bclark85
Banned
Membership Required: Upgrade to Expose Nearly 1,000,000 Posts
Ready to Unleash the Millionaire Entrepreneur in You?
Become a member of the Fastlane Forum, the private community founded by best-selling author and multi-millionaire entrepreneur MJ DeMarco. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has poured his heart and soul into the Fastlane Forum, helping entrepreneurs achieve reclaim their time, win their financial freedom, and live their best life.
With more than 39,000 posts packed with insights, strategies, and advice, you’re not just a member—you’re stepping into MJ’s inner-circl, a place where you’ll never be left alone.
Become a member and gain immediate access to...
- Active Community: Ever join a community only to find it DEAD? Not at Fastlane! As you can see from our home page, life-changing content is posted dozens of times daily.
- Exclusive Insights: Direct access to MJ DeMarco’s daily contributions and wisdom.
- Powerful Networking Opportunities: Connect with a diverse group of successful entrepreneurs who can offer mentorship, collaboration, and opportunities.
- Proven Strategies: Learn from the best in the business, with actionable advice and strategies that can accelerate your success.
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with the most..."
Who are you surrounding yourself with? Surround yourself with millionaire success. Join Fastlane today!
Join Today
Alright everyone, here it goes! First off I would like to say thank you to Vigilante and Biophase for their wealth of knowledge and experience that they have outlined in their blogs. It inspired me to say the least to make the move and start doing something to move myself closer to freedom from the corporate world. I would also like to personally thank everyone else that has contributed their info and knowledge to those threads as well. The one thing that stuck with me through everything is you just have to go for it rather than second guessing yourself and making excuses.
So here is where I am at as of this morning: I spent the last week looking at different products and then researching them like crazy to get an idea of what they are selling for here in the US, how much of a demand there is, what the competition looks like, and how I can do things better than the competition. Out of the 10 possible products I narrowed it down to two that actually look like they are worth running with.
I purchased the domain name last night, and received my first sample this morning. Here is what I did a little different though. I found one of the products through a manufacturer in China and got some quotes. I asked for a sample, and the price was going to be about $200.00 total after purchasing only two samples because they wont give me a great price for just the samples (I was on the phone with three different suppliers last night trying to negotiate prices down).
After doing some research I found that there are only about three other sites selling this same product; of the 3, two of the sites look like garbage and are hard to navigate. They also don't really highlight the value of the product and sell other products as well, so they don't really specialize in this product and niche, I will be. The other site is fairly well laid out, and they also sell on eBay. They also sell the same exact product from the distributor that I am looking at and sampling. Based off of the prices that they are going to give me in bulk, it looks like this US seller is marking the price up pretty seriously. Based off what is shows they have sold on eBay, they are moving about 50-60 of these products each month on eBay alone at a $94.00 mark up. I think one of my biggest opportunities is marketing better than them, but also cutting the price down by about $10.00 less than they are to compete with them.
Here are the financials that I came up with so far based off of rough calculations:
[TABLE="width: 328"]
[TR]
[TD="width: 140"]Total Quantity Ordered[/TD]
[TD="width: 188, align: right"]30
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Purchase Price Each[/TD]
[TD="class: xl65, align: right"]$65.00 [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Purchase Price Bulk[/TD]
[TD="class: xl65, align: right"]$1,950.00 [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Shipping[/TD]
[TD="class: xl65, align: right"]$200.00 [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Total Cost of Product[/TD]
[TD="class: xl65, align: right"]$2,150.00 [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Selling Price Each[/TD]
[TD="class: xl65, align: right"]$120.50 [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Total Sales[/TD]
[TD="class: xl65, align: right"]$3,615.00 [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]eBay Fees
Paypal Fees
[/TD]
[TD]?
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Amazon Fees[/TD]
[TD]?
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Total Profit[/TD]
[TD="class: xl65, align: right"]$1,465.00
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Judging by the research that I have found and what my potential competitors are selling, I should be able to move about 20 to 30 units per month on eBay alone.
When I purchase a bulk order of 200 or more, my price per unit drops down to $48.00 each, substantially increasing my profits. I plan to sell on eBay for 2 to 3 months while building my site and learning SEO to get my online store going. This should help eliminate some of the eBay/ Amazon costs per sale.
What I found was ordering my sample product from my competitor was cheaper and faster than ordering it from China since it isn't in bulk. I received it yesterday and I am very impressed with the quality. I am actually thinking about seeing if the manufacturer can put a branding on the product for me so I can start building a company name on the market.
So my next steps this week are to order my first shipment of product. I plan on researching a couple more things this evening, and if all looks well I will order the product Monday. While I am waiting for it to arrive (2-3 weeks), I will start building my site in the mean time.
So there you have it. I am sure I am missing a few things so I would love to hear some feedback from those that think I am missing some important details. I am highly motivated to make this succeed, and I am already looking into the logistics of my other possible niche product. I am planning to take my profits each month and continue to scale up the business and start purchasing other styles of the product I am selling so that I have about 10 different options for my customers. Thank you again everyone for your advice and info!
So here is where I am at as of this morning: I spent the last week looking at different products and then researching them like crazy to get an idea of what they are selling for here in the US, how much of a demand there is, what the competition looks like, and how I can do things better than the competition. Out of the 10 possible products I narrowed it down to two that actually look like they are worth running with.
I purchased the domain name last night, and received my first sample this morning. Here is what I did a little different though. I found one of the products through a manufacturer in China and got some quotes. I asked for a sample, and the price was going to be about $200.00 total after purchasing only two samples because they wont give me a great price for just the samples (I was on the phone with three different suppliers last night trying to negotiate prices down).
After doing some research I found that there are only about three other sites selling this same product; of the 3, two of the sites look like garbage and are hard to navigate. They also don't really highlight the value of the product and sell other products as well, so they don't really specialize in this product and niche, I will be. The other site is fairly well laid out, and they also sell on eBay. They also sell the same exact product from the distributor that I am looking at and sampling. Based off of the prices that they are going to give me in bulk, it looks like this US seller is marking the price up pretty seriously. Based off what is shows they have sold on eBay, they are moving about 50-60 of these products each month on eBay alone at a $94.00 mark up. I think one of my biggest opportunities is marketing better than them, but also cutting the price down by about $10.00 less than they are to compete with them.
Here are the financials that I came up with so far based off of rough calculations:
[TABLE="width: 328"]
[TR]
[TD="width: 140"]Total Quantity Ordered[/TD]
[TD="width: 188, align: right"]30
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Purchase Price Each[/TD]
[TD="class: xl65, align: right"]$65.00 [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Purchase Price Bulk[/TD]
[TD="class: xl65, align: right"]$1,950.00 [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Shipping[/TD]
[TD="class: xl65, align: right"]$200.00 [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Total Cost of Product[/TD]
[TD="class: xl65, align: right"]$2,150.00 [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Selling Price Each[/TD]
[TD="class: xl65, align: right"]$120.50 [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Total Sales[/TD]
[TD="class: xl65, align: right"]$3,615.00 [/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]eBay Fees
Paypal Fees
[/TD]
[TD]?
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Amazon Fees[/TD]
[TD]?
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Total Profit[/TD]
[TD="class: xl65, align: right"]$1,465.00
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Judging by the research that I have found and what my potential competitors are selling, I should be able to move about 20 to 30 units per month on eBay alone.
When I purchase a bulk order of 200 or more, my price per unit drops down to $48.00 each, substantially increasing my profits. I plan to sell on eBay for 2 to 3 months while building my site and learning SEO to get my online store going. This should help eliminate some of the eBay/ Amazon costs per sale.
What I found was ordering my sample product from my competitor was cheaper and faster than ordering it from China since it isn't in bulk. I received it yesterday and I am very impressed with the quality. I am actually thinking about seeing if the manufacturer can put a branding on the product for me so I can start building a company name on the market.
So my next steps this week are to order my first shipment of product. I plan on researching a couple more things this evening, and if all looks well I will order the product Monday. While I am waiting for it to arrive (2-3 weeks), I will start building my site in the mean time.
So there you have it. I am sure I am missing a few things so I would love to hear some feedback from those that think I am missing some important details. I am highly motivated to make this succeed, and I am already looking into the logistics of my other possible niche product. I am planning to take my profits each month and continue to scale up the business and start purchasing other styles of the product I am selling so that I have about 10 different options for my customers. Thank you again everyone for your advice and info!
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionare mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
