$126,727 in PROFIT So Far This Month | eCommerce

[Mezy]

Great story, thanks for sharing. It is super interesting to see the process documented and the ups and downs of it all.

 

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[nyc217]

Thank you so much for this story! Wow! Massive value!

 

[tearlach99]

All that by age 21! Congrats! Sorry about your girlfriend. Honestly, I suggest not having another until you are older than 25. Focus on you and the rewards will be great. This is potentially the only time in your life you won't have to be responsible for other people like a wife or children and you can work all hours.


How did you come up with the e-commerce brands? Did you develop the product?

Agree 100%
It's significantly more difficult when responsibilities to a girlfriend or a spouse and kids are added into the mix.

 

[renaissance man]

*I paid influencers with decent followings to do Instagram posts featuring the product so that the brand would have credibility.

Am I the only one who sees this as a HUGE red flag?

 

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[WildFlower]

Am I the only one who sees this as a HUGE red flag?

There should be a "huh" thinking emoji for the like! LOL I would love to know how this turned out. It's crazy what influencer's get paid to do. Many of them were actors but turned to social media and then did better with that.. but now many productions stay away from them because of their "false" diva status. They may be popular in the social media space but not in the TV/Film space. They are used to staying in the most expensive hotels for free then production only pays for decent hotel.. are they going to put up demands? AND most burned productions by being late... and not respecting it... and then bad acting on top of it! I would love to know if it was worth the money of them being paid. How that translated to profit or was it just a selling point.

 

[Xeon]

Am I the only one who sees this as a HUGE red flag?

Why would paying influencers to promote and give credibility to new products be a huge red flag?
I actually feel this method helps an unhead-of-company get traction.

 

[renaissance man]

Why would paying influencers to promote and give credibility to new products be a huge red flag?
I actually feel this method helps an unhead-of-company get traction.

> influencer
> credibility
pick one.

 

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[Jeff Noel]

> influencer
> credibility
pick one.

Some influencers are experts in their niche. Perhaps we're not looking at the same type of people. I consider people with strong social media followings to be influencers.

For example, Mrwhosetheboss, a YouTuber who focuses on transparency and integrity with his viewers, would be an excessively good influencer for those trying to target the smartphone niche. But it's not the type of guy to accept $500 to shoutout a product he never tried. If the guys says to his people "This thing is great, buy it", you'd probably end up with 5000 sales in a day only from his comment on your product.

 

[renaissance man]

Some influencers are experts in their niche. Perhaps we're not looking at the same type of people. I consider people with strong social media followings to be influencers.

For example, Mrwhosetheboss, a YouTuber who focuses on transparency and integrity with his viewers, would be an excessively good influencer for those trying to target the smartphone niche. But it's not the type of guy to accept $500 to shoutout a product he never tried. If the guys says to his people "This thing is great, buy it", you'd probably end up with 5000 sales in a day only from his comment on your product.

okay, so let me quote the paragraph:

*I paid influencers with decent followings to do Instagram posts featuring the product so that the brand would have credibility.

Keywords: paid, influencers, credibility

 

[FMJJ]

> influencer
> credibility
pick one.

That's black and white thinking. If you work with a credible influencer, he/she will vet the product or service you're promoting before agreeing to promote it.

 

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[Xeon]

> influencer
> credibility
pick one.

IMO, it doesn't matter if we perceive an influencer to be credible, as long as that influencer's followers see them as credible and are willing to lap up any products the influencer mentions.

 

[pappaishere]

FMJJ

That's black and white thinking. If you work with a credible influencer, he/she will vet the product or service you're promoting before agreeing to promote it.

FMJJ, can you kindly give me some advice for the right people to follow for learn and create a profitable shopify store?
Who are the people that you learned from?
Thank you very much

 

[Jeff Noel]

FMJJ

FMJJ, can you kindly give me some advice for the right people to follow for learn and create a profitable shopify store?
Who are the people that you learned from?
Thank you very much

Most of the time, the best way to go is to get out and do it yourself. You'll make mistakes, but you'll learn infinitely faster than reading or listening to someone else. It's also easier to get a mentor or someone to give you feedback if you are IN the process rather than starring at an imaginary brand.

 

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[Frozt]

Before this job in the medical field, I started my marketing agency when I was working for a bakery at minimum wage. This place was a terrible place to work, but we don’t have to get into that. I acquired clients by building funnels and running targeted audiences (paid traffic) to them. I also closed some clients directly. I took clients on monthly retainers. When I first started this, it was nothing serious in terms of income. The service that provides the most value to my clients is managing marketing campaigns on major platforms like Facebook and generating leads. As my experience and skills developed for my marketing agency, I closed clients that were paying enough money to enable quitting the job I was working in the medical field.

Awesome story. Do you have any recommended course to start marketing agency?

 

[dilooska]

Extremely inspiring, thank you so much for sharing! I'm also amazed by your mindset at that age.

I'm also curious, did you build your funnels with clickfunnels? and how much knowledge did you actually have before starting your marketing agency- a little bit more than the average business owner or a lot?

 

[floridaman]

It's the month of August 2020. In this month alone, I made $126,727 in profit so far (before taxes). I'm 21 years old, and I'm honored to say that the content from MJ and this forum has helped me enormously alongside many other valuable sources out there for guidance.

I hope this gives a little bit of inspiration to a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs out there because it wasn't that long ago when I used to be an aspiring entrepreneur myself. Reaching the point I'm at right now was not an easy process to embark on. I had to overcome extremely difficult situations and face my most appalling fears. I'm making this thread with tremendous gratitude in mind for @MJ DeMarco. I remember when I first read the The Millionaire Fastlane a few years ago. I remember how I marked it up and read it over several times. I remember when I first joined the forums and lurked everything. I studied all the GOLD threads. I watched MJ's YouTube videos repetitively. I felt so motivated. I remember how excited it got me to pursue entrepreneurship. Turns out it wasn't an easy pursuit.

As time went by and my motivation faded, I faced some serious mental health complications. I was ridiculed for dropping out of college. I failed at several different business models. I failed at starting brands. I failed to turn a profit over and over again. I was working jobs that were mind numbing and utterly exhausting. I had constant issues with my family. That's a long, terrible story to get into... A few months ago, I suffered going through a devastating breakup with my girlfriend I loved so deeply. This is just a small preview of the adversity you'll face while you pursue the CENTS Entrepreneurial Framework. Everything about entrepreneurship is definitely not all that amazing. You have to focus and stay dedicated despite the stress you may face. However, for me, it was worth embracing the process. I look forward to executing towards my next goals in line to be achieved. I've got a lot in mind for the future. I believe in my vision.

Aside from running a marketing agency, I'm running three eCommerce brands right now. Two of the three brands are massively profitable. The numbers have been rising month by month pretty quickly. This is where the majority of my income is coming from. I've invested in several real estate properties at this point, and obviously I'm developing my portfolio with investments into the market. I'm still working on the third brand to become profitable. I'm managing a lot of different expenses for that brand because it's still relatively new. All expenses considered though, I stated at the beginning of this thread that I'm still in the green.

The hard truth about making your dreams a reality is that you have to put in the effort. You have to believe in yourself. You have to go all out regardless of your circumstances. You have to build yourself mentally and physically. You need to master skills that make you more effective and productive. You have to be creative and innovate. You have to provide VALUE. There's no way you're going to make decent money without figuring out a way to provide great value to your customer. I had to figure that out the hard way. You need to have meaning and purpose in your life. Develop the clarity you need to achieve your most important goals. If it's important enough to you, you'll find a way.

Be courageous.

“All events of wealth are precluded by process, a backstory of trial, risk, hard work, and sacrifice. If you try to skip process, you’ll never experience events.”
- MJ DeMarco

What are your thoughts/feelings on the difference between running a services business, versus running a products business? I was considering starting an agency, but I'm not sure if I want to tie my time to money like that, and have employees I have to manage, etc. I'm considering just doing a digital or physical product.

 

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[Ethan_Scott]

This is amazing stuff

 

[Diogo Santos]

Loved the thread, a lot of value to be picked up from here!
And all at the age of 21 that's amazing!

 

[Mr.Bizjak]

It's the month of August 2020. In this month alone, I made $126,727 in profit so far (before taxes). I'm 21 years old, and I'm honored to say that the content from MJ and this forum has helped me enormously alongside many other valuable sources out there for guidance.

I hope this gives a little bit of inspiration to a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs out there because it wasn't that long ago when I used to be an aspiring entrepreneur myself. Reaching the point I'm at right now was not an easy process to embark on. I had to overcome extremely difficult situations and face my most appalling fears. I'm making this thread with tremendous gratitude in mind for @MJ DeMarco. I remember when I first read the The Millionaire Fastlane a few years ago. I remember how I marked it up and read it over several times. I remember when I first joined the forums and lurked everything. I studied all the GOLD threads. I watched MJ's YouTube videos repetitively. I felt so motivated. I remember how excited it got me to pursue entrepreneurship. Turns out it wasn't an easy pursuit.

As time went by and my motivation faded, I faced some serious mental health complications. I was ridiculed for dropping out of college. I failed at several different business models. I failed at starting brands. I failed to turn a profit over and over again. I was working jobs that were mind numbing and utterly exhausting. I had constant issues with my family. That's a long, terrible story to get into... A few months ago, I suffered going through a devastating breakup with my girlfriend I loved so deeply. This is just a small preview of the adversity you'll face while you pursue the CENTS Entrepreneurial Framework. Everything about entrepreneurship is definitely not all that amazing. You have to focus and stay dedicated despite the stress you may face. However, for me, it was worth embracing the process. I look forward to executing towards my next goals in line to be achieved. I've got a lot in mind for the future. I believe in my vision.

Aside from running a marketing agency, I'm running three eCommerce brands right now. Two of the three brands are massively profitable. The numbers have been rising month by month pretty quickly. This is where the majority of my income is coming from. I've invested in several real estate properties at this point, and obviously I'm developing my portfolio with investments into the market. I'm still working on the third brand to become profitable. I'm managing a lot of different expenses for that brand because it's still relatively new. All expenses considered though, I stated at the beginning of this thread that I'm still in the green.

The hard truth about making your dreams a reality is that you have to put in the effort. You have to believe in yourself. You have to go all out regardless of your circumstances. You have to build yourself mentally and physically. You need to master skills that make you more effective and productive. You have to be creative and innovate. You have to provide VALUE. There's no way you're going to make decent money without figuring out a way to provide great value to your customer. I had to figure that out the hard way. You need to have meaning and purpose in your life. Develop the clarity you need to achieve your most important goals. If it's important enough to you, you'll find a way.

Be courageous.

“All events of wealth are precluded by process, a backstory of trial, risk, hard work, and sacrifice. If you try to skip process, you’ll never experience events.”
- MJ DeMarco

You are f*****g beast, 100 000 and you have 21y, that is soo awesome.

 

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[TurboBox]

the marketing campaigns were profitable overall from the first month. Most notably on Facebook

Great story and it's one I plan to experience myself. Similar to you, I did marketing and then ecom on the side.

Anyways, that quote up there is my biggest problem right now. I haven't been able to get any product to be profitable during the first month.

Do you think this is due to a poor product? i.e., a good product would be profitable even if the ads weren't nailed? Or do you think it's more about MAKING the product profitable (split testing a F*ck tonne and then later graduating to lookalike audiences etc to drive down cpas)?

 

[FMJJ]

I’d like to thank everyone who replied to this thread with a compliment. I really appreciate the positive and respectful remarks. I’m glad to share some details of my journey. It’s awesome to know that you can apply things you learn from here and experience growth in your own journey.

It’s been a while since I last made a developed post in this thread. My time has been focused on my health, the relationships that are important in my life, and of course scaling my business. Total income is consistently over $80k profit per month. Creating a productocracy is a real thing. My experience is proof of that. Things are running well and it’s an incredible, fulfilling feeling to have such a powerful business system. Let me be clear though, there’s a lot more to living a fulfilling life. Financial freedom is not everything. Money is among many other things that are important. There’s plenty of people making bank, yet they have trash relationships in their life— and/or they have a toxic way of thinking, and/or they neglect their physical health, etc. This is more apparent in those who aren’t self-made, but also apparent in those who are. My journey was not a simple one, and it took character and dedication to make it to the point I’m at right now. Self damn made. Healthy. Physically and mentally. I’m able to drop by this thread as often as I can to discuss anything related to the pursuit of entrepreneurship. As I’ve said, I’m writing here to inspire you and help you gain some insight.

Let’s touch on product/service research some more. In other words, identifying needs. It’s about having options and taking in as much information as you can to make a decision on what’s worth pursuing. This process is time intensive because most business models are not worth your time. Be picky with what you choose to focus your energy on. You have your list of ideas. Figure out what’s absolutely not worth pursuing, what’s worth considering, then narrow your options some more to figure out what single business you’re GOING TO COMMIT LARGE AMOUNTS OF ENERGY TO. You don’t need a business plan. Have a set of ideas and execute the research process necessary to pick which of those ideas is the best idea. I’ve made the mistake of not identifying pros and cons thoroughly before making the choice to pursue a given business. Take this damn seriously. Write down what’s important on paper. Think carefully and clarify any confusion. Draw out your thinking. Circle things. Underline key points. Draw arrows showing what’s relevant to what. Hopefully you get the point. Paper and pen is a great tool to supplement your thinking so that you’re “thinking on the next level.” What value attributes can you add to skew value in your favor when it comes to competing with other businesses in the space? Is this need something you can fulfill for the market long-term, year round? Or seasonally? What specifically will you do better than the competition? What can you focus on that your competition is neglecting to focus on? What’s your competition’s main source of revenue? What’s the entry barrier to establishing the foundation your competitors have? In my previous post in this thread, I talked a little about some other factors to consider. With that said, use your brain to figure out what other factors to consider when you study your ideas to potentially go forward with. Research research research. As far as specific information like assessing the revenue of your competitors, you get as much detail as you can. Go ahead and use tools such as the ones that track inventory over time. You get as much detail as you can about all the important aspects of your competitors and from there my thing is this. I go with my gut. I go with my intuition. When you have options and you’ve taken in all the information and data you can get, it’s obviously time to make a decision. Indecision kills. When sufficient research is done, sometimes you go with your gut from there even if you’re not “fully validated” by the studying you’ve done. Now execute. Unfold your process with concerted action. Aim for a standard of excellence. Let’s say your business failed. Ultimately, you don’t know if your business will work until you put it out in the market and see the results with sales. It’s better to have experience pursuing something worthwhile than not. The lessons you’ll find will be much more valuable and useful for your next go at it. You learn a lot more when you take on a business attempt that follows substantial due diligence.

 

[Dustinaitis]

What value attributes can you add to skew value in your favor when it comes to competing with other businesses in the space?

Did you improve something of the product you found? For example better material, quality ... Or was it better customer service or something else?
I guess you didn't invent the product? So how exactly did you stand out from competition? Thank you in advance!

 

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[RemySheppard]

> influencer
> credibility
pick one.

No, I totally get it.
You used a different method to help scale your $120,000 a month eCom brand and you can enlighten us on it?

 

[TOnFastlane]

I started “brand #1” after I saved a lot of money to leverage. I already failed at launching business after business at this point. I always kept in mind the metaphor MJ uses. Failure is the sweat of success. The most successful are soaking wet. I learned from and studied my failures. The most important lessons are in your failures. I did a lot of reflection there. I was in the medical field working a job at a small business. I climbed the little corporate ladder to get paid well. This was not a walk in the park. I had to make this business a lot more money than what I was being paid for my labor. I had to notably outperform my co-workers. I used to be almost minimum wage when I started there. The managerial position I was eventually put in was certainly not guaranteed. I made connections and carried out a meticulous strategy. I befriended people that I didn’t necessarily look up to. I just wanted to be a positive influence on them. I wanted them to help me while I was at this job. I was getting paid a decent amount of money (relatively speaking), but the job was draining my time and energy.

Before this job in the medical field, I started my marketing agency when I was working for a bakery at minimum wage. This place was a terrible place to work, but we don’t have to get into that. I acquired clients by building funnels and running targeted audiences (paid traffic) to them. I also closed some clients directly. I took clients on monthly retainers. When I first started this, it was nothing serious in terms of income. The service that provides the most value to my clients is managing marketing campaigns on major platforms like Facebook and generating leads. As my experience and skills developed for my marketing agency, I closed clients that were paying enough money to enable quitting the job I was working in the medical field.

This is when I urgently started brand #1. I’ve been doing product research since forever because I’ve been trying to launch profitable stores for quite some time. How I do it? I look for a big need. I look for engagement on social media. I verify engagement. Are the likes legit? Are the comments legit? How does the competition market the product effectively? How much revenue do I think they're bringing in? How can I come up with my own angle to present this product with value? Facebook is the best platform to do this IMO, however, I do product research to this day on all major platforms. When I started brand #1, I was really confident about the product I found. It was currently trending, and I knew how I’d be able to present and market it. I knew that I'd be able to make an attractive website. I did it a different way from the competitors, but I did it better. I was creative with my marketing campaigns. I had a lot of experience with this because I ran plenty of profitable campaigns for my clients. I was used to overdelivering. Based on my experience and my due diligence, I decided to take what seemed like a huge risk at that moment. I had a connection who was able to help me with a warehouse, and I invested in inventory to be sent over from a supplier in China. That’s also a long story, but not really relevant to share. I problem solved on a problem by problem basis. I launched the product on Shopify, and the marketing campaigns were profitable overall from the first month. Most notably on Facebook. I’d like to note that I do not use Shopify anymore. My websites were custom made by a web design group. That was fairly expensive, but worth the expense to be running off my own platform rather than Shopify. I’m thinking long term.

I’d like to point out that this might all sound simple, but it wasn’t. The concept of success is quite simple, but things get complicated. Why do you think Unscripted is such a long book? I accredit a lot of my critical decisions to having clarity in what I was doing. I have several journals with pen and paper as well as on the app, Day One. I journal about emotions (yes I’m human and have to manage emotions), insightful ideas, failure, deadlines, etc... I journal about everything.

Right now I'm in a great place mentally. My physical health is great too. I'm grateful for the journey I took on. I'm appreciative for everything that helped get me to this point. I have to say that the "paranoia" feeling hasn't gone away, and I don't think it ever will. It's just a trait of a great entrepreneur. I'm always thinking of how I can improve. I'm always thinking about how things can go wrong. I'm always thinking about risks and how I should structure things. I like to think this way though. Not at all annoying. I embrace an entrepreneurial lifestyle. I find great meaning living the way I do.

Hey FMJJ,

thanks for sharing your story. It is truely inspiring, so I had to print it.

 

[Pete95]

Incredible value in this post, thank you for sharing.

 

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[Kal-El1998]

Congrats dude! Bet that chick is regretting it now!!

 

[Matt Sun]

I studied a lot of sales material and applied it to my process in closing deals with clients.

Could you say what resources you studied from ? Books? YT channels? Podcasts?
I'm currently selling like 1350$ / Month, Would be nice to 100x it like you did. Congratulations.

 

[tjark]

Thank you for this great thread!

For me there are definitely some golden nuggets in here, which exactly fit my current situation. Fascinating how you scaled your agency by winning clients with Facebook ads.

How have you verified whether a client is worth taking on? Have you researched their products to see, if this can be a success?

 

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[FMJJ]

Thank you for this great thread!

For me there are definitely some golden nuggets in here, which exactly fit my current situation. Fascinating how you scaled your agency by winning clients with Facebook ads.

How have you verified whether a client is worth taking on? Have you researched their products to see, if this can be a success?

Really good questions. You want to work with clients that you can enjoy significant profits from and at the same time have a healthy, professional relationship with them. Choose clients that are worth it rather than "bad clients" that are unappreciative, lacking competence, or just plain toxic, etc. Create a lot of options. Prospect a lot. An abundance mindset is important here. Providing a valuable service and fulfilling your clients' need to the best of your ability is key of course. With that said, "good clients" accept strong boundaries that you must put in place via effective communication and an efficient business system. In other words, they let you do your job well while they do theirs. Win-win. Know, as specifically as you can, who your ideal client is based on the benefits your business provides. Approach ideal clients with a personalized outreach strategy and be consistent. You ask if I researched products of my prospects. Yes. Absolutely. Always do thorough due diligence on a business and your ability to help that business before reaching out to work with that business. Obviously, don't work with clients that don't qualify to work with your business. The opportunity costs of choosing to work with a "bad client" are quite damaging. It takes away from your focus on "good clients." You wanna focus on your best clients without unnecessary nonsense from clients that don't fit well in your business system. Similar to how it's exhausting to deal with a narcissist or toxic person in a romantic relationship, it's exhausting to deal with clients or customers that don't fit your business. You can't afford to be weighed down by nonsense. Prioritize being productive. Manually finding the best clients is a time-intensive, effort-intensive process, and it's worth it if you do it right.

 

[zhangmin_007]

真的很好的问题。您想与客户合作，您可以从中获得可观的利润，同时与他们建立健康，专业的关系。选择值得的客户，而不要选择那些缺乏欣赏力，缺乏能力或只是无聊的“坏客户”等。创建很多选择。前景广阔。在这里，丰富的心态很重要。当然，关键是要提供有价值的服务并尽力满足客户的需求。话虽如此，“好的客户”接受必须通过有效的沟通和有效的业务系统建立的牢固界限。换句话说，他们可以让您在做好工作的同时做好自己的工作。双赢。根据您的业务所提供的好处，尽可能具体地了解理想的客户是谁。通过个性化的外展策略来接近理想的客户，并保持一致。你问我是否研究过我的前景产品。是的。绝对地。在与该企业合作之前，请务必对企业进行全面的尽职调查，并具有帮助该企业的能力。显然，不要与没有资格与您的企业合作的客户合作。选择与“坏客户”一起工作的机会成本是非常有害的。它摆脱了您对“好客户”的关注。您想专注于最好的客户，而不会因业务系统中不适合的客户而产生不必要的废话。与在恋爱中与自恋者或有毒的人打交道一样，与不适合您业务的客户或客户打交道也是如此。你可以' 不能胡说八道。优先进行生产。手动找到最佳客户是一个费时，费力的过程，如果做对了，这是值得的

非常感谢您的分享，很鼓舞人心，非常受用，谢谢！祝您好运~