Music That Inspires

It’s only May, so it might seem like a strange time to be talking about back-to-school season when school’s just about to be over for summer. But if you’re in the retail business, preparing for a season starts at least a quarter before the season actually hits. So if you want to get in on the short but very profitable season of back-to-school products, then right now is your opportunity, and this episode will help you with some back-to-school bundle ideas. First up, I explain what and when back-to-school season is and why it’s better to stick with a less-is-more approach to bundling, especially if it’s your first time around. Then I go through some of the classic types of back-to-school bundles and point out that, in addition to these, there’s still a lot of demand for virtual learning resources, which could be a great niche to get into. I also discuss how to find wholesale opportunities for seasonal bundles without breaking the bank and give some ideas for less obvious back-to-school bundles, including school uniforms, locker decorations, and resources for sports and after-school activities.

Next, I get a bit more specific, focusing on bundling ideas for college students as they transition from living at home to life in a dorm. I also go through some ideas for high school, elementary, and preschool, including getting hold of school supply lists to see what items kids are definitely going to be looking for when they start back-to-school shopping. These include obvious items like backpacks and calculators and less obvious things like resources for teachers, crafting supplies, and snacks and groceries. And most importantly, I encourage everybody to use their specific knowledge and expertise to help find a niche you can make the most of, whether that’s as a teacher or a parent with kids in college or some other life experience. Remember to stay focused, take a less-is-more approach, and start now so that you’re ready when your customers start shopping.

You can discuss even more bundling ideas with the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. You can join our Facebook group with today’s codeword BACKTOSCHOOL 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:

• What is the Back to School season?
  
• Less-is-more bundling
  
• Bundling for virtual learning
  
• Wholesale opportunities for seasonal bundling
  
• Thinking outside the back-to-school box
  
• Bundling for college students
  
• Wholesale vs. retail arbitrage
  
• Utilizing school supply lists
  
• Bundling for high school, elementary, and preschool
  
• Using your expertise to pick a niche
  
  

“Back to school is a plethora of ideas. But you’ve got to narrow it down and decide what is the easiest category for you to serve, based on your own knowledge bank.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“This is why we want to get a jumpstart on it and do it ahead of the season. So that when your customers are looking to buy back-to-school items, they just go to Amazon and find your bundles. They don’t have to go to Walmart or Staples or all these different places, Target and stuff like that that offer all this back-to-school stuff. Instead, they’re just going to Amazon, they’re picking out what they want, and they’re moving on with their lives.”

“People move directly from back to school to Halloween. It’s like the one-two punch. It’s like all of a sudden, we’re back to school, we’re getting into the swing of things, and you turn around a week later, and all of a sudden, it’s Halloween, and we don’t know what happened to September. That’s kind of what happens in the back-to-school situation. So you want to be paying attention to the fact that, yes, this is a shorter season.”

“The reality is you will never know all ten items that your customer needs. You cannot necessarily anticipate that. Unless you’re curating a bundle for a very specific event or purpose, you have to make assumptions, you have to guess.”

“You can have a virtual learning back-to-school bundle that includes some of those things that you might need in those types of environments. If your child was setting up for a virtual school situation, what are the things that they’re going to need at home that will make it easier for them?”

“You can put a five-pack of white polo shirts, size 8-10 for boys or girls or either one, into a bundle, and it will sell. Why? Because there are plenty of moms out there looking for, I just need five of these. We’re going to start off the year with five of them, at least we have one for every day. I don’t do the laundry till Sunday, we always have a backup.”

“All I have to say is ‘laptop accessories.’ And then you can go do a Google search, you can do an Amazon search, you can run it through the framework, and figure it out, what to bundle with what. And these are just ideas of where you can take the first idea and what products you have access to.”

“Transitioning from high school to college is a big transition in life. You don’t realize what you need until you don’t have it. And you don’t realize that you don’t have it because you’ve always had it in your house. And now you’re stuck in a room and like, oh my gosh, I don’t have the things I need. So stocking some of those things, even beyond the back-to-school time period, is super helpful.”

“You hope that you can get them in on time, Amazon checks them in on time, and you can still sell them. That is my nervousness about retail arbitrage bundles and seasonal stuff is timing is everything. If you don’t get them in on time, no one’s gonna buy them.”

“Your opportunity to bring bundles to specific groups of people just starts with thinking. It starts with who do I want to serve and when? And right now, we want to serve back to school people starting in July. So we’re thinking about them today.”

“Don’t even get me started on the ballet dance tights, just, we can’t even go there. I should buy stock in ballet tight companies, you know, because they rip whether they cost $25 or $5. Tights for ballerinas are a pain point. So if someone has a solution to that problem, that would be great.”

“If you just sent some kids off to college, you’re going to have more knowledge in that area of what they needed and didn’t need and listening to their pain points when they come back. You know, they’re coming back to visit for the weekend. And they say, ‘Oh, I wish we had this at school’ or ‘We don’t have this.’ Pay attention. Those are products that solve problems for college kids.”

“There’s so many different realities that we have to come to, we have a million different ideas, and we have to rein it in. And here’s how I’m going to rein it in for you: focus on just a few bundles in a few specific categories. Serve what you know most about, whether that’s clothing or grocery or a specific school or the teachers or whatever it is, just stay really focused.”

“Don’t start thinking when your shoppers are thinking. You have to think before them so that you can get yourself on the shelf, so that when they’re ready to walk in, aka, look up your stuff on Amazon, you already have it ready. So be ready. Stay ready, get ready, so you don’t have to get ready in the moment.”

Related Content:

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

Our topic for today’s episode is very simple but so important: work less, earn more. That sounds like the dream, doesn’t it? But it doesn’t have to be a dream—I made it happen for myself, and you can make it happen too. Just buckle in, absorb my advice, and ask yourself the important questions. The reason this is on my mind right now is a sad one—recently, my bestie’s mom was diagnosed with a rare degenerative brain disease and had only about thirty days before she passed. And it reminded me that time is precious and fleeting, and it’s the only resource we can’t purchase more of, so we have to learn to use it the best way we can. Back when I was poor, in debt, and starting a business, I thought money was the answer to all my problems, and I was willing to give up my time to make sure my business was a success. But when I finally got that pile of money, I was so exhausted by working my tail off to get it that I was too tired to actually spend it. I’d used up my most valuable resource of time, and I realized that while making the money had been so important, I now wanted to buy back my time to use how I wanted to.

So, how do you go about doing that? The first thing I did was start looking at ways I could shave time off my day, either by identifying time-sucks that I could let go of (like making the bed, which I really don’t care about!) or figuring out how to use my time more efficiently. Because if you can shave ten minutes off six things in your day, you’ve given yourself back a whole hour, and it won’t have cost you anything. The next thing was realizing that being an entrepreneur is the best way to buy your own time because you can create systems and processes that speed you up and make you more money in less time (for me, that was transitioning from retail arbitrage, which took up crazy amounts of time, to wholesale bundling, which gives me way more time freedom). And then the most important lesson I’ve learned is that we all have the same amount of time in a week—168 hours. Doesn’t matter who you are, everyone from Jeff Bezos to Elon Musk to you and me gets the same 168 hours, and true freedom is being able to do whatever you want with it. But you get there by making sure you’re using those hours in the best way possible for you. Transitioning from retail arbitrage to wholesale bundling bought me twenty extra hours a week, and I close out this episode by challenging everybody to sit down and really think about what you’d do with some extra time and what you could do to get it.

A great way to spend some of your time is chatting with the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. You can join our Facebook group with today’s codeword #WORKLESS 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 precious resource of time
  
• Money vs. time
  
• Shaving time off your day
  
• Letting go of time sucks
  
• Buying your time back through entrepreneurship
  
• Using systems and processes to save time
  
• Making the best use of your 168 hours
  
• Happiness and time freedom
  
• What would you do with an extra hour a day?
  
  

“You bring value just by showing up, by being yourself, by giving it your all because effort is the difference between making or breaking it.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“Working less hours and making more money sounds like the dream, doesn’t it? But it doesn’t have to be a dream. I used to think that it was a dream until I started making it happen, making it happen for myself. Your story does not end here. You have choices to make that will either keep you where you are or move you forward.”

“Time is precious and fleeting. Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. And once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back.”

“Eventually, I got what I was hoping for, I got what I worked for, I got the pile of money that I was hoping to sit on one day. The reality was, rather than sitting on the pile of money, I was laying on it exhausted because I worked my tail off to get it, and I was too tired to spend it.”

“Now that I have some money, I just realize that money is just a tool and a resource. Something to be used, needs to be used in order to be effective. Decisions need to be made by it. But the biggest reality is there’s some things you can’t buy, even if you have a pile of money.”

“The reality is not necessarily judging your success based on how many hours you work, but how efficiently you work during those hours, and choosing to let go of things that aren’t important.”

“Can I do this better, easier, more efficiently? Why? Because if you do that to six tasks each day, you bought an hour. Now, it didn’t cost you anything. But you figured out how to give yourself an hour of your time.”

“You can have natural talent, you can have money, you can have resources, but effort is what gets you results, the amount of effort you put in. And if you can put that effort in and less time and be very focused and very efficient at all of your processes, you’re buying time for yourself.”

“If you just need money, go get a job. But if you want to buy the only thing you can’t buy, which is your own time, being an entrepreneur is the best way to do that. Because then the money that you earn, you can create systems and processes for yourself that speed that up, give you more money and time, and then you’re good to go.”

“When I realized how much time I was wasting earning this great living, I wanted to start making a transition. I wanted to buy my time back. I was ready to then trade the pile of money for a little bit more peace, and freedom, and things that I really love.”

“Time freedom is truly what makes people wealthy, in my opinion. The richest people in the world are the people who can spend their time however they want to and have the resources to. So time and money is a great combination. But if you have control over how you spend your time, you should be the happiest person in the whole world.”

“168 hours per week. Oprah, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Michelle Obama, Mark Cuban, Barbara Cochran, all of these amazing people, some of the richest people in the world dollar-wise, they all get the same amount. 168.”

“How do you want to spend the most valuable resource that you have? Your time. What makes you the happiest? See? That’s the reality. The happiest people in the world, they live. They live, they don’t work themselves to death.”

“What would you do with your extra twenty hours? Anything you’ve been dreaming of lately? Would you learn something new? Try another hobby, spend more time on the hobbies that you have? Would you clean and purge and organize and do all the undone projects in your house?”

“If you want to be one of the richest people in the world, buy your own time. It’s about working smarter and more efficiently. So take the time.”

Related Content:

• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50
  
• Wholesale Bundle System
  
• Email questions
  
• Learn With Us
  
• Coaching
  
• The Amazon Files Hub
• 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 #WORKLESS 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 week’s episode, we have a special guest returning to the show to talk about enhancing brand content for your listing and why it’s so, so important. Ian Bower is the owner and creator of Graphic Rhythm, a leading design agency for Amazon sellers that helps digital marketers and small businesses create their visual identity and tackle everyday design challenges. They’ve optimized thousands of Amazon listings (including mine!), and the quality of their graphics is super-impressive, plus their new Creatives platform lets you take advantage of their expertise at a lower price. We kick things off with Ian sharing his slightly circuitous career path, from training as a chef to becoming a full-time Amazon seller and ultimately setting up Graphic Rhythm (despite being a self-proclaimed terrible designer!). He then explains why people should care about adding imagery to their Amazon listings, emphasizing the link between great imagery and sales conversions and how consistent, high-quality brand imagery increases customer confidence and trust. He also sets out the four things great imagery can communicate about a product: what’s to love about it, what’s not to hate about it, how it meets expectations, and the answers to customers’ questions.

Next, Ian discusses Amazon’s increasing emphasis on visual content and why it’s now so important to upgrade your imagery to ensure you can take advantage of the opportunities they’re offering. Related to this, I ask Ian how we can increase the visual aspects of our Amazon listings without losing discoverability, and he gives some really useful advice about utilizing alt text with images to maintain searchability. Ian then introduces Graphic Rhythm’s new platform, Creatives, which offers design templates created and curated by the Graphic Rhythm team to make adding professional imagery to your listings easy and affordable. He gives us a detailed demo of Creatives and the features it offers, including a range of template choices and customization so you can put your own mark on your chosen design. And we close out the podcast with a treat for all you listeners, a special founders price when you sign up for Creatives right now.

You can discuss more about A+ brand content in the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. You can join our Facebook group with today’s codeword CREATE 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:

• Ian’s journey from chef, to Amazon seller, to Graphic Rhythm
  
• The value of adding imagery to your listing
  
• The four things you have to communicate to your customers
  
• Using great imagery to create seller credibility
  
• Graphic Rhythm’s collaboration with Amazon Creative Services
  
• Combining visual content with discoverability
  
• Graphic Rhythm’s new platform, Creatives
  
• Creative’s founders offer
  
  

“I like anything that improves efficiency and helps people when it’s not within their wheelhouse. Because in business, we can’t be good at everything, we have to really stay in our zone of genius to do the best at what we’re best at. But other stuff still needs to happen and be done.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“Out of that FBA business really grew the design agency because I saw a need to, you know, help my fellow sellers by getting great conversion-optimized imagery for their listings and their products.”

“The moment we uploaded our enhanced brand content, within a week, people were buying, and then more people were buying. And then we added video, and we saw another 20% increase. So these numbers are, they’re not just, you know, out there. These are my numbers, my own personal case study, if you will, about how this has improved my own listings.”

“What are people asking about all the time? What’s missing? What aren’t they getting? What’s preventing them from buying? So when you answer all those questions, then ideally, you’ve produced a set of images that are going to overcome objections.”

“Listings that look bad, or look off, or look, even, inconsistent, kind of set up red flags when you’re a shopper, you know, and you start to wonder what kind of experience you’re going to have as a buyer. And so keeping your designs consistent is a big part of increasing customer confidence.”

“I’m more likely to be confident in buying a great product when the listing itself has a level of professionalism to it rather than just someone took a couple shoddy pictures of this and slapped up some bullet points, and like, where’s the trust factor in that?”

“The whole internet is going visual. And you could see that with, you know, social media networks like TikTok taking off like crazy and Instagram taking off like crazy. And so, you know, it’s not enough anymore to just have your titles and bullets and description, you have to be visually communicating.”

“The hardest part about design is laying things out appropriately. That is by far the hardest bit. It’s what we worked really hard on making sure designers that come into our company understand.”

“When I say something’s easy, I’m serious about it because I struggle even with Canva, to be honest. I mean, I see people using Canva, and I’m just like, oh my gosh, how do these people know all these tricks, I have to watch, like, five hours of video to make sure I do that.”

“That’s the magic about this. This isn’t a tool to help you create designs, this is a tool where the designs are already done. You are not designing this tool, let us design, you’re just swapping out colors and images.”

“Our big dream for Creatives is to make this more than just for Amazon sellers. You know, we want this to be the last thing that you ever need when it comes to design.”

“When someone says, ‘I got a founder price that you can lock in for life,’ I’m the first one to be like, where’s that signup sheet because things only get better over time.”

Related Content:

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

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 CREATE 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 want to talk to you guys about where you’ll be in six months. Sometimes, six months seems like a long time; sometimes, it feels short. It depends what you’re talking about. But most of us don’t take the time to think about where we’ll be half a year from now—we’re too busy being bombarded by shiny objects and things we should be doing to slow down and think about where we want to be rather than where the world is telling us we should be. This really struck home with me recently because I finally achieved something that I have been working toward for the last six months: I became a cornhole champion. This really became a goal of mine when a friend gave me a very special birthday gift, a totally ridiculous, Flavor Flav-style gold medallion that says “Cornhole Champion.” Now, I absolutely love this thing, but back then, I couldn’t wear it because it wasn’t yet my reality; I wasn’t yet a cornhole champion. But, instead of feeling bad about that, I used it as motivation to work a little bit harder, practice a little more, and keep my focus longer because I knew that title could eventually be mine—and six months later, it was!

So today, I want to encourage you to take a moment to really think about the benefit or reward you’re working toward and contemplate how you might move closer to it in the next six months. During the episode, I talk about the importance of believing that the reward you want is possible and using that belief to complete the steps you need to get there. I also discuss how important it is to put in the effort in order to get the results you want (just like I put in diligent practice and have now not only claimed my Cornhole Champion title but am also selling cornhole products on Amazon) and to prepare yourself to cope with frustration and embarrassment with the knowledge that it will be worth it in the end. I emphasize that part of what makes it worth it is that the process of doing the work, having the discipline, and making the sacrifices shapes us into better, happier, and more confident people with lifelong skills that can’t be taken away. And I talk a lot about cornhole since it’s what inspired this episode in the first place!

You can discuss your goals for the next six months in the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. You can join our Facebook group 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:

• What can you achieve in six months?
  
• Believing your reward is possible
  
• Getting results from doing the work
  
• Using future rewards as motivation
  
• Deciding what reward you want
  
• Building character by going through the process
  
• Facing challenges and overcoming them

 

“What you do right now, today, will have future results. The results are up to you. The results are about the work that you put in today.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“In our fast-paced society these days, we’re constantly bombarded with new shiny objects and things we should be doing, and ‘Look over here, and buy this product, and come to this destination, and watch this conference, and do this business.’ But do we ever slow down enough to think about where we want to be rather than where the world is telling us we should be?”

“Give yourself a minute to think about what benefit or reward or what is it that you’re working towards right now that if you were guaranteed to have that, what would stop you? What would motivate you? What would move you forward to that?”

“Would it motivate you to be like, it’s right there. If I just work a little bit more, if I just do this and that and practice and sacrifice and become disciplined, it’ll be right there. I can describe it. I can almost touch it. I can actually touch it right now.”

“Do you believe that the final reward, that the trophy, that the championship, that the title, that the dollars in the bank with your business, do you believe that it’s possible? Do you believe that that reward is even something that you can claim?”

“The proof is that if you do the work, the results will come. And if you don’t, you will have results. They just won’t be the results that you hoped for.”

“What if today is your half-birthday? And I gave you a gift now, and I said, in six months if you do x, y, z, this will be yours. How much more motivated will you be to walk towards that knowing, hey, it’s already mine, I just have to take these steps and follow this path and continue doing what I’m doing.”

“The six months is gonna go by, what would you attempt if you knew the results were going to come? What would you attempt if you knew you couldn’t fail?”

“What if I put $100,000 in cold, hard cash in a see-through glass box on your desk every day and said, ‘If you take these steps, this will be yours.’ Would that not motivate you to be like, there it is. There’s my reward. That’s what I’ve been working for. That’s what I want. That’s what I need. What do I need to do to get there?”

“Gosh, a lot can happen in six months if you do the work. If you make a decision to go after whatever it is you want, and then despite all of the emotions and the setbacks and everything else, that you keep moving towards it no matter how big or small.”

“You can’t deposit excuses or regrets or list of to-dos that were never done. You can deposit what you earn. And we earn by doing the work. The passion and the motivation surrounding the benefit that you intend to gain from your pursuits drives us to do the work.”

“We’re all chasing something, just so you know. In case you hadn’t noticed. Maybe it’s peace. Maybe it’s money, maybe it’s security, maybe it is… I don’t know what it is for you. But you have to decide what you want and do the work.”

“Today is when we get the results. We don’t just all of a sudden wake up in Q4 and have a bunch of profit on the table. We gotta do the work now.”

“You have to have some discipline, you also have to have fun. You have to enjoy it. Because what’s it worth if you worked so hard and spent all of your time, money, and energy, and you got this reward, and you’re like, oh, that wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t what I wanted.”

“You have to overcome obstacles, you have to face fear, and rejection, and maybe embarrassment, and maybe a little heckling and people not believing in you. But the process is what shapes us into better people.”

“My reward wasn’t some plastic, useless trophy. It was lifelong skills that I learned along the way that can never be taken away from me. That’s what you’re after. That’s the true reward. The true trophy, I guess, is the character that you build in yourself while working towards something that you desire and want.”

“You don’t need permission. All you need is a belief that it’s possible for you and enough determination every day to do the work. Because no matter when you get the result, it means so much more. Not because of the item, because of the fame, because of the arrival but because of who you had to become in order to face those challenges and overcome them.”

Related Content:

• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50
  
• 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! 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 week’s episode, I’m joined by an amazing special guest, Anita Mar, to answer all your questions about trademarks and Amazon. Anita is an attorney and founder of Trademark Angel, a registration agency that provides online solutions to help you with all your trademark needs. She’s been in the trademark industry since 1999, working with various law firms, but struck out on her own in 2017 after noticing potential clients asking about the brand registry requirements just introduced by Amazon.

To kick things off, Anita gives us a rundown of the benefits of Amazon’s brand registry and why she thinks it’s essential for anyone wanting to sell successfully on Amazon. She also explains how being brand registered and putting your trademark on your packaging gives you better protection against hijackers, both in putting them off in the first place and getting Amazon’s help if your listing does get hijacked. I then ask Anita about how trademarking works with bundles containing multiple brands, and she explains that what you’re trademarking isn’t the products themselves but the service you provide in putting them together in your bundle. She also runs us through some examples of trademark violations sellers might fall foul of and discusses the potential pitfalls of attempting to file trademarks yourself instead of going through an attorney or a service like Trademark Angel. We then get into specifics about trademarks, Anita explaining the difference between word marks, design marks, and combined marks, the benefits of each, and Amazon’s rule that your trademark must have some text in it to be accepted in their brand registry. She follows that up with advice on what to consider when choosing a trademark, including things to avoid (like descriptive marks), what makes for a good trademark, and the importance of a trademark search to ensure nobody’s got there before you. And finally, Anita discusses whether sellers should register for multiple classes when filing trademarks and gives us details of how to contact her and Trademark Angel for more information and assistance with questions like these.

You can find more information and ask more questions about trademarks in the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. You can join our Facebook group with today’s codeword TRADEMARKS 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:

• Anita’s journey into trademarking
  
• The benefits of brand registry
  
• Dealing with hijackers
  
• Trademarking multiple-brand bundle
  
• Examples of trademark violations
  
• The pitfalls of filing trademarks yourself
  
• Word marks, design marks, and combined marks
  
• What to consider when choosing a trademar
  
• What makes a good trademark
  
• What to avoid when choosing a trademark
  
• Should you register for different trademark classes?
  
  

“Everybody is always trying to cut corners both with time and money and efforts. But the reality is, if you do the hard work upfront and just comply, then you will have the reward of a good, registered trademark when it comes to the end.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“To be able to have a brand gives you so much protection and so much more resources to be able to use, in the brand registry, brand-enhanced content, putting on videos, putting up even a whole entire storefront dedicated to your brand. It’s a really, really important step to take.”

“When I click the brand, and I see some random results, I know the seller doesn’t have brand registry, so it’s quite obvious. But when I click on the brand, and I see their own store, and I like what I see, I may buy two or three things.”

“To remove hijackers, you need to have a registered trademark. So most people don’t really realize this—there is a difference between being in the brand registry and being able to remove hijackers. So just because you’re in the brand registry doesn’t mean you can remove hijackers.”

“We know that Amazon encourages as many sellers as possible. So that’s why, I mean, to be able to succeed in removing the hijackers, it’s important to have a registered trademark. And it’s important to put the trademark name on the product and/or on the packaging. I mean, don’t skip that step.”

“Your trademark is what appears on the package or on the product. So that’s your trademark, your trademark is not the actual products themselves. Anyone can sell what’s inside the basket.”

“The bottom line here is using your custom packaging with your trademark name on it is extremely important to report violations.”

“When they fill out this product that they know they’re going to sell, and they just include that particular product, but then they start selling another product that is not listed in their trademark application, that’s a fatal error because you can’t really add products after the filing.”

“It’s always better to file a word mark, so just standard characters without any logo, because it gives you, like, broader protection, and it gives you more flexibility.”

“I can’t say ‘Best Tire Company’ because that’s descriptive. But then you can say, ‘Banana Tires,’ and all of a sudden, I have a very unique and distinctive brand that not only you can use, so fun marketing, but you can also set yourself apart because it is unique and different that people remember it.”

“When you just begin selling, or you start a small business, sometimes you don’t think about the unique trademark. And sometimes that causes a problem because somebody may start using a similar name, and you can’t stop them because it’s simply generic. So that’s why it’s really important to pick a name that’s unique.”

“The short answer is you should register as many classes as the budget allows, but the answer is one class is enough to get you in the brand registry, to give you minimal protection, to protect your name.”

“It’s easier to register a trademark in a single class. I mean, for some reason, the trademarks office seems to like trademark applications in a single class. It’s quicker, it’s cheaper, it will still get you in the brand registry, it will give you protection. And then, as you grow, you can always file a second trademark.”

“If you’re going to register your trademark name, always get the domain name. It doesn’t matter if it’s XYZ Gift Company, whatever, go buy the dot com.”

Related Content:

• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50
  
• Wholesale Bundle System
  
• Email questions
  
• Learn With Us
  
• Coaching
  
• The Amazon Files Hub
  
• Trademark Angel @ Mommy Income
  
• Trademark Angel Homepage
  
  

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 TRADEMARKS 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 today’s episode of The Amazon Files, we are going to have an honest, vulnerable conversation about the truth of what’s happening out in the Amazon world. Because honestly, I’m feeling sad and disappointed and a little bit frustrated, and it feels like there are some things I need to address when it comes to swimming around in that world. I recently had an email from someone who took a course with a so-called guru guaranteeing that they would be generating thousands in sales of their own private-label item by the end of the course. This person wound up spending $12,000 on a product that’s just sitting in an Amazon warehouse, mostly unsold, and more than another $8,000 on other costs. And they wrote to me at their wit’s end, asking for some light at the end of this tunnel they’re stuck in.

This person isn’t alone—I hear from so many people who have been burned by fake gurus promising instant, spectacular success that they can’t (and probably don’t intend to) deliver on. As a teacher of Amazon courses, and a teacher in general, this breaks my heart. So my first piece of advice today is when you come across someone whose promises seem too good to be true, do your due diligence. Everybody leaves a digital footprint these days, so do a little searching online and see if their presence matches the story they’re selling you before buying into their teaching. And my second piece of advice is that you need to understand that selling on Amazon can be hard and that it’s going to take several years for you to build a business that’s comfortable and sustainable. Nothing worth building comes quick and easy, and nobody with integrity will try to convince you it does, so steer clear of people promising get-rich-quick Amazon schemes. That said, there are courses and teachers out there (me included!) who do want to give you support and guidance; you just have to make sure that their approach aligns with your ultimate goals. So my third piece of advice this week is to spend time figuring out what your goal is, what’s the thing that you’re willing to put time and effort into, and then be persistent and consistent in pursuing it. There are lots of distractions on the way to your destination—including webinars and gurus—and every one is designed to keep you off the path you’re on and stop you doing the work to get where you want to be. It’s impossible to avoid them all, life is gonna get in your way, but if you know what you want and never give up, you will reach your goals, and it will be worth the work. And, if you’re really struggling to figure it out, take my fourth piece of advice and get in touch with me for some help and guidance in finding the right path for you. Just be careful what you wish for—I will ask the hard questions because I actually care. Which brings me to my last piece of advice for this episode: be curious and ask questions, especially of yourself. Get in touch with your inner four-year-old and ask those hard “Why?” questions to get to the bottom of what you really want and what the best path is to achieve it.

A great place to find a sense of community and belonging is the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. You can join our Facebook group with today’s codeword [CODEWORD] 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:

• False gurus and bully marketing
  
• The real keys to success
  
• Figuring out your ultimate goal
  
• Detours from your destination
  
• Hard work is the road to success
  
• The importance of being persistent and consistent
  
• Knowing what is worth your time and effort
  
• Being curious and asking questions
  
  

“The truth is no one’s going to tell you that this is hard. No one’s going to tell you that business is hard. No one’s gonna tell you that it takes several years to build something comfortable and sustainable. No one’s going to tell you that you’re not going to spend a lot of time or money upfront learning and practicing, you know why? Because that stuff doesn’t sell, right?”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“I would love to say that I’m excited about today’s topic. But unfortunately, I’m sad and disappointed and a little bit frustrated. And so there’s… just feels like some necessary things I need to address when it comes to swimming around in the Amazon world right now. And I want to be upfront and honest with you like I am all the time.”

“The reality is, people want to tell you all about the results and the benefits and the transformations and all this stuff, which all can be very real. But there’s also people out there that are just trying to make a dollar. And they will literally tell you anything, truth or not, just to make a dollar.”

“Some are blowing smoke, a lot of people are blowing smoke. As a teacher of Amazon courses, as a teacher in general, as someone who desires to see people succeed, it really breaks my heart.”

“I’m not asking you to be Debbie Downer or be always skeptical of every single thing. But just literally in five minutes, I realized that the people that were giving me this presentation and wanting me to spend thousands of dollars on their course that was going to make me millions, a quick five-minute Facebook search, and YouTube search, and Instagram search showed me that this is not the truth of these people’s lives.”

“I know, you guys, I’m not for everybody. I got an email from a lady that she told me she loves my training and my teaching, but she hates my high-pitched voice. And could I make transcripts, so she doesn’t have to hear me talk? That’s literally, these are emails that I get.”

“I started as a stay-at-home mom with a hundred dollars with some thrifted books to sell on Amazon. That’s not a sexy start. After even after grossing a million dollars a year for over five years, I still don’t have a Benz in the driveway of my mansion.”

“Despite what you might think, I’m actually not here to sell you courses. My life’s purpose is really to lead people to success.”

“I like to see people reach their potential and to change their own lives and be proud of their accomplishments and move forward and have a happy, peaceful life that they deserve. And that’s gonna come with some education and learning and planning and coaching and mentorship and leadership. I’m here to guide you, if you want your life to change.”

“Just a couple of keys is persistence and consistency. But the biggest, most important thing is you have to know what you want. What is your ultimate goal here? In anything? We’re talking about business, yes, especially specifically on Amazon. The real truth about selling online and ecommerce, you have to figure out what you want most, your ultimate end goal.”

“Maybe working at Starbucks gives you peace and comfort and not as much responsibility, and you just go in and do your job and punch out and come home. And that is worth it to you. Then if that’s what you really want, what is the ultimate goal? Figure out what you want most, and be consistent and persistent in pursuing it.”

“The important thing to grasp here is that most of the distractions are designed to keep you off the path that you’re on. They’re keeping you from doing the necessary work to arrive at your intended destination.”

“I don’t care if you sell on Amazon or not. I don’t care if you decide that ecommerce isn’t for you. I care about you, as a person, as a business owner, as a friend, with or without Amazon. When I started Mommy Income nearly eight years ago, it was to help people succeed. Your success is my success.”

“Life will get in the way. But don’t miss this part. If you can define where you want to go, and you consistently and persistently keep on that journey, you will arrive.”

“The big fancy cars, the mansions, the huge numbers, the ‘Make twenty grand your first month!’ sounds more appealing than hard work and setbacks and consistency, doesn’t it? But if you see anyone, anyone who has success at anything, that’s exactly how they got there. They worked really hard.”

“Any successful person that you see, they never gave up. They had bad days, they wanted to quit many times. They had hard days, they had long hours and failed products. They started and stopped many times. But in the end, they kept moving forward to what they wanted.”

“The real truth about selling on Amazon doesn’t have anything to do with Amazon. It doesn’t have anything to do with software programs that you use, or PPC campaigns, or even the product that you’re trying to sell. The real truth is, are you consistent and persistent at pursuing what you want?”

“Now I run my business a couple days a week with a generous six-figure salary. But I didn’t start that way. I was willing to work eighty hours a week in the beginning so that I could work two days ten years from that.”

“No matter who you listen to, no matter what information you consume, it won’t work unless you do. It won’t work unless you take action.”

“Not everything is for everyone. You’ve tried things for a while, you give it your all and realize, like, I just don’t like this, I don’t enjoy it, or it’s sucking the life out of me. And there are certain things, strategies, and purposes, and plans we can put in place, some processes to lighten the load because that might be the problem. But the real problem might be I just don’t like this.”

“In order to get closer to where you want to go, there’s all kinds of work that’s going to need to be done. And it doesn’t work unless you take the action and do the work, and you will be so thankful, and it will be so worth it for you if you actually do that. So be willing to ask yourself and answer the hard questions. The ‘why?’ questions.”

“Figure out what is going to be the best path - not the easiest or fastest path - the best path, the most enjoyable path for me to get from where I am right now to that ‘In a perfect world,’ to that ultimate goal, to that ultimate feeling or destination of desire.”

Related Content:

• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50
  
• 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 [CODEWORD] 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, we’re going to dive into work-from-home success strategies, Amazon FBA style. This is not your typical WFH advice; this is the entrepreneur’s guide on how to be more successful when working from home. Because let’s be honest, there are a lot of distractions at home, a lot of things that get in the way of productivity, and with no boss to keep us in line, it can be really hard to stay on track. But I’m here with a whole bunch of strategies that can help you reduce stress and work effectively and efficiently as a home-based entrepreneur. My first strategy is to set a routine and an intention for your workdays—have set working hours and act like you’re going to the office by getting dressed (down to your shoes) every single day. This will help you differentiate between “work mode” and “home mode” and get you in the right mindset to be productive. Then, follow my second tip and structure your day, so you know exactly what you’re doing, including building in breaks to make sure you’re recharged and re-energized throughout the day.

My third strategy is to create a dedicated workspace that makes you feel inspired, motivated, and productive. That means that if, like me, your office tends to be a dumping zone for things that don’t have a home, you need to get rid of the clutter and put boundaries around your space to make sure you’re not distracted. Strategy number four, meanwhile, actually involves getting out of the house and finding somewhere different to work, even just for a few hours a week. A change in environment, whether that’s your public library or your local Starbucks, can be just what you need to find new inspiration and motivation and creative ideas that you might not have just looking at the same four walls over and over. Then my next tip is to limit your communications while working, the most obvious method of which is to make it harder for yourself to use social media. But this can also extend to limiting your availability to your friends and family, making it clear that you’re not available when you’re at work unless it’s a genuine emergency. And speaking of boundaries, strategy number six is to find your productive zone—the time (or times) of day when you’re most productive and your performance is highest—and then protect that time like a mother bear with her cubs. And if you need help to structure your life around those rockstar hours, ask for it, and make sure you can use that time properly. And my final strategy is maybe the most important one: find your community. Working from home can be incredibly isolating and lonely, so it’s vital to find people who really understand what you’re going through and can offer support and understanding through the highs and the lows of Amazon entrepreneurship.

A great place to find a sense of community and belonging is the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community. You can join our Facebook group with today’s codeword ISOLATION 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:

• Isolation as an Amazon entrepreneur
  
• Strategy #1: Set a routine and set an intention
  
• Strategy #2: Structure your day, including breaks
  
• Strategy #3: Create a dedicated workspace
  
• Strategy #4: Change your environment
  
• Strategy #5: Limit your communications
  
• Strategy #6: Find your productive zone
  
• Strategy #7: Find your community
  
  

“When you feel truly understood, there’s so much inspiration and motivation that comes from that, knowing that, hey, if these people can do it, if this person can do it, if these people can get over these obstacles and solve these problems and get through it, so can I.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“If you’re always running around like your hair’s on fire, like a chicken with the head cut off kind of thing, then there’s some things that today’s episode would really help you do even if you just narrow in on one of them.”

“When we have people that understand us, when we have people that can relate and can kind of laugh through some of the struggles together and also help each other with that, that is such a different sense of motivation and inspiration to keep moving when you know you’re not alone in this journey.”

“Y’all know I’m going to tell you the truth. I’m going to be honest, I’m going to be upfront, I’m going to be vulnerable, I’m going to be transparent. I never have nor ever will tell you that this entrepreneurship journey is the easy road. Because it’s really not. It’s not the easy road. There is no easy road.”

“Structuring your day as if you’re going to a nine-to-five kind of job will really help you to set intentions and know exactly what you’re doing. Being intentional about planning your tasks and other things throughout your day to structure your day really will help you flow through the day rather than being flexible and willy nilly.”

“If you set yourself up ahead of time to create that kind of environment that allows you to be very creative in certain moments, then you’re already pre-planning your success.”

“Making a plan based on those schedules and then setting reminders and tasks is something that has really helped me to be, I would say, a hundred percent more productive, probably, in the last two years because I have had to be more disciplined about my time, about my distractions, about my getting things done,”

“I want you to visualize right now, instantly, with no judgments, what your current workspace looks like. What does it look like? Is it a work environment that you absolutely love going into, and it’s like, oh my gosh, this makes me feel inspired and motivated and productive, and I can’t wait to get into it? Or is it a hot mess?”

“Having a calm, comfortable, ready-to-work space is really important. Because what we don’t realize is that this visual clutter around us, if you have visual clutter anywhere, also hinders our productivity,”

“This needs to be part of our happy place, not the stressful place that we’re trying to avoid. Because if that’s how you feel when you walk into your office or your dedicated workspace, wherever you have it, then that’s a problem. Because you’re going to come into your work with that mindset.”

“Working from home doesn’t mean you have to work from home, you can work remotely. And if you’re inspired or motivated, or just feeling like that, or even if you don’t know if you are, try it out, go to a different place.”

“Don’t underestimate the power of changing your environment, even temporarily, to re-inspire you to continue moving in the direction that you’re moving.”

“Nothing on Facebook, nothing on Instagram, nothing on Snapchat or TikTok or YouTube, or any other thing is urgent. It’s not urgent. If it’s there now, it will be there in three hours or five hours or at the end of your workday.”

“When you have your rockstar hours, you need to protect that time like it is, you know, you’re the mama bear protecting its cubs.”

“You’re the team. You’re the boss, you’re the janitor, and the CEO. So you have to self-regulate.”

“Community is everything. We need answers, we need support, we need help, we need a place to vent, we need a place where we know we can come and, like, this person understands the struggle that I’m going through, or this person understands the challenges that I’m facing in my business every single day.”

“Nobody else on the planet understands that first sale on Amazon happy dance that you do when you’ve created a bundle, and you’ve put all the work in to put it out on Amazon, and then someone buys it. Like, your friends, they don’t understand that. They don’t understand that kind of joy. They don’t understand how hard you’ve worked in order to get that there.”

Related Content:

• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50
  
• 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 ISOLATION 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.

A little while ago, I asked you guys to submit your top questions regarding bundling, and on this week’s episode, I’m answering the ten most commonly asked of them. First up, a lot of you want to know how to start bundling when you already have wholesale accounts, and I advise that the very first thing you want to do, whether you have accounts or not, is your research. Open up your catalogs and get familiar with what’s out there, what’s available, and what products are bundleable (because not all of them are). Next, you asked about GTIN exemptions (aka UPC codes/ISBN numbers/EANs), and I explain that you don’t need a GTIN for custom bundles, so long as you’re not using branded products, and why that means you should steer clear of major brands. Our third question is on how to handle branded packaging, which I recommend having, both to meet Amazon’s standards and so that your items arrive safely with your customer. I also have some tips on how to create affordable packaging. Then you wanted to know about whether it’s possible to be successful in a niche you’re passionate about—it is, in fact, it’s much easier to be successful in an area you’re familiar with—and if it’s a good idea to order from separate vendors—yes, I recommend never relying on just one vendor for an entire bundle.

Question number six asked how much money it takes to create bundles, and my answer is that it varies—you can put together a five-dollar bundle from the Dollar Store or spend a thousand bucks at a high-end store—and what you really have to spend is time, not money. You also wanted to know what kind of ROI someone new to bundling should be looking for, to which I always respond, go for at least 100% of what you’re selling and use the rule of three to figure out your costs and profit. Next, some people wanted to know how many bundles are sufficient for an initial test run, and I advise starting with at least six, but preferably ten or twelve to make sure Amazon doesn’t mark you as having low stock. And then we have a great question about how customers find your bundles on Amazon, so I explain the various ways customers discover your products and how carefully naming your bundle can improve its search visibility. And the tenth and final question is about whether making up your own bundles is the only way to be successful. To which I say no, it’s not the only way, but it is the best way because—if you do it properly like I teach with the wholesale bundle system—you can eliminate your competition by carving out your own little piece of the marketplace that no one else can occupy.

You can chat more with the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community by joining our Facebook group with today’s codeword QUESTIONS, where you can 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:

• Wholesale bundles 3.0
  
• How to start bundling when you already have wholesale accounts
  
• GTIN exemptions
  
• How to package bundles when branding is required
  
• Can you be successful in a niche you’re passionate about?
  
• Using multiple separate vendors for bundles
  
• How much money does it take to create bundles?
  
• Kristin’s suggested ROI for those new to bundling
  
• How many bundles are necessary for an initial test run?
  
• How do customers find your bundle?
  
• Is making up your own bundles the only way to be successful?
  
  

“We need clarity to move forward. We need to be able to know that what we’re doing is right, what we’re doing is correct, that we’re on the right track, and that we’re moving in the right direction.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“First and foremost, there’s a step before having wholesale accounts. You could have a thousand wholesale accounts, but that doesn’t matter if you don’t do the work to do the research.”

“The best way to create a bundle is to solve a problem or meet a need for the customer. That means you have to know the customer, and you have to know what their problems are and what their needs are, and how you can meet them with product. The best way to do that is to look for categories of products or niches or subject matter that you are familiar with.”

“It’s not your typical widget selling, look at the numbers, decide it’s going to sell or not sell at a certain volume and then move on. It takes a lot more thinking ahead of time to create bundles, but once you do, there’s no competition. They’re second to none.”

“Amazon gives you reasons why you can get a GTIN exemption, and one of the number one reasons you can get a GTIN exemption is if it’s a custom bundle, which is what you guys are creating.”

“You’re not going to go to KitchenAid and say, ‘Hey, can you give me a UPC code to use so I can bundle your stuff together on Amazon?’ They’ll literally laugh at you.”

“Steering clear of these major brands that have restrictions like that are going to be your best bet. And never, and I mean never, never try to put something in a bundle that’s on a restricted list. They will eventually find it, and they will eventually kick you off, so do not do that.”

“You can’t just put a sticker on a box and call it your box. Amazon wants you to have as close as possible to retail packaging as you can get.”

“I actually recommend you use multiple and separate vendors for your items. Why? Because sometimes, one vendor doesn’t carry all the products that you want to have in your bundle. Number two, it’s harder for your competition to try to copy all of the things.”

“Overexplaining is better than undoing a problem that could be very costly if it’s made.”

“You can even start wholesale for less than $300 with no minimum orders, like, by tomorrow. People have these ideas that this has to be super expensive and costly. And is it time-consuming in the beginning? Absolutely. Yes. I’m not gonna lie and tell you it’s not time-consuming. But everything in business is time-consuming.”

“Pick how you want to spend your time because you’re going to spend time. So if you’d rather do it in your PJs, with your laptop in front of your favorite movie while you’re looking for wholesale suppliers, or you’d rather, you know, put on your boots and go outside and go from store to store to try to get retail arbitrage bundles, the choice is yours. But you’re still going to spend time, it’s just how you want to spend that time.”

“I would suggest with a whole-case pack of something trying out like twelve or so. Why? Because Amazon wants you to have some stock, they consider anything less than that like low stock.”

“Calling your bundle something is really, really important because that’s how people are going to be looking it up. And the way you find those items is finding what those keywords are and what the potential customer would type that in. I use MerchantWords to look at what are the top searches, keyword phrases for those attributes, all those types of things.”

“You can be successful by looking at other people’s products and listing under their products. But creating your own means that you’re carving out your little piece of the marketplace that nobody else can copy, that no one else can make, that nobody else can go that way because you did all the work.”

“Is making up your own bundles the best way to be successful? Yes. Can you be successful other ways? Absolutely. But that is the way to where you’re not worrying. I don’t have to go in and change my prices on my bundles, like ever. Because I set the price because I’m the only one selling that item, that bundle, so I don’t have to mess with price. I don’t have to worry about that kind of stuff.”

“I buy items and work with vendors that do not care what I do with the products after that. So whether I bundle them or I list them on Amazon, or I sell them in eight-packs or two-packs or nothing, they don’t care. They make their money by doing business with me wholesale. And they say whatever you do with our products after this, we don’t care.”

“Walmart plays a volume game, they sell stuff dirt cheap, and they make a couple pennies on everything. But they sell millions of products to millions of people every single day. As bundlers, we build our profit in our margin rather than on the volume. So I want to make at least ten dollars per bundle that I’m selling. Otherwise, it doesn’t feel like it’s worth it.”

Related Content:

• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50
  
• Wholesale Bundle System
  
• Email questions
  
• Learn With Us
  
• Coaching
  
• The Amazon Files Hub
  
• Sticker Mule – $10 off with this link

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 QUESTIONS 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 private label expert Ashley Kinkead, the mastermind behind thousands of third-party products sold on Amazon today. Ashley has inspired thousands of people and entrepreneurs around the world with her skills and strategies to thrive online from the ground up. Her primary business is training people like you and me in how to launch and scale winning businesses on Amazon FBA with her new product launch system, the Three By Two Method, which she shares on the episode today. Ashley kicks things off by discussing her e-commerce journey, from building up a $500,000 retail arbitrage business selling used books to becoming a private label seller and what that transition was like. Then she introduces the Three By Two Method, her system for testing and gathering data on what really sells on Amazon and diversifying your risk. She also discusses how much you should expect to invest when starting up as a private seller and emphasizes the importance of product research to find items with daily sales consistency.

Next, I ask Ashley about using multiple brands as a private label seller. She discusses her strategy of using two brands with multiple SKUs and variations underneath each one and how that gives her room to grow and respond to customer feedback. Then we discuss the potential risks you may encounter and mistakes you might make when starting out in private labeling and how to avoid them; plus, Ashley points out how well-prepared wholesale sellers are to make the leap into private-label selling. Ashley also tackles the controversial issue of pay-per-click (PPC), giving her opinion that it’s an essential part of running an Amazon business in 2022 and a hugely useful tool for getting your product seen and making the most of the data Amazon provides you with. And finally, we make the amazing announcement that Ashley will be doing a training session for our hub members and let you guys know where you can join up to be part of that.

You can chat more with the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community by joining our Facebook group with today’s codeword PLM, where you can 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:

• Wholesale Bundles 3.0
  
• Ashley’s e-commerce journey
  
• The Three By Two Method
  
• Private label investment
  
• Product research
  
• Multiple brands
  
• Using customer feedback as research
  
• Mitigating risk when expanding into private label
  
• Avoiding private label mistakes
  
• PPC strategies

“We can all succeed, and we can all make tons of money. But we need to understand and have realistic expectations when we’re walking into it so that we aren’t disappointed or give up too soon when things aren’t working out.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“I was living paycheck to paycheck and really struggling. And so, I started looking up ways to make money online. And I’m so grateful that the very first thing that I did was starting to sell on Amazon. So my first ever business was an Amazon business on Amazon FBA.”

“I started off selling used books. And I went from one book to an entire box of books. Then I realized, wow, I can get boxes and boxes of books. So I went out and just continued sourcing and sourcing as many books as I could find. And I really grew a $500,000 used books business in the next year.”

“It took about three years from the time I first started selling on Amazon to where I jumped in and did a private label.”

“Now that I know what I know now, I would never go back to arbitrage. Although I had so much fun doing that, and it was profitable, but it wasn’t scalable.”

“The thing about arbitrage is that, like you said, and same thing for me, I felt like I was building myself a prison. I’m like, I’m working sixty to eighty hours a week, packing, shipping, prepping over and over. And I’m like, this isn’t what I signed up for.”

“It’s really simple stuff, launching three products at a time, testing them for about thirty days, picking the winners, and then moving forward with two out of the three best products after a thirty-day testing period.”

“So many people I talk to are kind of scared of private label, especially people who do arbitrage or wholesale, like coming to private labels like, ‘Ah, I don’t want to be in one product, it’s really scary to put all my money in one basket.’ If you do the three-by-two method, it allows you to kind of diversify your risk.”

“The biggest thing is just product research, I think, Kristin. People get stuck on, and they can just spend months thinking about what is the perfect product. I think just moving quickly, I’d like to research product for about seven days. You know, before I decide to sell it on Amazon.”

“Wholesale bundles are very similar to private label. You’re literally curating something from the bottom up, you just don’t have to manufacture all the parts and pieces that are in it.”

“That’s what’s so great with private label, you can just add more colors, if you decide you want to launch a different size, you can take your customer feedback into opinion, into insight for your business and be able to make new products out of them.”

“Wholesale sellers are so smart about, like, product ideas and keywords and, like, niches. They’ve got that mindset of a private label seller, they just haven’t stepped into it yet. So I think you can bring your knowledge that you’ve got from wholesale as far as, like, what are good keywords, bundles, that’s an amazing segue to private labeling.”

“You have to understand, as an entrepreneur, not all of your products are going to work out. You know, I have seven really good private label products on Amazon now, but I’ve had hundreds of products over the years that weren’t as good or as great as the ones I have now. So, just being flexible and nimble and adjustable.”

“At some point, we’re going to want to exit, and when we exit, we want to have assets in place. Trademarks are assets.”

“Yes, it costs a little bit of money. And yes, it costs a little bit of time. But guess what, those two things in combination will eventually pay dividends when you do things upfront and right the first time.”

“Pay-per-click is really important. In 2022, about 50% of our sales for private label products are coming from pay-per-click. So it’s really important that you have a pay-per-click campaign.”

“We see PPC as a way to gather data, to get some really interesting keywords that we can then use to go in and optimize our listings. And it allows us to really just find those winning products pretty quickly. So that’s the best way to basically pay for data that we’re getting from Amazon.”

“I always joke with people, you’re not an iPhone, you’re not going to instantly have people pre-ordering, lining up out of your door. You’re going to have to have an amazing listing, great product, and maybe a few dollars or a few hundred dollars in PPC to kind of kickstart your new product.”

“The more we learn, the more we earn. That’s just how it works.”

Related Content:

• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50
  
• Wholesale Bundle System
  
• Email questions
  
• Learn With Us
  
• Coaching
  
• The Amazon Files Hub
  
• $100 off the Wholesale Bundle System - Coupon code: 100NOW
  
• Ashley on Facebook
  
• Amazon FBA Breakthrough (Ashley’s Facebook Group)
  

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 PLM 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 know that a lot of you out there are still doing retail arbitrage (even though I’d love for you to get into wholesale bundling, which is more sustainable, less risky, and will put more money in your pocket!), so on today’s episode, I’m talking about some of the common mistakes people make in retail arbitrage and how to avoid them. First up, mistake number one is that a lot of people focus way too much on the Amazon Best Sellers Rank (BSR), using it as their only point of data for making buying decisions when they should also be looking at things like the length of product history and the price history. Mistake number two, meanwhile, is an overreliance on Be On the Lookout (BOLO) lists. People waste a lot of time, money, and energy searching for these items without ever finding them, just because they don’t want to do the work. BOLO lists are fine as a jumping-off point, but you’re better off putting in the effort and creating your own process and system that works for you. And mistake number three is buying top-branded, highly ‘counterfeitable’ items, which can get you into trouble if you’re asked for proof of authenticity and can’t provide it.

Mistakes four and five kind of go together: being overly picky and not having a plan. Instead of ping-ponging around a store and cherry-picking items, go with a plan of choosing a specific section and scanning everything there. That way, you’re learning about your market, and by being systematic and organized, you’ll become more efficient and more skilled at knowing the products that’ll sell well. Next, mistake number six is not looking for replenishable items and avoiding seasonal items. Some of these come with added responsibility, especially consumables, but they’re also low-hanging fruit and can be real moneymakers, so think about bringing them to the table when you have the opportunity. And finally, mistake number seven is actually the number one mistake to avoid: not diversifying your business models. By which I mean, if you’re doing retail arbitrage, try diversifying into a little bit of wholesale or private label or something else and give yourself the chance to grow and adapt and get to the next level.

You can chat more with the Amazon Files and Mommy Income community by joining our Facebook group with today’s codeword RAMISTAKES, where you can 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:

• Retail arbitrage vs. wholesale bundles
• Common retail arbitrage mistakes
• Mistake #1: focusing too much on the sales rank
• Mistake #2: relying on BOLO lists
• Mistake #3: buying top-branded, highly ‘counterfeitable’ items
• Mistake #4: being overly picky
• Mistake #5: not having a plan when you do arbitrage
• Mistake #6: not looking for replenishable items
• Mistake #7: not diversifying your business models
  

“You are smart, you are intelligent, you’ve come this far already, you know how to find products. So go do the work and stop trying to have shortcuts all the time. Sometimes there is no shortcut, you just do the work.”

- Kristin Ostrander

Quotes:

“I am not a hater of retail arbitrage or online arbitrage. As a matter of fact, it’s a really great place to get started and kind of get your feet wet without spending a lot of money on Amazon. But all work-from-home business models come with their share of pitfalls. And, as an Amazon business, this is no different.”

“Reality is, I don’t really want you doing retail arbitrage. I would love you to do something that’s more sustainable, less risky, and puts more money in your pocket for a lot less work.”

“I don’t just preach about retail arbitrage being kind of a second-hand type of way for no reason. It’s because I really want you guys to not only build and grow a legitimate business, but then when you’re done with it, or you’re sick of it, or you’re just tired, or some life happens, and you decide to go in a different direction, you have something to sell.”

“I know some of you are still doing retail arbitrage, and you’re not into wholesale bundling yet, and that’s okay because you got to just bloom where you’re planted, and that’s where you’re planted right now.”

“I know that time is money, and people want to do things fast, fast, fast. But you know what happens when you do things fast? Mistakes. Retail arbitrage mistakes. Mistakes happen when you’re doing it too fast.”

“If you’re just going in trying to find all the diamonds in the rough, mining takes a long time. But if you already know how to find them based on scanning and putting stuff in your cart, based on your guidelines and data points, then you don’t need a BOLO list.”

“If you do not know how to identify a counterfeit purse even if you’re buying it from TJ Maxx, leave it behind. It’s not worth your account.”

“Avoid those really high, expensive brands because otherwise the burden of proof is going to be impossible, and you’re going to get strikes on your account, and you don’t want that.”

“Keep your notes. What did you find? What didn’t you find? What were you looking for? Be deliberate and focused. That’s really what you need to do. You have to have a plan.”

“Make sure before you start throwing in the excuses, that you had a system, a process, and a plan. And even if you came out empty-handed, then at least you knew you did your best.”

“Don’t make that mistake, don’t be that guy or girl that walks in and doesn’t have a plan and sort of just randomly, you know, it’s like shooting a basketball blindfolded. It’s like, you might have the skills to throw a great free throw. But if you’re not standing at the line with your eyes open, you’re just aiming at the wind.”

“A lot of times, people will steer away from seasonal. They’re like, I just want evergreen items, I don’t want to worry about seasonal, but there’s big money in seasonal stuff.”

“Most of you guys could probably have, you could have wholesale catalogs in your hands by the end of today. It’s not complicated to start wholesale. If you have a reseller certificate, you could literally get wholesale catalogs by the end of today.”

“I’m always telling you guys about 80/20. Meaning, do what is working really well for you eighty percent of the time, and you have to incorporate ‘new’ into twenty percent of the time. So if you’re spending ten hours a week on your Amazon business, spend eight of those hours on your retail arbitrage and two hours of that on something new and different.”

“What got you here won’t get you to the next step. You’re going to have to learn and change and grow and adapt in order to get to that next level. The next-level stuff starts now.”

“I’ve come from there to where I’m at now, and I’m just trying to bring you guys along with me because I’ve been there and done that and know that retail arbitrage is great for a time. But it’s time to grow up. And to get into regular wholesale at least, and then start bundling because that’s where really the money is.”

Related Content:

• 50% off the Wholesale Bundle System for 3 days only! - Coupon code: HALFOFF
  
• 2022 Workshops - Coupon code: workshop50
  
• Wholesale Bundle System
  
• Email questions
  
• Learn With Us
  
• Coaching
  
• The Amazon Files Hub
  
• Inventory Lab
  
  

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 RAMISTAKES 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.