Podcast Episode 101 – What to Do Next in Your Amazon FBA Business

If you’re struggling to know what to do next in your Amazon business, you are not alone. We are all at different stages with our business, and sometimes it can be tough knowing what to do next. In this episode, we’ll be sharing some of the tips and tricks we’ve learned over the years, as well as what we wished we’d known when we were first starting out.

On today’s episode, we unpack five key questions you should consider when unsure of what to do next and how they can help you going forward. You’ll discover the value of questions like: Do I have more time or more money? And what do I do going forward? We address how your concerns may differ depending on where you are in your journey and how to decide whether a resource like an online video course is worth your time and money. To learn more about this tricky problem and how to overcome it, tune in today!

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Key points from Episode 101:

• Five different things you should consider when deciding what to do next in your Amazon FBA business.
• Ask yourself whether you have more time available to you or whether you have more money available to you.
• Why you should ask yourself if the problem you’re facing is ongoing or temporary.
• Why it’s important to research the quality of resources you may want to use, like video courses or hiring a service.
• How to ensure you trust reviews and recommendations on the product you’d like to use.
• How reflecting on why you started your Amazon FBA business can help you decide what to do next.
• The acronym FOCUS: follow one course until successful.
• “What is the one thing I can do, such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” (from The ONE Thing)
• How to join our private Facebook group to join a supportive community of sellers.
• And more!

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

• Full-Time FBA Courses & Books
• Top Amazon FBA Resource Recommendations
• Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
• The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
• Full-Time FBA Private Facebook Group
• Sourcetember – FREE video based sourcing training for the month of September.

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Episode 101 Transcript:

[WELCOME]

[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.

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:20] REBECCA: Hello there, and welcome to this episode of The Full-Time FBA Show. We’re so glad you’re here with us today. We are going to be talking about how to know what to do next in your Amazon business. With me today is my co-host, as always, Stephen Smotherman.

[00:00:36] STEPHEN: I am excited about this episode, because man, there’s so many options of what people can do in their Amazon business. I’ve been there before. How do I know what to do next? We’re going to discuss that and help you along in this episode of The Full-Time FBA Show.

[CONVERSATION]

[00:00:57] REBECCA: If you are thinking, like Stephen just said that you have been there, too, know that we have all been there, where we’re thinking, “What do I need to do next? There’s a lot that I could do. I’m overwhelmed. I don’t know what choice to make. I feel I’m there pretty regularly.” It’s something that you just deal with as a business person that you have choices to make. You have to decide, “What am I going to work on next?”

We want to talk through some different strategies in this episode with you. Basically, what it comes down to is you just need to look over your Amazon business and decide what will be the best move that will move your business forward now? What’s the next best step? What are some strategies that we can look at in order to make that decision about what’s the next best move?

If you’re a beginner at selling on Amazon FBA, it might be that you need to open a seller account, or it might be that you need to learn how to find inventory. If you’re a more seasoned seller, you’re more at an intermediate level, you might be looking at, should I learn a new sourcing strategy? Or should I set up an automatic repricer? Those are types of things that you just need to think through, what’s the next best strategy and start to tackle it. If you are having issues with your business, if you need to do some troubleshooting, you are wanting to look at, “How do I find the right solution for this specific problem that I have? Do I have a strategy that I’m using that I need to tweak, or one that I need to get rid of, or one that I need to get started on? What’s a resource that would help me to deal with that problem? Those are some of the things that we want to talk through, through the rest of this episode.

We have five different things that we want to consider when we’re deciding what to do next in our Amazon FBA business.

[00:02:38] STEPHEN: The first thing you want to think through is basically, what do you have more of at this moment? Do you have more time available to you? Or do you have more finances available to you? What do you have more of? Because when you’re trying to find a solution, there’s both free and paid possible solutions. There’s free solutions by going to do some YouTube searching, looking for videos to help you, reading blog posts, maybe there’s a free e-book that can help you with whatever it is that you’re wanting to do.

Then, there’s also paid solutions. There’s video courses. There’s subscription models that can help you with your business. There’s tools that cost money. What do you have more of at the moment? Do you have more time? Or do you have more money? If you have more time available, maybe the best option is the free option of taking that time and investing in researching, what possible solutions there are, what possible next steps that you need to take and be able to go down that path.

If you have more money than time at the moment, then maybe purchasing a course and getting a planned out, step-by-step process that can help you, or purchasing a tool that you can learn how to use and implement in your business and be able to work through that. That’s the first thing to think about, time versus money. Which one do you have more of, and that might help you make a better decision on what your next step is.

[00:03:54] REBECCA: The next thing to consider is if you are looking into a solution for a problem, whether it is a problem that you’ve had ongoing for a while in your business, or if you are just getting started, either with selling in general, or in a certain area of selling, that you’re wanting to start implementing, you’re possibly looking at what are some different resources that I can use, whether it’s a course that you’re looking into taking, or a service that you’re wanting to hire, whether it’s a VA, or an automatic system of some sort, you really want to make the best decision about what resources you’re investing your money in.

You’re going to want to check out the quality of the resources that are available to you. There are a lot of resources for third-party sellers. There’s a lot of third-party resources for Amazon sellers. How do you make a decision about what is the best next step for, who do I hire, or what do I purchase? Look into the quality of these different resources. You can do this by doing a Google search of a product, or a course with the word review after it. Check the reviews that you can find online. See if you can find out any information from other sellers about the results that they’ve had from that course, or that service.

Check out what people might be saying on Facebook and other places, too. You also want to look at any type of return policy, or free trials that might be available. If it’s at all possible, use free trials to see if this is something that you would want to be able to use on an ongoing basis when it comes to services. Make the most of those free trials. Also, if it’s something, like a course, or something like that, make sure that there’s a good return policy. I know for us, at Full-Time FBA, we always have a 60-day no questions asked, money back guarantee. Those are the kinds of things you want to look for when you’re buying a course. Is this something that they say, “Oh, I want your money, but no returns.” As soon as you pay for it, you’re locked in.

Or is it something that you can possibly look at and say, “I took this course and I am not getting anything out of it. I’m not able to use it. I would like to get my money back.” Look and see what kind of return policy there is. Use those types of decision-making steps in order to come to a conclusion about what to do next, when it comes to the quality of the services and courses that you might be interested in.

[00:06:21] STEPHEN: If you’re looking to add a new tool, and it has a free trial, one of the things that you can be sure to do is make sure that you learn how to use that tool before the free trial starts, and then maximize your time during that free trial. That can help you gain more trust into sticking with that particular product. That’s the third thing to consider is trust. Do you trust this product? Do you trust the author of the content? Do you trust the recommendation of the particular resource that someone is giving you?

When you’re maybe deciding if you want to purchase a course, think about, “Okay, the paid content. How can I know if I can trust this?” Well, look at the free content that that person offers up. If they don’t offer any free content, then it might be a sign that the paid content is questionable. If you’re able to get free content from that particular person on a regular basis, and the free content has been helpful, then maybe the paid content is going to be even better.

Do you trust the person’s recommendations? Do you trust the person recommending a particular tool? We recommend a lot of tools in our Amazon business. We only recommend the stuff that we actually use, so hopefully, you see our recommendations as trustworthy, because you can trust us, because of what we’ve given you with our free stuff. With anything, with your Amazon business, when you’re deciding on what to do, whether it’s buying a course, or trying a new tool, or a new strategy, make sure you can trust the person who’s giving it to you, or recommending that particular solution for you.

[00:07:44] REBECCA: The next thing that we consider you look at when you’re trying to decide what to do next in your business is your passion. What is your passion? What is your fuel for what you’re doing? Surely, you had a reason why you started your Amazon business in the first place. Surely, you had a reason why you wanted to make some extra money, or wanted to make this into a full-time income. What is that passion? What is your why?

Finding out your why is something that comes from the book, Start with Why by Simon Sinek, which we highly recommend. It’s a great book that will help you to think through some of these questions of like, “What is driving me? Why am I even doing what I’m doing?” Because if you get away from the reason that you’re even doing any of this, it can make things cloudy. It can change your judgment on what you should be doing.

Always come back to, what is my why? Why am I doing this? What is my purpose in even selling on Amazon? That might help you make a good decision. If it comes down to, “Do I want to invest this money in this product? Or do I want to spend this money somewhere else? Is this going to take too much of my time away from something else, in order to take this next step? Or is this a great use of my time that will free up other time for me to do something that is really my passion?” Those are the kinds of questions that you can be thinking through as well when you’re trying to decide what to do next. Be sure and check out that book. We highly recommend it. Start with Why by Simon Sinek. There’s a quick link for it at fulltimefba.com/startwithwhy.

[00:09:18] STEPHEN: Yeah. A lot of people have different whys. It’s really fun to go through that process and figure out what your why is. Some people have the why of financial freedom, or more time with their family. Other people just like the treasure hunt of retail arbitrage, or that whole process of building a business. Different people have different whys, and you have one as well, so you can find it.

One last strategy that you can look at to help you find out what to do next is FOCUS. Now, a lot of you have heard this acronym before. I’ve said that a few times on the podcast. I’ll say it again, FOCUS, follow one course until successful. Think about, when you’re deciding what to do next, is there something that you’ve left unfinished? Is there something that maybe a course that you start that you haven’t even finished yet, and you’re already maybe being distracted from shiny object syndrome, or a new course that’s come out. You want to make sure you stay focused. Finish that first course, because you started it for a reason. Maybe it might not be working for you, but it might not be working, because you haven’t finished the course and gotten the complete education that you need.

Follow one course until successful, FOCUS. If you are at a place where you are ready to do something new, follow through with that strategy also. If you decide to get a new course, or a new product, or whatever, focus on that, until it’s fully implemented. Don’t do anything else. I mean, obviously, there’s things that need to be done to move the business forward. When it comes to a new strategy, or learning something new, follow one course, until successful. It can really help you out.

Hopefully, these five things can really help you know what to do next in your Amazon business. There’s one last question I want to leave you with myself. That is a question that will help you decide exactly what it is you need to do next. The question comes from the book called The One Thing, and here’s the question. What is the one thing I can do, such that by doing it, everything else will become easier, or unnecessary? What in your Amazon business, such that by doing it makes everything else easier, or unnecessary?

You might be like, “Okay, that’s going to be wholesale.” Okay, so what’s the one thing that you need to do in wholesale, such that by doing it, everything else will become easier successful? You answer that question, “Okay. I need to learn how to do wholesale. I need to learn how to find inventory.” Then continue using that question to whittle down the exact next step for you to do. The book is awesome. It’s called The One Thing. You can find it also, fulltimefba.com/theonething. That can help you know exactly what step you need to do next in your business.

[00:11:44] REBECCA: As we’re wrapping up this episode, you might be thinking, “I really need some help. I need some other more experienced sellers, or even people who are at the same stage in selling as I am, that can help me think through some of these things, who can give me some advice, or just talk through the ideas that you’re having.” If you are at that point, and you’re just really looking for a community of other sellers, we suggest joining the Full-Time FBA Facebook group. You can go to that group at fulltimefba.com/facebook and answer a few short questions, so that we know that you’re a human and you can join the group.

You can then introduce yourself, say what stage of business you’re in and pose a question. Be sure and also, answer questions too. Don’t just come in and ask questions without joining in other conversations. It’s a great community, where you can toss around ideas and get some suggestions for what you might want to do next, because chances are, somebody else has been at the same place where you are, and just had to make similar types of decisions.

[00:12:45] STEPHEN: Hopefully, these five things will help you in your search for what to do next in your Amazon business. Figure out if you’ve got more time or money, look at the quality of what you’re looking into, see what kind of trust relationship you have with the product, or the person behind the course. See what your passion is, follow your passion. Then once you make that decision, focus on it. Follow one course until successful, so you can grow your Amazon FBA business.

[00:13:19] REBECCA: Well, once again, we are so glad that you are here with us for this episode of the show. If you have any questions about any of the links that we have mentioned, or if you’d like to see the transcript, you can check that out at the show notes for this episode at fulltimefba.com/101. This is episode number 101.

[00:13:39] STEPHEN: Yeah. We still have one more week left in our special Full-Time FBA show 100th episode celebration review contest. You can still go and leave a review and then reach out to us and let us know about it at fulltimefba.com/contact. Let us know which platform and your username that you left that review. By September 20th, we will announce a winner of the review contest of $100.

[00:14:03] REBECCA: That applies, even if you’ve left a review in the past. It doesn’t have to have been in the last week. If you left a review at any time for the Full-Time FBA Show, you can fill out that contact form and let us know your username and about the date that you did it and which platform, and we can go check that out, and you can be entered to win the contest.

[00:14:20] STEPHEN: We hope you win, for sure. Next week on the show, we’re going to talk about how to avoid burnout in your Amazon business. A lot of times, there’s so much stuff to do, and maybe not a lot of time to do it. Some people might be tempted to feel burnout. Well, we’re going to help you avoid that next week on the Full-Time FBA Show.

[OUTRO]

[00:14:38] ANNOUNCER: That is all for this episode of The Full-Time FBA Show. 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]