In today's video, I'll be answering questions from my Q&A Facebook group. If you'd like to get your question answered in an upcoming video, click this link to join the group:

 

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Hey, how's it going? It's Ollie here. Some fantastic questions for me to answer today. As you might notice, I'm posting slightly earlier today, so I've got to shoot off soon. So we're going to dive straight into the questions, give you some awesome answers and hopefully give you a bit of motivation to go out there and crush it with your business today.

 

What would be your best tips for generating motivation when building your Amazon business?

 

Paul asks, what would be your best tips for generating motivation when building your Amazon business? This is a great question and the topic of motivation is super important because obviously when you're running your own business, it's a little bit different from when you have a job. You know, you've got nobody kicking you up the ass. You've got to generate all of that oomph and that drive yourself and there are loads of things you can do to increase motivation levels.

 

One of the most important things to: have a really clear reason in your head of why you're building the business. What's your vision, the vision of the perfect scenario once you hit your goals. And once you have that vision, then you can create a monetary goal that would enable you to achieve that vision. And then you can work backwards from that and build a business that actually creates that monetary goal.

 

So for example, in my life, in 2015, that's when I started my business. I started in January. I had a goal in my head that I would be able to move from the UK to Sweden and I pictured the type of apartment I'd like to live in Sweden. And, well, I didn't know the country at the time. It was actually just Europe at the time. We wanted to move, and I pictured being able to work from anywhere and be able to run an entire business from my laptop. That was my vision.

 

I knew in order to really do whatever I wanted, then I would need 5K a month minimum income, 10K a month, preferably. That's what I had in the back of my mind at any time I had a bad day, or a challenge or something was going wrong. I just didn't feel like doing work. I remind myself of this vision that I had and I thought, well, yes, today might suck, but you know, tomorrow I might be able to achieve this dream. And that's what kept me motivated.

 

So getting really crystal clear on that is super important. The other thing which is probably more powerful is surrounding yourself with people who are motivated. If you hang out with people who are kind of low energy, negative, who don't believe in themselves, who aren't ambitious, who don't have big goals- it's gonna drag you down and you are going to start absorbing their emotional state, their energy, and their attitude.

 

This is so key. I mean, if you just observe people and their social circles and the people they hang out with, you will see so much evidence for this. I think the most powerful thing you can do is to just get at least one friend or an accountability partner who has a similar goal to you. And just keep in touch and just bounce ideas off each other and celebrate your wins together.

 

This is one thing I had as I was growing my business where I had an awesome friend. We're still obviously really good mates and we both had similar goals and keeping each other accountable. I think it was one of the most key things that I had as the business was growing and nobody else I knew was doing the same thing. But together we both had the same goals and I think that really helped.

 

Also, you get a little bit of like a friendly competition going as well. And that is key. So use this group to actually find someone to hold you accountable and you know, talk over Skype, maybe meet up, there's loads of cool people in there who probably got exactly the same goal as you who are crazy enough to actually dive in and build a business. And that will probably be the most important part of your journey.

 

So yeah, there's two things that you can do. Another thing you can do is just get the training and the help you need to move forward. One thing I did was, I invested a lot of money in training and support in my first year as I was growing, and it's something I do every year as well. I'm always spending, investing in that side of things as well. So yeah, something to consider.

 

How much money do I need to invest into products? Is there a minimum to start with?

 

Melvin asks, how much money do I need to invest into products? Is there a minimum to start with? So obviously, this is a question a lot of people have asked. And it's a great question. Obviously, it's something you need to know.

 

The answer is, it depends on the product. You can start with a test batch or a product for a relatively small amount of money. You could start with 500 pounds, maybe 750 pounds for a test batch. And that's including everything: the products, the shipping, the stock, maybe a bit of advertising. And you can see sales within 30 days of about 750 pounds spent on stock.

 

Compare that to a lot of other businesses- what it takes to start a restaurant or a cafe or something - it's pennies, right? So that'll get you started. Then once you start to see real sales, invest more money in stock, maybe a couple thousand, and that will have the potential to get you profitable. And then just keep restocking and then your products will start to generate an income for you and then they can start paying for themselves to some degree.

 

If your product's making, say, a thousand pounds per month, you have three months worth of stock, you make 3000 pounds profit in three months, take the 3K that you've made and you can buy more stock. And the business starts to pay for itself a little bit more and you don't have to put as much money in. That's when the magic really starts to happen.

 

Obviously, if you want to grow faster, then you can put more of your own money in to your business. And when things start to pick up and you start to get sales, you'll find that people are willing to lend you money as well. And this is a really, really powerful thing that I discovered as my business was growing in the first year.

 

When you can just show to a bank or to someone you know, well, I made 15K sales last month. All of a sudden, even if you have terrible credit and things like that, they will lend you money. There are services like Iwoca.co.uk who will plug directly into your Amazon account, check out your revenue, and if you're doing okay revenue, they'll give you a loan just based on that. Not even based on your credit or anything. And that could be a great way to fuel your business once you're confident.

 

I probably wouldn't borrow money in the beginning, but once you've got sales and you've got consistent revenue, then you can always get access to funding. Also, Amazon can can give you loans as well and they just take the payments out of your Amazon payments. So super helpful. And that can be a great way to fund your business as well. So yeah, those are some ideas.

 

If you don't have any money right now, then I would do some arbitrage in order to raise a bit of money. If you want some resources on how to do arbitrage and how to raise tiny bit of capital from buying products from retail stores and selling them for a profit, leave a comment down below and I'll give you some resources to help you with that.

 

Sourcing suppliers and how to know which is a good or bad one.

 

So Elijs asks - hope I pronounced your name right - I'm a student. Right now, I'm looking into starting when I will save up a few hundred pounds. Right now I'm absorbing info like a sponge and learning. Awesome, man. That's one of the first things you should do. I would be interested in sourcing suppliers and to know which is a good or a bad one.

 

So this is a great question. It is is super, super, super important to know how to find good suppliers. In fact, it's one of the most important parts of the business. There's a few things you want to consider when you're looking for a reliable supplier. And I assume you're talking about private labels, right? Because that's really when we're looking for very reliable suppliers.

 

If you go to Alibaba, there are three things we want to look for when you're judging the quality of the supplier. Okay? So the first one is you want them to be on the gold membership on Alibaba. You want it to be a gold supplier and ideally, you want them to be a gold supplier for at least three years.

 

So what the gold membership is on Alibaba is, suppliers, to be part of this membership, will pay something like $5,000 per year. It gets them into the program. I think it gets their products higher in the search results and it's like proof that they're serious about what they're doing. So it's like a partnership they have with Alibaba and it helps them to connect with more people who want to buy their stuff. Like you and me.

 

If they've been on this membership for at least three years, it proves that they are a genuine company who really wants to build a longstanding business and therefore they want to build real relationships with buyers and they're not just a scammer. If someone's trying to make a quick buck on Alibaba and they're not a serious manufacturer and they're just trying to scam people, generally they won't sign up to this gold supplier thing. Certainly not for three years.

 

So that's the first indication that a supplier is good quality. Second indication is the onsite check. So there's a little logo you can see on a lot of Alibaba listings. And when you look at the suppliers, a little picture of a house - it looks like a house - it's supposed to be a warehouse picture. And I think there's an arrow pointing to the house, like in the house. I think you'll know what I mean.

 

But this logo represents onsite checks. What this means, someone's actually been to the warehouse, inspected the warehouse, and they've checked everything to make sure they're doing what they say they're doing, they're running it ethically, and the place really exists. If they have this logo, then you can be sure that it is a real factory and again, it's not just going to be a scam.

 

Now the third thing we want to look for - as well as gold supplier, onsite check - is the type of payment that they accept. So if somebody only accepts Western Union payments, then it's not a good sign because when you send money through Western Union, you're basically just giving somebody cash, sending it to an account number, and it's completely untraced and it's just like giving someone a briefcase full of cash.

 

So obviously, that's the kind of thing you do when you want to buy heroin. It's not exactly how to do reputable business. When you do reputable business, you want to give someone a check, or you want to wire transfer money to their bank so it's all traced, or you want to do it for something like PayPal.

 

So you want them to take something called TT, which is basically a direct transfer. You want them to accept PayPal, or a credit card. They will usually say this stuff on their listing. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes you can just ask them and then they'll tell you what they accept. But if they only accept Western Union, then ask them if they accept any other payments. And if they only accept Western Union, I wouldn't go near that supplier. I would find somebody else.

 

So those are three indications that you found a great, quality supplier. But that's just reliability. Next, we want to look at, you know, are you going to make a profit from the products? So I would find at least 20 suppliers who match those three things, contact them, get quotes from them, make sure you get at least five quotes from those reliable suppliers. And get an idea of the price that they're going to charge for the shipping and for the products. And then make your decision.

 

Don't just find like one or two suppliers and then go with them. We want to get loads of quotes so you get deal flow, so you get a good idea of the marketplace and who would be the best to go. Great question.

 

What order do I need to do things in when setting up my amazon business?

 

Derek asks, what order do I need to do things in when setting up my Amazon business? This is a great question. It's very simple actually. First of all, you need to set up your Amazon account, if you haven't done that already. So go to sellercentral.amazon.co.uk if you're going to sell in the UK. If you're in US, obviously, sellercentral.amazon.com.

 

Set up your business. Set up your Amazon account. They will probably ask for a UTR number. So go to HMRC and get a UTR on number. If you're in America, you might need another tax code number. But you'll see as you set up the account anyway, so you can see what they ask for and go get it. Then once you've set up your account, we'll need to find a hot product to sell. Learn how to do product research.

 

Now, on tomorrow's master class, I'm going to be showing you exactly how I find hot products to sell on my Amazon account. Gonna be walking you through my step by step process of how I filter products, what I do when I type into the search bar, how I look through all the search results and how I get to all of these really hot products. You'll see. And any products that I find, you can import yourself if you want, or you can use them as inspiration for your own product. So definitely join that master class. You'll learn how to find products.

 

Once you find a product, next thing you want to do is test it. So get maybe 50 units of the product shipped in, send them into the Amazon warehouse, and get them to sell. You can usually do this within 30 days if you do everything right. If you take action, if you're super quick, you can get your first sale within 30 days.

 

Once you get that sale, next you want to analyze it, see what price you could sell this product for. Then go get quotes from suppliers for a bigger amount. So maybe 200 units, 300 units, something like that. Once you've got quotes, you want to figure out if you could be profitable. So figure out the landed cost of each unit.

 

So let's say the landed cost is seven pounds, and the price you could sell it for is 20 pounds. Take all of your expenses, the FBA fees, how much do you expect to pay for marketing - maybe two, three pounds per unit for PPC costs advertising on the platform. All the FBA fees, the referral fees, you can use the FBA calculator for this stuff. Take it away from the sale price. Let's say after all expenses and everything, you've got, say, three or four pounds left. That's your profit. Fantastic.

 

Place the order of two or 300 units, get them shipped over, get them to sell consistently. And then you can just keep restocking to keep the sales consistent. That should get you to your first thousand pounds profit per month. Now the great thing is when you have a private label product selling like that, all you pretty much have to do is monitor the marketing and reorder stock when you run out.

 

It's a relatively hands-off business cause you don't have to do any of the hard labor to actually run it. So then you can focus on keeping a product selling and importing new products to sell alongside. So it's a very nice business to run.

 

So those are the steps. And again, if you want to learn how to get started and find your products and how to test them and how to move forward and also how to trick your brain into feeling motivated, then make sure you join the masterclass. The link is in this post if you're watching this video outside of the group by the way, I've put the link here as well below this video and you'd be able to jump on the mass class.

 

Thank you so much for watching this video. I hope this answered all of your questions. And if you've watched this video outside of the Facebook group, by the way, I'd love to welcome you into the Facebook group and answer your questions. If you go above or below the video, you should find the link to join the group.

 

If you're listening to this as a podcast, then go to ecommercefreedom.com.

You'll see a button on the top that says Q&A Facebook Group. You can click on that. It'll take you straight to the group. And when you go to the group page, click join, and after you click join, a box will appear with a question. In this box you can ask a question for me to answer in a video.

 

I only approve people once they've asked a question. And it's just to ensure we only get people in the community who are genuinely interested in building Amazon businesses. Because I've run other groups and we get a lot of spammers in there. People who just want to spam their services everywhere and aren't really interested in actually joining the community. So this is like a little test.

 

So thanks so much for watching this video. Hope it was helpful and we'll speak very soon.