I used clickfunnels, shopify, and FB ads to generate my results.

First, I’ll discuss some things I did RIGHT:
✅ Invested in mentor ship, education, consulting, and masterminds.

✅ Invested in inventory (physical products) and turned my basement into a super efficient fulfillment center.

✅ Competed against industry giants and took a piece of the pie with good advertising, quality product, and great customer service.

✅ Documented a “daily log” which included test results and actions that worked or didn’t work. This helped me optimize the business quick.

✅ I was brave and just went for it. I started this business and had fun in the process. Don’t overthink it.

Now let’s discuss the obstacles that really hurt my business. I’ll include “how” I got around these obstacles also.

❌ I didn’t diversify my payment processors.

I solely relied on Stripe and PayPal then I paid the ultimate price. Both of them shut me down without reason and held money for 6 months. I had over $30,000 held at once during this time, so it was a pain to pay this out of pocket.

My solution: I got new MSP’s (merchant service providers) such as First Data and Chase Paymentech. (There’s a ton out there).

❌ I got screwed over by my supplier in China

This was an obstacle for me, after spending $20k on an order of inventory from someone I’ve bought from consistently, I received much needed inventory that was of lesser quality than I paid for.

This made me angry but this happened around the same time Stripe and Paypal froze us. So we just dealt with it.

My solution: Find a reliable supplier but don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Don’t put yourself in a vulnerable position, if someone screws you over do what you can to get your money back (I needed to ship out inventory so I didn’t have the time to do this).

❌ I didn’t invest in chargeback protection

I got SMACKED with chargebacks (later on, after PayPal and Stripe shut us down). This happened when we started getting orders from places like Chicago and New York. We’d get chargebacks from customers that already got their item, so they’d get the item + their refund.

I tried fighting them but it never got overturned.

My solution: Invest in Signifyd (chargeback protection and insurance). This will help prevent chargebacks before they happen!

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If you’re reading this post please drop me a “like” and comment below to say hello! Or feel free to ask a question, I’ll try to answer all of them.

Thanks for reading.

Nick Guadagnano