This Online Book-Selling Business is on a Mission to Create Millionaires
By putting customer success first, BookProfits created a community of brand advocates and achieved massive growth.
There is a reason why Amazon started as an online marketplace for books, notes Luke Sample, co-founder of BookProfits, a technology and training company that helps existing and aspiring entrepreneurs build online businesses selling used books. Demand for books—particularly textbooks—is large and often predictable. And selling used books can generate a sizeable profit, as Sample first experienced by helping his wife, a college instructor, sell textbooks at the end of her semester.
The experience inspired Sample, a serial entrepreneur, to launch an online book-selling business with co-founder and fellow serial entrepreneur Jon Shugart. The two used their backgrounds in software development and online marketing to create several innovative technologies for the used books industry. Their decision to offer these proprietary software tools and training to other booksellers and online entrepreneurs led to massive growth for BookProfits and an impressive Inc. 5000 ranking: No. 720.
THE BOTTOM LINE’S THE BOTTOM LINE
BookProfits has grown so fast because it focuses on the success of customers (called members) who opt to pay for training, technology, or both. Its proprietary technology monitors bookselling websites for inventory and pricing, alerting members about underpriced books.
“The big difference between other businesses we have run and this one is ease and consistency in terms of getting great results for customers,” Sample says. “Really anyone can come into our system and create an income stream by flipping books. We’ve had a 10-year-old little girl do it successfully, a 90-year-old, and everyone in between.
BookProfits’s top-selling member has made more than $5 million in sales, Sample says. Several have done more than $1 million. In the next two to five years, the company’s goal is to help 1,000 members do $1 million in business and 5,000 enter six-figure territory.
“The bottom line is that we focus on the bottom line of our members, and that in turn takes care of our bottom line,” Sample explains.
THE POWER OF COMMUNITY
Another important contributor to growth is the company’s Facebook community. Sample and Shugart set it up about six months after launching the company as another support channel for customers. They hadn’t predicted that members would be so eager to help one another, offering advice, encouragement, and success stories. The support of the community helps new members make money quickly, which is important to keeping people engaged. Satisfied members often recommend BookProfits to others, driving organic growth. As the customer base grows, the founders invest in more technology and training resources. These new innovations both increase the success of their customers and fuel the company’s fast growth.
“The overall culture of our company and community is one of giving back,” Sample explains. “Just this morning one of our members that has made over $5 million was spending time answering questions from a new member that was just getting started. We have been so lucky— it has been amazing.”
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