My name is Grace Smith, born and raised in the Philippines, and I’m a U. S. Navy Spouse currently living in Jacksonville, Florida. I’m a mom of two, and like any other Military Spouses, I’ve dealt with multiple deployments and TADs for the first 8 years of being married to my husband.

I got involved with Amazon selling shortly after we moved to San Diego, CA from Hawaii. After a few months in San Diego, I quickly realized that it was an expensive place to live especially with family. We were living pay check to pay check and like most Military Spouses, I choose not to work because it wouldn’t make sense putting my kids to daycare only to use my salary to pay for the daycare fees. But I knew there was something out there for everyone and I never stopped looking until I found it.

I was introduced to Amazon FBA and Private Label in 2014 and I realized it was something I’ve been looking for. I launched my first product in July 2014 but that product did not do well, so I dropped it at the end of the year and decided to start a new brand in January 2015, which is currently the brand I’m working on.

My first year revenue for this brand was roughly around $130K, with a profit margin of 30% to 35%. It more than doubled the next year (2016), which was around $320K. Year 2017 and 2018 was about the same revenue, around $530K average a year. I did not add a product in 2018, and the last time I launched a new product was summer of 2017.

Currently, I work about 20 hours a week on my business, and sometimes less. I travel quite a bit now for personal development or business conferences, sourcing and vacation with my family especially during the summer when kids are not in school.

My Top 3 tips for success:

1. Understand your target market. Focus on customer experience and always give value first, doesn’t matter if it’s a service based or physical product. 

2. Build a brand and keep innovating. If you don’t innovate, somebody’s gonna take that market from you, and you’ll end up losing a lot of money and eventually close the business. 

3. AIM HIGH AND DON’T QUIT! Failure is only a temporary defeat unless you quit. In fact, the earlier you fail, the faster your success will be! Also if you aim high, it doesn’t matter if you won’t achieve it, you still achieve something.