Background
At 10 years old my father took me to an airport to watch one of his friend’s sky dive. That was interesting, but what really caught my eye was a helicopter hovering around and was completely fascinated. I told my father that one day I was going to fly one of those. I grew up in a small town on the New Jersey Coast, where my first job was working for my father who owned a marina for a short time. It was there I got the bug to work for myself, but it was many years before I stepped out and tried it myself. In the meantime, I went to college studied Business Administration and attended ROTC. After college I followed my dream of becoming a helicopter pilot with the Army. Initially I had to spend some time as a Calvary Armor Officer, being a platoon leader and training company commander. I applied for and was accepted to flight school. Following flight school I was assigned to Korea as a Air Cav Troop Commander, and followed on that assignment going to Aviation maintenance school where I became a test pilot and logistic manager. I was assigned as an Air Cavalry Aviation Maintenance Troop Commander and participated in Operation Desert Shield and Storm.
Following my military career I moved to Chattanooga, TN and made my first entry into working for myself as a business organization consultant for small to medium sized businesses. I had limited success, mostly because I absolutely hated cold calling on businesses to get clients. As my business grew I became more and more interested in computers and software. I partnered with a computer store owner and helped develop several database products. As soon as we started to take off, he was involved in a very messy divorce which killed the business.
I went back into “real” work with the Army, as a civilian contractor, and finally as the general manager for an entrepreneur that had several successful businesses centered around construction and fulfillment. I helped set up some ecommerce, and a warehouse for him. It worked quite well, but as what happens with small businesses he brought in one of his friends to help out and I was eventually pushed out.
Why Kibo
That convinced me that working for myself was the only answer to income “security”. I tried Uber/Lyft for a while and that was good, but no way to scale to become a manager of my own business. Towards the end of 2020 both Uber/Lyft decided to redo all background checks for long time drivers. Since it was pandemic the checks took forever and I saw an ad for Kebo and sat in on the webinar. After watching and spending a little time thinking about it my son asked what I was doing. He said he had heard of the first Kibo and thought he read about folks have good success with it. And so the saga continues!
Road Blocks
I really didn’t have any roadblocks at the start, just unrealistic ideas about how fast growing the business would take. At first I was just adding a couple products a day and complaining that it wasn’t working. After several venting emails to Steve and Adian and some reflection of my own work I decided to jump in and go whole hog. I was still not able to make money with Uber/Lyft so I dedicated all day every day to adding products, keeping my mouth shut, and following the system. After that it seemed to be rolling fairly well so what did I do? Well of course I stopped adding products to take care of other things in the business. This has been the cycle for the past couple of months as I fought the second part of the system, where you get help. Again I sat back and said, you are an idiot, you paid for their expertise and you are not following it. So each time I get back to the system, revenue goes up and sales stay somewhat consistent day by day. Currently I have one VA that just lists products and another that I use for projects. So in short I am my own roadblock and worst enemy to continued success. Currently I am going back to finding a system that will keep me on track and not so scattered. I also took on too many different projects, so I am concentrating on Kibo and Affiliate Marketing exclusively and I will make a schedule to make sure they both get done.
Winning Products
There really isn’t a secret to picking winning products. I use and have my VA’s use profit gene to make sure we can price competitively and profitably. One other clue I use if using number of products sold on the EBAY listing. Bottom line is just about everything sells to someone, and you just must get out of your own way and understand that. I never let someone tell me “I’d never buy that!” influence me. Some of the products I’ve been told that were my best sellers. The other mindset you must get over is, why would they buy this for more than it sells on EBAY. Basically buyers have places the buy from and not all buyer’s “shop” around. Our customer is someone who looks at the product, and says I want that, and there are quite a few people like that.
Traffic and Advertising
I have been using FBMP exclusively with very little advertising. I have just started branching out into FB and Instagram Shops with some success. I have a plan in place to grow my Instagram followers so that shop will be a viable revenue stream. I have also started listing on EBAY with vendors I’ve found by searching for wholesale suppliers. I have been a little leery of paid ads, however I do know that is an important market and plan on moving that direction very soon.
Building the Business
#1 List List List
#2 Spend a little time up front and each week working ON your business, because as it grows return processes, additional marketplaces, and other items can get overwhelming and stop progress.
#3 Get a VA, Partner, Family Member before you think you need one. Don’t fret about the cost, a good one pays for themselves in very short order
#4 Get Software to help manage inventory and pricing, you don’t need to worry about that aspect of the business.
#5 Pay attention to the numbers, track sales, expenses, and find trends. Bad days and weeks will happen, but if you look at averages and longer-term sales then you will see which direction the business is actually going.
Best Day
Best day was a blast! Orders kept rolling in all day. Selling one product for a high profit is good, but selling many different ones for less profit is better. Remember that day and it will help you when sales are down. I was getting used to the messenger notification bell, and discovered that if I heard that bell and then the outlook bell on my phone a very short time later I knew it was a sale. Some folks set the notification to a cash register which bring a smile to their face.
Day Week Month
All happened together and it was a result of “following the System”. Thinking back on this I have to give myself a big “DUH”. I spent 2 weeks prior listing, renewing, and re-listing products. If I had been a much smarter person, I would have hired a VA immediately then and have them do all that. I believe that if I had instigated paid ads at that point I would have doubled where I am right now.
Interested in Kebo
If you are interested in this:
- It is not a get rich quick program. It takes work and dedication, just like any other business.
- Be ready for ups and downs the fist several months or maybe even a year as you figure out how best you fit into the system and the time you have available to dedicate to it.
- The program of instruction is quality and if you listen and do what is in it, you will make money.
Future plans
I’ve already touched on this, but I plan on getting into more market places with products found on retail sites. I will also take the winning products and include paid ads to increase sales. I will be adding affiliate marketing to the mix, so I don’t have one revenue stream. I ultimate goal is to be able to afford to work in different locations within the US for extended periods so I can explore cool places I’ve only blown through and wished I have more time to see.
