Ashraf Ahamed is a 33-year old guy, who is a digital marketing consultant entrepreneur. He is also the founder & CEO of Amz Trainer, Denver, CO.
Right from his young age, Ahamed was keen to succeed. During his school days, he dreamt about starting his own business. His father was a successful businessman and hence, Ahamed might have got this attitude through heredity. He attempted lots of smaller businesses but only to vain.
To quote an experience, he tried creating local yellow pages sort of business, but he faced a terrible failure. Then, he went on to explore Agro business to carry out imports and exports from India and Singapore. But, he couldn’t succeed in this too.
However, he didn’t think about quitting. He was always after his passion, that is, his own business. Then, he got an opportunity to launch Software IT consultancy. In this too, he failed due to lack of knowledge and experience.
After some two years gap, he came up with own Call Bike Company overseas in India, in which he faced lots of legal issues from the federal government and hence, had to put this off again.
It seemed like life is showing only failures to Ahamed and he started losing his hope. He even started doubting his skills and knowledge. All of a sudden, to his surprise, he heard about carrying out business on Amazon marketplace. But, he didn’t have sufficient money in his pocket to spend for the course. He had to use his credit card to enroll in a course to learn about the system and then, he launched a product from his last savings.
At the time, he was almost bankrupt before he had his final try. After he launched his product, he could see that things were not in place and saw only slow sales initially. And, hence he was about to quit.
Then, one day, he told himself that, “Enough is enough and I need to make this business work for me and this is my final choice/chance. I can’t keep on pushing and try business after business”.
He started following few proven mentors to cut short his route to learn and also to avoid some expensive errors. He started learning the ins and outs of Amazon FBA system and sponsored product ads system and then, he started making sales. He launched product after product and his sales flooded. He was able to make six figures in a month. But, he didn’t stop with this. He went on to expand his business to other Amazon marketplaces like Canada, India, and Japan.
Ahamed then started thinking about millions of people, who are planning to collaborate with Amazon. There isn’t any appropriate coaching class to help them. This kindled Ahamed to create an ongoing business journey experience to help thousands of people out there. He worked hard day and night to create his own coaching workshop called ‘AMZ Trainer’.
Today, AMZ Trainer has thousands of members and still counting. Thus, he is able to change the people’s lives by extending his support. He helping nature is changing the people’s lives for good. He is focusing on to help people by educating them about Amazon FBA business and tips and tricks to sky rocket their sales. Recently, Ahamed launched a monthly group coaching call as a FREE addition to help his members/students.
AMZ Trainer has been widely featured on various media outlets like INC, Business, ABC, CNN, and so on. He is focusing towards helping his students by providing ‘VALUE to the CORE’.
How did you get started in this business? What inspired you to start this business?
When I decided to do business on Amazon, I had to spend thousands of dollars to learn about it through various online courses. However, I’d say no course was able to provide the extensive support I needed. This is what is experienced by others too. However, I continued my business for two long years only to discover the bitter truth that this is not the thing that can be learned in an eight-week course. I understood that this subject matter requires an ongoing learning. As I was learning, I noticed that several beginners, as well as experienced Amazon merchants, were struggling to learn/understand the concepts due to the lack of support from their course providers. This pushed me to work harder to create my version of Amazon FBA coaching program called ‘Amz Trainer’.
How do you make money?
I’m a seller on various marketplaces on Amazon like Amazon US, Amazon India, Amazon Japan, and so on. Also, I personally own a couple of e-commerce stores on Shopify and having monthly subscription model sales funnels too. Besides these, I running my own version of Amazon FBA coaching program called ‘Amz Trainer’ through which I am getting paid by my members/students for my services. These are the ways I am making money at present.
How long did it take for you to become profitable?
The journey wasn’t short or easy. I had to work harder day and night for almost five months since the program launch to start making money through this coaching program. At times, I even felt of quitting but I motivated myself and was very determined in winning this. Today, it makes six-figures income and I’m working towards to make it a seven-figure business by the end of this year.
When you were starting out, was there ever a time you doubted it would work? If so, how did you handle that?
I’d give a firm ‘yes’ for this question. Of course, I had doubts when I started recording my training videos. I kept asking myself as ‘How am I going to compete in this market to win more clients?’ However, I was able to override all the doubts and started believing myself to make my business work. Today, we have course-takers from all across the globe and we are providing employment to the people from various countries like USA, UK, Dubai, and India. Although it’s quite a long journey, I’d say this was worth the try.
How did you get your first customer?
I like this question because getting the first customer is not an easy job, especially when you are in Digital Marketing Coaching. In my case, I had to chase several people for providing value to them so as to gain their confidence and trust on me. Although it was a nightmare, I was able to override it very quickly.
What is one marketing strategy (other than referrals) that you’re using that works really well to generate new business?
We are offering “20 FREE Training Videos” about the overview of Amazon Business Model for free of cost so as to help the beginners visualize the business model before getting enrolled into our coaching program. This will give them a better picture of our coaching program thereby, helping them to decide about their enrollment. We are offering FREE trials for the courses like Facebook ads, Amazon-sponsored products ads (PPC course), and many others. In simple terms, we aim to provide ‘VALUE TO THE CORE’ to the beginners.
What is the toughest decision you’ve had to make in the last few months?
I’d say the toughest decision was to increase the fee of our workshop membership. For the past few months, we have been adding various courses, as well as bonuses for free. Being the owner of the business, it was really tough for me to move forward with these. However, it finally turned to be one of the best decisions I had ever made.
What do you think it is that makes you successful?
The key to success is very simple. I am providing 10X value to our clients/students compared to what they pay us. The course-takers are really happy about Amz Trainer workshop and several of them are leading a financial-free life. As a Founder of this coaching program, I feel pride as I am bringing changes to people’s lives. I believe client satisfaction is the magic for success!
What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
Within just six months of the program launch, the business crossed six figures in sales revenue. Therefore, we can proudly say, we have taken this business from zero to 100K USD in six months with cent percent client satisfaction. Moreover, we haven’t processed any refund till now and whenever I think about this, I feel very satisfied and happy.
What does the future hold for your business? What are you most excited about?
Whenever I imagine the future of AMZ Trainer, I get goose bumps and my level of excitement also goes to the peak. This is because we’re working with several organizations to extend our help to the employees in learning about the program. We’re educating them about the online Amazon business and how it could help them attain freedom of finance, location, and time. Simultaneously, we’re also working to release Amazon News updates, as well as helpful tips/tricks-related mobile applications too. Finally, we’re also working to develop the software suite to help Amazon sellers (both new and experienced). By the end of this year, we will be able to acquire a spot in the TOP 10 list of World’s best e-commerce workshop with an annual sales revenue reaching up to 10M USD.
What business books have inspired you?
I am a good reader and I read lots of books. My all-time favorite is ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ by Robert Kyasaki. I also read a lot of Tony Robbin’s works!
What is a recent purchase you have made that’s helped with your business?
More recently, I bought ‘Digital Marketer Certification’ program by Ryan Desis. This was very useful for me and my team to learn about social media marketing, which is one of the major aspects of businesses today. This program also helped us to get more insights on the customer journey. I feel learning about the customer journey is essential to succeed in any business today.
How/Why Amz Trainer is Different from all other online amazon courses in the industry?
This is a great question and I’d love to answer this. The difference between Amz Trainer and other courses is quite simple. Others are looking to sell dreams, but, we are looking to sell truth and reality. Dreams can go unfulfilled, but not the truth. I’d say it’s literally impossible to learn the ins and outs of a business in just eight weeks or so. To kiss the success continuously and consistently, ongoing education is important and we’re providing it. We’re conducting group coaching calls every month to ensure members are staying on track and taking action. As of now, we have 130+ videos to educate people about the nook and corner of Amazon FBA business, 50+ videos for Facebook, 40+ for Amazon-sponsored products, 20+ videos for Clickfunnels, 30+ Videos for Shopify Drop shipping business and what not? We had put lots of efforts to add more value to this program. This can be better understood by visiting the following link to learn more about us: www.amztrainer.com.