Back in 2015, Tatiana James took a course called The Amazing Selling Machine to learn how to sell physical products on Amazon. She followed it step-by-step and launched her first product. In 2016, she launched a second product. Neither of these made her much money, but she learned a ton about the ins and outs of ecommerce.
In 2017, she rolled out yet another product, only, this time, she decided to build a brand. Instead of just private labeling a product and slapping her own sticker on it, though, she had the supplier tweak the product with each order, thus improving it over time. She would then point out those improvements in her marketing, helping to set herself apart from the competition.
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Also huge, Tatiana launched a YouTube channel to promote it. This boosted conversions because people could examine it more thoroughly before buying.
By the tail-end of 2017, she was doing about $40,000 per month, all on Amazon.com. With proof of concept, she then built a simple, self-hosted store on Shopify. She incentivized her followers on social media to buy directly through the new site using a promo code for 20% off. It worked. Now about three out of every four sales come directly through Tatiana’s website.
This gives Tatiana more control. Not to mention, her profit margins are higher since Amazon doesn’t have their greedy little paws in every sale. Plus, she can collect all of her customers’ data herself, instead of handing it over to Team Bezos. This allows her to retarget and follow up with ’em, as well as find similar audiences using PPC ads.
“That’s basically what I did,” Tatiana said in a recent YouTube video. “And so now my product, with my website and my Amazon sales, does about $6,000 a day in sales.”
“But, you guys have to take note of this: it took me five years. And that’s the thing, is that, I find that we see these stories and we feel like, ‘Oh, you know, I’m gonna start selling on Amazon this year, and I’m gonna be making $5,000 a month [in no time].’ And we get like super anxious; we just don’t have enough patience,” she added.
“But the truth of the matter is that, you know, that’s kinda what it takes sometimes. Ya know? It is kind of a slow road. It’s a journey. It’s not gonna happen overnight,” she warned.
Her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs? Patience. Consistency. Just stick to it. Don’t get sucked into this shiny object syndrome where the moment something doesn’t pop off, you jump to the next thing. Exhaust all options. Put in the work. Stay the course.
Advice worth listening to considering it made Tatiana James a millionaire by age 24; and a multi-millionaire by age 25. As of today, we estimate her net worth to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 million dollars.
And if you think she’s blowing through all that money, think again. Tatiana and her multi-millionaire man, Stefan James, both say they live well below their means. They’re pouring as much profit as they can back into truly passive income streams, such as stocks that pay dividends.
At this rate, Tatiana feels strongly that she’ll be able to retire before she turns 40, if she so chooses.
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