Ask 8-figure business owners for personalized advice!

[Nyavix]

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.

Thank you for responding, it's given me a bit to think about and 2 possible routes. Before, I tried to mash it all together by building visualizers for other artists and working on my own green screen 3d animation. I'm definitely leaning towards the green screen videos cause of exactly what you said: "How many artists know how to also 3d animate". None that I know of in the hip-hop space and the one artist I'm thinking of who did it in the pop side made a video game so still very different!

Ill keep at it!

 

[BellaPippin]

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” ??

 

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[Matte]

Hi, when you have to improve the design of a product and need to hire a product engineer, how do you go to find one?

I have a product that is selling quite well on Amazon, but it has a few flaws and I have been looking for a biomedical engineer for months but no one seems to want to help. I first hired a product engineer on Fiverr and he helped me for about 400$ but honestly I wasn't really satisfied with the result.

I'm willing to spend more (up to 4000$) but I would need to collaborate with top experts in the field.

I contacted about 8 universities which have collaboration programs with private companies, and I talked with a few of them and they told me they would share the project with some people that could be interested like PHDs or professors, I keep asking them for updates but they disappear.

I also contacted some companies that specifically help companies with product development/engineering and got zero replies, maybe it's too small of a project for them, I don't know.

I feel like this shouldn't be so hard.

 

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[EngineerThis]

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.

My business is EngineerThis, I started out using my Mechanical Engineering background to help bring Fastlaners napkin sketches to fully designed 3D models! It's been great! I realized I can provide more value by also "Consulting". I apply my vast marketing knowledge and Product launch process information to educate clients too, this has really taken off! This is where I found the path to move forward, instead of just educating clients and doing the design.. Leaving my clients to figure out a webpage, run ads, talk to a patent lawyer, find a prototype shop etc... I SHOULD PROVIDE ALL THIS. And become a one-stop shop, for everything a client needs to bring a product to market. I know this arena well, and it would make more sense that I direct it all instead of throwing my clients to the wolves.. So! What would be the best way to meet freelancers that can help me cover these different areas? Is there a way I could also help my clients sell/drive traffic to their new inventions?
These are my two questions, thank you

 

[EngineerThis]

Hi, when you have to improve the design of a product and need to hire a product engineer, how do you go to find one?

I have a product that is selling quite well on Amazon, but it has a few flaws and I have been looking for a biomedical engineer for months but no one seems to want to help. I first hired a product engineer on Fiverr and he helped me for about 400$ but honestly I wasn't really satisfied with the result.

I'm willing to spend more (up to 4000$) but I would need to collaborate with top experts in the field.

I contacted about 8 universities which have collaboration programs with private companies, and I talked with a few of them and they told me they would share the project with some people that could be interested like PHDs or professors, I keep asking them for updates but they disappear.

I also contacted some companies that specifically help companies with product development/engineering and got zero replies, maybe it's too small of a project for them, I don't know.

I feel like this shouldn't be so hard.

It's your lucky day @Matte !!! Check out my ad here.

 

[ji1029]

Sure - I guess more so then anything I don't understand the product yet and have loads of questions.

Is the product 'documentation' strictly or is there more to it? Is there software that goes along with it? Outsourced phone support of any sort?

What will your website offer? How do you plan on establishing the 'need' in the marketplace and testing out your idea?

How will you achieve scale on this - my assumptions would be through advertising? Word of Mouth? What are your initial marketing plans once this is all up and running?

These are some of the things you have to work and think through many times before sitting down at the computer to begin any sort of work moving forward.

Many of businesses' CAN be directed or turned into a CENTS business either initially or down the road - it just all depends on what you are selling and how you will go about it.

Thank you so much for the response, it is greatly appreciated.

 

[hustlebear]

Thanks for contributing!

1) What's your process on validating ideas and when or how do you know it's a dud / move on to next idea?
2) Is it still a good time to get into ecom despite huge shipping costs eating into margin and logistical barriers?

Cheers!!

 

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[Johnny boy]

Okay I'll ask a different way.

What specifically did YOU sell on amazon that did well?

 

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[ZCP]

@NeoDialectic appreciate you giving back!
would like to setup a call with you and the wife to help with her amazon arbitrage biz. how to 10x what she is doing.
i'll dm

 

[theguy22]

How do you plan on establishing the 'need' in the marketplace- ?

how does one do this? Is there some form of method for this?

 

[theguy22]

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?

 

[woken]

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 !

 

[theguy22]

Whats the minimum order for bulk pricing?

500 quantity per design, I have 4 designs

 

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[NeoDialectic]

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.


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?

Is there a particular reason you want to test more than one design at a time? If you have the money to burn, of course its ok. But if you are like most starting entrepreneurs, there is good reason to minimize testing costs.

 

[theguy22]

Is there a particular reason you want to test more than one design at a time? If you have the money to burn, of course its ok. But if you are like most starting entrepreneurs, there is good reason to minimize testing costs.

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?

 

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[NeoDialectic]

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 am suggesting the first thing you said. You can go the route of not having a product and testing, but as mentioned there are ethics issues and issues with risking your various marketplace accounts.

You may fail on selling that first design and even try and test another design. But along the way you would have hopefully learned more things about the field. For example you will see how much the advertising bids cost or what products/keywords people are most responding to. Then tailor your second release a little better to those.

 

[Two Dog]

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?

Testing the product is a great idea, but I'm curious how you do that with a physical product. The only real way to know whether buyers will pay for it is actually selling it to them. Adding prospects to a waitlist is low quality validation. No money, no commitment.

I would think about how many sales are needed to breakeven on the initial minimum order and see how it plays out with different prices points. It's great to make one-time profitable sales, but it's pretty common to upsell other products to generate a profitable order. If you can sell it and lose money, that's often a fixable problem. Larger orders will probably cost less per item, upselling adds to the order total and raising the price is always worth testing.

4HWW uses a defective shopping cart (PRODUCT ON BACKLOG!!!) which is scammy, but doable.

 

[T. Davis]

Thank you for your kind offer!

Topic: Growth
Question: How do you reinvest profits in your company during the growth stage? Or more specifically, how do you reinvest as much as possible while still being prepared for predictable shifts in customer demand and unpredictable shifts (e.g., from recessions, new competitors, etc...)?

Part B: How do you know when the growth stage is over and you should pull back investment?

 

[theguy22]

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.

You're right I don't know how to market it or how much a click is. This is what I'm trying to get an insight into. Do you have any recommendations on what specifically I need to learn before I release this product?

 

[theguy22]

Testing the product is a great idea, but I'm curious how you do that with a physical product. The only real way to know whether buyers will pay for it is actually selling it to them. Adding prospects to a waitlist is low quality validation. No money, no commitment.

I would think about how many sales are needed to breakeven on the initial minimum order and see how it plays out with different prices points. It's great to make one-time profitable sales, but it's pretty common to upsell other products to generate a profitable order. If you can sell it and lose money, that's often a fixable problem. Larger orders will probably cost less per item, upselling adds to the order total and raising the price is always worth testing.

4HWW uses a defective shopping cart (PRODUCT ON BACKLOG!!!) which is scammy, but doable.

I'm really leaning towards a fake sales testing route, just list the product as if it exists and see if there's traction. Even if I go for two designs, it would cost me $3200 to just get two designs made at 500 quantity each. Then there would be marketing costs which I have no idea how much it would be but I imagine would cost at least $1000. I can't afford to burn $4200. I'm not too keen on just one design as it could be the case that people like one of the other designs better, that was the point of me creating four designs.

Would you say it's better if I just list my four designs and spend a little on marketing to see if there's traction? If I do go down this route, should I create the listing on Amazon/Etsy or a website of its own? With the former, there's the risk of getting banned I think.

 

[theguy22]

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

F it, I'm going for this then

 

[MrE]

@MrE I worked with a lot of tech startups to raise angel and VC money. Unless you're extraordinarily well connected or lucky, you're going to find raising private money takes at least as much dedicated time as growing sales. A couple of basic points on this endless topic.

1. You shouldn't be selling any portion of the business. It leads to potential problems with taxes, liability, ownership and bunch of other legal issues. The simplest approach is always debt financing. The investor puts in money in return for a note specifying the financing terms. No different than getting a line of credit or using a credit card which are typical alternatives.

Only naive, generous or excessively optimistic people put money into startups. That's why friends and family financing is often called "dumb money." The obvious problem for any investor owning a minority share of the company is getting their money out. It requires an acquisition, IPO or company buyback of the shares or ownership stake. Since that's entirely at the whims of the majority shareholder aka YOU, you can imagine it's not a great position for the investor. It goes without saying that you don't want a minority investor who feels they now control the business.

Of course angel investors and VCs take minority stakes, but they use legal tools to protect their investments. Complicated stuff. Convertible debt, preferred shares, piggy back rights, non-dilution clauses, etc. They also understand the necessity of making 10 - 20+ investments over a long period to properly diversify risk. Shark Tank investments do not work like everyone watching Shark Tank thinks they work. There's considerable due diligence, many investment offers are rescinded and legal protections for the investor are always in place.

2. My favorite approach to outside capital for almost every small business is royalty financing. It's sometimes called revenue financing nowadays. It's basically a loan with flexible payment terms. The payments are based on a percentage of gross (not net) monthly sales. Payments can stop when a specified total payout is reached, go on for a specified timeframe or in perpetuity. It keeps the investor motivated to help with the business (if that's the intent), they can potentially make a killer return when the company does well and it doesn't burden the business with excessive negative cashflow when times are tough.

Chris, I really appreciate you taking the time to share this valuable info. Make it a great day!

 

[theguy22]

I'm saying that you need to figure out how you are going to market before you even make the product. It feels like all you plan on doing after getting your product is launching PPC campaigns. I am recommending that you think about marketing more.

From what I'm reading, all you have is a different scratch off travel map. And your only plan is to use PPC, whether it be on Etsy, Google or Amazon. You have one means of getting sales and if it doesn't work, you are screwed. What other methods will you try to get sales? Tik Tok, IG, FB, Youtube?

What happens if your PPC cost is too high to be profitable and you have spend $3000 on product? What would you do next?

Also, regarding the fake testing method. If you list it, I'm assuming you are going to do a small quantity since you don't have any. What happens if you list 1 and then sell 1 in the first day? What do you conclude from this data? Did you happen to just sell 1 because of the new store? Would you have sold 10 if you had listed a quantity of 10? Or would you have only sold 1 out of 10? What if you sell 1 in the first 10 days?

I see where you're coming from, the thing is I don't have a high enough budget to spend on heavy marketing. Realistically, I'd have to pick one medium and hope it brings *some* traction. If it doesn't I don't have the budget to try other methods like Tik Tok, IG, Fb, etc.

With the fake testing method, I guess I'd be looking for some sales over X period of time. Only then I'd place a bulk order.

I guess this is the biggest challenge for me, I'm really trying to minimise marketing costs and hoping to win with value.

In addition to what @biophase said above, think old game vs new game.

Old game: status quo
What are the current players on the market doing, and what is their game?
-> You cant move to the new game if you don't understand the current games

New game: How your brand will change the game
Build the new game. Look at the old games, keep the audience front and center, and create your new game. Think of ways to skew the value array. Bonus point if you can name the new gam

For example:
(1)
Old game: slowlane
New game: fastlane

(2)
old game: calling for a cab - not only I wait on the line for minutes, but I also don't know when my driver will arrive or how much the journey will cost me
New game: a convenient way to order transport via an app. Quick, convenient, transparent.

The process of crafting the new game will give you the answers you need to launch the product.

Well explained. Bit unsure how I can apply this to a small product like a scratch map though. I've tried to change the game using my value skew, but this is just an hypothesis until it is properly tested.

 

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[Taktik]

Hello @NeoDialectic ,

thank you for giving away your valuable time to help others. I would love to get some advice from you about my situation.

The thing is that I have been trying to start a company for about eight years now. The only time it really worked out was with an Amazon FBA business I ran with a partner and we were actually quite successful. We closed the company in the fall of 2018 for different reasons and since then I've been trying unsuccessfully to start another company in a different field. As it turns out, I have extreme mindset issues, which is why I always switch to a new idea when things get serious.

I'm wondering if I shouldn't go back to the one thing that ever worked - that is, selling products via Amazon FBA. We only resold products from existing brands back then. This time around, I would focus on offering my own products and, if they are successful, over time try to become more independent of Amazon and gain more control. I just wonder if FBA is even a good idea today though. The competition is certainly tougher than it was four years ago, I suppose.

What do you think about that?
Thanks.

 

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[AristotlesPupil]

I was under the impression that he was going to list his product without actually even having one and then cancelling it.

The problem is you have a test with a data set of 1. Personally, that would not make me feel any more comfortable in placing a $3000 order. I think I'd have to set the quantity at 10 at least.

I'd say it depends how quick you got the sale. A trick you could do is post the product for sale on different exchanges/stores, and then you get to cancel the transaction once on each platform. You guys actually gave me this idea while reading this thread.

Ex:
- post on Amazon;
- post on Ebay;
- post on Etsy;
- post on Craigslist;
- post on FB Marketplace (might be trash, but I'd try anyway);
- post on local city online stores (ex where I live we have "Kijiji" which is immensely popular);
- etc.

This helps you have a sample size larger than 1. That would also possibly give you an idea of what platforms your ideal customer uses, depending on how long it takes to get a sale on each. If it takes half a day to get a sale on a Etsy, but takes a full 7 days to sell on Ebay, then maybe it can mean something about your ideal customer. Obviously you would need a bigger sample size, but at least you could validate using multiple fake sales/cancellations and then actually order samples, and then go on for a full batch.

 

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[hustlebear]

Any advice on how to find more niche suppliers? Looking to source sustainable products (upcycled plastic, biodegradable etc) in the pet industry. Having difficulties with Alibaba suppliers at the moment as they dont use the specific materials i want.

 

[Two Dog]

I gave it a go. Quite impressive. If you didn't know much about COPY (which I didn't), you will after you spend a few hours with this tool - hands-on-learning. This is definitely a good start with the building blocks, for more automation. Okay, back to this advice thread.

How? I'd love to see some content.

 

[Djioul]

Hi @NeoDialectic,

Many thanks for your last posts and threads. Tons of value provided there.

I've got one question about idea validation.
I have an idea of a product coming from a struggle that I personnally have. I am now making some research using the framework that you provided on one of your other threads.
I have been making a few hours of research now and I don't find any product which could solve my problem -> very good.
But I also don't find any person complaining about this particular problem... I've made most of my researches in French but still.

My concern is to know if there is a real need to solve this problem. Do you have some advices on how to validate this idea ?

 

[NeoDialectic]

Hi @NeoDialectic,

Many thanks for your last posts and threads. Tons of value provided there.

I've got one question about idea validation.
I have an idea of a product coming from a struggle that I personnally have. I am now making some research using the framework that you provided on one of your other threads.
I have been making a few hours of research now and I don't find any product which could solve my problem -> very good.
But I also don't find any person complaining about this particular problem... I've made most of my researches in French but still.

My concern is to know if there is a real need to solve this problem. Do you have some advices on how to validate this idea ?

It's hard to be definitive considering the vagueness of your question. I don't think that the fact that you can't find people complaining about it, definitively means that it doesn't have a market.

For example, let's say you are looking for t-shirts with dinosaurs on them and can't find any anywhere. I doubt that you would find places that people complain about a lack of dinosaur t-shirts. It may just be difficult to find a place that would facilitate people peoples complaints about this (dinosaur enthusiast forums?). However I am also sure other people do want t-shirts with dinosaurs on them!

One other thing I would try is try to find a forums/reddits/facebook groups/etc where you imagine a person with this issue would hang out. Then YOU instigate a thread on it. So based on my last example, go to an archeological forum and just make a thread asking where you can get dinosaur t-shirts or why no one makes them. You will either get crickets, or you will hear from your future customers haha.

One thing I have very limited experience in is international markets. I have sold thousands of products worldwide, but it was as a happy byproduct of USA based research. So for example, I don't know how powerful or useful French google is or how prolific forums are in French.

 

[Phil Phil]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask about such a matter, but..

I'm struggling with big-numbers-business-thinking. The thing is, I've worked as a part-timer/freelancer for a few years, and over the last two years I've switched to a style where I co-own two businesses where I'm slightly involved in management (who doesn't), but for the 99% of operations we got people hired, and I also have my small thing here where I'm still involved in terms of working hours, but I also hire staff to take some of those hours off of me, and I'm gradually increasing staff hours.

The thing is, now the style of working is different, but my income is the same as before. All these businesses are service-type, so most of the revenue goes back into paying rent, salaries etc.. I feel like If I want to make good money, I'll have to provide service for the whole town. I'm struggling with breaking away from business patterns where my margin is just a tiny fraction. I'm pretty sure that there are opportunities even within what I'm doing now, but I just can't see them yet.

 

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