Wisconsin

In a quiet corner of Appleton, Wisconsin, Ben Wolfgram and his father embarked on a retirement project in their garage that would transform their lives. Their weekend hobby making unique glassware has blossomed into BenShot, a thriving small business with 45 employees and $7 million in annual revenue - and Amazon, they said, has played a pivotal role in their growth.

“Amazon helped us a lot with building brand trust,” Wolfgram said. “We started doing $500 a day at our first art show and right now we’re doing $25,000 a day on our website because one of our creations just went viral.”

Thanks to Amazon, Wolfgram said they’re able to capitalize on every click.

The minute his foot could reach the clutch, young Adam Waldvogel began driving tractors in his family’s Wisconsin ginseng fields. Twenty years later, life wasn’t so simple: Waldvogel held a corporate job and was miserable.

In 2018, Waldvogel made a life-altering change. Waldvogel repurposed the ginseng that was once his family’s commodity crop into a consumer product, launching a small business selling ginseng products globally in the Amazon store.

In his first full year, Waldvogel’s sales were $140,000. Five years later, that number has ballooned to almost $1 million.