Whether you’re new to watch trading and the Watch Trading Academy community (welcome noobs), or a veteran…
Gaining momentum is one of the most critical turning points to making good money.
If you can’t build momentum early on, it can become frustrating.
Some people quit, some take a break, and some feel as if this just isn’t the right thing for them. I can tell you those are all LIES.
Once you can break through those initial challenges and get deals rolling you can scale much easier.
I want to help you do that and make it as easy as possible.
There are 3 main obstacles (but they’re really just self-induced lies) that can be overcome.
1.) “I don’t have enough capital ($$$)
2.) “I don’t have enough time”
3.) “I don’t have the network to sell to”
Here’s the simple (TRUTHS) solutions to those 3:
1.) You don’t need any to make money
2.) Bullshit. You can make six figures a year doing this part time 4 hours a week
3.) Yes you DO, you just don’t know how to leverage it well enough yet
So let’s take a deeper dive into these 3 solutions to inspire you and give you ideas to boost your momentum…
Solution 1) You Don’t Need Money to Make Money. It’s called brokering other people’s watches, and it’s nothing new. It’s been going on since watch trading was invented back in 13 BC (haha).
There’s a few ways to broker watch deals. You can either a.) Source a watch for someone who wants to buy one, or b.) Find a good watch deal, and sell it to someone who will purchase it first with their money.
If you have taken WTA Part 2, you’ll understand the differences between the two and why option B is usually better.
Option B brokering is a fantastic way to make easy money. You need to find a watch that’s a good deal (whether that means it’s a great price, or a rare/desirable piece). Then, you can ask for more pictures of the watch that won’t be found online to throw off your potential buyer.
You buy yourself a window of time to “shop” that watch deal to your private network, and/or the hundreds of members of WTA if you’re in the $100K Club group where brokering is allowed. You provide all the details of the watch as if it’s yours, and act as a middleman for quality control of the transaction. You need to be responsible for handling both counterparties in the deal. The more efficient you are at this, the easier and more profitable it will be. Don’t try this without some knowledge on the topic though as brokering can get real risky if you don’t do it right.
Once you receive the buyer’s funds (which can be a deposit or total payment up-front if you build trust), you get the watch shipped to you so you can inspect it. If everything checks out, you wire the seller the funds, and your buyer the watch. It takes trust to get the two counterparties to do this for you without you needing to put up your own money in the deal. It is possible though even if you’re just starting.
The other great way to make money without using your own is to attract investor money. To learn how to execute this properly, check out Luis’s Grey Market Rolex course.
Solution 2) Time is Your Most Valuable Asset. So stop abusing it by sitting on your ass and waiting to do “XYZ” before you take the action steps that will really help you become hyper efficient at watch trading.
Often times people think they need to struggle through buying and selling watches first before they invest in their own skills and knowledge. This is one of the biggest mistakes I see. If you have the ability to learn the information from those who spent decades making mistakes first to get to the point where they’ve mastered it, why wouldn’t you? Instead of taking 10 months to get to level 9, people elect to take 10 years to get to level 8.
If two people are given the exact same amount of time each week to trade, and start with the same amount of money but the only difference is their level of expertise/experience, who do you think will make more money in the same amount of time? It’s a very simple concept yet abused over and over again. The advantage in this game goes to those who have the most knowledge and can execute on it best. Every time you sleep on new info that will help you, you sell yourself short.
This may sound like a scolding lecture, but it’s simply the truth. And to hammer it home, I’ll end with a real world example. It takes someone who is at level 2 — 40 hours a month to make $2-$3,000 in profit. It takes someone who has expertise level 9 — 16 hours a month to quadruple that profitability = $12,000+ .
Solution 3) You Already Have a Network and It’s Easy to Grow It FAST!!!
If you attend the annual WTA conferences we have, you’ll know I can prove to you right now that you have 2,500+ people in your network who you can sell watches to and buy from.
And here’s Ten (10) Ways You Can Be Growing Your Watch Buy/Sell Network Right NOW above and beyond that 2,500 you already have:
1.) Wear a watch out always in public (even at the gym)
2.) Take inventory of your current family and friends. Gather all their emails from your phone and other databases and put them on your mailing list. (If you want to see how to create a mailing list which can help you sell watches instantly without even having to post them for sale check out the Knight Watch advanced training course)
3.) Go through your old business cards and Rolodex. Update your CRM with these contacts and emails
4.) Every time you get a new watch in, post it up on your Instagram/Facebook story
5.) Go on MeetUp app/website and join a networking group. Even if it’s not a watch group, join a group relevant to what you like and/or a demographic that might be able to afford the watches you have and show up
6.) Create a consistent deliverable (i.e. monthly email) where you can share updates and/or your new inventory with your current contacts so they’re always thinking of you as the watch plug.
7.) When you see someone wearing a nice watch, compliment them and start a conversation
8.) Join Facebook watch groups and actually participate in them. Don’t just sell in them.
9.) Start a local watch enthusiast group and lead those meetups. Doesn’t have to be intense or take a lot of time. Even if there’s none near you, start one on your own.
10.) Tell everyone that watches are part of what you do. Even if watch trading isn’t your full time job and you don’t want people to know you’re a “watch trader”, come up with another relevant title for yourself like “watch collector” or “luxury watch consultant” so it positions you as an expert to the people you’re talking to.
BONUS: When I’m at a restaurant or bar and I see someone across the way with a nice timepiece on, I write down on a business card “Nice Cartier Santos XL. Let me know if you ever want anything in the future” and offer to buy them a round.
Calling out the specific model from that far away and offering to treat them takes away the aggressive creep factor so it doesn’t come off like you’re going to jump them later. Also makes them happy and remember you.
To bring this to a close, I’d like to commend one of my students, who has been doing a great job starting from nothing. He has been working with me closely over a month or so.
To set the scene, he’s in his early 20s, started with only about $1K, and has a disability.
He is now after about 5 months doing this making a steady $2K+ profit each month and only making more each month.
So when I hear people say “I don’t have enough capital to make more money” or “I can’t invest in my education right now because I don’t have enough money” or “I’m too young” or whatever the fuck it is… I roll my eyes.
Anyone can make money doing this if they apply the knowledge properly. Happy hustling!