Music That Inspires

Today one of my favorite clients and friends, Michelle Maple, returns to the show to talk about how she went from zero to six figures in her first fourteen months on Amazon. Michelle started her business doing retail arbitrage in September 2018, and she opens the episode by discussing how she transitioned from that to wholesale bundling (with a little help from my courses!) within six months. She describes feeling that arbitrage took up too much time with “running errands” and instead being drawn to the creative and research aspects of bundling. Michelle also talks about changing the structure of her business to a one-person operation and deciding to scale back in order to find a good work/life balance. She recommends using checklists to keep on top of all the steps needed when listing and developing a routine and a schedule to help keep you on track when you’re feeling scattered or overwhelmed.

Next, Michelle shares some of her figures from this year, during which she’s already done six figures, and her goals as we move into Q4 and holiday season. Then we discuss the importance of actively considering how you can become more excellent at your business and whether slowing down would benefit you in the long run. Michelle also advises those new to bundling and maybe overthinking things to take the step forward and put their bundles out there because your best learning only happens after you send them. And we close out the episode with Michelle’s advice to maintain a flexible mindset toward change so that you’re ready and willing to adapt whenever Amazon changes the rules.

You can hear other success stories and share your own in the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. Join our Facebook group with today’s codeword MAPLE to learn more about bundling, ask questions, and participate in the conversation with other sellers. And if you’re ready to take your business to a whole new level, visit MommyIncome.com/Coach to schedule your one-on-one coaching call today.

This week on the Amazon Files:

• Transitioning from retail arbitrage to bundling
• Becoming a one-person business and scaling back
• Staying motivated and being in the moment
• Developing a routine and schedule
• Committing to excellence and adapting to change

“Stepping back does not mean failure, it does not mean that we’re going bad or going in the wrong direction. You actually gave yourself space to figure out the next step while the numbers are dropping. And that’s perfectly okay. As a matter of fact, that’s awesome and healthy.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“I was literally in Disney World when my phone dinged for the first time, and I had a sale, and it was like, ‘Well, this is cool. Here I am in the happiest place on Earth, and I’m selling something.’”

“One of the things that I’ve learned is the parts of the business that I try to just push through and force are the ones that come back to smack me upside the head and say, ‘Nope, you didn’t do this right, and that’s not gonna work.’”

“I do feel like there’s a lot of hats, and it is hard to escape. I just try to tell myself, whatever piece or whatever moment I’m in, just trying to be in that moment because I’m not going to do anything very well if I’m not.”

“I think for the new people and those that are overthinking, you have to start somewhere. You’re not going to learn all of this in your office by yourself with nothing listed. You know, you have to take the step forward.”

Related Content:

• Graphic Rhythm Design
• Wholesale Bundle System
• Email questions
• Learn With Us
• Coaching
• The Amazon Files Hub

Grow Your Amazon Business!

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of The Amazon Files, the show to help Amazon sellers along their business journey one step at a time with Amazon expert and your host, Kristin Ostrander. If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us your honest review. Don’t forget to share your favorite episodes with your friends on social media! Use the codeword MAPLE to join us on Facebook. Each week, Kristin hosts a live discussion on how to grow your Amazon business. Don’t forget to check out our website and subscribe to our mailing list for even more resources.

Today I’m joined by the amazing Tyler Jeffcoat, accountant, e-commerce expert, and co-founder of Seller Accountant, accounting experts for e-commerce sellers. Tyler’s here to talk to us about bookkeeping, minding our business, and knowing our numbers because we can’t make profit if we don’t know what kind of numbers we’re working with. First up, Tyler shares his journey from setting up a healthcare startup to deal with his grandparents’ Alzheimer’s issues to realizing that he could use his accounting know-how to help Amazon sellers make money. He then takes us through some basic bookkeeping tips, including what accounting resources to spend money on, and common mistakes like aligning your sales with payment dates instead of sales dates.

Tyler also encourages everybody to develop good bookkeeping habits, like blocking off thirty minutes weekly to do your finances, and we both recommend educating yourself and hiring someone to do the parts of business you don’t enjoy or know nothing about. Tyler then sets out some of the services that Seller Accountant offers, from courses on subjects like basic inventory management to bookkeeping services that get through the most stringent due diligence in the world. And finally, I close the episode by asking Tyler about the role bookkeeping has when you’re looking to exit your business. Tyler responds that having your accounts transparent and in order is something that investors really appreciate and good bookkeeping, whether by you or a service you hire, is the best way to ensure that.

You can learn more about thrifting and auctions in the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. Join our Facebook group using the code word bookeeping to learn more about bundling, ask questions, and participate in the conversation with other sellers. And if you’re ready to take your business to a whole new level, visit MommyIncome.com/Coach to schedule your one-on-one coaching call today.

This week on the Amazon Files:

• How Tyler moved from healthcare startup to e-commerce
• Basic bookkeeping tips and common errors
• Cultivating good bookkeeping habits
• Seller Accountant’s services
• Bookkeeping’s role in exit strategy

“I’m all about education. If you don’t know, learn. Don’t hide from it, learn from it. Learn enough to not screw yourself over.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“I was like, wait a second. This is not Amazon sending me and Emily this stuff every day. It’s actually these sellers. I was like, unbelievable. And it just immediately became this kind of clear hero in my mind, was like, Bezos is gonna get paid, Shopify is gonna get paid. I want the seller of this kind of one to ten million, or maybe half a million to two million brand to make money.”

“If you give yourself the gift of that thirty minutes a week to either pursue education or understand your numbers better, you’re going to be doing better than 90% of your Amazon Seller brethren out there. And so, if I could invest thirty minutes a week and become better than 90% of my competitors across the world, man, that’s a pretty good return on investment.”

“We were involved with almost $90 million in exits last year where sellers were selling to aggregators and other investors. And our bookkeeping got through the most stringent due diligence in the world to get out of that.”

“I had a client last year that had his number. We’d gone through the exercise, an investor offered him that number, but he was afraid he was missing out, and he said no. Of course, the market kind of went down a little bit at the end of last year, and he didn’t get his number. And so, if you know what you want, then you can guilt-free let it go when that number pops up.”

Related Content:

• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50
• Graphic Rhythm Design
• Wholesale Bundle System
• Email questions
• Learn With Us
• Coaching
• The Amazon Files Hub
• Seller Accountant
• Seller Accountant on YouTube
• Return On Podcast

Grow Your Amazon Business!

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of The Amazon Files, the show to help Amazon sellers along their business journey one step at a time with Amazon expert and your host, Kristin Ostrander. If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us your honest review. Don’t forget to share your favorite episodes with your friends on social media! Use the code word bookeeping to join us on Facebook. Each week, Kristin hosts a live discussion on how to grow your Amazon business. Don’t forget to check out our website and subscribe to our mailing list for even more resources.

Today, I’m welcoming back one of my favorite guests, Scott Zilke, aka The Bearded Picker, an expert in Amazon FBA and eBay flipping. First up, Scott tells us what he’s been up to in the last few months, including changing his business model, reworking his eBay store, and redesigning his storage setup. Then we chat about our shared love of thrifting and yard sales, and both of us emphasize the importance of finding a balance between making money and having fun, something that’s much easier when you do what you love and delegate what you don’t (Scott recommends hiring an accountant!).

We also talk in detail about the processes involved in yard sales, estate sales, and auctions (both online and in-person) and emphasize that knowledge is a weapon you can wield to your advantage, whether that’s how the business of flipping works or what items are particularly valuable in a specific market. Scott then discusses the importance of looking forward, knowing where your audience is going, and embracing change to ensure you don’t lag behind and give yourself every profit-making opportunity possible. And finally, we wrap up the episode by focusing on the importance of surrounding yourself with a positive and supportive community and trying to push out the negative. Life is too short to be miserable, so stop waiting for the perfect time, follow your passion, and spend time with the people you love.

You can learn more about thrifting and auctions in the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. Join our Facebook group with today’s codeword PICKER to learn more about bundling, ask questions, and participate in the conversation with other sellers. And if you’re ready to take your business to a whole new level, visit MommyIncome.com/Coach to schedule your one-on-one coaching call today.

This week on the Amazon Files:

• Scott’s background and what he’s been up to recently
• Finding the balance between business and fun 
• Yard sales, auctions, estate sales, and thrifting
• Using knowledge to your advantage
• Being forward-looking in business and life

“If you’re going to be an entrepreneur, you don’t do it for the money. That’s part of it, but you do it for the passion, you do it because you can’t do anything else because nothing else suits you.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“I kept telling people, do what you love, do what you love, but the light never came on. It finally… I was selling some stuff, I’m like, why am I doing the dropshipping for somebody else whenever I can be making all the profit? And that was where the light came on.”

“One thing I have preached and I’ve tried not to do is never, never rule, never, never legislate out in your business the fun part. You’ve got to have fun, you got to enjoy this. There’s a reason you do this, and you made it into your business, but the accounting, all that crazy stuff can drag you down, you’ve got to have the fun stuff.”

“If you sit around and complain and moan and groan, you’re behind everybody else who’s going, ‘You know what? I can do this and that.’ These new rules, you adapt to the new rules.”

“I’m a firm believer that, you know, find the remote, find the cable, find the whatever because they’re not gonna charge you. There’s a VCR there, they’re not gonna charge you any extra with a remote or without the remote. But you sell it for a lot more money on eBay or Amazon with the remote.”

“Follow your passion, do what you love, surround yourself with positive people. You only get one shot at this go-around. Make what’s important to you.”

Related Content:

• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50
• Wholesale Bundle System
• Graphic Rhythm Design
• Email questions
• Learn With Us
• Coaching
• The Amazon Files Hub

Grow Your Amazon Business!

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of The Amazon Files, the show to help Amazon sellers along their business journey one step at a time with Amazon expert and your host, Kristin Ostrander. If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us your honest review. Don’t forget to share your favorite episodes with your friends on social media! Use the codeword PICKER to join us on Facebook. Each week, Kristin hosts a live discussion on how to grow your Amazon business. Don’t forget to check out our website and subscribe to our mailing list for even more resources.

Happy July 4, everybody! Everything is red, white, and blue right now, but soon it’s gonna be orange and black for Halloween, so this week’s episode is all about preparing for Q4 and its set holidays and avoiding some of the common mistakes in the prepping process. First up, I discuss the importance of advanced inventory management and planning, including capitalizing on Prime Day to generate extra income you can spend stocking up for the Q4 holidays. I also advise taking advantage of wholesale terms and dating—not the Tinder kind of dating, but ways of postponing payment for inventory to buy you time and get all kinds of rewards and benefits. And, as always, make sure you have plenty of stock so you can replenish if and when necessary.

My next bit of advice is to pay attention to listing creation and shipment timing. You want to hit the sweet spot with your listings so that you can grab the algorithm and have it index and rank you for your keywords, so create new bundles early and ship new shipments ASAP. And since FBA warehouses are overwhelmed in July and August, go for smaller shipments and use case packs to help faster processing. And the last thing I recommend you guys do is to ignore the shiny objects and stop chasing the trends, which aren’t reliable and won’t pay the bills long-term. Instead, sell the boring stuff, the “rusty trusties,” the white Christmas lights and repair kits for inflatable decorations. And stay in your lane—Q4 isn’t the time to jump into new niches, it’s when you go and rake in the dough!

Come chat about wholesale, holidays, and more in the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. Join our Facebook group with today’s codeword HOLIDAYS to learn more about bundling, ask questions, and participate in the conversation with other sellers. And if you’re ready to take your business to a whole new level, visit MommyIncome.com/Coach to schedule your one-on-one coaching call today.

This week on the Amazon Files:

• Advanced inventory management and planning
• Wholesale terms and dating
• Listing creation and shipment timing
• Shipping case packs
• Selling boring stuff

“You don’t have to jump into trends. You don’t have to jump into zones that you’re not comfortable with. Stay in your lane for a while because you’re better in your lane.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“You cannot sell what you don’t have. And in order to make enough money, and in order to have enough inventory for Q4, you need to have money to purchase that.”

“If you’re launching a Christmas thing in May, you might be hard-pressed to get traffic, and then you’re losing indexing and ranking. So you want to be close to the holidays but not so close that you can’t grab the algorithm and have it index and rank you for those keywords. So getting your listings done and in and on early is really important.”

“Stop chasing the hot trends. Stop. There’s hot trends every single Christmas season, and there’s always that one thing that people are waiting around in line for. Like, years ago, it was the Speak Out game, then it was fidget spinners, the TikTok leggings… Trends, they come and they go so quickly. So many people get stuck on these. There’s plenty of profit in other things. Don’t chase the trends.”

Related Content:

• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50
• Wholesale Bundle System
• Graphic Rhythm Design
• Email questions
• Learn With Us
• Coaching
• The Amazon Files Hub
• Wholesale for the Holidays Live Class

Grow Your Amazon Business!

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of The Amazon Files, the show to help Amazon sellers along their business journey one step at a time with Amazon expert and your host, Kristin Ostrander. If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us your honest review. Don’t forget to share your favorite episodes with your friends on social media! Use the codeword HOLIDAYS to join us on Facebook. Each week, Kristin hosts a live discussion on how to grow your Amazon business. Don’t forget to check out our website and subscribe to our mailing list for even more resources.

This year, Amazon is holding not one but two Prime Days, so in today’s episode, I’m focusing on maximizing your profit during this event. After a word about the live class I’m running on doing wholesale for the holidays, I dive into what you can do to prepare your existing inventory for Prime Day, including checking and updating your listings, raising your prices, and making sure you have everything in stock.

Then I take off my wholesale bundle queen crown for a minute to talk retail arbitrage and taking advantage of summer clearances to get seasonal inventory you can sell quickly and build up some cash to spend in preparation for Q4. I’ve got a whole list of items to share with you, from garden hoses to patio pillows to pool accessories, as well as back-to-school items, that can be bought at low prices and flipped on Prime Day for a quick profit. And finally, I explain why, while raising your prices before Prime Day seems counterintuitive, it’s really effective in the frenzy of getting and saving that such events provoke.

Come chat about Prime Day and more in the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. Join our Facebook group with today’s codeword primeday to learn more about bundling, ask questions, and participate in the conversation with other sellers. And if you’re ready to take your business to a whole new level, visit MommyIncome.com/Coach to schedule your one-on-one coaching call today.

This week on the Amazon Files:

• How to maximize your profits on Prime Day
• How to prepare your current inventory for Prime Day
• Taking advantage of summer clearance for retail arbitrage
• Using your Prime Day profits to prepare for Q4

“Prime Day to me is optimizing my listing so my regular items sell continuously and making sure that I have stock of those items - you can’t sell what’s not there so making sure you have the stock, and then selling the season that we’re in so that you can get the faster sales so that you can build up that money and that capital profit to spend on Q4.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“I am going to teach you what to sell, where to get it, how to get it into Amazon, all the holiday action calendar to make sure you’re selling and sending in all of your items and when, so that they’re ranking for holidays, so that you’ve got all of the best holiday sales and wholesale. Why? Because these days, we cannot wait for retail arbitrage.”

“First of all, you need to know why. Why is this important? Why do you need to do this? This is not another gimmick or nothing else, it is just simply minding your business, right? You’re minding your business. I want you to mind your business. And with over 153 million Prime members globally, you’re going to take advantage of Prime Day.”

“This is why we want to take advantage of Prime Day because it gives us instantly more money to spend for the holiday season because we’re going to make fast, quick profit right now.”

“It’s really hard to find a bathing suit around here even in, like, September. They’re all gone. There’s none on the shelf, we have to turn to Amazon. So thank you for buying stuff from Target and flipping it, so I can buy bathing suits in November.”

Related Content:

• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50
• Wholesale Bundle System
• Graphic Rhythm Design
• Email questions
• Learn With Us
• Coaching
• The Amazon Files Hub
• Wholesale for the Holidays live class

Grow Your Amazon Business!

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of The Amazon Files, the show to help Amazon sellers along their business journey one step at a time with Amazon expert and your host, Kristin Ostrander. If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us your honest review. Don’t forget to share your favorite episodes with your friends on social media! Use the codeword primeday to join us on Facebook. Each week, Kristin hosts a live discussion on how to grow your Amazon business. Don’t forget to check out our website and subscribe to our mailing list for even more resources.

On this episode of The Amazon Files, I’m joined by returning guest Steven Pope from listings optimization agency My Amazon Guy. Steven is an amazing Amazon expert with a wealth of information on ecommerce, and he’s here today to share his expertise on Amazon SEO keyword practices and rankings. First up, since it’s been a little while since Steven was on the podcast, he brings us up to speed on what My Amazon Guy does and the growth it’s experienced over the last couple of years. He talks about the importance of happy employees and his aim to buck the trend of high turnover by creating a supportive culture even as stress levels in the workforce climb to all-time highs. After that, we dive into SEO, as Steven explains the impact of social trends on keyword data and how keeping track of these can reveal opportunities to improve your ranking and make more money. He also points out the importance of understanding the Amazon algorithm in order to get the most out of the keyword system.

Next, Steven runs us through the four SEO phases he runs (indexing, incremental indexing, strike zone, and the search query performance report (SQPR)) and how following these will improve your ranking with minimal effort. I also jump on Steven’s point about the SQPR to once again encourage everyone to get brand registry and trademarks for all the benefits they give you, including this report. Then Steven tells us about the courses he’s running through My Amazon Guy (including one on SEO), and I encourage everybody to invest in education, especially since Amazon doesn’t always make life easy for us! We then loop back to the SQPR, as Steven gives an example from his own business on how to utilize the report’s data to find immediate activity and action tips and also explains why he prioritizes traffic over conversion. And we close the episode with some advice from Steven on how to set the meta description of your brand store to get more exposure and control over Google and how much time you should set aside each week to spend on optimization, plus a couple of tips on raising your prices when other sellers are lowering theirs.

You can talk about SEO rankings and more in the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. Join our Facebook group with today’s codeword MAG to learn more about bundling, ask questions, and participate in the conversation with other sellers. And if you’re ready to take your business to a whole new level, visit MommyIncome.com/Coach to schedule your one-on-one coaching call today.

This week on the Amazon Files:

• Social trends and keyword data
• Understanding the Amazon algorithm
• SEO phases
• The benefits of brand registry and trademarking
• Utilizing the Search Query Performance Report
• Traffic vs. conversion and volume vs. margin
• How to set your brand store’s meta description
• How much time to spend on optimization

“I’d rather have margin all day long than worry about constant volume. I’m like, I don’t want to have to manage ten thousand pieces a day. How about just a hundred pieces a day at ten times the profit margin that you’re making? That’s a better deal for me.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“I feel like I spend more time focused on people and their problems and what their challenges are than I do focused on trying to actually run the company, and that, quite frankly, is actually running the company, right? Like, it’s all about people.”

“If you put employees at the top of your pyramid and have clients and customers beneath the employee—because you can’t serve two masters, they can only serve one or the other—you will have happier employees, which will make happier customers and clients because happier employees do better work. It’s just bottom line.”

“If you are kind and understanding and help people feel supported and accountable, even in relationships, and marriage, and parenting, and anything like that, people naturally perform better when they feel supported and happy and feel like they can handle the task, and they feel like they can go to you as a leader if something’s going wrong.”

“I would say stress levels in the workforce are at all-time highs. And I’ve never seen so much pressure from inflation, from just overwhelmingly, you know, post-pandemic bullcrap, mental illness, you name it, and people are really just worn out right now. And I just feel for them.”

“I like to look at myself as a caveman with fire in prehistoric times, right? So like, I figured something out, I feel like I’ve got some fire, and I want to share that fire. You bring your torch over here, I’ll light your torch. What you decide to do with your torch is completely up to you. I hope you go light the world up. But what you do is up to you.”

“SEO, search engine optimization, it’s not set it and forget it, right? You can’t just do one round of research and then walk away.”

“The difference between that and the characters, as far as Amazon is concerned, is they don’t count syntax, they don’t count spaces, they don’t count commas, etc. So with that in mind, if you were only doing 250 characters, and somebody else was doing 250 bytes, they would actually be getting 20% more SEO juice.”

“When you’re first launching a product, of course, the most important thing you want to be done is get indexed by the search engine. Because you don’t want to just rely upon hardcore PPC costs, which are up, like, 35% in the last twelve months.”

“You need to really understand that brand registry and trademarking has more value than you can spend on the trademark itself because of the protection, because of these new reports, because of these exact keywords.”

“If you are doing wholesale bundling-slash-kits, and you don’t have any brand equity, you should still get a trademark and file the kits, the bundle under your own brand name. Because then you prevent hijackers, then you prevent all of these other data problems, and the other brands can’t come after you. And in addition to that, you get all the benefits that Kristin was talking about, the brand registry, the A+ content.”

“I’ll give you a little secret, the Amazon help files suck. They’re incomprehensible and incomplete and often inaccurate. And so like, I’m literally getting three messages a week from Amazon employees thanking me for actually talking about how the algorithm actually works.”

“Time is money. And if you want to get it faster, and you want to get it done now, and you want to have these tests done by the end of your day, then you take a course because education is absolutely everything.”

“You have a percentage of impressions that gets higher by clicks, which gets higher by add to carts, which gets higher by purchases—those are the four different things that Amazon tracks in the search query report—what that tells you is you need to focus on getting more impressions. Why? Because you’re converting higher than the competitors. Therefore, whenever you have high conversion, what is the activity you should do? Go get more traffic.”

“We make assumptions that most people that have Amazon go there first to look for things, but a lot of times people go to Google first. And if you’re not ranking on Amazon, you’re not gonna come up first on Google either.”

“Not only will the brand store show up on your own brand term, which gives you more exposure and control over Google, it also can rank for other keywords. So you can generate more income by setting the meta description of your brand store.”

“This meta description of your store can change your business overnight. Getting a trademark and getting your store branded so that you can use A+ content will change your business overnight because you’re doing the things that other people are too lazy to do, or they’re not interested, or they think that they can get by on just doing it on a dime.”

“If you just added SEO in as something you work on for one to three hours every month in a chunk, and then keep doing it, you will see continuous gains.”

“Number one rule of Amazon: don't go out of stock. Second rule is like the first, don’t go out of stock.”

Related Content:

• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50
• Wholesale Bundle System
• Email questions
• Learn With Us
• Coaching
• The Amazon Files Hub
• My Amazon Guy at Mommy Income
• Graphic Rhythm Design

Grow Your Amazon Business!

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of The Amazon Files, the show to help Amazon sellers along their business journey one step at a time with Amazon expert and your host, Kristin Ostrander. If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us your honest review. Don’t forget to share your favorite episodes with your friends on social media! Use the codeword MAG to join us on Facebook. Each week, Kristin hosts a live discussion on how to grow your Amazon business. Don’t forget to check out our website and subscribe to our mailing list for even more resources.

On today’s episode, I’m talking to the amazing Cyndi Thomason, a speaker and thought leader in the e-commerce community, to talk about her brand new book Motherhood, Apple Pie, and All That Happy Horseshit and discuss the choice moms often face between continuing their career or starting their family and working from home. I start the episode by asking Cyndi where the amazing title for her book came from, and she shares a story from her corporate days when a board member used that phrase in response to a passionate speech she’d just made. She explains that the phrase stuck with her, and she eventually decided to transform its flippant negativity into something positive by using it as the title of the book. This leads her to discuss how the book originated from her desire to empower women faced with the choice between a corporate job and motherhood. Around twenty years ago, Cyndi herself left the corporate world to raise her daughter, and while it was the right choice for her, she shares that she didn’t expect how much she would miss the achievement mentality of her job and how lost she would feel without it. Her book, she explains, is about how to integrate motherhood, business, and time for oneself to avoid losing your identity to just one element.

Next, Cyndi and I get a bit deeper into her book as she introduces the concept of the sacred space. This involves finding an activity that lets you lose track of time and get into the flow without thinking about the stresses in your life, and then carving out time to stay in touch with it. Cyndi explains that finding and maintaining this sacred space will improve your ability to make decisions and feel fulfilled. We then move on to discuss Cyndi’s idea of rubber balls and glass balls (i.e. those tasks we can let bounce and the ones we can’t allow to smash) and how differentiating between the two and scheduling accordingly can be a major help in finding balance in your life. I then ask Cyndi about avoiding guilt for scheduling time for yourself, and we discuss the importance of setting boundaries, including between you and your kids. We both share stories about setting boundaries as parents to demonstrate that while it might be emotionally tricky, modeling boundaries will benefit both you and your children in the long run. And finally, we close the episode by discussing the framework Cyndi introduces in her book, especially the importance of true self-care, including real rest from stress and distractions, and of figuring out who you want on your team for your business and personal life, and reaching out to them for support and understanding.

You can come talk about motherhood, apple pie, and happy horseshit in the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. You can join our Facebook group with today’s codeword APPLEPIE to learn more about bundling, ask questions, and participate in the conversation with other sellers. And if you’re ready to take your business to a whole new level, visit MommyIncome.com/Coach to schedule your one-on-one coaching call today.

This week on the Amazon Files:

• The origin of Cyndi’s book and its title
• Parenthood vs. the corporate world
• Finding your sacred space
• Glass balls, rubber balls, and time-blocking
• Modeling boundaries
• Cyndi’s framework for integrating motherhood, apple pie, and happy horseshit
• Defining and applying self-care
• Developing your personal and business support teams

“We’re not built to always serve and always work and always consume. We are built for rest in some ways. And that includes not just sleep but rest from decisions, rest from bombardment and confusion, rest from the damn phone that’s literally an attachment to our hands.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“I’m like, well, what’s wrong with motherhood? And what’s wrong with apple pie? I mean, to me, it kind of symbolizes, you know, small business, and growth, and the effort and hard work. I mean, to me, it was always a good thing.”

“It’s very American to think about living our dreams, right? And when someone says something so flippantly like that, you almost want to put your hands on your hips and ‘Wait just a darn minute, let me tell you about the horseshit you’re talking about.’”

“We can have it all on our own terms, it’s just gonna be about organization, and having a certain set of boundaries, and maybe reframing our expectations.”

“Does anyone really enjoy changing diapers or cleaning up spit up? Or, you know, the piles and piles of laundry? Well, some maybe do, but there was that piece of you that ends up being missing, and then we feel guilty for longing for those achievements, for those work-related type of motivations that we have that complete us as a person.”

“Whether you’re staying at home and focusing on child-raising, or whether you’re working and trying to, you know, use a daycare scenario or trying to do a business, it’s always going to be a juggling act. What I like about the idea of being a small business owner in the mix is that you get to control all the balls, and you get to say for yourself, this is important right now, and this is where I’m gonna put my time.”

“I think that’s the key for people, in general, to stay in that place of wholeness and to be able to make good decisions. Whether it’s child-rearing decisions, or whether it’s, you know, business decisions, if you’re feeling totally depleted, you’re not in a good place to make decisions.”

“If you can just carve out a little bit of time for yourself and stay in touch with what’s really important to you, then everything else gets easier.”

“We’re required to make decisions and make money decisions and make parenting decisions and relational decisions. Going into the garden and working with horseshit really sounds like bliss because it’s one place where no one’s demanding anything from you.”

“I think, in hindsight, I wish I had felt better, more empowered, around boundaries. That’s, you know, where I wish I had done some things a little differently. Love my daughter, love to spend time with her. But at the same time, I didn’t make the time for sacred space that I should have.”

“I think that’s one of the things that we lose sight of when we get caught in that mom guilt is that our kids are watching. And, you know, if we want to be a strong, whole person for them, we have to take strong positions, and boundaries help with that. And so, if you’re finding it hard to do it for yourself, then do it for your child because they’re paying attention. And you can set a good example for them that also benefits you too.”

“I want people to understand that self-care is really not sacred space. Yes, it’s nice to get a shower, but you should have the time to take care of yourself. That shouldn’t be a bonus.”

“To achieve your goals, you have to take care of you. Much as flight attendants instruct you to put your own oxygen mask on before assisting others, you need to make self-care and rest a priority. Without it, all your other activities will be harder and feel less meaningful.”

“At the end of the day, I need to get up and exit from here and have something else to do. And instead of going and sitting in another chair and scrolling mindlessly, I’m like, 'What do I need?'”

“That’s the one thing that I think everybody can do is spend, you know, fifteen minutes right now, write down who are you going to call if you need somebody. And it can’t be your spouse. Because I mean, you’re asking them for stuff all the time, right? So who else can you call if something happens? Who are you going to call? And then reach out to that person and say, ‘Hey, you know, I’ve been thinking about this, and I just want you on my team.’”

“This is self-care, people. Reading books and consuming things that are going to make you a better person is worth your time. The reason that I am the way I am is because of the books that I read, and the people that I meet, and the conversations I have. They all contribute to helping us make a better person.”

Related Content:

• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50
• Wholesale Bundle System
• Email questions
• Learn With Us
• Coaching
• The Amazon Files Hub
• Graphic Rhythm Design
• Motherhood, Apple Pie, and All That Happy Horseshit on Amazon
• Motherhood, Apple Pie, and All That Happy Horseshit on Audible
• Cyndi’s website

Grow Your Amazon Business!

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of The Amazon Files, the show to help Amazon sellers along their business journey one step at a time with Amazon expert and your host, Kristin Ostrander. If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us your honest review. Don’t forget to share your favorite episodes with your friends on social media! Use the codeword APPLEPIE to join us on Facebook. Each week, Kristin hosts a live discussion on how to grow your Amazon business. Don’t forget to check out our website and subscribe to our mailing list for even more resources.

I’ve heard a lot of complaints lately about the Amazon world becoming saturated and the opportunities to make money within it becoming diminished, with people getting worried that Amazon may no longer be a viable business option. If you’re in that camp, wondering if Amazon’s still right for you, today’s episode will help you navigate that question, get clear on your goals, and guide you through three simple steps to grow your business. First up, I tackle whether it’s still possible to make a decent salary at home with Amazon, the answer to which is yes. In fact, with the rise of mobile commerce (m-commerce), the opportunities to make money on Amazon are growing—the only difference between taking advantage of them or not is how much time, money, commitment, and action you’re willing to put in. I then discuss the importance of figuring out what you want for yourself and getting clear on what you want from your business. It’s easy to get stuck by our fears and avoid moving because we’re scared to make mistakes, so I emphasize focusing on the next logical step to get what you want instead of getting overwhelmed trying to leap over a cavern of black holes.

To help you make that next move, I next present three simple steps you can take to grow your business, steps that helped me in my journey to making six figures on Amazon. The first step is based on my observation that no one successful does everything by themselves: hire some help. This can be intimidating, but I discuss how we’re all familiar with hiring people and point out that hiring help doesn’t have to be as expensive as you assume, plus it will bring huge dividends in the long run, both in time and money. Step number two is looking at your numbers to figure out what needs to change—because there’s always something that needs to change. This is something people tend to make excuses about—they don’t have time to look at their numbers, they’ve got too many other things to do—but if you don’t know your numbers, you’ll never know all the ways you can reduce expenses, increase margins, increase your ROI, and so on. I advise that being intentional about ensuring you’re making the most money you possibly can out of the work you’re doing and avoiding waste are crucial parts of what business owners do, so get rid of the excuses and make time for it. And finally, the third step is investing in yourself and your business through education. If you want to make more money, one of the major things you can do is learn a new skill that gives you a new expertise and will level you up. Therefore, I recommend figuring out what new skill would give you the potential to earn more money in your business and investing time and money into achieving it.

You can find plenty more advice on the Amazon FBA world in the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. You can join our Facebook group with today’s codeword now to learn more about bundling, ask questions, and participate in the conversation with other sellers. And if you’re ready to take your business to a whole new level, visit MommyIncome.com/Coach to schedule your one-on-one coaching call today.

This week on the Amazon Files:

• Are there still opportunities with Amazon? (Yes)
  
• Deciding what you want for yourself
  
• Getting clear on what you want from your business
  
• Three simple steps to growing your business
  
• Step #1: hire some help
  
• Step #2: look at your numbers
  
• Step #3: educate yourself
  

“You deserve it, you can want it, you can have it, even if it seems so far away from where you are right now. There’s an opportunity for people to earn millions of dollars from their homes in 2022.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“Can I make a decent salary at home with Amazon, like all these other people are saying that they’re doing? The answer is yes. The answer is absolutely, yes, you can do that. And it is still a viable opportunity. As a matter of fact, there are people who started after me that have surpassed me already.”

“The new normal is buying everything online, even groceries, even prescriptions, even everything. Like, if you did not want to go to a brick and mortar store ever again, I believe almost everything that you could possibly want to purchase, you can have either delivered, or you can order online.”

“The opportunities are not decreasing, they’re increasing. And the only difference between you growing and someone else growing is the time, money, effort, and energy, and action that you’re taking. Time, money, commitment, and action.”

“I know that the opportunities are increasing, but eventually, there will be a plateau. Eventually, there will be a time where we missed the boat. The boat came by several times, and we didn’t get on it. Or if we got on it, we jumped off of it because we weren’t sure if it was going to be headed in the direction that we were going.”

“Eventually, you’ve got to get clear about what you want and how it’s not dependent on anyone else.”

“Our brains are wired to have this protection mechanism called fear. And fear hinders us from taking the next step, or it shows us the big, huge steps. And we’re like, oh, we don’t know what that is. But really, the next step, not the tenth or thirteenth step.”

“These are steps that I’ve personally taken that have been game-changers. Game-changers going from $2,000 a month to $5,000 a month in your pocket.”

“Being productive and making progress is totally different. We can be busy and actually be doing absolutely nothing.”

“One of the things I’ve seen is that no one that’s successful does it by themselves. So if you’re currently listening right now, and you don’t have anyone working for you or working with you, or subcontracted or freelancing or a warehouse or something, that is one of the first moves that you need to make. Stop doing everything yourself, and stop assuming that it’s going to be too expensive for you to hire help.”

“No successful business person does all of the things all of the time. Trust me, I’ve tried. I ran myself into the ground, burned myself almost out, and almost quit everything at one point because I’m like, I’m so successful, I’m making so much money, but I don’t have time to enjoy any of my life.”

“The picture I’m trying to paint for you is that when you make an investment, it takes some time and a learning curve to try to get that out, whether it’s a time investment, money investment, whatever that is, but then it pays dividends down the road.”

“There’s always something that needs to change. There’s always something that you can look at and say, ‘Am I making the right margins on this?’ or looking at your numbers more closely. Setting aside the time, this is what people don’t do. They don’t set aside the time.”

“If you are doing something right now, and you want to make more money, one of the major things that you can do is learn a new skill that gives you a level of expertise or a level of something that will level you up.”

“You have to decide that you and your goals and your business is worth it and then invest in that. Sometimes that investment is product. Sometimes it’s service. Sometimes it’s coaching, sometimes it’s mentorship, sometimes it’s education, sometimes it’s hiring help, or a product or a service that will literally make you faster, more efficient, or smarter to be able to take care of it.”

“I’m not here saying I run a one-man show, and I’m really proud of that, and I work eighty hours a week. No, that is not what I want and need in my business. So what do you want and need in your business?”

Related Content:

• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50
  
• Wholesale Bundle System
  
• Email questions
  
• Learn With Us
• Coaching
  
• The Amazon Files Hub
• Snack Hut’s homepage
• Graphic Rhythm Design
  
  

Grow Your Amazon Business!

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of The Amazon Files, the show to help Amazon sellers along their business journey one step at a time with Amazon expert and your host, Kristin Ostrander. If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us your honest review. Don’t forget to share your favorite episodes with your friends on social media! Use the codeword now to join us on Facebook. Each week, Kristin hosts a live discussion on how to grow your Amazon business. Don’t forget to check out our website and subscribe to our mailing list for even more resources.

In the Amazon FBA world, there are so many Facebook groups and YouTube channels and blogs and gurus and podcasts and tools and software shoved down our throats that it’s really hard to stay focused. So, in today’s episode, we’re going to talk about how you can stop analysis paralysis forever. We’re going to stop overthinking, we’re going to stop overanalyzing, and we’re going to start taking some action. First up, I talk about the decision fatigue we all feel as business owners and how to make your life easier with a checklist you can run through before making choices about what tools you want to invest in. I also address the causes of analysis paralysis, including the fear of missing out (FOMO) and how to avoid letting it influence your decisions, before returning to the checklist with the first question: what goal does this tool help me reach, or problem does it help me solve? I then share a recent story of me not asking this question before purchasing a course on Pinterest strategy because I was sucked in by a big discount and use it to illustrate how letting FOMO guide your choices leads to waste.

The second question to ask is if this tool fits into your budget both in terms of money and time. This question is so important because it can help you set aside your emotions, focus on what your business needs right now, and act on that rather than any feelings of fear. It also makes you consider the specifics of your business circumstances, which leads me to the third item on the checklist: does this make sense for my business? Everybody’s business is different, which means the best tool for me may well not be the right one for you, so you have to do your own research into how the tools you’re interested in work and if they will fit your business. That means not relying on other people’s advice or testimonials until after you’ve looked into how the tool might fit your preferences (even down to such mundane details as color schemes!). Then I take a minute to emphasize that tools and products and services are not permanent—you can always cancel them—and that you don’t need to feel guilt for doing so. You’re not hurting anybody’s feelings, you’re just doing what’s right for your business, so allow yourself to let go guilt-free. And the final piece of the checklist isn’t a question, it’s a task: set a deadline for your decisions. Lots of people need time to contemplate before making a decision, and it’s good to think before inputting your credit card details, but setting a deadline stops procrastination, getting stuck in research mode, and allowing feelings to fester.

You can find plenty more advice on the Amazon FBA world by joining the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. You can join our Facebook group with today’s codeword STOPAP to learn more about bundling, ask questions, and participate in the conversation with other sellers. And if you’re ready to take your business to a whole new level, visit MommyIncome.com/Coach to schedule your one-on-one coaching call today.

This week on the Amazon Files:

• Reducing decision fatigue
  
• The causes of analysis paralysis
  
• Choosing tools with your goals in mind
  
• Don’t fall for FOMO
  
• Budgeting for time and money
  
• Choosing the best tools for your circumstances
  
• Say 'no' and let go of the guilt
  
• Tools are not permanent or personal
  
• Creating deadlines for your decisions
  

“Ask yourself those questions, learn those processes, and then be proud of yourself instead of feeling guilty or shame or FOMO, or all that kind of stuff. Be like, I’m proud of myself that I made the best decision for my business in the moment.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“Oftentimes, what happens? We get analysis paralysis, and we’re just spinning that wheel that’s loading and loading and loading, and we have 412 tabs open at a time. What we generally end up doing is procrastination and/or nothing, nothing at all. And then the next day, we spin the same wheels.”

“As business owners, we are faced with millions and millions of decisions, even from the minute to the big to the extravagant to really simple, mundane things. But as a business owner, we’re not passing the buck to someone else to make the decision, we have to make all the decisions, and decision fatigue is real, friends.”

“If you struggle with decision fatigue, and if you struggle with, like, overanalyzing and analysis paralysis and overthinking like most of us do, right? Then you need a way to start effectively and efficiently making those decisions faster and easier.”

“The reality is, you as the business owner, the person that’s putting your credit card number into anything, gets to decide where and how you spend your money and why. And FOMO is not a decision-maker.”

“I’m constantly educating myself as well. I think that’s really, really important, to grow as an individual, and as a professional, and as an expert in something. You’re constantly learning all the new things and making sure that you’re aware of them and practicing them.”

“The whole point here is, like, in order for you to not waste money on a bunch of stuff you think you might need at some point, spend the majority of your dollars for services and products and tools and coaching and education that will help you right now. Because you’re not there yet down the road. And even if the price is a hundred dollars more or a thousand dollars more next week, if you’re not ready to take action on that thing right now, you don’t need it right now.”

“No matter if you make a million dollars or a thousand dollars, you still have a budget. We can’t just spend whatever we want on whenever we want, any time we want. We all have limited time and money. No matter what that is for everyone, it all is the same, both time and money.”

“I’m trying to position you and trying to encourage you and help you understand that you are a CEO. You’re the owner, you are the business owner. No matter if you’re working two jobs right now, and this is just your side-side-side hustle, you are still a CEO and owner of a small business. And you’re going to need to learn how to make proper decisions.”

“Your business is different. Maybe you have a disability, and you’re only able to work two hours a week. And because of that, you need to be really, really efficient because of the circumstances that don’t allow you to do things other people do. Not wrong, just different. So the best tool for you might be different than the best tool for me.”

“Have you ever purchased something that you were afraid to miss out on? And then you never actually took the time to learn? Like my Pinterest course? Yeah. If you have one of those programs sitting there, tools, apps, software, maybe that’s where you need to place your focus. Ask those questions about those things right now, and then you can dismiss them and get rid of the guilt.”

“Every day that goes by that you’re not using tools that you’ve invested in, you’re wasting money. I mean, if you really like wasting money, I’ll give you my PayPal address, and every time you just feel like wasting money, just send me checks, send me digital cash, but I accept Venmo, PayPal, credit cards, cash, change, I’m even up for barter.”

“If you hear about a new product or service, and you want to know if it’s the right fit for you, then go directly to the source. Watch their tutorial videos, read reviews, watch YouTube videos on how it works. Not from friends and family and other people.”

“Remember that tools and products and services are not permanent. It’s not permanent. Sometimes you need tools in the beginning that you don’t need forever, and it’s okay to cancel them, you’re not going to hurt someone’s feelings. Well, you might be, I guess that’s an assumption. But like, it’s business, it’s not personal.”

“Sometimes tools are not a good fit for you in the moment, and they might be a good fit later on down the road. And you might outgrow some tools. You know, I’ve had some tools before that I’ve canceled because I just haven’t needed them anymore. I’ve created my own systems, or I’ve implemented something new.”

“Investing in your business and investing in yourself is very important. But overinvesting in things that you don’t need is not actually an investment. It’s a waste.”

“The final piece of the puzzle is so that we don’t overanalyze, and we don’t overthink and then become indecisive and then procrastinate and then kick the can down the road and still get nothing done. Create a deadline for your decision.”

“When you get stuck in research mode, you’re in analysis paralysis, and it’s really a struggle. Instead, get the best information possible, answer these questions for yourselves, and then put a deadline on your decision.”

“The way that you invest in your future is to do your best today. Because the results of the future come with what you’re doing right now.”

Related Content:

• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50 
• Graphic Rhythm Design
• Wholesale Bundle System
  
• Email questions
• Graphic Rhythm Design
  
• Learn With Us
  
• Coaching
  
• The Amazon Files Hub
  
  

Grow Your Amazon Business!

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of The Amazon Files, the show to help Amazon sellers along their business journey one step at a time with Amazon expert and your host, Kristin Ostrander. If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us your honest review. Don’t forget to share your favorite episodes with your friends on social media! Use the codeword STOPAP to join us on Facebook. Each week, Kristin hosts a live discussion on how to grow your Amazon business. Don’t forget to check out our website and subscribe to our mailing list for even more resources.

On today’s episode, I’m joined by awesome entrepreneur Mark Davis, founder of Snack Hut, his company for wholesale bundles. Mark has over ten years of experience in liquidation, brick-and-mortar, private label, wholesale, retail arbitrage… all the things you guys are interested in. He’s actively, consistently, and profitably on Amazon, and he’s here today to share his expertise on everything from reverse wholesale to packaging decisions to having patience and not giving in too fast. Mark starts off by telling us how he got into liquidation, flipping customer return pallets before moving into retail and online arbitrage and finally deciding to focus on wholesale. He then introduces the concept of reverse wholesaling, which picks on Amazon listings that could be improved and obtains exclusive sales contracts by demonstrating how they could perform better. This has been a really successful approach for Mark, but as he explains next, he wanted to get in on what these manufacturers were doing and started researching private labels, which hooked him with the prospect of owning the buy box and being able to protect your listings. He then tells the story of watching an unboxing video, getting the idea for candy boxes, and—with his wife’s assistance—making the first order that would lead to Snack Hut being born.

Next, Mark talks us through the early days of Snack Hut, from packaging decisions to production processes, before we tackle the challenges we’ve come across in wholesale bundling and ways to overcome them. In particular, Mark emphasizes how getting your production processes in place can save you significant amounts of time per week, which can then be invested in learning how to take the next step in your business. He also stresses the importance of having patience and setting long-term goals, having seen too many people get impatient and quit before they’ve given their business a chance to succeed. As an example, he points out how many people insist that retail arbitrage is dead, despite there still being plenty of money to be made there, then we discuss how wholesale bundling bridges the gap between RA and private label without requiring twelve months and fifteen grand. We also talk about retail distribution as part of building a sustainable, sellable brand and how Mark is using Amazon as a launchpad to build up the Snack Hut brand outside of Amazon, increasing its value and making it more appealing to aggregators when it comes time to sell. And we close the episode out with the great news that Mark will be guest hosting some training in our Amazon Files Hub community in June, so all you wholesale bundle students can learn even more from him!

You can ask Mark more questions by joining the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. You can join our Facebook group with today’s codeword SNACKHUT to learn more about bundling, ask questions, and participate in the conversation with other sellers. And if you’re ready to take your business to a whole new level, visit MommyIncome.com/Coach to schedule your one-on-one coaching call today.

This week on the Amazon Files:

• How Mark got into liquidation, retail arbitrage, and online arbitrage
  
• Reverse wholesale
  
• The dreaded sell-out
  
• What Mark likes about bundling
  
• How Snack Hut was created
  
• Making packaging decisions
  
• The challenges of wholesale bundling
  
• How wholesale bundling has changed Mark’s business
  
• Freeing up time to learn
  
• Having patience and putting the work in
  
• Planning your exit
  
• Remembering retail is an option
  
  

“One of the things I love about wholesale bundles is really that it’s poor man’s private label, and I’ve been saying that for a really long time. It’s a way to get the benefits of a private-label-style product, owning the buy box, owning a brand, owning these things but without twelve months and fifteen grand.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“I joined a Facebook group called FBA Rockstars. And it was there that I first learned about Amazon. And I learned the hard way that you can’t, or you’re not supposed to sell liquidated product on Amazon.”

“Reverse wholesale is, basically, you’re gonna ignore the big guys. You want to find manufacturers’ products, that they’re not necessarily private label, so there’s going to be multiple sellers on the listing more than likely, usually three or more. But they’re going to be a lesser-known brand.”

“A lot of manufacturers, they’re good at what they do. They’re good at developing products, and they’re good at marketing their products, but they are terrible at Amazon.”

“Our first three products did great for the first two weeks, and then they tanked. We sent in, I want to say, fifteen units of each one. And within the first week, we were sold out. It took us another week to get the product and get it put together and sent back in, and we could never gain traction on those listings again.”

“I don’t care if you have $10 million in the bank, do you have six to twelve months to tie up said capital, to wait and see and launch your product? Because let’s be honest, most… right now, I wish it weren’t this way, but it is just a reality that most manufacturing and things are done outside of the US, you know, just that we have to outsource manufacturing.”

“Wholesale bundles is not just sunshine and rainbows. There are still, what we’ve said over and over in this episode, it’s a lot of work. This is a lot of work. That’s a lot of work. Guess what? Business is a lot of work.”

“It’s a short dip of investment to where, yes, it goes negative for a time. But then, from then, you see that double, triple, or dare I say, more return on your investment. So you didn’t lose money, you were just willing to invest in something that you believed in time would get you there, and proof of concept exists right because I’m holding a snack box.”

“I can tell you, my payroll has gone from having two employees working seventy-five plus hours a week combined. They’re now working maybe twenty, twenty-two hours a week each. So about forty, forty-four hours combined.”

“That’s what you’re doing, you’re freeing up time in this process so that you can learn. Why? Because when you learn more, you earn more. It’s a natural process, if you free up five hours a week, you can learn something in three of those hours, implement it in two, and now that’s gonna make you so much more money. It’s exponential growth for your bottom line.”

“I think a key element for people starting out: patience. Gotta have patience, you can’t expect to jump into Amazon, create a bundle, and make $10,000 in the next week, you know? Make long-term goals, not set short-term goals, and be patient, and take your time, and really learn and learn from others.”

“Taking the time to learn, listen to other people, and being patient, and honestly, try to enjoy the journey. Don’t hate it so much. It’s frustrating because, as sellers, Amazon doesn’t really care about us, but that’s fine. You know, they give us a wonderful opportunity, and too many times, I’ve run across people that are just so impatient, they just quit too soon.”

“Too many times I’ve heard people say, like, ‘RA is dead. You can’t make any money doing retail arbitrage.’ Well, I have a gentleman in one of my mastermind groups that does fifteen million a year in revenue, and he is strictly 100% RA and has a team of twelve shoppers that travel up and down the East Coast buying his products. So it’s not dead. It just took time to build it.”

“Last week, I was in Florida. I did a speaking engagement and then had three days off to go to the beach. Meanwhile, everything’s running smoothly. I’m not out there trying to find my next product at the store. You know, if you think about that, it’s actually ludicrous. I mean, it works, and we make money off of it. But like, Target doesn’t go over to BestBuy and say, ‘Hey, you got any TVs we can buy and mark up?”

“We want to build up the website, and the subscription side of it when it comes out, and the other products and build the brand up over time to where it’s not just on Amazon, it’s also outside of Amazon, which raises the value so that when the time comes, we can go to an aggregator and present it and sell it off to him.”

“I think that’s what’s great about wholesale bundles, too, is if you’re doing it correctly, and you’re creating your brand, and you’re creating a decent box to put it in and things like that, retail is actually an option. To go into retail stores and say, ‘Hey, is your sales team willing to carry this at a few select stores and see how it does? And if it does, we could create a relationship.’ You could be nationwide, you could be global, and not just with Amazon.”

Related Content:

• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50
  
• Wholesale Bundle System
  
• Email questions
  
• Learn With Us
• Coaching
  
• The Amazon Files Hub
• Snack Hut’s homepage
• Graphic Rhythm Design
  

Grow Your Amazon Business!

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of The Amazon Files, the show to help Amazon sellers along their business journey one step at a time with Amazon expert and your host, Kristin Ostrander. If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Apple Podcasts, subscribe to the show, and leave us your honest review. Don’t forget to share your favorite episodes with your friends on social media! Use the codeword SNACKHUT to join us on Facebook. Each week, Kristin hosts a live discussion on how to grow your Amazon business. Don’t forget to check out our website and subscribe to our mailing list for even more resources.