<h1>I Swear That's Not a Clickbait Title</h1>
<p><img src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1188/6700/files/Anthony-Lee-Founder-Mothers-on-the-Move.jpg?17537000911247056610" /></p>
<p>This is me, and I really and truly was working at a restaurant two years ago (as I had been for the decade prior as well). And I definitely want to point out that I don't think there is ANYTHING wrong with working in the service industry. It is just that, 30k a year is tough when you have a family of four to support.</p>
<p>But I digress. Back to the story, working in a restaurant, beautiful wife and two gorgeous children whom I love dearly but who eat EVERYTHING, then along came this random video on Facebook. I say random because I still have no idea how or where it came from. Who shared it? It wasn't an ad. So I watched this video and it was of a guy named Ryan Daniel Moran (you can Google him, he's everywhere). This dude started talking about how &quot;easy&quot; it is to find product manufacturers on Alibaba.com and contract them to make your own brand of items to sell on Amazon.</p>
<p>This really clicked. It made so much sense. But, this still sounded like quite an undertaking.</p>
<p>So I dug even further and found out that Amazon had this program for the last few years called FBA. This is their fulfillment service where they basically warehouse your products, ship your products, handle returns and overall act as your distribution center.</p>
<p>WOW. That is awesome and I kinda wished I'd heard about that before. But back to this Alibaba thing. I'd heard of the site, and I knew that it connected people with manufacturers, but you can't just go buying stuff from there and sending it to Amazon, can you?</p>
<p>Apparently you can.</p>
<h2>And Thus My Private Label Adventure Began</h2>
<p>Thanks to good ole Ryan, I caught the bug and started really digging into this concept. I learned all about the idea of &quot;private labeling&quot; or private branding. Basically, I always operated under the assumption that a company invented a product, then built a factory to manufacture that product. However, there's so much more going on than just that.</p>
<p>See, there are tons of factories all over the world, and they operate more efficiently by just manufacturing what they know and have the tools for....in MASSIVE quantities. So, to keep their machines running and inventory going out the door they offer private labeling. This means, they take the product and they make modifications to fit your specific brand image.</p>
<p>And then I learned this has been going on for...ever. Like, when I go to Publix I like to buy their &quot;Greenwise&quot; stuff. Never did I stop and think <em>Does Publix have a dairy farm that produces this milk? Or a canning factory?</em></p>
<p>If I had thought about it, I'd likely conclude that no, they are a grocery store, not a farmer or manufacturer. So where is all this Greenwise stuff coming from?</p>
<p>Private Label.</p>
<p>They are going to other factories and having them put their Greenwise label on the goods. And that is the way a lot of businesses do it. It is much more efficient and much less expensive.</p>
<p>So now, all I have to do is build a brand. I don't have to go out and invent new products or have prototypes produced and tested. I can just sell what already exists, but with my flare added to it.</p>
<p>Except there's one small problem. I didn't have any money. Like...seriously...none...at all. This was still going to cost money, right?</p>
<p>The concept made so much sense to me that I HAD to find a way to do this. This is the part where normally people would dig into their retirement or savings. Except I didn't have those. Then they'd ask family for money, except mine were as broke as me. Well, thankfully I'd been working really hard to repair my credit for the last few years, because, you know, one day I might wanna buy a house or something.</p>
<p>I had never had any credit cards. So I accepted the offer from three credit card companies. Then I maxed them all out to start my business. Absolutely $0 from my own bank accounts. I got good no interest for the first year deals on them and took off. Scary, I know. Never been more terrified in my life (not including the times I've been dragged onto sketchy looking fair rides).</p>
<p>I learned a valuable lesson though. Risk is necessary. Bold moves create bold futures.</p>
<h2>The Road to E-Commerce</h2>
<p>Now, creating a brand is one thing, but you still have to sell it somewhere. You can certainly create your own online store (many have) or sell your goods to local retail locations, but the problem remains the same; traffic. Enough people have to be exposed to your brand before they will start trusting it. The best way to get tons of traffic in the beginning is to leverage the power of a popular marketplace. Using this logic, Amazon.com seemed to be the most logical place to start.</p>
<p>Now, selling on Amazon will always have its own challenges, but all in all it is a fantastic launchpad for a budding business. It is the biggest e-commerce marketplace in the US and a massive contender around the rest of the globe. From here, cashflow and brand recognition help to fuel other endeavors off the platform. And the best part is, the barrier of entry is incredibly low. A professional Amazon selling account only costs $40 a month!</p>
<h2>But Anyone Can Do What I Did</h2>
<p>It is true, I leveraged my creativity to create my brand. Also, I didn't mention that I did more than just wait tables for the last several years. I have also been a writer (I use that term loosely). For a solid year and a half I submitted resumes for writing gigs and finally found some work with a web design firm. This was originally supposed to be my &quot;way out&quot; of the restaurant industry.</p>
<p>What really attracted me to Ryan's offer to learn more about selling branded stuff on Amazon was how he explained Amazon buyers worked. Apparently sales copy was an important piece of the puzzle, and since I was a writer, I thought I could definitely excel here.</p>
<p>And some copywriting skill will help, but there is SO MUCH more to selling products. I've since learned that really any skill set can be adapted to some aspect of running an online business. And you either learn or hire for the skills you don't possess.</p>
<h2>What You DO Need</h2>
<p>In my opinion, what you do need is a very clear idea of who you want to sell to. Know the MARKET rather than any specific product. Your market will dictate what you sell and how you sell it. Once you identify a market that you feel confident you could sell to, then you can identify what their needs are. And filling those needs will ultimately lead to a thriving business.</p>
<p>When I say know your market, I mean get obsessive over it. Know exactly what your ideal customer looks like. Know what kind of clothes they wear, what movies they watch, what they do for fun, etc. Why should you know all that? Because it leads you to knowing the important stuff, like how much money they like to spend online, what they spend that money on and when they are most likely to buy.</p>
<p>So, get really really solid on a market, and you can build an amazing business. I think it was Ray Kroc that said all he needed to succeed was a hungry crowd. Well, you find the market, you can then identify what they are hungry for.</p>
<h2>My Results</h2>
<p>As I mentioned, I had the good fortune of experiencing life changing results very quickly after starting my online business. Here is a snapshot of my results.</p>
<p><img src="https://s9.postimg.org/j5uteob3z/first_full_month.jpg" /></p>
<p>This is my first full month selling. I'd never sold anything other than seafood and wine by the glass really. So, these were rather astounding results.</p>
<p>Shortly after this, my sales increased to around $35,000 a month and stayed there for awhile. I've since expanded into many other products and have enjoyed months reaching as high as $85,000 in revenue. All with around a 50% profit margin. Yes, it has been truly life altering.</p>
<p>Anyway, I've spent thousands on learning from the courses (these were also put on credit) and I've seen hundreds of &quot;gurus&quot; and &quot;experts&quot; come and go. I decided to take a different route, and I wrote a book. I see that most of the people selling education don't really have much experience in this industry. I figured the most valuable education I could offer would be to take you along by my side on my journey, addressing every hurdle as they come along. That is essentially what the book is about.</p>
<p>It will be live within a few weeks (final edit process happening as I type this). I'd be glad to share it with you for free (as of this writing).</p>
<p>Just visit www.reidandwrightpublishing.com/free-book</p>
<p>You gimme your email address (no worries, I can't stand internet marketers, so you'll never get spam from me...just the occasional &quot;hey I wrote a book, check it out&quot; and possibly &quot;please review it&quot;) and when it is available for free I'll send you the link.</p>
<p>Cheers and here's to your success! </p>
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