I would like to share with you how Mike McClary quit his corporate job in 2013 & built a $3M per year Amazon business. Mike has sold millions of his own products on Amazon, and is one of the top sellers in the Amazon Vendor program. He has multiple successful Amazon businesses and is the co-creator of the latest course, Amazing Selling Machine 7, in the series of Amazing Selling Machine programs. This program has helped thousands of entrepreneurs build highly profitable businesses selling physical products on Amazon. I am living proof that this program works.
Amazon is an amazing platform for online business owners to broaden their customer based and boost their sales, but learning how to do it is both an art and a science. Anybody can start a business on Amazon, but it takes a lot of hard work, time, knowledge, and energy in order to sustain it over the long-term. I am a big believer in investing in yourself and in your business. Who I am today and the success that I’ve achieved are all the result of the investments that I’ve made in myself. In the words of Warren Buffet, “The best investment that you can make is in yourself.”
If you want to grow and take your business to the next level, you have to learn from those who have achieved the success you are striving for. Are you ready to take charge of your future and gain the financial freedom that you desire? If so, there is no better place to start than to learn how Mike McClary quit his corporate job in 2013 & built a $3M per year Amazon business.
Watch the video below:
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Do you want to learn the proven system for building a successful Amazon business? CLICK HERE for instant access to a free Amazon training course!
I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike about his journey to success. Here is a sneak peak of some of the topics we discussed during our interview:
I know you started off in the corporate world, working a 9-5 job, and since then, you have transitioned to being a full-time entrepreneur. Do you want to share with people how you got started with Amazon?
I was a consultant for a large accounting firm called Ernst and Young for five years, and then I decided to go off on my own as an independent consultant and I ended up getting a long-term contract with a Telecom company. I did that for twelve years. Back in 2012, I loved the team that I was working with, and so I decided to become a full-time employee. The moment that I took a full-time job with them, it felt different. Now I was a ‘company guy’ and working every day, making them money. Luckily, I had a great team, but I immediately started to think about the direction that I wanted my life to take. I just wasn’t fulfilled. I had a good job, my family was happy, but I was working A LOT. I didn’t have a lot of freedom, just a lot of responsibilities.
Later that year, a friend of mine forwarded me a copy of “The Amazing Selling Machine.” I thought it was the cheesiest name I had ever heard, but I watched the video for it and I got hooked because the business model made sense. It was, “Why sell other peoples’ products? Why not start your own brand?” It talked about the profit potential and the freedom, and how you can automate your entire business, and that really appealed to me. Anything that allowed me to free up my time sounded awesome. I signed up for the training in March of 2013 and I never looked back. I launched my first product on June 2nd of 2013 with my brother, who is now my business partner and best friend, we made our first sale, and by the end of the year, I was putting in my notice at my job. It was so cool to be able to do that so quickly. We hit a $1 million in revenue in our first year. It’s amazing how fast your business can grow, organically, once you focus on things like great product quality, listings, and images. We have multiple businesses now, and we are doing just under $3 million/year, across six different income streams.
Did you envision that you would experience the kind of success that you have been able to achieve with your Amazon business, or did this come as a surprise to you?
You mentioned visualization, and this was a huge reason why I was so successful when I first started. I remember the moment I made the decision that I was going to create something myself, and when I took that first step I felt that I had already accomplished it. I imagined myself getting up in morning and not going to my corporate job, but instead working from home. When you do that, it’s amazing how much quicker those things start to manifest in your life, but I didn’t imagine that it would get this big. I didn’t need it to get this big. I don’t always think of success in dollar terms, but rather it’s in terms of lifestyle. Success for me was being able to quit my job and spend more time with my family. Of course it’s tied to the money, but that’s not what I visualized first. When I actually made the decision to quit my 9-5 job, that is when I opened up my mind to the possibilities that were out there.
For someone that wants to sell on Amazon, I always recommend a course like The Amazing Selling Machine. But people often ask me what the initial start-up costs will be, in terms of launching an Amazon business. How much should someone expect to spend or invest?
I’ll give you three different levels because everyone has different resources available to them. If you truly don’t have any money at all, then it doesn’t make sense to start a business, but you can get started in the Amazon business for as low as $50. You can start practicing something called “Retail Arbitrage” if you don’t have any resources and you want to see what a business is like. It’s as simple as going out and finding unique products in your local area and trying to sell them online.
Above that, if you are someone that doesn’t have a ton of resources, I think you can start off with $500 in inventory. It’s not very difficult to find a domestic-based supplier. It isn’t a lot of money when you’re talking about building a brand and a business.
If you want to fast track things, I would say that $50,000 is the sweet spot, which would include professional training, inventory, and some money to spend doing promotions. I don’t know of any businesses or franchises that can get started without that amount of money.
A lot of people try to build an Amazon business on their own, and they end up making a lot of mistakes and losing money. Why do you think a training program is important?
It’s not so much a question of can you get there on your own, but how can you get there quicker? I could have pieced together some things and made some money on the side, but I couldn't have gotten to where I'm at today without training. More importantly, I know I couldn’t have gotten to where I am today without the training network of like-minded entrepreneurs who have inspired and supported me. In 2013, when people were starting to make some nice #’s in their businesses, it was addictive to bare witness to their success stories. One piece of advice that someone in my network gave me dramatically took my business to the next level. This is why I love being a part of mastermind groups because they allow you to connect with other motivated people who inspire you to achieve massive success.
You have evolved The Amazing Selling Machine (ASM) over the years. What are some of the new things that you have done with regards to the training?
The new training program is completely new – every single video. We went through the entire eight modules and evaluated every single one and determined whether we were going to keep it, update it, or replace it with something new. There are several key areas where Amazon has changed, so we wanted to make sure that the training is the most up-to-date possible.
But the focus on building a brand and a long-term strategy is still the same; it is the core foundation of the entire business.
We won’t teach you anything that will put your business at risk, but we focus on getting in the market fast. From day one of this ASM course, you will be looking for your first product. We have also decided to partner up with some companies that have some amazing tools. Lastly, we recognize that not everyone wants to build a multi-million dollar business and that is OK, so we are focusing on people that have other important life goals. We strive to automate their businesses so that they can do the things that they want to do.
We don’t consider this to be an Amazon business. Rather, this is a physical products business where you are growing your brand. We are offering a free Amazon training course that will teach you how to build a successful Amazon business. In our in-depth course, once we get your products selling, we start talking about what is next for YOU. Amazon is only one component of your overall business. We will tell you how you can grow and expand your business so that it becomes an asset and a cash-flow generating machine.
What are some of the success stories from people who have taken your course that stand out for you?
There are too many to name, but I know of a young Romanian couple that didn’t even speak English when they started selling. They had very little money and had a hard time understanding the language, so they were literally watching the videos and then going to Google translate to try and understand what the training was telling them. They got their first product up and running, and now they are making well over $1 million/year. They are using that money to help build a school for children in Romania. They are a perfect model for what this business could and should be. They are in it to help everyone else grow.
What is some advice that you would give to someone who has a 9-5 job, is stressed out, is trying to pay their bills, and who doesn't have a lot of time to devote to their family and friends?
Start thinking about why it is that you want to do what it is that you want to do. Find your ‘why’. Start planning it, visualize where you will be, and imagine that you are already living that dream. That is what will help you get to the next step. Other than that, if you are going to make this leap, spend a little bit of time on it every single day. Build the habit. Habits can be trained. If you force yourself to start doing little things, you will find yourself doing it more and more, and over time. It will help you accomplish what you want to do. Lastly, bring your family into your ‘why' and the process, which will help you focus on it even more and accomplish everything that you strive to do while receiving the support from your loved ones.
I’m so grateful that I was able to share with my audience how Mike McClary quit his corporate job in 2013 & built a $3M per year Amazon business. I hope his story inspires and motivates you to not only build a successful Amazon business, but also your own brand. In the words of Richard Branson, “Don’t wait until you are big before you begin building your brand. Build a brand from scratch alongside your business.” If Mike McClary can do it, so can you!
Do you want to learn the proven system for building a successful Amazon business? CLICK HERE for instant access to a free Amazon training course!
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