A few years ago, I wanted to make extra money online and stumbled on a course on Importing Fortunes.
The idea was simple: Buy a product for cheap overseas. Bring it into the U.S. and sell it at a mark-up for profit.
I didn’t really want to worry about inventory and mailing things myself, so I was intrigued by their mention of Amazon’s fulfillment house and this idea that Amazon would store and ship the products for me, dealing with all customer hassles while I sit back and collect a check.
First things first, I had to find a product to sell. I noticed that people were using glass water-bottles to avoid plastic and I decided to look into that.
The megasite Importing Fortunes profiles in the program connects you with thousands of overseas companies selling almost anything you can imagine… at a discount when you buy in bulk. So I looked there and found a glass bottle I figured I could sell.
They sent me a sample that looked good, so I designed some packaging and arranged to have them send the bottles to buyers through Amazon.
It was a somewhat slow start learning about selling on Amazon, but once those first sales started coming in, it was very exciting. It has proven to be a steady money-maker for me, though not a day job killer yet. In a year and a half, I’ve made about $15,000 off this one import.
After about 8 months, I started to look into selling more products and I came up with four more.
It does take a while to start a product (labeling, getting a sample, getting your product shipped), but once you get one going, there isn’t a whole lot of work apart from keeping your inventory up and checking your sales. Amazon has an app for this, and I find myself checking it on my phone quite a bit.
I did have a few setbacks along the way, of course. But I just looked at them as a chance to learn and grow more confident in picking products and making them look good for buyers on Amazon.
The chance to grow in this business is almost unlimited, and I think within the year I will be very close to a full-time income. (If you want more details on someone already making a full-time income with this opportunity, read Monica’s story here.)
I would advise anyone wanting to import and sell on Amazon to take a course. There is a lot to know and too much to learn on your own the hard way.
I think I would have given up without the knowledge of people who had done this before me. But once you’re up and running, it’s quite simple and you don’t need to spend hours and hours to get a nice income from importing and reselling.
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