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8 Things to Do BEFORE You Start Selling on Amazon (Tips for New Amazon Sellers) - YouTube
Channel: Wholesale Ted
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Hey, guys.
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In this video, I'm gonna be discussing the
eight things that you need to do before you
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start selling on Amazon.
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If you do these eight things, then you will
easily overcome some of the common stumbling
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blocks that people encounter when they first
start their Amazon business.
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To find out what these eight things are and
how to overcome them for yourself, keep watching
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this video.
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One, get an
Amazon Pro Merchant account.
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Now, in the past, I used to recommend that
people just get started ASAP by opening a
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free Amazon seller account.
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Now, I recommended this because of the fact
that I knew that people would resist getting
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a Pro Merchant account because, well, it's
not free.
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However, my opinion on this has admittedly
changed over time and I will now recommend
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to everyone that they get an Amazon Pro Merchant
account.
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And I will recommend this to you even if you
resist my advice.
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Why?
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Well, for one very simple reason.
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One of the eligibility requirements to win
the buy box is that you need to have an Amazon
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Pro Merchant account.
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The Amazon buy box is that little add to cart
button that appears on an Amazon item listing.
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About 80% of the sales for an Amazon listing
are made by people clicking the buy box.
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Now, let's say that there are five sellers
that are eligible for the buy box.
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What Amazon will do is it will rotate those
sellers around and give each of them some
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buy box time.
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About 80% of sales are made by people using
the buy box so winning the buy box time is
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crucial.
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In fact, it's even more crucial as a new seller
compared to being an established seller.
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Think about it.
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If people aren't using the buy box, then it
means that they're opening up the list of
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sellers and selecting one from the list.
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And realistically, who are they going to pick,
a new seller with no reviews or a seller with
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lots of reviews?
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Another fantastic thing about the buy box
is that it doesn't show how many reviews the
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seller being featured has.
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In fact, it actually gives you very little
information about the merchant at all.
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It means then that as a new seller, you can
use the buy box to get your initial sales
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because of the fact that customers will not
discriminate against you because of a low-to-no
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number of reviews.
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So don't cut off your nose to spite your face.
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Get an Amazon Pro Merchant account.
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Now, you can get a free 30-day trial to one.
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Use those 30 days to make plenty of money
so that when Amazon comes and rebills you
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for the monthly charge, you won't even mind.
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Two, have the right documents ready when applying
for an Amazon account.
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So I thought that I was doing people a nice
deed by creating a step-by-step video tutorial
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on how to open an Amazon account, which, by
the way, if you wanna watch that, I will have
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a link to it in the video description below.
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Unfortunately, within months of creating that
video, Amazon added a new step to the account
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creation process, which means that my video
is kind of outdated.
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Amazon now require the following when creating
an account.
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One, photos of a national ID like a passport
or a driver's license.
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And two, a bank statement that has your address
on it.
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Luckily, preparing for this is super simple.
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Just do these two things.
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One, use a digital camera like the one on
your cellphone to take photos of your national
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identification.
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Again, a passport or a driver's license is
perfect for this.
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And two, log into your bank and download your
latest bank statement.
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Then just upload these documents when Amazon
asks for them during the account creation
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process, simple.
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Three, act fast.
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Don't wait.
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Here's the thing with Amazon, they are constantly
changing their requirements and the honest
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truth is that usually, these changes are designed
to make the barrier to entry harder and not
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easier.
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For example, in 2014, Amazon turned the personal
care category from an unrestricted category
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to a restricted category.
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And in 2016, Amazon changed it so that if
you are a new Amazon FBA seller, that you
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could not send in your first ever shipment
into their warehouses during the fourth quarter.
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And in 2017, of course, they made it so that
you had to upload proof of your national identity
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when you were creating an account.
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But here is the thing, if you had been selling
personal care items prior to the restriction
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changes in 2014, then you would've been grandfathered
into the program.
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And in 2016, if you were an established Amazon
FBA seller, then you would've had no problems
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sending in shipments during the fourth quarter.
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And, of course, if you had already created
an account prior to their account creation
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change process, well, then you wouldn't have
to upload any of these extra documents.
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They do sometimes still ask for them but that's
only if they think that your account is suspicious.
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My point here is that the sooner you do things
like creating an account, the easier it is.
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So do not wait, act now.
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And don't be put off restrictions.
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What these restrictions do is they make it
harder for illegitimate sellers to be selling
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on Amazon, which means that there is less
competition out there for legitimate sellers
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like you.
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Four, pick your Amazon business model.
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Of course, before you get started, you need
to pick a business model to pursue when creating
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your new Amazon business.
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The most popular of these include dropshipping,
private labeling, retail arbitrage, and wholesale
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selling.
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And, of course, each of these business models
has its own pros and cons and it's important
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for you to go out there and research each
business model carefully so that you can pick
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the one that meets your skill set and your
access to resources.
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For example, private labeling has many advantages.
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One of them is that once it's set up, it requires
very little time to manage because of the
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fact that Amazon is fulfilling orders for
you.
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Now let's contrast that with dropshipping.
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No, you don't have to pick and pack the item
and ship it out to the customer, which saves
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a huge amount of time but you still need to
order the item for each customer when they
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buy it from you.
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On the other hand, private labeling has the
disadvantage of the fact that it costs hundreds
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to even thousands of dollars to get started
because of the fact that you need to manufacture
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your inventory in advance.
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Now let's contrast that with dropshipping
which has the huge advantage whereby you only
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have to order each item for the customer after
they have purchased it.
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So weigh out the pros and cons.
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Pick the right business model that meets your
skill set, your life balance, and your access
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to resources.
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Five, get a credit card or at least a debit
card.
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When you sell on Amazon, there are fees that
you need to pay and Amazon requires that you
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have either a credit card or a debit card
to pay them.
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And when I say debit card, I mean a legitimate
one that you got from a bank.
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You cannot use a prepaid Visa or Payoneer
card.
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Now, if you don't have access to either a
credit card or a debit card, do not completely
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panic.
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You can still create an e-commerce business.
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With just a prepaid Visa and a PayPal account,
you can open an AliExpress dropshipping store.
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Now, it's a very different business model
but it's one that you can open with just access
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to those two things.
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If you are interested in learning more about
that business model, then you should watch
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my free video on that subject, "How to Create
an AliExpress Dropshipping Store With No Start
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Up Money."
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I'll have a link to that video in the video
description below.
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But the truth is is that any serious, long-term
business is going to need access to either
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a credit card or a debit card, ideally a credit
card, which leads me on to my next point.
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Six, figure out a plan to manage your cash
flow.
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The word cash flow probably sounds a bit intimidating
but trust me, it really isn't.
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When I say cash flow, I simply mean have a
plan for how you are going to pay for the
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items that you are selling.
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This is a crucial thing to plan for because
as a new Amazon seller, Amazon is going to
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hold your money for two weeks.
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So if you are private labeling and your items
start selling super-fast, then you need to
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have money on-hand to go and purchase new
inventory to replace your stock.
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And if you're dropshipping, then you need
to have money to use in the meantime to pay
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for the items that the customer has ordered
while you are waiting for Amazon to reimburse
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you.
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Now, there are two ways to handle this.
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One, you can have a bunch of money saved up
in advance that you can use during this time
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period.
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Now, if you're dropshipping, about $500 is
probably fine.
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If you are private labeling, then you may
need a lot more than that.
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Or two, you can use a credit card and honestly,
a credit card is the easiest solution.
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Now, I understand that not everyone has a
credit score that makes them eligible to get
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a credit card, in which case, what I would
say to you is use a debit card in the meantime
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and make it your top priority to build up
your credit score.
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And remember, this is a good problem to have.
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It means that you're a super successful seller
so don't be put off by this, just prepare
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for it.
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Seven, check if the category that you want
to sell in is restricted.
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Now, there are lots of categories that anyone
can just come in and sell in, such as home
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and gardening because these categories are
unrestricted.
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If you wanna start selling items in these
categories, then congratulations.
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You can just go in and start selling them
without submitting an application.
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But unfortunately, there are some categories
that are restricted and before you start selling
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in them, you're going to need to submit an
application to do so.
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Now, some restricted categories like clothing
and accessories have really easy requirements
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but others like food and grocery have much
stricter requirements.
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To find out which categories are restricted
and how to become unrestricted in them, then
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you should be sure to watch my free video
that I've created on that subject and I'll
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have a link to that video in the description
below.
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Eight, set aside time every day and every
week to both grow and manage your new business.
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And finally, do not forget to plan to set
aside time every week and every day to both
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grow and manage your new Amazon business.
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You need to set aside time every day to manage
orders and to do things like answer emails.
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An hour a day should be more than enough,
especially in the beginning but make sure
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you make time for it and make it a priority.
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So for example, if you come home from work
every day and you're really tired and you
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don't wanna do it, then make sure that you
get up an hour earlier every day so that you
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can use that time to manage your business.
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You'll also need to set aside time every week
to grow your business if you don't want it
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to stagnate.
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And, well, this is kind of what weekends are
for.
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Growing and running a business while you're
holding down a full-time job is not easy but
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it's a rite of passage that basically every
business owner has to go through at some point.
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And trust me when I say that the rewards are
well worth it.
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Thanks for watching this video.
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If you liked it, I'd appreciate it if you
gave it a thumbs up and subscribed to us here
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at Wholesale Ted for more great videos like
this.
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And if you have any questions, be sure to
ask them in the comments section below.
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Here at Wholesale Ted, we admittedly get a
lot of questions but we try to answer as many
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as we can.
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And if you would like to start your own e-commerce
store but you don't know how, then you should
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be sure to download our free eBook, "How to
Make $10,000 a Month Online With Dropshipping."
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You'll find a link on how to download this
incredible, life-changing eBook in the video
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description below.
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