It’s been about a year since I wrote my first blog post and two years since I was inspired by Gary Vaynerchuck to start selling used books online and document my journey in business.

The previous year, 2017, was pure hustle for me. I started selling used books in February that year and hustled full-time around the clock with my brother.

I began 2018 in the same spirit but pivoted into sourcing products the wholesale way later, which meant I spent less time on sourcing books. But the move was good one. Our wholesale business is doing well and we are in the process of starting our own brands.

What I learned

Focusing on a few things and doing them well is better than doing ten things at the same time.

Soon after I started selling used books, I learned that I could source new products to sell on Amazon. I learned about RA (Retail Arbitrage), OA (Online Arbitrage), wholesale and private labelling. I also learned about POD (Print On Demand) and blogging.

I wanted to do them all. And while I was doing books, I also did RA, OA, POD, and started to blog. But I soon realised that each required time and energy. Selling books was our main hustle, so went sourcing everyday. And I tried to do everything else in the evenings.

I didn’t see much progress except in our books business. In hindsight, this was because we put in a lot time and energy into books. And doing that consistently meant we saw results quicker too.

We also started seeing results quickly when we started products the wholesale way. Because we spent the majority of our time focusing on a few things: sourcing products and buy them in wholesale.

Higher ROI activities such brand building and affiliate marketing require time and energy upfront with no guarantee of success

Most recently, I tried OA. And I have to say, I didn’t like it. Why? Because it requires a lot of time, effort, and money. But that was part of the issue. The other reason why I didn’t like it is because the margin is really thin.

I know some people who are making good money through OA, but it’s not for me. I didn’t enjoy sitting in front of a computer trawling retail websites for deals. I also don’t like the idea of competing on price, especially when the margins are already thin.

This experience confirmed my belief that private labelling is the best way to build a sustainable, long-term business.

Personal highlights

The most exciting highlight of my year was successfully launching a private label product after failing.

I first started experimenting with private label about half a year ago. But I failed miserably. I would say I lost about £1000 from that product. In hindsight, it’s not a lot. But if it was more, it could have been devastating.

But I didn’t give up. I learned from my experience, found another product to private label and launched. It didn’t blow up. But it’s doing reasonably well — it’s selling about three to five a day at £5 net profit.

I find the potential of private labelling super exciting. Imagine having a brand with a portfolio of 30 products. If they all sell 3.5 units a day at £5, that’s a net profit of £525/day or £16,750/month.

And the best part? You have to do the bulk of the work upfront and it will then work for you. You just have to manage the brand and its product line in the future.

Goals for 2019

I’ve never set goals properly in my life, so I’m nervous but also excited. I’ve broken down my goals for 2019 into two categories: personal and business. Here goes:

Personal goals

• Continue playing competitive football — So play about 3 hours of intense physical activity a week.
• Read more — I read but not consistently. I will try create more time for reading, especially because I actually enjoy it.
• Take Jordan Peterson’s Future Authoring programme — I’m a big fan of Jordan’s work. I intend to take this course in order to find alignment and clarity in my life.
• Get organised — I’ve noticed that being disorganised makes me anxious and fogs my thought process.
• Focus on fewer things — I switched between many projects in 2018. But in 2019, I plan to focus just on a few projects and on doing them well.

Business goals

• Build a brand — I experimented with private labelling in the latter half of the year but I was just testing the water. I hope to use this experience and build a portfolio of products under one brand.
• Continue the wholesale hustle — I love sourcing products this way to sell on Amazon. Although the business is doing very well, I believe private labelling to be a superior model.
• Start sourcing books again — I don’t think selling used books is a business but I enjoy the hunt. I will start sourcing books a few days a week — plus the income could help my private label project.

Here are the other goals that I’m itching to write down. But I won’t be attempting these goals, although I would like to at some point.

• Build an Amazon Associates affiliate site — This is something that I spent a lot of time investigating in 2018 but didn’t start. I’m glad I didn’t because starting and building an Amazon affiliate site requires a lot of time and energy.
• Start taking this website seriously — Although I do include affiliate links in my posts if appropriate, I mainly use this blog as a way of documenting my journey.
• Scale POD (Print On Demand) — This is another project that I had looked into and started. I have a (MBA) Merch by Amazon account that does $30/$50 (Yes, that’s peanuts but better than nothing) without me doing anything. I see a lot of opportunity in this space.