Welcome to our Amazon FBA Q&A with Stefan and Tatiana!
Since we launched a YouTube video last week, where I interviewed Tatiana about her journey to success with her Amazon business, we have been flooded with questions and comments. That video received 100,000 views. The impact that it made blows us away.
It is inspiring to see so many people who are motivated to build an online business, since watching that video. Tatiana and I are passionate about serving others, so we wanted to take the opportunity to acknowledge you and answer as many questions as we could. Anyone can start an Amazon FBA business.
My girlfriend is living proof that you can do it. At the onset of her Amazon journey, she had zero experience and made a minimal investment, Today, she is making $40,000/month.
With the right mindset, anything is possible. Even the greatest empires start small. All that matters is that you start. Are you ready?
Watch the video below:
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
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Do you want to learn how to build a profitable online business selling on Amazon? CLICK HERE to receive instant access to my FREE training!
Here are our answers to some of your questions:
How do you get products from China and then sell them on Amazon?
There are a few routes, but the most popular one is to find a manufacturer in China, through Alibaba.com or Google. Build a relationship with them, and then you can start sourcing products from them. The first few times that you are manufacturing a product from China, I (Tatiana) would suggest that you have the product shipped to your house, so that you can make sure nothing is damaged, and then you can ship your product to the Amazon fulfillment center.
It’s good to see how things are being received and inspect the units yourself, or you can hire someone to do that for you. However, once you create a trusting relationship with your manufacturer, you can have your products shipped directly from China to the Amazon fulfillment center. By air, it can ship in five days. It’s quick, but expensive. If you have a small amount, that’s okay.
Once you start shipping larger amounts, you can start shipping by sea, but it becomes more complicated. It is more cost-effective, but it requires more information. You need a freight-forwarder. There is more risk, and it takes about one month to ship your product to the Amazon fulfillment center. You will also need to hire a shipping courier to deliver your product directly to Amazon.
We both live in Canada, but we don’t sell our products there. I (Stefan) source my products in the U.S., and Tatiana sources her products from China, but I have heard people that ship from China direct to Amazon fulfillment centers. There are a lot of logistics to this business, which is why I suggest that you invest in a great training program, like the Amazing Selling Machine 11 (ASM), that will guide you through the steps of how to build an Amazon business.
What are your thoughts on the theory that the FBA market is saturated? In your opinion, is there still room for growth?
Amazon has grown massively and that isn’t going to stop. They are a huge business. More people are buying on Amazon, which means that there are a lot of opportunities for people to be able to launch a product and be able to profit from it. There are some markets that are more competitive, but there is a misconception around getting into the Amazon FBA business. What myself and Tatiana are trying to teach and encourage you to do is to build a brand. Amazon is just a launching platform for your product. You are building a physical products business.
Amazon provides great opportunity to do the heavy lifting, but you don’t want a business that is dependent on them. The truth is that Amazon doesn’t view your customers as yours, but rather, theirs. You use Amazon to launch your product, but you want to build your own brand. Tatiana makes most of her sales from her website, as do I. Competition and saturation is only a worry if you are only focused on Amazon, but if you build a brand and a relationship with people, by way of a YouTube channel, a blog, an email list, a podcast, etc., you will see a greater return.
Now that I (Stefan) sell my products on my website and through WooCommerce, I don’t really need Amazon. Amazon is only one way through which people find your products. If you know how to utilize other social media platforms to your advantage, there is no limit to the amount of money you can make. Also, on an international scale, there is a lot of opportunity in new Amazon markets, especially in Japan, the UK, and Germany, because the competition is low in these countries.
Where do you store your inventory after you move on from Amazon?
Once you start selling on your website and other platforms, you don’t need to move your inventory from Amazon. You can still sell on their site and ship a portion of your inventory to them, so that their prime customers can receive your products, but you also need to find your own fulfillment center. If you want to find one that ships internationally, you will have to do more research. The one that I (Tatiana) chose was the one that responded the quickest, and that appreciated me as a potential customer. I went with my gut feeling.
I’m an Affiliate Marketing Master member. Does everything that you teach with that course, work for the FBA business as well?
I (Stefan) try to teach people to build one business, rather than multiple ones. That was a mistake that I made when I was first starting out. I built separate businesses, but now I am building everything under one brand. If you already have an online business, and you are building your brand, it makes sense to integrate a physical product into your business. Project Life Mastery now has informational products, I have physical products, I’m launching merchandise, I provide coaching, I launch events, etc. I have multiple diversified ways of making money.
As a beginner, how do I minimize the cost of the first investment that I make with a product?
When I (Tatiana) first started, other than the ASM course, my initial investment was $300. I didn’t have a lot of money, and that felt like a lot because I was in school full-time and working. That was my first product. It was a lightweight, inexpensive product. I invested $500 into my 2nd product, and $1,000 into my 3rd product.
Every time I made money, I invested it back into my business because I wanted to grow. On Alibaba there are products that you can source that are inexpensive to make and manufacture. Oftentimes, the shipping, especially from China, is what costs the most. My first product still does well, but I (Stefan) don’t make a lot of money from it, but it gave Tatiana and I the experience and confidence to understand the Amazon business more, so that we were able to go after bigger opportunities.
What do you do if your product doesn’t sell?
There is nothing more valuable than experience and knowledge. A lot of people don’t realize the value that you get by going through a process. Knowledge is what is going to allow you to make a lot of money in the future. I (Stefan) have experienced failures in the past with my businesses, but those failures taught me valuable lessons that have helped me earn millions of dollars online. Make sure that you avoid everything that could possibly go wrong when you launch a product so that it will be successful from the start.
That is where a great course, like the ASM comes in handy. When beginners first start out, there are a lot of mistakes to be made that can result in your product not selling. A simple way that you can re-coupe back your investment is just to lower the price of the product, so that you can break even. When you do so, it will be cheaper than all of the other products on Amazon in your niche. All of these learning curves will help you when your second, third and fourth products are launched. You can also sell your products on deal sites, like eBay. By doing so, you will make back your money.
What is the biggest challenge that you guys faced when starting your businesses?
For myself (Stefan), it was time, because I was running multiple businesses. I didn’t have a lot of time as other people did to dedicate to their business. It’s been challenging for me in that sense. In order to overcome that, I just moved at my own pace. The ASM training that I had was available at any time for me to go through. There are a number of road bumps that I had with my suppliers, and the ASM community supported me with that. Even to his day, it’s a challenge for me. I have a team, but I have to be selective with how I invest my time in my business.
For myself (Tatiana), I struggled with criticism and negativity from people in my life who didn't support me. When I first started my Amazon business, I didn’t start out with a lot of money. I didn’t start making a lot of money for almost one year. Throughout that year, I dealt with a lot of ups and downs. I wanted to quit, and it didn’t help that my family and friends weren’t supportive of me.
I’m so glad that I pushed through those difficult times because it has paid off. If I had listened to all those negative comments from people that were trying to pull me down, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Their negativity was fuel for the fire. I’m so grateful that I get to live the laptop lifestyle. Surround yourself with positive people that inspire you and uplift you.
That is it for our Amazon FBA Q&A with Stefan and Tatiana! We hope that we have provided you with some insightful information that will support you in your online business journey selling on Amazon.
The only thing standing in your way is the story that you create about why you can’t accomplish something. If you can’t find a way, create one. That is what a master does. In the words of Robert Kiyosaki, “Financial freedom is available to those who learn about it and work for it.”
Do you want to learn how to build a profitable online business selling on Amazon? CLICK HERE to receive instant access to my FREE training!
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