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From Zero to One! A 30 Day Challenge in E-commerce

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Nomangee

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This challenge is inspired by AndrewNC and his recent post.

I think the most important part, when starting any new endeavor is to get from Zero to One, which means in my case, as I want to dip my feet into e-commerce, my first sale.

I already read too much about it and didn’t take action over the last 2-3 years. So, I wanna start from scratch and document my progress over the next 30 days.

I won’t embark on this journey alone, as I found a business partner on this forum, Elon's Musk

Which is funnily enough, even when I only use TFF sparingly, my 2nd business partner I found here and the first one is now one of my best friends. :)

My main Goal is, to take pure focused action 90 minutes every day for 30 Days and see where we get with that.

Already have my timer ready, sitting in front of me:
955fcb5ef73bafbdbab2ea13a4b6712d.png


Also 2 Days ago I setup the "Get Shit Done System", which LightHouse introduced me to.

Our current progress is from today, that we chose a niche to dip in first.

The niche itself is in the Fitness Industry, but a smaller segment of that.

We went with this one, because they are effective ways to target this audience, which I will explain later in the progress.

Now I will update this thread every other day, comes down to how much progress we make.

Come and Join us for the next 30 days. :)
 
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theag

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dip my feet
90 minutes every day for 30 Days
You will get nowhere with that. Why only 90 minutes a day? At that rate I (and most other entrepreneurs, especially in the starting phase) put in the same amount of work in 3 days that you do in 30. You have to commit to it.
 

ZF Lee

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You will get nowhere with that. Why only 90 minutes a day? At that rate I (and most other entrepreneurs, especially in the starting phase) put in the same amount of work in 3 days that you do in 30. You have to commit to it.
Agreed. The market doesn't give a hoot about any challenges. It is starving, and it wants ANSWERS and SOLUTIONS.
 
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AllenCrawley

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My main Goal is, to take pure focused action 90 minutes every day for 30 Days and see where we get with that.
You will get nowhere with that. Why only 90 minutes a day? At that rate I (and most other entrepreneurs, especially in the starting phase) put in the same amount of work in 3 days that you do in 30. You have to commit to it.
Yes, why only 90 minutes? I'm confused as to why you'd only commit 90 minutes a day to building a business.

Pour your everything in this business. If it's worth doing at all, it's worth doing with full commitment.
 

Evil_Jester

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Yes, why only 90 minutes? I'm confused as to why you'd only commit 90 minutes a day to building a business.

Pour your everything in this business. If it's worth doing at all, it's worth doing with full commitment.
If you work a job everyday that would make sense
 

AllenCrawley

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If you work a job everyday that would make sense
I disagree. If someone was working 8 hours a day (40 hours/wk), slept 8 hours a day that would leave 8 available hours per day for commuting, eating, using the bathroom and working on the business. Plus on your days off you'd have an additional 8+ hours per day.

If you're in start-up mode and you're not building a "hobby" business you should be working every available minute. That means no social time with friends, no video games, no TV, no netflix, etc.

Going from zero minutes per day to 90 minutes (minimum) is a start. Don't stop.
Yes, it is a start. It's better than not doing anything. However, this sounds like dabbling to me. If you put forth mediocre effort you will get mediocre results.
 

Nomangee

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You will get nowhere with that. Why only 90 minutes a day? At that rate I (and most other entrepreneurs, especially in the starting phase) put in the same amount of work in 3 days that you do in 30. You have to commit to it.

Thanks for the feedback theag. That's why I structured this as a challenge. It's more for getting into the niche again, but also test out, how productive I can be in this 90m time frame every day.

I'm also a freelance web-designer and have another business up, so I wouldn't have more time currently.

If you're in start-up mode and you're not building a "hobby" business you should be working every available minute. That means no social time with friends, no video games, no TV, no netflix, etc.

You are right AllenCrawley, that's why I don't have any hobbies, no tv in my apartment or playing any video games since a few years. Basically no social life. Dunno if that's good, lol?

Going from zero minutes per day to 90 minutes (minimum) is a start. Don't stop.

miked_d, thanks man :)

@Nomangee - It has been 2 days. What have you done?

Thanks for checking in, will post a more detailed update tomorrow.

1. Found a name for the shop, with the .com URL still available

2. Did my research and found the audience, that I can perfectly target with FB

3. found the first 2 products to start with and will order them tomorrow. So I have one main product and one potential upsell.

Hope to get the Shop up and running by tomorrow with the products already populated. :)
 
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Nomangee

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DAY 2, 3 and 4

1. Step: Find a Shop Name

Didn't put much time into this, as it won't give me much advantage yet, as I first want to test the water. So did a few minutes brainstorming and went with a catchy name "nichegainz.com".

2. Step: Find a niche target Audience!


This was for me the most important step. As I will see, if I can target specific audiences on Facebook, that are not only interested in the Sport, but really participate in it, so I can only target potential buyers for my products.

To do so, I googled for Top Niche Experts and found an article with a few people.

Created a Facebook business account and went into Audience Insights to see if I can target these people directly and found 2-3 Experts. Then went to the tab "Page Likes" to find potentially more audiences, which I did.

At the end I had 700k-800k active monthly users and 6 interests(people) to target.

3. Step: Find a Product

Went to WatchCount and searched for the specific niche. Saw a few products of the same category in the top 30 and wrote them down.

My criteria for a product to be viable:
  • Easy to Ship
  • At least 100% markup landed
  • In the range of $0-10
  • Not too complicated
  • One more expensive main product
  • One cheaper upsell product

Then went to Aliexpress and started searching for these products. Came up with 3 products, one main and 2 possible upsells.

Later today spoke with Elon's Musk and we decided together to go with the one, that had more variants, but was a better fit overall.

4. Step: Setup the Store

As I'm a web-designer/developer, could have easily setup my own Woocommerce store in no time, but went with Shopify, as it's all about efficiency and I only have my 90 minutes time window.

Setup the basic shop and already populated it with the 2 products.

Last Progress:

Exactly at the last second of my 90 minute shift today I finished buying the first 2 products, total value of ~$105.

Next Steps:

Didn't do any design work or specific setup on the shop yet, so this will be done over the next few days.

Also will do the Facebook ads ready until the products arrive, which can take 10-25 days according to Aliexpress.


If anyone has questions or advice, feel free to reply or contact me via pm. :)
 
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LightHouse

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If you work a job everyday that would make sense
Hellll no it wouldn't. If anything you'd be sleeping less and working on that business more.

Unfortunately, I'm on tapatalk and can't link my "Don't dabble" post. Splitting your time in two business's especially if you also work a job is a horrendous idea. You have to zone in on one thing and become obsessed with the process and the grind. Otherwise the motivation will fade after the easy problem solving is over and the whole thing will fizzle out.

Been there, done that.
 

DillanE

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I disagree. If someone was working 8 hours a day (40 hours/wk), slept 8 hours a day that would leave 8 available hours per day for commuting, eating, using the bathroom and working on the business. Plus on your days off you'd have an additional 8+ hours per day.

If you're in start-up mode and you're not building a "hobby" business you should be working every available minute. That means no social time with friends, no video games, no TV, no netflix, etc.


Yes, it is a start. It's better than not doing anything. However, this sounds like dabbling to me. If you put forth mediocre effort you will get mediocre results.


Do you have any kids? A wife?
 
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AllenCrawley

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KLaw

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I know this isn't directed at me but I don't see how this is relevant.

You can have a wife and kids and still create a business, It's been done plenty.
Totally agree. I'm guessing, due to his lack of a response, that his kids are older. It's a fine balancing act. Health, family, career...in that order.
 

LightHouse

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ITT people looking to make excuses for themselves and not finding them.
 
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Nomangee

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Thanks for all the people who are concerned about me or my progress, but that's why it's only limited. It has nothing to do how I have build and would build an actual business.

I only wanted to show, that with pure focused action and only 90 minutes each day, anyone can start something on the internet and make their first few bucks, doesn't matter how much time someone has left in the day.

And yes, my priorities are currently not 1. Money(providing value)

The order is Freedom in these 3 areas:
  1. Health
  2. Emotions
  3. Money

Hope we can all remain calm and maybe someone will find some value in this thread at the end. :)
 

InitialX

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Thanks for all the people who are concerned about me or my progress, but that's why it's only limited. It has nothing to do how I have build and would build an actual business.

I only wanted to show, that with pure focused action and only 90 minutes each day, anyone can start something on the internet and make their first few bucks, doesn't matter how much time someone has left in the day.

And yes, my priorities are currently not 1. Money(providing value)

The order is Freedom in these 3 areas:
  1. Health
  2. Emotions
  3. Money

Hope we can all remain calm and maybe someone will find some value in this thread at the end. :)


I definitely find it interesting. Good experiment. I came across with many people (friends, family mostly) who tell me the usual BS: " I don't have time for this"
I say: Really ?

I mean 90 minutes a day is like watching a football match (soccer). Switch off the TV and do 90 minutes of work. I am so excited that you guys are doing this. This experiment is awesome. Way to go guys!:hurray::rockon:
 
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NiteRider

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Very interested in seeing how this goes. My biggest obstacle is and has always been putting focused attention into what I'm doing on a daily basis. May try the timer idea as a way to avoid slipping away from what needs to be done each day.

Just wondering how many of each product you decided to order?
Are just doing a test at this point to gauge the popularity of the product?
I've always done drop shipping and then ordered in bulk the most popular items to ship myself so I'm curious how you determine how many to order up front.
 

Raoul Duke

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miked_d

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Do you have any kids? A wife?

Success does not care about your wife and kids. It only cares about your hard work.

I know I encouraged the OP with the 90 minute a day challenge. I was only trying to get him moving. I was hoping he would see it is not enough time and he would devote more time.
 
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DillanE

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Success does not care about your wife and kids. It only cares about your hard work.

You should care. Your kids are only kids once. Your wife will have no problem finding someone who acts as if she excists.

Im all about hustle and hard work. But I aint about to let life pass me by.

The point in my question is that if the OP insists that he only has 90 minutes a night, try to encouraged instead of discourage. There is probably a good reason for his 90 minute time restraint.
 

Nomangee

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Just wondering how many of each product you decided to order?
Are just doing a test at this point to gauge the popularity of the product?
I've always done drop shipping and then ordered in bulk the most popular items to ship myself so I'm curious how you determine how many to order up front.

It's just a test run, to get back the basics of e-commerce again. I know a few other niches that are harder to get in, but way more profitable. I took one that was quite low barrier only for the challenge.

Exactly, it's just a test run. I ordered around 10 of each product.

Really good idea with first drop shipping a market to test it out and then build your own out of it.
 

Nomangee

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Day 5, 6 and 7

1. Finishing Store

First I added all the shipping rates by usps, which can be found here

My next step was to design the Shopify store. I used the free Brooklyn theme for that.

Created a logo, with the color scheme of green and black, which will be the main one overall for the shop.

The theme design was quite ok, but it wasn't really customer friendly, so I added some fast css changes to let it look a lot better.

a33c0a908dc30447c6c599e1734177f3.png


Mainly some hover effects, so it doesn't look so stiff and changed the slider pic from full size to 350px and decreased some distances, so you don't have these huge gaps in the design.

Also searched for some copyright free fitness related stock images, which I found here.

The final result:
807d971cf8502fe216baa450006d3c22.png


2. Creating the Ad

First step was to see, if I can find any other facebook ads by a competitor, which you can look up for free via Adespresso, at the bottom:

4e82489a3d06baeb7083b43816f905dd.png


Had some results, but nothing looked in anyway satisfying, so I went on to design my own one, which I never did before.

Only the first few days will tell if it's any good and then adapt. Tried to have as much emotions engaged as possible, with love for the sport and also limited supply for scarcity. This is the result:

15f8e02bb8a2d9d1071d25ebd1209113.png


3. Problems

Unfortunately as I paid for the products and send them to the US to Elon's Musk, the payment got declined, mostly some fraud protection and I needed to reorder the products again and did a small change. Went with a bit higher quality product, as it's more like the one that was often sold on ebay, which I saw on watchcount.

Also my facebook business account somehow vanished and wasn't even registered anymore. oO So I need to get a new one tomorrow and search again the interests that I previously researched.

4. What's next

In the meantime read some more stuff about facebook advertisement, namely pixels, re-targeting, micro commitments and bridge pages.

Will also add a really cool way to decrease the bounce rate, which are exit intent popups.

We will give people that want to exit a 10-20% coupon code if they enter their email address.

You not only increase your purchase rate by quite some percentage, but also can build a good email list through it, at least that's what the statistics say.
 
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Waspy

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I'm a big advocate of "just do it", so I commend you for getting moving after 2 years of stagnation!

I am however perplexed by the 90mins limit. 5 businesses getting 90 mins a day will never get close to 1 business getting 8 hours a day.

That is by the by. I hope these 30 days go well, and give you a reason to devote more time to it, I'll be following closely!
 

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