From £11K Risk to a £2M Brand — And Everything In Between
- David Stephen
- Mar 17
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 5
The Story Behind It All
In 2015, I made a decision that didn’t make much sense on paper.
I spent £5,000 on a course and another £6,000 on stock…With no experience, no brand, and no guarantee it would work.
At the time, I was working full-time in sales, driving 40,000 miles a year across the UK.
I knew one thing:
I didn’t want to do it forever.
What I Actually Wanted
Work from home
Be my own boss
Earn enough to cover the bills
That was it.
No big vision. No grand plan.
Just a way out.
The Turning Point
I started learning how Amazon worked.
Not perfectly. Not completely.
But enough to get started.
The course was called Amazing Selling Machine.
It wasn't cheap at approx. $5000 at the time but this was, hopefully, investing in my future.
Very quickly, during product research, I noticed something most people miss:
Everyone was doing the same thing.
Same products. Same suppliers. Same listings. Same sell price.
So I made a decision early:
I wasn’t going to compete by copying. I wanted a something different.
Building Something Different
I chose a niche: garden hand tools
Why?
Strong demand
Healthy margins
Clear expansion potential
Real brand opportunity
Then I found my first product — secateurs — buried deep on page 12 of Alibaba.
They stood out immediately:
Better design
Clear customer benefit
Patent-backed improvements
That mattered. The benefits would give me a great differentiator.
The First Real Move
I didn’t have the budget to go big.
So I negotiated.
If the supplier reduced the MOQ, I’d order multiple products — not just one.
They agreed.
That’s how the brand started. 3 products.
Launch Day
1 October 2015
I launched on Amazon in the US.
That was the recommended marketplace to hit first at the time.
It wasn't easy getting the products there and a lot was learned during the import process.
I also had the products delivered to an inspection centre, as I wanted them to check the 1st batch for peace of mind.
A few minor issues and improvements relayed to the supplier, ready for the 2nd order.
They're live.
No reviews. No audience.
Just a listing, some basic ads… and a lot of hope.
First sale: 15 minutes later.
Then Reality Hits
The excitement quickly turned into doubt:
What if the reviews were bad?
What if sales stopped?
What if I got this completely wrong?
But I trusted the product.
And the customers did too.
4.8⭐ average rating.
Learning Sponsored Ads the Hard Way
I didn’t have advanced tools.
No automation. No AI.
Everything was manual.
No Training on advanced PPC best practice.
I tracked performance obsessively.
Early few weeks of launch proved costly.
Wasted spend, no real structure.
The only thing I focused on:
Keep ACOS under 30% and survive.
Break even → reinvest → grow.
Simple.
The First Big Lesson
Sales started moving faster than expected.
And that’s when I learned one of the most important rules in Amazon:
Never run out of stock on Amazon.
Because when you do:
Sales stop
Rankings drop
Costs increase
So I built simple forecasting systems early.
Nothing fancy.
Just effective.
Scaling the Brand
Within months, I expanded into the UK.
Took a £20,000 loan
Launched 6 new products
Built momentum quickly
First UK sale: 7 minutes.
Within weeks:
Top 5 category rankings
4.9⭐ reviews
Strong, consistent profits
That’s when I went all in.
A Strategic Pivot
The US market became too expensive:
Rising fees
Increasing competition
CPCs over $4
Margins were dropping to 15%.
So I made a decision most wouldn’t:
I walked away from the US.
And focused entirely on the UK.
Margins returned to 35%.
That decision changed everything.
The Growth Years
From 2017 to 2020, it became about optimisation:
Tight cashflow control
Smarter inventory planning
Expanding the product line
Mastering data
Understanding Amazon PPC best practice
I learned what actually drives growth:
CTR → clicks
CVR → conversions
TACOS → true performance
Quality Manufactured Products
Always be testing
Results:
ACOS reduced to 15%
Wasted spend eliminated
Systems dialled in
Over £1M annual turnover
Then 2020 Happened
When lockdown hit, everything changed overnight.
Sales jumped from:
150 units/day → 1,000+ units/day
There was just one problem:
FBA stock was about to run out.
So I Built My Own Fulfilment Operation
From my garden.
Set up a packing station in a log cabin
Sourced local couriers
Packed and shipped everything myself
For weeks, I worked:
15 hours a day, Starting at 3am
While competitors went out of stock…
I kept delivering.
Every order. It was exhausting but worth it.
The Offers Start Coming In
By this point, the business had momentum.
In 2019, Aggregators had started reaching out. I'd already said no.
Then late April/early May, a few new Amazon aggregators made contact.
At first, I said no.
This was mine and I didn't want to sell.
I built it from nothing.
Then I Looked at the Bigger Picture
I could already see rising costs. Supply chain pressure. There was a need for infrastructure investment to scale further.
And one simple question:
Do I keep pushing… or take the win?
The Deal
Two buyers stood out.
One made a strong offer.
The other came to meet me.
That mattered.
Their vision aligned with mine.
The offer came in.
Strong.
But structured wrong.
Asset sale — not share sale.
So I pushed back.
They agreed.
The Hardest Decision
My wife and I had to decide:
Do we sell… or keep going?
Letting go wasn’t easy.
But we knew what it could do:
Support family
Remove financial pressure
Open new doors
The Exit
After months of due diligence, negotiations, stress and legal work…
November 2020 — deal complete.
That year:
£2M turnover
35%+ margins
The Truth?
It wasn’t luck.
It was:
Better decisions
Relentless execution
Learning fast
Fixing mistakes quickly
Why This Matters to You
Because everything above?
It’s repeatable.
Not easy. But repeatable.
What I Do Now
Since early 2021, I help new and existing Amazon sellers:
Avoid the mistakes I made
Build profitable, scalable brands with data-led strategies
Understand what actually drives growth
Master Amazon sponsored advertising
Keep up to date with all new process, functions and best practice strategies
If You’re Serious About Building a Brand
Then you need more than:
A product
A supplier
A listing
You need:
Strategy
Systems
Financial control
Data-driven decisions
Final Thought
Amazon marketplace isn’t your business. Don't rely solely on Amazon.
It’s a platform that allows you to rent space. Their rules, not yours.
Build your business properly, protect your brand and it becomes an asset.
Build it wrong, and it disappears overnight.
Want Help?
If you’re building (or scaling) an Amazon brand and have specific challenges:
Book a free friendly consultation.
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