Have you ever wanted to own your own business? We live in a wonderful age where literally anyone can do so, thanks to the internet. Over at Nine University, we think one of the best businesses out there is selling your own products on Amazon, as a Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA) seller. And honestly, getting started with selling your own products on Amazon isn’t nearly as complicated as you might guess.
Perhaps you looked at the title and thought “Seventeen? That doesn’t sound easy at all.” Let me remind you though – you are starting your own business. And while there are some things that are omitted, such as starting your own LLC (it’s not strictly necessary, but it’s a good idea because it provides you with some legal protection), following this list is literally what you need to get up and running with your own Amazon FBA business in just a few weeks.
17 Easy Steps to Start Your Own Amazon FBA Business
Step One: Get software for product research.
There are various research softwares out there, such as Jungle Scout, Helium10, or Nine University’s own Boost9. These will allow you to see details on competitors’ products and determine if a category has room for one more product – yours.
Step Two: Practice your product research
There are all sorts of methods and tutorials out there about doing product research for Amazon FBA, so I’m not going to go into it here – but once you figure out the method you prefer, get good at it. Good product research skills are the foundation of your Amazon FBA business. You don’t want an oversaturated market, or a product that no one is looking to buy. Learning to determine an active market with room in it is what you can build a business on.
Step Three: Find a product to sell for yourself
Once your product research skills are honed, you can find your own product.
Step Four: Find a supplier
You want to find ten to fifteen suppliers for your product. Why ten to fifteen, when you ultimately only need one? You’ll narrow some down, based on initial pricing quotes. If any are really stuggling with their English skills, they may be worth cutting out – communication issues in a business transaction can cost you money!
Step Five: Order samples
Once you get to your top three suppliers, order samples from each. You want the samples to be as close to the finished product as possible so you can really get an idea of the quality.
Step Six: Break the samples
Invite friends over. Test your samples. Do as much as you can with them. Find any issues and determine if they’re correctable.
Step Seven: Negotiate your price with the supplier
Ask for the price for 500, 1,000, 2,500, and 5,000 units. Make sure you get quotes that include shipping. Try to negotiate for the lowest price they offer, as long as it provides you with enough of a return (we aim for a 200% ROI). Play suppliers off of each other, and don’t be afraid to walk away – they will often come back with a lower offer.
Step Eight: Place your order
Get your products ordered and ship them to your storage facility. You’re ready to start selling! Now you need to get people to know your product exists.
Step Nine: Get your product pictures
Get six to eight great pictures of your product. You want at least three to four on a white background, meeting Amazon’s product photo standards. You want another three to four “lifestyle” photos of your product in the setting it will be used in. If you aren’t a photographer, this is something you can outsource (Nine University offers our Honey Badger Boost service that does product photography).
Step Ten: Optimize your listing
Getting your keywords right is essential. Learn how to write your titles and descriptions so that your relevant keywords are included and your products will come up when people search those keywords. This is something else you can outsource (and another service Nine University offers via Honey Badger Boost).
Step Eleven: Look at your competition
You should be looking at your competition all throughout this, but at this point you want to check that your product listing looks comparable (or better than) your competition. Are the relevant keywords there? Do pictures show product features they need to show?
Step Twelve: Inspect your final product
Repeat step six and try to break your product. Make sure it’s up to your quality standards.
Step Thirteen: Ship your product to Amazon
If you need any other certifications for your product, get them done. Once your product has passed your final inspection and has any certifications it needs, get it to Amazon’s warehouse and get your listing up. You may want to do your research though, as there are also outside companies that provide an Amazon prep service. Congratulations, you have an active product!
Step Fourteen: Start your PPC campaign
A pay-per-click ad campaign will start getting your product in front of people. Look up “amazon ppc hack” on YouTube for Nine University’s best tips for a low bid campaign. Set up a campaign with manual keyword research using something like ViralLaunch’s keyword research. This is something you’ll want to research and an area you need to develop strong skills in.
Step Fifteen: Optimize, optimize, optimize
Go through your listing and your PPC campaigns once a day and tweak them. If you aren’t getting clicks on your PPC campaigns, change them. If you’re getting clicks but not sales, change them.
Step Sixteen: Start ranking for keywords
Identify at least five long-tail keywords for your product and start working to promote your product for the first one. Your goal is to get to the top of the first page for that keyword. When you make it there with one keyword, work on the next.
Step Seventeen: Keep on keeping on
Continue refining your listing and PPC campaigns, promoting your product, and finding goals to work towards. Revenue or profit-driven goals are great. One of our favorites to aim for? $274 a day in revenue. It might seem like a random number, but $274 a day x 365 days equals $100,000 – that’s what you need to make to have a six-figure business.
And boom! You’ve just made your six-figure business in seventeen easy steps. Simple, right?
If you want to have an even easier time starting your FBA business, come check out Nine University, with our proven training system. With our FastTrack program, you can have round-the-clock help whenever you need it. We’ve helped hundreds of people get their business started, and we’d love to help you as well.
