24 Years old: QUIT six-figure Job, Launched two Businesses

[Andy Black]

Moved back to outside at @G_Alexander's request. People were PM'ing him asking where it is and he thinks it will benefit more people back on the outside.

A few posts were amended to remove specifics.

 

[G_Alexander]

Why the huge decline in July? And have things bounced back to normal for you?

I am pretty sure it is because he posted it on the 19th (doesn't show full months revenue).

Precisely, @Fox! Thanks for responding. If you guys didn't already know... Fox is awesome.

Finished July strong!

Thanks to everyone else for the kind words. Glad to help you guys any way I can!

 

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[MoneyDoc]

No disrespect to all the other progress threads, but this one touched me for some reason... I had a manly tear in my eye half-way in. Truly an inspiration bro, this is just what I needed today!

I hope you succeed even more and please keep us posted!

 

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[G_Alexander]

Great job, looks like you found a high priced product that is in demand. Only thing I'm curious about, especially because of the weight of the items, what happens if someone orders a product that comes from 2 different suppliers? Don't you get screwed on paying the shipping twice for your dropshippers to ship to them?

@Yury Byalik Each product on my website has it's own separate fixed-shipping costs attached to it, so the customer ends up paying no matter who I dropship from. I would recommend charging shipping per item, rather than calculating at the end of the checkout.

Would you mind telling me how you met your business partner? Random chance on another deal I was doing.

Is there a reason you didnt outsource things like making the website? I could find plenty of people online who could design my website for me relatively cheap and i was actually going to do that soon... Wanted to learn, now I can outsource in the future and know what I am actually getting charged for.

How'd you get into Investment Banking? Train for interviews using THE VAULT GUIDE. Meet someone in industry if possible. Get an IB internship your Junior year of college. Crush the internship. Get the offer.

@theag, always liked that one, and this one:

 

[G_Alexander]

Hey G_Alexander, just wondering, is there any reason why you Dropship your products instead of purchasing them from a manufacturer in bulk? Is it because the drop shipper can offer lower shipping costs?

Also, do you plan to create your own brand products in the future?

Yes @smithsta, I chose to start by dropshipping to keep the initial equity contribution in the business low (no inventory). The shipping costs for my products ends up being the same whether I ship them or my dropshippers ship them. So I let my suppliers carry the inventory and deal with shipping at the sacrifice of a bit of margin. Also, my volume is getting close enough to start getting pricing discounts with two of my suppliers.

Because this is my first niche, I am also testing the waters a bit and decided to see what 1 fiscal-year of results (which is May 2015) looks like before making and stocking my own product. That said, I have already begun looking for U.S. Contract Manufacturers because I can see how great the margins are for the producers who supply me.

 

[G_Alexander]

This is pure speculation. Just find some stuff and start selling it. That's the only "data" that will matter. Planning ahead is good, but projecting visitors per day and profit of a dream is just inaction.

@randomnumber314, actually, Fox was just using all the posts in this thread so far (from my business dashboard performance updates) to summarize the growth of my actual numbers (contained throughout this thread). His only "speculation" is what my total net profit margin is.

You are correct though in other cases, @randomnumber314, action is the best thing you can do (much more powerful than day-dreaming/ mental masturbation)!

 

[IGP]

Topic of the day: Growing vertically.

May 1, 2014. The day I launched my ecommerce business. 6 months of preparation leading up to the big day. Two days later... I had my first sale. That was over two years ago now, and looking back I can't believe how much has changed.

I have worked through dozens of considerations throughout this time:

• Optimizing product offering (cutting the stuff that doesn't sell, adding in stuff I like or I see selling elsewhere) -- I CONSTANTLY monitor
• Dropping suppliers (the ones who were slow or didn't offer the things I liked)
• Picking up new suppliers (ones I didn't know about orginally or who thought I was too small when I first approached them)
• Negotiating on my pricing with current suppliers as my volume increased
• Monitoring search analytics within my own website (in the BigCommerce control panel)
  • Your customers search your website for what they want quite a bit (using the search box)... so don't neglect this. If you see lots of searches for a product in your niche that you don't carry... get it up there!
• Bought a domain and built half an ecommerce website in a very similar niche (more on this later)
• Bought a domain and launched a second website in my same niche
• Considered manufacturing my own brand of products...and stagnated for a bit while honing in the growth of my store (which still has more room to go).

Back to what I said about the "half an ecommerce website":

One of my top 3 biggest suppliers (I spend the 3rd most with them... and I am the largest customer they have in my niche) offers 20% products related to my niche and 80% of their products in a similar niche that is MUCH larger -- which means it has much more competition. This larger niche has very solid competitor websites (top 2 or 3 on google are $30-50M+ a year in revenue with hundreds of employees). I knew I could get on the first page of this larger niche in 2-3 years, so I started building a second website in it.

Halfway through loading product for the new site (didn't mess with the design at all, thankfully)... I had a thought: Have I truly reached the full potential in my current niche? The answer was: no. So I stopped loading product for the bigger niche that instant and instead bought a domain for a second website in my own current niche.

You might be asking yourself, "Why would you double down in a smaller niche?". I am already the number one google result for the products I offer in my first cluster of keywords... so what is the play here? Well, I'll tell you. My customers have been asking for me to offer more product options (within my own niche) and so have my suppliers.

Imagine, if you will, that I sold "seat covers" for cars (which I don't)... I am DOMINATING seat covers, but many of my customers call and ask if I also sell air fresheners, floor mats and steering wheel covers (which all my suppliers carry) and I am happy to ring them up for. After enough of these phone calls, a light bulb turned on and I launched a second website for all these products. No new suppliers needed. Same LLC. Made perfect sense.

The reason I needed a second website was I didn't want to clutter up my first website with an overwhelming mixed bag of products, thus diluting my "expert" in the field approach. So we set up shop and are now on google page 2 for the second website/ keyword cluster (basically the same niche just another, bigger keyword set) and have done ~$20,000 in sales so far in 2016 on this new website.

The reason I bring up this story is that sometimes I think people want to grow horizontally (getting super wide and offering tons of products in different niches) -- when really, there are neglected subsections of each niche that could be dominated further. The best thing I can liken this to is to call it targeted "narrow-horizontal" growth. Staying close to your niche, but bolstering your offering (or simply "beefing up your offering"). Makes a lot of sense and utilizes the same platform you already have in place.

The next logical step for me now that I am "wide enough" is to grow up the stream (become a distibutor and, finally, a manufacturer) -- Just had a great business trip to meet with a supplier I do a lot of business with. His family owns a factory in China and he is now going to private label my brand (and even stock it for me since I do $x,xxx,xxx with them per year. Hoping to build a network of retailers we sell directly to.

Just wired $4,000 over to China two days ago. Samples will be here in November. More on that later. Very excited =D

I know you don't want to "clutter up" your site with these new products and that is somewhat understandable, but I would definitely add the best selling products to your existing store and use them as up-sells during the checkout process.

I would also add these "other" products to an autoresponder series for your existing customers that give you their email address.

You will increase your avg order value and profits substantially if you do those 2 things. And they only require a small, one time effort!

Good work, G!

 

[biophase]

@G_Alexander, it’s been almost 10 years since you started this thread! Let me summarize it.

Step 1. Quit Job
Step 2. Ecommerce
Step 3. Buy 6 Lambos

 

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[theag]

How'd you get into Investment Banking?

 

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[G_Alexander]

What's your Strat for getting another 94 units in 2015, sounds like you've been / you'll be raising some seriousss cash.

Thinking Big

Thanks @Swift T!

You are correct. On this first building it was our equity in the deal (no investors) and we are looking at taking down an additional 12 units on our own without raising capital. We will then raise equity on a project-by-project basis from a very small group (of high NW individuals).

A 200 unit property takes the same amount of analysis and time to purchase as a 5 unit property, so why waste time thinking small once you have a track record and a process in place?

On the projects that we do end up raising capital for, we will be offering our investors a strong preferred return and a hefty split on NOI.

 

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[JordanK]

This is so inspirational. I have an ecommerce site as well started in November 2014. Only 26 product sales but 870$ made. I also have no physical stock so I don't have to worry about shipping. (Slow start to this month)

Websites and domains are the new real estate.

 

[DeletedUser394]

Why is this not gold?

There's a wonky thread on the front page where it is nothing but a copy pasted article from some random site.. and that has gold.

This needs gold.

In a couple months OP can buy all the gold.

 

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[G_Alexander]

Awesome work and great goals for 2016. What is your net positive cash flow from your RE investments if you don't mind?

As-is (what I currently own), targeting 2016 cashflow of $102K from both commercial and multi-family. My 3-flat kicks out $15K per year net with me living in it (I wrote a 30 page eBook about how to do this, but have yet to publish it).

Just out of curiosity about the returns in your commercial acquisition - do you resell it, rent it out etc? How does this work? Noob here, so pardon the ignorance.

Commercial property will be a mid-to-long term hold. It was a total value-add play with a business component attached (bought the business as well). We already added MAJOR value over the last 3 months (much of the purchase price was budgeted renovations) and now I will hold it for cashflow + equity value increase.

 

[Fox]

This is probably my favorite thread on the forum, love these updates @G_Alexander. Sweet view from the home office.

 

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[Fox]

Can anyone point me to the eCommerceful guide mentioned in this thread? I'd love to read up on it!

http://www.ecommercefuel.com/profitable-ecommerce-ebook/

I think this is it, they have other great guides too.

 

[danipepino]

@G_Alexander This is so inspirational! We're the same age. Unfortunately, I was too busy playing videogames, reading comics, watching TV and studying to be a slowlaner when I was 18. NOT ANYMORE THOUGH! #onwardandupward

@Eskil

 

[smarty]

Great job! Your writing style is great as well.

You mentioned no structure.. did you have a problem with work ethic/discipline with no structure?

It's something I'm trying to overcome right now. If I have a deadline I can get anything done, but setting a deadline for myself doesn't have the same effect.

I guess in short, what kept you so motivated, and were you always so motivated?

I have (had) a similar issue. My motivation to get things done recently has been "GET THE FIRST PAYING CUSTOMER AS FAST AS POSSIBLE".
when you start thinking from that place, you will know exactly what you need to do to make a minimum viable product to sell.
I will launch my first premium WP plugin in a few days.

 

[G_Alexander]

You must have very competitive prices if your customers are willing to pay multiple shipping costs.

Customers typically don't order more than one of any of my items, so the multiple shipping costs scenario is more rare(for my store) than you would think. I have never had the situation happen in almost 50 orders already.

Our prices are higher than most of our competitors.

 

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[falcon87pl]

Amazing thread! So many golden rules and motivation to be found in here so far

A real life-suck. Waking up and going to a toxic work environment fueled by caffeine, corporate-bureaucracy, a$$ kissing and alcohol infused weekends…

I've been working in IT only for the last 2 years and this is exactly how it feels. Now I just need to do what you did - focus, work my a$$ part-time, make it happen and go full time.

MJ's book started the process but this forum really helped me to start changing my life. For the last couple of months I have learned touch typing (finished a free online course between the calls on my job), quit gaming, started to run and do pull-ups, started the process of the relocation and I've been focusing on people's needs and making notes.

Thanks a lot for this thread !!

 

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[IceCreamKid]

Shit. I have no words. I love you man. lol

Looking forward to see how you close out the year.

When things get difficult you are just "leveling up" like in a video game.

I have a feeling we are following the same entrepreneur accounts on Instagram.

 

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[FreshStart87]

I have said this story before but it is worth repeating. When @G_Alexander was 18 years old, he arranged to come to my house in Scottsdale. @biophase was there also. He had his dad drop him off to spend the evening at a stranger's house to talk business with a few experienced people that he only knew from the forum.

I know at the age of 18 that I would have been doing anything else but that.

It was impressive and I am very happy to have been able to follow along with his success.

I myself have met with a

I have said this story before but it is worth repeating. When @G_Alexander was 18 years old, he arranged to come to my house in Scottsdale. @biophase was there also. He had his dad drop him off to spend the evening at a stranger's house to talk business with a few experienced people that he only knew from the forum.

I know at the age of 18 that I would have been doing anything else but that.

It was impressive and I am very happy to have been able to follow along with his success.

I myself have met with a legendary contributor on this forum. Its true that they are very helpful people, and they will take as far as they can with knowledge. You have to put yourself out there to meet them and put in the work because they are not there to do it for you. I think people on this forum want some Fastlane guru to start the business for them and somehow they will finish it off with millions. I hate to break the news to you but this is a process from start to end. Some may find luck along the way and hit it big with millions and some may just get thousands but the fact is that you must put in work.

 

[paultz]

Little update for those who are still interested!

Well, that escalated quickly!

Surpassed last years sales already. Maintaining higher conversion rate. Hired GM for the eCommerce store in February. He is AWESOME! I've been able to get away from day-to-day to focus on growing the business. Launched an Amazon store for the eCommerce products for new sales channel:

...and a second website (which has done $4,100 since March so far, and sells similar products).

Adding the first site and Amazon together, I finally crossed the half a million in yearly sales threshold and it's only May 15th (and it feels like nothing at the pace we are moving)!

Outside of my online business, I've been focused on my B&M business (in which I have a partner, and in which we are grooming to be a franchise). It has one location so far, but we get asked if we are a franchise all the time by our customers (due to our attention to detail when building it). We will open several more locations as a chain first and then evaluate our options.

Onward and upward!

Congrats G_Alexander,it is really inspiring to young entrepreneurs.This thread is going to create more millionaires(those who will smell the secret code revealed here + ACTION)

 

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[RHL]

Sweet man!

 

[Guest24480]

This post really hit me hard. I have these sudden sparks of motivation where I'll work diligently for a week or so, but it's never sustained drive. It's always temporary.

I try to back up these falters in work ethic with lame excuses. "I've had a lot of school work lately, I'll get back to it next week." Is the most common excuse. While it's true that I've been swamped lately, there is no reason to back up my lack of drive.

You were able to establish your exit route for 3 months while working one of the most demanding careers out there. That makes my situation seem like child's play. Thanks for the motivation, there's no going back from here. I'm all in..

I'm going to go get my school work done now and quit procrastinating so I can get down to business. Peace

 

[GlobalWealth]

Wow. Congrats. Big fan of your journey ever since you started the ball rolling those many years ago!

Another multi-year overnight success?

Well done sir

 

[GlobalWealth]

I just want to reiterate. Epic thread. Should be gold if not already.

 

[The-J]

Those small numbers turned into big ones. Double your conversion rate, double your visitors, equals quadrupling your income. And you did that in less than half of a year!

I'm curious: what changes did you make from that period in order to do this?

 

[G_Alexander]

When you said: How long did this take?

@Wisith About 1 month to learn basic CSS and HTML on CodeAcademy.com -- then start building your site and continue to learn and tweak each day. You should have enough to get by and learn as you go (if you had any MySpace profile editing experience/ minimal html editing experience from your teen years, it may help a bit haha).

Everyone is different when it comes to the time it takes them to become proficient at something, but if it helps to know...I had minimal/no proficiency in coding before creating my site. I just had the desire to learn and the hunger to handle the easy changes on my site so I could control my own destiny (instead of an eLance programmer). Don't wait. Get going NOW.

@Wisith you are on the clock. Finish CodeAcademy HTML and CSS basic courses by 11/25/2015. They are free.

 

[G_Alexander]

$5M a year is just insane for a small niche store! Congrats man! I need to learn from you now!

Thank you my friend! You were the first trailblazer here - and definitely have been a Mr. Miyagi for the entire forum! Can't wait to grab lunch here or by you next so we can catch up again =)

@G_AlexanderI also find it incredible that you are building multiple income streams at the same time. It's hard enough to focus on ONE idea and make it work but you are executing multiple projects with very much success.
I am just wondering how you split up your time to give every project the right amount of time. Do you work on the different project on separate days as an example (like the founder of Twitter does) or how do you make this work?

If you can keep up these growth rates the compounding effect will be crazy the coming years.

I would love to have Alex do an AMA.

Thanks! @MakeItHappen

I started off by alternating days:

• Monday and Wednesday = Brick and Mortar Biz
• Tuesday and Thursday = Online biz
• Friday and Sat = Flex day for either biz, tie up loose ends for the week
• Sunday = Off

When deals are actively occuring in the brick and mortar (new acquisitions), I would say it ends up being 1 day a week for the online biz and 4-5 for the B&M.

These days, I follow this same schedule loosely, but I don't work Saturday or Sunday really... I also don't work on whatever days I don't feel like it or have errands to run, or just want to go drive my car and visit friends =)

Hey @G_Alexander do you know why google keywords would show no information at all for 5 similar keywords? I know for a fact people are looking for this item and it shouldn't be something that shouldn't be able to be advertised... Seemed like a good niche as it hit what you said with the top three sites look like they're in the 90s.

@Castillo
You are likely using the new Keyword tool from Google. Search for the "Old Keyword Planner" or "Standalone Keyword Planner" from Adwords. I always keep one open and have it bookmarked.

The new planner just lumps keywords together and isn't as accurate.

Also, look to subscribe to something like SEMrush ($99 a month). They have TONS of keyword tools.

 

[Tommy92l]

I bet people thought Gates was nuts for dropping out of such a prestigious college as well. The fact that you've even landed a 6 figure job is a testament to your abilities in general. Best of luck fella

 

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