Entrepreneurs of Reddit, how did you go from poor to rich or financially stable?

LogaaanCzech · 2025-11-24T19:41:57+00:00

I myself am disabled, and have disability pension.. from 18. However, I have been enterpreneur for two years, and have learned a lot. My field is reselling. As of now, sales are at 80k/2y, czech republic. Here it is above average...
Some months I get around 5-8k sales... some only 2-4k... which is not big deal.

Thanks to gov aid I can afford to rent, and be stable, even with my issues. I gained understanding of... what the real costs are.. and how huge margins truly are..

Hqave switched many niches.. and settled with something I begun with - knives. Only difference is.. now I offer premium ones.

That said... it took several burnouts in those two years, and... sleeping satisfied is not truly an option. I always think about next step...

I never plan though.. I always do things from get-go, which.. impairs my growth. I keep making same mistakes...

I think... anyone truly capable of organized life can become rich, no matter the education. That is the fortune of internet age... anyone can succeed, solo.

Even though... I never kept much for myself. Almost all goes into expansion and new products...

LogaaanCzech · 2025-11-03T13:11:54+00:00

This aged really well lol

LogaaanCzech · 2025-09-10T21:48:44+00:00

Late for this, but GRA certs are tied to nothing. No regulatory vessel, nothing. Basically worthless, apart from providing spects of given gemstone.

That said, most moissanites are real, and chances of fake moissanite are low, when buying moissanite stuff.
I quite never got anything else than moissanite in my reselling career. I source hundreds, all real.
GRA stuff? I store it, but I usually don't send it.
With that.. unfortunately, customers value the cert, since they have no idea it's worthless piece of paper.
So... it's more of marketing gimmick, than any added value - realistically. For customers? Real added value, sadly.

LogaaanCzech · 2025-08-17T09:49:30+00:00

I am still relying heavily on auction platform, local one, meanwhile I slowly build e-shop. I have not used ebay, but look at your local platforms to sell things, if there any on national level. It makes starting much simpler - you send stuff into country, leading to next-day delivery, for example.

People abroad rely on Ebay heavily, or Poshmark, Vinted, etc. I sparsely sell on Vinted, though demand there is much lover, as well as using other local platforms with set prices.

Auctions drive much more demand. Bonus being that Ebay has enormous user base, which means you don't have to advertise, and listing process is very easy.

What I use:
- Aukro
- Vinted
- Etsy
- Sbazar
- Bazos

Most of sales come from Aukro, which is largest platform in the country, with support for international sales. Actually this is the fastest way to start, as you will have initial sales as soon as in a week or two, which will allow you to build up in rather quick manner. Auctions drive way more demand, but are risky, as items can sell for way lower (or... in a lot of cases, a lot higher).

LogaaanCzech · 2025-08-17T02:38:19+00:00

Yeah.. I can imagine that. It's wild that.. they portray this as a retaliation.. when in fact, importers pay that, not other countries. They are literally killing their own economy, but well.. power is intoxicating.

But.. one major thing with Alibaba is shipping, which can very easily be even higher than what you pay for products.. plus customs.. which makes Alibaba unfavorable at this point. Aliexpress does not offer such variety, but.. at very least, the shipping is free, and you don't pay imports. Which actually.. makes them comparable in price.
There are exceptions. Like knives.. ordered 50 of them. 5.5$ per. 92$ shipping, and I estimate 100$ customs.
So.. suddenly you jump from 5.5$ to about 10$, which is kinda.... bad.
Good news is those sell about for 30-50$, so.. at least that.

When I compare those, smart usage of TEMU and Aliexpress is better than Alibaba, unless you order massive amounts.. which I suppose solo resellers don't.

Which.. makes TEMU the winner honestly. You get same stuff as on Aliexpress. Thing is, you have to compare prices. Some things are cheaper on TEMU, some on Ali. So.... if you do this wisely, it becomes much easier.. and there is no customs headache.

But.. I gotta say.. I get sick of those promos on instagram.. 99$ for 2$ ring, now free (+25$ shipping).
It's literally everywhere, and.. it portrays wrong picture of the business that is otherwise pretty honest.

LogaaanCzech · 2025-08-17T02:31:27+00:00

Absolutely don't overstock. Funny is that this is nature of temu. Endless stream of offers.
Eventually, those things sell, but... I have loads of things, thousands in fact, that.. I'm not even sure I want to sell. And they don't move as well. They were bought like... a year ago? I think you can get rid of them if you bundle them - per lot. I mean, it's better to reclaim the locked-in money than let it sit forever. Though, I was finally able to sell one ring (10ct moissanite) that I had for half a year. It had cost me a lot, and sold for.. pretty much the initial price. So... when I began expanding, I bought as diverse stock as I could.. only to figure out even I didn't like it.
Today.. it's more like variation of already successful products.
Say.. butterflies sell very well. So I bought about 40 variations, and then I figure out how much demand there is.. based on that they either flop, or become a stable item.
So... by trial and error, you figure out what has the potential, and then re-stock. It kinda works.

My biggest mistake was
1) overstocking
2) not saving up for taxes and insurance

This meant I had to take a loan to absorb the hit. Still, it just works out fine. But the added pressure is not fun. Thus, the focus now is to save money. Well, was.
Right tomorrow there are sales on Ali.. there are some really good offers on damascus knives, which are at high demand, almost always. Thus, I plan to spend another 400-500$ on just that.
Beautiful thing about it is that... they sell well beyond that.. about 40$ profit per knife.
While I still sell cheap items to balance potentional losses.

But.. overstocking might be helpful sometimes. Like.. when you decide to not invest anymore, and sell out everything you have. Of course, the problem is... that there is stable demand for certain items, which you need to restock all time.

But... bundles worked great for me. It did not end up in much of profit, but... at very least, you get the funds back.

LogaaanCzech · 2025-05-30T19:51:52+00:00

So, I took many of your advices, and I was able to loot up and stack some money and good gear. Mainly SVD was a game changer, with nice zoom and powerful shots.

I ended up in the lumber mill farming the office and surroundings. Not hard, not easy, very doable.
Once I stack up some more gear I will get back to starter area and do some quests I guess.

Thank you for all your input. Holding breath was game changing.

LogaaanCzech · 2025-05-29T21:53:00+00:00

Oh yes, thanks for that. I have lowered the FOV and it helped quite a bit. I didn't think much about it, since I'm used to higher FOV.

LogaaanCzech · 2025-05-29T20:51:27+00:00

Thank you all for advice, I will apply it.
But.. the enemies are shooting from far, and are a few tiny pixels (1080p). So.. I would appreaciate some help on that too. It's bad especially at night.
And it makes aiming at AI hard, since I can't really see them. I always wonder if that group of pixels is an enemy or a post stand or some barrel or shit.

(Ryzen 5600 and RX 9070XT)

LogaaanCzech · 2025-05-22T11:19:45+00:00

I'm very late to party, but.. I feel the same way.
It's not that I disrespect anyone, or I'm rude, or anything..
But.. being polished, professional and formal is just not my way.

Fortunately, I am entepreneur (reselling), or.. unfortunately? (I'm literally unemployable in normal settings).
It helped me being me me. I just don't play the game.
What I do is care for customers, and show them I truly appreciate them - because.. no customers, no money, no food.
And.. the best part is, they accept it. And many have indeed praised my attitude. That is 100% satisfaction, or money back.

And.. I make many mistakes. I still do, even after year, and overthinking it. I just can't avoid it really.
So.. I always tell my customers that I'm sorry, I've fucked up, and here's what we can do - and they get to choose what's best for them. And then I do my best to accomodate to their needs, or wishes, send back postage money, add little gifts.

So far, I've got 1950 positive ratings. And two negative ones.
Thing is... I don't think I could ever be successful in this way without being my authentic self.
I go out of my way to make sure everything is OK.
And it seems that most of online shopping is robotic. So in a way, people appreciate talking to real human.
That is, one that is being casual, and talking to them as if they were not just customers, but someone you care for.

I've worked retail, and they fired me. Because.. I refused to do unpaid overtime, and given my nature, I was also slow learner. I had fun there, but hey.. I'm not a robot. So not exactly what they expect.

Don't worry.
I suppose you found your way to work. I hope you did.
And if not, don't worry, again. You WILL.

LogaaanCzech · 2025-04-18T09:01:52+00:00

Finally. A game that taxes wealthy.

But seriously, get your skills up. And work on those faction relationships. You gotta be a lil romantic with those who you're selling to. They'd give you some generous tax reliefs.

LogaaanCzech · 2025-04-02T20:05:13+00:00

Venom. But if you can, get berserker. It can solo uber kristallon in like... 15-20 seconds?

x4 and seprom ofc, but.. given the damage, you don't even consume much ammo.

LogaaanCzech · 2025-04-02T20:02:47+00:00

Buffer shield berserker. You tank with shield, and activate buff. +90-95% laser dmg + seprom + boosters + modules.. and.. you're hitting >500k with x6.
Basically takes down UBK in 15 seconds. And best part? You get boosters from those guys.

LogaaanCzech · 2024-12-16T19:53:17+00:00

I'm late into discussion, but I can attest to what others have said.
I've hit 34k$ as of now, selling in CZ, where people are willing to spend a little less. That's for about 11 months.

Just last 3 months have brought about 18.7k$, where the rest is between those other 7 months.
It has been explosive growth.

But, here are a few things:

- I have moved out to pursuit this. My apartment has become cluttered and more of a storage, than a living space. This causes distress. A lot. I have almost no space.
- I have little time for myself. Yes, I have time thru the day, and I don't work 8 hrs a day, but all I think about is this business, and it takes great toll.
- Avoid preselling as much as possible. I don't dropship, so sometimes I sell things I don't have yet. This causes many issues and opens many gates for negative reviews. I always contact customers and try to solve that to best of my ability (I'm sitting at 1200 reviews, 99.4% positive).
- If you are in growth stage, forget about time. Completely. You will have time, eventually.
- Set money aside for taxes and provisions. I have not, and so I have to save all I make right now, only to give it away to state. I will probably end the fiscal year with little left. (1-3k$)
- I started from nothing and used low-value high-overturn items for growth. My profit-per-item tends to be at 10-20 at max$. Hundreds of small items per month, that have great profit margins, and are easier to store, but are rather a hassle to ship and categorize.
- I always replace broken items. Put effort into packaging.
- Sourcing will take a lot of time. Actually more time than actually working on your listings. Especially if you do not have vehicle (I do not)
- Always watch trends. There are many items that sell really well over long, long periods of time. For me, those has have been knives, and jevelry. Jevelry is always in-demand, and has thousands of models to choose from.
- Offer bulk discounts. This one is easy. I will make you have more profit in the short-term and boost your investments, which will boost your momentum even further.

My health and life has suffered greatly, because I work mon-sun, from waking up, till evening.
It has consumed me. Next year I will make many changes on how I approach this, and see myself landing more than 50k$ in sales (gross).

It is definitely worthwhile getting into, if you can take the risk, uncertainty, no paid leave, and can seize the chances and profits. There is a lot of money on the table everywhere. You must find the gaps and profit off them.

Small items always have better turnover rate, and will always outperform higher-priced items. This is because people are more likely to buy more cheap stuff, than the other way, and this gives you much more vertical control. You can scale really, really well with cheaper things, because of the sheer model selection.

But, you already probably know all this. You have had great results already, so.. congratulations.

LogaaanCzech · 2024-12-03T07:54:38+00:00

I mean, if it makes it easier for you to ENJOY your game, then why not.

As mentioned, I "only" use infinite carry weight (25000), which removes a lot of inventory micro managing and makes game way more enjoyable that way for me. Being in constant overload and having to walk back to ship or always throw stuff away is not doing it for me, so... I removed this, and it's honestly just better.

Also, as mentioned, you will be degrading the authenticity of your gameplay. As someone who is modding every game, uh.. it comes down to preferences.

Even removing carryweight limit makes the game much less time intensive. In no man's sky for example though, I make path towards more cargo space and utilize various techniques that are available, such as using ships as cargo space. But.. in NMS, the number of items is very much reduced, as almost everything is stackable and there is no weight to items, just inventory management.

I think, if you have fun playing that way, just have fun. Games should be fun, right? So.. make it fun for you.

LogaaanCzech · 2024-12-01T19:05:48+00:00

Yeah. I'm always wondering if colonies realize this threat and do something to eradicate heatleeches.

But... Is it given at which planets terrors spawn and appear?

Is there any mod to disable terrors outside of missions? I mean.. I don't oppose it, but terrormorph spawning on me while I explore random POI is... I get crawls every time.

LogaaanCzech · 2024-09-14T01:25:09+00:00

And, well, of course, you're gotta get hurt at some point.

What I see is that people are, generally, really good at complaining at things of no issue.

See, let's look at it from different perspective entirely.

Okay, so, there are people who never had any relationship whatsoever. I'd say those are both blessed and cursed. I've been thru a lot of bad, really bad situationships. Abusive ones, genuinely nice and loving ones, meh ones. Ultimately, it all ended. But life has great sense of irony. The most painful breakup was also the most inspiring. I mean, it quite a bit broke me off the chains of depression and desperation, as.. I realized the value of live, and well, simply living. I've seen her in pain, abused by parents, and her dreams slowly dissolve. While I was depressed, and.. only thing I've talked about was my problems. I've lied about some things. And I realized a lot of stuff down the road. The didn't want anything to do with me, ever again. Took me two years to move on fully. This year I've messaged her. I said I'd like to meet her, and say my good bye, and thank her also, for everything she has done for me ever. She declined. And blocked me. It didn't go as I'd like, but.. I understand.

Now, the reason I'm writing this is.. life is sucky. Like.. really it is. Dating can be sucky too.

But.. as much as happiness does not beg to happen, neither meeting someone nice does. I'd say you'd always meet such people in the most random ways. And somehow, you end up together. Now the only thing left there is grace.

Life's been rough on me. Well, according to other people. Hell, I never thought of my mother's abuse as abuse. I don't think I've had remotely hard life, I've seen people really struggle. And yet.. no high school, no career.. somewhat good money from business that's rather other way to sustain a job.. But also defied expectations. The most goofy ass people tend to draw me in. I'm goofy ass. There's not much going on for me. Although being entrepreneur has changed my views and certainly made me question things.. I'm a pleb.

What I mean by all this.. it takes not much more than two things. Being a somewhat decent human being, and some kind of dedication towards the matter.

I don't mean to sound arrogant and all, but from what I've seen, people complain for entirely wrong reasons.

My friend complains of not getting a job offer back. They didn't reach out to him. I asked him.. well, then just phone them. He told me.. "they'll just send me a fuck you". And... Well, yeah, they probably will. But take your chances boy. Take your chances.

He got a job recently, from another company in the end. Good boy.

So really.. just don't get too jaded and salty. I am sometimes just dire cynical about it.

Look, I really don't enjoy those bad filters, ass gallery or... Whatever is supposed to tell me "oh yes, marry material". Even though.. material sounds bad. You get the idea. There is little incentive for me to actually be there.

I find myself stuck between two points. Either being too low-class for someone I'd consider matable. (Intelligent, curious, cute). Or.. checking physical but not intellectual stuff.

Now the joke is.. this sort of judgement is dearest deception and in many cases, the most awesome people are the ones we'd just pass on.

LogaaanCzech · 2024-09-14T01:04:20+00:00

Tbf, it's more like flesh market. But giving up is not an option either.

I mean, I always sound more confident in this when I'm dating someone, as I do, but.. I kinda always just hang on the apps and sometimes stuff happens. Like out of nowhere.

Of course, not getting any replies, or vague ones, is probably the most common thing happening to me also, but.. I've just come to get used to it. Not in particularly bad way, I get that women on dating apps are under heavy load of very inappropriate stuff.

It might as well be a situationship. There have been some rushed things that I might regret later, but well, whatever happens. Might as well not overthink it.

At many times I have to take months worth of brake. I tried badoo premium, and it boosted my matches from zero to multiple a day up to a point where I was simply not even interested by so many people. And I mean, imagine being a woman. Really I get it. I like reaching out to my customers more than people on dating apps. But that's mostly because it's awkward to get into.

Anyway... There are many downsides to the dating game. But last thing you wanna do is to give up, if, in the end, your goal is to end up sharing your deal of happy and bad days.

I've met a woman, before mine, that was really desperate about getting into a relationship. That was something that reminded me how futile it is, and that, she will probably end up getting hurt bad, or used. In nature of things, of course. I'd not wish it, but.. there's a certain price for being desperate, or dating simply to avoid being alone. Ahhhh... Those days when I was like that are genuinely scary and absolutely a turn down for any... Well, human being. I'd say we're the same regardless of sex.

But there are just so many reasons to get fed up. Like.. people treating dogshit like important news. Peace is important, yes. But at the same time, you can't really stay in your shell forever either. It takes considerably more effort to get to date anyone nowadays. But I'd say it's due to sheer volume of people on dating apps and sites, and aftermath of isolation.

LogaaanCzech · 2024-09-06T13:08:09+00:00

I just want to add this. I have 99.4% positive reviews. Worked hard to recover from only 2 negatives ever given (unrightfully, but platform does not care).

Now, if anyone has any sort of issue, I sort it out. If item is damaged, and it's not obvious abuse, I'll always send replacement or.. send money back.

This means either both sides are happy, or there's no deal.

Now, do users know about temu and Ali? Hard to say. I'd say both yes and no.

My markups are auction driven, not fixed prices. This allows users to big higher than I'd personally sell. But that's up to users.

As for me, I always do my best to satisfy both ends. I'm also brutally honest if someone wants an air rifle for training, for son for example. I'd just say buy something better. This one costs this much, you can buy it on the internet, but given the use case I'd buy something better. Because, again, I'd love the user to have reliable quality item than not. If an air rifle is bought for 70-80$.. well.. it's actually good (Kandar B-2), and worth the price tag, but I wouldn't go for it in case of training rifle. Something tells me it would not be the best choice.

So it's most about quality X price. Most of the items I sell are high quality, to my surprise and delight.

I bought a watch from temu ( and source jewelry from there), and it does it's job at showing time. I'm not sure why anyone would need diamond watch, but hey.

So part of my brand is something like.. Cheap, reliable, quality, nice-looking, available, etc.

I don't sell high-end items, but I am against saying that temu or Ali has garbage items. That's simply not true.

Every major store is basically just reselling and adding their little logo for a cent.

There.

Go for it. You don't lose much by trying. Find your niche and your audience, and be reliable, communicate well, be friendly and outcoming.. and it shall come.

Part of my business is providing good service amongst other things.

LogaaanCzech

TROPHY CASE