So, I got fired. Turns out having a normal conversation with your part-time GM could turn very irrational on their end and end up you being let go. To sum it up, shit happens.
I learned a lot from the conversation with my GM and how some people simply cannot accept systemic gaps and pitfalls in their (the owners) business. Ego and pride can get too much in the way and blind you to massive opportunities to increase performance.
I saw this coming early on as there was a clear shift in the work environment. That’s the whole reason I started this Amazon FBA business. I wanted to grow it enough until I could quit. Luckily, my GM sped up the timeline a bit faster than I would.
So now I’m giving this a go full-time. It’s not easy, as it’s a major hustle each day with some days turning up zero products, but I can see this growing quite rapidly as I turn my full attention towards it.
The Different Amazon FBA Business Models
There are different ways to make money with Amazon FBA – Retail Arbitrage, Online Arbitrage, Wholesaling and Private Label.
I focus the majority of my efforts on Retail Arbitrage as it’s the easiest way to start making a profit from week one. Online Arbitrage is essentially the same thing, except you purchase your products online.
The goal is to eventually move into Wholesaling products, which allows you to purchase bulk orders of profitable products. Instead of purchasing one unit of product A and 3 units of product B, I would bulk order 100-500 units of product A and perhaps even 1,000 units of product B.
Even better, I wouldn’t have to run around from store to store every day. I could do all of this from my laptop while using my miles and points to travel wherever I’d like with my girlfriend.
How I’m Currently Getting Along
This was a very slow process and I really had to jump out of my comfort zone while scanning products on my phone in local stores.
I got buried pretty deep into a slump where I went a few weeks without finding any profitable products. I realized I was spending way too much of my time on just clearance isles. Sure, clearance aisles are a great starting point, but you have to take an extra thirty minutes to an hour on aisles that aren’t clearance.
Two store haul worth $147.19 Profit (3 hours worth of work!)
Making this switch has gotten me back in the game in a major way. I spent a few hours in two stores earlier today and came out with $147 dollars in profitable items which I’ll have shipped out and listed by the end of tomorrow.
So, for now, I’ll continue focusing on Retail Arbitrage with a sprinkle of Online Arbitrage, at least until The Wholesale Formula course opens back up and I can jump full force into wholesaling like I’d like to do.
I Am Taking A Risk Though
I can’t fully sustain doing this full-time for long. I have a few months of runway to get things up and running before I’ll need to get a job to cover my bills until I’m moving the units needed each month.
Current Months Sales…
So this is a risk, like any other business. The good news is that I have a decent amount of time until the summer semester is over to ship the needed amount of units to generate enough profit to pay myself and grow.
My Inventory Goals
With Amazon it’s all about “feeding the beast”. The more units you have at the Amazon warehouse, the more sales you’ll get each day.
Amazon allows you to keep 5,000 normal size units at any given time.
My first goal is to have 1,000 units of products in inventory at any given time and then increase that amount as quickly as possible.
From what I’ve gathered having roughly 3,000 units should generate around $300 in sales a day. If you’ve purchase products with good enough margins you should have $100 in net profits each day from that amount of sales.
This means that I only need 1,500 units in inventory to reach my personal profit goals to go full time.
This is going to take a massive amount of effort. I’m talking Gary V kind of hustle.
With limited runway and capital, I’ll have to get creative and move product as fastly as I possibly can.
I’ll keep you posted throughout this journey as best I possibly can.