Honest Truth About The Rainmaker Challenge (Laken’s Story)
Laken is a homeschooling mom of 5. She had no experience with running an e-commerce business before The Rainmaker Challenge.
See what Laken and her husband did differently to get a sale in their first month and make over 6-figures in their first year!
1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started with The Rainmaker Family?
Hi! I am Laken, a homeschooling mom of 5 who runs a 6 figure e-commerce business with my husband! A year ago, we knew nothing about an Amazon business. A dear friend said, “Okay, I took this challenge. I’m blown away, they are genuine and easy to learn from. I really think you should look into it!”
A week later we joined The Rainmaker Family Mastermind! We moved fast and are still growing! Our steady consistent confidence over this year has built from day one as we had peace about the value, genuine content, and authentic community we have found being part of The Rainmaker Family!
2. Were you hesitant about working with Rainmakers at the beginning?
When we started our Rainmaker journey we had some doubts, though I really do not remember having much fear.
We had more excitement than anything to cross paths with such an incredible opportunity for us to build more freedom in our finances and our time. Excitement to take back control over our lives by designing the life we want!
The doubts we did have were from our lack of knowledge about an Amazon business and what that looked like in our daily lives. So if we had any hesitations it was questions around is an Amazon/E-commerce business being a good fit for us.
When we said yes to that hesitation, saying yes to The Rainmaker Family was a very easy yes! A year later we are extremely grateful we gave our full yes!!
3. There are different ways of approaching Amazon through private labeling, wholesale, etc. What route did you take and how would you explain the process of how the method you chose works to a friend?
Our business is a private label Amazon business. With The Rainmaker Family Method we use data to find products, order those products from a manufacturer, those products then ship right to Amazon where we sell our product to the customer from the Amazon platform.
4. Did you have any experience with this before getting started?
None! My husband and I had zero knowledge or experience of how to start, scale, and run an Amazon/ E-commerce business. Thankfully The Rainmaker Family Method walked us through all the steps from start to finish!
5. Any Pros or Cons to working with The Rainmaker Family? Anything you wish the course had, but didn’t? Anything you’re especially grateful for?
What we have loved most about our journey with The Rainmaker Family is the culture, the community and the course all consistently go together to support the building and scaling of a successful Amazon Business.
The generosity found in The Rainmaker Family is woven throughout the community. We have seen this giving spirit from brand new students, seasoned community members in the higher level Inner Circle group, the staff and coaching team, even the CEO and founders themselves.
The community cheers each other on to win while also giving support and real advice on how to grow your own personal business.
The value of learning from others who have gone before you and have the same goals has been a wonderful unexpected blessing.
The winning sauce is the course walks you through it all, the content is always being updated. I do wish we had realized the value of the education we had sooner and really dug in those early days on learning and mastering the new skills of our Amazon business.
6. How much did you invest before you saw any results?
Well we did things a little differently. We bought an amazing brand another Rainmaker had built to sell! So that investment was much more than a normal start from zero investment.
One of the things I love most in The Rainmaker Family Community is seeing people make it happen on some many different budgets. I would say all in, cash out of our pocket we were close to $20,000.
Buying a business with 4 products already launched and selling we were making a profit within weeks! We keep reinvesting our profits back into the business, mostly purchasing new inventory.
Though this is not the normal way, we do have plans to build a brand to sell from ground zero! We calculate the cost around $10,000 to get up and running with 3 products within 6 months.
7. Knowing what you know now about Amazon, do you think it is necessary to work with a coaching program like Rainmakers to get started or could you have done this on your own?
A coaching program like Rainmakers all the way! The educational course to guide you step by step with access to a community to ask questions in real time to others who walked this path before you is invaluable.
We have joked that had we started an Amazon business on our own, we would have quit! There is so much to learn and keep up with as Amazon continues to grow and change.
Throw in our already busy life with five kids and we would have quit 3 feet from gold! The Rainmaker Mastermind has kept us on course while providing resources when hurdles come.
8. After joining Rainmakers, how long did it take for you to get your first sale?
We had sales within a month of joining Rainmakers! But again we went a different route, as we bought an existing brand that was already selling. We have since launched a product on our own.
Three months from start to finish to launch that product. We saw organic sales on the second day. Within ten days of launch we reordered our next round of inventory to keep up with the demand.
9. How much have you earned since joining Rainmakers?
In the year we have had an Amazon business we have hit 6 figures in sales at $166,000 on Amazon and starting to build off Amazon as well.
10. What tools or resources are needed to become successful with the Amazon FBA program?
The tools needed to become successful with an Amazon FBA business I believe is to first be ready to master new skills and have a mindset to make it work even when hurdles come up. Finding the right educational resources like The Rainmaker Family to help you figure out all the moving pieces.
11. What does a typical day look like for you now?
There are 7 of us in our house and we spend 90% of our time all together! Much different from a year and half ago when my husband worked for the top 2% of a fast growing corporation that often required travel.
Now our days are full of homeschooling, sports, outside, traveling! Really just hanging out! It is the hands down biggest blessing from our Amazon business.
On a busy day my husband and I will put 2-4 hours in on our home based Amazon business. Maintaining our business is probably an hour of that time, the rest of the time we are working on scaling! On a slow day where our focus is elsewhere less than 30 mins.and that freedom is priceless. We have systems now so we leverage our time much more efficiently.
We really are living a dream we didn’t even know was possible a few years ago.
12. What advice would you give to someone who wants to become successful with Amazon FBA?
Do it! There is no reason why you can not be successful growing an Amazon FBA business! The tools and education are available, you just have to lean in, be coachable, and do the thing!
Done is better than perfect and actions add up to done! My best advice is to let the numbers/data do the talking and you do the work.
13. What types of products do you sell, feel free to be as specific or broad as you’d like?
Our brand Just Like Joan sells thoughtful goods for home and life! Right now we sell 5 products:
- Sourdough Starter Kit with everything needed to get started including a free E-book Recipe Guide
- Hand Carved Natural Fir Root Bowl, each bowl is unique and full of character
- Black and White Boho Pouf Cover
- Glass Spray Bottles for Cleaning with Silicone Sleeve in seven different colors with a free E-book Guide
- Vegan Leather Fanny Pack designed to be small and functional for everyday and travel!
Thank you Laken for such an honest review. Your success is inspiring. If you want to try the 7-day Rainmaker challenge click here (aff link)
If you want to check out other personal reviews of those who have taken the Rainmaker challenge, see below:
- See how much Bailee invested and how much she has made since
- After taking her friend’s advice, see how Aubree was able to create 3 private label brands
- Read this to see when Jessica felt overwhelmed with the challenge
- See how Amber shares how much capital to have before purchasing your first product
- Find out how Jenny thinks the coaching calls have changed since she started
