EXECUTION Progress / Introduction - 19 - Action Taken

[HayesTech]

My name is Brandon, I am 19 years old and from the midwest. Currently I am pursing my BBA, then MBA in college. I've been on an endless path of action faking for a while now (LLC's, Shopify/Wordpress sites, youtube channels created, endless reading, podcasts), but before that I have had some success in business. I created an amazon based "business" that operated in the grocery category when I was 18. I ended up doing $195k in sales in less than 5 months.



BOOM... out of nowhere I was suspended. All of my income was gone at the flip of a switch. After reading TMF , I now realize how stupid it was to violate the commandment of control. Another lesson I learned from this first experience is that I was chasing the cat (money), not attracting it (value). I went from feeling like the most successful person I know to nothing, just that average college student. It was very humbling and I am glad it happened.

After a while I found another opportunity to make some money, I realized that there are many brands of clothes that you could buy and instantly sell for many multiples more than what you paid. I found this brand called Supreme and started botting their site when new products released. It worked well, but there was a fatal flaw. I violated CENTS again. I couldn't scale the business, there wasn't enough inventory to grow the business how I wanted to. Also another problem with this business was I was just chasing money again, not creating any value.

So around the time I gave up on this venture a friend of mine approached me about starting an Amazon business again. We did it for two months this year and had similar results as to how I did last year. BOOM.. suspended again. We ended up getting in trouble for reselling a famous restaurant's sauces, gotta love the occasional cease and desist. Luckily, Amazon let us back onto the platform. Right now, I am done with that business because it lacks CONTROL, among other things.

The reason I am making this post is because I want to thank everyone for their solid posts, which have helped me stay motivated and cleaned up my mindset a lot. I also wanted to thank MJ for TMF and Unscripted , which have changed my life forever. I want to switch from being a lurker on this forum to someone who provides actual value. I want everyone on this forum to keep me accountable, to keep taking action. I will update this post with my progress from now on every week at least.

 

[HayesTech]

Update: College semester has started. Currently taking my third accounting class, second business law class, second economics class, and a basic management class. I just finished MJ's new book Unscripted and it was amazing.

Also I realized that I forgot to mention I currently have no slowlane income or any fastlane/money system income. I have a sizable amount of capital ready for the next opportunity. Can anyone give me some advice on how they spotted the need that led them to their current business? Also is it better to put my excess capital into a money system or just let it sit?

 

[HayesTech]

Bump

 

[Under-Dog]

Since you already have experience with the amazon platform, have you thought of private label? That's another way to go with amazon, you still lack full control since you are on their platform but you don't have as much worry for big brands trying to knock you down for selling their items. There's a few guys on here having major success with amazon maybe they can shed some more light...

 

[Walter Hay]

My name is Brandon, I am 19 years old and from the midwest. Currently I am pursing my BBA, then MBA in college. I've been on an endless path of action faking for a while now (LLC's, Shopify/Wordpress sites, youtube channels created, endless reading, podcasts), but before that I have had some success in business. I created an amazon based "business" that operated in the grocery category when I was 18. I ended up doing $195k in sales in less than 5 months.

View attachment 14772

BOOM... out of nowhere I was suspended. All of my income was gone at the flip of a switch. After reading TMF , I now realize how stupid it was to violate the commandment of control. Another lesson I learned from this first experience is that I was chasing the cat (money), not attracting it (value). I went from feeling like the most successful person I know to nothing, just that average college student. It was very humbling and I am glad it happened.

After a while I found another opportunity to make some money, I realized that there are many brands of clothes that you could buy and instantly sell for many multiples more than what you paid. I found this brand called Supreme and started botting their site when new products released. It worked well, but there was a fatal flaw. I violated CENTS again. I couldn't scale the business, there wasn't enough inventory to grow the business how I wanted to. Also another problem with this business was I was just chasing money again, not creating any value.

So around the time I gave up on this venture a friend of mine approached me about starting an Amazon business again. We did it for two months this year and had similar results as to how I did last year. BOOM.. suspended again. We ended up getting in trouble for reselling a famous restaurant's sauces, gotta love the occasional cease and desist. Luckily, Amazon let us back onto the platform. Right now, I am done with that business because it lacks CONTROL, among other things.

The reason I am making this post is because I want to thank everyone for their solid posts, which have helped me stay motivated and cleaned up my mindset a lot. I also wanted to thank MJ for TMF and Unscripted , which have changed my life forever. I want to switch from being a lurker on this forum to someone who provides actual value. I want everyone on this forum to keep me accountable, to keep taking action. I will update this post with my progress from now on every week at least.

Do you have appropriate permission to sell the brands you are selling? If you buy them retail in the US you can legally resell them. If you buy from sources outside the US that could be the problem, not that you violated CENTS.

Walter

 

[ExaltedLife]

Your excess capital is probably not enough for a worthwhile money system. Look for 'this sucks' if you want to find a need. If you did only that for an entire day, you'd definitely find one. And then, don't be afraid to take on a huge challenge - solving the need you uncover might be totally different from buy and sell, and might require a whole new skillset.

 

[HayesTech]

Do you have appropriate permission to sell the brands you are selling? If you buy them retail in the US you can legally resell them. If you buy from sources outside the US that could be the problem, not that you violated CENTS.

Walter

I do live in the US, also I was buying them retail. The problem is that a lot of companies are buddy-buddy with Amazon and even though its legal to resell their products they will still take you off the platform.

 

[HayesTech]

Your excess capital is probably not enough for a worthwhile money system. Look for 'this sucks' if you want to find a need. If you did only that for an entire day, you'd definitely find one. And then, don't be afraid to take on a huge challenge - solving the need you uncover might be totally different from buy and sell, and might require a whole new skillset.

I figured that I probably don't have enough for a worthwhile money system. Thank you for the advice.

 

[HayesTech]

Since you already have experience with the amazon platform, have you thought of private label? That's another way to go with amazon, you still lack full control since you are on their platform but you don't have as much worry for big brands trying to knock you down for selling their items. There's a few guys on here having major success with amazon maybe they can shed some more light...

I've thought about it, but at the end of the day anyone on Amazon's platform can get banned for little/no reason. Seriously there are forums with hundreds of sellers telling their horror stories of being banned. People had warehouses with tens of employees, then one day they received the famous "You are not permitted to sell on Amazon.com..."

 

[ExaltedLife]

Thank you for the advice.

Despite what I said about looking for new opportunities, you could very well try again in the buy and sell game and achieve great success if you use what you've learned to improve your approach.

 

[Sully1994]

I'm curious as to how you were making money buying at retail price and selling on amazon. Seller fees are pretty damn hefty. What were your margins?

Usually the bigger issue with amazon/ eBay is selling counterfeits, which violate the company's intellectual property rights. Some companies, for example Beachbody- own exclusive distribution rights, and don't sell wholesale to anyone- and therefore know that all the listings on eBay / amazon are fakes .

Congrats on your success so far man! As a former eBay/ amazon seller this was inspiring to read .

 

[HayesTech]

I'm curious as to how you were making money buying at retail price and selling on amazon. Seller fees are pretty damn hefty. What were your margins?

Usually the bigger issue with amazon/ eBay is selling counterfeits, which violate the company's intellectual property rights. Some companies, for example Beachbody- own exclusive distribution rights, and don't sell wholesale to anyone- and therefore know that all the listings on eBay / amazon are fakes .

Congrats on your success so far man! As a former eBay/ amazon seller this was inspiring to read .

Thank you for responding Sully. So the margin depended on the item I was selling, I had thousands of listings. Some of the time I would buy the item for $5, and sell it for $17.99 and they would occasionally pay additional shipping. Sometimes I would buy the item for $.30 and sell it for $9.99. Sometimes I would make only few dollars profit on the items.

That is sometimes the case for people getting in trouble, I bought everything at Walmart/Kroger/*insertLargeB&M* and still got in trouble. Thank you again for taking the time to respond.

 

[Under-Dog]

That is sometimes the case for people getting in trouble, I bought everything at Walmart/Kroger/*insertLargeB&M* and still got in trouble.

The problem with Amazon is, any other seller seeing you having some success and being their competition can basically report your items to Amazon. They do this either as being fake or as you being an unauthorized seller. Amazon then takes this complaint and leaves the burden to you to show proof that item is not counterfeit and/or you're authorized to sell this. It's a pretty crummy way of amazon dealing with this because it leaves so many sellers vulnerable to greedy sellers who literally just report other sellers all day with no merit.

 

[HayesTech]

The problem with Amazon is, any other seller seeing you having some success and being their competition can basically report your items to Amazon. They do this either as being fake or as you being an unauthorized seller. Amazon then takes this complaint and leaves the burden to you to show proof that item is not counterfeit and/or you're authorized to sell this. It's a pretty crummy way of amazon dealing with this because it leaves so many sellers vulnerable to greedy sellers who literally just report other sellers all day with no merit.

I've literally had Amazon see that an item I am selling is wildly successful, then the list it for less than the retail price. It happened constantly with my best sellers.

 

[Under-Dog]

I've literally had Amazon see that an item I am selling is wildly successful, then the list it for less than the retail price. It happened constantly with my best sellers

It's part of the game don't let it discourage you, we must keep trying. If you can come up with a good private label product that is successful then you can also wholesale that to Amazon directly via the vendor express. There was a guy on the forum who had success with this just can't remember his username. You can also get some branded items from distributors, I recently had a charge against my amazon stating I was selling counterfeits of an item. I simply provided them an invoice from my distributor and problem was solved.

 

[Envision]

Create your own brand and private label your own products. Then they cant suspend or sell on your listing.

Thats what most of the successful FBA sellers on here do and since you understand the platform you'd just need to work on a niche, importing, and branding.

Thats my 2 cents on your situation

 

[HayesTech]

Just a quick update guys,

Just switched my major to accounting, which puts me only one year away from my BA and my CPA. I figured it would be a lot more useful in my entrepreneurial endeavors. My parents have been getting onto me about getting a job (like at McDonalds or something like that), which I don't want to do. To be fair I have no businesses going on right now, but I do have a nice bit of wealth saved from when I had my other businesses. I would really appreciate some advice if anyone has any. Sometimes I feel like I am not being true to myself by staying in college...

 

[CareCPA]

CPA is handy to have, but will require experience to use.
I believe all states are uniform now, that you need 150 credit hours of college courses, with so many in accounting. The easiest way to do this is probably to go right for your MBA/MACC.
Once you have your credits, you need at least a year of experience within certain parameters to be eligible to apply for your exam.

Keep in mind, that you actually need the knowledge to do work. If I come across a 21-year old with a CPA, and they are in their own business, I'm going to be very skeptical of their actual experience and ability.

 

[Tim Allen Jr.]

Just a quick update guys,

Just switched my major to accounting, which puts me only one year away from my BA and my CPA. I figured it would be a lot more useful in my entrepreneurial endeavors. My parents have been getting onto me about getting a job (like at McDonalds or something like that), which I don't want to do. To be fair I have no businesses going on right now, but I do have a nice bit of wealth saved from when I had my other businesses. I would really appreciate some advice if anyone has any. Sometimes I feel like I am not being true to myself by staying in college...

I was right about to get back to 'work' but wanted to shoot you a couple of thoughts ideas before i forgot:

College/Amazon/Business:

- Can't help you decide if you should stay in college, but as I look back, college was a wealth of opportunity (similar market, with similar thoughts, who all have SOMETHING they want done). You essentially have an easy demo you can market, for super cheap, and possibly get help with administration. I printed small fliers and left them all classes/rooms/cafeteria (got told to stop.... but not before i got a ton of leads), what can you offer them at a high value to make it worth your time.

- You have a system of making money, alot of college kids are broke, you can sell/teach them you system, take a cut, charge a hefty price, yadda yadda.

- You mentioned you have a bot script for tracking prices. That's something you can sell. Reach out to competitors who sucked more than you. Tell them how you can help, sell them your script. This should be easier than most becuase you've done it, and people can't argue with proof. (You may or may not want to do this, but just spitballing)

- Reuse your email list - easy easy easy (but i don't know if its possible or if you kept track). You should have a list of all the emails you had to send product to. Reuse this and create email campaigns to a 'site', this way regardless you have an asset you can leverage.

- To help with 'lack of idea's - write 10 ideas down a day.... shitty, pointless, stuipd, doesnt matter... this will start training your mind to see opportunities. Out of the shitty, golden gooses will appear.


Might help... might not, but thought i'd share.