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Our guest today is Corey and he built and sold not one, but two Amazon FBA ecommerce businesses. The collective payout from those businesses totaled $365,000 in cash! Corey shares what it takes to build and sell an Amazon ecommerce business and outlines what you should know if you'd ever like to sell your business in the future as well.

This is an inspirational story that shows all the behind the scenes details of building and selling a business.

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Get involved and ask a question about selling on Amazon and Chris may answer your question live on a future episode of Sellercast. Also, if you think you'd be a good guest for the Sellercast podcast feel free to tell us more about you and your company here.

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Podcast Transcript

Intro: Hello, everyone. Chris Guthrie here, host of Sellercast. And in today’s episode, I have brought on a good friend of mine. His name is Corey. And he has built and sold not one but two Amazon focused ecommerce businesses for a total of $365,000 in cash. That’s a fantastic story of what you can do with this business if this is the desire you have to build something up. You’re creating an asset, and if you like to sell it, you can. If you want to continue to run it for the cash flow, you can do that as well. In Corey's case, he’s able to build this business up, sell it, and then he’s taken that money and moved it down to the next project. So I hope you’re going to enjoy this episode this episode. Feel free to go to Sellercast.com to check out the show notes for this episode. Thanks.

Chris Guthrie: Hello, everyone. Chris Guthrie here. And we’re back for another episode. And this time, I’ve brought on a good friend of mine, Corey, who’s been a Salesbacker user since early 2015. And he’s actually a successful ecommerce business owner. He’s built and sold a couple of ecommerce businesses that were predominantly selling on Amazon. Collectively, the sales totaled $365,000 in cash, which is fantastic. Welcome, Corey. Thank you so much for joining us. 

Corey: Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me.

Chris Guthrie: First of all, it’s great because when we spoke before, I said, “Hey, it’d be great to have you on this podcast.” And you said, “Hey, I’m actually in the process of selling another company.” So maybe we can just record this when I do that. And that was a little while back now. But there are a lot of different directions we can take. Let’s start with just maybe when you started selling on Amazon and why you decided to get into it the first place.

Corey: Yeah, absolutely. So much has been going on lately. And thanks for your patience. I started selling on Amazon two years ago in March of 2013. A friend of mine recommended me an online course that was teaching people how to sell online and on Amazon. And I jumped into it. I really didn’t know what to expect. I was a complete newbie to the Internet. So it was a completely new experience for me. But I dedicated myself and went with it. And I’m glad I did because it worked out.

Chris Guthrie: And so were you building other businesses before that? I mean you mentioned that doing Internet type businesses is the first time for you. So were you experienced in building other businesses in other areas? Or was it the first time just in general building a business?

Corey: No, absolutely not. This should be a motivation for people. I had a regular job before starting my own business. This was my first dive into the Internet and starting businesses.

Chris Guthrie: Okay. Let’s start with the first company. Two different companies that you built and sold. Can you talk about each company? And how the ownership structure worked, if you had a business partner or not? Maybe you can give us some details on that.

Corey: Yeah, absolutely. It’s pretty easy to speak about. Both companies were sports and outdoors related products. One of them was a solo project of mine. I just spotted a market opportunity and I dived into it. The other one was a slightly larger company, and I had a partner with that one. We did that together. And that was also, like I mentioned before, sports and outdoors products. That’s what it was.

Chris Guthrie: Okay. Two different businesses here, so from the time that you started, how long did it take you? When did you sell, rather? How long was the company operational for, both of them? And then we’ll dive into each one in a little bit more detail.

Corey: Yeah, absolutely. The one I started with a partner was over two years old when we decided to sell. And the one that I started on my own, like I mentioned, I sold that one pretty much a year and a day after starting it. It was a really, really fast turnaround. And we can dive into the reasons why I made those decisions later if you want to.

Chris Guthrie: Yeah, sure. We’ll start with the partner project first because that was the one that you started first. 

Corey: Yeah, absolutely.

Chris Guthrie: Was the reason why you did a partnership just because you thought, “Okay, this is first time doing this.” So this is a common thing too. It’s just like, “Hey, let me just work with someone else, a friend of mine or someone I know. And then we’ll do this together.”

Corey: I did it with a buddy. And he’s an awesome, enlightened dude. He’s a little bit older than me. And he had some more business experience. He did some stuff in the past. So we pretty much dived into it together and got the ball rolling and went from there. 

Chris Guthrie: Okay. Maybe we can talk a little bit about your research process or just the process you used to launch products. Are you able to say how many products you had in that company or a range of how many products you had, just to give context to people?

Corey: Yeah, we had four products in that company, two of which, I would say, were doing most of the heavy moving.

Chris Guthrie: Okay. And can you share what the rough volume was of sales per month?

Corey: Let’s see here. Rough volume was between 20 and 40, I believe. And of course there’d be more peaks during holiday seasons and stuff like that. But it’s definitely important to remember, when we’re selling a business, it’s not so much how much volume you’re moving. It’s how much profit you’re making and how much you’re able to show and prove and how much of that is going into your pocket. You know what I mean? Because that’s what buyers want to see. It’s not sales revenue or how many products you have going out the door; it’s how much money you have going in your pocket that really matters. 

Chris Guthrie: Definitely. So were you getting about 40-50 percent margins or so?

Corey: Yeah, after that first year, I think we’re actually getting more than that. I don’t have the paperwork in front of me, but yeah, definitely more than that.

Chris Guthrie: That’s great, okay. And so this is the first company that you started. You started with a buddy that had more experience. And you mentioned before. You’re selling in sports and outdoors 20,000-40,000 a month and about four different products. A lot of the people might be listening are either already up and selling at Amazon, or they’re selling at other channels, or they’re not yet selling and they’re curious about how to get started. What would you suggest someone do if they’re out there and they’re trying to get started today? Would you suggest a similar category? Would you suggest a different type of category? What criteria you might give for the product bestseller ranking or any of those types of things that can help people get an idea for what a good product could be in this landscape?

Corey: Sure, definitely. It’s important to remember the world changes fast and the Internet changes even faster. So in order to be successful, you want to think like a big company. So if you’re new and getting into it, I would go towards something of a lower search volume and add more products and do things that way, something a little bit less competitive for your first company to start out with, just like I did. I don’t know if you agree with that or not, but that’s definitely where I would start.

Chris Guthrie: Yeah, I think that for the most part, when deciding what to sell, my suggestion is usually it really depends on how much money you have to invest. So if you have more money to invest and you can wait it out longer, then you can go after something more competitive. But if you don’t, then lower competitive products would make more sense.

Corey: Absolutely, just like you said, it’s really going to depend on you. The more overhead you can spend, the better. And you definitely want to get into multiple sales channels, have a killer website, things like that. We can talk more about that stuff later, but you definitely want to be able to attack this thing from all angles.

Chris Guthrie: Yeah, okay. And so for people that are curious, you did with a partner. How did you guys split up your responsibilities? Were you focused on one area and then he was on the other? Maybe you can give us just some ideas.

Corey: Yeah, for sure. He had one set of responsibilities. I had another set. I did a lot of product development. I did a lot of logistics and working with the suppliers and such. And he handled the marketing and that aspect of the business, promoting etc.

Chris Guthrie: Okay. Was this a full-time thing for both of you guys? Or did it become a full-time thing eventually? Or was it still like a side business? Because a lot of the nice part about selling on Amazon is that they do so much of the heavy lifting in terms of they’re a huge, massive established marketplace and millions upon millions of people come there with credit cards on file already with Amazon. And it’s just buyer traffic.

Corey: Yeah, they’ve got the traffic. They’re such a behemoth. I can tell you it was just a part-time thing after we got the ball rolling because we outsourced every aspect of the business. From customer service to international shipping to local shipping to warehousing, everything was pretty much on automatic. The only thing that was up to us was growth. 

Chris Guthrie: Okay. So you had people that were helping do the emails from customers. You had like a VA or someone?

Corey: Yeah, absolutely, 100 percent. There’s somebody doing email customer service.

Chris Guthrie: Nice. When you mentioned outsourcing shipping, I assume that you were using something like a freight forwarder or something where you didn’t have to deal with customs or anything like that.

Corey: Yup. We have a full service freight forwarder. They handle 100 percent all the documents, the bill of lading, the customs paperwork. Everything that has to do with shipping from one country to the United States, they handle all of that. So that’s really hands-free.

Chris Guthrie: Okay, cool. So let’s wrap up this business and continue on the other one. So this is up and you’re selling, doing well part-time, and then eventually, you guys just decide, “You know what? We made some good money. We can cash out to get more money off the plate. Then we can both use our money to go do something else and continue on.”

Corey: Yeah, absolutely. That was the game plan.

Chris Guthrie: Okay. And I believe this business, as we talked before, was one that was sold after. So we’re going a little bit in separate chronological order. How did you actually sell this business? I think the selling process is something that might be foreign to some people. People already been selling on Amazon, maybe they only have one product or something, and they’re not yet in that state where they’re thinking about, “Hey, this is something that I could sell.”

Corey: Yeah, just like starting a business was completely foreign to me two years ago, obviously, selling a business was too. I went about selling the businesses the exact same way. I went through a company called Website Closers. And they do literally everything that has to do…

Chris Guthrie: Just to interject, is it websiteclosers.com?

Corey: Yup, websiteclosers.com.

Chris Guthrie: Okay, cool, we’ll link to that in the show notes as well, but go ahead and continue.

Corey: You contact them. You have a very detailed conversation. They learn about your business. You sign a non-disclosure agreement. You give them everything they need, your P&L, your bank statements. They make sure everything matches up. And then they do the evaluation of your company to see what they can sell it for. They get your input from everything, your email list, your website, any other little thing you have that can make your business have more value to a buyer. And they have vetted buyers, and they’ll bring them to the table. They’ll put them on the phone with you, see if it’s a good match, and hopefully come to an agreement.

Chris Guthrie: So how did that process begin? You worked with a broker. How long did it take to get all the paperwork? I’ve sold businesses before. I guess it can sound like it’s easy to do. But saying you get all these things collected, but it’s actually a pretty big undertaking to get all this information together and make sure that you actually try and sell this thing, that your broker has everything possible to know about your business. Or maybe it was different from my experience.

Corey: Here’s the key, staying organized. As long as you have a solid P&L, you keep all of your receipts, and you just keep everything in a folder, and you have all your tax records in line, it’s really not that difficult because they have a lot of experience selling Amazon physical product and online businesses. So they know what they need from you. You just need to make sure you can provide it to them and obviously know your business inside out, because you answer a very, very long and detailed seller interview so they know everything about your business and so does a possible buyer.

Chris Guthrie: Yeah, okay. So what were some of the biggest mistakes that you made and maybe what you learned from them? Let’s talk about this business, and then we can talk about your other one. Any problems that came about just from running the business itself or anything like that?

Corey: Oh, let’s see here. You’re asking about what I would’ve done differently with the business. Is that it?

Chris Guthrie: Well, I mean more just any time you start a business, there are challenges that may come up that you think, “Well, I wish I had done that differently.” Or there is something else. For example, you picked a product early on that didn’t do very well. And you took a big hit because you did an inventory dump and you sold a bunch off at a loss to move on to something else. I don’t know. Anything like that.

Corey: Yeah, I’m sure I understand your question now. Definitely, what I would’ve done off the bat is be more all in. Like I said, this is my first business, so I was kind of leery of diving in. I wish I would’ve spent way more money on inventory and having different variations of color, sizes, a cooler website. And I just really wish I went harder in the beginning and spent that – more committed overhead in the beginning to get things going faster.

Chris Guthrie: That’s good advice because I think that a lot of people, especially that are first starting out for selling usually just one product. And they’re usually doing small inventory orders initially. They might run out of stock between inventory orders in that time that you’re out of stock. Potentially, you lose keyword rankings. And maybe at best, you can regain those pretty quickly and start getting yourselves going. But every time you don’t have those products in stock, you’re not selling. So did that happen at all with that business, having products run out of stock?

Corey: Yeah, absolutely did because if you do the math in your head, it can take 30 days for production and then 30 days for international shipping. And then it can take another 10 or 15 days to get things on Amazon if they’re busy at FBA warehouse. So you need to calculate all of that to understand you need to order way, way, way ahead of time to make sure you don’t have those problems.

Chris Guthrie: Were you using any tool to help with that management of inventory type options or not?

Corey: I was pretty much just using inside Seller Central. You can do the basic calculations by going in there.

Chris Guthrie: Yeah, checking the overall sales for the last period of time and all that.

Corey: Yup.

Chris Guthrie: Awesome, okay, cool. Let’s talk about the other business. I guess I’m putting words in your mouth, but I assume that you started the other one because this business was a part-time thing for you and you figured, “Hey, I can start another one, and I’ve already learned a lot about it in the first place, so I might as well do another.”

Corey: Yeah, absolutely. After seeing the success of the first one, I was like, “Wow!” I spotted another product opportunity. And I was like, “This would be a really, really great thing to dive into.” So I did my research, and I got production started. And it turned out to be a great decision too because it was available, it was ready, and I just dived in. And since the first company was working, I felt more comfortable. You know what I mean? I gained more experience. I knew about proper packaging, about proper design, about proper marketing – what a real big-boy company actually looks like now. I pretty much rinsed and repeated the process and did it times two.

Chris Guthrie: Okay. So you were able to ramp up more quickly.

Corey: Oh yeah, because of those growing pains and learning mistakes from the first company, I obviously didn’t make those with the second one.

Chris Guthrie: So maybe you can dive in a little more in terms of this company too. You started selling in mid 2014 because it was a year and a day. You said that from the day you started that you’ll sell then?

Corey: Like I said, it was like just over a year, so yeah, I guess that’ll be about right. 

Chris Guthrie: Okay. How much did you sell that company for? I know collectively there are $365,000 total.

Corey: That particular company went for $140,000.

Chris Guthrie: Okay, that’s great. So basically, a year and a day from the time you started with the company, you created it, you presumably made money while you ran it, and then you sold it for a nice chunk of cash. And of course, you take that cash and you can use it in another business, whatever else you want to do.

Corey: Absolutely. I know we talked a little bit because you’re like, “Dude, you need to hold onto that thing a little bit longer.” I was just like, “Man, I see where you’re coming from, but you know I’ve got other things on my mind.” Anyhow, because we made plenty of money running it that first year plus the sales, so between the sale price plus the money of running the business, that was really what most people consider a real good chunk of change for a very small shortly-operated business.

Chris Guthrie: Every time I talk to you, it seems like you’re in just some other random country.

Corey: Oh no. Yeah, I mean I do travel, but let’s be real here. Our listeners need to understand that this is not something you can lollygag about. When you run a business, it doesn’t matter if it’s ecommerce or if it’s brick and mortar shop. It’s something you need to completely dedicate yourself to. Don’t ever have the part-time mindset. You have to completely dedicate yourself and think like a big company if you want to survive in this world and have this level of success.

Chris Guthrie: I like that. I guess I pointed that out because you made it work in terms of being able to work from wherever you’re at, even if you’re still putting in the same hours there. At least in a different environment, you can meet new people...

Corey: Absolutely. To be real here, the places I generally stay and hang out in, there are a lot of super, super successful people in these areas. If you’re on digital nomad forums, you’d see there are a lot of very successful Internet marketing people and physical products company people in Southeast Asia and these different hub spots across the world. I made a lot of great connections and great friends by being here. I’ve learned so much just by the relationships I’ve made.

Chris Guthrie: Let’s take a quick detour on that point. I met someone else that still lives in Thailand. He was talking about how tons of people are selling on Amazon. And you meet all these people. So how do you know when you go to these countries how to find these people? If someone has already got their business up and going and they’re living in the States or some other country and they’re looking at taking a break and working from somewhere else remotely for a few months or so and traveling a bit, how do you find these people so you can make these types of connections? 

Corey: Yeah, absolutely. In the United States for the kind of stuff we’re talking about, we all know that the Silicon Valley, California and Austin, Texas are the main locations for what we’re talking about. But if you go on the Internet and you just type in ‘great locations for digital nomads’—I’m pretty sure that’s the word we’re looking for—you’re just going to have so much data come up just on a Google search. And you’re going to see wonderful, colorful places with successful people, like Philippines, Chiang Mai, Thailand, Bali. All these places in Southeast Asia are really popular for people who do what we do.

Chris Guthrie: Yeah, Chiang Mai is actually the place that my buddy was based in.

Corey: Yeah, I figured it was, I just didn’t want to say it off the bat.

Chris Guthrie: Yeah. He said there are a lot of people over there. Cool, okay. So let’s get back to that company. You mentioned that I gave you a bit of a hard time. For people listening, I’ve known Corey for about a year, about the same time that he started his company. It was around the time that I started mine. And so we talked a lot and shared ideas. We stayed in touch. I give you a hard time because I previously sold a company. I used investment bankers to sell it. It was a smaller sale, less than seven figures. What made you decide, okay, I’m going to sell? And this is the time I sell. I don’t want to try and take it any further.

Corey: Yeah, okay. I really took a step back because when I sold both these companies, they weren’t that far apart. One was in February and one was in May. They were not far apart. I took a step back, I looked at my life, and I’m like, “What do I want? Do I want to hang on to this particular company and draw down and try to make it worth more? Or is there something else I want to work for?” And to be real, I have another Amazon company now like we talked about. And I really, really went all out with that company. And it’s got certain aspects that are patented. There are a lot of non-disclosure agreements and contracts and stuff I had to handle. And I actually had to hire a lawyer to handle a lot of that other stuff too. So I reinvested some of the winnings from those sales into the new company. And that’s absolutely the company that I want to sell for the seven figures we talked about.

Chris Guthrie: Okay, cool. So there’s ultimately a…

Corey: There are only so many projects I can handle. There’s only so much my brain can handle at one time.

Chris Guthrie: Yeah, and I think that’s a good point. If you started in a niche—you mentioned before sports and outdoors was that niche—and maybe it was the thought of okay, this is doing well. I’m making good money. The company is growing. And if I can free up my mind for this project, take those resources, and redistribute them into something bigger, then I can more quickly get to my goal of much larger company in this other space. And since you’ve done it successfully twice now, then three times is a charm, and you can go for that bigger company that you’d like to build.

Corey: Yeah. And there’s something else too. I think it’s really important for all the listeners to understand that you need to be an eternal student. You need to always be learning. And you know I’ve learned so much just between selling these companies and now because I got a really good relationship with the buyers and I kept in touch. I still keep in touch with them well beyond the training period after they ended. And we share ideas. We talk about what we’re doing. And just by watching and being with them, I’m like, “Oh man.” I’m seeing what they’re doing with these companies and I’m like, “Why didn’t I think about that?” They have all these cool third parties and connections. I’m just like, “Wow!” They’re hitting this from so many different angles. And just because I’m a part of the project still, it’s like I can implement these ideas on, like I said, my final company I have here. 

Chris Guthrie: I think you touched on a couple of key points there. I think one was you talked about the transition period. That’s another good point: when you sell a business, it’s not just you get the money in your bank account and then you’re done. It’s rare that there isn’t some type of a commitment that you have to the new business owner to help them keep going. Can you talk about that process?

Corey: Yeah, there are so many different ways that you can write up contracts. I know some people prefer to keep some sort of part ownership with the company or stay on with a year or end up being a worker for the company for a certain amount of time. Generally, with a business, by the way, whatever you can show on paper for your year, you’ll get two to three times your multiples. So whatever you are making in profit for a year, you can times that by two to three, and that’s what your total payout should be. And that’s actually what I got. I’m really happy about that. I did take a slight dive for the following reason: I really wanted to wash my hands and clean my responsibilities so I had the most free time and dedication I could put towards my main project. You know what I mean? So the way we had the contract written up is as such. It was 90 percent of the cash upfront in my bank account on sell day. And then the remaining 10 percent would go into my bank account after a 30-day training period. And in my mind, that was the way to go. I think some of our listeners might agree too.

Chris Guthrie: Yeah. Were you getting offers with different types of deals based on that? You mentioned before 90 percent of the cash upfront and then 10 percent after 30 days. Were you getting other offers from other buyers that were offering you more money but with more strings attached to that money?

Corey: Yes, absolutely. There were other people trying to write out some really long-term deals, trying to keep me on until the company reached certain growth period and a certain amount of revenue for particular products or variants. And I was just like, “That’s not what I’m looking for. I’m looking for a big-time payout with a slight dive to make all my money upfront so I can really wash my hands and put all of my focus and energy on one thing.”

Chris Guthrie: Okay, that’s great. You’ve built and sold two companies, one with a partner, one solo. I guess they’re part-time in the sense that you weren’t working full-time on both of them because you couldn’t have full time on both. But with this new company here, what do you think that you’re doing differently since you’re starting at around this time recording this?

Corey: Yeah, cool. Let’s talk about some differences. My other project – Last time we talked, we didn’t talked too much about this. It’s a much higher search volume. It’s a much more competitive niche. And I know I’m ready for it after all the learning I’ve done. I’m completely 100 percent ready for it. Like I told you, I did all the checks in the box. I put all my details, spent the overhead, certain aspects of patented like we talked about to build the moats around what competitors can do to me and what they cannot. So this is going to be the all-out big one for me, I think.

Chris Guthrie: That’s part of what you’ve been doing for this business. I know that the other businesses, you’re predominantly selling on Amazon. Is this one you’re also going to launch primarily on Amazon? Are you going to also create a website for that brand? And are you going to use that to sell your products there as well?

Corey: Let’s talk about this because I think anybody can benefit from this, no matter if you’re selling low volume if you’re new or if you’ve been in the game for a while. I think you should attack this from all angles right off the bat, given you can pay for it. Have two or three products off the bat. If you can’t one is okay. But have a really killer website. Have cool packaging, cool inserts to drive traffic and reviews to your product and website. But also, don’t just be selling on Amazon. Don’t put all your eggs in the Amazon basket. You want to be selling on your ecommerce store, which is on your website. It could be Shopify or WooCommerce, whatever you’re into. I think most people are using Shopify now. And then you can also move over to eBay. And there’s something new called Jet.com. FBA — or another warehouse — can fulfill all of those channels. So you can actually have multiple channels that your product is being fulfilled to from one warehouse.

Chris Guthrie: It’s great. Is there any some type of a connection between Shopify and FBA that basically then allows you to do that?

Corey: Yeah, there are a couple of companies out there. I think the most popular one is called Stitch Labs. They allow you to connect everything to FBA or whatever warehouse you’re using. So pretty much wherever you get a sale from, it’s going to come from that warehouse to get shipped out to that customer.

Chris Guthrie: Awesome, that’s great. I’ll include that in the show notes for people to check out. I guess the next question that I have is beyond going after much more competitive space, you mentioned some patents elements to this new product, the new brand that you’re building so that it’ll be easier for you to defend your place on Amazon against competitors. Is there anything that you’re doing differently in terms of your website then beyond trying to drag traffic? Are you using any type of paid traffic or anything else that you’re doing to drive sales to that channel?

Corey: Yeah. Let’s talk about this for people who are just getting started with Amazon or Salesbacker. Obviously, you’re going to have an LLC for your company. Make sure you trademark your name at the absolute minimum. Make sure you trademark your name. Obviously, if you’re getting to provisional patents or design patents, that’s going to be a little bit more on the pricy side. But you can at least set something up for a year or maybe two to give you some temporary protection while you’re just getting started and while you’re just getting your revenue to come in.

Chris Guthrie: Can you talk a little bit more about that for people that don’t know in terms of getting a provisional patent in place? So you’re getting something in place that will last for x period of time before you can actually file a full patent. Maybe you can describe that process.

Corey: I don’t feel super comfortable talking about all this because I’m really new to the whole patent thing. So I don’t consider myself a master of this or anything yet. But there are different types of patents. They can be very pricey, depending on what they are. And they have to go through a lot of reviews to get approved. But at the bare minimum, there’s something you can do with what’s called provisional patent. And that is you can write up a patent and get it in the system for I think $300 or more, you can get going for that. And what that will do is at least give you a placeholder. That’ll at least give you a placeholder while you’re starting your business, and that can last for one to two years depending on what you want to pay for it.

Chris Guthrie: Awesome. Now there are some rapid-fire questions. A lot of stuff to talk about your selling companies, with a partner you selling your own company. You’re starting a new company. You’re going after more competitive areas with your new company. So it’s a lot of stuff that we got through.

Corey: Yeah, I feel like the last question, there was some other stuff we were going to talk about. I felt like I forgot to say something. Oh yeah, driving traffic.

Chris Guthrie: Yeah.

Corey: Yeah. One last thing here on driving traffic, I make sure I have really cool packaging and inserts with my product because one channel of sales does not define your product. Don’t ever call your business an eBay business. Don’t ever call your business an Amazon business. You want to call your business a physical products business. So your private label is your business. It’s not one channel. So you definitely want to think big and drive people to your website. So on your packaging and on your inserts, you want to have your own website and your own trademarks and brand that are recognizable that will drive people to you, not a third party.

Chris Guthrie: Awesome, I like that. That’s a good closing spot for another way to think beyond maybe what other initial sellers are starting out. Maybe they’re just selling on Amazon, which is fine. I think that Amazon is a great channel.

Corey: Well, that’s where you start, 100 percent. At least for now, in this time period in the world, that is where you launch. In my opinion, that’s where you launch.

Chris Guthrie: Nice. We’ve covered a lot. Are there any other things that maybe I didn’t ask you or just advice that you might give for people that are just starting out that you could suggest for others?

Corey: Let’s see.

Chris Guthrie: We’ve covered a lot.

Corey: We did. Maybe this isn’t for everybody, but for me, it’s the whole mental aspect of the whole thing because it requires so much thinking and you make mistakes and you can lose a lot of money when you make mistakes. In the past, I’ve lost thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars over stupid mistakes. If I just would’ve contacted a professional or enquired about it – I guess in conclusion, I would tell people to mentally stay strong and don’t give up. You’re going to make mistakes. I made more mistakes than the average person. I would not like to think, but unfortunately, I have. And just learn from them because if I look back, I’m like, “Man, could I have made my companies bigger or better and sold them for more money, could I have done that? Yeah.” Looking back, I absolutely could have, but I just didn’t know how to do that at the time. I do now. But don’t spend your time looking back. You want to look forward. Always be moving up, you know what I mean? So definitely keep a positive light and just always be moving in the right direction. And just be happy and thankful for what you’ve got.

Chris Guthrie: Awesome, Corey. Thank you so much for coming on to share your experiences on building and selling both these companies. And of course, wish you the best on your new company. And I think you’ll get up to that next level that you’ve been seeking. And thank you so much again for sharing. We’ll have the links to some of the companies you talked about in the show notes. Thank you again so much for coming on and sharing your expertise.

Corey: Yeah, cool. Thanks for having me. If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know.

Chris Guthrie: Thanks, Corey.

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Outro: All right, that’s it for our show. If you want to go to Sellercast.com/3, you can check out the show notes for this episode. And the other thing you do is if you want to get more reviews on Amazon, you can go to Sellercast.com/now, and that’ll get you a signup link for 60 days of free access of Salesbacker, one of the tools that we built to help you get more product reviews for selling on Amazon. So check that out. And additionally, you can also get six months free access as well by entering our contest by going to Sellercast.com/contest.

Let us know what you think of this episode. And additionally, if you think that you’d be a good guest or you know someone that would be, let me know. I want to make sure that this show is great for you and helps you grow your business. Thank you so much for listening. Have a great rest of your day.