Sam Boyd
@bysamboyd
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Produced over $200M in goods, shipping for 800+ brands with @guidedimports | Sharing the wild side of manufacturing in China
Bangkok, Thailand
Joined June 2011
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10 years ago, I lived in one of the poorest cities in China.
Today, I run an 8 figure company.
Shipping for hundreds of e-commerce businesses.
Here’s my story:
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@typesfast
@flexport
Even if you're not in Europe, I promise, you will begin to feel this. It will delay vessels everywhere. Costs will go up, and there will be inventory issues.
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@TrungTPhan
this is why males can withstand earthquakes better than females. we're built similarly
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We're facing skyrocketing shipping rates & delays.
Here is what you should prepare for👇🏼
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@dharmesh
This is also a major red flag when working with agencies. They want to make things complex to justify billing.
Simple wins go further.
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When asked if you can do something, say YES.
Then make it happen.
A 'yes' mindset breeds growth and opportunity.
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Remember the toilet paper wars of 2020?
Well.. brace for another shortage.
Here's why.
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Just got 1000 followers.
Want to know a secret?...
I got no idea what I'm doing.
Posting random shit.
Some will stick.
Keep posting.
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An easy business model anyone can replicate.
My customer ships 2 containers a month from China, and guess what?
He never invests a CENT!
THREAD 🧵
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If you were made owner of X for a day, what would you change first?
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If given a chance, will you do a family business or build a business from scratch?
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@luo_yuehan
China’s more developed than the US.
Also, with today’s technology, ignorance of that is a choice.
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Houthi red sea attacks disrupted shipping, diverting about $200 billion in trade.
Here is what you need to know:🧵👇
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10 powerful websites that will help you work smarter, not harder:
THREAD 🧵👇🏼
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I want to homeschool my daughter in China.
The amount of business ideas is unreal. Every factory I visit I'm still blown away.
This is my friends printer.
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If you think being an entrepreneur requires a "big idea," you're a wantrepreneur, not an entrepreneur.
Stop waiting for the perfect idea and just start.
Build something small, validate it, and grow from there.
Ideas are cheap, execution is everything.
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I started my business when Obama was in office. I grew it during Trumps terms. I'm still growing under Biden.
We could elect Mickey F#*cking Mouse as the next president, and I'll keep growing.
If you have a great product that people want, politics are irrelevant.
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ChatGPT will redefine the future of building businesses.
But most entrepreneurs don’t know how to use it intelligently.
Here’s how I use ChatGPT to run my 8 figure company:
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A really difficult decision:
Firing a key customer, 6% of our revenue.
Here's why it's a bold but essential move
for our business's long-term health and success.
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Scared or excited about the idea of China's president being our next superhero?
I grew up in the US and most of my adult life in China. Here is a dumbed-down version of this crazy plan.
Last year Xi began his third term as China's Big Daddy. He invited leaders from all over to
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I found myself falling deeply in love with an incredible woman, whose journey had taken her from crossing borders as a teenager to working tirelessly to support her family.
She had faced challenges that most could only imagine, yet her strength and determination shone through.
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If you sleep today and wake up in 2050.
What will be the first thing you will check?
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Picture this..
No money.
In China,
But want to start a business.
How do you do it?
There is a way to make quick cash in China as a young foreigner.
Be a white monkey.
Curious?
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Owning a business isnt for everyone
Endless stress
Sleepless nights
Financial uncertainty.
Eventually..
A point comes where your business
exists to let you live the life you want.
I don't take weekends or holidays.
Any day is a Funday.
I call that success
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The most crucial founder skill? Sales.
Selling is complex yet vital.
Great sales talent is scarce and expensive.
Master closing, pitching and psychology over years of practice. Many give up too soon.
Sales is the make-or-break talent for any founder.
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Entrepreneurship isn't about "mindset" - it's about hunger and necessity.
Learn as you go, find what works through trial and error.
Can't handle fear, need reassurance, struggle alone? Don't do it.
It's scary AF, but scarier is living with unfulfilled potential.
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Think you need investors? I thought so too
Until I bootstrapped to $100M+
Bootstrapping can mean less stress and more success. Heres why 👇🏼🧵
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I've shipped 500+ different products from Alibaba.
Get ready to be mind-blown by these 5 cheap and easy-to-start businesses I've witnessed firsthand.
THREAD👇
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Business books suck.
But after 5 short months, I've already learned 100X more from brilliant people on Twitter.
10 threads that will accelerate your business growth: 🧵 👇🏼
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@samleegray
@Sameer_Mohsin1
@aakashg0
@Fozoro101
For most users, Reddit just works with the occasional power trip post getting traction, making users think mods don't do anything except ban people and remove some occasional spam.
It doesn't surprise me that many people don't understand how much mods rely on API's.
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I'm no stranger to failure. I've faced serious debt, come dangerously close to bankruptcy, and once owed a supplier $140k when I had just $300 to my name.
Somehow I paid back every cent.
I've made plenty of stupid financial decisions over the years.
But here's the thing -
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I felt like a pro making tablets in China until one oversight left 3418 students unable to attend class.
What did I learn from this costly mistake?
Lesson: Never stop learning in business.
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Do you ask for discounts from your friends and family businesses? Why or why not?
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First, the army thought I was a reporter, then a spy.
Then they warmed up to me and wanted to take a photo with me and my family.
I just returned from a trip in Myanmar, stepping into a city where no other foreigner has been allowed to enter.
Navigating the various police
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The most important soft skill you can have as a business owner is the ability to be genuinely courteous.
For small businesses, first impressions are crucial and they're not just about your business but how you, the owner, interact.
Being genuinely courteous counts a lot!
If
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How did I sell hundreds of millions in products and services?
If you dream about growing your business but suck at sales, read this:
I’ve been selling since I was 13 years old.
🕶️ shades
🏄🏼♂️ boards
🥦 goods
💼 services
But persuasion selling makes me vomit.
THREAD 🧵
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6 lessons I learned leaving my $8 MILLION a month sourcing business in China.
That's right.
We were manufacturing $8,000,000 of products every month.
And I walked away from it.
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Don't lose sight of genuine wealth.
It's not just money but wisdom, purpose and legacy that define true riches.
Stay centered on substance over shallow flex.
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Courses that should be taught in all schools:
• Taxes
• Investing
• Accounting
• How to Vote
• Homeownership
• Personal Finance
What else?
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Everyone wants the perfect step-by-step money guide. But have you learned how to figure your own stuff out?
Back when I was starting out, I saw my friend killing it with affiliate marketing. He knew the playbook.
I expected him to save me effort by laying out everything to
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The first step is always the hardest.
That blank page or project seems so daunting.
Our minds race with doubts and questions.
But don't overthink it, don't make excuses. Just start.
Momentum builds from there.
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If you could be mentored by a famous entrepreneur, who would it be?
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Remember, everyone starts somewhere, don't wait until you have it all figured out.
No one has everything sorted out when they begin their journey to success.
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Unpopular Opinion: Agencies Sucks
Freelancers/hiring internally always seems to work better for me.
Any examples of agencies that aren't terrible?
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Lots of people romanticize entrepreneurship.
They dream up flashy ideas and get lost in fantasy instead of reality.
But business is about execution not just brainstorming.
Start small by solving real problems close to home. Offer an existing service, just better.
Success
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Would you consider it a red flag if a customer pays a $50,000 invoice via credit card?
We charge around 3% processing fees on credit card payments, which means they're spending more than $1,500 on processing fees.
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I lost $180,000+ and 14 months on an employee who stabbed me in the back.
When he first started, he made some costly mistakes - losing $43,000 on his initial shipment.
Rather than firing him, I saw it as a lesson and opportunity for improvement.
After paying him a full salary
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At 13, I fixed surfboards. I had no idea about my future, just wanted to succeed.
Now, I own Guided Imports.
I learned through trial and error. Mistakes shaped me.
No clear plan, just determination. Failures taught me.
Success isn't about having all the answers. It's about
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The cost of something special is forgotten quickly.
The experience lasts a lifetime.
Do it.
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Harsh truth:
A word of a successful person is more appreciated & listened to than a person in hustle.
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Watching Garyvee all day will not make you rich.
You are just filling yourself with dopamine.
Dopamine doesn't pay the bills. Hard work does.
Reward your life, not your brain.
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Courses don't make you successful.
You must know how to learn on your own.
Most don't provide the experience needed for real success.
Use them as guides, not step-by-step instructions.
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When I started my business, I wanted to offer everything.
I recently stumbled upon an old graphic from the first version of my website.
It was an infographic listing all our services.
Trying to fit everything into that one graphic was not only tacky but now seems like a visual
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In early days,
Vision to reality was hard.
Progress was painfully slow.
I’m grateful I persisted.
Quitting means true failure.
Had I given up too early,
I would have missed momentum.
Small wins build over time.
Now when facing obstacles,
I know overnight success is a
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Traveling with Little Kids is More Fun Without Fancy Hotels.
I recently went to Myanmar with my 3-year-old daughter and wife.
We decided not to stay at expensive hotels. Instead we stayed at simple, cheap homestays in small villages.
The villages were more fun for my daughter
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My goal:
• Stay small
• Stay focused
• Obsess over customer retention
This became a lifestyle business. Both for me and my employees.
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If you’re from the US, it’s hard to comprehend how beneficial high speed trains are.
Currently I’m traveling 285 miles in a little over 2 hours.
From the front door of the train station to aboard the train it took me 10 minutes.
One X-ray machine, shoes stayed on, laptop in
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Focus is power.
Big success often comes from one narrow skill.
Most people move from thing to thing.
But greatness comes from specializing and sticking to it.
Zero in on one craft, one dream - then make it real through hard focus.
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@MyLordBebo
This isn't only Beijing Uni. I studied in a middle of nowhere university in a poor city in China. Lunch time was legit! Weird that I still remember the deliciousness.
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It costs around $3000 to ship a 40-foot container from Shanghai to Los Angeles.
If you want to ship that same container back to Shanghai, it would cost $600.
This is what a trade imbalance looks like.
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Wait, kids are seriously aspiring to become influencers?
That's a life goal?
Before it was policeman/fireman/astronaut
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Harsh truth:
Your MBA degree won't save your business if you are not learning from experience.
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Just spent 6 hours diving into Roman Khan's ecom empire.
His journey to becoming a DTC ninja is wild.
Here's why
@RomanEcom
is a name you can't afford to ignore in 2024!
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What's one skill schools should teach TODAY before it's too late?
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His formula:
- Find customers
- Connect with factories
- Manufacture
- Ship
The profit is huge.
I can do this too.
So I quit the next day.
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If you're looking to start a business, stop studying those that claim they earned 6, 7, 8 figures in X number of days.
This is not anywhere close to common in business, yet the glorification of this idea has led so many to believe it be true and possible.
If I walked into a
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Just got home from a long day with my packaging supplier who handles 70% of the packaging for my customers products. Get ready y’all, the price of packaging is about to (if it didn’t for you already) go WAY up. Just another cost affected by raw material shortage. ☹️
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Scrolling through social media, you can't avoid the "entrepreneurs" flaunting their luxury lives and preaching get-rich-quick mantras.
But as someone who has walked the long, lonely road of building a business from scratch, I can tell you it's mostly bullshit.
Sure, some may
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AI generated tweets with captions are the equivalent to the emails my grandma use to forward to me.
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You know the phrase "The customer is always right?"
Well, the original phase was "the customer is always right in matters of taste."
How this got bastardized into the customer is always right we may never know, but it was probably the stupidest idea to have ever been promoted
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My website brings in 8 figures of revenue annually with 100k monthly users.
I built and designed it myself using Elementor and free plugins.
I'm embarrassed how it looks.
But then I look at the numbers.
Customers dont give a shit about presentation if you deliver value.
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If you enjoyed this thread.
And you want to learn more about my experience building non-sexy businesses;
1. Follow me
@bysamboyd
for more threads like this
2. RT the tweet below to share this thread with your audience
10 years ago, I lived in one of the poorest cities in China.
Today, I run an 8 figure company.
Shipping for hundreds of e-commerce businesses.
Here’s my story:
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153
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Every doer was once a thinker.
It's in your hands to die like a Thinker or live like a Doer.
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I fired an employee who was working with us for 14 months in a sales role.
We had to part ways due to performance issues and receiving poor customer feedback.
During his time with us, we provided him with a new MacBook Pro and a top-notch headset. I told him to keep it and use
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The word “entrepreneur” ain't what it used to be.
It used to conjure images of bold risk-takers, innovators who buck the system and chart their own course.
People who spot gaps in the market and build products that disrupt industry stalwarts.
But today, “entrepreneur” has
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@FreightAlley
EVs for OTR makes no sense with current technology. Imagine have a team driver and needing to wait 12 hours to charge your truck to 100% before you to continue.
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The Dangerous "Miserable Today, Happy Someday" Trap.
Many entrepreneurs buy into a dangerous delusion that you must grind yourself to the bone today and put happiness on hold, all for some promised fulfillment down the road.
"I'll sleep when I'm rich."
"I'll find love after my
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The death of an entrepreneur:
- Surrounded by distractions
- No Plan
- No reinvestment in the business
- Avoid taking risks
- NO calculated growth
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You don’t become successful by going with the grain.
Zuck paid his employees parking tickets and did their laundry.
Mr. Beast makes his CEO’s live with him for 6 months
Peter Thiel invests in those willing to drop out of college to pursue dreams
What are your unique traits?
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The global container shortage simplified.
What is the impact for e-commerce businesses thread 👇
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When was the last time you left a 1 star review? What happened?
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Half of my customers love Donald Trump and the other half hate him.
As a business owner, staying neutral is like my superpower.
But let me tell you, it's not always easy.
I've spent a good chunk of the last decade living in China, where politics is a whole different ball game.
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Struggling to sell your services? Reevaluate your approach and focus on solving a specific problem.
➼ The Elephant in the Room
1,000 cold calls in 2 months? Why not sell your core service?
Leverage your phone skills and resilience to thrive.
➼ Your Website
Unclear
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At first, it's hard to find customers.
• I’m in China illegally
• No job
• $500 in my bank account
But going back to the U.S. as a failure?
Not an option.
FInally, customers start to show interest.
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What's something you're really good at that most people don't know anything about?
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2014
I get an internship in Shenzhen
First day of work I’m told, I only get paid if I find customers.
I feel betrayed.
It’s too late to turn back.
But my boss is making a ton of money.
And I'm learning how he does it.
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