frame it as "they'd be happy to spend $150/wk to keep their house looking great, and I can do that for them."

Also - you printed out 6,000 fliers... have you ever asked one of your recurring customers to refer you? Say you'll give them a free mowing for each person they refer. Word of mouth is how you get new clients in a business like this.

 

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[StevieB]

Congrats on the sale.

I think you would benefit a great deal from this progress thread. You aren't lacking effort, but I think you need to channel it into the right thought process. It seems like you're just tossing up a bunch of random things and hoping something sticks. Work smarter not harder. Do research on products and find pain points that people are talking about on them and offer them a solution to that pain point.

For example I posted a thread before about a campfire with no smoke. The product hit over 1 million on kickstarter. That was a pain point that people had around the campfire and someone thought of a way to remove that pain point and market it properly and hit a home run.

Just throwing up products that don't solve any particular paint point or fill a need (something undersold in the market that needs to be filled) you're just competing with thousands and thousands of other "me too" businesses that are out there which is why you're not getting any traction. It's like putting up a tent that sells coke products in the back of a Wal-Mart right next to the other coke products. Your not actually solving problems but just trying to "sell stuff". While this may work if you had a physical store, just because you'd be convenient for some that pass by, it won't sell much online. Mind you, you don't have to come up with something totally new but even just something slightly better than what's out there. At the least research markets and try to find something that's being undersold in your area and fill the gap.

I'll give you another example. I put a home up on AirBnB and almost immediately it's been booked over 80% of the time. Now rentals are usually a good bet but they don't normally start out so well with such a high % booking rate. I realized after a while the reason it's doing so well is because it's filling, even though just a small fill, a need of a gap in the real estate market of affordable short term rentals for large groups. Hotels don't typically offer this unless you book 4-5 rooms which is very expensive for say, 15 people.

Here's the progress thread I mentioned earlier.
Notable! - Dominating Online Ecom. Starting A New Store From 0

 

[Grahamj]

It seems like your still obsessed with making $500 dollars over creating value and letting the money follow. You should absolutely check out the mindset area of this forum, I think there is tremendous value in there.

There was a good idea to survey some pet owners to discover challenges they have. I would say instead of going door to door, or asking people on the street (which could take months to get a good demographic), go to where dog owners are going to be. Connect with a dog groomer that sees 100's of pets a month and offer them something in exchange for having their customers fill out a survey for you. Maybe give them your dog bed to raffle off in exchange for them helping you out. Could end up being a potential retail outlet for your products too.
When you order some samples you can have them test out your product. My advice would be to get out and create some real value, build some relationships and quit advertising on fb for a brand that is irrelevant at this point.

 

[biophase]

You think you can order samples in December and start selling by January?

I’m going to ask you what your pet product is. Personally I think you would be safe mentioning it because it’s not about the product. It’s execution. I can tell you instantly if you would be successful in it.

To give you background, I’m in the pet industry and sell everything from dog leashes, collars and harnesses to dog beds, supplements and toys. Even starting to get into dog food and treats now.

 

[biophase]

.
Never ordered overseas before but think it’s a realistic timeline for December / January, for products, I’m thinking car seat covers, beds (dog/cat) and custom designed leashes. Considering toys as a customer acquisition tool/give away as wholesale prices are less than $5 (alibaba) this will be my first retail buisness. Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply, curious to hear your opinion!

Ok, so car seat covers... I sell those too. Have you done your numbers on those? What price are you selling at? What is going to make yours different than the others?

Beds? what's your selling price on them? Even the $20 beds are huge to ship.

Toys at $5? You need to be at $1.5-$2 a toy max. I can't imagine what toys you are buying at $5?

I'd love to see what your estimated pricing is on these. Because I don't see alot of profit in there.

 

[sparechange]

Thought I’d share some humble beginnings. My room is $500 and my landlord is a chill guy so I feel good with the move, think I’ve found some work, will give that a go tommorow and go from there, went for a walk around and was thinking how surreal it is to be here, I made the choice to quit my job and travel to a new city. Everything is so much cheaper here, I have a full plate for the next bit of time...

 

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[sparechange]

Sorry about the lack of updates, Ill post a big one near the end of July which is kind of the timeline (little bit of some bad delays) of which i should just quit my job and focus on growing. Deff possible for sure I can scrap it

Was going through the hassles of importing and whatnot, do have things running, everything just takes time. It will be a really long one..

Until next time =)

(Still on the e-commerce pet niche grind)

 

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[lowtek]

Have 30 mins off from work checking my shopify / fb. No pre orders in.

Boosted posts are generally a waste. You gotta learn to use the ad interface to create actual ads. I've never seen anybody get real results from boosted posts, but the full ad tool set is incredibly powerful.

 

[Xeon]

Up front: I know NOTHING about selling products on Amazon. Only marketing. Keep that in mind with everything I'm about to say.

But it seems to me that you are in possession of an asset. A whole order of XXXX pet grooming gloves. No, the asset didn't perform as well as you hoped. They're not selling.

Now you're in a situation where you need to come up with whatever plan is going to give you the highest leverage with that asset, even if it means cutting your losses.

What if you did one minor, inexpensive tweak to give these gloves a slight upgrade and then sell them for a premium price? Kind of like the classic story from Robert Cialdini's book, Influence. In chapter 1, he tells this story...



So here's my idea:

Take 10 pairs of gloves down to a local embroidery shop, sewing machine shop, quilter with an embroidery machine, or friend who would do this as a favor. Have them embroider a beautiful dog on the back of each hand. Let's say you choose a pug. Or a German Shepherd. Or whatever dog you can use as a model for photography.

The cost of this shouldn't be a lot, as these machines are created to just take a design that is programmed in the computer, and the machine does all the work. It's just thread.

Now take these beautiful gloves and take highly emotional photographs of the glove from the back, showing the design. These photos should evoke all the love of caressing a pet, all the warm fuzzy feelings.

Now go online and post these gloves as "Pet Grooming Gloves for Pug Owners" and list them for double the price. This is only a test. It's only 10 pieces. You're validating the concept before you go gangbusters and pay to get ALL your gloves embroidered. But the focus is on the love and connection between the person and their dog. The focus is on the act of lovingly stroking their dog's fur, which they are going to do anyway, and which, thanks to the glove, will also come with a side benefit of taking out that loose hair that would have started getting all over their hand and flying around the room. Downplay the quality of the glove. Don't let that come into your buyer's mind. The quality doesn't matter. People don't need to expect it to be as good as a brush. If they want a complete grooming, they're going to go to a salon anyway. You're going for the first-time buyer of one of these things. Pet owners are already familiar with the concept of a glove like this, and now the cool fact that their favorite breed is depicted stylishly on the back of each glove is going to push them over the edge of finally getting the product.

Then go to facebook and find all the groups you can find of passionate pug owners and mention the gloves. (Pug owners are passionate about their pugs.) (Every dog owner is passionate about their breed. Golden retrievers. Labradors. Border collies. You get the picture... there's infinite directions you could go with this breed piece.) Actually--use a REALLY HAIRY dog, one that's notorious for shedding. E.g. no poodles! LOL...

Post your photos on instagram with tags like #pug grooming #pug love etc.

Suggest that people who know pug lovers buy this as the PERFECT Christmas gift for their brother or coworker or whatever.

Go around to local pet groomers, dog trainers, and veterinarians. Ask if they will let you sell the gloves there in exchange for X% of the "sale price" (which is double what you were asking before, so you have a margin to offer them). Some of them will give you display space.

See if you can sell all ten pairs. I bet you can. If they sell like hotcakes, at a great price point, then make some more in time to sell before Christmas.

Separately - here's another test.
Same product, different positioning. You can skip the embroidery on this set if you want.

There's a whole bunch of people out there who hate the way their hands feel after they pet a dog. [*Ahem* cough cough how would I know? :halo:]

This product solves a need: They can slip on the glove, pet their dog to their heart's desire, accomplish a bit of grooming in the process, and then slip the glove back off when they're done. The person is happy because they didn't have to get their hand feeling icky. The dog is happy because it got a ton of attention.

Create a system to find these people. This might take some thinking... maybe start in the dog groups on facebook and ask questions like, "Hey does anyone here know someone who doesn't like touching a dog because they're fastidious about what they touch? Maybe someone kind of like Monk around your pets? I'm doing some research and hoping to conduct a few interviews with people who experience this." And then go from there and see if you get any response, and ask some questions or conduct a survey, and see if you spot any patterns for people like this.

Then, using their responses, go write up some copy. "Do you hate touching dogs because you can't stand how your hands feel after you're done?" or whatever words they are using. Maybe they mention that the dog turns its head around and gets its wet nose on their hands, and they don't like that, either. Incorporate that into your copy. This product solves that. It's a dream come true for people who love their dogs but have sensory issues with petting them. Maybe there's a family with just one member who doesn't like to pet the dog... position it as a lifesaver for that situation.

And when you ship the product, include a free pair of latex (or allergy-free latex substitute) gloves, with a little note that suggests that they put on the latex glove first and then put on the grooming glove, and they'll be as happy as a lark.

The latex glove won't be expensive for you, and you're only including one pair, but it's a little touch that someone wouldn't have thought of (but that they will appreciate immensely). It'll be a WOW! moment. "I can finally have fun petting the dog!" Again - the person will not care that the product is junk in terms of grooming quality. That's not what it's about. It's solving a psychological need for them that might be worth 5 or 10 times the price.

Sell 10 of these as a test. If it takes off, go with it. If not, you haven't lost much because you were going to sell these as a loss anyway.

Just two ideas off the top of my head.

Pure marketing genius right there. Of late, I'm starting to have the belief that with good marketing and execution, one can sell anything.

To add on to that, sparechange can fill his IG account with posts that does just one thing, and only one thing : post and curate content of people stroking their dog and their dog feeling comfortable. He'll be remembered as the dog stroker. Perhaps even start his own hashtag #strokeyourdog. With a highly niche dog social media account like this, I believe it can actually grow, then drive sales to his site.

You could have easily "made up" some reviews. Come on, it's your own website, you control the....

With all due respect, I hope you're either being sarcastic or trolling. This doesn't seem like your style from what I read in your old ecommerce posts.....

 

[sparechange]

Thanks for the input @biophase

I was just stating some things that could be improved on my behalf, also as @Xeon mentioned I would have to disagree with fake reviews.

As @Bekit mentioned I called a local embroidery down in Calgary and they were wanting around $20+ for a tiny logo so I think that will be a no go.

Going to be doing a 60 hour week coming up, all I've been doing lately is sleeping and working. After my mini prison sentence is done Im going to work on my own product (new one) From my failure of this one I have a better grasp of what not to do & what to do.

 

[csalvato]

So my job is fulltime, 40 hrs week with Wed/Sun off, rent is 650, food is 3-400 lets call it a grand total for living expenses. Saving about 1k or so a month it'll take me about a month to have money for an order on product. For now I guess just save up and grind it out. Maybe not an order, but at least samples

Product is typically a 30% deposit. The rest at the end of production. You can order product in about a week. Make it happen.

I’m no psychiatrist but I think you should hold off on trying to play the entrepreneur buying and selling game until you sort yourself out.

Get some money in the bank for a rainy day in case you lose that job,get into some good habits without stress (like reading and going to the gym.

You need some stability right now, and you won’t find that in the hustle. There’s so much you can learn and so many ways to progress that won’t require that level of stress right now, which will be counter productive to you truly getting on firm footing.

Give it a year on a solid wage, and learn what it means to really provide for your employer. If you can’t provide for one person, no chance in hell you can for a whole market.

take it one step at a time. Just my 2¢
Please be well