The Ultimate Online Arbitrage Case Study Post

//In this blog post, you are going to learn a £184, 529 Q4 100% Systemised Masterplan.

This is a deep dive case study of how Kev and Kylie were able to sell over 15, 612 units in a period of 3 months. And I am going to share with you absolutely everything they did in order to achieve this. 

This is the 5th part of the Ultimate Online Arbitrage series. So, if you have missed the past 4 parts, click the link below to read or watch!

Online Arbitrage Business Overview Best Tips

The Ultimate Online Arbitrage Shipping Amazon FBA Guide

 The Ultimate Online Arbitrage Purchasing Amazon FBA Guide

The Ultimate Online Arbitrage Sourcing Amazon FBA Guide

 In this part, you are going to learn everything from recruiting new team members, what the team and structure looks like - you are going to learn absolutely everything from the quantum leaps we made, those significant actions which we took in our operations which allowed us to go to that next level. I am going to share with you what you can do once you have got to this level, what else you can build, and that is good to be there for the conclusion of this epic playlist which we have been on. 

This is the master plan, the case study which I want to share with you, and we are going to do a really deep dive into this. Over the last couple of parts, we have spoken about the Overview Plan, the Sourcing, the Purchasing, the Warehouse, and now, it is time for the extraction plan. Because for Kev, he wanted to build a business, he wanted to build a business which he could own, that could run for him. He didn't want to quit his job as an electrical engineer to have a job, to just become a purchaser of his business, he wanted to have a business. He and Kylie, who is his partner who has worked with him from day one, they wanted to have a business which works for them. 

With the goal in mind, Kev was always going to take massive action in his business, and going to try building it in a way that systemised, automated, can outsource and ultimately, which he could own, which could run in the background, where Kev could do what he loves to do which is to build his other businesses and systemise them. 

You may well be on your path, you could be taking massive action. You have been interested, yo have got learning, you have educated yourself and now you are starting to take massive action. 

But the truth is here, you are now 100% in the business. Any business that you start, whether it is an online arbitrage business, a wholesale business, a private label business, whether it is a completely different business, like a Shopify business, whatever. You are 100% in the business, because that is where everyone starts. 

The red line is the journey which Kev took in his own operations, which took him from 100% in his business, to 2%. By 2%, I mean, we have managers in place, systems in place, Kev is overlooking and being involved with the accounting. But he has gone from 100% in the business, doing everything from sourcing, to reviewing, to purchasing, to shipping. Everything from being 100% in, to 2% in. And that is exactly what you are going to learn throughout this blog post. 

What are the steps which Kev took year on year, what are the exact moments and quantum leaps. Kev calls them quantum leaps. 

There is a great book called You2, and You2 talks about quantum leaps. You may be taking massive action, and you may be doing everything that you possibly can to build your business, you're relentless, you're energised, and you have come up with this opportunity, and you just want to go to 10,000 a month 20,000 a month, 50,000 a month, 100,000 a month - you are on it, you are taking massive action. 

Bottlenecks

But, what tends to happen, is you end up plateauing, that's just the reality of it. Because at some point, you are going to run out of some type of resource, whether that is you don't have enough time, you don't have enough money, you don't have enough products, you have some type of bottleneck. 

Are you interested in learning more about bottlenecks in your online arbitrage business?

Quantum Leaps

In this times of bottlenecks, what is going to happen is, you need to start thinking outside the box, you need to start thinking in terms of, where is my next quantum leap? And there is a great story about a fly. Imagine it is a hot summer day, and this fly is just going at it, trying to get out the window, hanging its head against it, it is banging and banging and banging. A fly isn't as intelligent as us, so what they are doing is, they don't understand that it is a window, that they can't just fly through. So they bang their head against the wall so much that the fly actually kills itself. The fly didn't realise that, just to the left of it, there is a window open, and it could have just flown out. That is what a quantum leap is, are we banging banging our head up against the wall at times, where we have to just step back. Are we just trying to swim underwater, running out of breath, and having to come up out of the water and have a breath, have a step back. 

Have a look at the business, and ask yourself, "When is my next quantum leap?" Every single time that Kev took a quantum leap, his business expanded, and the revenue in operations doubled year on year, has continued to multiply through multiple streams of income, and the truth is, because Kev is always thinking in quantum leaps. So, if you take anything away from this, then I want you to start thinking, "Where is my next quantum leap?" 

What happened was, Kev actually ended up quitting his job, and that was a very significant moment for him. This was 6 months after he started his business. They had scaled above 100 thousand pounds, over 6 figures in 6 months. And they repeat their first Q4 at 36 thousand pounds in a 30 day window. 

When you think about having to quit your job, there is a road map, are you going to do this or are you not going to do this. Once you have got started in the first place, getting started is one of the hardest things because 95% of people wouldn't even get started, so for them to take the next step and go to that next level, where you take that action, and now you can quit your job. There are some significant moments Kev experienced. 

The first one is he recognised that he had to outsource the shipping and the prep. So, he went from 75%-50% into the business, just by outsourcing the prep. And this is when Kev and Kylie split up their responsibilities. Kylie was the warehouse manager, and Kev was the virtual manager. This was a significant moment for them, because Kylie still to this day, is taking huge amounts of action in the warehouse, shipping thousands of products all the time, and then Kev was in charge of the virtuals. 

As soon as you start to bring other people in, whether that is family members, friends, employees, whatever that is, you are giving up an element of control, and if you want to build your business to the point where you are not in the business, and you are working on the business instead, you are going to have to overcome that sense of control - that sense of the need to control everything. You need to set up your systems. Systems are really important, because systems control your business. People don't manage your business, it is the systems in place that do. 

Here is the first significant moment, because Kev and Kylie started to work on their own systems. Kylie started to work on how they could get products out, products out of their living room. And Kev started to work on their virtual operations. And Kev started to think about how he needed to split the business up. 

Outsource Sourcing

And the first action that Kev recognised, was that he had to outsource sourcing. This took Kev down to around 40% in the business. You have to create streams of sourcing. You have to outsource sourcing, you have to create streams of sourcing profitable products, whether that is sourcing lists, virtual assistants, VA pooling, using an automated service, whatever it is, you have to get away from sourcing, because without sourcing, you're never going to get anywhere without it. 

Kev went through the process of hiring someone, which is a experience within itself. Creating job advertisements, on-boarding, having phone calls, training documents, doing things like, Training of the Week, examples, screen shares, screen recordings, and everything Kev possibly could to get the knowledge of what's a winning product and what is a losing product, how can we source more, how can we find those products quicker than everyone else etc. 

Would you like to learn more on outsourcing?

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Leverage

In terms of Kev and Kylie being able to quit her job, the reason for that was because they started to introduce leverage. This is what this is all about. The goal here is, if you are going to build your business to the heights that you want to, you are going to have to think about leverage at some point. Then, you may be thinking, the question comes, how do you know at what point the time is right? And that ultimately comes down to the resources you have, whether that is the money you have available, the strategy, do you know what you are doing and do you know what you need to do? 

If you want to build a business, and have an online business working for you, so that one day you can go to other streams, and really earn your freedom, then you are going to have to sacrifice. There is no get-rich-quick scheme, there is no avoiding it, it takes time and a lot of hard work. 

2016

Kev quit his job, then an amazing thing happened, because he recognised in the middle of 2016, it was his year of freedom. He recognised early on that he had to do another quantum leap, and this was having to bring in a senior assistant. Senior assistants which can do reviewing for you, purchasing for you, they can do the replenishing for you and the admin for you, they can do so much for you. 

Not only was 2016 a year of freedom, but it was also the year that Kev and Kylie got themselves out into a warehouse, outsourcing purchasing, and the year they developed their replenishing systems. 

If you want growth and you want your leverage to increase, then how do you do this?

Kev was able to double the size of his business, while decreasing the element he was in, because of the senior assistant and the warehouse. They are really huge moves to make, because the warehouse really gives that sense of scale. It is the vacuum effect of growth.

If you commit an act, if you do something in your life, in your business, which commits you to go forwards, whether that is quitting your job, getting out into a warehouse, recruiting a team. If you start to recruit people in your business, you are now an owner of them. Now you are responsible for them, you have got to keep them going and you have got to keep them busy. It is going to keep you building. It is going to force growth, because if it is just you by yourself, you can let yourself off - you can stay in bed, you can have a weekend off, you can go on holiday, and you can do what you want. But if you have got a business, you have got team members and people in place.

A senior assistant is such a significant position to be in, because you have got your purchasing manager and you have got your growth manager. 

Do you want to learn more about virtual assistants and assistants?

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There are many, many more videos on virtual assistants on Kev's YouTube channel 

See for yourself here: href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfgNHqq9IfmSfj3JsvTIoTQ/videos">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfgNHqq9IfmSfj3JsvTIoTQ/videos

2017

At this point, Kev and Kylie started to go into a resource pool. At this point, when they started talking about sourcing, they were sourcing like 8 different categories, and they had like 8 different virtual assistants. Kev and a couple of his Mastermind members realised that together they had around 30 virtual assistants, and was debating whether or not they should pool them. Kev ended up halving his expenses, but double the amount of sourcing he was doing. Kev ended up increasing to around 15 virtual assistants, which is around 150 potential products per day. Add that to what they were doing in terms of their resource pooling and their sourcing lists, they were increasing the amount of leads to around 200-400 products coming in every single day in their business. It is a very significant thing. This ended up getting Kev to over £94k, it was absolutely huge for them. Kev was then starting to have more business management systems, an operations manager, pre-purchase, purchasing manager, growth manager, an admin, then they started working on their financial systems as well as VAT systems, and all of that got him to 2% in the business. 

Would you like to learn more on resource pooling?

Multiple Streams of Income

An amazing thing happened personally for Kev, where something really significant happened to him and his business, and really shared with Kev that the goal had to be this way. The goal is to extract yourself from all operations, because you need to build this, you need to build multiple streams of income. You need to, and this is why. Kev and Kylie were selling anywhere between £2-4k per day. Then they got the dreading message that their account had been suspended. They went from 2-4k to 0. He had built his entire business, quit his job, had senior assistants, had the warehouse, and had all these things going on, to 0, just like that. 

What this showed Kev was that he was on the right path he was extracting himself from the business, but it showed Kev how vitally important it is to introduce multiple streams of income. It was so vitally important to Kev to not just bring in management systems, where you have got team members, you have got KPI's, how things are going; you are also introducing growth systems in your business. The goal is to keep growing and to keep going and expanding. 

What the suspension did for Kev, was really show him that you have got to use Amazon, that it is a fantastic opportunity and it has allowed him to do so much, allowed Kev and Kylie to quit their jobs and to have some freedom, it can get you there. Don't get put off by this, don't be afraid by this, and don't feel like this is going to happen to you, it's about creating systems to prevent it happening. You are going to have failures and you are going to have setbacks, and you will overcome. But what happens is, you start thinking and planting seeds for multiple streams of income. Whether that is multiple Amazon seller central accounts. Kev had many seller central accounts and started introduce wholesale operations and started looking into private label operations. 

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Wholesale

Ultimately, Kev had opened another second seller central account, and this was really important for them, because the second seller central account gave a little back diversity within Amazon. They started looking into wholesale, and ended up going to trade shows and started working on operations. Also with the resources that Kev had available at that time, with the team and the warehouse, Kev started a prep service. 

Prep Service

Kev owns one of the best prep services in the UK, with a lot of positive reviews and feedback on his business' services. We are the most open and honest, and you can see inside operations. Kev has not seen any prep service in the UK, sharing the inside of their operations. Can't see any content, images, videos or anything. So, in Kev's opinion, the team he has got are fantastic and he has got the reviews and feedback to prove it.

If you would like to check out Kev's business, take a look here: https://www.systemisefulfilment.co.uk/

Brand

Kev started doing his brand - LifeSuccessEngineer. It is amazing when you start to really share this, and it is amazing when you really start to help people with their virtual assistants and with their sourcing. It is starting to diversify ultimately what Kev was doing, and protecting the business. 

Templates

Kev also started to create templates, and create different services.

Recruitment 

Kev and the team started to do a bunch of different recruitment. Getting some wonderful recommendations of new people, which are hiring virtual assistants for the first time, and seeing people in different positions within the business.

Amazon Seller Central

Starting with Amazon seller central, you can see that there were over 15,600 units ordered, you can see that there is the £184,529.30. You can change the date on the calendar and the numbers will change. 

Kev was hitting 3500 in a day, but he hasn't been able to do any of this without a team in place.

 Products

 This was the October 2017. All the product. They ordered thousands upon thousands of products in their operation, and all of this was happening without Kev.

Warehouse Plan

This image is from before Kev got the warehouse, he envisioned what he wanted his warehouse to look like. 

Plan

This was the original of what Kev was planning the team and system of. You can see that these are some of the things that they were thinking back then. A part of this whole process - what is Kev's team doing? What are they sourcing? What categories are they sourcing in? What's going on with Kev's reviewers and purchases? How is this working from Kev to Kylie to the warehouse? 

So, what you can do, is get all of this down onto a piece of paper, and really see the flow of things. 

Documentation 

You have got to create some documentation, right at the start, Kev was doing checklists. 

This is the first ever product that Kev sold, this is what he purchased. He was getting them for £12.15 and selling them for 26.50, and he was sharing how to do the review, what you are looking for, what's going on and the checklist. 

Lessons

Kev was also going through the lessons, which he called the Lesson of the Week. This was a lesson of the week using plugin extensions. Kev would say what the plugin is called, and how it works. He went very in depth. 

I am sharing this with you to prove that this is reality. Kev doesn't speak theory, this is all from doing it himself and getting his hands dirty.

Now let me share with you a more in depth, step by step break down of the steps they are taking and you can then envision what you are doing. 

This is the 9 massive action steps to true 100% automation. These are the percentages in the business, 0-100%, then time. 

1. Prep and Shipping

What you need to do is get rid of that prep and ship, so consider using a prep service. If you do want a good prep service, which offers more benefits than just the prep, then please check out our website: https://www.systemisefulfilment.co.uk/

Or maybe start to introduce family members or people that can come in and work for you. 

2. Sourcing

Sourcing profitable products. We have got a whole machine which you can start to work on. This would be the second step to take, but you can do these in different orders if you would like to. 

3. Reviewing 

You are going to get those senior assistants in to start talking about reviewing products which come into your operations and purchasing. 

4. Seller Central/Purchasing

As soon as you have got your senior assistant, you can get them into your seller central, your account health, you can get them involved in the purchasing, and in everything. At this point, you are going to be getting closer and closer to extracting yourself from the business, and at the same time, you can reach higher and higher heights. 

5. Admin

At this point it is going to be quite simple to outsource.

6. Operations Management 

This is what I was saying about Kev's senior assistant, once you bring them in the team, and start to give them more and more responsibilities, this is ultimately where it all happens.

7. Financial Management 

You can start to bring people in to help you with the financials, and make better strategic choices on who you are bringing in, how you are setting up your team, and the appraisals.

8. Business Growth and Expansion  

This is then ultimately what Kev calls the Online Arbitrage Mastery. This is the blueprint. This is the step by step. This is, in Kev's opinion, what you have got to do.

Online Arbitrage Machine Set Up

This is what you are actually building towards. This is the system.

Above this, you have got your operations management, financial management, warehouse management, and virtual team management. This is at scale, what is going to allow you to really build that business, and to be able to extract yourself.