Children without umbrellas can only run hard
I really like the words in the title. This sentence also helped me get through the confused period when I just graduated. Because my family conditions were not good when I was a child, and I didn't like studying, my grades were just barely enough to get into a technical secondary school. At that time, my family didn't have any serious career plans. They thought it was important for boys to learn a mechanical and electrical skill. I didn't think much about it and just plunged into school. Thinking about it now, I still feel a little regretful. Because of the lack of tension about the future, I was not able to learn professional knowledge well even in secondary technical school. Basically, I just go with the flow, like most technical secondary school students, slacking off in class and playing with my phone, and playing games in Internet cafes after class. After graduation, everyone started looking for jobs. Like most of my classmates, I did not choose a job related to my major. My family could not help me find a job, so I did not have many options. After trying many jobs, I chose to work as a salesperson in a 4S store. title The bitterness of salespeople I often hear people say, “Sales is a very challenging career.” In fact, based on my own feeling, this is both true and false. It is true that during the time I worked in sales, I became more worldly-wise and my tongue skills were also “trained”. Even at the class reunion, I was surprised by how sophisticated I was in toasting and passing cigarettes. But then again, the growth that this training brings you is actually difficult to put to use in jobs other than sales. Plus, I also wanted to make money and start my own small business, so I started to wholesale some small things in my free time and set up stalls near the university town. Reach out to suppliers and also reach out to Amazon Although setting up a stall is simple, since it was my first time trying to do something on my own, I still spent a lot of time and effort on research. I went to the university town to scout out the area and identified a location that students must pass by on their way back to the dormitory after shopping in the nearby mall at night. The products I chose were must-haves such as gloves, earmuffs, leggings, etc. (it was winter at the time). After all, little girls are more likely to buy these small items at stalls, so the styles are all cute. I even used hot pot to exchange some opinions on product selection from my female colleagues. I also gave them free products and asked for some actual usage experience to make it easier for me to sell to these young girls. Now when I think about it, I was already consciously selecting products, conducting market research and even sending products for testing at that time, which laid the foundation for my later contact with Amazon. All in all, the effort you put in always paid off. Although I didn’t make much money, that winter was extra fulfilling for me because I knew I had found another path for myself. Later, I often went to the factory to select models. However, the people in the factory were not very happy with my small quantity, but they didn't turn me away either. During that time, I often found people in the factory to chat with them casually. This may be a sales habit. At that time, it was basically not the workers who had the leisure to talk to you in the factory, so I would often chat with the bosses who came to select models and place orders. It was at this time that I came into contact with Amazon. The first payment to Amazon, conservative thinking lost a lot of money I actually know the limitations of setting up a stall, and have always wanted to open a small Taobao store. However, I have also done some research and know the current competition on Taobao. In addition, the suppliers themselves say that their Taobao stores cannot succeed. I gave up on the Taobao store, but what I learned about Amazon at this time gave me new hope. I know that the competition on Amazon is much smaller than that on Taobao, and many Taobao sellers are now preparing to switch to Amazon. I had been thinking about doing e-commerce for a long time, so I was ready to do something big. The initial work was the same as that of many sellers. I went to forums and various websites to learn, then registered my own personal account (which probably doesn’t work now) and started selling some small items. At that time, I asked all kinds of questions and almost forced the freight forwarder to block me, but I finally started selling. My initial thought about the product was to just make a small profit, and then I could slowly raise the price when I sold more. Of course, now I know how naive this idea was, but at that time I really thought that small profits but quick turnover was a tried and true strategy. I didn’t lose a lot in the end though, because various costs were higher than I estimated, and I didn’t even take lost items into account. After I shipped some goods and checked the profits, I found out I was losing money, so I raised the price a little. However, after the increase, I suddenly had no orders at all. After struggling for a while, I finally sold out the goods I had by setting up a stall. After learning from my mistakes, I went to the forum to study and learn, and only then did I understand the impact of price adjustments on products. Fortunately, I was doing self-delivery during that period and did not use FBA, so the inventory on hand did not become a burden. After making some money back, I registered a set of company information, upgraded my personal account to professional sales, and started doing self-delivery again. But this time, I left myself enough profit margin. I know that I am a complete newbie in this industry. There are too many costs that I cannot anticipate. It is simply a fantasy to want to maximize profits. Although the sales volume is not much now, there is sufficient profit margin and I don’t need to spend extra savings to stock up on goods. The store can basically be self-sufficient. There will be some new models this year, but I will never think of running a large volume at a low price. I also hope that if there are newbies like me who want to work on Amazon, they will give up this idea as soon as possible.
