Entrepreneurs are inclined to believe that they’ve got to create something new, something that has never been seen or done before to start the growth of a successful company. It’s easy to think of all the revolutionary inventions and products that changed the world around us, but not all successful entrepreneurs find their achievements with that path. There are tons of successful business people that find a hole in an already established market, creating a product better than it was before.
Kevin David, eCommerce multi-million-dollar entrepreneur, joins us on this episode of Making Bank! Kevin started his career in the corporate business world, but after time realized that it wasn’t the kind of lifestyle that he wanted. After trying a bunch of different ways to make money, he quickly gained thousands of followers on YouTube and started multiple successful businesses. Learn how he made his way into the entrepreneur world, and how to find success in an already established market.
From the Corporate World of Facebook fo Working for Himself
Kevin David grew up in a middle-class family, with parents who had no entrepreneurial experience. For his whole life, Kevin’s mission was to go to school and get good grades, then get into a college that would get him a job at a good company. That was his entire worldview during his schooling years. After he graduated college, Kevin got the job that he wanted working at an accounting company.
It wasn’t until he was working 80 hours a week that he realized it was awful. That was not what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Kevin started looking at ways to make money on the internet, trying a bunch of different things – from working as an Amazon associate, making travel blogs, and making an app. It wasn’t until he founded Amazon FBA until he realized he was making more money from his side hustle than his actual job.
“I was working at Facebook as a consultant, so I kind of left and then was wandering around a bit in the corporate world. And Facebook was great. I mean, it was the best job you could ever as for. Like, you know, from a 9 to 5 perspective they had free food, free massage therapists…they do that stuff because they know the caliber of people that work there could go and start their own companies,” Kevin reflects onto his experience navigating the corporate world.
Kevin was working the best 9 to 5 job he could ever dream of…but still found himself unhappy. It was the moment that he realized he was an entrepreneur, and that made him unemployable. The only way that he was going to be happy and going to achieve the things that he wanted was if he worked for himself.
While working at Facebook, Kevin spent 90 days working after his days in the office on his projects. It was physically and mentally exhausting, but it was worth it. “Because of those 90 days, I’ve never had to work for anyone else and I never will ever again,” Kevin says.
Avoid Focusing on Reinventing the Wheel
With how big Kevin’s company and name grew in 4 years, he’s learned a lot of lessons when it comes from adjusting from the corporate world to the entrepreneurial one. Kevin was able to grow millions of subscribers on YouTube, millions of followers across social media, and has built multiple, very successful businesses in a short amount of time.
How did he do this? “The number one thing I credit [the success to] is working smart, working hard, [and] being consistent. Those things are all very critical, but more specific kind of reverse engineering success and understanding that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”
At the beginning of his business, Kevin was thinking that the only successful people are the people who are starting brand new businesses or working with ideas that no one has ever done before. Quickly learning that it wasn’t true, he realized that if you create a business that works and you do it slightly better with a tiny insight giving you an extra edge, people will choose your business over the rest. Trying to make something brand new isn’t always the right path to take, and in most cases, it’s not going to work.
One of the first brands that Kevin launched on Amazon was a coffee mug and wine glass. There are millions of wine glasses and coffee cups for sale. Kevin didn’t reinvent anything but rather took a category that he knew already worked. There was already a pre-existing demand.
Kevin found an insight in technology that made his product stand out from the rest. Before he knew it, he was making more money from that company than he was with Facebook. Finding a hole in the marketplace can be as equally as rewarding as creating a new company, new produce, and reaching new audiences.
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