My product sounds like a scam. I do not market on social media (with my face or personality) because it is the lowest form of human interaction, IMO.
I have been around long enough to understand most will fail - even those succeeding now. The market is already crashing, 50% of all revenue exchanging hands in the US is from the top 10% of income earners. This means in a down economy, all your dropshipping revenues are going to the toilet.
I have wanted to build a company for a long time that actually helps people. But.. people don't want to be helped, they want a story and false promises; which is why I HATE social media. I am an SEO and Google Ads person since 2004 (Adwords).
I didn't jump on a lot of fashionable trend income models because those models will die. Probably stupid in hindsight, I should have taken as much money as quickly as possible when times were easy.
If you are following trends (tiktok shops, dropshipping, etc) take the biggest amount of money you can, put it in a can, and put as much risk on the bank as possible. Why? Because they will fail. For one, because of the pace of iteration, there is no evergreen niche unless you are at the root of manufacturing or production. For second, because the system is designed against you in every way imaginable... and un-imagined.
The global economy is designed to collapse and force further consolidation. Unfortunately for us, we are in the last consolidation event, AI. The collapse - currently underway - is one you can't get out of by design. There will be no rebound. The wealth class will put every effort into AI to replace the common people. This is 4D chess, they've already won.
So, what should people do? Well, they need to stick together. Business 101 is cash flow. Cash flow trends need to shift away from corporations. Imagine simply - visa takes 3%, amazon 15%, google ads 20%, government 20%, etc - The majority of your gross revenue is designed to trickle up to the elite class. If the government or corporations give free revenue, it will still 100% trickle up to the elite class - because people will continue to use the systems put in place to siphon time.
Without further complexities, the simplest way to achieve a unified social goal (not benefiting the elite, but the 75% who actually do the work) is to create a better cash flow loop. John buys milk, Mary buys corn, Sally buys wool - no intermediaries (corporations) - an internal loop cash flow cycle.
I started a 501c3, it took 9 months and $18k in legal fees. The idea is to take Goodwill (nonprofit) programs, turning $10b annually and put people to work (company 2/stage 1 of my nonprofit). The Goodwill takes free inventory, hires "disabled" people at minimum wage, and does absolutely zero for their community. The majority of revenue is moved to corporate salaries and preferential rent programs for their warehouses (they lease warehousing from insiders).
$10b goes a long way to put people to work. 2nd-hand inventory (and donated new inventory) is not the only benefit, the nonprofit also has access to new product at true wholesale pricing (or below).
The Offer:
People can become product vendors (including dropshipping nonprofit priced/sourced products) for a for-profit entity (100% owned by the nonprofit). In other words, 100% of revenue goes back to people, no more insiders, no more corporations, just closed loop cash flow.
Some people will be in the loop for monetization, but other people (the majority) will use features for convenience and public good.
The problem: 100% free inventory? It seems like a scam.
Everything we see on social media is marketing. There is no longer natural organic interaction that isn't tilted for engagement. Everyone is selling something - me included ofc.
Long form discussion is great, but the time to implementation is a problem with the current overhead. I shot myself in the foot because I refused to spend half my life making entertainment for people to grow a following on social, but it seems the only place to grow anymore.
Even knowing the solution, people want entertainment. The highest followed and "trusted" social media accounts are the best garbage sellers in the world. I don't know how to compete with them. As my specialty is direct advertising, which is not working anymore, I'm not sure where to turn to find my tribe for this.
I know who they are, unemployed, ecom dreamers, small business owners, etc. Millions are unemployed and unemployment has increased over 3 million just in the last 12 months - before Trump started federal layoffs. People need work, and there are others willing to hustle but they want to buy into real scams. Why? Because social validation. If they have one million followers, it means their voice has value. Ask crypto degens how that works out, or basically any fanatical guru group.
So, how do I make something real to people? It's a company where 100% of revenue goes back to people. Ohhh, shiiiit, he's scammin people. Literally every comment. Do people understand what it takes to get a 501c3 designation from the IRS? No, I don't expect them to, but I naively believed having "nonprofit" would give some instant validation. It did not.
You can review one of the long-form landing pages here > https://node.yemi.world/op/join-lng-vendors/
I am looking for serious harsh feedback. Anyone reading this is free to take me up on any vendor program for free if they have value to add.
Getting product is not hard, getting vendors is what I need. Getting the "validation" and organic growth.
I tried taking the UGC angle, making videos and earning free inventory credits for your shop - similar responses.
Maybe I don't understand how to communicate with current trends, idk.
I haven't talked about the actual shop. It is meant to be Whatnot meets 2nd hand. However, dropshippers have a storefront. They don't need to spend on Shopify and my APIs automatically synced and optimize SEO for Google shopping, Ebay (where the nonprofit only pays 2% as a seller), and Amazon.
I'm still building the frontend. I'll scale the development once I have some idea if I can get traction.
My sample marketing I ran 6 months ago is not working today. I think people are not in the mood for anything except real money jobs. Which I understand. What people don't understand is that jobs are not coming back.
I need feedback, I need content, I need partners (hustle partners, not financial).
Here is my 2cents:
Believe me or not, the global economy is crashing. It will be loooong and slow. A fast crash is meant to rebound, this depression is meant to starve free flow of capital.
#1 - if you're into ecom, ONLY do high end niche products for wealthy people. Don't tag along trends - they disappear - find an evergreen pain point. This is true if you're in the service industry too.
#2 - if you're "successful" now, make sure your inventory is on your LOC 100%. Keep your cash in a piggy bank and any credit lines far away from personal guarantees. The system is designed to allow businesses to fail, use the system to your advantage. Don't leverage a mortgage or any other personal lines of credit. Recessions make billionaires, don't be their exit liquidity.
I should have been a multi-multi-millionaire 2 or 3 times over. I have made terrible mistakes, mostly in judging the character of those around me (still my fault).
My real life timeline:
2004: Helicopter Pilot
2010: Developed non-gmo brand during recession and scaled to $200k (making 6 figures in the good ole days was a good business) - sold equipment and exited due to small margins for larger operation (probably a mistake to exit, I should have scaled and exited) - first touch on product development
2012: K9 training business - fully branded with original programs - scaled to $350k with one person (went to my ex and kids in divorce) - learned labor is more valuable and easier to scale than product (it also has more evergreen value)
2020: Hemp (CBD) branded vertical - from seed to bottle (with 3 technology patents) - first outside investor ($10m) - COVID/crash/exit(forced) - huge learning curve first time with outside money - 3 states (CO, SC, GA) and 250k sq/ft greenhouses
2020 > now - Developed proprietary and patent-pending trading algorithm (in progress) and working on my nonprofit company.
My username - iwantmycryptoback - is a reference to mining and investing into bitcoin "farms" (cough, cough, they stole my crypto) in 2014 - what remaining crypto I had mined was in Coinbase who is notorious for locking accounts - I came on reddit to bitch at them.
I also built a social starter for the nonprofit at https://yemi.world
