So check this out.

I have been going back and forth with a manufacturer on Alibaba for the last few weeks designing a product. I had them make me a custom sample and send it to me, it wasn't exactly to my liking but about 90% there.

This isn't like a blender with a different exterior appearance or something, this is a really unique item that stands on its own and would have less then a half dozen competing products on the market, all of which command a premium, even though they're made overseas and quality could be better.

I have been going over the last few details with them before getting ready to place a first order, and I look and see that they have already listed my sample as a product on their alibaba page. This made me pissed.

I'm not sure what to do, cut contact with these people and find another manufacturer abroad or here in the USA (I'm reaching out to one right now), or tell them to take it down and try to move forward (I'm sure I'm on no grounds to tell them to remove it).

Ebay business is really taking off. We just doubled our biggest monthly revenue last month. It took a year and a half but I can consistently pull in $300-500+ per hour. I took a look at what activities maximized my hourly rate and focused on that.

Its going well and I could probably do this for the rest of my life, but I want to move on to a more traditional startup, and put in 10 hours a month on the ebay business to pay the bills. The thing I have in mind is going to be big.

(03-31-2016 07:41 PM)n0000 Wrote:  Ebay business is really taking off. We just doubled our biggest monthly revenue last month. It took a year and a half but I can consistently pull in $300-500+ per hour. I took a look at what activities maximized my hourly rate and focused on that.

Its going well and I could probably do this for the rest of my life, but I want to move on to a more traditional startup, and put in 10 hours a month on the ebay business to pay the bills. The thing I have in mind is going to be big.

That's extremely impressive. What kind of products are these? What segment?

Any pointers for us little fish?

Here's a tip - Don't process your payments with PayPal. Get a merchant account or use services like Stripe. Very important. PayPal will not let you run a business, despite upgrading to a business account or even using one of their merchant solutions.

I started a business 5 years ago with $10,000. Last year we passed 4mil in sales. Have 12 employees.

It's hard.

My personal boon and bane has been I always want to do everything myself (excluding routine operations, but including marketing, sales, creative, R&D, etc). On the one hand this is good because it's extremely hard to find dependable people (and very expensive). On the other hand this has limited our growth.

I think my introversion has been both a boon and bane too. It allows me to get technical and look for ways to implement operational improvements via a lot of self-reflection and introspection. However, dealing with employees is hard when I want to be left alone (which is most of the time) but need to interact with them instead (which is also most of the time, lol). And many times against my better judgement I have opted not to do networking stuff in favor of working on things at the office because I hate networking even though I know it is beneficial.

Everyone always wants to give advice on what you should do or shouldn't do, but the fact is 99% of the people giving you advice have never been successful at what they're giving you advice about, lol.

My two biggest obstacles are time-management and finding talent. Time management because all these little things add up to so much time and it's easy to not have time for working ON the company rather than IN the company (The E-myth Revisited is a good book on this). Finding employees is a major pain, sort of like looking for that unicorn. I want people to be generalists and do all these things that I do, but it's the opposite, everyone focuses on just a minor element and wants to depend on someone else to do what they don't know how, but if you don't provide them with that other person they have no idea what to do. For example, marketing: I'll design the t-shirts, find the printer, coordinate the shipping, find models, do the photography, then do the social media. Good luck finding anyone who can do more than one of those things. And then it seems to me that talent often over-values their worth by a good margin.

One thing I've learned that is apropos to the other elements found on this forum is this: on RVF women get a lot of slack for being hamster-driven, for being entitled, for being mindless, for having self-important & inflated egos & more. From all the human resources work I've done over the last 6 years, just as many men or like that too & just being a lousy person with the aforementioned negative qualities is not gender-specific by any means & in fact pretty normally distributed among both genders.

But to counter that negativity I must say when you do find a good employee it's a brilliant thing to have them by your side to carry out your vision in an effective manner.

(03-31-2016 08:56 PM)Il Bersagliere Wrote:  Here's a tip - Don't process your payments with PayPal. Get a merchant account or use services like Stripe. Very important. PayPal will not let you run a business, despite upgrading to a business account or even using one of their merchant solutions.

PayPal is fine. Actually much better than merchant account services and amex merchant services. I can send an email directly to my guy at paypal and he takes care of any issue within a day. With my merchant account and amex merchant account I have to call in and provide five million pieces of security information and get transferred 3 times - each time repeating the same exact security information I provided the previous agent - and then still not given a solution. PayPal's fees are about the same as everyone else's too.

Haven't used square too much personally but met them at a number of tradeshows and they all seem friendly and knowledgeable and I'd consider checking square out if I were to start all over again. Or you get a customer who's ccs aren't working for whatever reason but his/her paypal is, and vice-versa again.

In the end you want to be using everyone. Some people are afraid to use cc's online but are comfortable with using paypal, or vice-versa. You don't want lose a customer because of that.

(03-31-2016 10:26 PM)monster Wrote:  I want people to be generalists and do all these things that I do, but it's the opposite, everyone focuses on just a minor element and wants to depend on someone else to do what they don't know how, but if you don't provide them with that other person they have no idea what to do. For example, marketing: I'll design the t-shirts, find the printer, coordinate the shipping, find models, do the photography, then do the social media. Good luck finding anyone who can do more than one of those things. And then it seems to me that talent often over-values their worth by a good margin.

Monster, congrats on the growth. Not sure if you're in the US, but I think a lot of people here have just been cultivated to think with the specialist/dependency on others attitude. I hear bozos all the time say that they need to be earning more if they are expected to do more or something outside of their hyper-specific scope, but the fact is, if a job creator did not build that infrastructure for them to work in and make money from, they would have no way to convert their specificity into money. They do not truly know how to make money outside of a pre-built platform. Very entitled attitude. If they can in fact get shit done outside of their scope, they may be too risk-averse/unconfident/whatever-negative-trait-victim-attitude-here to pull the goddamn trigger and do it.

My mindset has morphed since working in small business and starting off with an "hourly" attitude regarding pay versus a results attitude that does not need to take into account actual hours as long as there is production. After observing a few entrepreneurs and their dedication and the ultimate responsibility for them to get shit done when employees or contractors fail them, a great respect has evolved for them and simultaneously a glaring disgust for victim-mentality loser employees who are not proactive and resourceful.

Once you have witnessed the different attitudes and realize that you can be the puppeteer and pull the strings, I think it's hard to go back, which is why lots of people who can be a generalist are and they are not working in a specialist role unless it is to gain experience as part of a plan and then use as a springboard for their own entrepreneurship. You don't even need to pull the strings perfectly, you just need to have the balls to step up and pull the goddamn strings and take responsibility when the contractors attached to the ends of them don't always come through. Very similar to game and approaching: you don't need to perfect approach, you just need to fucking approach.

(03-31-2016 10:32 PM)monster Wrote:  

(03-31-2016 08:56 PM)Il Bersagliere Wrote:  Here's a tip - Don't process your payments with PayPal. Get a merchant account or use services like Stripe. Very important. PayPal will not let you run a business, despite upgrading to a business account or even using one of their merchant solutions.

PayPal is fine. Actually much better than merchant account services and amex merchant services. I can send an email directly to my guy at paypal and he takes care of any issue within a day. With my merchant account and amex merchant account I have to call in and provide five million pieces of security information and get transferred 3 times and then still not given a solution. PayPal's fees are about the same as everyone else's too.

Haven't used square too much personally but met them at a number of tradeshows and they all seem friendly and knowledgeable and I'd consider checking square out if I were to start all over again.

Ok. You've got 'a guy' or 'a plug' at PayPal, which leads me to believe that you have some clout or never travel. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of business do you do and what is your monthly volume? PayPal has an implicit policy where they limit or lock your account if you are under a personal account and using it for business and processing lots of payments. If you are under a business account or even a merchant account, you get the same problem but less pronounced. Simply put, PayPal isn't just a good platform for ecommerce, which is why I tell all my friends who want to dropship or have a high expected volume/income to avoid it altogether. In the past, PayPal would give you some leeway and allow you to respond, but now they are moving towards automatic limitation and permanent lock for infractions. I've had friends who have been blindsided by this, with 5-10k stuck in their account for 6 months.

I've used PayPal for nearly 8 years and they have evolved quite a bit. Many things in their company have now become 'proprietary information' and 'off-limits' because consumers are wising up. PayPal is very fond of unscrupulous behavior, which includes limiting your account for vague reasons, an ethnic sounding name, selling materials that are against TOS, etc. I've managed to learn how to bypass and manage these things effectively, but the juice is not worth the squeeze, especially when you just wanna focus on running a side-hustle instead of playing head games on the phone.

I have never used amex or square, but Google Wallet is good, albeit not automated and so is Stripe and Authorize.Net.

For two pages this thread is getting full of great info!

I totally agree that you should generally do more and read study less
however a smarter way is to read, take action on what you read
and then read some more...take more action etc.

That way you stay connected to new ideas/new strategies
and get things done at the same time.

(03-31-2016 07:35 PM)aeroektar Wrote:  So check this out.

I have been going back and forth with a manufacturer on Alibaba for the last few weeks designing a product. I had them make me a custom sample and send it to me, it wasn't exactly to my liking but about 90% there.

This isn't like a blender with a different exterior appearance or something, this is a really unique item that stands on its own and would have less then a half dozen competing products on the market, all of which command a premium, even though they're made overseas and quality could be better.

I have been going over the last few details with them before getting ready to place a first order, and I look and see that they have already listed my sample as a product on their alibaba page. This made me pissed.

I'm not sure what to do, cut contact with these people and find another manufacturer abroad or here in the USA (I'm reaching out to one right now), or tell them to take it down and try to move forward (I'm sure I'm on no grounds to tell them to remove it).

Do you have any intellectual property IP claims? (Patent. patent pending, copyright, trademark etc)

Additionally you should be executing non-disclosure agreements (NDA) with any potential vendors.

(04-01-2016 09:55 AM)PapayaTapper Wrote:  

(03-31-2016 07:35 PM)aeroektar Wrote:  So check this out.

I have been going back and forth with a manufacturer on Alibaba for the last few weeks designing a product. I had them make me a custom sample and send it to me, it wasn't exactly to my liking but about 90% there.

This isn't like a blender with a different exterior appearance or something, this is a really unique item that stands on its own and would have less then a half dozen competing products on the market, all of which command a premium, even though they're made overseas and quality could be better.

I have been going over the last few details with them before getting ready to place a first order, and I look and see that they have already listed my sample as a product on their alibaba page. This made me pissed.

I'm not sure what to do, cut contact with these people and find another manufacturer abroad or here in the USA (I'm reaching out to one right now), or tell them to take it down and try to move forward (I'm sure I'm on no grounds to tell them to remove it).

Do you have any intellectual property IP claims? (Patent. patent pending, copyright, trademark etc)

Additionally you should be executing non-disclosure agreements (NDA) with any potential vendors.

Like something like that would work with China...
I believe he's fucked. Trying to negotiate from a position of power is his only way out.

(03-31-2016 07:35 PM)aeroektar Wrote:  So check this out.

I have been going back and forth with a manufacturer on Alibaba for the last few weeks designing a product. I had them make me a custom sample and send it to me, it wasn't exactly to my liking but about 90% there.

This isn't like a blender with a different exterior appearance or something, this is a really unique item that stands on its own and would have less then a half dozen competing products on the market, all of which command a premium, even though they're made overseas and quality could be better.

I have been going over the last few details with them before getting ready to place a first order, and I look and see that they have already listed my sample as a product on their alibaba page. This made me pissed.

I'm not sure what to do, cut contact with these people and find another manufacturer abroad or here in the USA (I'm reaching out to one right now), or tell them to take it down and try to move forward (I'm sure I'm on no grounds to tell them to remove it).

Very irritating.

Read this, you might find a couple of useful points in there:

5 ways to avoid being copied in China


Another article, with good point about keeping your supply chain as disjointed as possible:

How to Protect against Copies when you Manufacture in China

Quit my job a few months back and have been full time with my own shop since. Nice to see so many hustlers here. I'll post some thoughts shortly.

(03-31-2016 08:56 PM)Il Bersagliere Wrote:  Here's a tip - Don't process your payments with PayPal. Get a merchant account or use services like Stripe. Very important. PayPal will not let you run a business, despite upgrading to a business account or even using one of their merchant solutions.

(Edited - Question already answered.)

I'm wondering if the people who have problems with Paypal are using is and like a standard bank account or if they use it (as I so) as merely a conduit?

This is a great podcast:
http://www.startupstoriespodcast.com/pod...lete-saga/
It goes from first concept to success and talks about all the pitfalls (including problem/solution fit, and product/market fit) encountered along the way.

Highly recommended.

In some other topic I have mentioned that I have started selling on Ebay...here is my report.

So far, I am relatively happy - I made a profit of several hundred dollars. For a relative beginner, such as myself, I do not thing it's bad.

The main problem is supply - the supply of the products I am selling (high end clothing) is relatively low in my area, and that inhibits my growth. I have to say that I am a little jealous at you Americans - you have Saviour's and Salvation Armies at every street,, so supply is generally not a problem for you. Us non - Americans are not that lucky, lol.

Once I get some more money, I may branch into PC hardware ( I am thinking laptop motherboards, for example.)

I have tried on Bonanza as well, but I have received barely any traffic.

(04-01-2016 10:51 AM)Wreckingball Wrote:  

(04-01-2016 09:55 AM)PapayaTapper Wrote:  

(03-31-2016 07:35 PM)aeroektar Wrote:  So check this out.

I have been going back and forth with a manufacturer on Alibaba for the last few weeks designing a product. I had them make me a custom sample and send it to me, it wasn't exactly to my liking but about 90% there.

This isn't like a blender with a different exterior appearance or something, this is a really unique item that stands on its own and would have less then a half dozen competing products on the market, all of which command a premium, even though they're made overseas and quality could be better.

I have been going over the last few details with them before getting ready to place a first order, and I look and see that they have already listed my sample as a product on their alibaba page. This made me pissed.

I'm not sure what to do, cut contact with these people and find another manufacturer abroad or here in the USA (I'm reaching out to one right now), or tell them to take it down and try to move forward (I'm sure I'm on no grounds to tell them to remove it).

Do you have any intellectual property IP claims? (Patent. patent pending, copyright, trademark etc)

Additionally you should be executing non-disclosure agreements (NDA) with any potential vendors.

Like something like that would work with China...
I believe he's fucked. Trying to negotiate from a position of power is his only way out.

Likely true...but he should be aware and consider the concepts

(04-01-2016 01:43 PM)Irenicus Wrote:  In some other topic I have mentioned that I have started selling on Ebay...here is my report.

So far, I am relatively happy - I made a profit of several hundred dollars. For a relative beginner, such as myself, I do not thing it's bad.

The main problem is supply - the supply of the products I am selling (high end clothing) is relatively low in my area, and that inhibits my growth. I have to say that I am a little jealous at you Americans - you have Saviour's and Salvation Armies at every street,, so supply is generally not a problem for you. Us non - Americans are not that lucky, lol.

Once I get some more money, I may branch into PC hardware ( I am thinking laptop motherboards, for example.)

I have tried on Bonanza as well, but I have received barely any traffic.

Have you considered partnering with someone that sells what you sell in US? You get a supply source and they get broader distribution

(04-01-2016 02:08 PM)PapayaTapper Wrote:  

(04-01-2016 01:43 PM)Irenicus Wrote:  In some other topic I have mentioned that I have started selling on Ebay...here is my report.

So far, I am relatively happy - I made a profit of several hundred dollars. For a relative beginner, such as myself, I do not thing it's bad.

The main problem is supply - the supply of the products I am selling (high end clothing) is relatively low in my area, and that inhibits my growth. I have to say that I am a little jealous at you Americans - you have Saviour's and Salvation Armies at every street,, so supply is generally not a problem for you. Us non - Americans are not that lucky, lol.

Once I get some more money, I may branch into PC hardware ( I am thinking laptop motherboards, for example.)

I have tried on Bonanza as well, but I have received barely any traffic.

Have you considered partnering with someone that sells what you sell in US? You get a supply source and they get broader distribution

I am considering doing that in the future, if I meet someone whom I can trust, and who knows what is doing.

Also, I am still quite "green" - score of 4 with 100% reputation, so, before I can even consider partnership, I need to build a better reputation. And have a bigger budget.

(04-01-2016 09:55 AM)PapayaTapper Wrote:  

(03-31-2016 07:35 PM)aeroektar Wrote:  So check this out.

I have been going back and forth with a manufacturer on Alibaba for the last few weeks designing a product. I had them make me a custom sample and send it to me, it wasn't exactly to my liking but about 90% there.

This isn't like a blender with a different exterior appearance or something, this is a really unique item that stands on its own and would have less then a half dozen competing products on the market, all of which command a premium, even though they're made overseas and quality could be better.

I have been going over the last few details with them before getting ready to place a first order, and I look and see that they have already listed my sample as a product on their alibaba page. This made me pissed.

I'm not sure what to do, cut contact with these people and find another manufacturer abroad or here in the USA (I'm reaching out to one right now), or tell them to take it down and try to move forward (I'm sure I'm on no grounds to tell them to remove it).

Do you have any intellectual property IP claims? (Patent. patent pending, copyright, trademark etc)

Additionally you should be executing non-disclosure agreements (NDA) with any potential vendors.

I have no protection, this is my first go around with having a custom product manufactured, so live and learn I guess.

I dont think I have to scrap the design at this point, there were critical modifications I wanted in the sample that they didnt include because they wanted to rush it out to me, I had them send it anyways, they threw it up there on Alibaba without the changes which I was going over with them to finalize everything. As it currently stands with what they have stolen from me the product would fall under poorly designed/unergonomic in a market where those things make the product successful.

I am going to talk with a manufacturer in the US next week, hopefully the cost isn't so high that I have to back away from the project for the time being, I would much rather work with a company in the US anyways as I could be much more closely involved. Plan B is to actually go boots on the ground in Asia in a few months, which has the benefit of being a bang side mission.

(04-01-2016 05:31 PM)aeroektar Wrote:  ...

I am going to talk with a manufacturer in the US next week, hopefully the cost isn't so high that I have to back away from the project for the time being, I would much rather work with a company in the US anyways as I could be much more closely involved. Plan B is to actually go boots on the ground in Asia in a few months, which has the benefit of being a bang side mission.

In my experience, if you have minimal assembly required the US product manufacturing prices are competitive with Asian ones. I think you will be able to find a good deal.

Great thread. Some current/former colleagues and I are starting a business in our spare time. Nothing to contribute as I'm new, but looking forward to learning from the guys who've been at it for awhile.

I hope Nemencine shows up in this thread. El Mech too. He could probably start up an auto/mechanic-related hustle incubator with all his knowledge and help get some to self-employed status and make some money off it as well via an up front or back end fee or piece of equity. We do have a lot of good hustler spirits here.

Would be great to do a semi-annual meet up too. Socializing is one aspect of life that I know gets put on the back burner for me during busy times and I suspect it happens to lots of others as well.

(03-31-2016 08:50 PM)Nineteen84 Wrote:  

(03-31-2016 07:41 PM)n0000 Wrote:  Ebay business is really taking off. We just doubled our biggest monthly revenue last month. It took a year and a half but I can consistently pull in $300-500+ per hour. I took a look at what activities maximized my hourly rate and focused on that.

Its going well and I could probably do this for the rest of my life, but I want to move on to a more traditional startup, and put in 10 hours a month on the ebay business to pay the bills. The thing I have in mind is going to be big.

That's extremely impressive. What kind of products are these? What segment?

Any pointers for us little fish?

I would go on craigslist and look for price differentials between that and ebay or amazon. It really depends on your area though. You should try selling items in all different categories to get a feel for it. How I approached it was I looked at what I was selling that would make me the highest hourly rate and try to do more of that.

I really think the way forward for entrepreneurship is getting back to basics and not coming up with new gadgets. There are boatloads of people inventing new gadgets, apps, etc, but these really don't make peoples lives better. They make peoples lives worse. What people really need to be happy is to be surrounded by good friends and family, spend alot of time with these people, cook good food, and be healthy. Unfortunately the culture is not geared towards happiness, it is geared towards buying expensive stuff you dont need. Make a couple hundred thousand so you can buy that huge house? Congrats now you never see your neighbors and you spend 75% of your free time watching TV. The suburbs could be fun with 3x as many people, unfortunately the population density has dropped so precipitously(about 250 sq ft/person in 1950 to over 1000 sq ft/person today).