8 Eyewear: From Idea, to Launch, to Growth (And Quitting the Job)

[W4RHRSE]

@Vick I watched your journey through your posts on FaceBook and I cannot tell you how happy I am that you have acheieved your dreams!

Thank you for offering me the glance into the trials, tribulations, victories and success of your journey.

Were it not for you, I would not have known about the Millionare FastLane, and I certainly wouldn't be on this fourm.

Congratulations my friend!

 

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[Vick]

Vick, would you mind sharing a bit about your Facebook campaign? Not necessarily any sensitive information. I'm especially interested in what type of ads and targeting you use (in general terms). Do you offer any special discounts for FB users?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sure. I'll see what I can put together. What I do is nothing surprising.

I use alot of Lookalike audience's based off conversions to generate good traffic. Then just retarget.

But ya. I'll try and whip something up.

 

[joncrx]

Sure. I'll see what I can put together. What I do is nothing surprising.

I use alot of Lookalike audience's based off conversions to generate good traffic. Then just retarget.

But ya. I'll try and whip something up.

Vick did you ever launch the aviator style? I was sooo psyched to pick a pair up...

 

[sin_tzu]

@Vick just read the entire thread from front to back. From beginning to hurdles to success. This thread is platinum compared to those online courses that'll teach you how to launch your product for X amount, but they've never done it. You're an inspiration dude.

@MJ DeMarco your analogy about the chef vs the cook is spot on. That guy will slow down and begin failing as soon as he encounters situations which he doesn't have recipes for.

It's been invaluable for me to see how you took things from concept to prototype to product to major success. Thank you for sharing your journey with all of us. Hoping one day we cross paths in Toronto.

Looking forward to seeing continued success.

 

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[Vick]

Vick did you ever launch the aviator style? I was sooo psyched to pick a pair up...

No there were issues with China. Had to can it with that company. They are scheduled for our 4th product. Sometime next year they will be available.

 

[Ben S.]

Wow. Just read through everything here. Amazing! Thanks so much for sharing. I was upset with my samples. But that's NOTHING compared to the hurtles you tore down.

 

[Dan1el]

My absolute favorite thread on this forum! Thank you so much for all the inspiration and also for sharing with us what it REALLY takes to succed. I think its super cool of you that you keep on sharing even though thiefs been here taking your stuff, youre always one step ahead. Enjoy watching the copycats through your rear view window in your new Audi

Cheers!

 

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[Vick]

Update.

Surprise surprise. Issues with China again. Lol I just laugh it off now and move on.

CAMO V.1 designs won't make an appearance. At least not for a bit. Quality issues with the water transfer. Gotta keep pressing China to deliver.

Anyway, they already injected the frames for those camo units. So I just made some cooler colors to replace the Camo units. Matte Gun Metal. Matte Bronze. Full matte Red. Full matte blue. And some others. New inventory expected in a month or so.

Our new VX molds are ready. Waiting on samples. Can't wait too see them. Hopefully we have better luck with our CAMO prints on that model. Fingers crossed.

Sales are still strong thanks to Facebook and Instagram. Which is pretty much all I use. Actually it's all I use. Lol

Took our products off Amazon.com. Too many issues with being up here in Canada. And sales were very small. The sales were from my FB and IG advertising anyway, so if they didn't buy them on Amazon they would've went to our site. It was becoming a hastle and not worth the time invested. I do better focusing on my site.

Wayfarer model will be going into production within the coming months. It's prototype name so far is VR. Might change. Who knows, I always end up changing shit last minute.

On another note. I have to admit. Life is good. We barely work now. Income keeps pouring in. I'm free to do whatever I want. Hit the gym everyday. Go running. Play games. Spend time with the wife and kid. Drive the R8. Etc.

We pretty much live a 7hr work week. Everything runs automatically. Except order fulfilling which barely takes time anyway now that I've optimized it. Ads take no time. And they run for weeks at a time. Then they are replaced with fresh ads. I know I promised a video, but m6 ad plans are always changing so I don't wanna give anyone bad advice. Waiting till I find a good flow that works grea . So please be patient. I will make one.

This summer I will be looking at fulfilment houses. Not Amazon. It will be another company closer to home in the Toronto area. We would like to be able to visit the wife's folks when they are in Florida for weeks maybe months at a time, only way to do that is fulfilment houses. So ya, gonna look into that. It's a must.

Our sales are expected to be over 1 million this year. so hopefully we can hit that number. Now that our new model VX will be out soon we should hit that number easily.

Guess that's it.

Cheers. Keep pushing!

Mark

 

[Jake]

Matte Bronze

Nice one.

Would be pretty sick to have a photo shoot with those and a bronze watch..preferably Panerai.


If I remember correctly you're in a handful of retailers. Do you pursue them much or just let them come to you?

Great update. Happy for you man.

 

[ddzc]

Update.

On another note. I have to admit. Life is good. We barely work now. Income keeps pouring in. I'm free to do whatever I want. Hit the gym everyday. Go running. Play games. Spend time with the wife and kid. Drive the R8. Etc.

We pretty much live a 7hr work week. Everything runs automatically. Except order fulfilling which barely takes time anyway now that I've optimized it. Ads take no time. And they run for weeks at a time. Then they are replaced with fresh ads. I know I promised a video, but m6 ad plans are always changing so I don't wanna give anyone bad advice. Waiting till I find a good flow that works grea . So please be patient. I will make one.

This summer I will be looking at fulfilment houses. Not Amazon. It will be another company closer to home in the Toronto area. We would like to be able to visit the wife's folks when they are in Florida for weeks maybe months at a time, only way to do that is fulfilment houses. So ya, gonna look into that. It's a must.

Our sales are expected to be over 1 million this year. so hopefully we can hit that number. Now that our new model VX will be out soon we should hit that number easily.

Guess that's it.

Cheers. Keep pushing!

Mark

This here - the sole purpose and meaning of the fastlane. Awesome job man, keep killing it!

 

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[Eskil]

On another note. I have to admit. Life is good. We barely work now. Income keeps pouring in. I'm free to do whatever I want. Hit the gym everyday. Go running. Play games. Spend time with the wife and kid. Drive the R8. Etc.

We pretty much live a 7hr work week. Everything runs automatically. Except order fulfilling which barely takes time anyway now that I've optimized it. Ads take no time. And they run for weeks at a time. Then they are replaced with fresh ads. I know I promised a video, but m6 ad plans are always changing so I don't wanna give anyone bad advice. Waiting till I find a good flow that works grea . So please be patient. I will make one.

Man.... this is EXACTLY why we are all doing what we're doing here. To LIVE life and enjoy it the way others can only dream of before their "wealth in a wheelchair" at retirement, as MJ puts it. You are living proof that MJ's book and the Fastlane principles, without question - can and will lead to the dream life you want to live.

Thanks for the update. Oh and, I got my 8's in the mail yesterday! Gonna take some pics here with them soon and share on social media

 

[MJ DeMarco]

On another note. I have to admit. Life is good. We barely work now. Income keeps pouring in. I'm free to do whatever I want. Hit the gym everyday. Go running. Play games. Spend time with the wife and kid. Drive the R8. Etc.

Our sales are expected to be over 1 million this year.

Wow, living the dream man -- congrats.

You are living proof that MJ's book and the Fastlane principles, without question - can and will lead to the dream life you want to live.

Yes and honestly, Vick's story is kinda the standard blueprint into how it happens.

 

[JAJT]

Took our products off Amazon.com. Too many issues with being up here in Canada.

Out of curiosity - what problems?

I've been selling on Amazon.com almost exclusively for 2 years now and none of the problems I face have to do with me being located in Canada. I mean, I'd save some dollars being in the USA for sure but even on low-ticket items I make it work pretty easily.

The great thing about Amazon is it kind of just "works" without touching it. You ship them inventory and collect payments as they sell. Literally the only thing you HAVE to do is respond to customer inquiries (which are few and far between).

Obviously you know your business better than I do so I'm not trying to advocate anything here but by all means drop me a line if you want to talk about it further and I'd be happy to share my experiences and thoughts on whatever is troubling you.

Cheers,

 

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[AllenCrawley]

Congrats @Vick! Those years of incredibly difficult work is paying off in spades. I am so happy for you and your family.

You sure know how to tease us with the Facebook ad successes. I'm curious. Could you provide a rough breakdown of what percentage of revenue is coming from where? Facebook, IG, repeat, referral, wholesale, organic, etc?

 

[Vick]

Nice one.

Would be pretty sick to have a photo shoot with those and a bronze watch..preferably Panerai.


If I remember correctly you're in a handful of retailers. Do you pursue them much or just let them come to you?

Great update. Happy for you man.

let them come to me

thanks

 

[Vick]

Wow, living the dream man -- congrats.



Yes and honestly, Vick's story is kinda the standard blueprint into how it happens.

thanks @MJ DeMarco

 

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[Vick]

Out of curiosity - what problems?

I've been selling on Amazon.com almost exclusively for 2 years now and none of the problems I face have to do with me being located in Canada. I mean, I'd save some dollars being in the USA for sure but even on low-ticket items I make it work pretty easily.

The great thing about Amazon is it kind of just "works" without touching it. You ship them inventory and collect payments as they sell. Literally the only thing you HAVE to do is respond to customer inquiries (which are few and far between).

Obviously you know your business better than I do so I'm not trying to advocate anything here but by all means drop me a line if you want to talk about it further and I'd be happy to share my experiences and thoughts on whatever is troubling you.

Cheers,

Returns... There annoying as shit through Amazon, especially with our product. And, about 90% of my returns (from my site and Amazon), were from Amazon buyers. Tells me something about Amazon buyers. Cheap annoying people, talk talk talk, complain complain complain, not one of them was nice to deal with via email. Me and the wife decided to end the Amazon annoyance. It wasn't worth it.
Im not interested in selling on Amazon, we make great income just from our site

 

[TheTruth]

Returns... There annoying as shit through Amazon, especially with our product. And, about 90% of my returns (from my site and Amazon), were from Amazon buyers. Tells me something about Amazon buyers. Cheap annoying people, talk talk talk, complain complain complain, not one of them was nice to deal with via email. Me and the wife decided to end the Amazon annoyance. It wasn't worth it.
Im not interested in selling on Amazon, we make great income just from our site

Funny you said this. I was doing market research on all my competitors.

Most of the big selling amazon brands have minimal site traffic and sold at a cheap low price point.

However, on the flip side, most of brands that didn't have much presence on amazon, had a TON of traffic to their sites (with much higher price points).

Glad you put in the work to get 95% of sales from your own site.

 

[pgtownsyou]

Me and the wife decided to end the Amazon annoyance. It wasn't worth it.

I couldn't agree more. This plus other hassles in dealing with Amazon's 'Seller Performance Team' caused me to start shifting sales to my website a number of months back. As of yesterday I pulled all my inventory from Amazon. It feels good to escape from their clutch.

Also, I want to say congrats on all your success! Your current situation is my desired end game. I was looking at your financial plan that you put together a number of months back (50k revenue, spend 30% on ads, etc etc). I'm curious how closely you are following this plan? I've started putting together something similar to try to reach my goals. Did any surprises pop up in which you had to alter that plan? Do you even still follow that plan? Just wondering how that worked out for you

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

There annoying as shit through Amazon, especially with our product.

Have you thought about advertising your product at FULL RETAIL (or greater!) on Amazon? But your purpose is NOT sales, but just to generate interest and awareness?

When a potential customer sees your product (very expensive at Amazon) he will likely then go search for it via the web looking for a better deal-- and then find your website where you can grab the transaction, and perhaps sell slightly under retail.

In other words, use Amazon for purely awareness and consumer perception that you offer a premium product-- NOT for sales.

 

[TedM]

On another note. I have to admit. Life is good. We barely work now. Income keeps pouring in. I'm free to do whatever I want. Hit the gym everyday. Go running. Play games. Spend time with the wife and kid. Drive the R8. Etc.

We pretty much live a 7hr work week.

So happy for you!!!

Vick's story is kinda the standard blueprint into how it happens.

Yes! For the new readers... go back and read the fear and uncertainty from the beginning. look at the determination and just-keep-going, plodding forward. The focus.

Just soooo impressive.

 

[pgtownsyou]

When a potential customer sees your product (expensive at Amazon) he will likely then go search for it via the web-- and then find your website where you can grab the transaction, and perhaps sell slightly under retail.

That is an interesting thought that has crossed my mind before. The only downside could be that if you're not making sales on Amazon, then your product ranking quickly drops like a rock, which I assume would also mean that product views drop at about the same rate. Not sure on this though.

 

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[snowbank]

@Vick Great job Mark!

One thought:

Life is good. We barely work now. Income keeps pouring in. I'm free to do whatever I want. Hit the gym everyday. Go running. Play games. Spend time with the wife and kid. Drive the R8. Etc.

We pretty much live a 7hr work week. Everything runs automatically.

Many consider this the dream, and in a lot of ways it is.

However, a word of caution I'd advise is to make sure you continue growing. Maybe it's with this business, maybe it's with another since this is automated now.

I've set up several businesses that have run passively, and while the freedom it allows is great, it can pull progress/hunger from you if you're not careful.

Struggle leads to growth. Growth leads to happiness.

Find something to 'struggle' with. It doesn't even have to be business necessarily, but continue pushing yourself.

I once heard someone say that if someone is living a 4 hour workweek, it just means they're not living their passion. I wish I'd heard and understood that sooner. After a ridiculous amount of 4 hour workweeks over several years, I basically "work" all the time now, but just on things that I want.

I've found that the freedom from passive income is not about the ability to not have to do anything, but the ability to work on whatever you enjoy without stressing about the monetary rewards from doing so.

 

[LateStarter]

Have you thought about advertising your product at FULL RETAIL (or greater!) on Amazon? But your purpose is NOT sales, but just to generate interest and awareness.

I suspect people will still buy it regardless of price (within reason). But if you jack it up too high, or maybe even sell above your website price, it could look bad on the brand since your company is the one with the Amazon listing.

 

[Ronak]

Have you thought about advertising your product at FULL RETAIL (or greater!) on Amazon? But your purpose is NOT sales, but just to generate interest and awareness?

When a potential customer sees your product (very expensive at Amazon) he will likely then go search for it via the web looking for a better deal-- and then find your website where you can grab the transaction, and perhaps sell slightly under retail.

In other words, use Amazon for purely awareness and consumer perception that you offer a premium product-- NOT for sales.

Amazon is also a great repository for reviews. I know when I'm researching a new product or brand as a consumer, I'm looking for unbiased, independent reviews. Having them on Amazon vs reading reviews from your own site has a different degree of credibility. Then, when they see the lower price on your website, you grab the sale! You don't need to use FBA, just be merchant fulfilled, and charge a higher price/shipping on Amazon vs your site.

 

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[JAJT]

Having them on Amazon vs reading reviews from your own site has a different degree of credibility.

You haven't been to Amazon recently have you?

 

[Ronak]

You haven't been to Amazon recently have you?

LOL...okay, need a qualifier in there...

Having them on Amazon vs reading reviews from your own site has a different degree of credibility, provided you're not selling garlic presses off alibaba.

 

[Vick]

I couldn't agree more. This plus other hassles in dealing with Amazon's 'Seller Performance Team' caused me to start shifting sales to my website a number of months back. As of yesterday I pulled all my inventory from Amazon. It feels good to escape from their clutch.

Also, I want to say congrats on all your success! Your current situation is my desired end game. I was looking at your financial plan that you put together a number of months back (50k revenue, spend 30% on ads, etc etc). I'm curious how closely you are following this plan? I've started putting together something similar to try to reach my goals. Did any surprises pop up in which you had to alter that plan? Do you even still follow that plan? Just wondering how that worked out for you

thanks bud, I followed that plan to a T and it worked, I eventually achieved it, but now we do way more so things have changed slightly, but its basically the same thing, just higher numbers

 

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[Vick]

Have you thought about advertising your product at FULL RETAIL (or greater!) on Amazon? But your purpose is NOT sales, but just to generate interest and awareness?

When a potential customer sees your product (very expensive at Amazon) he will likely then go search for it via the web looking for a better deal-- and then find your website where you can grab the transaction, and perhaps sell slightly under retail.

In other words, use Amazon for purely awareness and consumer perception that you offer a premium product-- NOT for sales.

hmmm, interesting. i think I may play with that couldn't hurt to much to test it

 

[JasonR]

Have you thought about advertising your product at FULL RETAIL (or greater!) on Amazon? But your purpose is NOT sales, but just to generate interest and awareness?

When a potential customer sees your product (very expensive at Amazon) he will likely then go search for it via the web looking for a better deal-- and then find your website where you can grab the transaction, and perhaps sell slightly under retail.

In other words, use Amazon for purely awareness and consumer perception that you offer a premium product-- NOT for sales.

A good friend of mine does this very successfully with a multi-million dollar business. He's an Amazon Vendor, but he gets to control his product price. He does volume on Amazon, but believes if you're going to buy on Amazon, you will pay a premium for it.

The idea of owning your customer (versus Amazon) cannot be overstated.