If anyone understands consumer demand for e-commerce, it’s Ryan Grant, a 28-year-old from Minneapolis who quit his accounting job four years ago to resell Walmart goods on Amazon.
What started out as a side job grew into a multimillion-dollar company, Grant Enterprises. Today, Grant and his 10-person team has generated $8 million in sales by buying items on sale from retailers and reselling them on online marketplaces. Grant makes 90 percent of his sales from Amazon.
This is what a typical day looks like for Grant, lightly edited.
7:30 a.m.: After waking up, I do 10 pushups to get the blood flowing. After that, I drink a glass of water to rehydrate. I then write for five minutes in my journal. It makes me think about the things I’m grateful for, and it helps ensure I consciously think about what will make each day a success. I then jump into the shower, eat breakfast of eggs and bacon and head into the office.
8:30 a.m.: I arrive at my office. I check in with any team members who are already in the office and then head to my desk. The first thing I do is make a list of what I need to get accomplished.
8:45 a.m.: I spend some time reviewing sales and other reports from the prior day. I make sure things are on track and make plans for any necessary tweaks.
9 a.m.: I spend some time putting together an email that I send to my coaching clients. This goes to individuals who have joined my program that are interested in running a similar online retail business. Every week, I send them a quick email with three to five things that provide updates on my business, my recommendations for what they should be working on and where I believe the best opportunities are at the time.
9:30 a.m.: I do a coaching call with one of my clients. This is a call that occurs monthly with each client. We go over how their business performed over the past month, what challenges they are facing and then discuss a plan for them to execute for the next month.
10:15 a.m.: I map out existing processes for our wholesale sourcing in a manner that can be followed by future team members. We are always tweaking and adjusting processes, so today I spend some time making sure that everything we are currently doing is documented.
11:45 a.m.: I go through my emails, comments on my blog, messages on my social media pages and anywhere else people can reach me. I don’t make it through everything in this time block, but I make some solid progress.
12:30 p.m.: I head to a lunch meeting at Chipotle with the COO of my business. This is a weekly lunch meeting where we recap what’s going on in the business, our next moves and growth opportunities.
2 p.m.: I play three games of ping pong with another one of the members on my team. I almost always get at least a few games of ping pong in each day.
2:30 p.m.: I visit a few retail stores to explore opportunities for the retail arbitrage portion of my business. I first head to a local Walmart and peruse the various clearance sections of the store for items I am able to sell online. I come across some Xbox 360s that are marked down to $100 that are selling online for about $220, so I quickly add all four of the ones they have available to my cart. I find other good deals on some lock sets, fishing supplies and a few random toys. I head to the checkout, and my total is a little over $600. After Walmart, I head to a local Target and go through the same process. I buy a few different toy sets. It wasn’t as fruitful as Walmart, but I am still able to spend about $100 on inventory to sell online.
5:20 p.m.: I get back to the office and unload the items I purchased. For items that might be available at the same price in other stores, I take pictures of them and the prices, and send them to two members of my team. These two members of my team do the majority of the retail arbitrage buying, and whenever we find an item that’s a good buy at one store, we’ll almost always check others in the area, too.
5:30 p.m.: My girlfriend stops by my office, and we head to the gym together to get a workout in. She heads for a treadmill, and I head straight to the basketball court and play in five games that last about 10 minutes each.
7 p.m.: My girlfriend and I make a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs together.
8:30 p.m.: I spend some time catching up on emails. I have a habit of letting them pile up at times, so allocating some time in the evening generally allows me to get through a good chunk in a relatively efficient manner.
9:30 p.m.: My girlfriend and I watch an episode of our favorite show, “Narcos,” to relax for a bit.
11 p.m.: I get ready for bed and then read for about 30 minutes. Today, it’s “Blue Ocean Strategy.”
11:30 p.m.: I turn off the lights and get ready to go to sleep. I take my sleep very seriously and aim to get between 7.5 to 9 hours most nights.
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