From Driving Uber To $500k Months On Amazon w/ Emre – #16

Ben Donovan  0:00  
Hey, welcome to another episode of The Brand Builder Show and I’m honored today to be joined by one of our Brand Builder University members, Emre. Emre has got an incredible story, he moved to America chasing the American dream. He was driving for Uber two years ago. He launched his own brand with 300 units. Now 300 units is a bad taste of sales. He’s hitting $500,000 months. He’s hitting, obviously, seven figures in a year. He’s been offered seven figures to buy his brand, but he’s holding out for $25 million. We get into all of the details in this episode. He breaks down how he’s done it and what he’s done to achieve those numbers. His mindset is really, really powerful stuff and I think you’re going to find it really helpful. Emre, although he’s a super humble guy, he’s an incredibly smart operator. So there will be so much to learn in this next 30 or 40 minutes. 

This is a recording actually from a live interview we did in our recent FBA Freedom Challenge and so there’s a little bit of interaction there that comes across maybe from the actual challenge itself, but I wanted to make sure that as many people will hear this as possible. When we were done with the interview, I said to Emre, “Please, will you let me put this on the podcast because it is going to be of such value to you as a new seller, as a growing seller, somebody who wants to build a seven figure brand and have an exit one day, this will be such gold information for you.” And so he said, “Yeah, look if it’s going to help people, put it out there.” So here it is the podcast with Emre, will we discuss his journey from literally zero to seven figures in the last couple of years. Let’s get into it. 

We are honored today to have my good friend Emre. And he’s going to share some great knowledge. He’s one of the good guys, the real, real good guys in the industry and love this guy. So thanks for taking time out of your Saturday, Emre, to come on. It’s great to have you here.

Emre  1:55  
Thank you, Ben. Thank you for having me.

Ben Donovan  1:57  
It’s my honor. It’s been super exciting to watch your journey and see as everything continues to unfold. But just take us a minute for us just to introduce yourself. Tell us a bit about yourself and maybe how you came to start selling on Amazon?


Emre  2:14  
Yeah, um, I think I have a story like most of the people who come to America call a dream. Um, so yeah, I was driving Uber, like, two years ago, two and a half years ago. And I heard there was a guy who made some four, five million dollars out of selling his business. And when I had to talk to friend of bad guys ran, and I realized that product was something I haven’t even thought it exists. So it was amazing for me like, “Oh my God, I can do this!” So long story short, I sat down and I had, I think more than 400 hours of learning through YouTube and other stuff on. ‘Til then I hadn’t take your course and hadn’t taken your … hadn’t seen your YouTube videos. And then I started my journey with 300 products. My first order, I remember. Now I think my worst days not 300 products. I have some inventory available nuts. Yeah, that’s the story. 

Ben Donovan  3:43  
Yeah. So from going the off your first whole order to now that’s your that’s a bad day of sales for you.

Emre  3:50  
Um, yeah, very bad day. Yeah.

Ben Donovan  3:53  
I love it. I love it. That’s good, man. So, obviously, we want to try and sort of understand this journey a little bit. Because, you know, the reason I love your story is because you are a member when you first emailed me. You’re like, you know, your words, like “I’m broke. I’ve got no idea how to do this, like, help me out here”. Here, you are just seeing some, you know, just some crazy results. And so just try, I’d love to try and help people understand, because I’ve had a bit of an inside track to that journey. And you haven’t really shared much like publicly because, you know, you’re a bit of a shy guy. And I’ve maybe, hopefully, you know, put you out of your comfort zone in a good way in doing this. And I think it’s going to help a lot of people and so let’s, you know, try and unpack that a little bit. Talk us through that first product launch 300 units shipped to the US. Yeah, how did how did that go?

Emre  4:42  
Um, I mean, yeah. So the thing is, if I write down 10 things not to do at your launch, again, first launch, probably I did seven or eight of them. So yeah, I’ll be be frank with you. And if I give myself a score, I will probably fail. Okay, I would tell my self two years ago, like “you can’t do this man, just do something else”. So I lost money. I lost, I mean, pretty much valuable hours comparing to drive an Uber. You know, having watching that videos on YouTube, and I realized every mistake I made is actually something I mean, if you asked me, How do you know that there are 10 things that you should avoid? I know because I made those mistakes. And there must be a paradigm shift. I will come to that once I saw your approach, because you’re telling me about the basics of marketing, not some real metrics on Amazon. You were not talking to like something about your PPC conversion versus your total blah, blah, something you know, there are metrics that people talk about. When you go to a regular Facebook page of, you know, Amazon Seller group, they were like, they have their own jargon, right. But when I saw your YouTube videos, like there is this product, reviews, price, and so you have to convince your customer. Before that, you have to have a beautiful product kind of approach. 

So I started to change things on the way a little bit. And I realized this is not something on Amazon Seller journey. This is something like a brand, as is brand building. So that’s a huge paradigm shift. My first launch, I created campaigns, and I, then, pause them. So this is a huge mistake. If you pause your first auto campaign with your first launch, then you’re doing something really bad. So I know it because I did it, so I will never do it again. So kind of stuff. But the thing is, I’m pretty much competitive. Like if I cannot solve that thing, then probably I will not sleep tonight it and try to find the answers. And probably you receive some. I don’t know, a couple of emails, some stupid questions on something regularly you have. So you’re asking yourself, “What the hell is this … ? Doing kind of stuff? But yeah, it’s just test it, test it, test it, test it, test it, I mean, ten times, twenty times. So every time you test something, you improve your product, you improve your brand, you improve your awareness. And yeah, that’s, that’s my experience in my first launch.

Ben Donovan  8:05  
Yeah, and that’s good, man. It’s good. Hopefully, you’ve heard me say it. But I’m a firm believer that there’s no stupid question. You know, the only stupid question is the one that doesn’t get asked because you’ve obviously gone through your fair share of frustrations and mistakes, as you would call them. And it’s much better to learn from somebody else’s mistakes and experiences than your own. So if you can ask a question that might seem stupid to you, but then saves you pain and cost you know, it’s, that’s not a stupid question, you know, so. So yeah, no, it’s definitely, definitely recommended to sort of ask as many questions as possible. When you had those, like, firstly, I mean, do you remember if you would say, I made six, seven mistakes or whatever? Do you remember maybe what were your biggest ones aside from pausing your campaign?

Emre  8:53  
Um, my biggest one is, I think, I pretty much assess myself, like a, like an underdog. I have no technical background. I don’t know programming. I have zero knowledge of technology. And I haven’t done any social media marketing. Nothing at all. And when I enter and started to learn and launch my product, I realized I underestimate myself because, you know, the when you look at Amazon catalog, and when you just type some, you know, anything, just like whatever you bought yesterday, just type it and take a really good look at the products and how they show up their pictures that you just evaluated like, you know, as if you are selling that product, I bet you will find at least 10 improvement points, which means you can do better. And before my, you know, before I move to a brand builder, from Amazon seller, as an Amazon seller, my early life, my early launch, period, I was like, “I should go a little conservatively with my, you know, order. I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know, if I can make money. Should I go more? Should I go and ask my supplier? I need more.” You know, those kinds of stuff. 

For now, it’s like, I am in the process of launching a new product. I am just, I’m not planning something like, should I order a thousand units or so? I’m just working on a container shipment? Like, how can I store my containers? And when should I go and order my products? And this market is like pretty much saturated with thousands of reviews, guys, you know, like, use of product presence? And I don’t care. I mean, I know that I can do it. So I’ll do it. Yeah, this was my biggest mistake, like I should trust in myself and I can beat the competition. That’s now my show.

Ben Donovan  11:27  
For sure. I think it is in your you’re just a very humble guy. And I think that I’ve said it to you before. Yeah, I think you do underestimate yourself in many ways. And I think that what you’ve done shows that you’ve got, you know, what it takes to to grow something massive? So yeah, I’m excited to, to see that. But what do you think was the turning point that now gives you the confidence because there would be maybe, you know, owners of significant size businesses that wouldn’t, you know, launch new products with a container load of products, but you’ve got that confidence to do that. What has given you that confidence to move forward on that?

Emre  12:02  
I think I would say the product. The product is the most neglected part of an online seller’s journey, the product. When we talk, I mean, we don’t talk about the product itself. So an online catalog product should not only be one of the highest quality, but should also communicate with its … as it’s something worth to buy. What I mean by “you cannot just convince your customer with a better material yoga mat”, it should speak itself with some good visuals and some branding kind of stuff. So you should have really work on your product. And my only rule is, I should be my own customer. I should know product in the in the first hand, I should know what it is. I should know the experience of using it. I should know how to improve it. And I actually I learned it from the Apple, the company. So they they almost never listen to customer feedback. They don’t you know, give you some weird customer family company kind of image. Instead, they are their own customers. And when they sit down on the table, they’re just creating the best product for themselves. So if you can create that, the chances are you will succeed. So that’s my thing. Yeah. 

Ben Donovan  13:48  
So good, man. That’s super inspiring, super inspiring. And to be that’s like a little gem for a project I’m working on. That’s really just turn a light on inside of me. So yes, it’s really good wisdom that. Before we get on to like how things are going now and how you got there. You were pretty stressed out when you first reached out to me. And there would be people that may be out there on that similar journey to you. You said four hundred hours on YouTube. That’s insane! What do you think that is unique about this business that makes it hard to do on your own?

Emre  14:22  
Um, I mean, we discuss it on Facebook group. If you think you’re selling a product on a platform that’s run by someone that’s not in the market, let’s say it’s a shopping mall, right and you have a shop there. The owner of the shopping mall is responsible for bringing customers to your shop. You have a shop there, you just shipped you know, working on how to create the product, how to create a well welcoming store and things like that, you know, pictures. And you know, you’re just trying to index your keywords, some advertising campaigns, you’re doing in that shopping mall. Actually, that shopping mall has its own shops, too. So only this changes the entire equation, because the shopping mall, the Amazon catalog, is not only responsible for bringing new customers to the catalog, but also it will be doing some efforts to sell its own products. 

So the game is not fair, in the first place. But, as this is like, it looks like it’s unfair but there is a huge potential. If you understand, Amazon is also doing things to sell its own product. So if I say, “What is the best thing to do to sell more in this shopping mall?” So if you find the ways that Amazon does to sell its own products, because they have all data, they know customers, they know everything, which we don’t know. And I realized if I can track this, like, what’s Amazon doing for its product? So the simple answer: you just go in Google. AmazonBasics, I don’t know AmazonBasics yoga mat. What’s he doing at Google? So does it do Google ads? Does it do Facebook ads? Or I mean, you can track Amazon’s steps. And basically, I’m doing that. Like, there’s this guy knows everything, if I copy it, then I will have something really good. That’s my thing. 

Ben Donovan  17:03  
Yeah, it’s good, man. That’s good. And you’ve seen some pretty, like extraordinary growth in 2021. Talk us through that period of time where, you know, because from my perspective, and correct me if I’m wrong, but from the, you know, as we’ve kind of journeyed this together, it was pretty consistent, you know, some growth but nothing like crazy, but then all of a sudden, you’ve kept consistent, you’ve stayed committed to it. And you’ve seen some, I don’t want to say like hockey stick growth, but some real significant growth.

Emre  17:36  
I mean, year over year, the first year was four hundred percent. And the second year is twelve hundred percent. And probably I’ll have another four hundred percent this year. Yeah, this is my finance. This is I mean, this is my ability with financing. I can go more. So yeah, the performance on the marketing and awareness side do not match with the performance with financial performance because you need you need to invest heavily on the products to have twelve hundred percent growth. And it’s a net negative cashflow game for me. Or like because yeah, I don’t have a rich uncle. So negative cashflow thing. So yeah, biggest difficulties, cashflow for my business. But I mean, the biggest thing is I realize I have to have a strategy attacking my competitors. And I realize Amazon has a little bit like, if you think a Facebook advertising campaign, or a Google advertising campaign, they have really good like, audiences in some AI machine. You just let them do it.

But on Amazon, Amazon also have to make money out of the advertising. Of course, Google and Facebook does it but they’re not selling actual products. But Amazon was also selling so the advertising platform is pretty much you have to trigger yourself. So I have now more than thirteen or twelve hundred advertising campaigns for a single product. And the system I set up is like if you pause one target, it will affect and other campaigns performance kind of it’s all like connected. But I started with, I think, eight campaigns and I grew this with additional campaigns every month. So my advertising site is pretty much on analytical and heavily you know, invested on that side. My product targeting is amazing because I know my products, I know what I’m doing better. So if you could find various products, and you can attack them and have some really good imcrement in your sales. 

And I really invested on my visuals. Now I’m working with a guy in San Francisco for just managing the visuals just for that. And we’re creating some really amazing visuals now. We are on adding like, literally adding sponsored brand, visuals. Every other week, we change them, you know, seasonality, Valentine’s Day, and this day and that day, you know, these, were just making the brand alive. We do Amazon, … we do Facebook advertising, Google advertising, we do a lot. But the 2021 breakthrough is, I would say, I really use the product targeting really effective. It’s not only keyword game, but it’s also competition within your peers. Right. So if you think that way, there is a huge room to grow your business attacking your competition. Yeah, that’s my thing.

Ben Donovan  21:28  
What’s your mentality without PPC? Are you happy to break even? Are you happy to take a loss? You want to get profit?

Emre  21:36  
So I have two approaches: up to first page, it’s another game; but after the first page, if you’re trying to be within the first three, for let’s say, a keyword, which is really a good one for your product, it’s another game. So before the first page, I really focus on the ACLs number. With ACLs, if I got a good ACLs number, I’ll just duplicate those campaigns. Let’s say, if I find that red yoga mat is working for my I’m just saying this product, you know, for the argument’s sake, for my red yoga mat, then it works. So people are searching wait colors, right? So I can dig in that and create more campaigns on that. So more colors, more something. So I focus on ACLs. And if I can make some sales in some good, you know, numbers and if I realize I’m on the first page, then I only look at the conversion. I don’t care about how much I spent, because there is this halo effect: if you have a really good conversion rate for this specific keywords, no matter what, then you don’t care how much you spend, because there’ll be organic sales. So your product will be ranking organically. And if I catch that moment, then probably I will do a Lightning Deal or some promotional activity. Because if you’re close to the first three spot, then you have to work on the velocity, too. You should sell more, you should sell more. You should sell more. Once you got the point, then, I mean, it’s it’s like really different. I mean, it’s like, up to you, work is quite different when you reach the top. So you have to defend. That’s another story.

Ben Donovan  23:47  
Yeah, for sure. Another story for another day, maybe. Now, that’s really good, though. And, you know, just shows that kind of learning, sort of process that you’ve been on. Talk to us about the journey of like you said, inventory management, cash flow, that would have been one of your bigger challenges over the last year. How have you got around some of that challenge, that logistical challenge.

Emre  24:11  
I mean, I’m still struggling with finding some extra cash. Because, you know, if you’re new, it means you don’t have past data. It means you’re not vert to invest. You’re not vert to lend a lot of money and the conventional banking, it really sucks. Let me be frank with you. It really sucks. They don’t know how to read your numbers. They don’t know nothing about the business. And if you go to, let’s say, specific lenders or specific financial institutions for Amazon that say, and there is another story. I mean, there are difficulties with that system, too. So you’re on your own. It’s not something that, that is a huge problem because if you already created this product and if it’s really selling well, it means your, let’s say creative faculties are working well. So you should find some way to find money. Actually, we work with a really good supplier in the country I’m importing products. And they’re really good at their job and they understand what I’m doing. We just, I think I talk to them, like every other week. I’m not sourcing from China, by the way. 

There is huge set of problems if you’re not getting your products from China, starting from, you know, creating the FBA shipments and tracking those shipments. And I’m really having some problem with that. But other than that, if you are, maybe this is one of the biggest insight I can give you, if you find a product that you can source out of China, number one, your supplier will be amazingly interested in entering Amazon market. If you’re dealing with a Chinese guy, you’re just one guy from you know, we just the little fish in the ocean. But if you go somewhere, Eastern Europe, I don’t know, Africa, Australia, I don’t know. If you find someone out of China, number one, you will have a great relation with your supplier. Number two, you will have an amazing competitive advantage against Chinese suppliers because you’re not buying your product from China. And if you have a competitive price, bam, you have this spot. I mean, consider like sixty, seventy percent of sellers from China. And now you have a product from somewhere else. And Chinese manufacturers do not have that pricing advantage over your product. So it’s amazing that I was lucky with that. So yeah, I’m sorry.

Ben Donovan  27:26  
Sorry. Do you do you have competitors that source their product in China that like the same product as yours?

Emre  27:31  
Um, yes, Chinese manufacturers enter the market. But number one, they can provide the quality. And second one is their pricing cannot match even if they have the quality. So yeah, we have we had I think three or four Chinese manufacturers and sellers enter the market. And somehow they’re doing okay.

Ben Donovan  28:04  
Okay, go on. You say you said twelve hundred percent. 

Emre  28:06  
So, yeah, twelve hundred percent growth, you cannot manage it without some extra funding, unsustained. If you have, like, really good suppliers believing in your business, it’s now becoming like, “Hey, this month, I’m not going to pay this amount of money because my sales are dropping. So can you just, you know, lend me another 30 days…” and yeah, this is how I manage. 

Ben Donovan  28:06  
That’s been a real key for you haven’t I remember you saying. Really read the terms. And I think that’s a key for so many people is trying to establish those good terms as soon as you can. Because that alone will help you scale so much. 

Emre  28:49  
I mean, I would say you had to have a really good relation with your supplier. You should let her let him know what’s going on. Even though you don’t have any transaction. I always call him like every other week. And we have a chat like an hour. So what’s happening, this happened, this is what we’re planning. So probably this variation will be doing better so why don’t you you know, kind of stuff it’s like, he’s that our team member like we discuss these matters. 

Ben Donovan  29:29  
Wow, that’s awesome. What is your I mean, I don’t know how much you do and don’t want to share like in terms of numbers and stuff, but in terms of like the size of like, what’s your biggest order? What’s kind of the one level that you’re talking that you’ve kind of said you know what, we’re going to get behind this product and go crazy with it.

Emre  29:48  
I think this is my craziest year. I did 225,000 units and it’s an obligation.

Yeah. And yeah, we’re doing good. Yeah, this is a huge risk, I know. But considering, like, let me tell you this, I am now setting the standards in my category. Alright. So I know every competitor I have. I know every new product. I spot them within the first 10 days. I have the system, like I’m following up. And I track my search volumes. I track everything. So I have like, initial, you know, the numbers that the catch will effect three months later, four months later, those kind of system. And last year, I haven’t sold maybe 300,000 units, because I didn’t have stocks available. So I’m pretty much sure that I’m going to sell this year. And I did that commitment.

Ben Donovan  31:17  
You’re a legend, I love it. So good. Like it kind of it kind of been easy. You know, we talk about it and some of the great successes you’ve had this year. And there’s it’s easy to think like wow, Emre is doing great, but must be stressful for you.

Emre  31:34  
Tell me about it.

Ben Donovan  31:35  
How many hours a week do you work?

Emre  31:40  
Like my daily routine, I have my checklists and SOPs, I include them every month. It took like, two to three hours to make sure that everything is on track on Amazon, on Google, on everywhere. And then another three to four hours working on a project if I have like creating a new catalog, new pictures, and have something. So my daily routine is like six to seven hours a day.

Ben Donovan  32:13  
Okay, yeah, I thought maybe it’s more. What does your team look like?

Emre  32:20  
We have a team for outside traffic. And they’re doing really well, with some Google SEO and Google advertising. Now we’re planning to have a TikTok presence, social media presence. And there’s one person here, as I mentioned, for only visuals. His job is to find the best visuals; to find competitive visuals; to find seasonal visuals. He’s managing that. And I have my Pay Per Click advertising on Amazon is run by an agency. But actually, everything passed through me. I have to see the bulk uploads. I have to see the placements. I walk through every step. Not because I’m a control freak. But if you work with an agency, the chances are they have their own way. They don’t know your product as well as you. So you have to check everything like this is I mean, this is another mistake I made. And I know, I spent thousands of dollars just relying on an advertising agency who is one of the best, I mean, companies. But I realized they did some bad mistakes. So I had to, you know, check everything. That’s my insight.

Ben Donovan  33:54  
Yeah. There’s still that the fact that you’re able to do that in you know, six to seven hours a day and run a significant sized businesses. You know, I think good news for a lot of people out there that shows you what what can be done if you’re focused and you know, work hard, but also work smart. So, yeah, I’m impressed by that. It’s good.

Emre  34:13  
Yeah, and I don’t, I don’t work weekends, and we try to go on vacations. I just have my screen and computer. I can work anywhere. Like it’s an amazing thing. I don’t have a manager to report. I mean, these are great. Let me tell you this, this comes with a caveat you know, the cash flow and if things go bad, you’re responsible, but I don’t have a manager to report.  I don’t have to convince someone to, you know, for one day off for like, I don’t know, my cousin is, you know, there is a wedding and I have to go so I should go and you know, convince my manager. No, there’s none. 

Ben Donovan  35:00  
That’s I think, you know, a lot of people that are listening, that’s what they’re dreaming of. And that’s what they want to do. It’s not to not work, but it’s to build something they love, but then also have the flexibility to do more of what matters and be there for the important moments for the kids and all that kind of stuff. So it’s, it’s really encouraging. You are, you know, talking about seeing some big growth and taking on investment, cash flow, you know, I won’t ask, but I can imagine you’re not paying yourself a load of money right now. You know, we always say that the biggest moment of earning is going to be when you potentially sell a business. Is that in your, you know, headspace at the moment selling this brand? What, what’s your long term thoughts?

Emre  35:44  
I mean, I’m, it’s very early for this brand, because I know the path to grow it. And I think I’m considering two things: number one, if a business … , if someone wants to buy my products, there must be a couple of reasons. One could be they have better teams, and they have some extra funds so that they can expand my business, and which I will try to do. Number two is they have a portfolio and my product is pretty much strategy for that portfolio, they would be buying for that reason. So both reason, I’m pretty much ignorant when I try to, you know, understand why a company would buy my product. So I will wait for a while. And I will I have a roadmap to grow this. And I will, as I mentioned, I will do three, four launches within the next three years. And after that, we will see, but,  I’m not spending a lot. I don’t have really luxury car, I did all I have just gone to the business itself. So it’s not like I have like literally months like over five hundred thousand dollars of sale. But I’m not, you know, going to a Rolex store and buy a Rolex instead, I’m just investing everything to the business.

Ben Donovan  37:24  
Yeah, I wish of wish I had that. I remember my first 50 grand month, and I thought I’m gonna be a millionaire. It’s gonna be amazing. And I, you know, I definitely spent more money than I should have done. This is the first time I was really growing quickly with business. And then you know, you realize it because nobody taught me I just sort of taught myself at first. And you realize how cashflow intensive this business is, and all of a sudden, you’re, you know, 500 grand in a month. That’s, that’s absolutely insane. But you recognize that, actually, there’s still so much more potential in this. And it’s going to require, you know, a lot of this cash to keep going. But that’s why I asked, right, because it must be tempting for you to think well, I could cash out here and that’s safe and secure. But you got all of this invested and you’re like “No, I’m just going to keep on going … .” Yes. Impressed.

Emre  38:13  
I mean, I had three separate offers. It’s really tempting, you know, sell out and buy a new home, but … ?

Ben Donovan  38:24  
And what is the motivation behind that? Like, why? You know, why wouldn’t you just sell it and buy the nice home? What’s stopping you?

Emre  38:32  
Um, because I, I believe I can sell like 25 folds more. Like if they offered me a million dollars, so I know there was a room for it to be $25 million business. I’m pretty sure about that.

Ben Donovan  38:47  
Crazy. Are you working towards that goal like that a number in your head? Are you just like, I’m just gonna keep going for three years and see what happens?

Emre  38:55  
Uh no, I have a pretty solid plan. Until I think I plan everything in my mind until twenty-twenty-seven. Yeah, because, you know, if I know my category, if I know how to create a product, how to assess, let’s say, a product, so and cash flow and everything I did wrong. So I have a plan to create new products and beat the competition and kind of stuff and I have pretty much a solid strategic plan to scale up and grow with your portfolio’s making products. 

Ben Donovan  39:38  
Awesome, man. Crazy. Good stuff. I can’t wait to see it all unfold, man. It’s gonna be super exciting. Super exciting. What advice would you give them to someone that’s just starting out, you are on a real scaling phase. And you know, your world is maybe different. You’re talking about twelve hundred campaigns and they’re like, what’s a campaign? You know, what would you say to someone that is just starting out? What should be their focus? What should be their mentality when they’re launching a brand right now?

Emre  40:07  
Um, number one thing I would say, just work on your product. And product selection is not something that you do through Helium 10 product. I don’t know what the tool is called, but it’s not a keyword game. It’s not like some technical stuff going on. And there are some computer programmers working on this thing. No, it’s just a product. I mean, you are a professional customer, no one is more professional than you. So if you think you will buy a product, which already you bought, and you think there are ways to improve it, then go for it. And number two, you should have this paradigm. Amazon is not only a platform, it’s also your competitor. So whatever it does, it means something. So this year, I mean, recently, they changed this to step keywords, those magical limbs kind of stuff. And it’s now against Terms of Service. It says to me, “Hey, the game is changed, you have to bring some outside traffic. Do not work on links.” Amazon says us things like that. So just listen to Amazon. What it does, because it’s your rival, also a competitor. 

And third thing is, you must have a plan with your cash flow, believe me, I mean, the chances are, if you really choose the right product, so your business will scale up no matter what. And probably you will need more cash on the road. So make sure like, I mean, let’s say you pick a product, the best seller for that product is selling five hundred units. So if you are going to beat the best seller, probably you will be selling five hundred something, which means you will be selling fifteen thousand units a month, like forty-five thousand units three months. And if you have a lead time with your manufacturer, three months, so the chances are you will order forty-five thousand before six months. This is my thing. I mean, yeah, you have to order literally early. And when it comes to that phase, you must be ready to scale up your business. Everything. And yes, I strongly recommend Ben Donovan’s videos on product selection, on the understanding of Amazon catalog, Amazon environment, because I have my notes, still. I have my notes like this rectangular thing like visual, review, prize, and you know, you have to focus product and things like that. I strongly recommend to watch all the videos. 

Ben Donovan  43:19  
Thanks, man. Yeah, and what would you whether it’s, you know, a community like BBU, or whatever out there, like just in terms of joining a community of like-minded people on the same journey? Like, would you say what, what would you say is the value in that, you know, whether it’s your hours or something else?

Emre  43:36  
I mean, it will keep you updated, first of all. There are changes like Amazon changed its FBA fees in the US market. And I realized they didn’t only change the prices based on weight measure, now they shift to volumetric weight measure. And it’s amazing to know that so probably someone will be like, what’s going on type of question, and some other guy will be answering that question, which is amazing. Just to watch what’s going on. Number one, and number two, we’ll find someone really professional to discuss with something new, or in my case, I have some specific troubles and I emailed you and we had I think a couple of times the Zoom call, and I learned a lot so having someone knows or experience what to have right now is amazing. 

Ben Donovan  44:40  
No, that’s awesome, man. That’s awesome. Is there anything else that you think that I should have asked you that we haven’t talked about yet?

Emre  44:48  
Um, not actually. But I think we should do something for like, advanced sellers, too, soon. I believe there’ll be more in the community, then we should go, you know, we should have some advanced thoughts, too. I believe it so. Because I can’t find anything when you reached your level, like, I can’t find how to select your product, how to create your first campaign kind of stuff. But it gets really difficult when you reach that point. So you need something like, how should I strategize my backlinks so that this happens kind of stuff? You know what I mean?  Yeah, we should work on that, too.

Ben Donovan  45:43  
Yeah, no, I understand. I agree. And I think that’s the vision that we definitely have for BBU is really building out, you know, that, that support at that next level, because my vision for it and my passion is to see real brands of you know, significant size over the next few years be developed in the community. And so, yeah, we appreciate massively your input into that community, Emre, you know, every post that you create get so much value, give so much value get get so much good feedback. And so yeah, we massively appreciate you in the community and coming on today. It’s been an honor. So thank you. Thank you. Thank

Emre  46:19  
Me, too. Thanks a lot.

Ben Donovan  46:21  
I told you, right, I told you he was a legend. What an absolute legend. He is humble. He is down to earth. He is super smart, super driven. But I love the balance that he brought to that: he’s built this business with pretty much everything outsource that needs to be outsourced, agencies working with him. And he’s working six to seven hours a day, which when you consider he’s got a fast growing million dollar business. And he’s grown up just in the last couple of years. It’s pretty impressive, takes weekends off to spend with his family. And just he’s a smart, smart operator. So I’m so glad that you got to hear from one of our BBU members. They’re about all they’re doing or they’re growing in and how they’ve got there. If you’ve liked this episode, do me a favor, hit the thumbs up on YouTube, hit subscribe on the podcast player you’re listening to. And if you want to learn the strategies and tactics and blueprint that Emre is talking about in this episode, make sure you do check out the training that we have available for you in the description and also check out the upcoming Brand Builder Summit. Again, details will be in the description for that and I will see you in the next episode real soon.