Progress Thread #1 Import

[nextgen]

My Fastlane Plan

Hello Everybody,

This is my first post on the forum however, I have been lurking in the shadows for the past 2 or 3 weeks. In this time I have gone to having ideas to pulling the trigger and actually making money. What I am doing combines both the online world as well as the offline world. I will be keeping a weekly journal, which I will update you guys with the sales, developments, and information about everything I’m doing that week. The one thing I will not do is tell you the product I am selling or where I am located. Each post will also have what I plan on doing for the following week or weeks.

After searching for a week or so I found a product on Alibaba. It is a low cost product averaging a dollar or 2 to manufacture and typically is selling at about $20 on both ebay and amazon. I went ahead and ordered 300 of them with 30 different variations and 10 each. This is for what I’m calling the test phase. I am still in the test phase and plan to stay in it for a week in order to gauge the interest and to see which variations are selling faster and which slower.

In the first day of having the items I have sold 4 of them at a price of $10 per. Two of these sales were from online sources and two were from in person sales. Not bad I made back $40 already!

Now many of you are probably asking how is this fastlane? Or how are you going to make money fast? Well, by not selling to the consumer anymore. I am planning on being a distributor. With a catalog made already with the 30 variations and locations scouted to start selling I can easily sell 300-1000 per business that I am targeting. I am placing an MOQ of 300 on purchased in order to make my life simpler and to bring in a decent amount of money.

So what’s the money aspect?

Cost to Manufacture: $1
Cost to Ship 300 $71

Average Selling Price to Consumers: $18.50
My Selling Price to consumers: $10
Wholesale Price: $7 per piece

An order of 300 pieces will bring in $2,100 removing $371 in costs plus the import fee. I will have a gross profit of around $1800 however, that is NOT accounting for the import fee OR tax on income.


Note: NOT All numbers are finalized and could change. The import duties have yet to be calculated.


~~That’s my Business

Next Gen


This week and Next Weeks Goals: Visit 50 businesses and demo the product to the owner. And Do more market research on adding more products.

 

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[nextgen]

Well decided to check my amazon email this morning and noticed that I had sold 15 of the items over the weekend. Printing Labels and packing envelopes. Shipping costs is around $1 including postage, the packing material, and envelope.

Just to give an update I will be visiting businesses starting on wednesday and the rest of the week.

 

[Dilshad]

My Fastlane Plan

Hello Everybody,

This is my first post on the forum however, I have been lurking in the shadows for the past 2 or 3 weeks. In this time I have gone to having ideas to pulling the trigger and actually making money. What I am doing combines both the online world as well as the offline world. I will be keeping a weekly journal, which I will update you guys with the sales, developments, and information about everything I’m doing that week. The one thing I will not do is tell you the product I am selling or where I am located. Each post will also have what I plan on doing for the following week or weeks.

After searching for a week or so I found a product on Alibaba. It is a low cost product averaging a dollar or 2 to manufacture and typically is selling at about $20 on both ebay and amazon. I went ahead and ordered 300 of them with 30 different variations and 10 each. This is for what I’m calling the test phase. I am still in the test phase and plan to stay in it for a week in order to gauge the interest and to see which variations are selling faster and which slower.

In the first day of having the items I have sold 4 of them at a price of $10 per. Two of these sales were from online sources and two were from in person sales. Not bad I made back $40 already!

Now many of you are probably asking how is this fastlane? Or how are you going to make money fast? Well, by not selling to the consumer anymore. I am planning on being a distributor. With a catalog made already with the 30 variations and locations scouted to start selling I can easily sell 300-1000 per business that I am targeting. I am placing an MOQ of 300 on purchased in order to make my life simpler and to bring in a decent amount of money.

So what’s the money aspect?

Cost to Manufacture: $1
Cost to Ship 300 $71

Average Selling Price to Consumers: $18.50
My Selling Price to consumers: $10
Wholesale Price: $7 per piece

An order of 300 pieces will bring in $2,100 removing $371 in costs plus the import fee. I will have a gross profit of around $1800 however, that is NOT accounting for the import fee OR tax on income.


Note: NOT All numbers are finalized and could change. The import duties have yet to be calculated.


~~That’s my Business

Next Gen


This week and Next Weeks Goals: Visit 50 businesses and demo the product to the owner. And Do more market research on adding more products.

So basically what your doing is, your buying the merchandise from another website (for cheap/less) and then selling it more on a higher rate? Is that correct? Now my most important question is, when you say you sold it online....did you make your own website to sell this or did you just sell it back into ebay, amazon, and so on? Your method does sound pretty interesting, something has came into my mind and I might think of something.

 

[benhebert]

This is how rockstars are made! Good luck man keep crushing it!!!!

 

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[Amail]

Don't undercut your retailers. If you're wholesaling for $7, your retailer will want to sell for $14 min. If you're offering them for $10 you'll hurt your retailer's sales, which in turn hurts your wholesale side. Stick with MSRP for your own retail sales.

Make sure your product is labeled so that people remember the name and can look it up online when they want to buy again or refer someone else. I look at retailers as a way to develop product awareness. In exchange for advertising and displaying my products to end users, they get a good cut of the profit. Once the product awareness is in place, you can taper off on wholesaling and go more to online sales.

 

[Dilshad]

Don't undercut your retailers. If you're wholesaling for $7, your retailer will want to sell for $14 min. If you're offering them for $10 you'll hurt your retailer's sales, which in turn hurts your wholesale side. Stick with MSRP for your own retail sales.

Make sure your product is labeled so that people remember the name and can look it up online when they want to buy again or refer someone else. I look at retailers as a way to develop product awareness. In exchange for advertising and displaying my products to end users, they get a good cut of the profit. Once the product awareness is in place, you can taper off on wholesaling and go more to online sales.

I have a question, is it really legal to buy from a website and then you sell it for higher profit? I mean can you really do that? I thought it's not allowed, but I am no expert.

 

[machin576]

He bought from alibaba. That is a website dedicated to helping buyers find wholesale and or manufacturers. Even if it wasn't a middleman website, I don't think buying from one and reselling is illegal unless you are offering a guarantee or some other promise you can't backup.

Sent from my Galaxy Note ll

 

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[nextgen]

Yes I did purchase the product from Alibaba as stated in my first post. No it is not illegal to resell it for a higher cost. The reason for selling at $10 per with the first 30 variations is to gauge interest in order to see which are selling faster ect. Once i start selling wholesale I will not be selling to the general public. It was from amazon.

 

[RBefort]

Wanted to do this myself with a product, but have yet to thoroughly search for a good product. Good luck man!

 

[Dom117]

Sounds like the right way to start.
I think you will learn alot from the business visits, meeting people always helps in the most unexpected ways.

How did your initial research go? You say you found a product on alibaba but what criteria did you use?
It's already on sale on amazon and ebay so I wonder what your strategy will be to differentiate yourself from the competition.
Or is it only found online but not in offline stores?

Good luck!

 

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[nextgen]

Sounds like the right way to start.
I think you will learn alot from the business visits, meeting people always helps in the most unexpected ways.

How did your initial research go? You say you found a product on alibaba but what criteria did you use?
It's already on sale on amazon and ebay so I wonder what your strategy will be to differentiate yourself from the competition.
Or is it only found online but not in offline stores?

Good luck!

I was actually just going through all the different categories on Alibaba and decided to just place what items I found into ebay/amazon and search for them. Afterwards I saw if they were being sold in bulk on ebay ect.

I then contacted multiple manufactures to receive the best price and that is how I sourced the products. This week I have been the the Small Business Bureau office and I have received my EIN number and I have setup a Fedex account for automatic payments so all I do is give a number to my manufacture and then Fedex charges me the import duties ect.

-Nextgen

 

[Dilshad]

I was actually just going through all the different categories on Alibaba and decided to just place what items I found into ebay/amazon and search for them. Afterwards I saw if they were being sold in bulk on ebay ect.

I then contacted multiple manufactures to receive the best price and that is how I sourced the products. This week I have been the the Small Business Bureau office and I have received my EIN number and I have setup a Fedex account for automatic payments so all I do is give a number to my manufacture and then Fedex charges me the import duties ect.

-Nextgen

So kind of like a "automatic" kind of a thing, can you tell step by step on how you decided to do all this? Would be really helpful. How exactly did you get in touch with manufacturers etc

 

[nextgen]

So kind of like a "automatic" kind of a thing, can you tell step by step on how you decided to do all this? Would be really helpful. How exactly did you get in touch with manufacturers etc

I went and looked at the manufactures looked at the products and then sent them emails asking for there MOQ and how fast they could deliver ect..

 

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[macteague]

So kind of like a "automatic" kind of a thing, can you tell step by step on how you decided to do all this? Would be really helpful. How exactly did you get in touch with manufacturers etc

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/pr...15-year-olds-story-about-importing-china.html

 

[nextgen]

I have meetings with 3 businesses on Sunday whom are all interested in purchasing the product. I also have identified and started ordering samples for about 5 new products to add to the product line. The items have been taken down from amazon as I have identified which variations are selling faster then others. I have one salesman who is interested in the business and I will be giving him more information at a meeting next week with him.

I am also looking at starting as a distributor for a clothing company in China which is looking to expand to the United States. More information to come from that.

 

[Dilshad]

I have meetings with 3 businesses on Sunday whom are all interested in purchasing the product. I also have identified and started ordering samples for about 5 new products to add to the product line. The items have been taken down from amazon as I have identified which variations are selling faster then others. I have one salesman who is interested in the business and I will be giving him more information at a meeting next week with him.

I am also looking at starting as a distributor for a clothing company in China which is looking to expand to the United States. More information to come from that.

Wow! your already on the ground hitting hard and running at same time! If I can participate in your business let me know, the more knowledge I get the better off it will be, since I have 0 experience, would be nice if I can join you.

 

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[nextgen]

Yes well I have some encouragement from some sizable bills coming into play in the next two years. Also the friend that I am referring to in the posts has been keeping me motivated to working on this. If you want send me a message with your skype ID and maybe we can talk.

 

[nextgen]

I have talked to several businesses and ran into a wall with how these business don't typically like buying in bulk which is a shocker for me. I did however come across one business that wants me to supply 4 stores plus 5 gas stations with the products so that is a plus. It turns out that a person I know wants to give me a list of things he is looking to get in his boutique as well as electronics accessories that he is looking to get into. I have started working with him so I am now looking at carrying multiple lines of products as well as 10-30 variations of those products.

 

[Stu_Hefner]

Well done, Nextgen!

So you have 9 stores you will be supplying? How much units is that? Would be good if you can continue sharing some stats and numbers like you did in the earlier post.

 

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[nextgen]

Well done, Nextgen!

So you have 9 stores you will be supplying? How much units is that? Would be good if you can continue sharing some stats and numbers like you did in the earlier post.

yes it is 9 stores however it is not the amount I am looking to have ordered. I have started going over the overall experience this past week and have determined that I will be reaching into the online marketplace selling at the market average of $15 in order to increase my income. I have taken steps and have started positioning myself as a distributor of these items on the market locally however, i will be adding anywhere from 100-150 new products for distribution with a 10 lead time needed.

The original idea has evolved a lot.

 

[nextgen]

I apologize for the lack of updates. I have now decided to do a complete 90 degree turn and I am now selling the products on amazon and seeing amazing sales. I am averaging 10 per day right now with a $8 profit. Im selling them for $9.99 with $4.99 shipping. Amazon takes 3.69 and shipping cost 1.69 and the product cost 1.35 so the profit isnt bad. I am now looking at expanding my product line as well as.

P.S. Ebay selling SUCKS

 

[Jab]

Might just be me being dim but I can't make those figures give a profit of $8? Nevertheless great job so far. Could you expand further as to why Ebay sucks?

 

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[nextgen]

amazon has automated shipping fees of $4.99 and im selling for 9.99. the amazon fees are 3.69, the shipping is $1.69 and the cost per is $1.50 (added in the cost of the packing envelope) so
9.99 + 4.99= 14.98
14.98-3.69= 11.30
11.30-1.69= 9.61
9.61-1.50= $8.11

Overall profit per sale is $8.11

Ebay has restrictions on how many items you can list in what they call high risk categories. there fees and the paypal fees are annoying as well.

 

[nextgen]

An interesting development that occurred in the past two days.

After inquiring with about 100 businesses on getting their catalogs and pricing for certain products, I received an email asking if I would be interested in a Chinese brand of accessories that is going to be making a large push in the next 6 months in the US. I noticed on a couple of the distributors websites that they are slowly starting to add this "brand" in there catalogs. So I may may may have a way to become a partner with them doing marketing ect in the United States.

 

[Lionhearted]

yes it is 9 stores however it is not the amount I am looking to have ordered. I have started going over the overall experience this past week and have determined that I will be reaching into the online marketplace selling at the market average of $15 in order to increase my income. I have taken steps and have started positioning myself as a distributor of these items on the market locally however, i will be adding anywhere from 100-150 new products for distribution with a 10 lead time needed.

The original idea has evolved a lot.

This is awesome Next Gen. Can I ask how you are handling the accounting portion of your business? Thanks.

 

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[nextgen]

I am using Waveaccounting and I have it directly connected to my business checking account. It automatically adds costs into the separate categories and it sends me updates every monday at 5pm.

I highly suggest that EVERYBODY use the program as its free.

 

[Lionhearted]

Thanks Nextgen. I have no problem paying for business tools but free works for me and by the time I have 9 employees paying for it should not be a problem.

 

[nextgen]

Well I have found 2 new products that I will be importing and will be utilizing amazon FBA system. After going through the cost structure I have determined that it will be the easiest way to sell the products and it will not hinder the profits.

I will keep you guys updated on my progress once I have sent the products to Amazon.

 

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