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Hey all -
Long time lurker, first time poster here. By way of introduction, I'm a 26, soon to be 27, year old Manhattan-ite, working full-time in the world of finance. I've always been enthralled in building my own business and have tried multiple avenues and have failed each and every single time. These include: (1) day trading penny stocks; (2) real estate wholesaling; (3) Amazon private label.
In no particular order..
Being that I am in the world of finance day in and day out I initially thought day trading penny stocks was the way to go -- boy was I wrong. I bought courses, studied technical analysis and dove in head first...I quickly lost $2,000 and decided against sinking any more fund into a business I clearly wasn't getting the hang of.
Next, I tried my hand at real estate wholesaling. This encompassed me hand writing, yes I said hand writing, HUNDREDS of yellow letters to send to a list of individual home owners that I purchased. These "leads" were people who were either under water in their mortgage (had a ton of equity) or people who owned a 2nd home. I initially got some traction here -- every weekend for two months straight I went to NJ to visit potential leads, but nothing turned up. Either the seller wanted too much money or the buyer would negotiate me down to the point where I was making under $100 profit. Not to mention that traveling from NY to NJ every weekend was costly and time consuming.
Finally, about two years ago I got into the world of Amazon. I was selling everything I could find around my house initially and I was hooked. At this point I was FBM but that wasn't stopping the sales came in. This was about the time that oil vaporizer pens were coming into the spotlight and I saw an opportunity. With doing little to no research what-so-ever, I ordered sample of "brand name" pens from China. They came, I realized they were faux pens, but that didn't stop me from trying to sell them. What did? The fact that Amazon didn't allow these products to be sold on their site. I wish I did more research and stuck with it because I would be somewhere completely different from where I am today.
Now onto the good stuff...
Over the past 3/4 months I have dabbled in the retail and online arbitrage worlds. I have some money in my savings account that I was willing to risk and it's worked out for me. Not that I'm now a millionaire but I made a couple thousand dollars from the endeavor and learned a decent amount about seller central and the overall FBA process. Enter private label.
Within the past few weeks I've consumed just about every single possible podcast and blog about Amazon private labeling and since then I've been obsessed. I'm about half way done with TMF as well and it's opened my eyes to look at things from a completely different perspective. I WANT TO BE IN THE FASTLANE!
I figured that, in order to keep myself accountable, I would create this progress thread (read: journal) to track my progression. So with that said...
Where I am today...
Since I opted to join the private label world I've joined a few groups on facebook to bounce ideas/questions of of. I figure those would be my best option before I actually start selling product and join a mastermind group (still looking for one of those).
Long time lurker, first time poster here. By way of introduction, I'm a 26, soon to be 27, year old Manhattan-ite, working full-time in the world of finance. I've always been enthralled in building my own business and have tried multiple avenues and have failed each and every single time. These include: (1) day trading penny stocks; (2) real estate wholesaling; (3) Amazon private label.
In no particular order..
Being that I am in the world of finance day in and day out I initially thought day trading penny stocks was the way to go -- boy was I wrong. I bought courses, studied technical analysis and dove in head first...I quickly lost $2,000 and decided against sinking any more fund into a business I clearly wasn't getting the hang of.
Next, I tried my hand at real estate wholesaling. This encompassed me hand writing, yes I said hand writing, HUNDREDS of yellow letters to send to a list of individual home owners that I purchased. These "leads" were people who were either under water in their mortgage (had a ton of equity) or people who owned a 2nd home. I initially got some traction here -- every weekend for two months straight I went to NJ to visit potential leads, but nothing turned up. Either the seller wanted too much money or the buyer would negotiate me down to the point where I was making under $100 profit. Not to mention that traveling from NY to NJ every weekend was costly and time consuming.
Finally, about two years ago I got into the world of Amazon. I was selling everything I could find around my house initially and I was hooked. At this point I was FBM but that wasn't stopping the sales came in. This was about the time that oil vaporizer pens were coming into the spotlight and I saw an opportunity. With doing little to no research what-so-ever, I ordered sample of "brand name" pens from China. They came, I realized they were faux pens, but that didn't stop me from trying to sell them. What did? The fact that Amazon didn't allow these products to be sold on their site. I wish I did more research and stuck with it because I would be somewhere completely different from where I am today.
Now onto the good stuff...
Over the past 3/4 months I have dabbled in the retail and online arbitrage worlds. I have some money in my savings account that I was willing to risk and it's worked out for me. Not that I'm now a millionaire but I made a couple thousand dollars from the endeavor and learned a decent amount about seller central and the overall FBA process. Enter private label.
Within the past few weeks I've consumed just about every single possible podcast and blog about Amazon private labeling and since then I've been obsessed. I'm about half way done with TMF as well and it's opened my eyes to look at things from a completely different perspective. I WANT TO BE IN THE FASTLANE!
I figured that, in order to keep myself accountable, I would create this progress thread (read: journal) to track my progression. So with that said...
Where I am today...
Since I opted to join the private label world I've joined a few groups on facebook to bounce ideas/questions of of. I figure those would be my best option before I actually start selling product and join a mastermind group (still looking for one of those).
- I found a partner. Seeing as I am a finance guy, I wanted to bring someone on board who I know personally and who is involved in marketing/advertising...enter my lifetime friend. He will be taking care of everything marketing related and is funding 50% of the investment.
- I began researching products tirelessly. From kitchen products to sporting goods I was searching it all. I set out a list of criteria I was trying to reach, including average BSRs within the top .005% of the entire group, average reviews <300, over 50% sell through and >5000 unit sales per month. I ended up finding a product, albeit not a "sexy" one.
- I reached out to suppliers. Since finding my product, I reached out to a number of suppliers. They are ANNOYING. A lot of them advertise one cost and send a complete different invoice to me upon reaching out to them. Nevertheless, I found two suppliers that I felt were good and I ordered two sets of samples, which are on their way to me now.
- I started a social media campaign. Seeing how my goal is to create a brand, I figure there is no better way to create a buzz then to get a following on facebook/instagram. My partner will be taking the lead on facebook (this group hasn't been created yet) and I have been starting to develop a following on instagram (@bulkupbros). I'm only a few days in, but I've gotten upwards of 75 organic followers and feel that I can grow my follower base by 20-30 on a daily basis for the foreseeable future -- ANY TIPS TO GROW FASTER WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED
- I've employed a friend to create a logo. Not much to say here -- my friend will be developing a logo for my brand
- I've formed an initial 'launch' strategy. Everywhere I look, all I hear is that reviews are paramount to just about anything else. With that said, I will be initially giving away product for reviews to jump start the process. I believe that 25-50 initial reviews is more than enough to get some organic sales going and I plan on doing this via friends/family and either a blast service or a review group. I'm a little weary about using the latter two as Amazon has clearly been cracking down on these types of reviews.
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