This is the first in a series of columns chronicling the entrepreneurial journey of an aspiring e-commerce business owner and the ins and outs of starting an Amazon business.
By Jane Han
SEATTLE ― I've been a journalist for most of my career, but these past few years, I've taken on a new title ― awkward at first, but now my other identity ― as business owner.
Heading into my third year, I now own four trademarked brands spanning from home and kitchen products to small leather goods.
I won't be disclosing the specific items that I sell, but I plan on detailing everything else that was part of my rollercoaster ride into entrepreneurship.
This column is not about a success story because I still struggle on a daily basis. Actually, on an hourly basis.
But I always convince myself to look on the bright side: The fact that I'm still open for business today means I'm getting somewhere.
So let me take you along my journey of how I got started three years ago.
It hadn't been long since I freshly moved to Seattle, the city of coffee, evergreen trees and Amazon, and despite the big move from Dallas, Texas, it was also a time when I was hungry for a new challenge.
I was already getting challenged by my three kiddos every waking moment, especially after transplanting halfway across the country for my husband's new job. But I needed a different kind of challenge.
I continued to write at the time, but even that was in dire need of new inspiration.
After dabbling with a few possibilities, it didn't take long for me to set up my seller account with Amazon. That just seemed like the most obvious first experiment in the city that is home to the insanely popular e-commerce empire.
Now to think of it, it may have been a natural course particularly for me because I've been an entrepreneur at heart all along.
In my recent 10 years alone, I've co-started and continue to run today a party rental business that has become a go-to name among Koreans in the cities we launched. I also started, but prematurely closed due to the Seattle move, an organic baby food delivery service, modeled after Korea's popular baby food subscription services.
Aside from writing, running a business naturally turned out to become my career calling.
So while arriving at the decision of starting a business is a struggle for some people that was the easy part for me. Everything after that, not so much.
In August 2019, I opened my account easily ― although I hear registration with Amazon in itself is a nightmare nowadays ― and I had $2,000 to spend on what I considered an experiment at that time.
I was financially capable of spending more on my online start-up, but I convinced myself that I can and will start small and make it big. I had some doubters around me so I sort of wanted to prove to them as well that it can be done.
What that meant was I had to select a product that was very inexpensive in order to cover my initial cost of goods, shipping from Korea to the U.S. and various other expenses that were necessary in getting my shop rolling.
Fortunately, my product was, in fact, very cheap. It was 450 won (roughly 40 cents) per unit.
If you're reading this, you're probably wondering what can possibly be that cheap that is worth importing from Korea to the U.S.
Let me tell you one thing: I learned from days and weeks of product research there are many, and I mean hundreds, of cheap yet good products out there.
As for what my product is, I'll leave it up to your imagination and maybe some more hints will follow in my next installment.
So with $2000, which I didn't use all of, I was able to purchase a pretty healthy amount of inventory. And weeks later, I successfully put up my first listing in front of Amazon's millions of customers by November 2019.
Since my initial seller registration, it took me three months to get my first product up for sale.
So much had happened in the first three months. So many late night calls with my Korean manufacturer and so many hours in front of the computer wrestling with the 47th error message on the Amazon seller platform for reasons I did not know.
Everything was a first for me and I've made a countless number of first timer mistakes. I still cringe when I think back to some of those episodes.
I wish I kept a daily journal for everything that happened. My memory isn't doing justice, but in my next installment, I'll share some of the real-life details of those first couple months on how I landed my launching products, what I did to contact manufacturers and how I made my first big money decisions.
Jane Han is an e-commerce entrepreneur who currently owns and sells several brands of products on various online platforms. Based in Seattle, she also writes as a freelance correspondent for The Korea Times.
By Jane Han
 |
Heading into my third year, I now own four trademarked brands spanning from home and kitchen products to small leather goods.
I won't be disclosing the specific items that I sell, but I plan on detailing everything else that was part of my rollercoaster ride into entrepreneurship.
This column is not about a success story because I still struggle on a daily basis. Actually, on an hourly basis.
But I always convince myself to look on the bright side: The fact that I'm still open for business today means I'm getting somewhere.
So let me take you along my journey of how I got started three years ago.
It hadn't been long since I freshly moved to Seattle, the city of coffee, evergreen trees and Amazon, and despite the big move from Dallas, Texas, it was also a time when I was hungry for a new challenge.
I was already getting challenged by my three kiddos every waking moment, especially after transplanting halfway across the country for my husband's new job. But I needed a different kind of challenge.
I continued to write at the time, but even that was in dire need of new inspiration.
After dabbling with a few possibilities, it didn't take long for me to set up my seller account with Amazon. That just seemed like the most obvious first experiment in the city that is home to the insanely popular e-commerce empire.
Now to think of it, it may have been a natural course particularly for me because I've been an entrepreneur at heart all along.
In my recent 10 years alone, I've co-started and continue to run today a party rental business that has become a go-to name among Koreans in the cities we launched. I also started, but prematurely closed due to the Seattle move, an organic baby food delivery service, modeled after Korea's popular baby food subscription services.
Aside from writing, running a business naturally turned out to become my career calling.
So while arriving at the decision of starting a business is a struggle for some people that was the easy part for me. Everything after that, not so much.
In August 2019, I opened my account easily ― although I hear registration with Amazon in itself is a nightmare nowadays ― and I had $2,000 to spend on what I considered an experiment at that time.
I was financially capable of spending more on my online start-up, but I convinced myself that I can and will start small and make it big. I had some doubters around me so I sort of wanted to prove to them as well that it can be done.
What that meant was I had to select a product that was very inexpensive in order to cover my initial cost of goods, shipping from Korea to the U.S. and various other expenses that were necessary in getting my shop rolling.
Fortunately, my product was, in fact, very cheap. It was 450 won (roughly 40 cents) per unit.
If you're reading this, you're probably wondering what can possibly be that cheap that is worth importing from Korea to the U.S.
Let me tell you one thing: I learned from days and weeks of product research there are many, and I mean hundreds, of cheap yet good products out there.
As for what my product is, I'll leave it up to your imagination and maybe some more hints will follow in my next installment.
So with $2000, which I didn't use all of, I was able to purchase a pretty healthy amount of inventory. And weeks later, I successfully put up my first listing in front of Amazon's millions of customers by November 2019.
Since my initial seller registration, it took me three months to get my first product up for sale.
So much had happened in the first three months. So many late night calls with my Korean manufacturer and so many hours in front of the computer wrestling with the 47th error message on the Amazon seller platform for reasons I did not know.
Everything was a first for me and I've made a countless number of first timer mistakes. I still cringe when I think back to some of those episodes.
I wish I kept a daily journal for everything that happened. My memory isn't doing justice, but in my next installment, I'll share some of the real-life details of those first couple months on how I landed my launching products, what I did to contact manufacturers and how I made my first big money decisions.
Jane Han is an e-commerce entrepreneur who currently owns and sells several brands of products on various online platforms. Based in Seattle, she also writes as a freelance correspondent for The Korea Times.
