Today we’d like to introduce you to Cody Nickson
Cody, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was in the military for 10 years.
It made me despise working for anyone else, so I knew I wanted to go the entrepreneurship route. And I like taking risks.
First business was a food truck that I had bought for $10k. My dad loaned me the money. I paid him back quickly, and within 6 months I got an offer to buy the food trunk for $20k, so I sold it. That motivated me to want to continue to start, grow, and sell businesses.
I ended up with a bit of a social media following, so I leveraged the marketing that provided to create a few different online businesses. I learned the ins and outs of Shopify. Then I started selling products on Amazon and learned the ins and outs of that. I was able to then sell my businesses, and execute on a few more online ventures.
Currently working on growing my current businesses.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No.
Amazon is the devil. They provide almost zero customer service and they change the rules often for Sellers on Amazon. They still allow for “Unverified Reviews” so anyone who hates me from social media can just go on and give fake 1 Stars. Fortunately, my products have been good enough to counter those, with great verified 5 Stars. And their fees to sell per product are significant.
My biggest obstacle was when covid happened, Amazon started limiting inventory, and their system would change their limits every day based on factors in a computer system unknown to the Seller. I sent a semi-truck load of inventory to Amazon, and while the truck was at the facility, I got a call from the driver saying Amazon was rejecting the shipment. Amazon had adjusted my inventory limit while the shipment was on the way, canceled it in the system, and when I finally got a hold of someone, they said I needed to redo the shipment in the system. But the system wouldn’t accept the inventory. So I had to send the truck back to the warehouse, removed the pallets, reconfigured them, loaded them back up, and sent it back to Amazon. The amount of time, money, manpower, and sales I lost was so incredibly expensive and unnecessary.
But Amazon is a necessary evil when selling products. People simply love to buy on Amazon, I buy a lot of products from Amazon, its just too convenient. To sell from your own website vs Amazon, Amazon wins every time in terms of how many sales are made.
As you know, we’re big fans of Fantaswick Candles/Faithwick Candles. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I make candles. It’s something I’ve become an expert at over the years, and they are a great product to sell on Amazon.
I partnered with a few individuals with this company. Before in business I always wanted to do everything on my own, but this time around I knew that would be impossible. I needed to be a part of a team.
Now I can focus on the quality of our candles. Every single one of them is hand-poured, and made in Texas using ingredients from America. The other owners focus more on the back end, dealing with Amazon, the listing quality, and setting up successful advertisements on Amazon… it works well.
Fantaswick sells candles that have a lot of fun themes. I created it originally to mimic the scents of the Disney and Universal parks. I actually started with a candle I called “Butter Brew” and it was poured in a beer mug, and it looked and smelled just like Harry Potter Butterbeer. It was such an amazing clone of the actual Butterbeer, that Universal sent me a cease and desist from making it anymore. I took it as a compliment. The current candles we are selling now aren’t tapping the IP line, but the customer still understands what they are mimicking. The scents are spot on though (through much experimentation)… I don’t think anyone can copyright or trademark an actual smell yet, so we are good to go there.
Faithwick was created to have beautiful Bible verses on amazing smelling candles, to serve the Believer community. Believers are one of the most underserved communities out there, so it’s great to sell them.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I was always curious and remain curious. If I see a successful entrepreneur, I ask them questions. And I genuinely want to hear what they have to say, and how they do things. Most are very happy and open to answering.
What I have found is 95% of what someone says is typically common knowledge, common sense, it might verify what you already knew or assumed about business… but the other 5% of what they say will be unique, and is enlightening! Listen closely, because that info will change your life if you are seeking entrepreneurship.
When you start piecing together all this enlightening info, you can create a business that is quite successful.
Did I have a specific mentor?… no. Every successful entrepreneur, I am motivated by. And I want to learn about their success and how they did it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Fantaswick/page/D72975C4-27F3-4DD3-B738-3AABD3A38A1F?ref_=ast_bln
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fantaswick
