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. So, had some terrible news today. I saw on YouTube, I found out about this actually. Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter died in a helicopter crash. And for some reason this news hit me really hard. I don't.. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because he was so young. He was 41 and his daughter was 13.

 

Maybe it was just because I wasn't expecting it. Obviously it's horrible when anyone dies, but for some reason this one, this death actually hit me really hard. I was just thinking, you know, of his wife, what must she be going through at the moment, it's just unbelievable. And I'm not even into basketball or anything at all, but for some reason it's kind of hit me hard.

It has made me think it's just a reminder that we do have limited time to do things and you never really know when we're not going to have any time left. So if you are procrastinating right now or if you are taking too long to take action or just not putting in the time to do the things you really want to do and really going for it, then events like this a really, really strong reminder.

 

It's like life slapping you in the face just saying, well why are you procrastinating? You know? So that's my thought for the day. Anyway, got some questions today. I really want to help these people as always. And by the way, we need more questions. I've got a huge list of questions from people who've joined the group and we've got a ton of people inside the Facebook group and I want more questions.

 

We need more and so I can help more of you guys out. So if you have a question, please comment below this post or just make a post inside the group and I'll get to it probably very soon. I might even get to it tomorrow. So you get a super quick answer.

 

What reports need to be considered when doing bookkeeping?

 

Sandra asks, what reports need to be considered when doing bookkeeping? This is a great question obviously, because when you're running a business, you want to be able to keep all of your books tidy so you can get your accounts ready, you can pay all your taxes properly, etc. Super important.

 

With an Amazon business, you have lots of transactions. So keeping this stuff tidy is super, super important. Now, you can actually print off loads of reports from the Amazon back-office. This could make things quite easy actually, because it's all organized for you. You can print off transaction reports, all the reports, reports of FBA fees you've paid, other fees, taxes, stuff like that, that you've paid.

 

And that can be very helpful. So here's what I recommend you do when you're thinking about your bookkeeping. Number one, find an accountant to help you. Okay? So again, whenever you're looking for a service provider, whether it's a supplier, an accountant, a freight forwarder, whatever it is.. Don't just contact one. Don't just contact the first accountant that you see that comes up on Google.

 

Contact 10, 20 accountants, get quotes and information about how they work with you from at least five. Then make your decision about who's going to be the best. Some accountants charge loads, some are very cheap, some are terrible, some are very, very, very skilled and good. They're human beings, they're business owners, and they vary in quality.

 

So contact a lot of them. Pick one who seems good after you've compared to all the others, and then go ahead and ask their advice about the best way to pay your books in your specific situation for your business because it will vary.

That's why you can't really give buying kit advice to owners and business owners about how to do the accounts. That's the first thing to do.

 

If your accountant's cool with it, which they probably will be, you can actually get two pieces of software which will make your life so much easier. So number one is Zero. Zero is a very popular accounting software. And the other thing is A2X. You can plug this into your Amazon account. Right into your Amazon account. It will pull all the transactions out of your Amazon account and it will put them into Zero for you.

 

So any sales you make, any tax you've paid, or like VAT, for the fees, any fees you paid, all that stuff, it pulls out and it puts it into Zero. And therefore, your accountant will be able to organize everything for you within your bookkeeping software and you won't have to do it all manually, which is really nice.

 

That's how I would organize your reports for your bookkeeping moving forward. But obviously you want to make sure whatever system you're using works with your accountant, so you can keep everything ready and get it submitted on time. So yeah. Great question, Sandra.

 

Is it possible to do this from a two-bedroom flat with minimal space?

 

Alice asks, is it possible to do this from a two bedroom flat with minimal space?This is a great question. Obviously thinking practically about what it's gonna take to build the business and you're going to have loads of boxes and those stock taking up space in your small flat as you build your business. So this is an interesting question.

 

I'm not going to say that it's never going to become a problem having some stock in your flat, right? There's probably going to be a time at some point where you need to place a big order of stock and it needs to sit in your apartment for a few days. It could happen. It's relatively likely or you know, something could be sent back from the FBA warehouse to you because you want to modify it, switch around, etc. So that could happen.

 

But you've just got to decide how important is it to you that you want to build this business? I mean, if it's really visually important to you and you really do want to build another income, then I don't think you'll really mind having some really profitable stock at your house.

 

You know, if you have say, four boxes of stock at your house- loads and loads and loads of units of a product in those boxes ready to go to Amazon and this stuff is potentially going to make you, I don't know, 20 grand or something. I don't think you're going to mind it taken up a bit of space.

 

It's kind of like having like four boxes of diamonds in your house and being like, oh, I just can't deal with all the space these diamonds is taking up. All right? Or why can't someone get rid of these briefcases of cash that's taking up space in the corner of my house? Right? It's not really gonna be a big issue if the stock is going to be profitable.

 

So I don't think it's something to worry about. Yes, it's probably going to be a bit of a problem at some point. I don't think it's going to be the end of the world. I would move forward and do it anyway. Remember you're going to be using Amazon's warehousing space, and as your business grows, you have the option of using other warehousing spaces if the longtime storage fees start to mount up a bit too much, so I wouldn't worry too much.

 

How to get a shipment from China to the UK or US?

 

Clive says, how to get a shipment from China to the UK or the US?

 

Good question, Clive. So, simple answer is to, well, first of all, you have to decide how big is the shipment because if it's very small where it's just like a box, then you can use express shipping. In other words, DHL or another courier who actually picks up the box from the supplier, deliver it to your end location, right? So this is door to door shipping.

 

There's another abbreviation for it. DDU, I believe. Door to door shipping. And that can be good because it's very, very, very simple. The courier handles everything. They can even take it through customs and give you the invoice and you can pay it. It's very fast. It can be up to three days. I've had stuff shipped of express shipping from China unbelievably fast sometimes.

 

The negative thing about express shipping though is it's really expensive. Per unit, it's very expensive. So as you order more stock- so you've got two boxes, five boxes, 10 boxes, whatever, starts to get heavy. Then you don't want to use express anymore. You want to use either air cargo, air freight, and then as it gets even bigger and heavier, sea freight. Which takes four to five weeks.

 

So the best thing to do is get a quote from your supplier for express shipping. Ask them how much is it going to cost. Then you can speak to some couriers like phone up DHL and be like, I want to get a box of stock shipped from Shenzhen in China to the US or to UK. Ask them how much it would cost to get a quote and see if that makes sense.

 

If it doesn't, then find a freight forwarder and ask them for quotes for the other shipping methods you can use. Again, we don't just want to contact one freight forwarder. Contact five, 10, get quotes from several, then figure out who's going to be the best to go with. 'Cause there's some freight forwarders who will rip you off, some freight forwarders who haven't realized that their prices are way too cheap, and will obviously be to your benefit. So make sure you contact several, then you can go ahead and get your stuff shipped.

 

Hopefully today's questions have been very helpful for you. Hopefully we have some lighter news tomorrow when I wake up, right? That will be nice. And I can't wait to help more of you out. So if you're watching this video outside of the Facebook group, click the link above or below the video to join in the group.

 

As you enter the group, you'll see a little box that comes up. You can write a question in there. Once you've written your question, I'll approve you into the group and I'm going to answer it on a video like this.

 

If you're inside the group right now, please post any other questions you have inside the group and will get to them this week. All right. Thanks so much for watching this video and we'll speak very soon.