Hey everyone,
Thought I'd start a continuation of one of my progress threads (posted in the INSIDERS) and thought I'd make this one a bit more public.
INSIDERS Progress Thread here:
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...d-to-scale-and-automation-6-months-old.49682/
For those who aren't subscribed in the INSIDERS (first, you should definitely be in it to get the real juice and community info/sharing), here are some coles notes.
Coles Notes:
-Read MJ's TMF book back in November 2012
-Quit my job in May 2013 to work on my own "hobby" business (5yrs old)
-Sidetracked from this "hobby" business and took a look at e-commerce (made our first online sale in July 2013)
-Signed up to sell on Amazon in October 2013
-Created Private Label Brand A in Nov 2013 and did about $5k in sales, it slowed down and we stopped pushing it since I wasn't too into it
-Created Private Label Brand B Jan 8, 2013 (1yr old) and still continuing with it, scaling and learning a lot!
-Registered as an iOS Developer on Jan 10, 2013 (never once written a line of code, and still don't really code - I Google and research stuff and outsource stuff I can't do)
-I hit $500/day in App Revenue sometime in June 2014
-Officially closed my "hobby" business on Dec 7, 2014
-Hit $50k/month in online sales Dec 2014
Skills I Learned in 1 Year
1) How to take decent product photos and getting similar lightbox results without one lol
2) How to launch a shopify website and tinker with themes
3) Learned a lot about FB and Instagram advertising
4) Sourcing Products on Alibaba
5) Releasing, Developing and Learning Gameplay mechanics of an App. Learned a lot about graphic animation for games, monetization, and a whole bunch of other stuff I can't remember since it feels like its a part of me now haha!
6) Optimizing Apps, even product listings and anything to do with "keywords"
7) Product validation
8) How to build a brand and following (Have about 20K FB "likes" - all earned, not paid haha)
9) Forecasting sales, understanding why sales are going up/down and putting that into which types of products I source and go after.
10) A whole lot of other shit that I've never had to know before, and a ton of stuff school won't even know to teach you haha
Goals for 2015:
1) Expand Private Label Brand B with more products
2) Start scaling our advertising campaigns (fb,google etc)
3) Start wholesaling programs and finding retailers/resellers (diversify sales channels and income %)
4) Expand into Europe
5) Launch at least 2 more Private Label Brands
6) Release at least 8 more Apps (I've stopped because creating our own brand and sales and sourcing and etc etc takes SO much time!)
7) Hit $1M in Online Sales
I work with my wife on our online business, as she is a part-time student in University and we also have 2 kids (3yrs and 8yrs old). We grind day in and day out, I'm usually up until 3am talking to suppliers, graphics team, developers, researching, sourcing etc.
We don't have an abundance of time because we also devote a lot of our time to our kids, but we're in the process of refining our own execution processes so we can be even more efficient and lean.
I hope this progress thread serves as a motivation to others, if we can do it, you can too! Work hard day in and day out - blood, sweat and tears go into what we do! I'm still learning to be a better Father and raise our kids right, along with becoming a successful Entrepreneur and a loving Husband.
I'll do my best to update this thread and answer questions! I'll be at B&P so hopefully get to meet some of you fastlaners there as well.
Here's to 2015, and a few of my favorite posters on my wall!
Thought I'd start a continuation of one of my progress threads (posted in the INSIDERS) and thought I'd make this one a bit more public.
INSIDERS Progress Thread here:
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...d-to-scale-and-automation-6-months-old.49682/
For those who aren't subscribed in the INSIDERS (first, you should definitely be in it to get the real juice and community info/sharing), here are some coles notes.
Coles Notes:
-Read MJ's TMF book back in November 2012
-Quit my job in May 2013 to work on my own "hobby" business (5yrs old)
-Sidetracked from this "hobby" business and took a look at e-commerce (made our first online sale in July 2013)
-Signed up to sell on Amazon in October 2013
-Created Private Label Brand A in Nov 2013 and did about $5k in sales, it slowed down and we stopped pushing it since I wasn't too into it
-Created Private Label Brand B Jan 8, 2013 (1yr old) and still continuing with it, scaling and learning a lot!
-Registered as an iOS Developer on Jan 10, 2013 (never once written a line of code, and still don't really code - I Google and research stuff and outsource stuff I can't do)
-I hit $500/day in App Revenue sometime in June 2014
-Officially closed my "hobby" business on Dec 7, 2014
-Hit $50k/month in online sales Dec 2014
Skills I Learned in 1 Year
1) How to take decent product photos and getting similar lightbox results without one lol
2) How to launch a shopify website and tinker with themes
3) Learned a lot about FB and Instagram advertising
4) Sourcing Products on Alibaba
5) Releasing, Developing and Learning Gameplay mechanics of an App. Learned a lot about graphic animation for games, monetization, and a whole bunch of other stuff I can't remember since it feels like its a part of me now haha!
6) Optimizing Apps, even product listings and anything to do with "keywords"
7) Product validation
8) How to build a brand and following (Have about 20K FB "likes" - all earned, not paid haha)
9) Forecasting sales, understanding why sales are going up/down and putting that into which types of products I source and go after.
10) A whole lot of other shit that I've never had to know before, and a ton of stuff school won't even know to teach you haha
Goals for 2015:
1) Expand Private Label Brand B with more products
2) Start scaling our advertising campaigns (fb,google etc)
3) Start wholesaling programs and finding retailers/resellers (diversify sales channels and income %)
4) Expand into Europe
5) Launch at least 2 more Private Label Brands
6) Release at least 8 more Apps (I've stopped because creating our own brand and sales and sourcing and etc etc takes SO much time!)
7) Hit $1M in Online Sales
I work with my wife on our online business, as she is a part-time student in University and we also have 2 kids (3yrs and 8yrs old). We grind day in and day out, I'm usually up until 3am talking to suppliers, graphics team, developers, researching, sourcing etc.
We don't have an abundance of time because we also devote a lot of our time to our kids, but we're in the process of refining our own execution processes so we can be even more efficient and lean.
I hope this progress thread serves as a motivation to others, if we can do it, you can too! Work hard day in and day out - blood, sweat and tears go into what we do! I'm still learning to be a better Father and raise our kids right, along with becoming a successful Entrepreneur and a loving Husband.
I'll do my best to update this thread and answer questions! I'll be at B&P so hopefully get to meet some of you fastlaners there as well.
Here's to 2015, and a few of my favorite posters on my wall!
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