Important lessons that can be applied to any online business

It’s impossible to miss the “make money online” or “start your online business today” videos, blog articles and social media posts swarming the internet.

Back in 2018, my brain finally gave in to temptation. “Screw it! If other people can build an online business, so can you!”

Well, maybe.

At the time, I was living in Silicon Valley and working in supply chain management at a well-respected, publicly-traded technology conglomerate. I disliked my job and detested living in the over-priced (and over-hyped) Bay Area, so I decided that I didn’t have much to lose.

Well, apparently, I had $3,000 to lose on an Amazon FBA business — because that’s exactly what happened.

Hindsight is 20/20, and looking back, a few key reasons for my failure that stick out to me:

• I was delusional. I listened to the gurus and believed I’d have a million-dollar company within a short time.
• I obsessed over “picking a product” versus picking a problem that I’d solve for an audience.
• I didn’t like (or even care) about what I was selling.

Not understanding “what” you are trying to achieve and simply “selling products” without vision is a recipe for disaster. Believing that fast success is possible is even worse. Once you realize that starting a business is a massive undertaking, the probability of “sticking it out” when you don’t even care about what you are selling — is highly unlikely.

Now that we’ve covered “my big goof-ups”, let’s talk about “what I’ve done differently”, which has resulted in profitability versus another loss.

It sounds like strange advice to tell an aspiring entrepreneur to “go get a job” — the exact “thing” they seek to avoid by working for themselves.

That said, a “job that you enjoy” can make the difference between your business becoming a massive success or an epic failure. Why? Because meaningful employment removes the pressure of “making it work to escape your 9–5.”

Too many entrepreneurs enter this “game” for the sake of quitting their 9–5 because they’re miserable.

Then they start operating from a place of scarcity (versus abundance); they often make reckless decisions, and the journey becomes self-serving.

I always wanted to try sales — I liked the idea of interfacing with clients, and I figured it would help alleviate my fear of public speaking. I also desired to live in Austin, Texas. Sunshine, nature, and the laid-back culture made the city quite appealing.

In short, I took a leap of faith and took a sales job in Austin, Texas — and I couldn’t be happier with that decision.

What I didn’t know then is that the experience I gained working in sales would lead me down the path of (successful) entrepreneurship. I didn’t know that I’d wind up with a blog about sales that would be profitable. I also never dreamed I’d have consulting (and equity/ownership offers) from tech and healthcare companies looking for sales advice.

Monetarily speaking, my income has more than doubled.

Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to seek out a job that you’ll enjoy. You can still work weekends, nights, and mornings on your business. Building your business when you are happy and not looking for an escape route is much easier!

This is embarrassing, but I’m willing to publicly humiliate myself to serve others.

I stumbled upon my first product by purchasing a subscription to a SaaS-based tool that enables keyword search, market analytics, and sales intelligence for Amazon FBA sellers.

What was the first product?

A breast pump bag.

I’ve never been pregnant or cared for a child — I knew nothing about breastfeeding, breast pumps, etc. All I knew was that the competition wasn’t as fierce in that niche as others — or so I thought.

By the time I sourced and received the final product, new sellers had also entered the market — then, to make a sale, we all started competing on price. I had no “brand recognition” or “voice”, and thus, it was hard to not compete on price.

Margins quickly eroded, and I began losing money and had to close the shop.

This time, I started blogging about what I know (sales and investing the profits to build wealth). Eventually, my audience grew, and I started receiving brand collaboration offers, the opportunity to work as an affiliate, consulting opportunities, etc.

Takeaway: Stick to solving pain points you understand versus obsessing over “what to sell”. It’s much easier in the long term to build a brand versus blindly selling products and competing on price.

When we want to start a business, many of us take to Google or now ChatGPT and start looking for “profitable ideas.”

Instead, the more important question is, “how would I like to spend my day?”

Speaking from experience, it’s very difficult to do anything long-term that you absolutely hate — and most importantly, there’s no real formula to identify “what” will be profitable.

I’m genuinely thankful that my Amazon FBA business failed, as I’d be miserable if I were still trying to sell a breast pump bag on the internet.

Regarding profitability, most of the massively successful brands that we buy from would not be labeled as “viable business ideas” by ChatGPT.

Some of my favorite founders (Annie Lawless of Suja Juice, Ali Bonar of Oat Haus, and Marianna Hewitt of Summer Fridays) started their brands to solve a problem they were passionate about.

None of the founders had this huge business plan, group of investors, keyword research tools, etc.

The starting place was “passion”, and the rest followed.

Takeaway: Make life easier and build the business you enjoy and would be happy running 5 years from now.

My $3,000 failure was one of the best “mistakes” ever made. It was a crash course in both business and self-development.

I learned that entrepreneurship is about serving others, not myself, and once I stopped worrying about “making money,” I ironically started making money.

Funny how that works, right?

If you’re struggling in your business or just starting, I will encourage you to re-evaluate whether you’re building a business because you genuinely want to (or if you’re trying to escape a job you hate).

You might need to take a new job to gain relief or scrap your current business to do something meaningful to you — but either way, it’s worth it in the long run!