This “Mompreneur” was SCARED to start her Amazon FBA business. Now she makes millions.
While I was at the SellerCon event in Orlando, Florida I had the pleasure of interviewing Charity DeVries, who is a very successful Amazon seller.
In 2015, she started her Amazon business, Aroma Outfitters, an essential oil supply company that sells storage and travel cases, diffusers and other products.
Are you ready to learn how this mompreneur achieved massive success? For all the stay-at-home Mom’s out there that have a desire to create more freedom in their lives, this is an inspiring interview that you don't want to miss!
Watch the video below:
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
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Do you want to learn how to build a profitable Amazon FBA physical products business? CLICK HERE to get my FREE Amazon FBA training!
This “Mompreneur” was SCARED to start her Amazon FBA business.
Charity’s husband had a desire to be an entrepreneur, and she loved essential oils. They found a gap in the market and went for it. Today, she has built a million-dollar business selling on Amazon. Here is a sneak peek of my inspiring interview with Charity, where she talks about how she built a successful business selling on Amazon.
How did you start selling on Amazon?
My husband and I joined the ASM6 program 2.5 years ago. That is what launched our online business. We went through the modules, took to heart what they were doing, and took action every day. We built the foundational pieces of our brand and company, put them into place, and continued to add more products over time. Today, I’m excited to say that we have created a 7-figure per year Amazon business.
What made you want to join ASM and sell on Amazon?
At first, I was petrified. I've never been an entrepreneur. For me, that was really scary. I sometimes feel like an entrepreneur is a code word for unemployed. My husband is very entrepreneurial by nature. He's never been one, but that was something that always appealed to him.
We wanted to be able to have to have freedom of time that comes with being a successful entrepreneur. At first, I didn't understand how this would be possible. All I kept seeing is the amount of money that we had to spend on the course and on inventory. However, once we started thinking about what our long-term investment was, I realized that it made sense.
I soon figured out that ASM is not a scam. It is real and it works.
When we were in our 8th month of running our online business and getting regular deposits into our account from Amazon, that's when it felt real. I'm glad that I didn't let fear hold me back.
What was your personal situation before you started selling on Amazon? Were you a stay-at-home Mom, did you have a full-time job, or did you work from home?
When our second child was born we made the decision that I would stay at home because our kids were 18 months apart. We had two infants in daycare. The numbers weren't adding up, so we decided to downsize our life quite a bit to be able to live off of one income.
When we first started on our Amazon journey, I was doing some side jobs. One of the things that I took on that I hated was working with a friend that had a laundry service business. I would pick up other people's dirty laundry and deliver it back to them. It was miserable.
I knew that there had to be something that we could eventually do together. When we started the ASM course, I had more time than he did to jump into the product research process. When we launch new products I take on the role of product researcher, and my husband focuses on the marketing side of our business. We've come up with clearly defined roles of who does what and we work well together.
As a Mompreneur, how did you manage your time when you first started your Amazon business?
Last year was the first year that both of our kids were in school full-time. When we started our Amazon business, I had one child that was in school full-time and one that was in pre-school, half days.
I tried my best to focus on getting as much done in the morning.
I would wake up @ 5 am and do work before I had to get the kids ready for school. When I put them to bed around 7:30 pm, I would work until 10 pm. I was determined that this business wasn't going to take away time from our family. I didn't want my kids to grow up and be resentful of our business because that's all we were doing.
We were super guarded about how we spent our time. There were so many times where we would get frustrated with ourselves, especially my husband because he is really driven. We would tell ourselves, “If we had 10 things that we had to do, and we only got 2 of them done, at least we got 2 things done!” We still accomplished something and that's all that mattered.
How many products do you sell on Amazon now?
We started with one product and oddly enough, it is still our best-selling, most popular flagship product. We've reiterated it about 4-5 times. We've listened to customer feedback and made improvements. As of today, we have 15 products in total. We had 20 products a couple of months ago, but we are pairing back a bit. It's better for us to focus on products that are profitable and faster-moving, and let the other ones move by the wayside. Our fringe products were sucking away our resources.
How does it feel knowing that 2.5 years ago you were scared to start an Amazon business and now you are sharing your story on stage and helping other people achieve success?
I never believed in a million years that this would be happening to me. It's so interesting to see what life brings. I have a real heart for encouraging people to find themselves in any given situation.
Nothing in life is ever permanent, whether it's success or failure.
When you have a long-term outlook on things, things in your life will change, especially if you are at rock bottom. If you can hang in there and keep moving forward, you will transform your life.
Can you talk about why you think it's so important to build a brand and think bigger than just selling a product on Amazon?
When it comes to branding, one thing that we've done really well is creating a brand around who we are. We’ve got a strong brand story. We know the problems that our products solve for people, and we speak to that. Also, we know who we are as a company. We are very deep rooted in quality. We want every single one of our products to resonate with people.
The last thing that we want to do is just sell a product on Amazon for the sake of selling something.
Because we have established a strong brand, I receive emails every day from customers who say, “I just received your product and I love it.” This was just a spur of the moment email that someone sent me. We've created such a large email list that when we launch products, it’s super easy.
We can't send out an email to everyone because we would get too many sales. We have to segment out our lists over a period of a few weeks. Brand assets, like having a social media following and an email list, helps to insulate your business from change and hard times. There will always be times when your Amazon business will be moving slowly. If you look at retail sales trends, some months are slower than others.
When you have a brand asset, like an email list, you can pull a lever, and send out a discount to help combat those slow periods.
It’s like putting a coat around your business. When you have cold seasons or something changes with Amazon’s algorithms, your business isn't impacted as severely. You have other assets in place that you can draw upon and make sales from.
What are some of the biggest challenges that you faced while building your Amazon business, and what did you learn from those challenges?
We had a situation where our supplier's email address got spoofed. We nearly lost a large sum of money by wire transferring it to a scammer. In our situation, 100% of the money was recovered. However, that's not always the outcome for a lot of people. We had some protection over our business in that respect. That was a challenge, and it could have been discouraging, but we continued to press forward. Today, I have all of my suppliers on Skype and LeadChat. If anything comes through that is different, I have a second way to verify them.
Do you have any advice for someone that has a desire to start an online business, but is on the fence about taking that leap of faith?
There is an acronym that people use, which is that F.E.A.R. is False Evidence Appearing Real. Don't ever let fear hold you back. Never say no, in any given situation, whether that means jumping into an Amazon business or doing something else.
This “Mompreneur” makes millions.
It can be challenging for women to balance the demands that motherhood and a career bring with it. However, Charity has proved that anything is possible. I hope that her success story has inspired you to start your Amazon business. Don't let fear hold you back from living the life of your dreams. As Charity said earlier, fear is merely false evidence appearing real. Are you ready to take a leap of faith?
Do you want to learn how to build a profitable Amazon FBA physical products business? CLICK HERE to get my FREE Amazon FBA training!