'Overcoming stereotype is first step'

This is the sixth in a series of columns chronicling the entrepreneurial journey of an aspiring e-commerce business owner and the ins and outs of starting an Amazon business. This installment features an interview with Leo Kim, a second-year entrepreneur who shares his story about juggling work and selling on multiple online platforms.

By Jane Han

NEW YORK ― Leo Kim knew he needed a second income when his monthly paycheck could barely cover rent and living expenses for his growing family of three. Two years ago, his situation seemed bleak and miserable, but now to think of it, that hopelessness opened new doors, he says.

“I would've never have pushed myself to look into a field that was so far and irrelevant to my career,” said Kim, 38, who recently landed a job in the bioengineering field after finishing six grueling years of postdoctoral training.

Toward the second half of those six years is when Kim explored selling on e-commerce platforms.

“As a postdoc, I had to commit to long and odd hours at the lab so juggling another job was out of the question. My wife was already working from home part-time while pregnant with our first child, but it was still tough making ends meet,” said Kim, who blamed the notoriously low salary of postdocs in general.

“I was doing random translation jobs to bring in extra money and that's when I met a client who was running a successful online business,” recalled Kim. “I was intrigued. Instantly.”

He said online businesses always seemed like a fleeting bubble that lacked something solid compared to traditional businesses.

“I had this very old mindset that sort of had me looking down on people who claimed to sell online. I wondered how much they would even make,” he said. “Yes, I occasionally purchased on Amazon but I never really put much thought into what kind of people were behind those products.”

That one client, who Kim won't go into detail, transformed his thinking and got him obsessed with e-commerce for the next two years.

He watched hundreds of YouTube videos to teach himself about the basics of online selling, went on to pay for mentoring programs and spent a good two months on product research alone before finally ordering his first product samples.

“The preparation time was at least six months for me. I needed to make sure I knew exactly what I was doing because I couldn't mess up and waste time and money,” he said, adding that paid content was helpful, but free videos on YouTube were enough to get him started.

After months of tireless research, Kim zeroed in on selling home fitness products, which are immensely popular on Amazon.

“This category is hyper-competitive. It is super cutthroat. I knew it, but I also knew that's where the demand is,” said Kim, who explains jumping into a popular category was more attractive to him than trying to find his own niche. “Everyone is different, but for me, I'd rather be in a product category that was tried and true.”

He said, however, that differentiation was the only way to survive.

“I ordered dozens of top selling products on Amazon to compare and contrast. I had to come up with ways to make mine better somehow,” said Kim, who sourced his products from China, mainly through Alibaba, a popular B2B e-commerce platform frequented by online sellers from around the world.

I made numerous design changes, went through multiple sampling processes and finally reached my final product that was ready to launch.

This entire process was costly, said Kim, who shared that he made an initial investment of $7,000.

“My investment is very small compared to other sellers, but I didn't have an option so I had to eliminate many unnecessary elements in the beginning,” he said, adding that branded product packaging was one of them.

Kim advises new sellers to first get started without trying to get “fully” ready from the very beginning.

“You can add things down the road. Don't spend money on nonessential things to minimize the financial risk as much as possible,” he said.

Two years into the business, Kim says he brings home about $3,000 in profit per month via Amazon and eBay.

“Big sellers will probably laugh at this number,” said Kim. “But for me, this is really all I needed as an extra passive income that's enough to make our living a bit more comfortable.”

He says even this would not have been possible if he never overcame his stereotype on online businesses.

“I'm thankful that I got out of my comfort zone to explore something completely new and different. That was e-commerce for me, but for other people, it might be something else,” said Kim.

Jane Han (jhan@koreatimes.co.kr) is an e-commerce entrepreneur who currently owns and sells several brands of products on various online platforms. Based in Seattle, she also writes as a freelance correspondent for The Korea Times.