3 Major Lessons We’ve Learned From Our Users

Over the last 13 months, we’ve learned a lot about selling on Amazon.

When James and I started Vendrive, we understood what new sellers went through because we’re Amazon sellers ourselves and had to go through the same struggles for the longest time.

We’d built our separate wholesale companies differently. James had his small warehouse and I opted for using prep centers exclusively.

I say this because we faced different struggles while growing.

For example, James had to handle building a small team to help him with prepping and shipping out his inventory. On the other hand, I had to focus more on watching costs and ensuring nothing went unnoticed since I never saw my inventory.

 

We found ourselves dealing with another hurdle that every growing business will be faced with – adding more capital.

Once you’re really good at building relationships with suppliers and are continually adding new inventory, you start running out of new capital to spend on the added growth.

You hit a new kind of ceiling.

These are just the small hurdles that James and I realized we had to overcome through our own startup journey.

After watching and supporting our users here at Vendrive we learned there were many more problems new sellers were facing.

 

It’s Simple but Not Easy

‘It’s simple, not easy’ has become a staple phrase in our Facebook group. The truth about succeeding as a wholesale Amazon seller is that it truly is a simple, straight-forward process.

What’s also true is that the process is also incredibly hard at times. You may go weeks without getting a new account, let alone a profitable one.

Although this is a very simple business model, it’s mentally a struggle at times.

You feel like something just hasn’t clicked for you yet like you’re missing a key piece of the puzzle that’s holding you back, but you don’t yet know what that missing piece is.

 

1. Rather than trusting the process and continuing, you start fantasizing about other business models.

 

I wonder if Online Arbitrage would be better? What about Private Label? Those guys really seem to have things figured out.

If you’ve gone down that route, you end up finding yourself starting over again.

This introduces a new learning curve, new skills to be acquired and ultimately you find yourself in the same painful situation that caused you to abandon the original business.

2. Regardless of what business you pursue, you’ll also face “The Dip”.

 

It’s a wonderfully challenging time for any business which tests you mentally and emotionally more than anything else.

Knowing you’re in this Dip means you have something amazing to look forward to. The business begins to bounce back and grow larger than it’s ever been.

 

It’s Truly A Numbers Game

When I share the fact that I reached out to 50 suppliers per day to get my wholesale business started, I see a shift in peoples’ minds.

I didn’t realize it was going to take this much work, I see written clearly on their faces.

Obviously, 50 suppliers per day is a bit much – which is why I burned out directly after. The sweet spot is 10 suppliers per day. It’s enough to keep you pushing and hungry but not too much to push you over the edge.

It’s actually doable.

One of the biggest shifts that seem to help new sellers is putting things into a realistic perspective. A perspective that sets them up for success.

 

Thinking you’re going to make five phone calls and have amazing suppliers isn’t reality. So if you believe that – because it’s been sold to you – and it doesn’t happen you feel cheated.

You feel taken advantage of but all that really happened was that you met reality.

The reality of selling wholesale on Amazon is that it’s an amazing business model and still works incredibly well – it’s not even close to saturated – but it takes work.

Building any real business takes consistent, focused effort over a period of time. For wholesale, it’s a numbers game.

The more suppliers you reach out to each week the better you become at the conversation, at closing them on getting approved for a wholesale account and negotiating amazing discounts on inventory.

All of that takes time. The time you need to be willing to invest.

 

The Quicker You Can Adapt The Quicker You Can Succeed

I like to work one on one with users who are showing hard work and asking amazing questions. Sometimes it’s a simple tweak that changes everything for their business.

It’s almost always one of a handful of problems they’re facing but what truly matters is that they make the changes necessary for their businesses.

Could you imagine having Warren Buffet giving you direct investing advice you can take action on today and then going right back to throwing cash under your mattress?

We need to be more like Bear Grylls

That wouldn’t fly yet we do this every single day.

The sellers who can adjust and make changes quickly are the ones who start having the massive success you see everywhere – including in our Facebook group.

 

I need to reach out to 10 suppliers per day? I thought 5 was enough…. 10 it is!

 

A perfect example of this was a recent conversation I had with two young guys who just couldn’t seem to break out of this initial struggle.

Because of the story they were telling themselves – they couldn’t afford “expensive” products and they didn’t have a track record to get approved by great suppliers – they held themselves back.

After our conversation, they made the needed changes in their approach and by the end of the following week were already in talks with an amazing supplier.

What’s more amazing is that they changed their whole system. That means finding amazing suppliers every single month moving forward.

That puts their wholesale business on a completely different trajectory than it was before.

If you’re currently dealing with any of these three major hurdles know that you’re not alone. It’s actually normal and something we all go through.

What’s important is how you react and face these hurdles.

You can face them head on – knowing every problem has a solution – or you can retreat and start fantasizing about another business and start the cycle all over again.

Those who succeed push through each one as a simple challenge.

The fact that you read Vendrive’s blog tells me you’re the person who faces those challenges. Sometimes you just need to bring them to the forefront and put them into perspective.

After all, how hard can this business model really be?