A must-see for those who want to start a business or side job! Customer Stories Of Startups in the Authentication Business (2) – Part 2

Hello. It is a hori of the manager.

In the previous article, I wrote the story of Mr. Ohno, who started up in the authentication business, but this is the second part.

It becomes a story of our front miso, but information about individual side jobs and entrepreneurship is not only this site, but also common information in the streets, and I think that people who are looking at this page can see such stories everywhere.

However, on the other hand, it is good to start a business and a side job, but it is a problem of many people that it is good to say that you do not know what to actually do.

There are many patterns that take forever to find what you want to do concretely, and it will be troublesome to think sooner or later, and eventually stop.

From my experience of growing my business from side job to independent entrepreneurship, I can't 100% get to the right answer suddenly, so I think it's a good idea to start a little bit of anything that seems to be profitable to some extent.

The initial cost is never better than keeping it as low as possible, but there is absolutely no zero cost, and regardless of the amount of cost, you will always take it out at first.

I myself started the goods sales business from scratch, although I was recommended by my master.

At that time, I did my own Amazon research, found top-selling products, visited the Chinese site, exchanged and purchased it with Chinese sellers in broken English, packed the received samples myself and delivered them to Amazon.

After a few years of doing so, I started to handle certified products, do my own licenses, sell them, and do business to act as someone else's certification.

From that time on, I have never dreamed of my current business, and since that time, I have a common overseas business with China and that I am using Amazon.

However, as a result of continuing to do business, there is no doubt that there is today.

However, I don't think you need to spend as much time doing business as you do, and in today's fast age, there is a high possibility that the business you started will disappear immediately.

In my case, when I started business, the times were a little looser than now, so I feel lucky to start early.

Our startup business, which was born from such experience, is carried out by our company from product selection, and we also build a certain barrier to entry with license approval certification, and keep in mind the speed of the business.

In addition, since it will handle products with high product capabilities, it will be possible to build businesses and services utilizing products as well as retail on Amazon.

A little money is required, but it is an image of buying time and know-how with money.

In the first part, Ohno-san wrote about how he started up in the authentication business, but in the second part, I would like to introduce the trajectory after actually starting.

This time, the style of the article consists of a summary of Ohno's remarks.

Did you actually start launching the business for about a few months?

I'm really surprised, but as the average certification period of the Radio Act, which Mr. Hori said at the beginning, was 6 to 8 weeks, authentication ended in about 8 weeks.

Of course, it is the best to finish early, but if you work variously for a long time, it is normal that such things will not go roughly according to schedule, so I honestly thought that it would take a little more.

I can't give instructions directly to factories and inspection agencies, so I was basically waiting for Mr. Hori to contact me.

That's why we talked about it, and about the sixth week after the certification started, I was surprised to be told, "The certification is about to finish, and the factory is checking the application documents that have not been submitted.", and I was surprised with joy.

When I heard that the factory that cooperated in the certification seemed to be very aggressive that "we can sell products to Japan", they submitted more and more documents necessary for radio law certification.

Of course, I think insight works' negotiation know-how was also there, but I was very grateful.

Some people seem to take a long time to authenticate, but when you ask the circumstances at that time, basically the main cause is the non-cooperation of the factory. Originally, it would be a difficult story to ask the factory for certification cooperation, and it seems that it is also in Zara to go to the factory site before certification.

However, from the point of view of people who start by side jobs, there are very high hurdles to inspecting factories, and I think that I was lucky that certification was successful in almost the shortest course without doing such a thing.

Now it's time to start your business. But at first it was a series of difficulties.

Business is also difficult at first

During the certification period, the necessary preparations such as taking product photos and preparing product instructions for Amazon pages were almost finished, and we thought that we could expand our business immediately after the certification was completed, but there were two main difficulties.

It was a certified product with full, but it did not sell more than I thought at first

It sold well immediately after the introduction of certified products. At first, the price was considerably lower than the normal price, but after all it was pleasant that the thing that I was selling could sell.

I thought it was a good start.

However, after that, the product suddenly stopped selling. The reason is the unfair sale of illegal goods by Chinese operators. Illegal products are, in other words, products that do not perform radio law certification with chitin.

There are many suspicious product pages, and I myself tried to purchase them, but after all only illegal products that do not display radio law certification.

I consulted with Mr. Hori, and I had Amazon talk to each other and contact the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, which is the jurisdiction of the Radio Law, but it is a feeling that it is a crush without.

It is nothing to say here so much, but I felt quite sorry that the competent ministries and agencies did not take measures against illegal goods.

However, for customers who purchase online, of course, cheaper products are better, so such illegal products sold more and more, and we fell into the phenomenon that our genuine products did not catch the customer's attention.

*INSIGHT WORKS Note
For radio law authentication, if you purchase and use an unauthenticated product, you will be punished by the user, not the seller. Fines of up to 1 million yen will be imposed. Never use a wireless product that is not labeled as a radio law. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications was conducting a campaign to control illegal radio waves as shown in the photo below, but did not try to move even if there was a contact from a violator. We will never forget this.

The purchase price cannot be lowered because the product does not sell.

The radio law certification costs a moderate cost, so if you do not implement it, you will be forced to lower the price by illegal unjustly sold business operators who can pass on to the price, but there is still a limit to cheap sales, and in the first place, the purchase price will not be lowered.

Then, it fell into the state of the deficit every time it sold. Hori-san isn't to blame, but what should I do at that time? It was full of feelings.

In addition, if the factory does not respond to purchase price negotiations, of course we will consider changing the supplier, but since radio law certification is granted to the product of the factory, if you change the supplier, you will have to start the radio law again from the beginning.

Hori-san had a lot of work to do, but for a while, the state of no help continued.

I was wondering if I should talk about too much negative things here, but Hori-san wanted me to give me a frank impression, so I'm telling you.

Is the price increase to break the turning point?

There were three major turning times: price hikes, other channels, and coronavirus.

As an advice from Mr. Hori, let's secure the profit margin first without trying to sell the number, so I took the plunge and raised the price.

To be honest, the number of sales did not change much, but the profit margin per one changed considerably, and I gradually came out with a margin of feelings.

Next, we started selling it not only on Amazon but also at Rakuten and others. There was a Rakuten seller who was an acquaintance of Mr. Hori, and I wholesaled it to that person. The profit margin per piece will decrease, but it was grateful that it was easier to set up business prospects because it sold together.

Also, when I created my own sales page and set it up to access Amazon from there, sales improved. Hori-san also helped me a lot in the consultation on that page.

What Hori-san has consistently said is that they sell certified products recognized by the state, so you can be proud, and the situation in this illegal heaven cannot last forever.

And that became a reality.

Coronavirus affects China's illegals sharply

Some people have been severely affected by the coronavirus, and I myself have had a reasonable impact on my main business, so I never praise the coronavirus, but even so, as far as the products I sell, sales have increased rapidly due to the influence of the coronavirus.

Simply put, due to the coronavirus, a series of chinese vendors were missing, and the phenomenon that my products were sold.

Seeing it sell more and more even at about 3.5 times the price I started selling at the beginning, I was convinced again that at least this product has that much need.

A little while later, unfortunately illegal companies are starting to increase again, but with the experience I gained here, I would like to continue selling on Amazon but expand it to other channels.

Impressions of selling products for the first time in a side job

To be honest, I thought that I would sell more from the beginning lol, but I still felt again that it was a struggle for a business operator even if selling one product.

Even so, I feel that I have a lot more power to sell than when I started the business, so there were many twists and turns, but I'm glad I started a side job after all.

In particular, it is very large that we are exposed to information about society that cannot be known only by office workers.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I feel that in the coming era, narrowing down the number of occupations to one is only a risk. If you start a side job only when it's really dangerous, you're definitely not going to be able to make it.

Doing business is not just about doing a given job, but acting on your own while touching on various things such as social information and systems, so if you start, you will never be able to go out early.

I am very happy that I was able to take that first step, and I am very excited to think about how to develop my business from now on.

Future development, vision, etc.

As a matter of course, we would like to increase our sales performance at other sales malls such as Rakuten and Yahoo Shopping.

In addition, we plan to challenge wholesale, which we have already started, and we would like to expand our sales channels. We know that it is a product in demand, and since it is a product that Japanese companies have certified tightly, I think that point is a part that can appeal.

And what Mr. Hori often says and is considering is the development of an app with products as a hub.

After all, no matter how much it is in demand, if you sell it alone, you can not win against a vendor who sells unfairly like this time. Of course, I think that such a trader will be gone sooner or later, but I want to do a new device more and more from here without going to sit down and wait for it.

Specifically, we imagine a business that provides apps for a monthly fee as a means of communication between users who use products.

You can use our product as a service only for the person who bought it, or you can provide the product for free to the service subscriber. If there is a product that is one axis, there are various business approaches.

It also develops products that are firmly certified, so others can not enter.

In addition, crowdfunding is possible with Makuake etc., and Makuake checks authentication such as radio law very strictly, so the barrier to entry increases more and more.

There are so many things I can do, so I'm really looking forward to the future. As a result, my life is going to be busy, but lol, I want to balance my life with my main job and side job.

In my case, it was quite difficult in the business start part, so I honestly think that I can not recommend it to other people by letting go.

However, it may lift Hori too much lol, Mr. Hori himself can be trusted very much, and if you consult, you will get various advice, your horizons will expand, and it will certainly make you feel like trying simply.

Regarding app development, various government subsidies are currently being developed, and when I heard that it may be subject to it depending on how it is designed, it was a feeling of scale from the eyes. It is very valuable because it is not easy to touch such information even if it is only work of the company.

At least I'm glad I did this startup business, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how it will develop in the future.

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