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From YouTuber to Amazon Success Story: David Quinteri’s Playbook
71 Plays24 days ago
David Quinteri, author of The Money GPS and YouTuber with 100M+ views, turned his side hustle into a thriving Amazon FBA business. In this episode, he reveals how he overcame cashflow struggles, leveraged customer feedback, and scaled his business with smart, incremental growth. Packed with actionable insights, this is your guide to thriving as an Amazon entrepreneur.
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Transcript
Introduction and Background
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to the Amazon Blueprint podcast.
00:00:06
Speaker
David, what's up, man? All good. All good. Good to speak to you. Not on Slack, but on ah and face-to-face. I know. I feel like we talk a lot on Slack, but like rarely ever do we you know have like a face-to-face conversation. That's right. That's right. It's good to talk to you. Yeah. How's everything going? Good? Good. Doing good. Tell me, you know where were you born? like where you know Did you come to America? Were you born in America? like What's the deal?
00:00:29
Speaker
Sure. So my name is David Quinteri, and I was born, raised and live in Toronto of cold Canada. And so it's been a journey through these through these years. I was always in this mentality of I like entrepreneurship and business, even when nobody around me was a businessman. Even in grade one, the stories are there from people in my family where on Halloween, I wanted to be a businessman. So my mom got me a little blazer and a briefcase, and that was my thing. I don't know how I got that. I probably saw something on TV or whatever.
Career Shift and Financial Insight
00:01:18
Speaker
But I think that stuck with me and I was never really satisfied with, ah you know, I was working in a financial company ah for many years and I didn't like it at all, but definitely wasn't where I wanted to be. But it was, you know, something to, you know, have a career and money and all that. um And I started a YouTube channel. And then from there, found the Amazon and the rest is history.
00:01:44
Speaker
so So let's, yeah, let's let's not jump too crazy. um You went to ah college in Canada, right? That's right. Okay, cool. Which which one? I went to a couple different ones, but it's called Seneca, so that's college. like College is different in the yeah in many US s and Canada, but this was for actually for computers. So I was studying in computers, which is a ah course vary with pretty much everything to do with computers, every single different type.
00:02:15
Speaker
um How did you get into finance? And then I wanted to get into finance and what I ended up doing was applying to the job. And the job is essentially what's called a business analyst. So you're halfway in between finance and like IT, like programming, sort of like SQL and and that sort of thing. um And that was, you know,
00:02:42
Speaker
boring It was, you know, you know it's ah not rewarding, nothing like that. But um it sort of gave me perspective on the financial system at the same time, learning, you know, basic elements and how they interact with each other. But I knew deep down it just wasn't for me. So what year did you get that job? Like, just so I can start seeing like the timeline? 2007.
00:03:08
Speaker
Okay, so 07, you had that job and then what came first? YouTube came first, right? That's right, yeah. And that was what what year? So I wrote, i i so I'm, 2007, I'm working for a financial company interested in finance, seeing all these, you know, they're they're moving the billions of dollars around um and I'm getting interested, I'm learning about it.
00:03:32
Speaker
i was investing somewhat. And then I ended up at the end of 2008 selling. I didn't have much, but I sold everything. Believing that I'm like, this is not going to be good, like what we're coming into is not going to be good. And I missed the worst of it um by doing that. But I wasn't. You liquidated everything anywhere. You have ah like a good cash position going into 2008.
00:03:59
Speaker
That's right. um And so, but that was like, but to be honest with you, it wasn't much, but it was that was what I had invested. So um I timed that relatively okay. um And then I started reading all these books.
YouTube and Publishing Ventures
00:04:14
Speaker
So I was just reading everything I could. And during this period of time, I'm reading and I start taking notes.
00:04:23
Speaker
And I'm telling people, friends and family, everybody around me, I'm like, hey, you gotta learn about this, this is interesting, whatever, nobody's interested. And so I thought to myself, I could write a book about this stuff, condense all my knowledge, and let's see where that takes me. So I ended up spending about a year and three months writing a book called The Money GPS.
00:04:46
Speaker
And so the idea is we're like, we need a financial education. You probably hear from Robert Kiyosaki and all all the other guys, ah there's no financial education. So mine is like, if theirs is like level one, like Kiyosaki is level one, this is like level zero. um But teaches you everything, like real level zero, not not like um but what theyll what they'll tell you. And so I started,
00:05:12
Speaker
getting all this information together, I start writing a book and that was I started that process in about 2010. Book is basically done 2011 and was published January 2012. My YouTube channel started 2011.
00:05:31
Speaker
Got it. and and i And did you start the YouTube channel because you're like, hey, like I'm about to publish this book. I want to get awareness. YouTube it sounds like a ah good place. part In part, yes. But I was also looking for people who are interested because my friends and family were not interested. So I'm just looking like, you know, there are others out there. Let's share. Let's talk. Let's, you know, let's see what others have to say about it.
00:05:57
Speaker
Amazing, okay cool. You published a book in two thousand ah January you started a YouTube channel, how did that go? And and were you would you consider yourself an entrepreneur at that point or still not yet?
00:06:10
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. okay Okay. Where was your sources of income? like What were you monetizing? Selling the book? Selling the book and yeah and the YouTube AdSense at this point. I mean, I wasn't making much, but in my head, I was always thinking, hey, this is great. It's going to pay for my condo fees. It'll pay for... like i was you know, thinking small at the time. But I was like, this is fantastic. This is great. I love this. um It was a secondary source of income. Sorry, were you thinking like, okay, I'm I need to get out of this endless job. Like, um you know, I want to make money somewhere else. So just to cover my bills so I can like quit and then go, you know, just go full time on the business. I at this time, I started writing one book, I thought that I would write a whole series of books.
00:06:57
Speaker
I ended up writing two books, but I was gonna write a whole series of books. um And that didn't go in the direction because what you'll find is that it takes an extremely long period of time to write a to write a book and the financial rewards are definitely not not there. Cause you're only making a few bucks for every book. So it just takes a lot. Like I've sold, I don't even know now, but many, many thousands of books.
00:07:26
Speaker
But it still, you know, doesn't pay the bills in that in that regard. So it's a labor of love. um And so, yeah, I just decided at that point, I'm like, this is great.
Discovering Amazon FBA
00:07:38
Speaker
I'm happy. But, you know, I want i want more. So I started doing more of the YouTube. And the channel started growing. Yeah, and I mean, it grew pretty crazy, right? Like, so you reached two hundred and eighty thousand subscribers and and Did that happen before or after the you know you stumbled upon Amazon? Obviously, 280 is your highest, but like were you at like the 100K mark, let's say, before even starting Amazon?
00:08:05
Speaker
it took years just to get the the first bit of growth was definitely you probably hear this but the the first bit is the hardest um and so it's just a slow and steady grind where like nobody's watching just you and your grandma are watching and ah you know it's just brutal but the you just keep going because you have you know you're you're psyched up you're motivated and you just keep doing it and then you know it it starts to you know get the the ball rolling. And so then, you know it it definitely took a while for me to get to 100,000 and from 100,000 to 200,000 was definitely much faster than it was for me to get to 100,000. That took a while. And and um yeah, all throughout this point, you still had your analyst job, you didn't let it go. That's correct. Amazing. Now, ah when did the Amazon thing come in?
00:09:00
Speaker
Amazon, I learned about in 2017, it was funny. So I'm obviously doing the YouTube, I'm doing, you know, books, I'm like all the, you know, trying all these different things. And there's only so much you can devote time to. I have my own personal life, I have everything. And so I'm like, within a two, maybe a week or two, I hear about Amazon FBA, that term, Amazon FBA, from three different sources.
00:09:28
Speaker
within this short period of time. And I was like, that's something like I got to look into this thing. I don't know what it is. And I mean, I've heard of dropshipping. I knew about affiliate marketing. I'm like, I'm just going to look it up. I looked it up and um I ended up taking one of those really quickly. Like within a couple of weeks, I took one of the guru, the guru courses that were that were popular during that time. And Um, I'm like, I'm sold like I'm, I'm like, I'm doing this. So my first product launch in 2018.
00:10:02
Speaker
Amazing, so you had a career for 10 years, 2007 to 17, then you stumbled upon this. um And then after you took the course, what made you attracted to Amazon? Like, I mean, there's obviously so many different business models. There's Amazon FBA, you could you know have started an agency, you could have done like freelance, like what attracted you to to Amazon? And was it like that they sold the dream of like, you know all you need like to make $10,000 a month, all you need is the two products that sell 30. What what I loved about it was number one, I was always so I'm like, at some point I got to quit my my job. Like I already I already knew that in my head. It was it was simply a matter of time. um And just focus so I could have doubled down on YouTube.
00:10:47
Speaker
Um, but I always knew that it's never wise to, you know, put all your eggs in one basket, as they would say. So I'm like, I want a secondary source of income, but I need something that could be done at odd hours. Like, you know, something I could do in the nighttime, something I could do in the weekend, something that, you know, it it doesn't require me to be in a particular hours. Because I'll work at any time. I'll work every day. i'll work seven I always work seven days a week. And that's not an issue. But unlike some business models, you need to kind of be there with the client at a certain time. That that just wouldn't work. So Amazon offered that opportunity that it's kind of do it when you have the time.
00:11:33
Speaker
Yeah, I like that, I like that too. Because for me, my thing was I wanted freedom of time, ah location and money. Because I was, ah like my last job, I mean, I was an engineer, right? So I was like, always going into some place. It was always a commute. It was always hours. And it's like, why do you care? Like, I'm performing. Like, why do you care when I come and when I leave? Why can't I just work from home? You know, like, I don't need to be like, I used to show up to an office. There's three other people. One of them is a secretary. I'm like, dude, we can have these meetings.
00:12:03
Speaker
like over zoom, it doesn't even matter. So that's that was what was that's what was in my head. And it seems like, you know, you kind of was looking for the same thing like, hey, maybe like presented a little bit differently, but it's like, yeah I just want to have a second thing that I can work on whenever I want. So 2018, you launched your first first product. How did you even find the product? Did you do like research stuff or did you like actually innovate?
Product Challenges and Resilience
00:12:27
Speaker
Helium 10. No, it was a totally a Me Too product, um copied it, and I created a logo and I did the box design and all that sort of thing. But it was definitely a Me Too product. um And this thing starts selling very well, right out of the gates. And I'm so happy. I'm like, oh my goodness, this is amazing. Six months into it, Amazon sends me a notice saying this is a restricted product and we're shutting it down.
00:13:00
Speaker
What was it? So it was a, you know, people that have asthma, they have the puffers. Yeah. Well, attached to the puffer is a, um you you know, they have the products called AeroChamber. AeroChamber is a plastic thing and then it it has like a face mask so that when a kid does it, usually they spray it into there and then they don't have to time the breathing properly. So it's basically a piece of plastic is what it is.
00:13:29
Speaker
And it just creates a chamber so that the ah the that inhaler stuff can go in. But even though it's just a piece of plastic, even though it's not a medical device, ah FDA classifies that as a like medical accessory or apparatus or something like this. I don't know the term.
00:13:47
Speaker
And when I was getting that, I did my research, I considered this. I'm like, I wonder if this is a thing. So I asked Amazon three emails. I had three emails from Amazon, seller support. Later on, I realized I don't believe anything that seller support tells you. ah But, you know.
00:14:07
Speaker
three emails from them saying, no, this is not a restricted product because I had a competitor, right? And and basically they they said you needed a 510K. That 510K would have cost, I think, like $15,000 and would have taken well over a year. I I was just like, oh my God, I fought with them back and forth saying, you know, you you told me it wasn't this and that. They said, basically, you know, they told me where to go. So yeah, um I ended up after several months dropping, just dropping the whole product and and everything and started from scratch again.
00:14:42
Speaker
Amazing. Okay. Now walk me through kind of the the next levels, right? So you launched one, you found success. You're like, if that you know didn't happen and it didn't require medical devices, that wouldn't have been a hit. You were probably on track to be able to you know make enough money to fully quit your job and all that kind of stuff. So what was the path after that? So basically I i realized that I can do it. And that was it for me. I was sold.
00:15:11
Speaker
I was sold. I'm like, this is incredible. Like, you know how you re you refresh the sales every like four minutes? You're just constantly doing it. So I was loving it. um And, you know, I didn't, I was down, you know, emotionally that like, oh my God, I can't believe this. I was going so well and now here I am. But I didn't let it stop me. I basically just said, I did it once, I could do it again. And there's a whole bunch of products on Amazon and I could do it again.
00:15:40
Speaker
So went through the Helium 10 searches and I found another product. This one was ah the one ah part of the brand I sell today. And that was 20, so that I was actually in 2019. So this brand, I started in 2019. And so ah for a year, you you couldn't find a product.
00:16:04
Speaker
it was it was a Well, I was going back and forth with seller support and you know making phone calls and sending emails and trying to get them to basically accept the product. But it was it was a you know and at the same time, I was trying to go to my supplier and say, if you get a 510K, I can sell this product. Otherwise, you're not getting any more sales. And they were like, no, we don't want to invest the money and this and that. so um because it could come from the supplier or it can come from you that Amazon was willing to accept either. um But there was about six months. You should have asked them for a 5K discount. Be like, listen, let's go 50 50 on this. Give me a 5K discount on my disorder. I'll run 5K and we'll be up and running. You know what I mean? I know. I know.
00:16:49
Speaker
and so what okay So if you were to go back in time, what would you have done differently or how would you have like, let's say obviously part of it is like you wouldn't have chosen something that had that risk, but like what else would you have done differently?
00:17:03
Speaker
I think, ah well for sure, don't I'm not into the hell, I know you do consumables and everything, certain things scare me. um But I love the subscribe and save, that that would be something and I have ideas for what what I'll do next on my next time around, because I love the subscribe and save, I love that idea.
00:17:25
Speaker
But ultimately, I don't feel like it's a loss. I don't even feel like I lost anything because I think I was still profitable in the end. um And so I don't feel like it was a mistake or anything. I don't feel like it was a failure. I did i did what I did with the information that I had and I and i went with it. And um you know i I am where I am now because of probably all the things that happened there. So I don't even consider it to to be a failure at all.
00:17:54
Speaker
Yeah, a hundred percent. I love that mindset because a lot of times it's like you can't plan for everything. You just have to go through it and then you'll have an answer of like, okay, was it the right thing or the wrong thing? If it's the right thing, great. You know that what's what's one right way to do it. And if it's the wrong thing, then you know what's the right way to do it and you do the right way. And I feel like too many people.
00:18:15
Speaker
sit there and like they're planning and they're thinking and they're trying to avoid every single mistake when just taking action and you know but just exposes you to all the mistakes you learn from them and now all the mistakes are gone they're like lessons they're experienced so I love that mindset you know it's like and no regrets it's like um you know maybe it didn't happen to you but then when you have a multi-million dollar business it happens to you and you're like shit I wish I learned that mistake when things were much smaller so that's right 2018, you lost the second brand and then how did things and you know go from there? when When did we start working together? Was it like 2022? 21 or 22? Yeah, something like that. Yeah, 21, 22. So how was 2018 up until 2021, 2022? So it was like with with what I try to tell everybody that's getting into Amazon is the first thing you got to do is just try to get one sale.
Growth and Customer Feedback
00:19:11
Speaker
And that's all I was trying for. I'm like, can I get one sale? That was my first goal. Goal number two is, can I become profitable? If if I got $1 profit, I would consider it a success. So I hit goal number one, I hit goal number two, and then it was a matter of just getting better. um So i was I started with a low price, and then I started increasing that price, um and that product it's It was good, but I'm like, I need a better one. So I started scouring Alibaba and 1688 and I found, I think either on one of those two, I had found a supplier of a cool new design of the type of product that I sell that, um but but nobody on Amazon was selling it. So I'm like, I need that. So I talked to my supplier and I said, can you make this? They looked at it.
00:20:06
Speaker
likely just ripped it off. And then they we started going with that and that's still the product I sell today here since 2019. It's one of my one of my products. And I just basically been expanding the product line ever since ah one by one and looking at the reviews and the negative customer experiences. And we created what I call my 3.0 product based on all of that. They created a new mold getting rid of all the issues from these products, you know the products from 2019, 2018.
00:20:41
Speaker
um And you know it's basically just been a slow and steady iterations on the products and expanding into you know what doesn't what doesn't my product do and then filling in the gaps with other products because there's certain, it just has limitations.
00:21:03
Speaker
and that's That's amazing. I feel like not enough people like follow that you know research and development and continuous improvement process. And I think one of the easiest things that you can do is constantly understand the negative reviews, what people want. I feel like too many people don't even talk to their ICP, their shoppers. They're not out there saying,
00:21:23
Speaker
hey like what do you like what do you not like perfect version number two is coming out version number two is coming out and and I feel like they come up with a product that does amazing and then I get these you know messages like Chinese competitors this and that I'm like dude is it Chinese competitors or did you just get complacent and you didn't really innovate and now your product is not as good as it used to be on the market Because when you when you launched it, you were very invested in like, this needs to be a really good product. But now that it's up and running and everything is good, like you you are not doing that investment anymore. You're like, oh, okay, it's good. and And for me, I'm like also always worried. like How can I make this electrolyte powder better? What do people want? Do they want more electrolytes? do they like We launched an entire line of um single-serve packets because in 2018, no one wanted single-serve electrolyte packets. They thought it was wasteful for the environment.
00:22:12
Speaker
2021, 2022 comes around, Elementia Liquid IV have blown up, and everyone wants you know single serve. And so I was like, wow, you know like but like the demand has changed. And if I wasn't, you know I'm a consumer of my own product, and I talk to my ICP a lot because you know I'm kind of very into fitness and all that kind of stuff. If I wasn't that plugged in, like for example, if I was selling that kid's mask ah you know asthma or whatever, and don't I don't have a kid with asthma or I don't have asthma,
00:22:41
Speaker
I would have never known. Like maybe they've innovated and they said actually we don't like it because it creates an irritation in the nose and so and I would have never paid attention to that. So I think. more people need to really like look at the negative reviews, uh, talk to their customers. And then, you know, your first batch is going to last you three months or whatever plan like by the third batch that you've already made one improvement. You know, you've already gotten one sample, you've tested some things and now you have an an improvement. And if you can keep up that pace, you'll always be ahead of like the Chinese competitors, right? Yeah. I mean, well, let's talk more about this, but like this is so important. and It doesn't need to mean you, you know, you,
00:23:20
Speaker
I have to create a new mold or whatever, like some very simple modifications could make all the difference. And I still to this day, so I have, I just recently hired a worker, like a VA, whatever you wanna call it. But all these years I've been doing it all myself, all the customer service, there isn't money, I don't i don't get many. um But i as much as I dislike to hear from the complaints of the customers, I i realized that this is like the best thing you can do. um And, you know, I even have the phone number. I have the phone number and I only got one call ever. But, ah you know, speaking to people on the phone, they can't believe like, wow, I got somebody on the phone. um Because they just like it. I mean, it's, to me, it's such a no brainer thing to do because they're giving you their number, like,
00:24:13
Speaker
They love to complain. People love to complain. And you you have to listen to it because you're not going to say, well, no, I think my product is the best. No, your customer, your customer is going to leave a review saying that's not the case. Let me tell you, they're they're ruthless. They can be ruthless. So, ah yeah, so I just believe we can always improve on it. And I know like the way I plan it is at some point I'll probably will cannibalize like my first generation of this product.
00:24:43
Speaker
was completely cannibalized and I even stopped selling it because the 2.0 was just much better in every way than the 1.0 so that I no longer even sell that now I have the 3.0 and there might be the case I mean they're different prices but there might be the case where 2.0 is just not even sold anymore and that's okay I'm okay with that because I'm cannibalizing my own sales. um And that's just the way it works. that you You have to evolve your products or you're going to be that guy who's just constantly squashing his margins down to nothing. And I don't play that game. I'm the i'm by far the most expensive. And then are you ah launching those like V2 as a completely separate parent listing or as a variation or are you just replacing, you're just completely separate? Separate. Yep.
00:25:31
Speaker
You get reviews separate all the way from the beginning again. Yeah, yeah which is not fun. um It is not fun, but I'm trying. I'm trying something out and um we'll see how it goes. There's also the case with Amazon you know saying We don't want, the variation has to be identical, except for color or whatever. I know they're being a little bit more restrictive, although we we all see the listings that are definitely not you knowly in that. Yeah, that that's for sure, like way off. But that's another factor too. But i I'm doing it and trying it out, but ultimately um willing to change if necessary. We'll see.
00:26:18
Speaker
I love it. And then what are some of the like bigger challenges that you had like in the 2018 to like, let's say 2022, cause I know like 2022 came around, we started working together. You had challenges, but like we obviously have a lot of resources and things like that. And and so maybe it's like the challenges are still there, but you know, 2018 to 2022 that I remember that, you know, part of my life very um vividly because every challenge would be like a, it would even though it was small, it was a challenge because it's like, you're on your own, there's no one there. Groups, you don't know who's accurate, who's lying to you, who's a guru, who's trying to sell you their consulting. So what were some of the challenges that you faced kind of in that phase of 2018 to 2022?
Financial Management and Strategy
00:27:01
Speaker
Well, i I've always had the problem up until, yeah, maybe up until 2022 of cash flow. That was my biggest, you hear about it all the time. I literally printed t-shirts and sweaters with the words cash flow on it so to remind me.
00:27:19
Speaker
how important cash flow is. But I always had cash flow issues. And because that's what, you know, the growing pains of a of a company and that's normal, that's kind of a good sign because you're you're getting more orders now than you did the month before. But I also didn't have a good understanding of my accounting. Like I had everything on an Excel spreadsheet, wasn't using QuickBooks, didn't have a bookkeeper, like it was just Excel. And I quite frankly didn't understand like it was just hard to keep track of it where you know you've got
00:27:55
Speaker
<unk> It's like a 90-day cycle. By the time I order to the time it's in Amazon, it's like 90 days plus that item has to be sold, which could take 30 days or 60 days or whatever. So there's such a large lead time in between when you like how you're forecasting. And i've I've always up until now found that to be a challenge. And that was part of my cashflow issues along with being with the growing as well. This is something that I just struggled with. And then one of those would was um being very mindful about my PPC spend because you can you can i don't in a sense like waste part of your cash. And at the same time, I was also ah had some products that weren't doing very well. And so I'm spending a lot of capital trying to get them there, but then they just sit on Amazon for way too long.
00:28:51
Speaker
And so that's just wasting cashflow too. So it was managing all the different things that I was trying to do. um And so, it's something that has been a process over the years, just getting better at that.
00:29:06
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I think it's always hard to kill your products or because they feel like you're kind of like your children. And sometimes you have to make the tough choice of like, you know, I always like to use this analogy. It's like you're investing in stocks. You have, you know, Amazon, you have the S and&P 500, you have Apple, and then you have like these kind of small cap, ah like shitty stocks. And it's like, if you had $1,000 and you were going to invest it, would you invest it in, you know, the blue chip or SMB index funds or would you invest it in some random small cap that could you know tank and and take all your money with it? So I think a lot of people don't think like that. A lot of people say, well, I want to grow all of my products. And I'm like, there's time and there's money and and energy and resources being poured into it. So if you tell me poured into everything,
00:29:53
Speaker
you know, your big guy is getting 10% of my energy and your small guy is getting 10% of my energy. And then what is that going to result in terms of like total profit versus if I put 100% in that big guy, is are you going to be able to double your money? You know, and and I think most people have that emotional attachment to their product. So, you know, I'm glad that you kind of were able to overcome that How did you overcome the cashflow issue? That's something I think, I mean, I was very much challenged with it because it almost felt like you it never ends. i i pay product for the I pay money for the product and then I start selling it and then I need more. So I pay even more. And then by the time that comes, I'm waiting for my payout in Amazon, but um I need to order more and I need to order more than i what I ordered last time because I'm growing. So it just kind of was this vicious cycle. How did you overcome that?
00:30:41
Speaker
Yeah, what I mean, I got to the point where I had to ask my supplier, like, hey, can you wait ah two weeks until the next payment for Amazon so I could pay you the rest of it? Like, I literally zeroed the account out. Like, there was nothing in there whatsoever. And I thought I would have to bail my own company out at one point. um That's how low I was getting. And it happened to me a couple of times, actually. um But, you know, what I did was um cutting back on PPC spend, so I immediately stop some of that that bleeding so I can you know make sure that...
00:31:18
Speaker
There's enough money coming in. um At the same time, I cut out some of the products. I was like, you know what? This product is not doing well. I'm i'm not going to order ah that product anymore. So that save money there. And it was a higher price product. It was double the cost of my hero skew. So those were a couple of the things that I did. I just needed to stop the bleeding so that I can get.
00:31:41
Speaker
this growth, get the A-cost, my total ad spent under control, and not keeping not that storage fees at that time were a huge issue. um I don't have a 3PL and I don't have... um like I try to maintain it pretty well anyway, but bringing units in, you know, it costs money, but it's not that expensive. But I was still keeping, ah you know, a little bit more of an eye on that until, you know, 2020, then they really restricted and everything got kind of out of whack. You know, you're only allowed 200 units. You're only allowed like 17 days of inventory. Doesn't make any sense. But yeah. And then and then by the time they check in, you're already out of stock. Yeah. Because you like you sent 200, it starts selling. They say, OK, you can send 500. But then the 200 is already sold out while it's checking in. Yeah, that was crazy.
00:32:34
Speaker
Have you have you ever like ran the numbers on what your cash flow cycle is? Did you try and negotiate terms with manufacturers? Did you ever get like inventory funding any of that kind of stuff? I never did. I never did. I managed it all on my own. um And, you know, I took it like the business quite frankly, had I been paying more attention to it, I'm sure I could have grown it much, much larger by now. There's no question. But it it really shows you that the Amazon is such a good system, despite all, I mean, we all have complaints about it, that's for sure. um But the fact that I could be running it on the side to other things, right? um You know, it just shows you that
00:33:24
Speaker
as if you're working a nine to five job that you should have no fear in starting it up.
Future Goals and Expansion
00:33:30
Speaker
It's a much, much better investment. This is coming from somebody who's studied investments for many years. It can be a much better investment than any of the stocks that people are are investing into. I assure you that because you're taking capital and you're rolling it over so many times, but The gurus will tell you, you know, you're going to be making $10,000 profit. You're not making that profit. You're rolling that back in. You're rolling that back in. And that's exactly what I did. I never still to this day, I haven't taken a salary. Wow. So how do you how do you survive? You got to eat the craft dinner and the oatmeal. Wow. I love it. I love it. yeah but
00:34:13
Speaker
So what's what's next? So what's next for you? you know like um Just keep launching more products. That's the game. I know you're yeah you know flirting with TikTok shop or trying to get get you in there. So right what's on the horizon?
00:34:26
Speaker
I want to expand into more marketplaces. So I'm trying to get onto UK. That's the next thing, which is in itself, seemingly a challenge. It took me over six months to get my VAT. So I finally just got that. That's the, yeah, it's unbelievable. Um, I want to get on there and potentially more European marketplaces because the keyword volume in there is fantastic for my products. Um,
00:34:52
Speaker
and TikTok shop, certainly. and um you know any I don't want to expand too far too fast. um I did look into the non-popular, like the non-Amazon marketplaces of Europe.
00:35:09
Speaker
um And it's not the best. It's not the best from what I what I've gathered. um It's just harder to deal with. They're just smaller. They're just a lot smaller. um And so you're taking a lot more risk. But ultimately,
00:35:26
Speaker
At some point I may decide that I want to exit and start from scratch again. I'm not looking forward to the starting from scratch part, but the i I feel like it would be nice to cash out and ah go on a vacation and then ah start start from scratch. Do it all over again.
00:35:46
Speaker
Yeah, not from scratch, right? Because you can have all those those skills and that experience. So, but ah it'll be nice. And I think if you were to ask me, I would say globally expanding on all the Amazon marketplaces is a great idea. It's easy. It's relatively easy, right? Because you're just, you know, a little bit of compliance, a little bit of shipping, opening up the marketplaces, and then, you know, same team does everything else.
00:36:09
Speaker
but I think probably focus on US and that only, because from everyone that I've talked to who's tried like, you know, expanding here and doing this and doing that, it's like for the same energy, if you just focused it in, you know, Amazon US or maybe, you know, I mean, Amazon US basically bleeds into all the other markets, um that would just have gotten a much better return. So yeah, I mean, I always battle with this myself as like,
00:36:35
Speaker
you know, I can invest in like this project and I can open up this thing and that thing. And I'm like, you know what? If I just focused and I did more of what I'm doing now, I would make more money and and I always come through. So probably that's what I would do because i've I've had that like, you know, shiny object. I went to Dubai for a whole month trying to get my product on the shelves and I did all this shit. And then I came back and I'm like,
00:36:57
Speaker
I increased my review rating from a four to a four point, ah you know, like four point two to four point three. And I got the four and a half star and my sales went up by like 20 percent. Then I'm like, man, what ah what have I been doing? Wasting my time trying to get into all these like nothing stores that are going to sell five units a month when I should just be focusing on this big opportunity.
00:37:17
Speaker
Yeah, I totally agree with you. That's the case. I mean, you you got to expand your product line first and foremost, making it better, doing dialing in your images. um And, you know, the there's like the 80-20, you know, you write a principle, as you know, um and that's really what it's all about. I find that you can get to a certain saturation point.
00:37:43
Speaker
There's always a market and there's always like a pie for everybody to to share. um But there I feel like at some point you kind of in some for some products, you can kind of just, you kind of see where the plateau is, then you can launch more products. ah You can expand to different marketplaces of different choices we can make, you can all there's only so much capital to go around, right. So um That's kind of where I'm at right now. I'm trying to do a little bit of both of those and just dipping my... I'm not like, hey, I'm going to expand to all of Europe or whatever. That wouldn't be a good idea. Most people, I do hear the same thing that you're saying is like,
00:38:22
Speaker
Yeah, it's like 1% of my sales. like It's not even worth the the time and and the energy to do that. it's And my goodness, that dealing with their compliance is a real nightmare. it' It's a nightmare, yeah. Yeah,
Conclusion and Gratitude
00:38:37
Speaker
awesome. David, thank you so much, man. you know I'm not gonna take too much more of your time. This was an amazing story. I love the surprise of you being like a massive YouTuber. You have 285,000 subscribers, which is crazy. um you know Thanks for coming.
00:38:52
Speaker
Absolutely. Thank you very much Mina for having me on.