Big importing roadblocks (after first weeks 100$+ profit/day)

[MAFI]

BIG UPDATE:

THANK YOU everyone who helped me in this thread and in private messages. Especially @theag and @Walter Hay
without you two I guess I would have given up this project.
It was a big hassle to get here but after ~7 months I managed to get back into business.
Let me summarize the story for those who are interested:
As said I had some legal troubles in January. My product basically wasn't allowed to be sold in germany because it is an electrical device and you need a lot of stuff to import it legally in germany.

In January I reduced price on my item and sold off all my remaining products fast to not get into legal troubles.
After that I basically executed what @theag and @Walter Hay adviced me:

-I found a supplier who had CE and RoHs reports and certificates (If I had stayed with my "old" supplier I would be ordered to get the testing done myself which would have resulted in a upfront cost of 3500€ which was not viable for me cause there was not even a guarentee that the product would have passed the tests!)
--> I tested the Reports from my supplier with Walter's help and they are 100% legit

-I bought into a EAR guarantee System (around 700€)

-In germany you HAVE TO HAVE a risk analysis for every electrical device (paid 1100€ for it)

-I did register my brand because I don't want hijackers to enter my listing and steal all the effort from me (300€ (government) + 170€ (lawyer))

-In germany you also need UPC codes registred with GS1-Germany, otherwise amazon will remove your listing (450€)

-I hired a graphic designer to do some artwork for my packaging (690€)

-I paid for customized blister packaging (1200€)

-Order price from my factory was ~3500€

That equals 8100€ in upfront cost which is a lot.
How did I come up with all this money? I graduated highschool two months ago and busted my a$$ at a manual labor job in a factory to come up with the rest (I had around 4700€ in savings from side hustles/previous jobs and the fire sale of my first product attempt.

What took me so long? I will be honest with you: I procrastinated a lot on the way. I could bring up excuses like my final exams or that it took 10 weeks to get the EAR registration (and be allowed to sell in germany) but to be honest I just didn't put in 10x actions every day. I gave up several times along the way, just to pick myself up again after a week and continue to find a way to make this work.

Was it worth it? YES! I am 14 days in and already nearly got 5000€ back from my investment (well lets say 4000€ because of amazon fees).

In the attachment is a screenshot as proof. Today was the worst day with only 6 sales till now, but I guess bad days happen from time to time

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So, thats the update. Pretty happy that it turned out like this...
...well to be honest not a 100% happy. Let me explain why:

Currently I don't have any direction where to go with my business. Well not even with my business, I don't have a business, I have a product.
I am sourcing new product and my goal is to put out 3 more products till the 01.01.2017 but I don't have a real direction for my company/brand.

My problem is that I don't seem to figure out how to get away from the "throw a product on amazon stage" to a real brand.
I would love to have a instagram page with value content, a huge facebook following, a youtube channel and a great website.
I don't want to disclose my product here but it is nothing people get "excited" about.
All these great companys I follow/observe have one thing in common:

They are able to market the product in a "modern" way. Sales are coming from instagram, facebook, youtube etc.
But who would "like" a instagram page with one product?
Who would "like" a facebook page with one product?

I am very interested in the "modern" way of marketing on social media, but it doesn't seem that I have the right product for it.


In short: I am lacking the VISION for my company.

Would be thankful for any advices on how to progess from here.


Thank you for reading,

Paul

Awesome thread Paul, sitting in the same boat in highly regulated germany to get traction with product importing outside of EU. May i kindly ask what you suggest:

how to test (legally), verify if a product is worth the whole upfront cost hassle certificates EAR etc.
My idea would be to sell the first 10-20 units from different private selling accounts to avoid the competition laws and insurance issues etc.
Then to see if sell trough is satisfying. Thank you very much!

Stay succesful and kind regards
Sebastian

 

[MAFI]

Hi Sebastian,

thanks for taking the time to read my thread and for your good wishes! Really means a lot to me.

In regards of your question: Where do you want to sell it? Do people already sell similar products in this niche? If you wanna sell on amazon I would do the following: Take a few similar products and put it in the basket. When you access your basket you change the number to "999". Then you will know how many products your competitor got.
(Only works if its less then 1000)

Do this a couple of days in a row. If you are lucky they don't sent in new products so it will show you exactly how much they are selling. Then you have an idea on how much you can sell.
If you then improve the product you will have a winner. Read @biophase thread on that.

I hope I could help. If you have more questions especially in terms of German law (which is a bit tricky) don't hesitate to PM me.

All the best,

Paul




Yes that post was truly phenomenal and saved my business. It might be time for a update soon.

PS: My business is still going!

Thank you for responding so quickly and the helpful tips. Good to hear your business is doing fine. Looking for that update.

On one hand I am practicing the method that vigilante and walter hay are suggesting - to bring new products to the market that are not beeing sold currently. ( Starting to sell on the two big platforms). So this is a bit tricky to test the waters for me. Keep on going

best regards
Sebastian