Making $4M+ off Amazon, Retiring Parents & Being $1.8M in Debt | Kwadwo Tuffour DSH #303

you were the first millionaire in your family, right?

Yeah.

What was that dynamic like?

Did you have people trying to take some of that or was it kind of friendly?

Obviously sometimes you get people that didn't really know before.

It's like yo help me, bro.

Why aren't you helping me out?

You're such a messed up person.

I don't like that mentality.

Yes.

You know what I mean?

Awkward.

Like I feel like it's just there's better ways of asking for it than phrasing it like that.

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All right, we are back.

We got KT today, Amazon Expert, all the way from Miami.

Sir.

How's it going, man?

Pretty good, bro.

Can't complain.

It's a nice day out here.

Rainy, but it's good vibes.

Yeah, not as nice as Miami, but I'll take it, man.

Vegas and Miami are my top two cities in America right now.

Yeah, I'll say the same, honestly.

Yeah.

LA used to have that kind of number one, number two spot, but it's kind of fallen off, I think.

Yeah, I don't like to go there too much.

I don't know many people that do.

But let's dive into your story, man.

I know you're doing millions on Amazon.

When did you start getting into all that?

So actually, I got into Amazon about three years from this time.

So I started Amazon like 2020 in December, December 20th around there.

So it's been about three years since I started.

And overall, I've done about over a little over 10 million in sales, lifetime sales.

Wow.

Yeah.

Now, I know a lot of people try to do Amazon and a lot of people teach it, but I feel like very few reach your level.

Yeah, that is true.

Like, it's a really good business model for someone who is trying to get a side hustle, you know, make a few extra thousand dollars of income.

Also, like, that's, I feel like a lot of people stop there.

Some go on to the point where they have a full-time income, making 10 to 20K, but then few go on to build an operation where they're doing 40K and up.

profit, which that's like operation level.

Yeah.

So what do you think separates that gap from the 10 to 20 to the 40K plus so the 1020 those people i feel like they get stuck a lot of times people in that area are either comfortable or they're they're so busy running their business they don't know how to scale with their time they're lacking some some things to get them to the next level which a lot of times it's either capital or just information which Sometimes they don't want to invest into mentorships.

Sometimes they're not aware of anyone that could help them out.

I just feel like people over there are stuck.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That makes sense.

You got to be constantly testing new products, right?

Yeah.

Constantly, you know, opening up.

So for me, I sell brand name products.

So I'm

contacting brands, like big brands, such as like Dove, Method, big brands, basically.

I'm contacting them and trying to get wholesale deals or maybe even exclusive relationships with those brands.

Like imagine if I was.

the sole seller of Dove on Amazon.

I'm running up millions if I'm the only one selling it because it's usually split between multiple different sellers.

So people that are just actively working at getting deals with these companies are the ones that win.

And what criteria do these big companies look for when they're doing wholesale with smaller vendors?

Yeah.

So for big companies, like I like to look for companies sometimes in the small, medium range.

When it's a big company,

I don't look for exclusivity, but they just want someone who can spend a lot of money with them.

Like it's capital is the most important thing there.

Right.

Yeah.

Because, you know, you're competing against guys who are buying a hundred 200k worth their stuff so they're just looking for people to spend that yeah so walk me through the model like when you contact a supplier are you wiring them all the money up front yeah so i'll walk through the model from finding the brand so finding a brand basically i use a software called smart scout where i go in and i'm able to find brands that are doing revenue on amazon i'm able to filter through to see how much revenue they're doing i like to look through brands that are doing over 50k in revenue because of doing less then I don't really think it's worth 50k a month, right?

Yeah, 50k a month in revenue.

So then I'll go and I'll check to see the listings.

If there's multiple sellers on them, that means that I have an opportunity to come on.

There's only one seller, then mainly they have an exclusive relationship with

somebody, or it's that person's brand.

So if there's multiple people, I see an opportunity there.

So I'll go and I'll contact those companies and basically say, Hey, like, hey, I'm trying to purchase from you directly.

Um,

yeah, like, what are the next steps and I purchased from them and

yeah it's it's upfront so I like to buy a month of inventory um at a time I don't like to do you know two months three months but I'm able to see how much their band is doing on Amazon every month so I can calculate to see all right I could sell this much each month so I'll buy a month month or maybe even two

if they're saying oh i i can't get good pricing so i'll use my capital to try to get better pricing because

bulk and are you undercutting the current listings price or are you matching it I'm matching it I don't like to undercut because it creates a price war and everyone's just going low yeah that's the problem with e-commerce man and I'm sure people do that on Amazon it's I feel like it's a big big problem on Amazon yeah because then by the time you do it and you keep doing it your margins are like 10% yeah bro and then no one's making money at that point yeah except the one who made like a 300k purchase with them and they're up Yeah, but that no one wants to play the volume game.

You want decent margins.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

That's like the most important thing for me this year is margin what uh margins do you aim for typically so in my wholesale business it's it's more volume game so we're looking at around 12 to 15 percent margins right now i'm sitting at like 15 okay and margins which is pretty good for wholesale because for wholesale yeah yeah for wholesale really good yeah that's healthy a lot of people are running at eight to ten yeah i like i like higher because i'm putting in so much money i want to make sure that you know i'm getting good margins it's all that money you're putting up is is risk at the end of the day So I want to make sure that I'm getting good margins off it.

The cool thing with your method is you don't got to worry about QC because it's already an established brand, too.

Yeah, exactly.

So I'm looking at brands that already have tons of reviews already.

I already know the product is good.

People are searching for it.

I'm just trying to get it at a good price.

Yeah, because you hear nightmare stories about stuff from China, from certain brands.

Yeah, yeah.

A lot of people come to me like, hey, should I buy from China, Alibaba?

And they show me products that just look like fantastic.

Yeah, who knows what's in those, bro.

Your method's good because it's a name brand and you know the product's not going to fail.

I feel like a lot of people are guessing what certain products they're buying.

Yeah, exactly.

And for people who don't really have that much creative inspiration or a winning product in their brain, this is a way they could get into e-commerce and Amazon without creating their own thing.

Yeah.

So were you successful before Amazon?

No, I was not successful before Amazon.

I was working at a car dealership before.

I did not save any money.

Yeah, I honestly didn't think this would happen.

Wow.

So you were doing sales yeah I was doing sales at a car dealership working like 10 hours a day making like two to three K a month damn that's it yeah geez what dealership is at Kia dealership oh Kia yeah makes sense oh geez and you got fired from there right yeah so during during

there was no no no one was buying cars like in the beginning of yeah so I was like all right there's no business here I need to figure out something that I'm gonna do yeah and that was in Miami no DC oh DC before I moved I moved to Miami after I became a little successful.

Got it.

That's what everyone does.

It's either Miami, Vegas, LA, or New York, Arizona.

So you grew up in DC?

Yeah, I grew up in DC.

Nice.

But your parents are from Ghana?

Yeah.

And that's sick.

And I saw you just went there, right?

Yeah, I was just there a few months ago.

What was that like, dude?

It's amazing.

Every time I go back to Ghana, I feel like I have a reset in my mind.

Like I've gone back in the past

few years, a few times, but every time I come up with like a big idea or something big happens because i just go there i see all my family i see just like my roots something about being there when feeling my roots is it's a really good feeling yeah and basically it's really humbling as well when you go back home and you see basically what's what's going on with everybody and you realize how blessed you are to be where where i'm at because if my parents didn't take the risk to come here Are you interested in coming on the Digital Social Hour podcast as a guest?

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I would be in Ghana still.

And if I'm in Ghana, like the GDP is like, I don't know, four or five billion still, maybe.

Wow, the whole country?

Yeah, there's no money there.

So how am I going to get out of there?

So my parents came out, came to America, and now I'm able to, you know, capitalize on this.

Yeah, that's crazy.

Is there internet there?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

So there's a lot of nice areas.

Like when I go back, I'm in a very nice area.

There's, you know, mansions.

It's a very beautiful country, but the majority of it obviously is, you know, not very nice.

You're driving on a lot of dirt roads.

So.

Wow.

Humble beginnings, man.

Yeah.

It sounds like spiritual almost.

Yeah.

Spiritual, bro.

Like, when I go, I have a reset.

I come back and I just, you know, run it up.

Yeah.

Something about just seeing where your, where your parents came from is humbling, though, for sure.

Because my parents were immigrants, too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I went to China where my mom was from.

And then i went to ireland where my dad was from yeah and humble beginnings bro for sure yeah bro keeps you grateful yeah that immigrant mentality is something that is tough to replicate with our kids i'm a little worried honestly yeah so for me i have a plan when i have kids i'm gonna take them straight to ghana like just show them you know have them expose like see they could see basically what kids their age are doing they're in the village playing around not much healthcare just like have them see that yeah you know because i was i was exposed to that at an early age and that really had an impact on my life.

That's cool.

How's the food over there?

So good.

My favorite food in the world.

Really?

Yeah.

I've never had it.

Yeah, you should, bro.

I wonder if there's any spots in Vegas, but dude, if there is, I'm down.

What's like a popular dish?

So the most popular dish is a dish called jalof rice.

It's rice.

It looks orange because there's so much like tomatoes and a lot that goes into it.

We eat it with

chicken or goat meat.

It's really good.

Wow.

I like goat, actually.

I get goat in my Indian indian food yeah indian food's fire too goat curry bro yo it's fire um so you were the first millionaire in your family right yeah what was that dynamic like did you have people trying to take some of that or was it kind of friendly yeah i mean like my family has always been you know i've had a blessed family and honestly i didn't no one really believed that this would happen.

Like when I first started selling on, selling products, you know, my parents were just saying, okay, go to college, go to, or not go to college, but get a job, get a job until it came to a certain point where I was making a good amount of money and talking about moving to Miami, buying a Rolex.

And then the support came.

And then they're just, you know, they've been very, very supportful, just trying to help me in any way, even trying to offer me money.

Like, it's just in any way, they're very, very supportive.

My cousins, my whole entire family treats us very supportive.

Obviously, sometimes you get people that didn't really know before.

It's like, yo, help me, bro.

Why aren't you helping me out?

You're such a messed up person.

I've had that before as well.

It's very interesting.

I don't like that mentality.

Yes.

You know what I mean?

Awkward.

Like, I feel like just, there's better ways of asking for it than phrasing it like that.

Exactly.

And if you're trying to start, like, if you're actually trying to start, then I would make an effort to learn and then tell me, yo, I got started out doing this, bro.

I've done like 2K.

Like, what do you think I should do next?

Exactly.

Then I'm like, bro, what?

Let's go.

Yeah, that would hype me up.

Put in some effort first and then talk to me for sure.

Exactly.

Because people won't, you could tell people so much things and very few will actually work on it.

Yeah, and that's another thing.

I would give so many people free game.

I would sit there writing paragraphs, trying to help out, and I'll go to the person, like, see what they're doing, and have not reflected on it at all.

That's so relatable.

Posting in the club.

I'm like, bro, you have no money right now.

Like, why don't you just do what I told you?

Yeah, that's so relatable.

So, did you go to college after high school?

Yeah, so I went to college for four years.

I have a

finance.

Congrats, man.

That is impressive.

Not a lot of people on the show make it all the way.

Yeah, I did.

It was rough, but I did.

And I never used my degree.

Ah, that's something common I hear from people that do make it.

Yeah, I was, I wanted to work on Wall Street, but I never had like high GPA.

I had like a 3.1.

So it was not able to work out.

Wow.

So they actually look at that when you're applying for jobs?

Yeah.

Yeah, I was talking to a guy at Goldman Sachs and I was trying to get, you know, it was like a family-friend connection.

And he just kind of started ignoring me because he looked looked at my resume.

I had like one internship,

bad GPA.

Like, you know, there's no way.

I mean, now you're making more than him.

Yeah, much more.

Yeah.

I mean, nine to five is different, different game, man.

I mean, you experienced it with the sales.

Yeah.

Car sales.

And now you got a Lambo, right?

Yes, sir.

Everything comes full circle, dude.

Which Lambo did you get?

So I have a Urs.

Dude, that's fire.

Yeah, it's honestly one of my...

I think my favorite car because it's convenient, fast.

It can fit a lot of people in there.

Yeah.

Trunk space.

That's on my dream list, list, man.

I'm getting into cars now.

I really wasn't until I saw the value of the networking opportunities from it.

Big time.

Because I don't really care to drive, but like, once I saw that, I was like, all right, it's like getting a watch.

I get it now.

Yeah, exactly.

These opportunities.

Yeah, especially in your city like Vegas or Miami, too.

Yeah.

Well, Miami, it's normal to have a supercar.

Yeah, it is.

It's like, wait, you don't have one?

You know what I mean?

There's so many over there.

Yeah, there's tons.

Yeah.

Growing up as a kid, were you always entrepreneurial, you'd say?

Not really, like at all.

Growing up, just I was a quiet kid trying to do well in school.

It wasn't until

12th grade when I started.

My brother was selling water in D.C.

This is a story I haven't really said much.

My brother was selling water in D.C.

It's actually very lucrative, like selling water bottles to tourists.

You could make a few hundred dollars a day going to the monuments.

Yeah, like the White House, MLK, just chilling there.

You see a lot of tourists come through.

It's like very big.

And then you say, hey, I got water.

And then everyone flocks to you yeah what do you charge a dollar for water two dollars for gator aid that's not bad yeah not at all and i was making like a hundred dollars every single day okay 12th grade so that's not bad dude yeah it was good i was making more than everyone yeah i did that with candy but the margins weren't as good because it would cost like 20 bucks for 30 from costco so you would only make 10 bucks so okay i should have did water man yeah i was buying the water is like the case was like a few bucks wow margins were crazy that's where are you buying a case for a few bucks so i was going to Sam's Club.

Oh, gosh.

Yeah, I think it was like $8

for like $24 or $30, something like that.

And I would fill up, go to DC.

I'll get like eight cases of water, four cases of Gatorade.

Yeah.

Put all that in my trunk, get ice from there as well.

And then just go.

And every time I'd run out, like people would buy from me.

Every time I'll run out, run to my car for like 30 minutes with a big like cooler,

refill, and go back and just be there for hours.

That's wild.

I see people doing that on the strip in front of the Bellagio fountains too.

Yeah, exactly.

In DC, I'll say, like, I don't know how, like, when I was there, it was only me and my brother, but now when I go back to DC, I see like 40 people there.

So, like, a lot of people caught on to it.

What's the entrepreneur scene like in DC?

In DC, it's more like politics.

Okay.

I don't see, like, there's obviously entrepreneurs there, but it's more low-key and there's not as many as in such as Miami.

That makes sense.

I will say, D.C., I've been there a few times.

It felt way cleaner than Manhattan.

Yeah, DC's, honestly, I love it.

I have a love-hate relationship with DC, but you don't like the weather?

Nah, the weather is too much.

I was just there.

I just came from there, and it was freezing, like legit freezing cold and raining the whole time.

Yeah, I mean, once you're in Miami, there's no better weather in America.

So

I mean, if you can stand the humidity at least.

Yeah, yeah.

Summer is brutal.

Yeah.

It does rain a lot, but it's usually quick.

Yeah.

So it's not too bad.

What's a typical day like for you right now?

So day in life.

Same thing almost every single day.

I'll wake up, walk my dog on the water, come back, get into some deep work for a few hours.

When I'm doing Amazon, I'm telling my warehouse manager, all right, what are we doing for the day?

I tap in with my VA to see what brands he's contacted or what we have going on there.

I'll place a few orders in my suppliers, see how much I can spend, depending on the day.

You know, I'll do some marketing, talk to my sales team with my, you know, my coaching programs, and then I'll go box or I'll go work out depending on the day list.

And yeah, pretty much after that, I'll do some light meetings, see what's up with everything, and then have dinner.

And there's so pretty light, nothing too crazy, it sounds like.

No, nothing too crazy, just trying to grow everything.

Yeah, that's the cool part about just making money on your own in general.

Like, you can kind of make your own schedule, you know.

Yeah, like one day, I was just walking my dog at like 2 p.m.

because I just felt like it's out of my schedule.

I'm like, I'm walking my dog at 2 p.m.

This is a blessing, Loki.

Yeah, on the water.

Like, it's great.

Yeah, for sure.

What, what breed you got?

He's a mini golden doodle.

Oh, yeah, puppy.

That's cool, bro.

I love dogs, dude.

Honestly, getting a dog changed my life.

Yeah.

Like, I used to have anxiety and shit, but it literally went away.

Yeah.

I feel you, bro.

Like, I love dogs.

It's a game changer for sure.

Let's see here.

Finding winning products.

You talked about that.

Product research.

Have you had any failed products?

Yeah, I have a few stories of failed products.

This happens every now and then.

One time, so when I first started on Amazon in the first year, I actually was selling pools because pools were very good it was pools yeah there's seasonal products on amazon that's the thing like during christmas there's toys are selling well so you can hop in on that during like march april may there's like fertilizer in the summer there's seasonal products such as pools rafts tubes people go tubing kind of think like a consumer and see what people would like so i was selling pools i'll fill up a truck go to walmart each you know different walmarts fill up the truck and sell them on amazon i was making good money doing it but one thing i realized is i was shipping these products like these pools which were 155 pounds each and the max for ups is 150 pounds ah so they're charged me a violation of a thousand dollars per pool i shipped out damn i shipped out like 300 but they only caught 30.

damn i was i lost 30 g's yeah i lost like 25 30k around wow and so is all shipping carriers a weight limit or was that just a ups thing there is there's always a weight limit and it was my first time.

I didn't have a mentor or anything.

I was just selling on Amazon.

I didn't know better than to ask, oh, like, how do I ship this properly?

I was just seeing the profit margins are.

I'm making a lot of money.

Then one day I realized, yo, there's 30K out of my Amazon bounce.

Where the hell did it go?

And I saw that.

Oh, man.

They didn't even hit you up.

No, they didn't say anything.

I just, it was gone.

And the thing is, I just came back from Miami.

It was like my second time in Miami.

I'm celebrating.

making money from these pools because this is when I was first starting.

I was in the club at Live, I think.

Oh, good.

Like 7K on a table.

Big money for me back then.

I was just like, you know, I'm coming up.

I'm going to do it regardless.

So I came home and I got that hit.

And I'm like, wow, my life is going to shambles right now.

Little wake-up call, right?

Yeah.

I think we all need that sometimes.

That's when it all changed for me.

I was, because during that time, I was buying stuff from Walmart and Target.

I'm sure you've seen videos like that.

Yeah, yeah.

Retail, going in the stores or online ordering.

And then that's when I realized, I got to go into a sustainable business model.

That's when I started wholesale and getting wholesale deals with brands.

Yeah, that makes sense.

And And when you were starting out, you were 1.8 million in debt, right?

So that is like my overall like credit card bill.

Got it.

Yeah, yeah.

So I wasn't actually 1.8 million in debt, but it's like, that's how much I've spent on my credit card in total.

How many points is that?

Yeah, it's a lot of points.

You're flying staying at hotels for free.

Yeah.

And like this past month, I spent a lot.

So this past month, I got...

about a million points.

Wow.

Yeah.

So you were trying to get write-offs before the end of the year.

Just like, yeah.

And then big inventory spending month too.

So all of that, like a lot of points adding up.

Sane man.

What was it like being able to help retire your parents?

Yeah.

I mean,

like, it's, it's, it's crazy because

they didn't really, it's just crazy how going from them not even believing or understanding this

to seeing, you know, being able to give them all this money, you know, and whenever I want, give them the cars.

They don't need to work anymore.

It's, it's a crazy feeling, honestly.

And it took a lot of weight off my shoulders.

Just like that's one thing on my bucket list that's crossed off, and it forever feels good.

You know, they're forever grateful.

And I just feel like they blessed me with the opportunity of being here, you know, giving me a good life in

the United States.

Just being here is the biggest blessing.

So that's, I owe them that.

Dude, that's amazing.

I wish I got that opportunity, but my mom's a savage, dude.

Asians love saving money, dude.

You know what I mean?

Like, even though she worked a nine-to-five her whole life, she was able to save some solid money.

Yeah, it's amazing.

And that's something with Asian culture.

Like, they're all about saving and education.

Yeah.

I'm glad I learned that from my parents.

It's great, bro.

Yeah, what are you working on this year, man?

I know you're getting big on social media, right?

Yeah.

So, a lot of social media, you see, I'm growing that up.

And another thing I'm working on, I'm keeping my wholesale business going.

So, my goal for my wholesale business is to do around $7 million this year in sales, and I'm launching a new product so I haven't ever launched a product on my own before and that's what I'm doing because wholesale is great to generate money you know run it up but now I'm trying to gain equity because now I have a lot of this cash saved up I'm trying to build my own brand up yeah that's something I've been working on in the past few days I don't want to say what it is but it's gonna be big when I look back on this I'm already it's already gonna be worth a million dollars damn so yeah can you say the industry at least yeah yeah it's supplemental type of product supplements have high margins yeah that That makes sense.

So very competitive, but I found a little niche that's not very competitive, but there's tons of people looking for it.

Nice.

Yeah.

Dude, I'm pumped.

It's fun starting your own brand, man.

Yeah, man.

Yeah.

I missed those days, man.

Just grinding away.

Where can people find you, dude?

So on Instagram and YouTube at KT Hustles.

I'm pumping out videos on Instagram and YouTube.

You know, every single week, every single day, I try to be as active as possible, give as much free value as possible about Amazon.

I show my journey as well.

So you can see that.

Awesome.

Check it out, guys.

We'll link it in the video.

Thanks for watching.

I'll see you tomorrow.

Appreciate it.