How To Ask Anyone For Anything: The 4 Phases Of A Successful Conversation

Why are you reading this article, what are you trying to get out of this?

Are you trying to sell a product or service?

…Or what about networking? Do you have trouble introducing yourself?

…Maybe you blank-out around the opposite sex–terrified that you won’t know what to say next?

Whatever context you’re looking to apply these skills, if you can follow this 4-phase conversational framework I’m about to show you–you’ll ALWAYS have something to talk about.

Most importantly, you’ll be able to wrap up a conversation in a way that gets people nodding their head in agreement.

Around 10 years ago I was asked a good question, it was:

”If you could do anything with your life, and if you knew that no matter what you did, that you could not fail, what would you choose to do?”

When I first heard this question, I had been reading and listening to a lot of Jim Rohn and Brian Tracy. For 2 to 3 years I had convinced myself I would become a master salesman, although in retrospect sales was merely a boot camp for my larger vision.

I started out selling face to face to consumers, then to small businesses, and eventually settled on consulting clients online. I think all entrepreneurs should have at least 6 months of face to face sales experience. There’s no better way to build entrepreneurial grit than to look someone directly in the eye and ask them for money.

After awhile, it’s a thrill.  And when you have a process to lean on, it’s so easy..

The key to making it effortless is to understand that all good deals are based on mutual self-interest. You find out what people really care about, persuade them towards a common path where both your interests are served, and finally move them to action.

With this sort of skill set I knew that whatever goal I set for myself, I would only need to keep moving until I found the right people to make ithappen.

It’s all a numbers game and persistence is the key determining factor.

As Zig Ziglar famously said:

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

I took this to heart, and so should you–and in this article I’ll explain exactly how.

So let’s get to it—I present to you: The Four Phases of a Successful Conversation:

(TLDR; version)

Phase One: Rapport

The first phase of any successful conversation is establishing rapport, otherwise known as breaking the ice.

Rapport is defined as: a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other’s feelings or ideas and communicate well.

Now you don’t necessarily need to be close or especially “harmonious” with the other person, the keys to pay attention to in the definition above are “feelings or ideas.”

As logical as we’d like to think that we are, most of our communication and actions are based on some feeling or emotion. This is the human condition, even our more rational decisions still contain a blend of feelings.

So rapport is as simple as “feeling” comfortable around someone or having something in common with them.

The second key mentioned above are shared “ideas and concepts.” Think of this as contexts, places, experiences, likes, dislikes, and roles that people play. The more of these factors that two people know about each other, the more likely they are to be open, creative, and engaged with one another.

The concept is easy to grasp: You have to create a real, personal connection with this individual–quickly–and it doesn’t have to be deep, just real.

This isn’t hard to do. In fact, it happens in a moment, you do it all the time.

My go-to method of establishing rapport with someone is asking them their name, then repeating it back to them immediately in my response and at least couple more times throughout the conversation. It shows that you recognize them as an individual.

By expressing interest and engaging with them on a personal level, you’re better able to hold their attention, but getting their name is only the first step.

A few other good examples are:

What do you do for a living?
Exchanging information about what each other does builds understanding and trust.

Where are you from?
Even if they’ve never been to your hometown, they’ll be more comfortable with you by knowing it.

Do you have any interesting/crazy/weird hobbies?
They’ll feel much more comfortable sharing things about themselves if you have an accepting attitude to unique or strange things.

Use anything that connects to them on a personal level. Talk about family, friends, places they’ve visited, or entertainment they consume. It’s far easier to understand and relate to a person if you’re able to humanize them and understand what their day to day life might be like.

Remember to also provide some information about yourself while you’re doing this.

While it’s important to get to know them, they’re also going to want to know something about you so that the bond you’re creating is mutual.

So once a connection is established, follow that momentum right into the second phase.

Phase Two: Leverage

The second phase is all about understanding a person’s motivations and what they really care about. We scratched the surface level with gaining rapport, but now it’s time to dig deeper.

This phase is all about the other person, you may have talked about yourself previously, but now it is time to ask and listen.

Really pay attention–you’ve got to actually care about the person you’re talking to in order for this method to work.

Now that you’ve got a comfortable conversation initiated, it’s time to start finding out who they REALLY are and what they believe about themselves, other people, and the world at large.

My favorite question to ask for this purpose is simply: “Why?”

By asking “Why?” you’ll end up discovering much about their morals, ethics, and what they believe to be true about life. Asking “Why is that important to you?” will reveal a person’s core values and motivations.

The key here is to ask open ended questions so they can elaborate and tell you their personal story.

For example:
“Hey Tom, do you like it where you live?”
This limits Tom to a yes or no answer, it does nothing to invite further conversation.

However, posed like this:
“Hey Tom, what stands out about where you live?”
This is completely open-ended and gives a great deal of room for Tom to expand.

And as always, if they don’t answer sufficiently enough for you to understand, my second-favorite tactic to use the question:

“How do you mean?”

This is the PERFECT question to use to for everything. It’s like hot sauce.

You can use it to diffuse tense situations or just to gain a sharper understanding of another person’s perspective.

Often you’ll find that by asking “how do you mean?” you’ll discover that you had completely misinterpreted what they had initially said.

So even if your questions aren’t that thought-provoking, people will still tell you all you need to know about them–provided you’re paying attention to what they’re saying.

And after some back and forth, you’ll know who they are and what they stand for, making it a lot easier to put forward your side of things in a manner that’s going to benefit them. Which leads right into the third phase…

Phase Three: Story Telling a Benefit

You came into this conversation (hopefully) with an end result in mind. You’ve begun to understand the personal you’re talking to as an individual, you know what they value and some of their perspective on life.

This third phase is all about taking what you’ve learned about the other person’s model of the world and tying it together with the point you’d like to get across. You’re trying to give them a personally compelling reason to nod ‘yes.’

Imagine that you are trying to get a friend to come to a conference with you. In past conversations you’ve learned what they really care about, what gets them excited, and what motivates them to act.

The key is to forget about the reasons why you want to go and focus on them.

Make them the most important person in the world and present the option of joining you as something that directly benefits them as well. In this way, you’re able to tell a story about them (or someone else in a similar situation) by painting a picture of what their future will look like with you, based upon their unique values and desires.

In the end you’re looking for a win-win proposition. If you cannot find a way that both parties will benefit then you probably shouldn’t be talking people into things, now should you?

By asking enough questions, people will tell you everything you need to know to persuade them. You just need to listen and weave their values & goals into a story that offers a direct benefit to them.

Phase Four: Call to Agreement

This is the test to see how well you’ve presented your proposition.

This next phase happens in an instant. It’s as simple as asking a short question which gauges their interest and agreement. By doing this, you’ll know whether or not you’ve made your case in a way that compels them to side with you.

In the call to agreement we want to use short tie-down questions.

Some examples of tie-downs are:

How’s that sound?
That makes sense, right?
Are you following me on this?
That’s something you’d be interested in, isn’t it?
That’d be fun, wouldn’t it?
Could you?
You’d like that, right?
Do you want to go?

If they immediately agree with you or you get a positive response out of them, seal in the deal by asking them why they agree or what they liked about your proposition. By having them explain their reasoning to you they’ll create an internal bias and be far less likely to change their mind.

If they don’t respond immediately, don’t panic! The beauty of this template is that even if they are unsure or outright disagree, you can just circle right back to the first phase and start again.

In fact, you’ll probably cycle through these 4 conversational phases at least a dozen times in a normal conversation.

Think of it like this:

(1) Relate to them
(2) Understand them
(3) Present why & how they benefit
(4) Ask for agreement
 …Rinse & repeat

Just remember to take note of why they’re disagreeing. What did you miss? What perspective of theirs did you fail to account for?

Explore that area to find out what’s valuable to them and why they think they way that they do, then re-frame your proposal based off of that new information.

If you run into an obstacle, circle back around to the beginning: (1) Relate to them to strengthen rapport, (2) ask them quality questions to better understand them, (3) present a compelling story, and (4) finally tie it all down with a short call to agreement.

This process is meant to be circular in nature, so you won’t get perfect agreement right off the bat, but if you keep cycling through these 4 phases you can get small measures of agreement which eventually build into full-blown commitment.

Final Challenge

So now that you’ve learned the template, you’ve got to practice it!  Get out there and actually have these types of conversations.

You’ve learned that people need to have some kind of connection or reason to give you their attention.

And to keep that attention, it’s best to ask them questions about what is important to them and just let them talk. Usually people are more than comfortable talking about what they care about and this information is crucial for you to ensure that your proposition is a win-win.

Once you have painted a picture of how they’ll be better off by accepting what you propose, ask them if what you’re saying makes sense.

By directly asking for feedback you can readjust and gauge exactly where they stand.

You’re going to be nervous at first, but that is to be expected. Lean on this 4 step template to simplify things and keep yourself on track. It’s even easier to master when you realize that you’ll be spending most of your time in the Leverage and Story Telling a Benefit phases.

And as always, practice makes perfect here. Expect yourself to take multiple runs through the process to get the hang of it, but once you do, you’ll be a conversational machine. As long as you can remain curious about other people, they will be interested in you in return.

So get out there, find out what people care about and show them how you can get to that place together—sound like a plan?

The post How To Ask Anyone For Anything: The 4 Phases Of A Successful Conversation appeared first on StartupBros.

Amazon/E-Commerce Sellers: Here’s 3 Product Research & Selection Tactics (working right now)

Are you frustrated with product research & selection?

Do you feel like you’re spinning your wheels, making no progress towards building the business of your dreams?

You’re not alone. The #1 thing I see new Amazon sellers getting stuck on is product research & selection.

But when I speak with successful e-commerce entrepreneurs, finding new products to sell tends to be the least stressful part of their business.

Why is there such a HUGE disconnect?

How can new sellers be so overwhelmed with something experienced sellers barely think about?

It’s because new sellers are using outdated strategies.

E-commerce is currently the fastest growing business model in the world. In fact, it’s one of the fastest growing business model ever. 

With rapid growth, comes rapid change. And here’s where new sellers have a big disadvantage…

When I figure out a new strategy in my e-commerce business, here’s what I do (in order) –

• Implement it across my main e-commerce company
• Help my high-end clients implement it for themselves
• Help my other clients implement it
• Write about it on my blog / make some YouTube videos

New sellers typically learn how to launch & grow their businesses from blogs (like this one), YouTube (like our channel), etc.

That usually works out just fine – except when you’re talking about the fastest growing business model ever.

You see, Amazon & E-Commerce are growing mind-numbingly fast. Strategies that are working today will be stale by Christmas.

By the time I (or other like me) write about the strategies that are working for us, they’re already outdated.

And that’s why you’re so frustrated – you’re using strategies that used to work, but simply don’t any more.

How Can You Break Free?

If you want to break free, you need to use a magnet.

Experienced sellers don’t need to spend hours and hours on product research & selection – we use strategies that attract the best ideas to us.

What are those strategies, you ask? No worries – I’ve got you covered

Over the past 3-years, we’ve worked with over 5,000 clients to successfully launch new e-commerce brands from scratch. I’ve probably seen every product research & selection strategy known to mankind…

Some of those strategies are solid and timeless, like surveying your target customer for pain points. Most strategies, however, are purely a waste of time (such as scanning Amazon’s Best Seller Lists).

Up until now, the only way to know what works (and what’s a waste of time), has been searching through an endless sea of blog posts, podcasts, and more. And it simply takes way too much time.

Since our team has been prepping to open enrollment to a new round of clients (in about 2-weeks), we’ve been digging into the data and checking what’s working vs. not working for our clients.

What we found, was pretty surprising…

Out of all the hundreds of strategies out there, there’s just 3 main product research & selection tactics working right now. I wrote a detailed breakdown of each strategy, showing you exactly what it is, how it works, and how you can put it to good use.

Click here to download your copy now. (or click the picture below)

I’ll also be sitting down later tonight and recording videos to explain each strategy more in-depth.

This e-book will only be available for the next couple weeks, so be sure to grab your copy now (even if you’re saving it for later).

Once we open up enrollment and take on a new round of clients – we’ll be taking this down and keeping this private.

Hope this ebook can help fuel some breakthroughs for you and your business!

P.S. – What’s the worst product research & selection tactic you’ve ever heard of? Share in the comments below.

I’ll pick my favorite comments and give you an all-expenses-paid scholarship to our premium coaching community for e-commerce entrepreneurs (worth $3k).

Just download the ebook & leave a comment for your chance to win.

The post Amazon/E-Commerce Sellers: Here’s 3 Product Research & Selection Tactics (working right now) appeared first on StartupBros.

[Case Study] How I Turned $2,200 of Rice Cakes Into a $1-Million E-Commerce Business

[Note: In this case study, you’ll see how one of our rock-star clients (Dr. Ben Frederick) launched his e-commerce business from scratch and grew it into the multi-million dollar business it is today. You’ll see how he started from the bottom (with some rice cakes) and quickly clawed his way to the top, build a business with over $1,000,000 in projected annual sales in his first year in business.  Ben started working with us about one year ago, and since then has never ceased to amaze the StartupBros team. I could go on all day about this guy, so I will just let you read his case study below ]

This is the story of how I took my side business from $0 to over $600,000 in 365 days, while working 60 hours a week in my day job.

And it all started with $2,200 in rice cakes…

Who Am I?

My name is Ben. My StartupBros friends call me ‘Dr. Ben’, because I’m a practicing resident physician. I’m never really sure if people understand what that means, so I always describe it as “a lot like the TV show Grey’s Anatomy, but with less sex.”

We work too much, get paid too little, and are trapped by student debt. Sound familiar?

My $1,000,000 Business

So one year ago, on February 2, 2015, I started a side business with $360 of spare cash.

Since then, we’ve grossed over $600,000. If you extrapolate our current monthly sales volume of $90k (without factoring in growth), that puts us just over the $1 Million mark for the next 12 months.

Is that cheating? I don’t think so…

We’re going to destroy that projection.

Here’s How It Happened

Rewind to nearly two years ago, in March 2014.

I was driving home from a night shift in the hospital with a zombie stare on my face that would probably get me a guest spot on The Walking Dead.

There’s something satisfying about being a doctor, about “saving lives,” if that’s what I did that night. But honestly, the drudgery wears you down.

To keep from falling asleep on my drive home, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts of all time, “The Smart Passive Income Podcast,” with Patt Flynn. Heard of it? I thought so…

In particular I was listening to Episode 99 with Jessica & Cliff Larrew that detailed how she and her family were making hundreds of thousands of dollars by buying things from big box stores like Walmart or Target and reselling them on Amazon. It’s a process that’s known as Retail Arbitrage.

By the time I finished the podcast, I was hooked on the idea of giving Retail Arbitrage a try. And because I’m addicted to taking action, I did it.

The Results of Taking Action

By the next day I had hit all three Walmarts, the Target, the Lowes, the Home Depot, the Big Lots, and the Sam’s Club. By the end of the week, I’d bought $389 worth of retail goods to send into Amazon.

That’s when I found the backbone of my retail arbitrage products: Quaker Popped Variety Packs. These suckers cost me $3.50 a bag at my local Walmart and sold for $15 on Amazon. That’s $7 profit!

SERIOUSLY!

There’s nobody even selling these things right now. If you see them on the shelf in your local Walmart, it’s like picking up $7 off the shelf every single time.

In 90 days I’d sold over $4500 on Amazon, which included $2200 of rice cakes. That’s over $1000 in PROFIT on rice cakes!

The Hiatus

The whole reason I started doing Retail Arbitrage wasn’t to make a big business out of it. I just don’t think it’s easy to scale an RA business.

No, for me the reason was simply because I wanted to learn the process, so if I happened to see an opportunity in the future, I’d be able to take quick action on it.

Learning skills just for the sake of learning them has been a recurring theme in my life. This last year, those skills I’d amassed helped me achieve rapid success.

Eventually, I got bored with the whole RA process and I began to go back to my normal routine. Cash continually trickled in for the next 4-6 months as the inventory I’d accumulated slowly sold out.

Amazon had become an afterthought…

The Return to Amazon

Several months later in November 2014 I was listening to yet another podcast discussing the merits of making money on Amazon. Niche Pursuits Podcast 53: How to Earn Over $12,000 Per Month Selling Physical Products on Amazon with Chris Guthrie.

In this episode they discuss the idea of importing and private labeling on Amazon.

There was a little pitch for an Amazon selling course at the end of the episode, but after Googling it a little bit, the course seemed a little to “Internet Markety” for me.

Nevertheless, I was SOLD on the idea of importing from China and selling on Amazon, so I went searching for more information and came across Will Mitchell’s post on StartupBros.com, How You Can Make Big Money Importing From China – The Rise and Fall of My Empire…

We’ll take a brief intermission while you go read that….

Done? Ok, good.

I ended up joining the StartupBros Import Empire January 2015 Jumpstart Group, now called the E-Commerce Empire Elite Program.

I was a little apprehensive to spend big bucks on a course, because after all–a resident’s salary isn’t exactly a King’s Ransom.

But it’s a good thing I did, because my investment was returned hundreds–and I do mean HUNDREDS–of times over the next 365 days.

But this isn’t a pitch for E-Commerce Empire. If you want to hear more about EEE and get some exclusive bonuses to launch your own E-Commerce Empire, you should watch this 3-part video series “How I Launched My $1 Million Business with $300.”

The First Sale

Within my first 30-days I had sourced my first product, ordered 40 units, and sent them into Amazon FBA.

Did I mention I’m addicted to taking action?

An animated gif so good, it deserves to be posted twice.

While my inventory was in transit to the FBA warehouses, my buddies and I left Missouri and headed up to Crested Butte for a much needed ski vacation.

I was driving through the mountains just outside of Denver listening to a live EEE webinar when I got an email alerting me that my inventory had been checked into Amazon and my listing was now live.

YES!!!

An hour later, just before we we lost cell signal, I decided to check my Amazon stats one last time.  Just for kicks… When I opened my Amazon Seller Central app, I could hardly believe my eyes.

I’d made my first sale of my private label product within an hour of hitting the Amazon warehouse.

For the next 5 days, I was getting sale after sale while knee deep in powder on the side of a mountain. I had to order 300 more units on the 2nd day of my vacation!

The Next 365 Days

The next year was a crazy whirlwind of sales, product launches, travel, team building, speaking, product sourcing, number crunching and growing. It won’t happen the same way for everyone, but here’s how it happened for me:

Month #1: Feb 2 – Mar 2

Gross Revenue: $4,620

In January I spent probably 100 hours researching my first product and setting everything up. That means a thorough listing on Amazon including GREAT pictures. When I finally launched on February 2nd, I spent the next 30 days in a hyper-focused state.

I launched this product on my personal Amazon account.

I didn’t have a business setup.

I didn’t have an EIN number.

I didn’t even have a business bank account.

THAT CRAP DOESN’T MATTER RIGHT NOW!

My single focus was simply reviews. You CANNOT have a good product launch on Amazon without getting hustling for reviews. Period. I got my reviews by giving away product to friends and family.

Key Points:

1. Reviews, reviews, reviews. REVIEWS!

Month #2: Mar 2 – Apr 2

Gross Revenue: $12,368

Difference: +$7,748

By the second month, I knew that I was going to be able to make this product a success. I was working at a little over a 40% margin, so profit was somewhere around $5,000.

It was at this point that I partnered up with a friend of mine from med school, Peter.

We both saw the potential and decided to each invest $10,000 to stock up on inventory and launch some new products.

We decided to open a new Amazon Seller Central account just for the business, which is why you see the sales at zero at the beginning of the month. We set up an LLC S-crop, set up a bank account, and got our EIN.

At this point we also started researching and ordering test products for a second product line in a new niche.

Key Points:

1. Stay in stock.
2. Reviews, Reviews, Reviews.
3. Feed the beast (reinvest).
4. Setup business structure.
5. Research new products.

Month #3: Apr 2 – May 2

Gross Revenue: $17,782

Difference: +$5,414

By month 3 we had stocked up enough inventory of our first product, which included 2 color variations. We received about 100 units of 3 new products in an entirely different product line.

These three products accounted for a $2,500 bump in revenue during this month. Having multiple products within a product line allowed us to start getting some cross-selling between our own products.  HOORAY!

Key Points:

1. Stay in stock.
2. Test multiple new products in a new product line.
3. Reviews, Reviews, Reviews.

Month #4: May 2 – June 2

Gross Revenue: $21,704

Difference: +$3,922

We continued to expand Product Line #2 as sales of Product Line #1 continued to grow. At this point we placed large orders for all 5 new products in Product Line #2.

Key Points:

1. Added 2 more products in Product Line #2 giving us a total of 5 products in the line.
2. Reviews, Reviews, Reviews.

Month #5: June 2 – July 2

Gross Revenue: $31,225

Difference: +$9,521

Same old story here. We continued to add to our product lines and test new products. As sales continued to grow, it became more and more time consuming to answer customer emails.

I started to get stuck working in my business rather than on my business–an age old problem.

That’s when I began the search for our very first employee, a customer service agent. At this point we had more time than money, so I opted for Chris Ducker’s, Virtual Staff Finder service to find myself a Filipino virtual assistant.

Key Points:

1. Added a 3rd product to Product Line #1, which we launched as a variation of product #1.
2. Tested a 6th product in Product Line #2.
3. Reviews, Reviews, Reviews.
4. Started interviewing Customer Service Agents.

Month #6: July 2 – Aug 2

Gross Revenue: $53,734

Difference: +$22,509

While we were in Alaska fishing, err… I mean discussing business strategy… a couple things happened.

First, Amazon had Prime Day.

We weren’t a part of Prime Day, but we say a good 50% boost in daily sales.

Second, we began doing heavy promos on a few of our products using Viral Launch, which really pushed our sales to the next level. We also saw our organic sales on our two product lines continue to grow.

There’s no feeling quite like being on a river in Alaska and knowing that your business is bringing in cash all by itself. This was the first day off that I had taken since launching in February.

The only reason I was able to get away with this was due to our recent hiring of Dyan, our customer service agent.

Key Points:

1. Began running aggressive promotions.
2. Hired our first employee.

Month #7: Aug 2 – Sep 2

Gross Revenue: $54,164

Difference: +$430

We hit a bit of a plateau phase when we started to streamline our business processes and develop new products that were taking a little bit longer to get to market.

It can be a little discouraging to see your revenue flatline after such tremendous growth, but it was all a part of the plan.

Key Points:

1. Stay in stock.
2. Continue developing new products.
3. Streamline business processes during the plateau phase.

Month #8: Sept 2 – Oct 2

Gross Revenue: $70,148

Difference: +$15,984

We had another pretty decent jump here as we launched a few new products. Notice the increase in average sales price per order jumped up about 50 cents.

As we built out our product lines, we noticed more and more cross selling, which increased our average order size.

Key Points:

1. Continue to expand your product lines.

Month #9: Oct 2 – Nov 2

Gross Revenue: $82,450

Difference: +$12,302

In October we applied for and were accepted into 4 days of lightning deals that included 5 of our products.

The first one that you can see as the giant sales spike, is responsible for the $12,000 revenue increase in October.

Key Points:

1. If you get an opportunity for lightning deals, jump on it.

Month #10: Nov 2 – Dec 2

Gross Revenue: $105,532

Difference: +$23,082

The lightning deals continued into November and December and we saw BIG spikes in revenue.

Early in November we realized that we needed to buy a crap-ton of inventory, but we didn’t have the money to do it because we put it all into new products in August and September. So we took out two personal loans totaling $30,000. Our company was now in debt $50,000.

Key Points:

1. Manage your cash flow while experiencing rapid growth.
2. Only consider taking on debt to fund key parts of your business.

Month #11: Dec 2 – Jan 2

Gross Revenue: $93,364

Difference: -$12,168

Oh no! Our first month of regression! This was to be expected as the lightning deals ended and the Christmas buying season came to a close.

Many people see a tripling of sales leading up to Christmas, but our organic sales were relatively flat with a minimal 50% increase.

Key Points:

1. Expect a decrease in revenue at the end of December and into January.

Month #12: Jan 2 – Feb 2

Gross Revenue: $96,994

Difference: +$3,630

In January sales picked back up for us and we were finally caught up with all the inventory that we needed. We all of a sudden had a lot of cash coming in and not a lot of cash going out.

For the last year, we had focused on top line growth by reinvesting all of our profits.

Once you decide to stop reinvesting, that’s when things start to get really exciting.

Key Points:

1. Reinvest for top line growth to scale fast.

What Should You Take Away From All of This?

To be honest, I never expected things to move this quickly.

I knew there was a TON of potential importing and private labeling products, but it didn’t really hit me until I was on the side of the mountain replenishing my inventory.

For anyone out there reading this who is interested in following my path, I would highly recommend getting your feet wet with Retail Arbitrage first.

Once you do begin to dive into private labeling, be sure to follow these pro-tips:

• Find a mastermind group.  Without help from the E-Commerce Empire Community, I wouldn’t have had access to the tools and resources needed to grow as quickly as I have. You’re a reflection of who you surround yourself with, so surround yourself with the best.
• Focus on reviews early on.  This is part of Amazon’s unique value proposition–they are one part e-commerce platform, one part review club.  Do not underestimate the importance of this.
• Keep your product in stock. Going out of stock will effect your Amazon search ranking, so be sure to keep a close eye on  your inventory numbers.
• Reinvest your profits.  This is a business, not your personal piggy bank–you’ve got to think long term.
• Focus on customer service.  If there is a problem, take care of it IMMEDIATELY. If you neglect a customer complaint, Amazon will hate you.  Period.
• Research new products once you’re having success and expand your product line.
• Reviews, reviews, reviews, I can’t state this enough.
• Use Amazon PPC to boost the sales of already successful products.
• Once the workload becomes too much, hire a virtual assistant.  This way you can focus on growing your business instead of working within it.
• Be mindful of your cash flow and only take on debt if absolutely necessary for growth.
• TAKE ACTION!  Yeah, I’ve said it a million times by now, but there isn’t anyone doing 6-figures on Amazon who didn’t first work their tail off to get themselves established. Just keep taking consistent action, and you too may find yourself on the side of a mountain or fishing in Alaska with the sales pouring in and not a care in the world.

If you’d like a more detailed, ‘over-my-shoulder’ view of how I launched and grew my e-commerce business from scratch, make sure you watch this quick video I put together for you.

So if there is one thing you take away from this, it’s not that I’m special or have some mutant DNA (although the thought of that is pretty cool). It’s that I simply took action on the opportunities surrounding me.

And there are opportunities EVERYWHERE.

Sure, I’m a bit of a workaholic, but if I can pull this off while working 60+ hours a week while in my medical residency, then I know anybody can be successful with this too!

So get out out there, and DO IT.

The post [Case Study] How I Turned $2,200 of Rice Cakes Into a $1-Million E-Commerce Business appeared first on StartupBros.