I'm back from my trip to Idaho with some good news regarding my health.  AND while I was gone, the first shipment of inventory arrived from China and it's time to get things rolling.  I also discuss how my things shifted from my original plan after running into the Hazmat issue I talked about before.

For the full transcript head to http://brandingblitz.com/7/ or see below.

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Hello again! I'm JR, and you're listening to episode 7 of the Branding Blitz!

If you're subscribed to the show, you've probably noticed a break since the last episode was released. If you're not subscribed to the show, you should probably pause this episode and go subscribe. Don't worry, I'll wait for you.

Anyway that gap was due to a number of things. The biggest is that the day after recording episode 6 I went on a trip to Idaho to visit some of my wife's family. We'd been planning this trip for a while and in some ways it turned into an inconvenient time to travel with my health issues and trying to start up this business. But it actually ended up being a providential blessing. The dry air up in Idaho made a HUGE difference in my health. I was able to breath again, I was able to go outside and enjoy the fresh air. I wasn't completely cured, but it made a big enough difference that I was actually able to do some light exercises which I believe will help build up muscles overtime to gradually pull my spine back into shape. So that was encouraging... in fact it was encouraging enough that we made the decision to move there later this month.

While I was in Idaho, I also got a call from the pulmonologist with the date for my appointment. After waiting several weeks to even get something scheduled, we knew we wanted to stay in Oklahoma long enough to have the tests done and see what the pulmonologist has to say about the results. So in a little under two weeks I have my appointment, and then I've got some people coming to help load up a truck the next couple of days after that, and off we go to Idaho.

So part of the delay with a new episode has been due to planning and working toward that move. But I also got hit pretty hard with breathing issues after we got back. Luckily, I had a handful of good days where I was able to get some important things done, but then I ended up spending several days in bed. So I'm just now getting caught up enough to record another episode.

As I mentioned at the end of the last episode, I had a box of inventory from China waiting for me when I got back. And I was able to get that all checked out, processed, and shipped to Amazon in those good days that I had before ended up essentially bedridden.

Before I get into that, I have an update on the Hazmat issue I talked about in episode 6. About 2 weeks after I opened that ticket requesting that the product be investigated or they at least tell me why they think it's Hazmat, they finally changed it so it is no longer considered a Hazmat product. Still no indication of why it got flagged in the first place or why it wasn't unflagged with my initial review.

So a process that I was assured would take 3 or 4 days ended up taking over a month – nearly 5 weeks - to get resolved.

I had put a lot of upfront work into getting ready for my first product. I had ordered samples, ordered my top competitor's product to compare quality, designed packaging, dug into a bunch of relevant government regulations, did a fair amount of back and for with the supplier, and was ready to place an order. If I hadn't decided to create the listing to get the FNSKU before placing the order, I would have been in for a huge disappointment when my inventory got here and Amazon refused to take the shipment.

I'm also glad I decided not to simply wait for it when they told me it would be 3-4 days or I would just now be placing my order a month and a half later.

I still think this will be a good product to sell down the line, and I'm glad that I've already gotten past the Hazmat issues so there won't be any issues when that time comes. But I ended up drastically changing course.

In the days immediately after getting the product flagged as Hazmat, my wife and I had did some serious thinking and discussion about how to proceed. And ultimately, I think that pause we were forced to take caused us to come up with a better plan for our current situation.

We decided to look for a product with less competition and with a lower cost per unit so we could get more inventory. We happened to also be able to find one which could be produced and shipped faster too, so that was a big bonus for us.

We still like the original product and have some big longterm plans for it, so we wanted one in the same market so that we could sell them under the same brand.

Up to this point, I'd been doing all my searching for suppliers on Alibaba, but I decided to give switch it up. I'd tried AliExpress briefly before but hadn't found anything worthwhile. Either the prices were too high or the shipping was too high. But I'd heard other people talking about finding good test products on there, so I decided to give it another shot.

I came across a related product which has low enough volume that it isn't really worth pursuing on it's own, but it makes sense as part of this brand, and was able to find a good deal on AliExpress for a couple variations of this product. But more importantly, as I looked into this I found another product which I wouldn't have thought of otherwise. It is a consumable accessory for the product I was considering ordering. It's still not super high volume, and it has a low pricepoint, but the competition is low. And even though it sells for a low price, the profit margins are still really good – even after Amazon takes their cut.

Plus, I was able to read through the negative reviews on some of the other Amazon sellers and make some adjustments to help fix some of the complaints. I'm not going to get rich selling this product, but I think it will be a good start for where we are with very limited funds.

In the end, I ordered 100 units each of 2 variations of the product I started out looking for on AliExpress. Those are mostly there to add some meat to the brand's product catalog – AND because I can't really give away any of the consumables without having these to give away with it. The consumable product is useless on it's own so it wouldn't be much of a giveaway if that was the only product I had.

I haven't decided for sure if or when I'm going to do a giveaway but I wanted the option to be there. In the end I expect each variation to be able to grow to the point where it is at least making back my initial investment in profit on a monthly basis, so I'd call that a good investment even though it won't be a huge part of my overall business.

The consumable, I ordered 400 units of as I expect it to sell in a significantly higher volume. In fact after I ordered, I wondered if I should have ordered more.

But here's the great thing – I was able to get all three products from the same seller, and because of the size of my order, the seller not only offered me volume discounts but also free DHL shipping. And because there wasn't much in the way of customization, I was able to have the product at my door 12 days – less than 2 weeks – after placing my order.

So when the time comes to re-order I can get the product here quickly. I suspect I'll be able to get shipments even faster in Idaho as I'll be in a way less rural area.

The interesting thing is I was actually having a really hard time finding this product on Alibaba, so if I hadn't given AliExpress another try I probably wouldn't be moving forward with this product. It's an incredibly basic item, so I know I could have it made cheaper direct from a manufacturer, but there will be some tooling costs and a really high volume order involved when that time comes.

For now, I've got really got profit margins with the price I got on AliExpress, and I got great service from the seller, so I'm happy to continue working with them.

I'll post a picture on the blog of the single small box that all 600 units came in. Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that other great factor. All three products are very small and lightweight. The “heaviest” weighs about half an ounce or 15 grams for those of you on the metric system – including the packaging.

Anyway, if you'd like to see that picture, head over to brandingblitz.com/7 – you'll also find a full transcript of this episode. And it's a great place to leave a comment and give me some feedback.

If you've got any questions head over to brandingblitz.com/ask and leave me a message.

And if you