圣乔斯（St. Joes）的高中曲棍网兜球教练邀请了即将来临的新生班的顶级曲棍网兜球新兵参加他的夏令营。 我们三个人Mike，Rob和Steve是唯一出现的人，那是我们见面的第一天。 在接下来的四年中，我们每个人都在运动方面表现出色，成为了各自团队的队长； 罗伯在曲棍球，迈克在曲棍网兜球，史蒂夫在足球。
More important than that, we built a strong friendship together through high school and college constantly talking about the businesses we would one day build and the dreams that we had.更为重要的是，我们通过高中和大学建立了牢固的友谊，不断谈论我们一天会建立的业务和我们拥有的梦想。 Well, in 2012, when graduating college, life hit us all right in the face and the pressure of society and surroundings pushed us to each get jobs in the corporate world.好了，XNUMX年，大学毕业后，生活直面我们，社会和环境的压力迫使我们在企业界找到一份工作。 Mike was in retail real estate development;迈克（Mike）从事零售房地产开发； Rob in environmental consulting and Steve was in business development for an engineering company.罗布（Rob）从事环境咨询工作，史蒂夫（Steve）曾在一家工程公司从事业务开发。 In terms of society, we had great jobs and were on the path the success, but we did not see it this way.就社会而言，我们拥有出色的工作，并正朝着成功的道路前进，但我们并不这样看。
About a year into our jobs, we decided that we couldn't let our dreams pass us by and we were going to do whatever it took to get out of them and build something we were passionate about.在工作大约一年后，我们决定不能让我们的梦想破灭，我们将尽一切努力摆脱他们的困扰，并建立起我们热衷的东西。 We were searching YouTube, Google and everything in between to find a business model we could choose that would be low cost and then found Kindle publishing.我们在搜索YouTube，Google和介于两者之间的所有内容，以找到可以选择的低成本商业模式，然后找到Kindle发布。 We found someone online who was publishing kindle books and making a lot of money so we took his course and went through the entire 2- month course in 12 hours.我们在网上找到某人，他们正在出版点燃书籍并赚了很多钱，所以我们上了他的课程，并在2小时内完成了整个15个月的课程。 Fast forward 5 months later and we had figured out a way to write and publish over 10 books on Kindle in categories of commercial/residential real estate, backpacking, paleo, CrossFit, veganism, marijuana businesses and any other niches we thought would be growing in the coming XNUMX-XNUMX years so we could continue building our royalties.快进XNUMX个月后，我们找到了一种方法，可以在Kindle上撰写和出版超过XNUMX本书，涉及商业/住宅房地产，背包旅行，古人，CrossFit，素食主义者，大麻企业以及我们认为将会在其中发展的任何其他细分领域在接下来的XNUMX-XNUMX年内，我们可以继续建立版税。 We built up a little cash from the royalties but it wasn't close to enough我们从特许权使用费中赚了一点钱，但还不够
Kindle打开了我们进入亚马逊世界的大门，我们发现人们在亚马逊上销售实物产品（最初我们认为这只是亚马逊在销售产品）。 We watched some YouTube videos and decided to do retail arbitrage, which was basically buying products on clearance at Retail Stores and reselling them on Amazon for double or triple the price.我们观看了一些YouTube视频，并决定进行零售套利，这基本上是在零售商店清仓购买产品，然后以两倍或三倍的价格在亚马逊上转售它们。 Our first day was a Saturday and we went to 3 different stores including Toys R Us, HomeGoods and Walmart and we could not find a single product in these stores on the Amazon barcode scanner that would be a good seller on Amazon.我们的第一天是星期六，我们去了XNUMX家不同的商店，包括Toys R Us，HomeGoods和Walmart，我们在这些商店的亚马逊条码扫描器上找不到任何一款商品，在亚马逊上会很畅销。 We basically quit right there but decided to stop at Target on the way home.我们基本上从那里退出，但决定在回家的路上停在塔吉特。
We arrived at Target and went to the clearance isle to find these 5 computer modems for $50 on clearance and our Amazon app said they were selling for $150 on Amazon.我们到达塔吉特（Target）并前往清仓岛，以清仓价250美元找到了这XNUMX台计算机调制解调器，我们的亚马逊应用程序说它们在亚马逊上的售价为XNUMX美元。 We were still extremely skeptical and were hesitant to buy these modems totaling $XNUMX which we had no use for except to resell.我们仍然非常怀疑，并犹豫要购买这些总计XNUMX美元的调制解调器，除了转售我们没有其他用途。 One day later we sent them to Amazon FBA warehouse and were waiting for the product to go live.一天后，我们将它们送到了亚马逊FBA仓库，正在等待产品上线。 We checked the app again and again and finally they were live – and then GONE.我们一遍又一遍地检查了该应用程序，最后它们被上线了，然后就消失了。 Within a minute they all sold!!!一分钟之内，他们都卖了！！！ This blew our minds and showed us that Amazon was a much bigger beast than we ever imagined and we have never looked back!这让我们大吃一惊，并向我们展示了亚马逊比我们想象的要强大得多，而且我们从未回头！
We would ransack the clearance aisle at Target and buy almost everything there.我们将在塔吉（Target）清理通关通道并在那里购买几乎所有东西。 Once we cleaned out one Target we would move on to the next one until we had been to almost every single Target in the Tri-State.一旦我们清理了一个目标，我们将继续进行下一个目标，直到我们去过三国中几乎每个目标为止。 We knew this was not sustainable so we decided to use the 10k in cash we accumulated to partner with a manufacturer and build a brand within the art supplies category.我们知道这是不可持续的，因此我们决定使用积累的5万美元现金与制造商合作，并在艺术品供应类别中建立品牌。 We built out a product line of 6 different products and within our first 6 months we hit XNUMX figure revenues and we were ecstatic.我们建立了包含XNUMX种不同产品的产品线，在最初的XNUMX个月内，我们实现了XNUMX位数字的收入，我们对此欣喜若狂。
We knew that we had to work all day every day for this to work out so we drove down to South Carolina in the middle of nowhere, cooked every meal, worked out every day and worked on Amazon 15 hours a day, 7 days a week for 4 months.我们知道我们每天必须全天工作才能解决这个问题，所以我们开车到了茫茫荒野中的南卡罗来纳州，每顿饭都做饭，每天锻炼，每天在亚马逊上工作XNUMX天，每周XNUMX天XNUMX个月。 There were multiple times where we wanted to quit but we couldn't fathom the idea of going back to a job.有好几次我们想辞职，但我们无法理解重新找工作的想法。 So, we worked and worked more and built up a substantial client base to test our processes and techniques with.因此，我们进行了越来越多的工作，并建立了庞大的客户群来测试我们的流程和技术。 We listened to customers needs and analyzed the data when trying something new.我们尝试新事物时会听取客户的需求并分析数据。
We care so much about our clients and building strong relationships with them that will hopefully last a lifetime.我们非常关心我们的客户，并与他们建立牢固的关系，希望这种关系可以持续一生。 Addressing our clients' needs have also helped us create new solutions and businesses in Video Production and SaaS.满足客户需求也帮助我们在视频制作和SaaS中创建了新的解决方案和业务。 Although this is exciting, nothing makes us prouder of the fact that we have been able to employ and change the lives of others on our team which will continue as we grow.尽管这令人兴奋，但没有什么让我们感到骄傲的是，我们能够雇用和改变团队中其他人的生活，随着我们的成长，这种生活将继续下去。