Podcast Episode 196 – What’s Stopping You from Making a Full-Time Income on Amazon?

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Episode 196 Transcript:

[INTRODUCTION]

[0:00:01.8] ANNOUNCER: Welcome to The Full-Time FBA Show. In each episode, it’s our goal to help you turn part-time hours into a full-time income, selling almost anything on Amazon. Now, your hosts of the show, Stephen and Rebecca Smotherman.

[WELCOME]

[00:00:20] REBECCA: Hello, and welcome to this week’s episode of The Full-Time FBA Show. We are on Episode 196, and we are talking today about what’s stopping you from making a full-time income selling on Amazon. Here with me today to talk about this topic is my co-host, Stephen Smotherman. Welcome to the show. Stephen. As always, I’m so glad you’re here.

[00:00:45] STEPHEN: I’m glad to be here. I’m glad you’re here. Guess what, there’s nothing stopping us from making a full-time income on Amazon. But we know some of you have some issues here and there.

[00:00:56] REBECCA: Some hang ups.

[00:00:58] STEPHEN: Yes, stuff that’s just maybe kind of stopping you a little bit, but we’re going to help you overcome that today on this episode of The Full-Time FBA Show.

[EPISODE]

[00:01:07] REBECCA: Well, this month on July 11th, specifically, we are celebrating Full-Time FBA’s 10th bloggiversary.

[00:01:15] STEPHEN: Wohoo.

[00:01:16] REBECCA: Yes, wohoo. This is our podcast that’s connected with – originally we were The Full-Time FBA Blog and we’ve kind of morphed over the years from just the blog, into also having podcast, and YouTube channel, and all of that. But way back in 2013, we launched the very first blog post over at fulltimefba.com.
So, for 10 years now, we’ve been sharing with you multiple Amazon FBA strategies that are focused on turning your part-time hours, into a full-time income on Amazon. Let’s take a look at some of the numbers for a second behind those 10 years. In that 10 years, Full-Time FBA has produced over 300 solution-focused blog posts that have included over 4,800 comments. That’s a lot of comments.

[00:02:07] STEPHEN: That is. That is. And 300 blog posts that we continually update, also.

[00:02:12] REBECCA: Right. So, we are updating those blog posts as we go along and adding to them as we can. We’ve also recorded over 350 free training videos on The Full-Time FBA YouTube channel. We have an active Facebook group, The Full-Time FBA Facebook group that has over 10,000 vetted members. By vetted members, I mean that we don’t allow spammers to get into the group. You have to answer some questions and prove that you’re not a robot and prove that you’re not there just to sell stuff or to spam people. We’ve also produced this podcast where we have almost 200 episodes.

[00:02:47] STEPHEN: We’re so close.

[00:02:48] REBECCA: So close, this is episode 196. That’s a lot of free content that we’ve put out about turning part-time hours into a full-time income. Which leads us to today’s episode, where we’re going to be answering the question, what’s stopping you from making a full-time income on Amazon?

[00:03:08] STEPHEN: So, with coaching people and helping people over the years with the goal of making a full-time income, I’ve come across a lot of different reasons why people are feeling like they’re being stopped, or something is stopping them from making a full-time income, and we’ve picked out a few the most common ones, and we want to help you walk you through those.

So, the number one and not necessarily in popularity, but the number one we’re going to talk about today, thing that’s stopping you from making a full-time income is this reason. I don’t have the money it takes to make a full-time income on Amazon.

A little backstory, if you haven’t heard it, I first started selling on Amazon back in 2011. I was recently divorced. I was an unemployed single dad of four kids, between the ages of two and eight. I had the little ones. I had no money and I wanted to find a way to support myself and my kiddos with a job that did not require me to be out of the house, or put the kids in daycare all day. I discovered the concept of selling on Amazon where Amazon stored my inventory at their FBA warehouses and shipped my inventory when the customers made a purchase, and it was life-changing. Because before, I did eBay kind of as a hobby, but man, I had inventory everywhere. I say it’s in the closet, under my bed, in the bathroom, in the garage.

[00:04:22] REBECCA: No exaggeration. This is all very literal.

[00:04:26] STEPHEN: Very much so. I mean, I barely had a path from one into the garage to the other. So, my kids were afraid of a product avalanche, and so they didn’t went through the garage. But I still needed money to buy inventory. I was able to sell stuff I already had around the house. Used books, used board games, old video games that the kids didn’t want anymore, with their permission, and so on. So, I was able to start up my Amazon business, buying inventory, either free from my house or super cheap at garage sales and thrift stores to sell online, and that’s how I got started. I was able to take that profit and roll it into finally doing some like retail arbitrage and online arbitrage, going to local retail stores, and buying stuff online. In less than 12 months of starting with nothing, I was able to start making a full-time income selling on Amazon. If you don’t have the money now, we have ways to get you started, there is a path and we can show you.

[00:05:19] REBECCA: The second thing that we want to talk about today that might be what’s stopping you from making a full-time income on Amazon, is that you think I don’t have the time to make a full-time income on Amazon. When Stephen was single and unemployed, this was before he and I got married, he had plenty of time to sell on Amazon. But we understand that that’s not necessarily the case with all people. Most people who want to sell on Amazon that we encounter have full-time jobs already, or at least a part-time job. So, they’re really busy. Other people that we talked to have kids, like Stephen had kids, or they have elderly parents that are trying to take care of, or children or other family members with disabilities in their family that they need to take care of.

There’s many reasons why people say that they don’t have time to sell on Amazon, and they’re all legitimate. But we have one thing to say about that. You can make the time for what’s important to you. If creating your own income where you can work from home, be your own boss, and live the flexible life of freedom that includes being able to be a caretaker or to have your kids at home from daycare, then selling on Amazon can offer you those things. It can offer you the ability to work from home. It can offer you the ability to be your own boss, and it can offer you that flexible schedule. If you really want that, then you’ll make the time to make it happen.

We’ve talked before on this podcast about doing a time audit, which is a strategy that we use to look at how you spend your time, in order to find the time that you need to work on your Amazon business. We go deeper into that topic on Episode 128, so you can find that at fulltimefba.com/128. But basically, no matter where you are, whether you have another job, you’re already working part time on Amazon, or on the side. Or if you’re just wanting to get started and aren’t sure that with all of your family responsibilities, you have enough time, do a time audit and see where you’ve got time in your schedule. If selling on Amazon is important to you and something that you’re committed to doing, then you’ll find the time to make it happen.

[00:07:23] STEPHEN: Absolutely. The third reason why you might not be making a full-time income just yet is this reason. I don’t have the support or the confidence to make a full-time income on Amazon. Now, some Amazon sellers don’t ever get to the point of making a full-time income because they lack the confidence. Maybe they tried selling on Amazon before and it didn’t work out so well. Maybe they tried private label and they put a lot of money into it and it did not go well. Or maybe some of you might have tried a completely different online sales strategy, income strategy, and again, it didn’t work out. Or maybe you’ve never sold anything online before, and you just think there’s just too much information to learn, too much fear of failure or fear of the unknown, and just not enough confidence.

Well, I want to tell you that all of those feelings, they’re normal. But those feelings can be overcome. We even did a podcast about gaining more confidence and overcoming impostor syndrome in your Amazon business in episode 25. You can find that at fulltimefba.com/25. Also, no one is confident at the beginning stages. I mean, think about when you’re a kid learning how to ride a bike. When you learn how to ride the bike, you had someone to coach you, maybe a parent, a family member, someone else there to help you get you started.

I mean, I remember teaching my kids how to ride a bike. I was there. I was holding the seat of the bike, keeping it balanced, while I was running alongside the bike while the kids were riding it, who were fully protected with all the right gear at the time. I kept them going with words of encouragement, like reminders to keep pedaling and stay balanced. Did they fall? Yes. But I made sure that the falls are minor.

So, how do you gain confidence in your Amazon business? You take small steps at a time. Just get on that bike, start going. If you can have a coach or a mentor to help you along the way to remind you of things, to protect you from the big falls, and little by little your confidence is going to grow. If you want your confidence to grow even faster, definitely hire a coach that can help you along the way. To keep you well-balanced and keep you from falling hard. And that when you do fall, it’s just a small fall that doesn’t get you big time hurt since your coach has given you all the right kind of protections in place, and is telling you what to do.

So, here at Full-Time FBA, we do offer a 12-month long coaching program, and that goal in that coaching program is to get you to a full-time income in 12 months. If you want more information about our coaching program, you go to fulltimefba.com/coaching.

[00:09:43] REBECCA: Also, be sure, if you have not already, go to YouTube and look up the scene from Ted Lasso where Jamie Tartt is teaching Roy Kent to ride a bike. It will make your day, just look it up. Roy Kent, Jamie Tartt, Ted Lasso, riding a bike. It is the best.

[00:10:02] STEPHEN: We’ll put that in the show notes too, to make it easy for you.

[00:10:06] REBECCA: Yes. Okay, so there are more reasons than we’ve just covered that resellers give us for why they’re not making a full-time income on Amazon. Maybe we’ll do another podcast episode on these other reasons in the future. But those are the three reasons we wanted to talk about today. Because those are the main things that we hear on a regular basis about why people are not able to go full-time with Amazon yet. They don’t have money, they don’t have the time, or they don’t have the support or confidence that they need.

But here’s the honest truth. Those are not just reasons, they can be excuses. There is an answer to the no money excuse. There’s an answer to the no time excuse. And there is an answer to the no support and no confidence excuse. We would love to help you overcome all of those reasons. That’s why we’re offering you an invitation to our upcoming free five-day workshop called the Amazon Income Accelerator Workshop, where we will show you how to realistically make a full-time income selling on Amazon in 2023. You can sign up for that workshop at fulltimefba.com/workshop.

[00:11:12] STEPHEN: Yes. If you’re a seller on Amazon, or you’re just thinking of getting started, and you really want to start building up your Amazon profits with the goal of making that full-time income, then you got to come to this live workshop. Starting July 17th, 2023, every evening, we will share with you the five-part framework that we and some of our clients have used to finally make that full-time income selling on Amazon.

In this free workshop, we’re going to show you how to understand how you can get unlimited sources of inventory to sell on Amazon on a consistent basis for consistent profits. How to make the best inventory decisions like what to buy, what to pass on, how deep to go, and how to always have profitable inventory in stock. I mean, how does that sound to you? We’re also going to show you the full-time income success path and how you can realistically snowball your Amazon profits into a full-time income.

[00:12:00] REBECCA: If all of this sounds like something you’d want to learn and see happen in your life, then join us for the Amazon Income Accelerator Workshop. Sign up now to get that content that only the people who are signing up for the workshop will get. There’s so much that you’ll learn in this workshop. But those are the highlights we just covered. Again, the link to the workshop for five days is fulltimefba.com/workshop.

[00:12:23] STEPHEN: The workshop is going to start soon, July 17th. In fact, from when this episode drops, this workshop is only one week away. Be sure to sign up now, fulltimefba.com/workshop. In case you’re listening to this episode far off or even near off – is near off a term, Rebecca?

[00:12:40] REBECCA: It is, now.

[00:12:42] STEPHEN: Okay, good. Far off or even near off in the future, we’ll make sure that that link, fulltimefba.com/workshop takes you to either the replays from our most recent workshop, or the sign-up page for the next workshop. This is something we’ll do two or three times a year. So, if this interests you, definitely, go to fulltimefba.com/workshop. I’ve said that like enough times. Hopefully, it’s in your brain now. So, go to that link and sign up for the workshop. You won’t regret it.

[00:13:10] REBECCA: Thank you for joining us for another episode of The Full-Time FBA show. This has been Episode 196. So, you will find the transcript and all of the links that we have shared, and the show notes for this episode at fulltimefba.com/196.

[00:13:25] STEPHEN: Next week on the show, we’re going to talk about how to get the most from the Amazon Income Accelerator Workshop. We’ve created this workshop for you, so we got some tips on how to get the most out of it, how to have the content that you learned turn into action in your Amazon FBA business. See you next week.

[OUTRO]

[00:13:44] ANNOUNCER: That is all for this episode of The Full-Time FBA Show. So, head over to fulltimefba.com/podcast, where you will find the show notes and links from this episode. While you’re there, subscribe to our newsletter where you’ll get several free downloads of our popular and helpful Amazon FBA resources. Now, take action on what you have learned today so you can find success at turning part-time hours into a full-time income with Amazon FBA.

[END]