How a 19 year old made thousands in a few months

[The Rom Cam]

Read the fast line book a year ago and decided after spending hours online that I could start selling through various platforms with product from china. In a matter of a few months I had accrued just over 9 thousand dollars. Wanted to give back to the fastline community as a young man with limited experience, I've had and pretty good short run of luck.

Feel free to ask me anything, feel free to ask me nothing, a man is a man with stories and experiences.

 

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[sWALK90]

You say various platforms....are we talking ebay, amazon, or others?

Which platform do you recommend over the others and why.

 

[Daniel A]

Alright, first, thank you for being willing to share your knowledge!

What was your process in selecting a product? Or was it multiple products?

^ And I second what he said. ^

 

[chriswho]

Which product(s) did you sell?

 

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[Bigguns50]

Welcome to the Forum ! Congrats on your 3 month success. Nice.

I suggest introducing yourself here 1st. https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/forums/introductions-networking.16/

 

[sWALK90]

Which product(s) did you sell?

As you know, any executed idea thrown out on the internet is ripe to be taken, copied, or borrowed. It's not unusual. The spirit of entrepreneurship is to take an idea, and make it better. Improve it. Efficiency. Convenience. Whatever that is.

However, what usually IS NOT KNOWN, is how much $$$$ that idea is making. If someone discloses "I'm making $200k/mo doing this and here's the website!" - then immediately that idea has placed a target on it's back.

You should read this thread by MJ...
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/why-all-the-secrecy-heres-why.50174/

 

[chriswho]

You should read this thread by MJ...
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/why-all-the-secrecy-heres-why.50174/

Alright, no problem.
If you are up to answer these questions, I would be really happy:

• In which country / countries do you execute?
• Did you try different products before you found a working one?
  
• Do you buy the product(s) in advance and store them at your place / a warehouse and ship them when ordered?
• If so, how much money did you spend on the products before making a dollar?
  
• When talking about "various" platforms. Did you do research on them in any way? Did you engage in things like the respective platform's SEO (when thinking about Amazon or eBay) or did you just try and it worked directly?

Thank you!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Hopefully the OP comes back and isn't a drive-by, he posted this and bailed.

 

[sWALK90]

Yea it was late last night,well early this morning maybe a late sleeper lol

 

[livegrowfree]

Solid click bait!

Hopefully OP comes back looks interesting.

 

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[The Rom Cam]

You say various platforms....are we talking ebay, amazon, or others?

Which platform do you recommend over the others and why.

At the time I was primarily using ebay and also since I was in a very densely populated area I was able to make postings on the items I was selling through craigslist, local buy and sell sites on facebook, and a couple smaller pages that were specifically for buying and selling locally.

To note this was just a very basic strategy for selling. Ebay being the primary source of sales, and then the rest being ways to slice bits and pieces of my inventory off in order to distribute it as quickly as possible.

If you want to hear specifcally how I turned those smaller selling platforms into major channels that I sold through I'll write more about it if people are interested.

 

[The Rom Cam]

Alright, first, thank you for being willing to share your knowledge!

What was your process in selecting a product? Or was it multiple products?

^ And I second what he said. ^

Great question,

Obviously product was everything, I'll let you know what I took into consideration when choosing a product.

1. Demand: obviously there isn't really a point in selling something online that very few people (or no one for that fact) have interest in. Do your research. But what do you mean by research? Research comes in many different forms right...? People tend to overthink research and look at everything from social media to top selling items ect...I specifically went and talked to people that were close to my age demographic anywhere from say 18-23. I talked and talked and talked and talked and eventually an idea came to me. It was in all honesty that eye opening, light bulb above my head, oh my god I need to go research this as much as possible idea, and it just so happened to have a large demand.

2. Competition: How will you ever compete with someone who sells a widget for $10 less than you and orders them by the thousands at a time? You wont. If you were like me, you didn't have a whole lot of cash, or the balls to start investing thousands into product that you may not potentially sell. MAKE SURE that before you go and select a product that the chances of a competitor coming out of the gate hot and leaving you in the dust is low. Have a entry and exit strategy when it comes to competition

3. Size: You would not believe what it costs to ship things these days. One thing I took into account before (because it was fairly important for my product) was size and weight. At that point I could determine shipping costs and other variables that would impact my margins per unit. Also, I didn't have a ton of room to store the stuff. If you do find a large item that is worth selling it might behoove you to get space for it.

Lastly,

4. Margins: What is the point in selling something if your only making cents on each unit sold? (unless you are potentially selling them by the hundreds of thousands; if your doing that keep on doing that). Overall you need to realize how much energy you put into it selling and how much you get in return. I found for about every hour of work I put into selling, I made roughly around $95/Hr.

 

[The Rom Cam]

Which product(s) did you sell?

If I told you, I would have to kill you.... just kidding. Obviously that the golden question and if I just straight up gave you the answer....
1. I would potentially decrease my ability to reenter the market. and...
2. You wouldn't have taken the time to learn what is really needed to find a product.

I'm a learning kinda guy: self/situation exploration is the game, young and stupid is my name.

 

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[The Rom Cam]

Yea it was late last night,well early this morning maybe a late sleeper lol

Call me a sleep or click bait, I'm up and answering questions!

 

[The Rom Cam]

You say various platforms....are we talking ebay, amazon, or others?

Which platform do you recommend over the others and why.

To reply to your suggestions on platforms I will say this.

Amazon: You better have a damn good product that has very few defect. Ratings are everything on amazon.

Ebay: Obviously not as much attraction now that amazon is kicking their a$$ but, there is still a lot of money to be made there if you find amazon isn't working,

Local sales websites: you wouldn't believe how many people actually use this stuff and think that they are automatically getting a better deal then they would be getting online. They hardly cross reference what they are looking for because they assume the better deal is on these local sites. Use them, don't abuse it. Limit your time on theses though, people want to have all these things available option on how to buy and I gave them NONE. I gave them a pay pal account to pay to, I said their money is backed up and refundable if I don't deliver, said it would be out to deliver in less than 2 days, that... was... it. No exceptions.

Other knock off ebay and amazon sites: screw em' not worth the time or energy.

 

[The Rom Cam]

Alright, first, thank you for being willing to share your knowledge!

What was your process in selecting a product? Or was it multiple products?

^ And I second what he said. ^

As i talked about above, there are some thing I take highly into consideration, obviously lots of smaller things that come up too. When it came to choosing what I was going to sell I would buy batches of a product say 20-50 units and then see how fast they sold (or didn't sell) and then make moves based on those observations.

I found it less risky to buy a lot of smaller items that sold decently than large items that sold occasionally. But some people like to gable big with stuff, so its honestly a preference.

 

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[The Rom Cam]

Alright, no problem.
If you are up to answer these questions, I would be really happy:

• In which country / countries do you execute?
• Did you try different products before you found a working one?
  
• Do you buy the product(s) in advance and store them at your place / a warehouse and ship them when ordered?
• If so, how much money did you spend on the products before making a dollar?
  
• When talking about "various" platforms. Did you do research on them in any way? Did you engage in things like the respective platform's SEO (when thinking about Amazon or eBay) or did you just try and it worked directly?

Thank you!

More great questions, Ill try to answer them effectively, right now, with short answers and we can dive into maybe more specifics later.

• In which country / countries do you execute?- The States

• Did you try different products before you found a working one? - started with one product that did well, the next product on the other hand was grand slam in my opinion (considering my initial investment and my current status as a full time student running maximum credits).

• Do you buy the product(s) in advance and store them at your place / a warehouse and ship them when ordered?- always TRIED to be one step ahead, sometimes suppliers don't always meet your deadlines. But consistently was cleaned out buy buyers before I got more product ( usually a good sign). but yes, stored the product personally.

• If so, how much money did you spend on the products before making a dollar? -Initial investment is say, $500. Made $1500 from selling. Used the extra $1000 to invest in other test products/ resupply for another round of product. I never used any of my own personal cash after that first round investment in product.

• When talking about "various" platforms. Did you do research on them in any way? Did you engage in things like the respective platform's SEO (when thinking about Amazon or eBay) or did you just try and it worked directly? -Lots of time spent trying to find what worked well. Found that I could make more money with great posts on ebay and selling through "local" sell sites (I made posts all around the nation about how I was a local seller and then would just send them through mail). Made just as much money on local sell sites compared to ebay. I will say that amazon seem like a better seller now, but in my current situation I didn't really have the time or energy (and i didn't like how much they took for their services) to deal with amazon. Used a couple of SEO websites to help me find what product was worth the time.

 

[JMLeblanc23]

OP, do you have a preferred platform that you buy from?

 

[sWALK90]

man what is op? lol

Sounds like you are doing exact same thing im trying to do..

 

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[The Rom Cam]

OP, do you have a preferred platform that you buy from?

I tried a variety of suppliers, and had to change them multiple times. Alixpress was my primary go to but proved to be unreliable in shipping and as you probably guessed means for bad business. You have to understand that the culture over there is cut throat and so you need to apply the same style when negotiating. If one guy couldn't bring his price down I dropped him and said I found a better supplier (often times I did) to meet my demands. They will try to bring you back by offering you free stuff or promised shipping by a certain date. All of it really doesn't matter though, if they screw you over once drop them. Find a new guy who makes the next best thing. Loyalty and consistency are huge for me.

 

[The Grind]

I commend you.

Your miles ahead of everyone else at your age and everyone years older than you.

 

[ThatKidNick]

what do you sell? And how did you get started, step by step? Im 19 and hoping to do the same thing

 

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[Kingmaker]

After initial success, why did it fizzle out?
&
Future plans?

 

[The Rom Cam]

After initial success, why did it fizzle out?
&
Future plans?

Fizzled out because Ebay updated its selling standards to some ridiculous expectation that expected less than 3 negitive reviews for every hundred items you sold. Refunded people who didn't like/ were not impressed with product, but they still gave shitty reviews non the less. Got tired of having to work with ebay. Quit and moved to other opportunities that are more investing in myself instead of online sales and now work for a company that helps integrate freshly graduated students into their respective career fields (anywhere from law students, to various engineering degrees, and much more). Great way to make connections early in life and help other people while making a good chunk of change. For my plans in the future, its undecided, there are many different paths I could go its just a matter of choosing what direction I feel the most passionate about. Either way I know if I have the time I can figure anything out and be successful (or fail miserably) and still learn something new.

 

[The Rom Cam]

I commend you.

Your miles ahead of everyone else at your age and everyone years older than you.

Thanks! I find that age is just a number. Experience is another. This was one of many business experiences to come!

 

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[The Rom Cam]

I commend you.

Your miles ahead of everyone else at your age and everyone years older than you.

I find that age is just a number. Experience is another. This was one of many business experiences to come!

 

[The Rom Cam]

what do you sell? And how did you get started, step by step? Im 19 and hoping to do the same thing

Obviously that is the golden question and if I just straight up gave you the answer....
1. I would potentially decrease my ability to reenter the market. and...
2. You wouldn't have taken the time to learn what is really needed to find a product.

It's not about he product Its about the process. I suggest you go read this post:
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/why-all-the-secrecy-heres-why.50174/

I'm a learning kinda guy: self/situation exploration is the game, young and stupid is my name.

Grab a book on ecommerce and finish it within 5 days. Apply what you learned and come back with more specific questions.
Sounds like a shitty way to answer but I did it and it sent me miles ahead of everyone else my age plus it will help you towards being an "Expert" in your field.

Since making money online I've been offered jobs working for companies to help their eCommerce and the books I read made me more valuable than people twice my age.

 

[TKDTyler]

what do you sell? And how did you get started, step by step? Im 19 and hoping to do the same thing

Best way to get started is to read the threads by ecom man, biophase, and vigilante.

You should be able to get all the knowledge you will ever need in the threads by those three as they span across all ecommerce platforms (Ecom = Ebay, Biophase - Amazon Private label, Vigilante = Amazon private label).

 

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[ThatKidNick]

Obviously that is the golden question and if I just straight up gave you the answer....
1. I would potentially decrease my ability to reenter the market. and...
2. You wouldn't have taken the time to learn what is really needed to find a product.

It's not about he product Its about the process. I suggest you go read this post:
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/why-all-the-secrecy-heres-why.50174/

I'm a learning kinda guy: self/situation exploration is the game, young and stupid is my name.

Grab a book on ecommerce and finish it within 5 days. Apply what you learned and come back with more specific questions.
Sounds like a shitty way to answer but I did it and it sent me miles ahead of everyone else my age plus it will help you towards being an "Expert" in your field.

Since making money online I've been offered jobs working for companies to help their eCommerce and the books I read made me more valuable than people twice my age.

Any books to recommend for a 19 year old kid just starting out? Considering ecommerce, getting famous on youtube (Work in progress, have 6k subs), real estate wholesaling, writing an ebook. So many paths to choose from. It can be a little overwhelming. Decided to skip going to college to pursue entrepreneurship and I have no idea where to start.

 

[theag]

Why 2x the same thread?

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...ear-old-made-thousands-in-a-few-months.64537/