The Chronicles Of DDall - A Progress/Execution Thread (Damn $3Mg/$700Knet!)

[Traveling Morgue]

Any updates dude? I've been watching this thread because I just love your execution style.

 

[The-J]

Bro, don't forget: meetup is this Saturday. If you've got problems, please bring them up! We want to know!

Keep kickin a$$, man. Rep+

 

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[Iwokeup]

Great thread, man.

 

[ddall]

I got an email from Amazon asking for me to give them a call regarding a direct partnership. I believe they are referring to vendor central.

This article http://content26.com/blog/looking-for-amazon-vendor-central-help/ and comments have turned me against the idea, and thus far I intend to remain as a third party seller. @JAJT @biophase Any insight or exeperiance with vendor central vs seller central. Would seem you give up a lot of control, 90 day pament terms, but get an improved template, "shipped and sold by amazon", bulk orders.

Big loss of control I think, lower margins, generally seems unappealing.

 

[putinwork]

Awesome thread, great seeing another Canadian doing FBA.

I've heard you can also do FBA + Vendor so at least you also spread your risk around and not just selling to FBA by yourself.

 

[The-J]

It's been a long time since I've made an update.

Things are growing well, I am expanding into another brand and going deep in my initial niche outside of Amazon. I am working with over a dozen products and have 7 more in development, same niche.

In a few months I am going to make a very concerted effort to make sales off of AMZ.

Sponsored ads by Amazon are going up considerably over time. See image.

You're killing it man! Hope to see you at the next Toronto meetup.

 

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[Chazmania]

Rep transferred! Badass thread Dude - congrats for all your hard work and focus paying off.

 

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[KSR]

No, it's a perfect metaphor.

I was a skinny a$$ bean pole for 28 years. Then I started rock climbing and doing weight training for the first time in my life. It was like "oh my god, is that what a bicep looks like?" every time I looked in the mirror for like 3 months. But.... now I'm just kind of used to being in shape. Still improving, but it's not as cool as when you're just starting out.

Exactly, I guess you just become accustomed to the lifestyle that's in front of you. However, I love progress and that satisfaction you get when you work your a$$ off and get results is so damn wonderful. Congrats on improving your body too, how long have you been working out?

 

[Waspy]

This
Is
Off
The
Chain



Repppppped

 

[Scot]

Can you please elaborate on what you mean by "exiting"? My first thought was to stop doing it, but that would be silly considering it's earning crazy amounts.

Selling the business.

 

[amp0193]

If he's pulling in $3M sales at 35% profit (probably an outdated source), but I'm curious - if he decided to sell, what could @ddall get for it; roughly of course?

Multiples to businesses that primarily sell on Amazon go for somewhere between 2x and 2.5x annual net profit. A lot of factors go into it, but as @JasonR said, having income through other channels as well will help boost this multiple up towards the top of this range. For a straight Amazon business, you're probably looking at closer to 2x.

You can expect to pay between 10-15% of the sale price in broker fees as well.

 

[amp0193]

I've personally changed my follow up sequence and will not be surprised if this becomes a TOS violation.

I'm curious to hear what your follow-up now includes.

I've decided to shut mine off in the completely, but I have friends taking different courses of action, and I'd like to hear what you feel is "safe" to include, and what is now risky.

 

[Action Mike]

This is a excellent read. Thanks for following up and posting updates over the last few years. It is inspiring to read.

I didn't realize you could do that kind of sales using FBA. Its great to see the possibilities. How would you say the sales break down for each site? Like what % Amazon.com, .CA, CO.UK, for your personal site?

Is the only way to get sales numbers like you are to branch out to the different Amazon entities or from your personal site?

Do you have any experience dealing with Amazon.jp? I have a side business that sells in Japan with a site that specializes in womens clothing and accessories but has a similar fulfillment service like Amazon so they deal with all of the shipping, returns, customer support etc. and I have thought about selling on the Japanese Amazon site also.

 

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[amp0193]

Do you have any experience dealing with Amazon.jp? I have a side business that sells in Japan with a site that specializes in womens clothing and accessories but has a similar fulfillment service like Amazon so they deal with all of the shipping, returns, customer support etc. and I have thought about selling on the Japanese Amazon site also.

Last I read, Amazon Japan was the 2nd biggest Amazon channel, after .com.

I've also read that it's 4th largest behind UK and Germany.

I can't find or remember what my sources were for either of those statements.


Either way, If you know what the Japanese want to buy, you need to get on Amazon.jp.

 

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[MidwestLandlord]

Last I read, Amazon Japan was the 2nd biggest Amazon channel, after .com.

I've also read that it's 4th largest behind UK and Germany.

I can't find or remember what my sources were for either of those statements.


Either way, If you know what the Japanese want to buy, you need to get on Amazon.jp.

I wonder if there's opportunity there for all y'all ecom guys. It seems like the other amazon sites are not nearly as saturated.

Just a quick glance showed several items I've bought off amazon lately not available on the Canada or German sites.

Heck, the Brazil site still only sells books.

Be the first to sell products on these other sites?

 

[Ing]

@ddall , lovely story! are you still fine?

 

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[DCDeuce]

A quick update, it has been quite some time...

Firstly, the reason for the massive space between posts:
1. I'm insanely busy - business, family (3 kids now!), learning, health
2. Part of the natural evolution of this journey has been attaining higher and higher levels of learning and understanding within the world of entrepreneurship. With my limited time, I tend to focus on more exclusive masterminds with others further along in the journey. This is an amazing forum, and truly helped set me in the right mindset, the foundation from which to grow. Being so short on time, I try to maximize my learning time with highest ROI initiatives. I do believe this is why many seasoned entrepreneurs in the heart of their journey eventually go quiet on the forum. One day I will return to share more of the journey with individuals at the starting line. For now, this brief update I hope will serve further encouragement.

The team has grown to 25 give or take some contractors, sales approximately $1.5-$2M/month, predicting 4X during Q4, depending on where things go with the economy. C0VlD-19 initially caused series issues, but we have adapted and are now thriving thanks to being e-com.

Many lessons learned in the time since, my role has constantly evolved, and I've enjoyed the process. Management, hiring and nurturing talent, and generally migrating from a band of pirates to well oiled and disciplined navy (as per Reid Hoffman's quote) have been some of the biggest changes. I've removed myself from the logistics, accounting and much of the marketing details I once was so occupied in previously, and this has been replaced with optimizing the leverage I can exert in the business via talented team members, and more time planning and strategizing the brand and business as a whole.

So many ups and downs, which is to be expected...supplier issues, trademark issues, tax and VAT issue, competitive changes...bloating bureaucracy and relentless downwards pressure on margins...suspended accounts (FB, Amazon), letting underperformers go, product disasters. These are all challenges to overcome in the name of progress.

I'm trying to think how I can quickly add value to anyone here without spending hours going into more specifics.... I do not think that is an easy feat. I will leave some books and podcast I like or have recently listened/read and enjoyed..

Classic Wisdom on Wealth, Philosophy, History
Naval Podcast

View: https://youtu.be/1-TZqOsVCNM

3.5 hours of the basics, timeless concepts

The Wisdom Of Success

Audible.com | Unlock a listen for every moment

Discover thousands of binge-worthy audiobooks, exclusive content, and genre-bending Audible Originals. Free trial available!

www.audible.ca

Interview with Andrew Carnegie, the basis of which formed 'Think and Grow Rich' ... timeless, I don't know why this is not more popular.. Pure wisdom

How to Think Like A Roman Emperor

How to Think Like a Roman Emperor

The life-changing principles of Stoicism taught through the story of its most famous proponent.Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was the fina...

www.goodreads.com

Beautifully written deep dive into stoicism and Marcus Aurelius

The Lessons of History

The Lessons of History

In this illuminating and thoughtful book, Will and Ariel Durant have succeeded in distilling for the reader the accumulated store of know...

www.goodreads.com

History repeats... Great book, classic, not long.

High Output Management

High Output Management

The essential skill of creating and maintaining new businesses—the art of the entrepreneur—can be summed up in a single word: managing. I...

www.goodreads.com

Not so useful early in my journey, but fundamental concepts on management as I grow

Other Books:
The Winners Laws
Scale
What It Takes
The Ride of A Lifetime
That Will Never Work
Excellence WinsSuccess Through a Positive Mental Attitude
Team of Teams
Unlocking the Customer Value Chain
Billion Dollar Brand Club
Shoedog (may have posted this one before, but its so good)
The Infinite Game
Alchemy - Rory Sutherland
Blitzscaling
There's a customer born every minute..
... Honestly I am going through a list I have and just too many, will have to leave it at this for now

A Few of My Favourite Podcasts In No Order
Exit Strategy
Business Wars
Masters of Scale
James Altucher
How I built This
Tim Ferris Show
The Portal
Artificial Intelligence
The Knowledge Project
Naval Podcast


Hope some of these sources help you

Thanks for the update @ddall Congrats on your continued success and thanks for dropping more knowledge and the podcast.

 

[AnthonyM]

Invaluable information. Thank you! It seems like you are selling with almost no marketing push at all or are you actively pushing FB ads?

 

[ddall]

You're killing it man! Hope to see you at the next Toronto meetup.

Poss bro! Would like to go, missed last one so busy

 

[Denim Chicken]

Great question. This has been a particular challenge and is fundamentally one of them most important skill sets an entrepreneur/ceo can develop: Capital allocation. So the balancing act has been ensuring enough inventory so product sales proceed smoothly, yet not so much that significant sums of money are locked in inventory for significant lengths of time (not to mention Amazon's ever increasing warehouse fees, which is why I also stock a third-party warehouse). With limited capital, the other challenge is feeding the fire (of successfully established products by loading up on inventory) vs making new fires (new products). I tend to push things as far as possible, and this has included expanding as rapidly as money allows without depleting existing products. Often however as other variables exist such as the unpredictable market demand to new products (and to a lesser extent even establish products) it is difficult to move this fast, with limited capital, and not go out of stock. The other huge variable in this has been production and shipping issues and delays.

As retained earnings has grown significantly in the last 6 months this balance has become easier as the rate of expansion is more limited ( I alone cannot expand by 100's of products at a time even if I had the capital, without losing focus/vision etc) until if /when I increase the team. So now my priority list is 1) Always ensure the 20% of products doing 80% of revenue will NOT go out of stock 2) Create new products looking for home runs 3) Maintain inventory of the 80% of items doing 20% of revenue. These are all important together, but if I had to prioritize, this has been the order. I hate going out of inventory on anything mind you.

The reading/courses never stop. This is my greatest ROI (besides my health) and has been ongoing since day 0 until now and going forward.

Very inspirational, great thread.

What is your take on Amazon's reviews in order to rank higher? I know in the past there have been use of review groups and essentially buying reviews with free units so essentially you need to also take free giveaways and allocation of those items into the equation along with the overall inventory management. From what I see, amazons fake reviews are all but dead now.

Out of curiosity how many products did you have a go at before you found one with that's a hit?

 

[KSR]

I stumbled upon this thread and I read the first post - seems awesome but it's 2am so I'm commenting to keep this for later (not sure how to do it otherwise).

 

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[Yockel]

funny how this thread went under the radar like it did. good job @ddall !

a few questions if you don't mind:
1. Do you only use AMZ or do you sell through your website as well? If not, do you send people from your website back to AMZ?
2. Are all your products (15 was it?) in the same niche supporting each other? Seems like a big amount of products. nice job there!

Much success to you! Rep transfered

 

[AdamMaxum]

I commend not only the Action w/the business, but sticking with a thread for 3 years! Definitely inspiring to see the progress and hard work pay off. Hope you continue to kick a$$!

 

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[KSR]

Just saw the update - what a momentous feeling that must be. I hope one day I'm in the same boat as you.

 

[Denim Chicken]

This is actually a great question. Here is a lengthy article explaining what @biophase is talking about in detail.

How Fast Can Your Company Afford to Grow?

You can absolutely grow too fast and back yourself into a hole with no cash. People who know the ecommerce game know this well. It's very important to manage your growth and cash.

I'm also a very FIRM believer in taking cash off the table as soon as is realistically possible, particularly if you don't have much personal savings. At some point, your business NEEDs to be profitable to be worth anything, and you SHOULD be taking profits off the table in MOST cases.

I'm very fortunate that I only deal with US Suppliers in my current business, and my lead times are very short. My cash churn is very low compared to the volume we do. This has allowed for quick growth and for being highly profitable at the same time.

I've invested in another business importing from China, and while it has gone well, getting things from overseas eats cash. Be prepared for it!

Great insight @biophase

Great answer, thanks. I also figure with chinese importing, sending via wire exposes more risk versus an established US manufacturer.

 

[JustWalkinAround]

Hi ddall, congratulations on your success.

Early on you said that you wanted to ship directly from china to an fba prep company- I assume you have done this already. Do you have one to recommend? And do you make use their inspection service?

Thanks

 

[KSR]

Came here to say awesome thread and awesome job.

You're probably not thinking about exiting, but remember that's always on the table as an OPTION for you. I'm in the middle of exiting my 7 figure ecom business...if you need any help PM me.

Also, start thinking about off Amazon sales asap. That will increase your valuation by at least 2x. There are plenty of strategies that work for taking Amazon customers to your own website/funnel without pissing Amazon off.

Gold thread for sure and rep transferred.

Can you please elaborate on what you mean by "exiting"? My first thought was to stop doing it, but that would be silly considering it's earning crazy amounts.

 

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[KSR]

Selling the business.

If he's pulling in $3M sales at 35% profit (probably an outdated source), but I'm curious - if he decided to sell, what could @ddall get for it; roughly of course?

 

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[KSR]

Multiples to businesses that primarily sell on Amazon go for somewhere between 2x and 2.5x annual net profit. A lot of factors go into it, but as @JasonR said, having income through other channels as well will help boost this multiple up towards the top of this range. For a straight Amazon business, you're probably looking at closer to 2x.

You can expect to pay between 10-15% of the sale price in broker fees as well.

He said his profit was something like 700K (unless i'm going blind?), so we're looking at roughly $1.4M? What if his product is his own design and stuff - which I think it is - wouldn't his inventory + IP worth be added on top?

 

[tristano]

How was your experiences on redesigning and improving the items you sell and transfer your innovations to the factories in China? In your experience did you find difficult and expensive asking to change productive systems for your items?
Thanks! and really educating thread!

 

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