Ask 8-figure business owners for personalized advice!

[NeoDialectic]

Hi there, I wanna start off by thanking you for giving us such an opportunity.

I have several questions in mind being;

1. What do you think of being a web developer as a way to go fastlane?
2. How did you find your specific niche and why did you decide to go for it? I'm struggling more than ever to find a specific niche I could go into whose market is also vast.
3. Do you think there is anything I could use my age (14) as an advantage for starting out? I'm not yet sure how I could use my age as an advantage and the only skillset I partially have is programming (javascript, html & css but a long way to go for me to be proficient at it)

Thank you very much!

1. Can you be more specific? I don't think working for a company as a web developer or working as a contractor as a web developer is fastlane. However, web developments skills are a BIG plus in entrepreneurship and working as a contractor can be a good jumping off point to larger things.
2. I have a thread specifically addressing "How to find an idea" . Let me know if you have any more specific questions on it.
3. You have some MAJOR advantages. They are that you minimal responsibilities, you have parents there to catch you when you fall, you will likely have more free time now than any other point of your working life, and you have so much time ahead of you. So what could taking advantage of that look like in real life? It means you should be taking as many risks as you can (not physically!), putting as much time as you can towards trying different ideas, and when not doing that focusing on broadening your skill base.

 

[MrE]

Hi NeoDialectic! I appreciate you investing your time into others by sharing your experience, knowledge and wisdom.

That wasn't intended to be a segue but since we find ourselves here....
Have you worked with financial investors or have you been an investor in other companies?
If yes to either one, what advice would you give in regards to finding an investor who sees what you see for the future of your company?
If an investor wants a percentage of the company, how do you determine what that percentage would be?

So far my investor experience is this:
- A family member gave me $5K to do as I see best with it and not wanting any of it back.
- A friend of a friend of a friend is willing to invest $10K that I can repay with no interest. He doesn't want to own any percentage but wants me change some things to his liking. His 'liking' has no idea what he talking about so the money is still on the table.
- A man who invests for a living wanted to invest $60K (3 x $20K) and have 49% of the company. He backed out shortly after Covid hit.

I am not convinced that I will need an investor but these questions come up in my thinker now and then.

Again, thank you for your time and I look forward to your response.

 

[NeoDialectic]

Simple question that I know won’t have an easy answer


Sell at a loss/breakeven to establish the brand or go for profit from the beginning ?

Estimated customer lifetime value : £180
First purchase : £60 (break even for us)

The rest is 80% profit


Would you go for this or charge something like £100 or more for the first purchase?

Thank you !

Are you talking about during the testing phase of the business when you are just seeing if the market even wants your product? Or are you talking about when you already have products out there that have sales?

 

[woken]

Etsy or a website of its own? With the former, there's the risk of getting banned I think.

Amazon/Etsy or a website of its own? With the former, there's the risk of getting banned I think.

Etsy won’t ban you for a couple cancelled orders. It will ban you for no reason, that’s a different story.

But if it gets traction and you want to take the same route you will need a new shop as new ones have boosted traction for 90-120 days

 

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[biophase]

If it doesn't I don't have the budget to try other methods like Tik Tok, IG, Fb, etc.

The whole purpose of using social media is that you don’t need money to do that.

You just have to make an account and just get views on your account.

 

[biophase]

Tiktok.. yes, maybe.

The rest are pay to play mostly. Especially since not even your followers see your posts.

I believe that that is a limiting belief.

 

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[woken]

I believe that that is a limiting belief.

I knew..


Try it yourself.

Make 2 instagram/facebook accounts and follow 30 people including one of your accounts.

Post something on one account and log into the other. Does it show up on your feed then? Or maybe 3 hours later? Or maybe next day/week?

 

[Two Dog]

Hello and thank you for this.
I am wondering about your experiences with the: the rub and iteration.

I spend to much time in the 'forward looking' realm. "Just doing it" or getting to work is so covered up by my forward looking habit. What a market opportunity? lol

Considering the world has gone flat, meaning the whole world has the tools and skills (gaining) to do what you are sharing about here, my question is: How close do you think we are to automating (with some man power) the idea generation/rub/interation components of product development?

If you can answer that, also what do you think is holding the world back? I mean look at Tesla's attempt to make a mold for the vehicles.

I've just been reading about AI content generation that's deemed pretty darn acceptable by the researchers.

Feed it some keywords for a topic and push the button. Let the entrepreneur-bot games begin.

 

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[NeoDialectic]

I have pet(cat) product that I created from scratch that I sell on AMZ about ~4 units a day. It's has a fairly wide consumer appeal, something like medicated cat shampoo - my value skew is better ingredients, eco packaging

I know you mentioned you only deal with products that are priced at 10X+ the manufacturing cost.
Based on the numbers would you scale this 1 product/brand that I started recently?

If yes, how would you do finance the growth if you didn't have much capital to invest, like nothing over $5K? I am assuming you needs at least $10K investment for inventory and marketing.

My AMZ numbers
10% of my sales are from repeat customers 1st quarter of 2022
YTD units sold 630
Reviews 87,
Sell for $19.95
Current Cost to manufacture in US total $5.5 (currently doing 1500 runs), I could potentially manufacture in China for $1.750 FOB at a 3K run, (quoted by supplier), shipping an 8 oz bottle of cat water
Sell for $19.95
Avg CPCs less than a dollar on Amazon, for search and product placement
Spent $297 on AMZ ppc and generated $981 in Revenue, turned on PPC in the latter part of 2022
1300 units in stock

What have I done so far? nothing really, just reordering more units and amz ppc

Sounds like you have a good base to build a brand. The easiest way to add revenue to an existing product line for us was to add new products. The same customers that want your shampoo, also may want a conditioner to make their cat soft afterwards. But they may be concerned that they can't use anything after the shampoo without messing with the medicated shampoo. That's where you come in. Your Condition is advertised as SAFE to use without messing with the medication that is in your shampoo.... Maybe only 10% of customers will buy both, but thats another sale every 2 days just from existing buyers! That's not nothing and the best part hopefully you try to keep scaling the original product and as that one scales, so will your second item as a byproduct. It's not a guarantee, of course. But it's a good bet.

On the other hand, it does sound like most your effort should be focused on increasing sales. You have an already selling product, which is GREAT! Try to improve your listing. Add a video. Add a+ content. You already know this is a seller, so try other marketplaces. Shopify with PPC on google/yahoo, eBay, walmart.com, FB advertising, etc...

Don't be afraid to experiment with the price either. Change it to 24.95 for a few days. What did that do with sales? If it barely effected them, you just nearly doubled your profit. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't.

Personally, I wouldn't mess with trying to get it cheaper in China. The added profit on this level of sales isn't worth it and comes with it's own issues.

 

[NeoDialectic]

That's awesome! One of our neighbors bought himself a black Gallardo LP560-4. It's still a headturner, even after all those years! And the sound is truly something else. My goal is also to buy my Lambo one day, specifically an Aventador S roadster in orange. Lambo is like the ultimate fu you car. Sure, there are cars that are a little faster from 0-60 but the road presence it has crazy. Murci is nice as well! Are you happy with the car so far?

I ended up selling it a year or so ago!

It was a GREAT car....but after a few years of owning it, I found myself driving it less and less. There was months at a time where it just sat on top of my 4 post lift. It became a running joke that I basically just owned it to improve the Feng Shui of the garage like a Van Gogh. At one point the hassles of yearly maintenance and guilt from not utilizing the car started being more than the benefit of having it. So I sold it.

But really...it was a FANTASTIC car and I would highly recommend it! My model specifically was RWD and one of 50 manual G's ever made. So driving it was a blast.

It's just not that useful for a busy dad with 2 kids in diapers. (That is actually trying to participate in their lives and not just shove it on his wife)

 

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[NeoDialectic]

It should be a great feeling, that i haven't experienced of... Also your will to give back to others shows how very deeply you understand and don't forget the difficulties that others face that are still within the "maze"...

Question: Would you believe that acquiring existing online businesses, could be equally successful as what you have already done?

I think that acquiring existing online businesses and making them equally successful is a slightly different skillet but can definitely be just as successful. In fact, many MUCH more successful people do just that.

@fastlane_dad and I are heavily considering purchasing some kind of business and growing it, but we have not yet made the final decision on it as it can be a big commitment. @MTF has a Thread that is a wealth of knowledge on getting into a smaller commitment (micro business). So we may go the route of starting with something smaller and less time intensive at first. Will let you guys know!

 

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[NeoDialectic]

Hey @NeoDialectic,

Do you think there's an avenue for an ECommerce-specific ERP? I've looked online and there doesn't seem to be anything like it currently, but I might've been looking for the wrong thing. Something like BaseCamp but specifically for Shopify stores.

Since you can integrate BaseCamp with Shopify, I am guessing you talking about building one that integrates better and more intimately with Shopify specifically? What do you think your value proposition would be. Why you over BaseCamp? At a more basic level, why your product over whatever Shopify already provides(especially with free available plugins)?

Unfortunately, I don't personally know enough about ERP to really speak on it though. Hopefully someone else on here can step in and help. (or start a thread to get more visibility!)

Upgraded to GOLD, thanks @NeoDialectic and @fastlane_dad for the wisdom sharing!!

Thank you MJ. Just following in your footsteps on the road you paved for all of us!

 

[SPM_ENT]

@NeoDialectic & @fastlane_dad thanks for the great thread!

I'm getting closer to solidifying my path to an exit (Saas company) and it would be extremely helpful if you could speak more on your exit, specifically things like...

- Did you start with the exit in mind?
- How did you determine when you wanted to exit/why did you exit instead of staying with the business?
- How did you determine your company's evaluation? (What was the metric used)
- Exit structure, as in was it a lump sum or payout over time? (If you can disclose)
- Were you required to stay on with the business for a period of time?

And anything else you could shed light on would be very much appreciated.

 

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[fastlane_dad]

@NeoDialectic & @fastlane_dad thanks for the great thread!

I'm getting closer to solidifying my path to an exit (Saas company) and it would be extremely helpful if you could speak more on your exit, specifically things like...

Great questions. @NeoDialectic and I have been working on writing something that goes in depth on our selling experience and things to look out for.

- Did you start with the exit in mind?

Actually no. We only realized this years into the game that we can cash out (sell) with XXX our yearly profit multiple, that is also TAXED different (capital gains - hugely advantageous vs. taking it as profit yearly).

A huge LIGHT bulb went off when this happened of how POWERFUL building a business and then SELLING actually is. From the moment we 'pondered' the idea of a sell until our business sold was ~ three to four years. The numbers needed to make sense to pull the trigger.

Our start was always simple - make $3 in profit and grow from there. Our mindset on creating/growing/selling a business completely revolutionized post of our exit. Some of the multiples are actually pretty incredible today in the FBA space (and other industries as well).

Considering we 'bootstrapped' all of our businesses and never took on debt OR investors - creating this 'saleable' cash flowing asset that others want is just pure wonderful.

- How did you determine when you wanted to exit/why did you exit instead of staying with the business?

Multiple of factors - anything from achieving the 'goal' we set out for ourselves (financially), freeing up some time (we are both dads now!), to changing up a bit what we do. By the time we sold we were working more 'in' our business rather than 'on' it. It was time to move on, and we both knew it. We knew what needed to be done to grow the business, but were unwilling to take those next steps as well.

- How did you determine your company's evaluation? (What was the metric used)

Fairly standard multiples in the e-com FBA world. A known M&A Firm walked us through the entire experience beginning to end. We learned tons in the process, including what we would do the same and different next time.

- Exit structure, as in was it a lump sum or payout over time? (If you can disclose)

Again - structured in typical fashion of x percent cash, the rest in earn out and a note spread over years. Very common to this industry - where the only thing that changes is the percentages of these numbers one way or another. This can also be structured different I suppose on a 'smaller' exit or a business.

- Were you required to stay on with the business for a period of time?

Yes - we had an agreement of support over the following year or so time in decreasing intervals of our commitment.

And anything else you could shed light on would be very much appreciated.

Any other questions please feel free to ask and we will update when our longer guide is done!! Congrats on your future exit and update this thread with your experience and progress.

 

[Itizn]

@NeoDialectic

Over the past few years I've built a business servicing energy companies, finding them rare and hard-to-locate items on an international scale.

I have completly lost interest in this industry but the skill set developed of finding niche things seems one to keep on developing.

Does anything come to mind on how to start pivoting to another industry? Or how to generally market this niche skill of mine?

 

[NeoDialectic]

@NeoDialectic

Over the past few years I've built a business servicing energy companies, finding them rare and hard-to-locate items on an international scale.

I have completly lost interest in this industry but the skill set developed of finding niche things seems one to keep on developing.

Does anything come to mind on how to start pivoting to another industry? Or how to generally market this niche skill of mine?

It sounds like you need to train someone to do your job and soon enough they could completely replace you. This will enable you to sit back and make money disconnected from your personal time/effort and it will also enable you to expand your business if you so wish. I would guess that pivoting the business involves alot of networking with the new industries brass, and you can't do that if you are still entrenched in your day to day as well.

 

[SPM_ENT]

Looks like @fastlane_dad answered most of your questions. If you have any specific questions about selling your business that would help your business sale, let us know and we can try to answer it.

The more general exit questions, things to look out for, lessons learned, ways to negotiate and more is something that we have on our to-do list to write about. It's a lot more than just a reply post could fit. Sounds like you are exactly the person that the piece would be aimed at helping, so if you have any good topics/questions that you think we should explore in it, we would love to hear it as well

Thank you, here are a few more questions I came up with...

Great questions. @NeoDialectic and I have been working on writing something that goes in depth on our selling experience and things to look out for.

Actually no. We only realized this years into the game that we can cash out (sell) with XXX our yearly profit multiple, that is also TAXED different (capital gains - hugely advantageous vs. taking it as profit yearly).

How/where would one do research to find a multiple for his industry?

Taxes

- Could you go more into detail about the cap gains vs taking it as a yearly profit? An example of what you would recommend would be great to see.

- How did you find your CPA? (I've been through two so far who haven't been great but charged a lot and never responded.)

- Any "fun" write-offs you were able to include in the company expenses?

A huge LIGHT bulb went off when this happened of how POWERFUL building a business and then SELLING actually is. From the moment we 'pondered' the idea of a sell until our business sold was ~ three to four years. The numbers needed to make sense to pull the trigger.

What did you do in those 3-4 years to make your company attractive enough to sell for what you wanted? More than just make it as profitable as possible.

How did you manage your partner distributions and salaries compared to investing money back into the company for growth?

Any difficult competition and if so what did you do to overcome it? Did you have to take losses in that regard?

How did you determine your partnership split and more importantly how did you manage to overcome disagreements to keep the partnership together?

Did you pitch to multiple investors to get the highest bid? Or more information on how the negotiations went, taking the 1st offer, etc.

Not related

Have you gone tubbing down the Salt River? I went recently while I was in town for a hockey Tournament, it was awesome.

Have you considered vacation homes and/or moving to other states vs AZ?

Any other questions please feel free to ask and we will update when our longer guide is done!! Congrats on your future exit and update this thread with your experience and progress.

Appreciate you!

 

[NeoDialectic]

@fastlane_dad and @NeoDialectic, thank you for the provided value! Your willingness for positive impact is truly admirable!

I'm about to launch a product on Amazon in the next two months, it's in the beauty niche.

Do you recommend having my trademark registered immediately or I should first have a decent number of sales, confirming that this mark has a future?

Disclaimer: My business specific advice on this could change drastically based on the actual situation and gameplan. (For example, trademark may be a required proof of validity. Or it may even be an important part of your marketing strategy). The following advice is of the "in general" variety.

Personally, we never cared to trademark things until sales are rolling in. It was considered a distraction from priority number 1 (testing market feasibility). The protection you eventually received by applying for a trademark is based on first sale date and not date of trademark application. The primary advantage to trademarking is the ability to protect your mark (no one will take action based on your promise that you own the rights... They want to see your trademark). Fighting infringements on your IP is a successful business's problems. Leave it to them. You focus on creating a successful business.

 

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[NeoDialectic]

Thank you, here are a few more questions I came up with...

Thanks for the questions. We will be sure to expand on these topics in our write up. Here is some rapid fire answers though.

How/where would one do research to find a multiple for his industry?

Google to find firms that sell businesses (e.x:"m&a firms to sell your online business"), or even more specifically businesses of your type. Most have a selection of publicly available businesses that they are currently selling or have sold in the past along with brief descriptions, prices, revenues, profits, etc.. You can expect that the final sale price was between 80%-95% of the advertised price. Also keep in mind that only 30%-80% of that price is guarantied up front (highly deal dependent).

Taxes

- Could you go more into detail about the cap gains vs taking it as a yearly profit? An example of what you would recommend would be great to see.

What do you mean by taking the sale as yearly profit? I'm not sure what you are referring to. However, it is common for bigger businesses to have a % of the sale price paid through a note (loan) over X years. This is taxed the same way it would have been taxed if you received the money right away. In many businesses, a big part of the sale should be directed towards capital gains (as them paying for Goodwill). But this really is business specific.

- How did you find your CPA? (I've been through two so far who haven't been great but charged a lot and never responded.)

- Any "fun" write-offs you were able to include in the company expenses?

No good advice here from us!

Anything business related can mostly be written off. Including hot sauce challenges to build comradery at the office!

What did you do in those 3-4 years to make your company attractive enough to sell for what you wanted? More than just make it as profitable as possible.

The guiding principle was "make it as profitable as possible" as you suggest. If I was to add anything to that it would be that we never considered this to mean cost cutting. We spent more time focused on increasing sales. Generally that is finding new marketing opportunities. Not of the "can we optimize ads to increase sales by 1%" variety but of the "can we advertise somewhere new which can have the possibility of introducing our product to millions of people in a completely new market" type.

How did you manage your partner distributions and salaries compared to investing money back into the company for growth?

I think this will be heavily dependent on business type. Personally we took out almost all of the profits as salaries/distributions. It was done every 3 to 6 months. Our business was very cash flow rich and we kept big balances in the business itself. So we always had enough to cover any new ventures. By the time credit cards are due, the coffers would be full all over again.

Obviously this would not apply to business types that are inherently low on cash flow.

Any difficult competition and if so what did you do to overcome it? Did you have to take losses in that regard?

Competition was always the cause of parasitic losses. It's nothing you would see overnight. It would just be slow and gradual loss of sales. The way we overcame it is expanding into markets where our competition weren't.

How did you determine your partnership split and more importantly how did you manage to overcome disagreements to keep the partnership together?

We are always 50/50 on anything we do together

As far as work split.....sometimes I contribute more, sometimes he contributes more. You need to be OK with that and if you aren't naturally OK with it you need to fight your own demons to be OK with that. Right now, I'm currently out of town AGAIN as part of my plan to travel for a very large part of 2022/2023. Invariably that means he may be at the helm more often in some regards right now. When he had his child a few years ago and went completely MIA for months, I was there to take the reigns. You need to have enough trust in the other partner that they want what's best for the business as well. If you have that, you will naturally give alot of grace when hearing the response to the question "what did you do for the business today?". It may be nothing. But then one day it is the difference between 0 sales and 10.

I have another post on partnership HERE

Did you pitch to multiple investors to get the highest bid? Or more information on how the negotiations went, taking the 1st offer, etc.

We received alot of interest and pitched to multiple investors. Our price, field, and other factors did narrow down the list a bit though. We did end up closing with the company that were first to give their LOI (letter of intent), but not because they were first. They were just obviously the most eager...and all the benefits that go into that.....

Negotiations were a very stressful time. In our experience, while the people running daily operations of brands in the private equity companies aren't exactly the most experienced.... The same can't be said about the acquisition and negotiations team. They are very sharp, so you better bring your A game.

Not related

Have you gone tubbing down the Salt River? I went recently while I was in town for a hockey Tournament, it was awesome.

Have you considered vacation homes and/or moving to other states vs AZ?



Appreciate you!

My wife and I went Salt River tubing YEARS ago when we were much younger! haha. It was a bit of a drive to get there, but a very fun time! Definitely something I would recommend for others to try if they like water, the great out doors, and....drinking....

While I have considered vacation homes, at the end of the day it just makes so much more sense to rent when I go somewhere than to buy. At the current time we are staying in AZ and I don't see us moving out. But it is definitely always possible!

 

[NeoDialectic]

Ayo,

The skills that I currently have are in the arts and I've been thinking through business ideas that I'm not sure fully fit Cents. The first is the music business as an Artist. Generally, artists don't like to handle the business aspect but I do. I've built up skills in music creation, a bit in music marketing, and artist breaking. This normally would break the law of entry but I found something that not many new artists can do. I've been learning game development since I was 13 so I have 3d modeling and animation skills. I put together a formula for trying to generate a lot of attention. Creating a promotional piece showing off my skills in music production and 3D animation. I was hoping to hear your opinion on something like this!

I attached a product of my formula below!

Thank you for this opportunity!

That's pretty good!

The path you are describing doesn't fit the typical Fastlane mold. But that's ok! I don't know your actual business, but here are a few ways I could imagine success. Hopefully, it will give you some ideas.

If you want to go the route using your own music:

I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss your idea as breaking the law of entry. However, you may have to rethink what the value is that you are providing. If it is just being a music artist, then as you guessed, that barrier to entry is low. But judging from your explanation, the value you provide is unique, entertaining 3d animations combined with good music. That's completely different. How many artists know how to also 3d animate? I would be not many.

The key to your growth will be producing good content and exposing it to the public as much as possible. That could mean full videos on youtube, cut-up videos on tick-tock, posts on Instagram, etc...The difference between failure and growth is getting one video to go viral anywhere. That is far from "making it," but you build a base of followers and keep going.

If you want to go the 3d modeling route:
I would spend time trying to figure out an excellent universal template that could fit a wide range of songs in your genre. Then I would spend time editing currently popular artists into them. The key here is to figure out a template and technique to do this fast. Then do it with 10, 20, or 30+ artists and send it to them in a message. Say you like their songs but think they would pop off much better with great animation behind them. Then send them the video for free as a gift and tell them you could make them more for $$. You could tell them they could even use it for free, as long as they tag you in any marketing material.

The more popular the artist, the more powerful their response to you will be. But the other side is that they are too popular and aren't even checking their DM's. So you got to find the sweet spot of the creators popular enough to have some clout but small enough to still check and reply to DMs.

If the market likes what you're producing, you will have some artists paying you to make animations because of these DMs. The artists who liked your content but were too cheap to pay for animations would still benefit you. By posting your free animation, they are providing free marketing material for you.

 

[NeoDialectic]

Neo are you still doing this? If so I’d like to ask you about one topic… I’m sure plenty of people have been through this though…

I don’t want to get too stuck thinking about it before I have to cross that bridge but, what more or less happens between the stage in which you are holding your own inventory because you’re just starting and maybe you only have one product, and scaling into something bigger? How does that look?

I’m struggling to find sources of info for this process. If you or anyone have any good book or something please shoot it my way. I’m not even sure of what to look for “stages of scaling a product business” ??

Can you clarify what you mean. Are you asking for advice on handling the logistic requirements when you go from a few sales (handling it at home) to alot of sales (too much to handle at home)?

Thank you for the opportunity. I tend to gravitate towards online business ideas because a number of them seems can be started with a relatively low cash capital. Besides, some of them are hugely scalable. I have a few ideas which are a need and obey the command of Time and control. Entry requires programming knowledge and practice. Although ChatGPT makes me worry writing code will become and lower the entry level. NB. I don't think I need to keep at a job for ten years to start a CENTS business. But that's what I think may happen if I pursue what other people around my country are pursuing. Therefore, I gravitate to web and Internet.
1. What are the things I need in terms of skills, other resources and necessities to properly execute such ideas?
2. What human or corporate network do I need to scale such ideas?
3. Does it make sense for me who needs to learn programming from scratch to have such business ideas im the field of programming?
4. How much work and time is required to fully execute an idea that involves writing an app?
Feel free to provide information that may be necessary for me that I may have missed in my questions. Thank you in advance.

1. Start backwards. Figure out what problem you want to solve or what idea you want to execute. Then learn everything you need to make it happen or outsource it. You mentioned coding... It's not that it's bad to learn coding. If you want to learn coding for fun or because it's something you want to do, then do it. It can be a big benefit in some businesses. But I wouldn't just learn to code in advance of needing to , just so you are more prepared to start a business. That just sounds like action faking.
2. Depends on the idea.
3. You don't need to be a user of a solution to build and become successful off building a solution. But you may want to talk to a coder to see if your ideas are actual problems or if you are off base. If you aren't in the field, you may not correctly gauge what they need.
4. Depends on what you're building. If you have very specific questions about SAAS, Apps, or Programming, there are a few users with AMA's that have direct experience in this and may provide better answers.

Unfortunately, I couldn't be too specific in the answers since the questions were pretty general. But hope it helps!

 

[Tonci]

My business partner and I recently sold our successful online business for 8 figures. You can see @fastlane_dad intro page here, and mine here. We have had businesses in alot of categories, but have limited experience in old fashion "shaking hands" type businesses. Our primary expertise is online sales, marketing, marketplaces like Amazon (and others), bootstrapping, and mindset. One way we want to give back to the community is by guiding people that are still on their entrepreneurship path.

We figured one of the more impactful ways we can do it is by answering peoples questions publically versus in DM's or personal consultations. So if you want our opinion/advice about your personal situation, we will be happy to read through your questions and give you a personalized answer. But it has to be public. That way everyone can read and discuss our answers. If we don't have experience in a topic, we will let you know.

Hey thank you for sharing your story and offering your help!

Since you ran a business with a partner, I would like to ask, what are some of the qualities that you look for in a business partner? What are your thoughts on doing business with friends?

 

[theguy22]

My business partner and I recently sold our successful online business for 8 figures. You can see @fastlane_dad intro page here, and mine here. We have had businesses in alot of categories, but have limited experience in old fashion "shaking hands" type businesses. Our primary expertise is online sales, marketing, marketplaces like Amazon (and others), bootstrapping, and mindset. One way we want to give back to the community is by guiding people that are still on their entrepreneurship path.

We figured one of the more impactful ways we can do it is by answering peoples questions publically versus in DM's or personal consultations. So if you want our opinion/advice about your personal situation, we will be happy to read through your questions and give you a personalized answer. But it has to be public. That way everyone can read and discuss our answers. If we don't have experience in a topic, we will let you know.

I made a thread about domain expertise, what are your views on the issue?

 

[NeoDialectic]

I have created my own customised travel scratch maps that I plan to sell on etsy, amazon and a website of its own. I have iterated the product to make it better (in my opinion of course). The product design is fully made. I've spoken to suppliers to suppliers and they are able to make it as soon as I give them the go ahead. But I'm keen to test out the product first before I place an order, how would you recommend I go about doing this? Would I need to spend loads on facebook ads?

Without being intimately familiar with your exact product and field, I will probably have a few questions before I can really answer.

First one is whether you are able to create samples of the product without a huge investment of money? This can include

• Repurposing existing products and add your value manually
• Negotiating with the supplier to create a small run for you... Even if you are super over paying per product...for example getting 15 at $20 bucks a piece versus ordering 1000 at $2 a piece.

 

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[woken]

Are you talking about during the testing phase of the business when you are just seeing if the market even wants your product? Or are you talking about when you already have products out there that have sales?

I’m talking about it as a general business model. Break even on the initial purchase and profit from future purchases.

Kind of like the modern day printer and ink. Sorry if I couldn’t find my words but I think you get my point now.

 

[theguy22]

Without being intimately familiar with your exact product and field, I will probably have a few questions before I can really answer.

First one is whether you are able to create samples of the product without a huge investment of money? This can include

• Repurposing existing products and add your value manually
• Negotiating with the supplier to create a small run for you... Even if you are super over paying per product...for example getting 15 at $20 bucks a piece versus ordering 1000 at $2 a piece.

I can get the samples made, they are relatively expensive though but not a huge amount of money in an absolute sense. The market value for just one quantity of a sample is $80, but if I was to bulk order the price of a piece is £$3. I would retail one piece at around $35-$40.

 

[NeoDialectic]

I can get the samples made, they are relatively expensive though but not a huge amount of money in an absolute sense. The market value for just one quantity of a sample is $80, but if I was to bulk order the price of a piece is £$3. I would retail one piece at around $35-$40.

Whats the minimum order for bulk pricing?

 

[theguy22]

Theoretically you don't even have to get one and you can just make a listing and see if there is a response...

I was thinking about this too but it would be difficult to create an appealing ad without the real physical product as one of the pics. If I don't get sales I'll always have it in my mind that I didn't create an appealing ad properly. Though I could be overthinking it here.

EDIT:
The more I look at this field, the more I think you should get one $80 sample and see if you can do anything at all with it. That way you learned a lesson and you are only out $80 and now have a cool item to keep.

You may know more about this field and choose otherwise.

Yes I'm learning towards this. I actually had it wrong, so what the supplier is saying is that the samples would be a total of $450 ($112.50 per design), but if I approve the sample and place a large order, she will minus $200 from the total large order amount, thus making my sample order cost $250 technically only if I approve the sample though. Was also contemplating if I should scrap four designs and just start with two first, then pursue the remaining two if the first two receive any traction, thoughts?

Currently trying to negotiate a minimum order of 125 pieces per design.

Any advice on advertising? Facebook ads?

 

[Two Dog]

Usually I would recommend getting one or two of one design and making a listing everywhere. Then trying to see if you can make a sale. Breaking even or better would automatically signal that there is a want and I would order more. Crickets would signal that you just saved $1,500. Theoretically you don't even have to get one and you can just make a listing and see if there is a response... But you could run into not only ethical problems but places like Amazon would not look to fondly on you cancelling orders immediately on a new Amazon account.

A quick Amazon search shows that this is obviously a field with alot of traffic and sales. So ordering one bulk pack at $3 doesn't seem too bad of an option either. If your item flops at your target price, you can probably salvage a big portion of your investment by just selling it off really cheap on eBay or something. Regardless, $1,500 overall is a relatively small loss to many, even if you don't sell it off. Only you can answer whether that is a big investment for you or not. I think the answer will depend on your sensitivity to loss.

I have no idea what your value add is, but the more time I spend looking at your field as I type this the more I think you will have to make sure your product stands out and the value add is immediately obvious. This seems like an extremely crowded field. You have competitors ranging from really cheap to relatively expensive, all with thousands of reviews. It may be a tough hill to climb if you don't have something that immediately stands out. Sometimes in fields like this, it could be tough to even get one sale without spending absurd amounts in advertising.

EDIT:
The more I look at this field, the more I think you should get one $80 sample and see if you can do anything at all with it. That way you learned a lesson and you are only out $80 and now have a cool item to keep.

You may know more about this field and choose otherwise.

There's just so much wisdom here that only comes from experience. It's really impressive.

You really know your s**t.

 

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[biophase]

I'm not sure I'm following. So you're suggesting to just launch and market one design first? And then if there's traction, start releasing the remaining 3? Also, when you say test, are you referring to just creating a listing and see if there's any sales even if I don't have the product to sell yet?

I always ask people who want to sell on Amazon this one question. Imagine you have your product already made and sitting in boxes at your house. You ship the first case to FBA. Now what? What is your next step?

I saw that you had also asked about advertising and Facebook ads in a previous post. To me that says that you haven’t researched how you plan on marketing your product yet. Do you know how much a click is for your product on Amazon PPC? Or on Facebook ads? I have a feeling both avenues will not be profitable for your product.