Daanish Azim – The Phonepreneur

Earlier this week I was able to sit down with Daanish Azim as we discussed his journey and how he got to where he got today.

• Hey Daanish, how old are you, where are you from, and what is it that you do?

I just turned 23 years old last month, I’m from Chicago, IL. I Currently run few online businesses such as an amazon dropshipping store, I’m building up an entrepreneur clothing brand, and I resell phones for profit as well as teach others my methods on how to flip phones for profit.

• What was the first entrepreneurial experience you had that you can remember?

The first entrepreneurial experience I would say I had was buying and reselling phones when I was around 17/18 years old just so I can make some extra income so I can help my dad as he was going through some job issues. But as my first business owner venture, I would say it really began with joining a network marketing company.

• When did you know that you wanted to work for yourself and go a different route?

I knew this at a pretty young age, but it wasn’t really until my last year of high school, that I really started studying the number of people who went to college and the amount of debt they took on for college and how long it took people to actually pay back all their student loans while they were maybe even working at a job they don’t even like. This is when I knew I had to figure out ways to work for myself and take a different route than the majority of people. Also, a quote that really stuck with me that I heard from a successful multi-millionaire was “watch the masses, do the opposite” this quote till this day sticks in my head.

• How did you get into flipping phones?

It honestly happened pretty randomly, I was always amused by the fact of flipping things to make a profit rather than just working a job to make $10/hr(or whatever per $/hr). So as I was one day looking to buy a new phone I found a nice phone at that time called a Moto X for like $150 which I knew was a good deal, so I ended up driving about an hour with my dad to go buy the phone, pretty randomly I decided to list the phone for like $280 on eBay the next day and literally the phone sold within 24 hours of my eBay listing and I was in shock. Imagine I bought a phone for 150 and sold online for 280 without much work or time involved and netted about $100 profit on that one sale, that’s when I knew there was money to be made with flipping phones and that’s how my journey started with this side hustle!

• How have you had so much success in your industry? 

In simple terms I was able to figure out how to flip a phone for a profit and by doing it enough times and learning through trial and error I was able to understand this hustle A-Z and by now I’ve been able to buy well over 300-400 phones in the past few years and flip them for a profit and done well over 150k in sales with it while never having a warehouse or shop or anything, just straight out of my house mainly just leveraging my phone to do it,  And now I’ve been able to start teaching some students 1on1 and coming out with a course soon to teach people how to resell phones for a profit to make additional income.

• What would you say your 3 core values are? 

My 3 core values would have to be integrity, responsibility, and self-improvement.

• How have you leveraged personal branding and social media to grow your business?

I had just opened up a business Instagram page like less than 2 years ago and I’m so glad I did. By posting content and being my true-self and connecting with others it has helped in many ways. I’ve built some great connections with other like-minded individuals, been able to partner up with other people just leveraging my personal brand as well as being able to take on a few students who I’ve never met but  just by leveraging and building up my personal brand it has given me so many opportunities and been able to connect and make some great friendships through it.

• What advice would you give a young person looking to get started in entrepreneurship?

One of my biggest advice would be to just get started! Most young people tend to think more and act less. I would also tell them to focus more on self-education and first start by investing into themselves and start to go to any entrepreneurial events they can get a chance to go to and try to find a mentor/coach who is where they’d like to be and is willing to guide and help them.

• What do you want your life to look like in 5 years? 

5 years from now my goal is to be totally financially independent, making a positive impact, speaking on stages, helping my parents in any way, having a partner, traveling the world, giving lots back to charities, and just overall being fulfilled while still chasing a bigger dream and vision for myself.