Fastlane Success (8 figure exit!) - Now Back to the Starting Ground !!

[fastlane_dad]

OK so there's a lot to my story - my journey and how it all happened (I'd be willing to share if there's any interest) - but long story short I have recently achieved the pinnacle of the 'fastlane journey' - selling my online business a year ago and amassing a low 8 figure net worth.

This was not a 'get rich quick' story either as this took the better part of the last 15 years to begin my entrepreneurship journey full time, and eventually build a business to the point of sale a decade later. I was working a full time corporate job (with my slowlane degree!) prior to embarking on this wild ride. I quit at 25 years old, and never looked back again or had a boss since that lovely July day. There were MANY failures, trials and tribulations along the way. If you want a 'process' and not an 'event' ---> I am no better example of that.

I am now at a point of figuring out what the best next steps forward are. Some of the things I have started working towards is thinking about starting another business for fun rather than just profit (orienting it closer towards a passion), currently investing the proceeds of the business sale, and gauging if there are other values to chase in this lifetime vs. the constant pursuit of building / scaling / selling businesses and building wealth for wealth's sake (once you figure out your 'enough').

I am late 30s with a small family (one child) and *think* I have close to enough to make my money last until the day I die, so pursuing extra wealth through hard work and additional sacrifice is becoming less and less appealing with each passing day. I have experienced all the exotic rides, dream vacations, top restaurants and parties (all responsibly of course) and many of all the other luxury goods we all aspire to. While great in its own right, and was a lot of my motivation from the get-go -- much of that has lost its charms on me over the years.

Additionally, I am looking forward to merging my life towards providing value to any/all that want help with business advice in any facet. My schedule is open now (as I consider myself partially retired) and I am open to mentoring / coaching anyone who is interested in entrepreneurship, scaling a business or just thinking of ideas / niches to pursue.

I haven't participated much on these boards while pursuing my entrepreneurial journey but am at a point now where I have the time, motivation and willingness to engage in helping others achieve 'the dream.'

In a way I am now back to ground zero - and yes, even though the pressures of day-to-day paycheck are further beyond me, I am in many ways faced with the same but different constraints that I was bootstrapping and growing a business, or trying to figure what is it now that I'm 'optimizing' for.

I am very conservative in my investments as well, so having money does not automatically enroll you in some special club where now 'making money' becomes much easier (in facts sometimes its the opposite when you are afraid of losing it all).

For those wondering how I made the bulk of my money it was through various e-com ventures, latest being an Amazon FBA business that led to an exit. The 'process' took me the better part of the last decade (the Amazon business actually was started exactly a decade ago this month!) - but I have been entrepreneurial in various facets since the age of 14.

While I haven't hit all the tenets of CENTS with my last business (primarily violating control and entry) - the rest of them were hit right on the mark to make it a success.

I'm still learning and browsing these forums weekly but will plan and contribute more as time goes on!

 

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[fastlane_dad]

Congrats!!! In your 10 years of experience, do you have any quick takes on what it takes to build something from nothing to something?

Sure - I got enough to fill a book (maybe soon!) - but to start here is what I can go with of the top of my head. Some of these again might sound redundant, and echo much of what the Millionaire Fastlane (and all other MJ books) describes, or sentiments passed around many threads on this forum.

- Before our Amazon business - we were able to build up several businesses to 100K/200K profit a year. In between any business taking off or catching ground we had to try a LOT of ideas that failed or gained no traction. Some of the ideas that succeeded died a slow death because of advertising costs and/or competition and were let go of by us in lieu of more lucrative opportunities at the time.

- 'Passion' was never in the equation. Providing Value / Earning a living was itself the passion and a 'hobby'

- Deliberate small actions day in and day out is what carried us. Learning to profit $1 was a stepping stone to profiting $10. We made a plan and executed / adjusted daily along the way.

- There has to be a 'rub' to the product or service you are selling. Value adds are important, and we try and choose fields with a large market size.

- Timing and where you are directing your effort can many times be important and more so then the idea itself (building ebay business in 2010s would of been a lot more challenging then getting on amazon at same time)

- You don't need to reinvent the wheel. None of the products or ideas we came up with did we have to make anything from scratch. We just improved a bit on what was already out there and put our own spin on it.

- Customer service FTW! One of the e-com businesses we ran - we had a phone number on the website and I picked up EVERY SINGLE PHONE CALL! The conversion rate on that was through the roof. And we probably got nearly 50% of sales through the phone. I knew the product inside out, was able to up-sell, and left many customers happy in the end. Yes customer service especially in the age of robots/automation/large chains taking over is still priceless.

- Our mode of operation has always been bootstrapping, and quick to fail. Nothing we started required a significant investment of money. We were always and constantly lean in our operation (we still use the same $99 walmart desks bought 15 years ago). The constant mentality was how can we test an idea/product in the market. We tested a lot of ideas out before having any sort of product made or figured out. In one way, this saved us countless potential headaches and investments that went nowhere - on the other hand it may have potentially robbed us of going 'all in' on the execution. There were several products we tossed around and experimented with - that were ahead of their time and would of been great sellers if only we stuck with them.

- Almost 0% of my net worth today has so far been made by any 'stock market investment' or a 'hot tip' of any sort. Sure there were revolutionary riches and gains made in crypto / markets / housing over the last decade - I missed out on nearly 95% of that gain.

- There was no one single home run 'event' occurring in any of our business. Much / many of the days were very uneventful - with many of them actually felt like they were 'wasted away' brainstorming, researching, reading and/or deliberately trying and executing on a mini plan we made.

I'm sure there are tons more lessons and reflections learned along the way and I will share those in the future.

 

[NeoDialectic]

Chiming in to add that I have been working with @fastlane_dad for ~15 years and even though we just recently sold our business together, don't let him make you think he's hung up his work boots!

 

[NeoDialectic]

8 figure net worth and you're concerned about running out of money? C'mon.

Congrats on the successful exit!!

Most people that aren't in this situation don't actually realize how difficult it is to retire with a family at a young age. Especially if your goal isn't to live an ascetic lifestyle.

So let me choose some round numbers for an example. Lets say your worth 10mil. You are comfortable investing 3/4 of your net worth in stocks/bonds. A safe yearly withdrawal rate based solely on history that will guarantee you don't run out of money is about $225,000 a year (adjusted for inflation yearly). Assume 15% taxes on that and your at 195k disposable income. That's great.... But just so you know, thats not the lifestyle you see on instagram of the rich and famous....

We could write a thread on this if enough people are interested, but here are some quick bullet points to get you thinking in the right direction:

• 4% has been considered the relatively safe number for withdrawal in a retirement portfolio. This type of portfolio survives 95% of cases in history and only leaves a 5% risk of you running out of money.
• Are you ok with retiring and having a 5% chance of needing to get a job at 75? If not, you are closer to 3%.
• Are you OK with investing 100% of your net worth in stocks/bonds? No? Then you have to have even more set aside as padding.
• Oh and 4% is considering a history that includes the worlds longest Bond Bull Market... Where through a majority of the time you could get 5%+ in your checking account!! That is not todays world. Since the time MJ wrote the first Millionaire Fastlane , living on 500k by holding 10mil in the bank is no longer an option. You may get AT BEST 50k to live on from that. You have to carry some decent risk just not to be underwater compared to inflation.
• This only protects you against history. "The worst thing that has ever happened" has never happened, until one day it does. 70s inflation didn't happen till it did. We have never had the FED literally sending people checks and the govt locking down the country. This presents risk.
• Notice the word risk over and over again. Risk has real world implications.
• You will naturally spend more money as you make more money over a long period of time. We are VERY conservative with our spending (considering our past income). We keep lifestyle creep to a minimum.....But over the years it happens. Maybe you could live on 50k a year while having millions..... But I think you would more likely find similar minds on the Lean Fire type forums than these forums (or even compared to most normal people).

Obviously this assumes that you want to just never work again and you want to be guaranteed to be able to live your same lifestyle regardless of what happens in the economy. I think most people would adjust. But the point still stands.

 

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[Kak]

Wow, so much countering!

I counter all of you.

 

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[biophase]

I will counter your math with my reality of knowing several hundred millionaires ranging from single digit net worth to one centi-millionaire. The handful that are fearful about running out of money have always been fearful and will remain fearful until they stop breathing. The guy running the Financial Samurai blog is like that. Sam knows a lot about finance, but his grasp of personal fulfillment and life satisfaction is non-existent. No number in the bank will give them peace.

The rest of the millionaires I know have zero concerns. They learned about "enough" ages ago.

I will counter you that I know about 10 high 7 figure and 8 figure millionaires very well and we all agree that $10M is just not enough to feel comfortable these days if you are in your 30’s and want to live a comfortable life for the next 50 years.

You just want a bigger cushion. How do you spend $10M in 50 years? I don’t know. But it’s quite possible that a McDonalds value meal will be $50 by that time and health insurance will be $5000/mo. You don’t want to regret taking your pedal off the gas too soon and then pay for it when you are 80 living in a shack.

 

[fastlane_dad]

Congrats on your achievements. I appreciate you giving back valuable knowledge and wisdom.



Speaking about CENTS, how do you view relying only on Amazon? What made you confident about the barrier of entry?



How did you test the products?


Do you feel that you focused on the needs or problems of the customers first--especially during the process of ideation and early stages of execution?

I assume you won't be creating another Amazon FBA business. Is there a less-mature mentality about business in general that you have grown out of during this process? In other words what kind of mindset shift have you experienced as a result of your journey so far?

I may have not been clear - control and entry were the parts of CENTS we didn't fully adhere to. The business started off on Amazon - and while the majority of the sales went through there, the sales were eventually expanded into our own shopify store, walmart (online), ebay, etc.

The goal was always to rely on amazon less and less as time went on. Having the bulk of our sales on amazon though (and the risk that comes with that) - was also one of the reasons we decided to sell when we did. Sometimes you need to sell when you're 'up' and take the profits of the table. The numbers also made sense at the time for getting us where we wanted to be for value of company and our 'net worth' objectives.

The way to test depends on what you are testing - the product, the marketing angle, marketplace etc. Will dive deeper into this on a follow up thread.

Yes - focusing on the needs and providing value to the customer will and always is #1 but bottom line you still will never know how the market will respond to your offer until you put it out there. You might think you are solving a 'large' pain point when in fact there are not that many people that need that issue solved.

Regarding mindset shift - we are now at a point figuring out whats next in terms of the 'why', the business and what kind of value can we provide. Money takes a backseat once you objectively hit 'enough', esp if you don't fancy constant 5 star meals every night, new lambos every year and four seasons hotels. I have experienced much of that the last decade while building up the business, and it no longer holds the awe it once did - especially when your value and priorities shift more towards growing a family.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Congrats!!! In your 10 years of experience, do you have any quick takes on what it takes to build something from nothing to something?

 

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[IronyIsTacky]

Imma guess "RIP your inbox" from everybody looking to get coached/mentored, but glad to hear you got what they call good problems now!

 

[Zealander]

Congratulations! Always nice to hear about the success of others! Obviously since you had an FBA business you must be pretty good at figuring out which niches to pursue, maybe you could share some wisdom on that?

 

[Two Dog]

Most people that aren't in this situation don't actually realize how difficult it is to retire with a family at a young age.

I will counter your math with my reality of knowing several hundred millionaires ranging from single digit net worth to one centi-millionaire. The handful that are fearful about running out of money have always been fearful and will remain fearful until they stop breathing. The guy running the Financial Samurai blog is like that. Sam knows a lot about finance, but his grasp of personal fulfillment and life satisfaction is non-existent. No number in the bank will give them peace.

The rest of the millionaires I know have zero concerns. They learned about "enough" ages ago.

 

[fastlane_dad]

Thanks for sharing this man! Absolute gold to read your story.

It's timely because I launched a content site last year, built it to 50,000 pageviews/mo through SEO, and started building an email list with hopes of launching an e-commerce product Q2 - Q3 this year.

The site is on a relatively niche topic (ownership and buying advice for Tesla Model 3 & Model Y owners).

I know I can sell aftermarket products that add value to this audience.

So, having the audience, is researching/selecting a product through a survey a good idea?

Also, the ideal CENTS business relies as little as possible on other businesses, would you launch on Amazon in my shoes? Or would you launch initially on your own site -- and then consider adding Amazon to the mix?

I've been tempted to sell the content site for low six-figures... but I know this has SO much more potential I can monetize the audience through my own products.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

What a cool niche list / business that you are building!

Surveys work well for certain answers, but don't rely on them to gauge whether or not to release a product, or what the market will eventually 'buy'.

As far as the amazon business goes - there still IS and will be tons of opportunity on that platform. The current challenge is figuring out how to tap into a very crowded market with your product - that will be key moving forward. It is still an amazing , well built up 'trusted' marketplace, but its their land and not yours. If a product is compatible with that marketplace, should probably be on there. You can list / add products to either your own site or Amazon in whatever order you choose just be aware and realize the pros/cons that you have with an Amazon only marketplace.

Congratulations!

You mention that you're considering mentoring entrepreneurs who are starting out.
Have you considered writing books or holding (non-scam) seminars?

I know I'll either do that or become an angel investor when I've become retirement-wealthy.
It sounds like YC and Shark Tank guys know what's up when they invest in and mentor young entrepreneurs (especially in emerging markets worldwide), as that's sort of a hedge against black swans.

Some knowledge-based products might come in the future, right now the sole focus is helping / aiding / mentoring those who need a leg up and a hand in their journey. This is a long road, and not meant to be climbed solo.

Congratulations! It's always great to hear from those that have made it, gives the rest of us hope XD

Thanks and really appreciate it. The business sale just 'clenched' that chapter and freed up some time, ultimately I already had almost everything I needed and was living my dream life before that happened. It might be seen as an 'event', but the work, hours, sacrificies and constant thoughts surrounding it happened day in day out over the last 15+ years.

The funny part is it still feels like we're only getting 'started' --> and figuring out the next part of the journey from scratch once again.

 

[fastlane_dad]

Hi there!

First of all, kudos to you growing your business to such a high level - really interesting that you put a phone number on your eCom site - I don't see a lot of people doing that.

I have recently turned my attention to eCom as well since I think it's a good business model to start if you have a full time job. I have tested a couple of products already from AliExpress and they have all failed, and ad costs on Facebook are very expensive, so even if I did make sales it would be pretty hard to be profitable.

Do you have any advice on someone starting out? Thanks!

This was nearly a decade ago, with a completely different business that had (shopify) as the only storefront and at the time we determined that personal customer attention could of been a value skew (and turned out to be a huge one at that time!). Being that every penny mattered starting off, I'd pick up and return phone calls almost no matter when they came in. It was also fun to interact directly with the customers and sell them, and then ship a product that we created!

Starting out - the most important tenets are to keep going, keep trying, and try to think of any ways to minimize your product testing / sourcing / marketing cost. Think of ways to generate low cost / free advertising (think social media) - to drive traffic, especially if you are starting out with nothing. Remember to put in work day in day out, research, and make small steps forward daily.

 

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[fastlane_dad]

Congratulations! It's hard to imagine what struggles you must have had - and overcome - over the years!

Maybe it sounds funny but I believe I would have an easier time growing and optimizing a business than getting it started. To me, the start of a business has always been the big mystery. Can you tell more about the moment you realized there was value to be skewed and how you figured out how to do it:
First, you need to realize there is some way, e.g. a modification, that could improve the product. Did you check existing products and have some kind of heureka moment as in "that can be done in a better way"? Did you have domain experience with those products (used them in the past, worked in that industry...)?

Second (and certainly more important) is the idea / knowledge on how to turn that modification into reality. Did you already have the skills to do so right away (e.g. sat down in front of your PC, opened a CAD program, designed the modification with your already existing engineering knowledge...) or did you have to have to learn those skills first?

Thanks in advance!

I will also add to this post a bit of personal experience -

Briefly in terms of how some of the ideas were born that ended up being profitable - for one there was an automotive accessories line that we carried. I had the product on my car, and soon enough people in parking lots / gas stations asked me where they can get a similar one! We experimented with a few products, made a mock prototype and a website and a store was setup! We improved the design slightly over what was already on the marketplace. We made a few basic videos and took some pictures of the products. One of the other value skews was great customer / phone support (that we were doing ourselves!). The ability to upsell the customer and explain your products was great at the time.The ironic part is that this didn't take of as a business until YEARS later, when we decided to take that idea more seriously.

Some other ideas were born strictly because I noticed a lack of a few ingredients combined into a personal care product many people use daily. I thought the combination of those several ingredients was a great value skew (as each one held benefits) - and now packaged up it carried even more weight (i.e. shaving cream BUT also containing an ingredient that prevents follow up razor burn).

Other products followed suit. All were typically born around something that is / was a part of my daily life. The value adds and iterations were not groundbreaking inventions, trying to break into a new market. For everything we sold, the market was already there or small and growing. Some products were more niche then others and only applied to a select group of the population.

I can spitball numerous products daily that I would like to see improved or haven't found a great solution to my needs (or haven't looked hard enough - i.e. a specific hiking bag, upscale quality wine opener, the perfect running shorts, etc). If I was to turn any of those into a business - I'd need to look at current market, potentially try out some other competitors, see where they are advertising and how, what's the barrier of entry, and how many value skews I would be able to add.

I would also need to picture where the business can go from there, can I have upsells, will the product form a productocracy (mj!), will there be repeat orders, how much can I charge, what is the multiple of manufacture to sale price, can I test the market before making product, etc. We are working on a post to go through all of this step by step and how to decide if the idea / market / product is worth pursuing and throwing time and energy into.

Another key takeaway, in between the ideas that took off - there were several misses where time/effort/brainstorming and testing was implemented that went nowhere or was dropped. Most of this was in the e-commerce space, with different advertising methods, different products, different platforms and value skews that were tried.

All I know is that the marketplace will still keep evolving and many of yesterdays 'methods' will not work today, or be anywhere as effective.

 

[fastlane_dad]

Thanks for the detailed answer!

So, most of the ideas for things to improve came by using them yourself - that makes sense!

If you don't mind, I'm really interested in the product generation part: you mentioned the automotive accessory. I take it you had this accessory on your car (bought from another company) and people came up to you asking about it. That's when you realized there is demand for this type of accessory.
Next, you thought about ways to improve the design. How did actually implement the new and improved design? Did you draw sketches, sent them to a supplier and they figured how how to build that product? Or did you create a (detailed) CAD model and asked for quotations from suppliers? Or did you outsource the whole thing - design & production ("would be cool if XYZ was attached to the accessory, you guys figure out what it should look like and build it for me")?

As for the personal care product, you combined two ingredients A and B that previously had only existed in separate products (think "2 in 1" shower gels and shampoos)? Did it take you many iterations to get a good result? I could imagine that the combination of A and B might behave very differently than one might expect. E.g. if you only knew elements sodium (explosive reaction with water!) and chlorine (toxic!), you probably would expect the combination of the two to be some very dangerous stuff, not table salt. ;-)
I could also imagine that it was tough to get your new product approved by some authorities since it comes in contact with skin? Think regulatory affairs hell...

Maybe I'm overthinking this but you make it sound 'so easy' and I'm pretty sure it wasn't!

Honestly it was more rudimentary than that. The automotive gadget was something that we were able to put together ourselves with common items found either in home depot, auto parts stores and/or some other more specific add on parts that can be bought online. When we put it together, we were spit balling ideas, and didn't take it seriously until later on in our journey decided to try some adwords spending to the site, and it converted well enough to keep it going and take it more seriously. We never got it (the product) to the point of being fully assembled / manufactured anywhere else, and had an employee that would put this product together / package it up ready for shipment.

As far as personal care products, there are countless labs (manufacturers) who are willing to work with you to help formulate new products, and advise if ingredients would not work together. These were all safe ingredients that we experimented with, and were commonly found separate, but not together (and that's what made the value add!). The labs will provide (many times free) samples for you to try out, and distill to your liking (whether its smell, consistency, effect, more or less of certain ingredient etc). Most the labs in the USA are FDA approved and know what they are doing. The bigger legal issue is always the claims and intent of use that you make/don't make on your products when you list for sale - so that you do have to be careful with.

Again - I'm highlighting examples and products that 'worked' for us. It's always 'easy' in hindsight, but the grind, process, experimentation, brainstorming, frustration, ideas that went nowhere, and lack of sales and advertising cost on countless other products is enough to fill three novels full.

Looking back, it always appears like the successful ideas and products should have taken no more than five days to formulate, put together a website and start advertising (or kick off a marketing campaign) but in reality it takes a heck of a lot longer then that to put it all in motion an make sure that its not a complete bust.

 

[Jeannen]

Thanks a lot for sharing your story, it's very valuable for beginners

There was no one single home run 'event' occurring in any of our business. Much / many of the days were very uneventful - with many of them actually felt like they were 'wasted away' brainstorming, researching, reading and/or deliberately trying and executing on a mini plan we made.

This one is a great insight.
I think we often feel unproductive during those days, and try to fill the gaps with "actual work" that isn't that useful. At least that's what I felt recently, always trying to do something, but not stepping back enough to think.

If you ever make a thread/book or anything about your experience, would be glad to read that, especially the parts about finding a product/market fit!

 

[NeoDialectic]

I assume you won't be creating another Amazon FBA business. Is there a less-mature mentality about business in general that you have grown out of during this process? In other words what kind of mindset shift have you experienced as a result of your journey so far?

Our mindset has definitely matured, but I would be careful in claiming that it has become better. Just better for our goals and current situation. Something I am really big on is that there is no optimum mindset. There are just optimum mindsets for a set of goals/values. I think that is where alot of online gurus, inadvertently, mislead their followers. They made their money taking advantage of certain mindsets. Then as they were becoming successful their mindset "matured". They then go on and teach those "matured" mindsets. But thats not what made them successful in the first place!

It's timely because I launched a content site last year, built it to 50,000 pageviews/mo through SEO, and started building an email list with hopes of launching an e-commerce product Q2 - Q3 this year.

Congrats on starting something that is showing signs of success. Now time to fan those flames!

List building is one of the things we realized we should have done a better job doing during our last venture. It can be very powerful, so definitely pay attention to it.

Have you considered writing books or holding (non-scam) seminars?

This is something we are interested in eventually doing but we don't think we are ready yet. We don't want to write something that will just be another rehashing other business books. Honestly, MJ does a fantastic job detailing the framework of starting a business. It's the book we recommend to anyone that asks for help.

We want to find how our unique perspective can help people in a unique way. So even though we are here to help the community, the community is helping us as well!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

UPGRADED to GOLD, thank you for answering questions.

Side note: If anyone want to know "who" is buying Amazon businesses, here's a list of funded and capitalized entities that are designed solely for Amazon acquisitions.

Amazon Aggregators

Firms acquiring successful brands on Amazon have attracted over $16 billion in capital raised. They are known as Amazon seller aggregators. The market had a breakout year in 2020 because of three factors: the pandemic accelerating spending on Amazon, Thrasio raising hundreds of millions of...

www.marketplacepulse.com

 

[fastlane_dad]

Running a quick french--> english translator I think this is the question you are asking ... '
'Please tell me while you were in the process of wanting to get started (at the beginning of setting up your Amazon business) or finding products to sell, how long were you stressed or when did it end? stopped ?
Thank you'

Honestly the stress never goes away. There are different types of stress and questions / mindsets along the way...

The best I can summarize - is it just changes. Here is a typical map experienced with the most recent business we built up and sold...over the course of a decade

1 - Product research / what to sell / OMG I'm making a big investment / Will this work out ... I'm putting in LOTS of work without instant results...and yet I'm not rich or an overnight success, the gurus lied!!
2 - I'm converting some sales, I'm making a profit, how do I scale ...
3 - My company is growing, I need to add and hire employees, increase my product offerings ...
4 - How do we take the business a notch higher, look for other ways of advertising, promotion etc ...
5 - How much bigger do we want to grow this company, is there a better use of my time, are we working on the business or in the business....which ultimate leads to....is it time to sell ...
6 - Yes - we're selling - is this the right move?
7 - Yes! The business is sold ... what now!!??

Long story short, there are stresses and challenges every single damn day.

The funny part is post business sale, and accumulation of wealth - the stress is ever present, just in a different form.

There are new questions that pop up now that the business is sold. In some ways the new questions are tougher to answer then the ones I had a decade back. The variables are different. My age is different. My motivations are different. My values changed. I also have a growing family etc. But that won't stop me from evolving and doing what I need to do to move forward !!

As they say you must love the process.

The journey , whether with business or any other part of my life has been much 'sweeter' then the destination.

The 'event' itself (selling a business, getting married, buying a lambo, reaching many travel destinations) - has been mostly irrelevant and very uneventful.

It is the labor, thoughts, contemplations, ups and downs, emotions, arguments, pondering if this is all worth it along the way --- that are REALLY the prize to it all.

Congratulations on all your success. What an inspiration! Looking forward to learning from you.

Thanks! Looking forward to providing and delivering as much value as I can. And learning / refining how to deliver my message simultaneously!

 

[Antifragile]

Wow, so much countering!

I counter all of you.

View: https://youtu.be/9FnO3igOkOk

 

[SC87Dominik]

Congrats on your achievements. I appreciate you giving back valuable knowledge and wisdom.

While I haven't hit all the tenets of CENTS with my last business (primarily control and entry) - the rest of them were hit right on the mark to make it a success.

Speaking about CENTS, how do you view relying only on Amazon? What made you confident about the barrier of entry?

The constant mentality was how can we test an idea/product in the market. We tested a lot of ideas out before having any sort of product made or figured out.

How did you test the products?


Do you feel that you focused on the needs or problems of the customers first--especially during the process of ideation and early stages of execution?

I assume you won't be creating another Amazon FBA business. Is there a less-mature mentality about business in general that you have grown out of during this process? In other words what kind of mindset shift have you experienced as a result of your journey so far?

 

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[Kak]

Congrats on the exit! Glad to also hear you aren’t finished making cool things happen!

The world always needs value!

 

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[Antifragile]

OK so there's a lot to my story - my journey and how it all happened (I'd be willing to share if there's any interest) - but long story short I have recently achieved the pinnacle of the 'fastlane journey' - selling my online business a year ago and amassing a low 8 figure net worth.

I am now at a point of figuring out what the best next steps forward are. Some of the things I have started working towards is thinking about starting another business for fun rather than just profit (orienting it closer towards a passion), currently investing the proceeds of the business sale, and gauging if there are other values to chase in this lifetime vs. the constant pursuit of building / scaling / selling businesses and building wealth for wealth's sake (once you figure out your 'enough').

I am late 30s with a small family (one child) and *think* I have close to enough to make my money last until the day I die, so pursuing extra wealth through hard work and additional sacrifice is becoming less and less appealing with each passing day.

Additionally, I am looking forward to merging my life towards providing value to any/all that want help with business advice in any facet. My schedule is open now (as I consider myself partially retired) and I am open to mentoring / coaching anyone who is interested in entrepreneurship, scaling a business or just thinking of ideas / niches to pursue.

I haven't participated much on these boards while pursuing my entrepreneurial journey but am at a point now where I have the time, motivation and willingness to engage in helping others achieve 'the dream.'

In a way I am now back to ground zero - and yes, even though the pressures of day-to-day paycheck are further beyond me, I am in many ways faced with the same but different constraints that I was bootstrapping and growing a business, or trying to figure what is it now that I'm 'optimizing' for.

I am very conservative in my investments as well, so having money does not automatically enroll you in some special club where now 'making money' becomes much easier (in facts sometimes its the opposite when you are afraid of losing it all).

For those wondering how I made the bulk of my money it was through various e-com ventures, latest being an Amazon FBA business that led to an exit. The 'process' took me the better part of the last decade (the Amazon business actually was started exactly a decade ago this month!) - but I have been entrepreneurial in various facets since the age of 14.

While I haven't hit all the tenets of CENTS with my last business (primarily control and entry) - the rest of them were hit right on the mark to make it a success.

I'm still learning and browsing these forums weekly but will plan and contribute more as time goes on!

A perfect Monday feel good story. Thanks for sharing.

Keep us posted on the next venture! We need more people like you here posting, contributing, sharing etc.

 

[NeoDialectic]

What were the daily actions you took with your business? How did you discover, plan, and then implement them?

Awesome stuff man!!

Very simple things that make intuitive sense, but that everyone usually tries to put off doing. Here is a few categories that always have something:

• Improving product
• Adding product
• Improving execution of one of your processes
• Optimizing current advertising
• Finding new places to advertise
• Finding new markets to list in
• Adding content
• Improving your website/listings/copy

If you have a business with products, then you will always have actionable things that you know can be done to improve something in one of these categories.

Don't feel bad if you aren't doing 100 things at once. Just like everyone else, we stalled and procrastinated tasks. We are not good "workers". Some things were on our list for months or longer. But as unsexy as it sounds, one of the keys to our success was to keep a list, and do our best to make sure atleast one thing is slowly being worked on. Then slowly the business gets better and better. So slowly that it may seem like nothing is getting done. But then one day you look back and think "wow, this thing really shaped up into something. I would not want to do all this from scratch right now!"

 

[IsaacCP9]

Thanks for sharing this man! Absolute gold to read your story.

It's timely because I launched a content site last year, built it to 50,000 pageviews/mo through SEO, and started building an email list with hopes of launching an e-commerce product Q2 - Q3 this year.

The site is on a relatively niche topic (ownership and buying advice for Tesla Model 3 & Model Y owners).

I know I can sell aftermarket products that add value to this audience.

So, having the audience, is researching/selecting a product through a survey a good idea?

Also, the ideal CENTS business relies as little as possible on other businesses, would you launch on Amazon in my shoes? Or would you launch initially on your own site -- and then consider adding Amazon to the mix?

I've been tempted to sell the content site for low six-figures... but I know this has SO much more potential I can monetize the audience through my own products.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[NeoDialectic]

Congratulations! It's hard to imagine what struggles you must have had - and overcome - over the years!

Maybe it sounds funny but I believe I would have an easier time growing and optimizing a business than getting it started. To me, the start of a business has always been the big mystery. Can you tell more about the moment you realized there was value to be skewed and how you figured out how to do it:
First, you need to realize there is some way, e.g. a modification, that could improve the product. Did you check existing products and have some kind of heureka moment as in "that can be done in a better way"? Did you have domain experience with those products (used them in the past, worked in that industry...)?

Second (and certainly more important) is the idea / knowledge on how to turn that modification into reality. Did you already have the skills to do so right away (e.g. sat down in front of your PC, opened a CAD program, designed the modification with your already existing engineering knowledge...) or did you have to have to learn those skills first?

Thanks in advance!

Here is a post I made that generally addresses some of your questions

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!!

1)

We like to call your selling point "the rub". It could be a new marketplace, a new product, a new marketing strategy for existing products, etc... Depending on which of these things you are validating, the process could be wildly different. If I had to distill it down to some basics that they all share it would be:

1. Figure out what aspect of your entire business is providing the differentiating massive real or perceived value
2. Find a way to provide that value but using the easiest/fastest/cheapest way were you may be very far from satisfied from the end result but it "gets the job done"
3. See if there is any response at all. A strong response is a win, a weak response where you break even is a win, a weak response where you barely get any sales or a response where you don't get sales is a lose.
4. If you lose, you can try another iteration or two to modify some variable. Otherwise you move on from that idea.

A lose does NOT mean that the idea isn't workable. It just means that under the conditions you tested it, the value you are providing isn't so large that it overcomes alot of the other issues. When you are just starting a business, don't you want to stack the deck so you run with something that has alot of market demand as it is? MJ kind of talks about this when he says the product should have a pull instead of you trying to push it on people.

So I can give you an example of this when the rub is the product. Lets say you realize how much of a hassle it is to always have to lug out your huge vacuum to clean your car. You look online and there are no such thing as portable car vacuums. It sounds like a GREAT idea, but I wouldn't invest 10s of thousands of dollars into developing one. The first thing I would do is find the smallest vacuum that is on the market and find a cigarette lighter inverter. I would make a marketplace listing for "portable car vacuum" and when something sells I would send that combination. Many people would point out all the flaws... Yea. There is a ton. Everything from poor conversions because of unprofessional looking product page to customers not being too happy that they paid X amount for what turned out to be a jerry rigged solution. You would likely be surprised to find that most people would still be happy with your product because it solved their issue and that is really what they cared about. But the most important thing is that you got a real world signal. You found out that people ARE looking for portable car vacuums and they ARE willing to actually pay for it. Then depending on the response I would invest either a little to make a beta version and keep testing or invest as much as needed to make a well thought out final product. So if the response was ok but not overwhelming, I would find a company that makes generic vacuums and contract them to just add a cigarette lighter transformer directly into the unit. It will still not live up to your dream of a product you would be proud of and one that would impress customers. But it will now be a professional looking package and that should raise conversions and give you a clearer signal.

2)

Absolutely. What does shipping cost and logistics have to do with anything? If it costs you more, you just charge more. That's how inflation happens, but that's a macroeconomics problem, not yours. If you are referring to just finding junk on Alibaba and trying to resell it; that's been a dying "new business" strategy for 2 decades. Chinese companies are selling directly to consumer on Amazon and you will never beat them on price. Everything's possible with enough ingenuity, but this isn't the type of business we are talking about here. I personally would always recommend against getting into a business where you have to compete on price, unless you found some kind of ingenious solution to make it 10x cheaper yourself.

We are discussing and working on making a write up that specifically answers questions like yours with an exact step by step process of how we would come up with an idea and put it on Amazon.

 

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[RicardoGrande]

Congratulations man!
it sounds like you reached the end of your first journey, and though you're not pressed for money, you still have so many questions about what you'll do in the future?

More importantly, thanks for posting that you did have your exit and your big fat fastlane win.
We have countless progress/problem threads, but it feels like catching a ray of sunshine hearing about someone who "won"and did it by sticking to the fastlane.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

by that time and health insurance will be $5000/mo.

Wuh? I'm almost there now for a family of two, platinum plan though.

 

[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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[NeoDialectic]

This is awesome! Congrats to both you and @NeoDialectic on the 8 figure exit! I really hope to be will be in your shoes one day with an 8 figure buyout. I just finished creating my Shopify site and am waiting on Amazon to approve my product.

I wanted to ask either/or both of you, how many products did you all have in your Amazon store? I also noticed @fastlane_dad said its a long journey that should not be taken alone, but I am having a hard time finding a business partner. When I started this journey, I had a partner, but he was never available. Do you either of you have any tips on finding a business part or maybe where I should look for one or more?

Again, congrats on the exit!

Thank you!

Off the top of my head, we have had 20-30 products on Amazon.

I don't think you necessarily need a business partner. In fact, many people probably couldn't be in a healthy business partner relationship. That doesn't mean they won't be successful. I don't think Steve Jobs would do well having a 50/50 partner for long, and we know how that turned out! But even without a business partner, you don't have to do it alone. There are communities like these that can help along the way.

If you are looking for any advice on finding a business partner, you can check out my post HERE

This is a pretty large topic, but here it goes. There are probably 2 seperate questions here.

1. What traits do BOTH partners have to possess to foster a healthy business partnership
2. What qualities/skills in a business partner mesh well with your qualities/skills

I think the following traits are very important for #1

• Capable of setting boundaries
• Capable of being confrontational and standing up for yourself
• Capable of separating the friendship and the business partnership
• Be willing to compromise
• Have their ego in control

All these traits build a foundation to the partnership. Alot can be written on each of them, but to me, they allow the partners to be able to set expectations of each other and resolve issues when expectations change or are unmet. Most people focus on the first part, but find out when it's too late that the only constant in business is change and their partnership can't adapt to the shifting landscape.

Moving onto #2.

The following are a list of things that would facilitate a less rocky partnership

• Your goals and values should be aligned
• You should have similar financial habits
• You should have similar work ethics
• You should have compatible power mindsets. It's NOT OK if both people are stubborn leaders as they will bump heads eventually. It's NOT OK if both people are passive as this will hamper decision making. It's OK if one person like to take lead and the other prefers to follow. Its probably most IDEAL if both people have leadership qualities that they can exert, but also don't mind taking the backseat if the situation calls for it. This last one describes @fastlane_dad and I partnership and is probably one of our biggest strengths. We are both very easy going, but grab the reins when needed.

The follow are a list of things that would make 1+1=3 in a partnership

• Specializing in separate skills. This refers to things you guys know how to do or specifically like to do.
• Having different iritations. This refers to things neither of you may specifically like to do but don't mind doing

I haven't wrote specifically about this topic in the past, so I'm sure I am missing a few things. This is a good start to get you thinking in the right direction though. The advice to not start a business with friends is generally good advice. But that is simply because most people can't separate business & friendship and people also have very different personal financial habits that may not be immediately apparent. So it's not just because something is inherently wrong with starting a business with a friend.

It's no accident that alot of what I said is just basics of how to have GOOD RELATIONSHIPS in general. A business relationship brings additional intricacies, but many of the requirements are similar to building any type of relationship with someone.

Keep in mind that this advice is based on you wanting a long term good business relationship. Plenty of partnerships work long enough for people to become successful and then break up. But they were still successful so it's not the biggest deal. So it may be OK to get into business with someone that doesn't fit all your criteria. You just have to be cognizant of this and plan accordingly.

 

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