Avoid the Gold Rush, Turn your Avocation into a Vocation

So I just answered this question on reddit. I thought it was important enough to leverage the question and response here on SAS. Since we all see it so often.

I’m in the process of starting up my FBA business and I thought I was basically set on my product (headphones) but I heard that selling electronics are a no-go and isn’t advised. I’ve put in a good amount of time into researching these products and I came to the conclusion that they were profitable and safe but now I’m not sure. What should I do?

My response;

To be clear, FBA is not a business. What you do is a business.

As it relates to headphones, I am reasonably sure you do not make them. If you get them from an offshore website in the Asian Basin, think hard about that business model.

Now to the positive stuff!

Always find something you are interested in. Turn that avocation into a vocation. This is the best path to take. Be sure you do not take my opinion or any man or woman on the street (or online) as the final solution. You must do all the research and determine what is best for you and your family.

Avoid the Private Label so called “Gold Rush” those days are over. Yes you can find a widget in a far off land on a website. And you can slap your made up brand on it. However, when you launch don’t be surprised to see many, dozens or even hundreds of the same widgets on Amazon and other eCommerce channels.

Amazon is full of dreams, riches that turn into rags. There is no magic flying carpet that will take you on the journey and it must be in your heart.

Study! Then study some more. Look to books, podcasts, reddit, forums, and even Amazon to learn.

We started our business in 1989, we studied and researched from 1987 and even wrote a chapter in a book on it before we opened.

One book we read, over and over was “In Business For Yourself” the author passed away a few years ago, but the lesson is still valid. I handed this book to many people that came to me for advise. Most handed it back and said, “To much work, not for me!”

The seasoned sellers started a forum “Sellers Ask Sellers” look for things like that. Including the Amazon NSFE (New Seller Forum Experience) this and other reddit related forums.

Again, gather the data but make your own conclusions.

And also again, find something that is in your heart, no one can beat you at that. Take it, make it and prosper.

Peace and Godspeed in your mission.

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I can say all that in just two words…

Alibaba bad!

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Well done :clap:

How does one explain the difference between starting a business and running a hustle?

When I hear about people who want to sell on Amazon and have to research products to sell, I want to tell them they are not considering starting a business, they are considering a hustle.

They might make some sales in the short term, but when you run a hustle, you cannot compete in the long term with other hustlers whose total business is based on one order from a far eastern source. The number of hustlers looking for a product to cash in on is huge.

When you start a business, you need some knowledge of the products you are selling, other than the product cost, some skills you have gained from experience, and the ability to apply what you know.

You also need adequate capital, because inadequate capital makes you do stupid things which may act to prevent you from being successful.

The recommendation to start from your avocation is time tested and works in your favor, but it is highly likely that your pleasurable avocation might become a form of business drudgery.

Many collectors, including myself, have discovered the thrill is gone when you attempt to make some money at what was a joy and an escape from a real job.

I have seen collections that I amassed become just more stuff, when I purchased for inventory several times the amount I collected in years in a single buy.

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I agree, but I was trying to fly at 30K feet, in a Dogtamer sort of way. I used that marketplace name several times but not directly.

So many of these “startups” think that they can do it with one product. Or as @Lake called it a hustle.

One product does not make a brand I think this is the biggest error that graduates of eCommerce “schools” make.

I do hope the OP on Reddit stops in here on my thinly vailed hint to SAS and continues to ask questions.

Still to this day I spend 80% of my time planning, on yellow pads and spreadsheets, and 20% working.

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I so agree with this. Half days never working a day since 1989 gets old after a while.

The only solution I have found is to get out of the studio, office, shop, warehouse and experience the world.

Just did a trip to install a large sample to one of our regional customers. Along with a key team member locked in the SUV with me we came up with a dozen new products. Even came up with complete product lines.

A $60 lunch including two large buckets of pickles from a New York Deli sparked a 3D product from a board they had mounted on the wall.

Never would have happened locked in the studio focused on day to day work.

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And in a total unrelated story…

BBRKIN’s ASIN B099MQJRS7 is still up on Amazon…

I watch the Lock Picking Lawyer on Youtube. Almost every “safe” on the market today is not really secure. He shows that a lot of them have quite simple security flaws.

Ordered a set of Covert Instruments last year. Great stuff.

When I think of quality, I envision a company that drops a handful of rocks on the keyboard to come up with a brand name.

For some reason this particular brand brings to my mind ice cream cones, not vaults.

I was thinking the child of the A-10 warthog.

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