On the one hand you have the nay-sayers (they’re everywhere) who poo-poo FBA as fully impossible. All you have to do is scroll Reddit until you find a furious, former Amazon FBA seller whose luck ran out:
On the other hand, you have these real human being (not robot 🤖) examples of Amazon success stories from people like you and I.
They didn’t blame Amazon for their shortcomings. When they fell, they got back up.
Most of them had zero business experience and had no safety net on their road to becoming their own bosses.
Dan Rodgers
You might have seen this guy on the Just One Dime YouTube channel, as well.
Dan went through the original Just One Dime training and is now my Amazon FBA Mastery membership co-coach and partner in crime. He’s worked with myself and the Just One Dime team for several years.
Dan—a self-described “technophobe”—started selling online back in 2015 when he was looking for an opportunity to bring his business degree and savvy to the world at large, rather than just his local, South African neighborhood. As he began researching, Dan came across the Just One Dime YouTube channel when we had around 50 or so subscribers. From there Dan became one of Just One Dime’s first students.
Soon after that, Dan took a review-banned Amazon product from $0 to $20,000 in sales…in just seven days.
Dan’s knack for product branding and listing optimization has led him to coach over 1,000 Amazon sellers, some of whom now do over $3 million in revenue each year.
Dan did all of this, and more, from South Africa, which is not one of Amazon’s marketplaces. That’s way advanced business stuff—I had to bring him aboard with Just One Dime. He has offered us invaluable insight into Amazon and business in general.
Seth Kniep (That’s me!)
If you’re familiar with Just One Dime’s blogs and YouTube channel, you’ve probably heard of or seen me. If, instead, you just happened to randomly stumble upon this post, then allow me to introduce myself:
Hi! I’m Seth, the CEO and co-founder of Just One Dime.
I started selling on Amazon back in 2014 (is it just me or was that not that long ago?). Back then, I was trying to work myself and my family out of $24,000 in debt, and I started with just one single dime. You can check out my full story—the genesis of how I went from a severely in-debt manager of a tech support team to a multi-millionaire CEO of my own company—here. But here’s the short version:
It took hard work, dedication, long hours, and a little arbitrage selling, to get me from being severely in debt just to my first few ecommerce products, let alone to the spot I’m at today.
Back then, I was a manager of a tech support team at Apple—the richest company on the planet at the time. In my spare time (and by “spare time” I mean the wee hours of the morning), I, with the help of my family, would fulfill and package orders I sold on Amazon and eBay.
One of my first Amazon products was a cremation urn necklace.
This is one of my first Amazon success stories, in part because I learned early on to make my products above and beyond. When I sold these necklaces, I included a teeny tiny funnel that allows users to easily add ashes to their urn…without spilling them all over the place. And I got dozens of five star reviews from customers pleased by the helpful, inexpensive tool.
But that isn’t the only product I launched early on. In fact, I launched several products. I made mistakes. But at every point, I persevered and bounced back.
Along the way, I discovered Amazon FBA and figured out the best ways to make new products, list them, and advertise them on Amazon. By sheer dedication alone, I learned how to work the system to my advantage.
After that, it was just a matter of time before friends and neighbors—who were, like me, desperate to change their lives—sought out my help. I taught them my Amazon tricks. And then it occurred to me that I could have a greater reach and positive impact if I created a program to do what I had been doing individually for a few people here and there: Coach new sellers through their first Amazon store.
From there, my son Josiah and I co-founded and launched Just One Dime. Our company has gone on to help dozens of students fire their bosses thanks to their thriving Amazon stores. We’ve even been consulted by Amazon, themselves!
Now, my team of Amazon expert coaches and I show entrepreneurs around the world how to:
- Scout amazing product ideas and bring them to life
- Ship products from manufacturers worldwide to Amazon’s fulfillment centers
- Get products up and selling on Amazon
- Run effective advertising campaigns to get products in front of the right shoppers
- Expand sales reach even beyond Amazon
But I’m not here to show the ins-and-outs of the Just One Dime, Amazon FBA Mastery membership. No, today I am here to prove to you that success on Amazon is not a fluke or something that “only happens to a few lucky people, but not me”.
Lori Spallone
Lori found Just One Dime through YouTube when she already had a product she was ready to launch on Amazon. That didn’t stop her, however, from becoming a Just One Dime warrior and joining our membership.
At the time, Lori and her family had just purchased and moved into a school bus in an attempt to live more simply and spend more time together. 🚌
Before that, she and her husband had worked alternating schedules for years to forgo childcare…but ended up forgoing time together as well. Not wanting to continue the trends of working so much she missed out on quality family time, feeling constantly unfulfilled, and working on someone else’s terms, Lori quit her job and turned to Amazon FBA.
With Just One Dime’s help, Lori has transformed a single product into a thriving, multi-item Amazon store. Her most successful product?
A niche idea that our Just One Dime team sent to her, which is a service we offer to all of our Premium membership subscribers—finding each student a unique high potential product.
David Lopez
David Lopez was Just One Dime’s third student…ever. He’s been around long enough to remember my filming courses and YouTube videos on an ancient iPhone. Before that, however, David immigrated to the United States from Cuba with barely more than a car and a t-shirt—which he still carries with him to remind him of where he came from. Now, he’s millionaire who heads Just One Dime Español,
Nowadays, David consistently pulls in $1,000,000+ in revenue, as he has been since 2018. He’s been selling upwards of 30,000 units per year since then, as well.
During the beginning and height of the Coronavirus pandemic, David’s stores were making $100,000+ in revenue each month while millions around the world were filing for unemployment. He attributes his success not only to Just One Dime’s teachings, but to our specific low-profile product method where sellers target products with less shopper, and thus competitor, interest. Don’t worry, we walk you through the details and several other strategies in our membership 😉.
Crystal Laborin
Crystal found Just One Dime through my YouTube channel back in 2018. She, too, became a Just One Dime student that same year.
Crystal is like what I imagine many of you readers are: She was looking for a way to supplement her income to create the life she’d always envisioned for herself. She wanted to travel the world with her family…without having to cross her fingers that her boss would approve a 2-week long PTO request.
Crystal wasn’t looking to sell on Amazon, specifically. In fact, she’ll tell you she didn’t know selling on Amazon was “a thing” people could do. She just started googling “How to make money online” and found this crazy dude:
Within a few months, Crystal was doing tens of thousands of dollars in revenue. Her store now makes at least $500,000 per year. And she now has margin to do the things she loves with the people she loves, which is what we at Just One Dime are all about 🌳.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “These are all just Just One Dime people.”
True, but you don’t have to be a part of the Just One Dime family to succeed (though it sure helps). To prove my point, I will take you through even more Amazon success stories that come from outside the Just One Dime family.
Mina Elias
If you follow the world of mixed martial arts fighting, you might know Mina Elias. But you also might know him from his supplement company MMA Nutrition—and its HRDWRK brand products—which he founded on, you guessed it, Amazon!
I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with Mina and discuss his supplement success story on my Kniep’n It Real podcast, but here’s the quick version:
First off, understand that supplements are a tricky business to get into, on or offline. So what Mina has accomplished is truly incredible.
Mina embodies the teachings that we pass on to all of our students: Your products must solve a problem. Well, through his MMA training, Mina found a problem: He was losing so many electrolytes in his training sessions that he couldn’t replenish them fast enough. He was also on the keto diet at the time and most electrolyte supplements are chalk-full of sugar (a huge no-no for keto enthusiasts).
So he developed a solution and boom! His own company and products were born. He found suppliers to make his own custom blend of supplements into a new electrolyte complex that could be mixed into water and sports drinks.
The great news was that his friends could almost immediately tell a difference in their workouts. The bad news was that his product tasted horrid, which he ultimately found out through reading his one star product reviews on Amazon (it’s almost like he was reading my mind!). So he devised yet another solution by improving the flavor of his supplement. Today, Mina’s various supplement brands pull in $120,000+ in revenue each month.
Mina will tell you that fighting in real life, and having the drive that comes with a fighting spirit, is what has allowed him to succeed in ecommerce: You have to keep getting up when you get knocked down.
Next up we have success stories from a few companies born and bred on Amazon (but not by Amazon’s team), some of which you’ve probably heard of.
Anker
Google software engineer Andrew Yang left his job in 2011 to solve what was, at the time, a gaping hole in the electronics industry: Affordable chargers and charging cords for Apple and Samsung products, specifically smartphones.
Yang didn’t know business or manufacturing, but he had some Amazon experience. With the help of a small team, he launched Anker on Amazon, where his products were exclusively available until 2016.
Now, Anker offers the most popular portable battery packs sold on Amazon. They’ve also expanded to dominate the cell phone accessories market with headphones, screen protectors, and more.
Anker’s products have not only become industry standards, but they beat Apple and Samsung at their own game. Anker’s Powerline iPhone charging cables are consistently rated atop the lists of best iPhone chargers. They’re even MFi—made for iPhone (etc.)—certified, a rating that Apple acknowledges only after stringent product testing.
InstaNatural
AJ Patel launched natural beauty brand InstaNatural on Amazon in 2014.
At the time, he endeavored to fill a void in the beauty industry for certain products consumers were actively looking for…but google searches and dermatologist recommendations came up short on.
By aggressively launching between two and four new products each month from the get-go, InstaNatural has become a household name in the beauty and skincare industries.
Furbo
The treat-tossing dog nanny cam (wait, should I get one of these? 🐶).
Fur parents Victor Chang and Maggie Cheung were devastated by the longing looks their dog gave them everyday when they left for work…and it was unbearable. Upon realizing other dog parents felt this same, excruciating pain, they launched Furbo in 2018.
Amazon’s global reach felt like a natural place to launch such a universal product. But that’s not the only benefit the ecommerce platform surprised them with: Early on, Amazon featured Furbo as a daily deal during one of their explosive Prime Day sales.
Furbo loves Amazon so much that they moved their company from Taiwan to Washington state to be closer to the platform’s headquarters. Their products are even compatible with Alexa.
Piper
Since 2014, Piper has designed educational toys intended to teach young children about technology and coding. After raising over $10 million in venture capital funding, Amazon’s Launchpad team—a division that helps hardware startups to get noticed on Amazon’s platform—took an interest in the company.
Since then, Piper has continuously dominated the educational toys market (they’re up over $3 million in revenue off of Amazon, alone) and is featured in STEAM—science, technology, engineering, arts, and math—school programs across the United States.
Back to the Roots
Fraternity brothers turned mushroom farmers Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora met in college and decided to take a stab at organic gardening rather than join the traditional corporate hustle that awaited them post graduation.
The two, plus a modest team of about 18 employees, now produce organic seed kits and water gardens to teach kids (young and old alike) about the wonders of gardening and eating clean, home-grown foods.
The co-founders consider Amazon a sort of business partner who has enabled the company’s massive growth and reach. In 2018, their Amazon store alone did $5 million in revenue. They were even flown to Congress to discuss how Amazon supports their, and other, small businesses.
I hope some of these success stories give you the inspirational boost you’ve been looking for.
The reality is creating a business, on or off Amazon, is hard.
And I get it: It’s too good to be true. Except it’s not. It can be daunting, challenging, and oh-so frustrating. But with a little perseverance—and maybe the right guiding information—you too, can truly succeed.
Visit JOD.com/freedom to speak with a Just One Dime team member and learn how we can help you achieve your business goals.
Will you join the ranks of us who have figured out that it’s better to be behind the storefront rather than shopping from it?
