Starting again and again...will it be different this time?

[BlokeInProgress]

Yep, as title states, its back to box zero.

My constant struggle is I have a shiny object syndrome. The last time I posted here was I was gonna do IG (become an influencer). Then a new gig came out "FUNNEL to RICHES" they said, even without a mailing list they said, buy the program they said. I did! But again, nothing...nothing...nothing. Deep inside my mind was telling me that it doesn't make sense yet I let other influence my decision (they did good marketing though). Maybe if I keep doing it, it will be a different story, maybe!

Now, I'm back to corporate life, a slowlaner, and little by little I was getting influence to wait for 30-50 years to enjoy 5 years of my remaining life. So I decided to get back to my roots, this forum...re-read the book and track my progress via making a thread. So here I am...

I started selling online and I'm loving it, even though my profits was 5-10%, I still enjoy it. Currently doing Amazon FBA, just doing OA for now and trying to see where it will take me. I'll start my progress thread in my next post, I will commit to continuously track and update my progress for a year starting today.

Next year, I'll be reading this introduction again but with excitement, maybe teary 'coz of the journey. But I will love it! To my next year's self...I commit to you of my progress and this will be your book...your story!

 

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[RazorCut]

Progress comes from seeing progress.

It is all to easy to give up when you have put weeks or months into something with no tangible return, even though you know there won’t be one until your launch and create an audience. It’s a huge obstacle to overcome.

It’s why finding something that shows a quick return can be so valuable. It spurs you on to better and greater things. Thats probably why Amazon FBA has moved you forward as you can see that you have made headway.

All the best to you. Onwards and upwards. Don’t stop pushing till you see the Slowlane sign disappearing in your rearview mirror.

 

[John F.]

Progress comes from seeing progress.

It is all to easy to give up when you have put weeks or months into something with no tangible return, even though you know there won’t be one until your launch and create an audience. It’s a huge obstacle to overcome.

This is very true. It is very difficult for some people to maintain the discipline to keep moving forward when there is little to no reward early on. Having a clear goal and daily reminders of WHY you are doing it in the first place is a huge help for me. The WHY and the GOAL are what keep me working when things seem to be stuck.

 

[NMdad]

The last time I posted here was I was gonna do IG (become an influencer). Then a new gig came out "FUNNEL to RICHES" they said, even without a mailing list they said, buy the program they said. I did! But again, nothing...nothing...nothing.

You might want to (re)read the chapters on the commandments of entry and control. Easy entry signals a stampede of competitors. And relying on a single point of failure creates an existential risk to your business.

 

[BlokeInProgress]

All the best to you. Onwards and upwards. Don’t stop pushing till you see the Slowlane sign disappearing in your rearview mirror.

Thanks @RazorCut that last line you said gave me something to remind me everyday of my goals and hopes for the future. I noticed recently looking into saving money for retirement and getting contented with my JOB - it scares me tbh.

Having a clear goal and daily reminders of WHY you are doing it in the first place is a huge help for me. The WHY and the GOAL are what keep me working when things seem to be stuck.

I had that same struggle a couple weeks ago, then I remembered that my mom is turning 70 next year and that moved me to action! I wanted to give her the best life can offer.

You might want to (re)read the chapters on the commandments of entry and control. Easy entry signals a stampede of competitors. And relying on a single point of failure creates an existential risk to your business.

I will, thanks for the reminder, ENTRY and CONTROL is really important. I believe we can't have 100% control, we can only increase it to a certain point and that's the goal.

 

[BlokeInProgress]

Just to give a brief background on how I started:

2014-2015 - lost a lot 'coz I violated a lot of principles of the book.

2015-2016 - worked hard to payback people who I owe money to, friends and family.

2016-2017 - gained traction as Im back to corporate. Invested in an online funnel to riches scheme. Lost a bit of savings and started looking into online sales. This is when I was introduced to importing but didn't push through...got a bit discouraged and frustrated at myself.

2017-2018 - decided to give it another try. Found an Amazon Course and some people to guide me (very low cost and sometimes free). Started to sell a couple of Toys and Q4 was the highlight (reached $1k++ sales during thr month of Dec), but expenses and fees ate up my profit and was left with only 5%-10% profit at the end of the month.

Another highlight for this month was I moved to another country for a better income.

2018-2019 - the show continues, Im currently looking into increasing profit by finding wholesalers while still doing Online Arbitrage.

2019-onwards - I plan to find a way bring profits to 20% or even more by finding wholesalers or even doing PL.

Currently - thinking of ways how to do it. Will be posting more soon.

 

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[BlokeInProgress]

Things to do this week:

1. Extract reports for entire Feb and do accounting.
- doing this for the first time and knowing if I'm bleeding cash or not.

2. Go back and go through the Amazon Training I skipped.
- part of the training is finding wholesalers.
- checkout bundling, this creates more control over other competition.

3. Scan more products and look for deals.
- I'm using an application called TA.
- Learn more apps that can be used for sourcing (Keepa, Helium 10, JS, etc...)

 

[BlokeInProgress]

Now projecting and goal setting:

Saw a thread "100 day challenge", got me pumped to get involved. I already did a $1k month last year so this year I'm targeting $5k month of sales with 10%-20% profit by end of the year. Which means I have to plan a monthly goal and target.

 

[BlokeInProgress]

Now projecting and goal setting:

Saw a thread "100 day challenge", got me pumped to get involved. I already did a $1k month last year so this year I'm targeting $5k month of sales with 10%-20% profit by end of the year. Which means I have to plan a monthly goal and target.

Adding my sales screen as reference for documentation purposes.


Note:
This isn't profit, just gross sales. I have to compute profit by 1-Mar (1st time I'd do accounting in detail). 😀 Goal is to have at least $5k of sales by Dec 2019 onwards with profit of 10%-20%.

 

[BlokeInProgress]

Finally did my accounting. Honestly, it did frustrate and discourage me a bit knowing that with all the charges and fees, I'm bleeding out cash. Though not much but giving that I'm doing this for a couple of months now, it could be a couple of hundreds already.



At least now I feel a little bit free, knowing what I already know. It's time to take action...lots of it!!!

 

[BlokeInProgress]

I did more accounting for Nov and Dec and its good to know my actual numbers. It's not as worse than I expected. I really thought I was losing hundreds of $$$ already.

But...its not a good thing as I'm not earning.



My take away, I've tested a couple of products and I'm continuously going test for 2 more months. Once I get the data, I'm picking which I can source out and sell.

EDIT: Correction on spelling.

 

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[BlokeInProgress]

Update:

I hired a VA a couple of weeks ago to do scanning for me online for products that are on sale. Basically, prices in other online shops that is lower compared to Amazon. So far, I got 4 good products that I'm shipping to Amazon.

Found another 4 products on sale that I'm bundling. Overall, I ordered 32 items. Its just sad that I do have about 35 items stuck in the Prep Center because after sometime, the products got gated so I'm looking into other platforms I can sell this items (ebay probably).

For this weekend my tasks are:

1. Open an Ebay store and setup all the necessary requirements.
2. Scan products in different sites for more SALE items to purchase, I'm targeting 5 products to order this weekend.
3. Continue my online training from the group I joined before.

More success to all!

 

[BlokeInProgress]

Update time:

1. Open an Ebay store and setup all the necessary requirements. - will be using my existing ebay buyer account to list all products remaining in my Prepcenter and will be using them to ship the products.

2. Scan products in different sites for more SALE items to purchase, I'm targeting 5 products to order this weekend. - DONE was able to get 4 more products that has a good statistic. Now awaiting all to be delivered to PrepCenter.

3. Continue my online training from the group I joined before. - DONE.

Additional update:
I learned that one of my products are really not that good so I'm lowering down the price to break even or more of a loss just to get rid of the inventory(only have 7 remaining though).

My goals for this week:
1. Once all my products are in the PrepCenter, will be sending them in to Amazon.
2. Bundle products.
3. Scan more using TA with the help of VA - thinking of stopping VA starting April 1 though. hmmmm

 

[BlokeInProgress]

I got side lined with a lot of things.

• Move to a new place
• Health Issues
• Work

I'm now catching up where I left off. A couple of updates:
1. I stopped using VA, I'm not a big business yet and I can't afford to bleed cash right now as my profits are still small.
2. Ordered additional shipments to Amazon using what my VA found the last time.
3. Got to learn how to use ebay with a prep center.

 

[BlokeInProgress]

About 90% of the items that I sent to Amazon are now ready for purchase. So far 1 of my items are selling 1 a day. But I need to do PPC, 'coz now, some of the sellers are doing price war which is dragging the prices down to the point of loss.

Just posting my progress - 3 out of 27 items has been sold with profit.

 

[MHP368]

You doing fba or seller fulfilled?

Whats the average price of an item you sell? Average profit is dollars and in terms of roi %?

 

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[BlokeInProgress]

You doing fba or seller fulfilled?

Whats the average price of an item you sell? Average profit is dollars and in terms of roi %?

I'm doing FBA, can't do merchant fulfilled as I am outside the US. Ave. price I sell is about $20, its about at that price I can have profit below that its too hard because of the Amazon fees and PrepCenter costs.

In terms of ROI I am only break even as of now. But I would say during my ok months, I'm about 5-10% ROI. It's hard to get higher ROI if youre doing FBA + PrepCenter. I'm trying to get wholesale accounts to have more profits.

 

[MHP368]

Why not have amazon prep? What is it now...ten cents a label 40 cents a polybag?

I judt shuttered my amazon store and my advise would be not to even consider items at that price range , as you see you have no meat on the bone to afford advertising if a price war breaks out

 

[Deleted50669]

You need to work on trusting your own ability to create value... from scratch. It's not about forming external dependencies to IG, or FB, or whatever other monolithic machine produces for large crowds. It's about isolating a problem and attacking it in a unique way no one has introduced yet, or one-upping those who have. Reliance on preexisting platforms signals money-chasing without a willingness to learn and apply new skills. Don't be like the crowd, get creative and analytical... connect the dots.

 

[BlokeInProgress]

Why not have amazon prep? What is it now...ten cents a label 40 cents a polybag?

I judt shuttered my amazon store and my advise would be not to even consider items at that price range , as you see you have no meat on the bone to afford advertising if a price war breaks out

Hows the Amazon Prep Center? Yeah, I heard its cheaper than other services but I've gotten not that much feedback from other sellers doing OA. I've been using Prep Centers outside Amazon due to their exceptional customer service and personal touch. But willing to try other options.

When you say just shuttered, does that mean you had a lot of sales? How long have you been selling in Amazon? Are you doing OA or RA, PL or Wholesale?

Yep, also heard about going with high prices items as it has more wiggle room. I'm looking into that price jump too.

 

[BlokeInProgress]

You need to work on trusting your own ability to create value... from scratch. It's not about forming external dependencies to IG, or FB, or whatever other monolithic machine produces for large crowds. It's about isolating a problem and attacking it in a unique way no one has introduced yet, or one-upping those who have. Reliance on preexisting platforms signals money-chasing without a willingness to learn and apply new skills. Don't be like the crowd, get creative and analytical... connect the dots.

True! I guess its being much aware of one's environment makes one sensitive to what people need and then make an effort to service those needs!

 

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[MHP368]

When you say just shuttered, does that mean you had a lot of sales? How long have you been selling in Amazon? Are you doing OA or RA, PL or Wholesale?

Shutdown / closed. I did like 15k or something in sales in 6 months but i lost about 3k.

First RA , tried a little OA and aI had wholesale toy and candy accounts with 10 to 20% margin after all expenses (FBA) but the sales werwn't reliable.

I actually had one more trick up my sleeve (you can use amazon advertising to sort of trick amazon into revealing gaps in supply and demand and hoy keywords and then find those items to sell) but I'm just gonna keep the stuff.

I was doing this to raise 5k to manufacture my own doodad , the plan was 6 steps away from the actual goal! I could have just saved the 3k I lost and been working a second job for all the effort I put in.

So towel thrown in. Some reasonable lessons learned though.

 

[MHP368]

Oh and amazon prep center was flawless , theyre prepping it to the standards they want so no odd warning messages or items ever sent back

 

[BlokeInProgress]

Shutdown / closed. I did like 15k or something in sales in 6 months but i lost about 3k.

First RA , tried a little OA and aI had wholesale toy and candy accounts with 10 to 20% margin after all expenses (FBA) but the sales werwn't reliable.

I actually had one more trick up my sleeve (you can use amazon advertising to sort of trick amazon into revealing gaps in supply and demand and hoy keywords and then find those items to sell) but I'm just gonna keep the stuff.

I was doing this to raise 5k to manufacture my own doodad , the plan was 6 steps away from the actual goal! I could have just saved the 3k I lost and been working a second job for all the effort I put in.

So towel thrown in. Some reasonable lessons learned though.

I see, sorry to hear what happened but yes there are some lessons learned in every experience we pursue. Thanks for sharing your story and giving some tips.

 

[MHP368]

oh, and you're already using a prep center so this is just a general observation (and maybe useful for others0 but ABSOLUTELY use a prep center for what it costs, you'd be crazy not to.

Especially just starting out and doing retail or online arbitrage, its much less of a burnout inducing slog if you don't have to do it all yourself.

For gods sakes you just spent 12 hours at 6 different walmarts scanning consumer trash, give yourself a break!

 

[BlokeInProgress]

oh, and you're already using a prep center so this is just a general observation (and maybe useful for others0 but ABSOLUTELY use a prep center for what it costs, you'd be crazy not to.

Especially just starting out and doing retail or online arbitrage, its much less of a burnout inducing slog if you don't have to do it all yourself.

For gods sakes you just spent 12 hours at 6 different walmarts scanning consumer trash, give yourself a break!

That's right, I'm not that fan of FBM, I'd rather leave the packing to the experts.

 

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[BlokeInProgress]

Update as of 09/04 (Australia Time)

One of my items has sold out organically, which makes me really happy. Did another set of orders and was fortunate to speak with someone in the company (sales rep) that can provide a discount when I meet the minimum order for discounts.

I ordered 10 for the meantime and ordered another possible product that I can bundle. I'll be testing bundling at this time.

 

[BlokeInProgress]

Got 2 products setup with PPC yesterday for data gathering.
I'll leave them running for a week and adjust keywords if needed.

So far, the 2 items still does not have any sales.

 

[BlokeInProgress]

Orders another 5 of another product that sold out organically (without PPC).



Gonna study the data tonight and do corrections in either my Title or the bullet points.

 

[BlokeInProgress]

Got the initial PPC data below:


As a test, I added those keywords that has impressions and clicks to the Description and Bullets of my Amazon listing. I'll check how it goes this week.