Advice from someone who has been in the game...

-Ecommerce is your best friend...come up with a product..I mean anything, t-shirts, key chains, posters, art, clothes, food, and either set up a website with shopping cart or head over to ebay/amazon/overstock.com and set up an account as a merchant..

-get your legal shit in-order...you'll need a business tax i.d., corporate structure (sole, llc, corporation, etc), copyrights, trademarks, and p.o. box. Do not use your home address.

-supposedly you need to know seo optimization but this shit is so fluff...just set your website up with unique identifiers and save yourself the hassle...

-The beauty about ecommerce is that you can turn it over to a fulfillment operator and they will handle all your work for you. Sales, Warehousing, Inventory Control, Quality Control, Shipping and Handling, Receiving even website maintenance. You can be in fucking Costa Rica and have access to all this info and run your business...

I've been looking into importing tea from China and replicating a weight loss program for people. I drank a specific type of tea from the south of China and it made me lose like 5 pounds while I was eating like shit and drinking my ass off every weekend.

(06-24-2010 06:39 PM)Caramel Communist Wrote:  Advice from someone who has been in the game...

-Ecommerce is your best friend...come up with a product..I mean anything, t-shirts, key chains, posters, art, clothes, food, and either set up a website with shopping cart or head over to ebay/amazon/overstock.com and set up an account as a merchant..

-get your legal shit in-order...you'll need a business tax i.d., corporate structure (sole, llc, corporation, etc), copyrights, trademarks, and p.o. box. Do not use your home address.

-supposedly you need to know seo optimization but this shit is so fluff...just set your website up with unique identifiers and save yourself the hassle...

-The beauty about ecommerce is that you can turn it over to a fulfillment operator and they will handle all your work for you. Sales, Warehousing, Inventory Control, Quality Control, Shipping and Handling, Receiving even website maintenance. You can be in fucking Costa Rica and have access to all this info and run your business...

I don't know much about this, but it sounds intriguing. What about getting the actual product made? Presumably you have to do all the legwork of finding the manufacturer first, getting samples made, etc., then once you've done that you can find a fulfillment operator to take care of everything else? Picking the goods up from the factory, storing it, and shipping it directly to customers? I'm guessing they'd also then handle any returns/exchanges. What are some good websites for finding manufacturers and fulfillment operators?

Thanks,

LS

(06-25-2010 02:17 AM)lilseezie Wrote:  I don't know much about this, but it sounds intriguing. What about getting the actual product made? Presumably you have to do all the legwork of finding the manufacturer first, getting samples made, etc., then once you've done that you can find a fulfillment operator to take care of everything else? Picking the goods up from the factory, storing it, and shipping it directly to customers? I'm guessing they'd also then handle any returns/exchanges. What are some good websites for finding manufacturers and fulfillment operators?

Thanks,

LS

Most people purchase from wholesale distributors who already have sourced the product and will already be located in your country. You can then either buy from them in bulk or sometimes they will dropship to your customer.

The best advice I can give for finding your suppliers is to search on google in quotes, "dealer application" + the related product. For example, "dealer application" airsoft provides the first result to http://www.spartanimports.com/content/in...&Itemid=25 which seems to be a legit wholesaler.

I have been running an ecommerce business similar to what was described for about 6 years now so I should be able to answer most questions you have.

(06-25-2010 02:17 AM)lilseezie Wrote:  

(06-24-2010 06:39 PM)Caramel Communist Wrote:  Advice from someone who has been in the game...

-Ecommerce is your best friend...come up with a product..I mean anything, t-shirts, key chains, posters, art, clothes, food, and either set up a website with shopping cart or head over to ebay/amazon/overstock.com and set up an account as a merchant..

-get your legal shit in-order...you'll need a business tax i.d., corporate structure (sole, llc, corporation, etc), copyrights, trademarks, and p.o. box. Do not use your home address.

-supposedly you need to know seo optimization but this shit is so fluff...just set your website up with unique identifiers and save yourself the hassle...

-The beauty about ecommerce is that you can turn it over to a fulfillment operator and they will handle all your work for you. Sales, Warehousing, Inventory Control, Quality Control, Shipping and Handling, Receiving even website maintenance. You can be in fucking Costa Rica and have access to all this info and run your business...

I don't know much about this, but it sounds intriguing. What about getting the actual product made? Presumably you have to do all the legwork of finding the manufacturer first, getting samples made, etc., then once you've done that you can find a fulfillment operator to take care of everything else? Picking the goods up from the factory, storing it, and shipping it directly to customers? I'm guessing they'd also then handle any returns/exchanges. What are some good websites for finding manufacturers and fulfillment operators?

Thanks,

LS

You are a fast learner......

-So find a product that will sell or you feel comfortable getting behind
-Contact a mfg in either the u.s. or china to mfg for you...beware by going to china all attempts to protect for trademark purposes are waived. Chinese steal all idea's and re-brand-resell- or pirate....
-also this is a key stage to look into licensing..and getting a cut instead of proceeding on...the guy that invented the super soaker was getting checks for 9 -10 million every quarter based on licensing....
-Test market thru your website or merchant account on overstock-ebay-amazon-sears.com...
-Once you have established a nice consistent volume and YOU HAVE LEARNED enuff, turn it over to a full service fulfillment operator who will handle
1. returns/refunds/customer service-call center: if you need the call center..
2. payment processing
3. drop shipping - (receiving goods, quality control, inventory control, pick-pack-ship merchandise direct to consumers
4. will allow you access to the systems they use to monitor performance dialy and build your reporting.
5. you can literally have these people managing your entire operations and only have to contact once a week by phone, twice for inperson visit a year... obviously daily for emails

Their are many fulfillment operators in the U.S....many will exist in prime locations of Chicago-Columbus-Cincy/Dayton Ohio-Lousiville - Memphis - Reno-Las Vegas-Phoenix...why? Because they are 24-48 hours of both coast and airplane hubs...

You will be billed at a rate for each unit shipped plus a monthly flat charge in most cases..the advantage of this is this gives you operations team without the risk or costs associated with having to buy warehouses, train staff, hr, financing, and everything else that comes with a business..

What kind of business entity are you guys setting up and in which state? I'm thinking about setting up an LLC in a state that doesn't tax very much so that I can do something similar to what you guys are saying while living abroad. If I set it up in California, it will cost quite a bit just to get started, so I was wondering if any of you had any suggestions??

I'm not in the US but I heard that it is in the state of Nevada where it is the cheapest. I haven't personally looked into that as I don't need to register a biz in the US as I'm not an American so don't quote me on that.

(06-24-2010 11:56 PM)youngmobileglobal Wrote:  I've been looking into importing tea from China and replicating a weight loss program for people. I drank a specific type of tea from the south of China and it made me lose like 5 pounds while I was eating like shit and drinking my ass off every weekend.

Do you remember the name/brand of this tea? I might need that for myself.

(06-26-2010 01:27 AM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  

(06-24-2010 11:56 PM)youngmobileglobal Wrote:  I've been looking into importing tea from China and replicating a weight loss program for people. I drank a specific type of tea from the south of China and it made me lose like 5 pounds while I was eating like shit and drinking my ass off every weekend.

Do you remember the name/brand of this tea? I might need that for myself.

Pu'er Tea, from Yunnan Province. It is delicious but also expensive.

Just an update in here:
I'll post more about this later when I'll get some time, but let me reiterate what I wrote in here a while ago: that offline marketing is still kicking ass big time and can be a gold mine if you promote the right offer to the right market. I'm experiencing this first hand right now with my full page ad in just one magazine. To say that I'm overwhelmed with the response so far, is an understatment. :-)

Epic thread!

I have 4 sources of income - state subsidies for educating myself, i work as a cocktail bartender, a waiter, and I've started as a junior intern at an investment bank.

Total income = 2-2½K after taxes a month, work about 60 hours a month not including studies, which I am technically being paid for. So, I'm scamming the government while saving up for an apartment, then I'll be spending half of my remaining school years abroad - in and surviving on:

Central America (feb-mar 2011) (TBD) - savings
BA, Argentina (jul-dec 2011) - I count on using my camarero skills
Florianopolis, Brazil (jan-mar 2012) - savings
TBD Alpine Skiing resort (dec-mar 2012/3) - bartending

Not much chance for glamor, but I don't care if I'm going to come home fluent in 3 more languages, with a notch-count of 50+

I just want to chime in that for most small businesses, starting a corp or LLC isn't necessary or even beneficial. You will get very little in the way of tax breaks or legal protection, unless you hire legal counsel that specializes in keeping up with the relevant strategies and law, and can help you out with specific needs. If your making small potatoes money, then don't worry about it. It will only amount to extra tax returns to file.

The law has made it so that it isn't easy to escape liability or taxes without extreme inconvenience and legal expense. You cant legally escape taxes. If you are making a lot of money, you could start a C corp to keep the money in the corp only taxed at the corp tax rate. But you wont be able to use the money for personal expenses. In all other entities the money will have to pass through as personal income, at the normal tax rate, at the end of the year, I believe. C corps are a pain in the ass to maintain.

An S corp will save you maybe a max of 15k per year in tax exempt money, if you make up to around 70k. This may give you an extra 5 k a year or so, if your making that much. If your making less, it will save you less.

Most people don't maintain entities properly, or treat them properly as far as business is concerned, and the IRS and courts can therefore legally see right through them, to you, like they didn't even exist.

So, don't just go and get an entity because you think its some magic tax saving anti-liability shield. They aren't. Do your research as to what they are good for, and if you actually will benefit from one. As a matter of fact, i recommend just going to see a good accountant or business attorney. They will save you a lot of time in this respect. See the accountant if your motivation is tax savings, and an attorney if your motivation is liability. The best are CPA's who are also attorneys. Remember, there is no attorney-client privilege with a CPA. They can be compelled to testify against you. But not if they are also your attorney.

Good info as usual Hydro. Also, one thing I keep on reading and hearing a lot is if you are an American citizen and are an expat or living abroad, the first US$80K you make outside of the US will be tax free. Anything above will be taxed at regular tax rates (whatever that is in the US). Is this really true? Damn! This is one of the only times/reason I wish I had a US citizenship. So anyone in here who has made it happen for themselves online and are living the internet lifestyle, should fully take advantage of this. And if you haven't yet, this should be enough incentive to make it happen!

(07-21-2010 04:00 AM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  Good info as usual Hydro. Also, one thing I keep on reading and hearing a lot is if you are an American citizen and are an expat or living abroad, the first US$80K you make outside of the US will be tax free.

First $91,400 - but they will be tax free for IRS. You'd still have to pay taxes in the country where you received taxable income.
(Actually US is the only country which collects taxes from citizens living abroad)

Quote:Anything above will be taxed at regular tax rates (whatever that is in the US). Is this really true?

Yes, some conditions apply.

Thanks Oldnemesis for the technical info.

Cheers.

So much of what has been said in this thread is inspiring and what it comes down to is if you really want it, you'll have to work for it.

Being in college has taught me that people still have the preconceived notion that work isn't needed to get somewhere, and that leads to major disappointments down the road. I hope to come back to this forum a couple months down the road with a nice, passive cash flow so I can enjoy life without financial stress.

Boa sorte meus irmãos