I Read TMF and Took Action

[TookAction]

I read TMF in 2019 (late to the game) and was very inspired to actually take action and move into the Fastlane.

I have a 6# job and save ~50% of my income (no kids, share my apartment to keep my rent low, etc) so I had some income to dedicate to testing out a business.

After a lot of back and forth throughout February, in March I chose to try Amazon FBA expecting to either break even, make a tiny profit or just take an L and learn A LOT.

1. In May I started doing my research with a friend who started on FBA years ahead of the hype and bought an investment property with the proceeds. Read a lot -- including Walter's Power Labels – for Private Labeling Profits did a ton of product research and finally picked a product.
   
   
2. May - June - Reached out to suppliers, got back 6 samples and evaluated against cost and quality. Picked a supplier and then negotiated with them to include packaging and shipping to US in the estimate (they sent the sample with a package and instruction manual which I liked).
   
   
3. Found a warehouse on the east coast, bought a UPC code and then found a copy writer + product photography ($2k. Bad buy)
   
   
4. August - product was ready and shipped to us (video call with factory to look through the assembled product plus labelling etc)
   
   
5. September, product landed in my us warehouse, and I had them send 1/3 to Amazon warehouse.
   
   
6. Day 1 - Amazon supressed listing. Cue panic. Called the helpline and they sent an email saying I needed to take a course and pass it in order to sell the product. Spent the day taking the course. By end of the week, listing was live.
   
   
7. Week 2 - Started looking into ways to drive traffic to my product. I set up an Automated PPC campaign and asked friends to order the product + leave good reviews. Automated PPC ate ~$105 and aggressively bid on exactly 2 keywords unrelated to my product. Yikes. Took down the automated ppc and learned how to set up a manual one with sensible keywords.
   
   
8. Month 1 - PPC taking traction, some sales (~1-2/day) but still not much traction. I focused on optimising my PPC and investing aggressively in it.
   
   
9. Month 2 - Started looking at off-platform marketing (I made a website for the product. Absolute waste of time but learnt how to create a proper optimised website) then focused on forums related to my product and posting helpful tips. Then I created a discount code and put that on the forums. That drove a lot of traffic. Sales at ~3-5/ day.
   
   
10. Steady through month 3 up to ~7-9/day. By the end of month 3 I ran out of stock and sent another 1/3 to Amazon warehouse.
    
    
11. Month 5 - Covid panic buying ensues. Selling 22-30 each day. Sent the final 1/3 to Amazon.
    
    
12. Then listing 'yanked' from Amazon from manual review suddenly. Email the good people of Amazon who reassure me it will be made active pending review.
    
    
13. It's relisted the next day with new disclaimer copy from Amazon about FDA health claims (product is not health related at all)
    
    
14. Finally sold out. The numbers come down to:

-$6,565 invested in product, packaging, shipping from china to US and from warehouse to Amazon warehouse:
-$1,941 invested in product photography+ copy: $1,900
+$6,057.92 received after sales, ppc, amazon storage costs, amazon membership cost, amazon referral cost.

Would I do FBA again? Absolutely not.
My experiences with Amazon randomly supressing listings, and the amount of fees Amazon takes has really helped me understand the difference between actually being in the Fastlane vs. hitching a ride in someone else’s ride.
I've learned a lot about white labelling and off platform marketing which I can use for future projects but my next Fastlane attempt will be building from scratch rather than trying to leverage someone else's setup. I'm excited to keep at it and see where this leads

I spent a lot of time reading through all the forums especially the FBA ones so huge thanks to all contributors. I learnt a lot from you all.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Thank you for sharing the story. Keep in mind, there is nothing wrong with Amazon.

The problem becomes when AMAZON becomes the business, and not the channel.

Amazon is a channel, not a business.

Build something self-sustaining without Amazon. Use Amazon to grow it.

Fail to do so and the Commandment of Control will come knocking, the only question is, when it does, how much of the golden goose did you get before it was killed?

Thanks again.

 

[TookAction]

Build something self-sustaining without Amazon. Use Amazon to grow it.

Fail to do so and the Commandment of Control will come knocking, the only question is, when it does, how much of the golden goose did you get before it was killed?

Thanks again.

Thanks MJ--That's the plan! Also looking into building digital tools that don't require logistics, storage etc., next project launches in a few weeks. Looking forward to sharing the results here down the line!