Ask a guy who started an Amazon business in late April and has made $490k (Gross) anything UPDATE

That screenshot about sucessful people not being on NT is dumb. If you have been on here for years and then become successful you dont/cant come back?
 
First off congrats OP. Starting a business is not only a tricky thing it is scary and you seemed to have pulled it off nicely. Much success to you in the future and I hope it goes along way and can open more doors for you in the business world. :smile:


trunks206 said:
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:nerd: :nerd: :nerd:
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I cant get down with this post for 1 reason. Who measures success? Someone having their first child could mean success, owning a certain amount of shoes, finishing college, i mean the list could go on. So when people come here to post what they have achieved I dont think it should be looked at as they are stunting, maybe they want people to see what they have accomplished and let others know they can do the same. But there is no true measure to success, it is what you make it.


Fontaine said:
How do you pay yourself?

I've always wondered this with small companies
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I am not sure how he does it, but I have a CPA that pays me monthly from my company. what ever I take in for the month usually 45% is salary the other 55% are expenses and savings.
 
1) I know youve elaborated on the luck you had about your supplier, and being in a company that also had similar business model helped, but if you were never in that job, do you think an average joe can get a business going just by information from the internet? Like is your supplier taking customers from online too? or just locally and you lucked out because of your chinese friends parents? I understand that there are suppliers online but i would think they charge more than a supplier straight from china. that would equal to less profit margins and less confidence in the business. plus as a reg joe, going to china to supplier hunt for an idea you might not even know would work is a risk when you got a 9 to 5 already (not you, avg joe).

2) you talk about warehouse and containers. do you buy containers of random things, keep them in the states and hope people buy them on amazon? or is it ordered first by the customer and then shipped china -> US -> amazon warehouse -> person?

3) is there a cliffnotes version of the basic rules of importing goods from china? such as max 10k value a month or something? i just made this up, but can you really just buy countless pallets of stuff from china like that?
 
Mycoldyourdone said:
1) I know youve elaborated on the luck you had about your supplier, and being in a company that also had similar business model helped, but if you were never in that job, do you think an average joe can get a business going just by information from the internet? Like is your supplier taking customers from online too? or just locally and you lucked out because of your chinese friends parents? I understand that there are suppliers online but i would think they charge more than a supplier straight from china. that would equal to less profit margins and less confidence in the business. plus as a reg joe, going to china to supplier hunt for an idea you might not even know would work is a risk when you got a 9 to 5 already (not you, avg joe).

2) you talk about warehouse and containers. do you buy containers of random things, keep them in the states and hope people buy them on amazon? or is it ordered first by the customer and then shipped china -> US -> amazon warehouse -> person?

3) is there a cliffnotes version of the basic rules of importing goods from china? such as max 10k value a month or something? i just made this up, but can you really just buy countless pallets of stuff from china like that?
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1) The job opened my eyes to see the potential and seeing first hand that you can grow a multi-million dollar e-commerce business. There are many people who have done this, the first who came to mind was this 28yr old guy who started buying and selling screen digitizers from alibaba and selling them on ebay. He mentioned with his growth suppliers came to him. He became a titanium powerseller (over 1m in sales) The thing that discourages most people is the huge risks and work that go along with it. There are several wholesale trade shows where many chinese wholesalers and manufacturers go. Check out http://www.asdonline.com

2) We purchase our inventory from what we see will sell in large volume based on Amazons sales rank (Huge hint here) We buy enough inventory to fill up a 40' container. They stuff it at this terminal in china and sent to the US on a cargo ship.

We research product>Order>Shipped to us>label everything>Ship to amazon>amzon ships to customer

3) When you are ready find a transport broker, they do everything and not very expensive.
 
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This is motivating me to get out of bed on my day off ... thanks.. keep it up youll make millions in no time.
 
Congrats OP. Keep up the great work.


Do you feel like your business profits could be larger if you were not an Amazon business, or do you feel like the Amazon affiliation is a fair trade off for the huge volume of business that the partnership generates?
 
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Supermanblue79 said:
Congrats OP. Keep up the great work.


Do you feel like your business profits could be larger if you were not an Amazon business, or do you feel like the Amazon affiliation is a fair trade off for the huge volume of business that the partnership generates?
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At this point you cant beat amazon, their network of fulfillment centers is not something a start up ecommerce vendor can compete with. We also save a ton because we send all of our inventory to one main amazon distribution center and they split it up and send inventory to other fulfillment centers (on their dime) across the US (west coast mid and east coast) so that they  get that 2 day shipping at very low costs. Amazon doesn't make money which is a worry because at any moment they can kill you with fee increases. Because of this I don't see amazon as a long term partner.

At the moment for us it is worth it, SEO, pick+pack+ship, customer service=more employees+time+money which comes out the same and much slower results. Possibly in the future we will look into the fulfillment center business, but the start up costs for one of those is
sick.gif
and you need minimum of 3 too. I have met with a few start up fulfillment centers in the east coast but they still many issues to be figured out.
 
Much props. However, I suggest you not get too "friendly" with your friend, keep it strictly business. No going to the bar and watching games at each other's house that kind of thing. I've seen a lot of **** turn sour in these types of situations. The personal stuff starts interfering with the business.
 
Oh YoU MaD said:
At this point you cant beat amazon, their network of fulfillment centers is not something a start up ecommerce vendor can compete with. We also save a ton because we send all of our inventory to one main amazon distribution center and they split it up and send inventory to other fulfillment centers (on their dime) across the US (west coast mid and east coast) so that they  get that 2 day shipping at very low costs. Amazon doesn't make money which is a worry because at any moment they can kill you with fee increases. Because of this I don't see amazon as a long term partner.

At the moment for us it is worth it, SEO, pick+pack+ship, customer service=more employees+time+money which comes out the same and much slower results. Possibly in the future we will look into the fulfillment center business, but the start up costs for one of those is :x and you need minimum of 3 too. I have met with a few start up fulfillment centers in the east coast but they still many issues to be figured out.
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Very nice. I'm working on a couple of projects now and hope to have one of them crawling by this time next year. Great to see a fellow NTer successful and keep us posted on your progress.
 
Oh YoU MaD said:
 
I will not disclose my amazon store name, or specific products. 

No PMs, someone else might have the same question as you. 

I am 24yrs old, College drop-out. We Import directly from Chinese manufactures. I have a Chinese partner and we work from a 5,000sq ft warehouse. His father in China helps us get the inventory for CHEAP which allows us to sell it on amazon for big profits. 

100% of our amazon inventory is "Fulfillment by amazon" 

I probably won't be able to help answering the "getting in contact with Chinese factories" because thats my partners job. 

I am doing this because NT has given a lot to me and I want to give back and help some of you guys out.

My inspiration was these guys:

http://www.inc.com/profile/yagoozon
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I keep telling people here that money is easy! I do the same thing as you but I sell to stores, at mall kiosk , electronic stores friends ,family,. flea markets,ebay,amazon etc. I work by myself but i hire temp help from time to time

I made up to this point about the same as you GROSS

Here is the thread that started it all

http://niketalk.com/t/579017/purcha...cs-from-china-based-websites-yay-or-nay/60_60

I started around feb march of this year and I gross close to a little over a quarter of a million  already

I used this software to find hot products on Ebay--> Get Hot Item Finder

and this forum http://www.wholesaleforum.com/discuss/

to make my fortune
 
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First off, congrats OP. I enjoy seeing other Niketalkers successful stories.

My questions (and please dont take it wrong)


If your partner(s) decides to leave, are SOL?

What is your back up plan?


What advice can you give to someone who wants to start a business like yours?
 
Oh YoU MaD said:
Mycoldyourdone said:
1) I know youve elaborated on the luck you had about your supplier, and being in a company that also had similar business model helped, but if you were never in that job, do you think an average joe can get a business going just by information from the internet? Like is your supplier taking customers from online too? or just locally and you lucked out because of your chinese friends parents? I understand that there are suppliers online but i would think they charge more than a supplier straight from china. that would equal to less profit margins and less confidence in the business. plus as a reg joe, going to china to supplier hunt for an idea you might not even know would work is a risk when you got a 9 to 5 already (not you, avg joe).


2) you talk about warehouse and containers. do you buy containers of random things, keep them in the states and hope people buy them on amazon? or is it ordered first by the customer and then shipped china -> US -> amazon warehouse -> person?


3) is there a cliffnotes version of the basic rules of importing goods from china? such as max 10k value a month or something? i just made this up, but can you really just buy countless pallets of stuff from china like that?
Click to expand...
1) The job opened my eyes to see the potential and seeing first hand that you can grow a multi-million dollar e-commerce business. There are many people who have done this, the first who came to mind was this 28yr old guy who started buying and selling screen digitizers from alibaba and selling them on ebay. He mentioned with his growth suppliers came to him. He became a titanium powerseller (over 1m in sales) The thing that discourages most people is the huge risks and work that go along with it. There are several wholesale trade shows where many chinese wholesalers and manufacturers go. Check out http://www.asdonline.com

2) We purchase our inventory from what we see will sell in large volume based on Amazons sales rank (Huge hint here) We buy enough inventory to fill up a 40' container. They stuff it at this terminal in china and sent to the US on a cargo ship.
We research product>Order>Shipped to us>label everything>Ship to amazon>amzon ships to customer

3) When you are ready find a transport broker, they do everything and not very expensive.
Click to expand...

Does your supplier/connect care about what type of money you are making? I realize his sales increase too, when you need more stuff. But it would seem hard to keep a connect who could just close out your contract, and start up his own business.. You are at their mercy, it would seem. That's gotta be scary
 
How does someone come in contact with a manufacturer as opposed to going through a wholesaler?
 
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