Tatiana and I recently conducted an Amazon Q&A about starting your online business with Amazon. A lot of great questions were asked, and I wanted to share it with you!
We are back to talk about our experience selling on Amazon, and to share insights on how you can build a successful online business.
Since launching our first Amazon FBA Q&A together, we've been blown away by the number of views that our video received, and the number of people who have been inspired to take action to start building their own online businesses.
Are you ready to learn what it takes in order to start building a profitable online business selling on Amazon?
Watch the video below:
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
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Are you ready to learn how to build a $40k per month business selling on Amazon? CLICK HERE for instant access to my FREE video training series!
For those of you who follow me, you may know that the Amazing Selling Machine (ASM) is opening its their doors again! ASM is the #1 online training course that teaches you how to build a profitable business selling on Amazon. Both Tatiana and I recommend this course. It has changed our lives and it can do the same for you.
Here is a sneak peak of some of our answers to your burning questions:
How do you find manufacturers and/or suppliers for products, and how do you get samples?
You can either go to Google and search for suppliers, by typing in the keyword of the product that you are trying to produce, specify the area where you want to produce the product, and then once you get a list of suppliers, you can go ahead and email them. Alternatively, if you are sourcing overseas, especially China, I suggest that you go to Alibaba, type in your keyword and you will get a large list of manufacturers who you can contact.
These manufacturers have already been rated and reviewed by Alibaba. Look at the ones that have badges; this will tell you how long they've been selling on Alibaba. I suggest that you contact a lot of manufacturers. Collect 5-10 of the best ones (those that respond the quickest are preferred), and then get samples from them.
How much money do I need to start selling on Amazon?
Any business that you start will require some investment at the onset. one of the first things that we recommend for anyone that is interested in selling on Amazon is to find a high-quality training program that can help guide you, step-by-step, through the process to building your online business.
This is a business where you will get stuck and need answers. There are a lot of logistics involved in this business. Because you are investing inventory into it, you need to be armed with the right knowledge so that you don't end up wasting time and money. You can make some crucial mistakes if you don't know what you are doing. ASM is, by far, the best. Save your money, get an extra job, and make sure that you are financially ready to dive into this online business.
Don't treat this as a hobby. It's a business, so you need to take it seriously. You will need money to invest into your inventory, which will depend on the product that you want to sell. Tatiana started with less than $300 for her first product, however, I think that a $1000 is a good starting amount. You need to think about inventory, marketing, and shipping costs. The more money that you can invest into your Amazon business, the more that you can accelerate the process towards building it.
What are the legal aspects of branding? Do you need to register your brand as a trademark?
Eventually, you are going to want to protect your brand and your business. When you are first starting out, there isn't much to protect because it doesn't have value yet. However, once you start building your brand, you want to trademark it in the U.S. There are ways to do it yourself, or you can hire a trademark attorney, which is costly. One of the bonuses that I share is my process of how you can trademark your business yourself, inexpensively.
Should I start my business as a sole proprietor or as an LLC designation?
Given that Tatiana and I live in Canada, we don't have an LLC. That is more something that is done more in the U.S. This is a question to ask your accountant. We both started our Amazon businesses as sole proprietors, meaning that we set up our Amazon accounts in our own names, and receive all payments to our personal bank accounts. At the end of the year, we file our tax returns and it shows up as our self-employment income. However, in some cases, you might want to set up an LLC from the start. That is going to be based on liability and your personal tax situation.
When were you able to leave your job and solely devote your time to building your online business?
Don't rush into this business thinking that you can quit your job right away. Your job is important, in that you want to make sure that any money that you make from your Amazon business you are investing it back into your business.
If you quit your job and rely solely on having an income from your online business right away, this means that you will have less money to invest in inventory, marketing, branding etc. I would recommend that you keep your job for as long you can, grow your brand, and then once it's doing relatively well, and you can pay yourself an equal or higher salary than what you are currently making at your job, then quit.
Does ASM allow you to skip through the training modules?
ASM is an 8-week training program. Each module is released on a weekly basis because there's a large live training component to it. You won't be able to jump into other modules right out of the gate, because they have a certain structure with regards to how they teach the program. However, once the modules have been released, you have lifetime access to them, so at that point, you can go back through the modules at your leisure. Also, whenever ASM creates a new training program, as a member, you immediately gain access to that new training as well.
How do you grow your Instagram following?
Amazon is a great place to start building your online business, but one thing that we both recommend, as well as does ASM, is that you build a brand. Keep in mind that you aren't building an Amazon business. Rather, you are building a physical products brand.
A lot of people launch a product on Amazon and expect that Amazon will do everything for them. However, if you want to be successful over the long-term, you need to build your brand outside of Amazon, and learn how to do your own marketing, through social media, blogging, etc. In doing so, it will allow you to send traffic from all of these different places to your Amazon listing.
In addition to this, you are also going to eventually want to sell your product(s) outside of Amazon, like on your own e-commerce website or on Shopify. Build a diversified business that doesn't depend on Amazon. You need to really understand marketing because it's the most important thing, which is where training is helpful. You can have the best product out there, but if nobody knows about it, you won't make money.
Should I still buy ASM even though I don't have a product idea yet?
Yes. ASM is designed for those that just want to get started building an Amazon business. In the early modules of ASM, they teach you how to come up with product ideas. They have a process that has been proven to help thousands of people find profitable products. When you join the ASM, part of the bonuses that I provide to you involves access to a list of 100 that I've vetted and reviewed, that are profitable products that you can sell on Amazon. You can send me up to 10 products and I will help you pick the best one for you.
That is it for our live stream, starting your online business with Amazon Q&A with Stefan & Tatiana! We hope that we have provided you with some insightful, cutting-edge information that will support you in starting your online business selling on Amazon.
Are you ready to learn how to build a $40k per month business selling on Amazon? CLICK HERE for instant access to my FREE video training series!