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

[Fox]

Excellent work.

Thanks for keeping this updated.

 

[c_morris]

This is the 2nd mega progress thread I have read in the past 2 days. This time I used my bosses time instead of my own.

Amazing thread and unbelievable progress! Thanks for the inspiration @G_Alexander

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

 

[tiagosoares17.22]

What an amazing thread! I am impressed. Fantastic job!

I am 25 years-old and I am now starting my own business in the wine industry. The goal is to create a new brand (which I am doing) and sell it abroad. To be honest, I have no clue how I am going to pull this off, but I will have to find a way.

 

[G_Alexander]

WTF? I can't make this GOLD it's already GOLD! You trying to get me to create a "PLATINUM" tag? Congrats on the growth and the new trinket! Measured rewards!

Thank you so much, my friend! Please add "receive PLATINUM thread tag" to my goal list for 2019

@G_Alexander I am so impressed by your progress! You are huge inspiration for me. I am pretty sure you will make even more sales than you expect. Enjoy your journey and keep it going!

Thank you

 

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[Castillo]

hi @G_Alexander amazing thread, i have learned so much here, thank you!

one question i had was regarding you coding your site - was that from scratch or in addition to an out of the box type thing like shopify or yola or such? i wondered because i have an IT background, but in addition to HTML & CSS there is a lot of backend work to be done, making sure the code is not easily sniffed for CCs for example, making sure SSL is set up correctly, having your products in a database, a nice page layout...etc..im motivated but wondering if it is worth spending time on coding a site vs. OOB...(out of box)

He stated earlier he uses bigcommerce. So you'll have to know some css and html still but it's not as intensive as building it from scratch.

 

[Peakdesire]

Wow. What a great story! Inspiring!

And congratulations.

One question; What would you do if you were 20 years old? (like me now)

I'm feeling a little lost..i see all this opportunity in the internet businesses etc etc and i don't know which direction to head

Thanks.

 

[Rawr]

One of my favorite posters! Way to go dude, love your attitude.

 

[Seppo]

Is there any way for you to pass the shipping costs down to your customers? That is the important piece to consider. If the answer is yes, you have no issues: just charge the customers for the high shipping costs.

If the answer is no, i.e. if all your competitors offer "free-shipping" on their sites and have larger scale than you (they do, because you are just starting) it means their pricing will be lower (economies of scale) AND include the free shipping they are offering. You would be dead in the water before you even started and you would end up playing the dreaded price wars into extinction.

Long story short: You don't care if the shipping is expensive, your customers do. If your competitors offer free shipping on a heavy product, forget about it (in my opinion) unless you begin with massive scale (not likely). If all your competitors are charging your customers for shipping, then you're all good! Just charge them and focus on great customer service and a clean site. You can sell ANYTHING in the world if you both look and act professional.

Last bit: Don't drop ship from China to U.S. or UK or whatever it may be. Only drop ship product in the country where your suppliers are located (e.g. U.S. suppliers for U.S. business) to avoid ridiculous frustration.

Great reply. Thank you.

Your right about the price wars. I have been checking out the big player/s on this particular niche and to be honest there's only 2 or max 3 "big" guys operating this market here in Sweden. A way these guys seem to be handeling the shipping is to offer free shipping after a certain amount of bought items. Usually 80-100$. The shipping companies being DHL, UPS and Bring.

I agree with you on the drop shipping. I just can't see it being possible, if my pontential customers had do wait for up to a month for getting their paid for product to arrive.

 

[RHL]

Congratz OP.... but to the 2nd guy... LOL Wal Mart is an Affiliate marketer ????! WTF

Somebody literally made the argument that Wal-Mart, Target, YouTube, eBay, etc., basically all businesses were affiliate marketers here in a thread that got closed. It's a joke.

 

[K.Y.]

What kind of acceptance rate as a dropshipper did you get for suppliers?

I had a list of 15 potential.
1 said yes.
3-4 are maybe and on the fence.
The rest said no.

Thanks!

 

[K.Y.]

@Eddie Morra what method are you using to contact them (calling, emailing, etc.)?

I made a list of the top 15 brands I liked in my industry and began contacting manufacturers (who directed me to distributors, if they used them). Called 9 total suppliers and 8 of them said yes. The one supplier who told me no said it was because a B&M store they supply is located near me (they have a policy not to supply any stores within 5 miles of each other, regardless if B&M or ecom). I am going to revisit using them soon, because they are a high quality distributor.

Are you sending emails or calling? I would recommend having your reseller ID ready to go (if you are serious) and getting on the phone with your potential suppliers. Tell the potential supplier your name, where you're based, that your expertise is in running niche ecommerce websites, and that you are launching a ***insert niche here*** site on XXXX, 2014 (give an actual date, and make it your target). After solidifying your status as a "real player" in your introduction, have a list of questions you want answered in advance:

• What are the profit margins on your [main product]
• What do the profit margins look like on your [accessories]
• Do you offer drop shipping? Do you have purchasing minimums or MOQs?
• How much do you charge to drop ship? Do you accept credit cards for payment?
• What are your return policies?
• Etc. etc.

Don't feel like you owe potential suppliers anything, they are a business and they want to supply you so you can make them money!

• I am calling each supplier.
• I already had my store built and ready to go with example products imported (3 for each brand).
• Had a launch date set.

The ones where I actually got to the point where they gave me an email to send my launch information are the 3-4.

The rest simply said no because they didn't have a dropship program/required brick and mortar.

Maybe it's just my niche?

 

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[MoneyDoc]

About 3 hours ago, I was thinking of posting for an update on this thread.

Thank you buddy! Threads like this motivate me to never give up.

Keep on grinding!

 

[JasonR]

Nice man - glad to see an update since you came out to Scottsdale.

Shiat I may have to go make a new progress thread now.

 

[The-J]

Thanks for your response.

I also noticed that your average order value seems to be pretty high... I don't care WHAT business that is, that's starting from a strong foundation.

Awesome stuff.

 

[GuestUser113]

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.

@MJ DeMarco @Vigilante

 

[fff]

Great thread! I own my own business. I am a franchisor with two corporate stores and two franchisees. We are in the early stages of real growth so every now and then in like to pop in and read a post like this one for motivation. Well done, thank you for the inspiration, good luck!

 

[G_Alexander]

Hey dude, awesome answers. Got a question regarding your Magento backend since I'm in the same boat,

How did you take care of tax? Did you use an extension or manually add each region's tax?

@jason91
I use Bigcommerce.

Great thread. Just read it all for the first time. Didn't see this asked but is this a private label product that you are building a brand from the bottom up?

@jec1521 I sell other people's products (dropship). But have opportunities to make my own now.

 

[mnov5534]

@G_Alexander what an inspiring thread, I've just read it from page 1. I can see many similarities between your journey and that of Jack Edwards in his epic progress thread.

Your growth has been phenomenal, how did you choose the niche, was it something you'd been studying/following for some time or a niche that you're passionate about and found the need to serve the customers better? Again, I see the similarities here with what Jack did.

I've been in a similar position, after 7 years in the corporate world I knew enough is enough! I've been "selling online" for many years, not not seriously. The past year I've started getting more serious, market testing many products and preparing to build an eCommerce site.

My biggest hurdle for now is coming up with a short, catchy, easy to remember name for my business/website. My niche is a lot more crowded, which makes it a lot harder. How did you come up with your store's name? Was SEO driven, or niche-specific?


For anyone new who's wondering what I'm talking about referring to the Jack Edwards progress thread, read it from start to end, its worth every hour you'll spend:
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/diary-of-opening-a-new-business.29468/

 

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[G_Alexander]

speechless....

You're the best @GrumpyCat

 

[G_Alexander]

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

Looking forward to see how you close out the year.

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

@IceCreamKid

Feelings mutual man, and I told myself I would give a $50 cookie out to whoever caught that instagram post reference. You never disappoint me. We need to catch up soon and to hang out this year .

 

[Wisith]

This is an awesome thread.

G_Alex: you are wise beyond your years! I'm about 6 years older than you, but I can definitely relate. The corporate politic is tiring. I once had the desire to climb the corp ladder, but not anymore. So many kids in college would want to be in your former role. A lot of them want to get into IB for the big bucks, but don't realize how draining it is. A close friend of mine is 'hooked'. He enjoys the income, but loathes the long work hours. I told him he can do something on the side and ultimately leap, similar like you and others on this forum. His reply was that he is not a risk taker.

When you said: How long did this take?

"I built my ecommerce site late at night during the last few months of my job. I would get home at 11pm or 12am and then work until 2am or 3am on my site (loading product, back-end, learning basic HTML and CSS, SEO)."

I ask because I come from a nontechnical background. I wanted to get into tech and code myself about a year ago. I tried to learn the basic languages on my free time, social life was non existing. I went to a lot of networking even here in Silicone Beach to try to find a CTO or someone who may know someone I can partner with, no results. I have then changed the plan since it was taking too long. I will outsource that when the time comes.

 

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[The Grind]

400k in sales in your store...wtf.

at 24? wtf...

how much did you lose before you start making a profit??

who helped you. doubt you did ALL this ALL by yourself.

 

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[The Grind]

Must have been "luck" !

I didn't say it was luck you dumbass's. I ask a simple questions and you fastlane fan boys... start preaching this nonsense.

He had a mentor help him a lot...

And yes its actually true, no 24 year old can make that much progress that quickly with literally no help from anyone, so shut the F*ck up.

 

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[The Grind]

@The Grind
I think your line of thinking is actually a bit off base. And it's off-putting to see you chastising other members here... A mentor didn't come down from a golden cloud in the sky and hold my hand while guaranteeing me success along the way. I busted my a$$ making friends with intelligent individuals (teachers/mentors/forums/blogs/articles, etc.) --- I offered to help people in any way I could (free marketing, cleaning up their excel spreadsheets (a skill I had), etc.) and paid close attention along the way so that I could learn. I have been doing that since I was 18 years old. In turn, these individuals suggested books I should read (that had helped them), pointed me in the right direction and watched me take flight.

When it came to my ecommerce website -- I built the ENTIRE THING just by simply reading threads here on The Fastlane + one eBook. The information is out there for free (you should thank your lucky stars and God that @biophase is as amazingly generous with his time and knowledge on this forum as he is and that @MJ DeMarco built what he built for us). Bio basically laid out the ecommerce roadmap here for EVERYONE, yet people still put out their hand for help and are too blind to see he has already handed them the keys to a HIGH POWERED vehicle. If you put the pieces together (and take good notes), it is all here for you already. The secret receipe. The golden goose. The reality is --- there are no secrets. Only a hunger for knowledge and the undying pursuit to be a better man tomorrow than you are today.

Happy New Year

400k in sales...

it takes years to hit those numbers, dont understand.

 

[JDx]

Amazing progress, congratulations. That first million is coming!

 

[Wisith]

This is awesome, my friend. I read the thread once before, but will reread again.

I have so many friends who are in a similar situation. Stuck in a job they hate, but finally cracked the $100k mark working long hours only to put up with it because it's too 'hard' to leave job security.

 

[Monnies]

Looks easy, yet so difficult

 

[Fox]

@G_Alexander , @Fox I stand corrected, I thought the excel thing was one of those planning a millionaire empire in excel, without going outside. Good on you for taking action.

No worries, lots of that goes on. My progress thread should be up within 1 -2 months. I want to start with a certain amount of work done (results had) instead of just posting an idea.

 

[KSR]

Thankfully this was moved back to the outside, I'm enjoying this thread thoroughly.

 

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[sam9530130]

Wow, just read the whole thread. This is effing great. Thanks for sharing your great journey.

It really puts things in perspective, in a fantastic way.