E.COM-Quit Procrastinating and start executing ...

[sWALK90]

Hello, been on the forums since i turned 25 last October ...it is now Tuesday, March 8th 2016

I have been reading and thinking about doing this and doing that but my excuse was that i wanted to wait until we finished building my house so i would have room for inventory. So i have a bunch of ideas in my head. Well we closed on it last month and moved in. I took a trip to the Bahama's to finally propose to my girlfriend of several years(valentines proposal lol). On the trip I found something that is sold in the states but not this "edition" so i bought a bunch of it.(dirt cheap) I told a few people about it and everyone was trying to buy them in person but I just wrote their name down.

I started reading and thinking of which ecomm platform to start building my site on and 2 weeks later I started to think to myself, damn im wasting a lot of time thinking!!!! I need execution!!!! I haven't made any money on anything...I was actually reaching out to other people and helping them out, teaching them what i learned and they were doubling on sales!..

I still haven't figured out what site to host my personal ecomm site on, im thinking shopify ,but i do have a list of people that want to buy at $100+ per item so i figured lets start making money.......

So last weekend I posted the item on Amazon. Woke up Monday and someone had purchased 2 for $204..it only took 20 mins to post it.. ...wow that was easy...Then i called two people from the list, bam another $204..they picked it up from me at work ...then by the time i got home i sold another on amazon. Total of $518 in one day and i only did a couple of hours of work.





So of course as i said i stumbled on this product so i wasn't really planning on going into business with it because i don't have to much of it ,but i could easily pick up some more on my next trip which will probably be Cozumel or somewhere around there.

I spent countless hours going through Alibaba and aliexpress looking for products to sell and decided to go with something i know very well and in fact use it at my job everyday. I was ordering a bulk order but decided to cancel it and order a bunch of samples from different places so i could test it out before i actually try to brand and sell it online. This market is very saturated ,but i think i may have a strong point in ways to sell and market it..along with up-sales..(read my AMA thread in my sig and you will understand). So i have ordered a few samples of 5 products with a couple of bulk orders that i could upsale last week.

While waiting on those i will start 6 Instagram pages, different niches that i could advertise to and hopefully convert to future sales...this week i will also try affiliate marketing out and see how well i do....im a web developer at my slow lane job and really think that would help out because i have a lot of freetime here...


Not to sure what im doing but at least im doing something instead of just thinking and talking about it!...
I will try to post progress updates and respond to questions as soon as possible. Feel free to offer any advice you have also


Take action today! Get out there and execute!

 

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[sWALK90]

March 15 -Week 2 -Day 10

I received my first samples and eh they were okay...i will prob order bulk of 8 of the 16 items.

So i stumbled across another product and decided to test the market to see if there was a need.
So I listed it for sale and ..well it sold... $600 in 10 hours..with no marketing....while my other item is selling one a day...



The price for this product is in the single digits each so i ordered 100.. and contacted each customer and let them know that we were sold out and i will get it to them ASAP. I can ship overnight for free so it will be no problem...

10 days in with no marketing or site im at $1420.95

Tomorrow i will add different variations of this product and see how well they do...im excited!

 

[biophase]

Just so I don't make the same mistake, @biophase would you say there is any other way to test a product if not looking at competitors or buying a few samples and trying it out? Just in case it turns out not to be worth it and then I'm stuck with inventory.

Thank you

My philosophy is that you should know if your product is needed before you order. How do you know? Because it's already being bought, but it has flaws that you have improved to make it better than the others and that you are priced competitively or the same.

If you aren't sure that your improvements are actual improvements, then you need to reevaluate your product.

For example:

You created an Iphone that holds 900GB instead of 64GB and it's the same price. Do you need to test this first? Probably not. It's a no-brainer win. I'd order 1000 units to start.

You created an Iphone that is the same as everyone elses but yours is brown in color and costs $25 more. Do you need to test this first? Yes, you don't know if people want a brown Iphone. Probably shouldn't just start with a 1000 unit order.

 

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[sWALK90]

Also had someone contact me about buying my product in bulk!

They said quantity wasn't a issue and bought a lot...they didn't want to deal with importing and packaging so they just bought from me.. We exchanged numbers and did it outside of ebay..still using paypal to build trust first..

man this is really starting to come together....

 

[biophase]

Anyone know of any inventory systems to use outside of amazon?

Im now at 40 unshipped lol...

Been looking where to put the actual website....im thinking shopify...

Don't tell me you are still selling after learning the consequences?

 

[biophase]

I bumped the price up..which is way higher than the competitor ....thinking eh ...noone will buy.and they are still buying for some reason lol..

So you are risking getting banned from Amazon for a few extra dollars? Please tell us what happens when your account gets banned next week. At the rate you are going, two complaints will flag/ban your account out of those 40 unshipped.

Well that makes no sense at all.

 

[biophase]

So i stayed up all Saturday night to sort of pre-launch early....got the site up to where it would be functional.

Made a new FB account under the business name to run ads because i didn't want it on my personal one...went to sleep around 5AM Sunday..
thinking i would wake up to at-least one sale.(Ran 2 ads...$20 a day for two weeks($280) and $200 lifetime ad)

Amazon was so much easier but im glad all this is happening early.

I think you have just found out why maintaining a good account on Amazon was so important and why I (and so many others) recommend starting on Amazon first before doing you own store.

 

[sWALK90]

Saturday -April 9, 2016
I will not give up!
Listed one of my products on ebay(out of 6) and after 24 hours/ 104 views/ 4 watchers...sold 2/ ...cost me 15bucks..
Now working on listing my others ...



Ok i took a couple of blows from Amazon but i wont let that get me down.(I WILL GET BACK ON THERE..80% complete with this)

-EIN setup/LLC formed
-Instagram account made -> 500 followers
-Items listed on Facebook store\Shopify ...(0 sales/32 visitors)
-business checking\savings = $300\$300 each


stopped all traffic(google ads/Facebook ads/Instagram Ads)to my facebook store/shopify site(There all setup and ready to go but i need to fix some stuff..trying to see why there not buying..)

still working 2 jobs...putting 10% in my 401K and working on my masters...the good thing about this is i have income coming in & im learning...



I see so many people with excuses of how they don't have time, or their tired.....

Its all about how bad do you want it...

SLEEP FASTER!

 

[sWALK90]

First $100+ in one day via shopify..if you count this and ebay im well over it but im focusing on the site for right now...still 7 more hours.... may reach 150-200 still no type of fb/google ads sets but i plan on doing that today

 

[John Robert]

 

[sWALK90]

Good month, hopefully i can top that.



EDIT* correction... i will top that..


yesterday i went to the gym and i havent been there for 2 years lol....ive been gaining weight since i graduated. I moved to a new city and started making a decent amount from my slowlane and started eating out every day and neglecting my health. It funny because i worked out from 15-22 ...once i moved all that went out the window but now im back on the weights....!

 

[DrkSide]

I thought were supposed to take risk?

Calculated risk. They keyword in that being calculated.

 

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[Vigilante]

I have heard horror stories about people who get banned from Amazon. A ban I guess is a ban for life. IP addresses, computer digital footprints, bank accounts, addresses, everything. In your case it seemed inevitable, but might be worth attempting to get it reinstated by offering to ship the merchandise to FBA and letting Amazon be in charge of shipping it to the end user.

 

[sWALK90]

NON-Fastlane..

So last year it also flooded about this time and i lost my White audi A5 in the flood(in my avi)


Just so happens my fiances transmission went out a week ago (life happens)
So i gave her my Honda that i had bought and ended up with a Audi S5...
(I gave in to my wants over my needs)i know i know...
.bad choice but @ 25 i have a house, fiance and a car ive been wanting so i have nothing else to buy really...

Now the goal is to get the business running to pay all this off in a couple of years

If i can do the numbers i did before and actually maintain inventory and add marketing hopefully i can

Here she is :embarrased::embarrased:

 

[sWALK90]

Wow man talk about a roller coaster of emotions! From being banned on Amazon, to FB and Google ad bans, to floods and jail, how are you still sane?! Anyway its a great read. Keep up the good work!

Just have to accept the road blocks and figure a way around or through them

Thanks

 

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[sWALK90]

Monday post - may 30th

So to end my first month on ebay i did reach my $2,000 goal ..with my smaller products taking up the slack for my big one that was removed last week...and the $2500 i made on amazon in two weeks pays out this month (90 day hold..with the suspension)-it was 2600 but i had a few returns that i had to deal with even though my account was suspended.





so in about 45 days i have managed to make roughly $4535 with no marketing or promotion....less than a hour of work a day
(2 weeks amazon [before suspension]...one month ebay)

Still no sales via new amazon account(items not listed still) or Facebook and shopify...(of course that requires some advertising/traffic)

It feels good seeing all the pieces to the puzzle line up... even when one piece has a defect and you have to modify it a little to fit...
Embrace the roadblocks as learning lessons and keep pushing!

 

[sWALK90]

Doesn't matter if they arrived on time they were shipped late.

You are bullshitting yourself if you think they are giving you the "run around" and don't know why your account was banned.

You didn't play by the rules and you got burned.

Not losing any sleep about it,or about the money being held...(i was testing the need)

I will still receive the money....and now i know people want the product...

money made\lesson learned\off to a good start.

 

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[sWALK90]

Well i missed my Monday post because i was in Orlando/ Miami but im doing it now.

First off man... Miami was nothing but motivation ....you see 100k+ cars like every two minutes ...with the huge houses on the water and yachts ...it was truly a experience and reminder to get my a$$ to f*kn work harder...

 

[sWALK90]

My first sale on shopify!! Whoohoo..... 9999999999999 more to go...

ive had 3 abandoned carts also ;( ..going to use email feature to figure out why they didn't buy


all off instagram..."link in bio" post

 

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[DrkSide]

and contacted each customer and let them know that we were sold out and i will get it to them ASAP

I assume that you mean you sold inventory on Amazon that you didn't actually have. Be very, very careful with this as it will hurt your metrics if you ship past the date that you are supposed to.

Good progress so far, keep it up.

 

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[biophase]

I don't understand either why your account was suspended. How many shipments were shipped out late? Did people not receive their orders on time?

 

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[DrkSide]

i forgot to ship the first few orders by the time they stated.(Even though they arrived before the time they stated[i overnighted them])

Doesn't matter if they arrived on time they were shipped late.

They are basically giving me the run around and wont say why.

You are bullshitting yourself if you think they are giving you the "run around" and don't know why your account was banned.

You didn't play by the rules and you got burned.

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

Well i took the risk and trusted a person in China who barely spoke English ...to have stuff shipped to me by Friday. ...products i sold that i didnt have...
And he came through. ..[emoji16] [emoji16] [emoji16] [emoji16] [emoji41] [emoji41] [emoji41]

View attachment 11813

There's no greater feeling than a Chinese wrapped package arriving after you've questioned if you were scammed.

Great thread. Keep up the progress!

 

[DWX]

Failure is only failure if you quit. You've shown great resilience - keep going!

 

[sWALK90]

The journey has dealt you some pretty crappy punishments, man.

Hold tight though

Yea but nothing i cant work through, i submitted all the paper work needed....i think ill be fine..

Its actually pretty fun....brings excitement every-time i face a new challenge...its like when you play a game then you have to fight the boss at the end of the level to get to the next one lol...

bring it on..

 

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[sWALK90]

Views from hawaii for 2016 Laborday




So many people said the 2 hurricanes this weekend would ruin the trip ,but they didnt even come lol ...

me vs risk 8 to 2

 

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[biophase]

As I was reading this, I was thinking that there is an account banning coming very soon.

If you don't enter shipping tracking numbers by the ship date you may be in trouble.

 

[sWALK90]

Thanks, i will find a way to get it done...not sure how but i will...thanks for the feedback. I wont send the messages...
I been at my slow lane all day and didnt notice that its still been selling lol... 17 SOLD TODAY ..i will fix this somehow
...beginner mistake!

Lesson learned

 

[sWALK90]

Well i took the risk and trusted a person in China who barely spoke English ...to have stuff shipped to me by Friday. ...products i sold that i didnt have...


















And he came through. ..[emoji16] [emoji16] [emoji16] [emoji16] [emoji41] [emoji41] [emoji41]



EDIT. - Finally hit 1,000...whoohoo ..not like it matters lol



Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[sWALK90]

I'm not trying to offend you, but you sound very arrogant from what I've read. @DrkSide and @biophase are just giving you a heads up from their experience, but you keep blowing them off and saying that it won't be a problem.

I dont see it as blowing anyone off. It happened, not wasting any time on a issue that cant be fixed overnight.... i mean what can you do about it? Why waste time on it?

Its not a big problem because im not losing anything behind it....im on to the next...i see it as being persistent not arrogant...and
im not offended at all...thats why im here ...to get help and help others..its good feedback..