What did I go through when I switched from psychological counseling to Amazon?

Everyone has the right to pursue their ideal life

Although my major in college was psychological counseling, it was not the path I chose. When I was filling out my application, I was really confused and had no idea what I wanted to do in the future. So I studied psychological counseling under the selection and recommendation of my parents and teachers.

This major was relatively unpopular at that time, and I was worried about the problem of employment after graduation. However, the elders were still quite discerning. I remember that one year during my school years, there was a big incident of people jumping off buildings at Foxconn. The profession of psychological counselor began to be gradually valued by the society, and the talent gap began to widen.

Therefore, I did not have too many difficulties in getting employed after graduation. Everything seemed to be going as planned. However, after working for about a year, I gradually began to discover a very important problem— I did not like this job.

Although this was the major that my family favored at the time, I also felt that it didn't matter what job I did, so the slight resistance in my heart was easily ignored at the time.

But after this job became something I had to deal with for nearly ten hours every day, my boredom was multiplied. At this time, I came into contact with e-commerce and Amazon.

Change career, from doctor to patient

Although it is a job I don't like, I have to say that psychological counseling has become increasingly popular in the past two years. So in addition to my main job, I usually take some small part-time jobs in my own time and work as an outsourcer for some companies that need psychological counseling.

Among these companies, the majority were engaged in the Internet and telemarketing , and one of them was an e-commerce company that was transforming into Amazon. Here I came into contact with the work and bitterness of Amazon operations.

From them I learned about Amazon’s information about FBA, products over stores, etc., and I felt that I could bear the hardships they described. So, as I had always dreamed of opening a Taobao store without having to have awkward conversations with others face to face, I felt like I had found a treasure.

Of course, I didn’t resign to work for Amazon. After all, I still had to pay for my car and couldn’t live without a stable source of income. After weighing the pros and cons, I turned down some part-time jobs and started to study how to open a store on Amazon in my free time.

The main business suddenly changed, and the sideline business became the main business

In 2017, the country cancelled the examination for the psychological counselor qualification certificate. I was severely hit as I was unable to obtain the certificate in time due to various reasons.

Although the lack of this certificate would not have a big impact on my main business, it disrupted my future plans for my main business. In addition, the Amazon store was doing well at the time, so I decided to give up psychological counseling and work full-time on Amazon.

Because the e-commerce company I first came into contact with was a distribution company, I only learned about putting products on shelves and selecting products, and I didn’t even know that I was distributing products.

However, the overall environment of Amazon in 2017 was on the rise. I reaped a lot of benefits just by frantically putting products on the shelves and placing fake orders. I was extremely busy during the Christmas season that year, and I also asked some people for help. Finally, I got a very satisfactory result in December.

Of course, this was the only time I made over 100,000 USD, but at that time I was completely unaware of the potential risks of distributing the products.

The situation took a sharp turn for the worse, and the distribution and order-brushing were blocked

With the previous achievements, I also became a little arrogant. On the one hand, I was glad that I had chosen the right way to make money that I liked. On the other hand, I began to expand the team and recruited several operators to develop new products and warehouse quality inspection, intending to show my skills.

However, a major incident happened on Amazon during the Spring Festival of 2018. Amazon closed a large number of stores that were engaged in fake orders. My products were also affected. Although my large store was not closed, all my main products were removed from the shelves.

After this ordeal, I still didn’t see through the essence of the platform’s intention to suppress it, but simply thought it was an isolated incident, and continued to sell products and make orders. Maybe I could see the clues at the time, but I didn’t have a better solution. This is the only way I know when I work on Amazon.

You can probably guess what happened next. I was severely punished for fake orders and there was no traffic at all for product distribution. Soon, the money I had saved up was almost gone, and my small team was already in danger.

Learn from the pain and start again

Since the distribution of goods is no longer possible, maintaining such a team is a net loss. Fortunately, I did not take out a loan for stocking goods, and the team is relatively small, so it didn't take much effort to explain the situation to them and settle their wages.

After disbanding the team and clearing the inventory, I started working part-time as a psychological counselor again, while mainly studying more ways to play on Amazon. It was during this time that I came into contact with the boutique route. It was then that I realized that my ideal e-commerce model was to slowly polish my own products and make a small and beautiful boutique.

Afterwards, I cancelled several small accounts and kept one big account to continue working on my new products. I spent a lot of time selecting and uploading products (thanks to my part-time job as a psychologist so that I didn’t go hungry). Although I haven’t yet replicated my past achievements, my Amazon career is back on track.

If I have to say whether I regretted switching to Amazon, I actually don't regret this move. I have learned much more after starting my own business than I did at that time, and I have also got the life in Soho that I always wanted. But I still want to use my own story to remind everyone to cherish money and stay away from wholesale goods.

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