February is in the books, and it’s time to share this month’s results.  If you missed last month’s post, you can find a link HERE so you can compare the changes month to month.

Today also happens to be the birthday of my very first subscriber on this blog, so first off HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mom!

We’ll get started with a little background on how my time was spent this month before we get into the numbers.  I took 1 day off in February, and would say I averaged 35-40 hours per week directly related to online selling activities.  I spent some time researching what business structure would make the most sense, and set up an LLC during the month.  I also have been doing research related to sales tax, and working to get systems in place that will work as I scale this business.  My goal is to continue to scale my selling activities quickly, and I want to ensure that I have the systems and resources in place that I need to do this.  Overall, most of the month was spent on online selling activities, but not all of these activities were revenue generating.

Before we get to the numbers, one more topic to discuss.  My goal with sharing my financial results is to prove that this can be done, and is not meant to be seen as bragging or anything of that sort.  I just want to show that working hard and smart, and sticking with your plan  can pay off.  If the results turn out to be poor in future months, I will share that too.

With that said, let’s get into the numbers.  I will be sharing the same level of detail as was shown in January.  I want to provide as much clarity as possible into what I am doing on a month to month basis, and will continue to add some more details as the months go on (if you have suggestions, please let me know!).  The numbers below are basically the profits that I am making for the month.  The profits are calculated only on items that have been sold and shipped during the month.  They were calculated by taking selling prices, minus all fees, minus all shipping and packaging costs, and subtracting the cost of the items.  As with last month, I have broken out the cost of inbound shipping to amazon, customer returns, supplies, storage fees, and services.  The FBA profits number factors in reimbursements from amazon for items lost or damaged at the warehouse.  This will NOT be the exact number that goes on my tax returns as there will be additional deductions for mileage, cell phone, home office, etc.  I will consider adding these separately within these posts in the coming months.  However, these are costs I would generally be incurring anyway, so for simplicity I will be leaving them out of the calculations.  Also for clarity, this does not include any income from www.textbooks4you.com, it is simply my income from amazon and eBay.

February 2014 Financial Results

As you can see, I increased my profits from the prior month by over 47%.  This was great to see, especially considering that February is the shortest month of the year.  Consistently sending in inventory to FBA throughout January and February is one of the largest drivers of this increase in profits.  My eBay results were down significantly compared to prior months, and this is due to focusing my efforts on FBA for February.  This number will go back up in March, as I have some eBay ready inventory that I have been neglecting.  Other items worth noting include, I spent over $300 stocking up on poly-bags and shipping boxes, these should last me several months and will keep expenses lower in the coming months.  I also purchased a few “one-time purchase” items that are basically tools to help me be more efficient.  I will have some posts coming out later in the month explaining what I have purchased in both January and February that fall in this category.

Now, let’s take a look at this month’s cash flow statement: One item to note here is that inbound shipping costs and refunds to customers are directly taken out of my amazon account, and are factored into payments from amazon in the cash inflows section, and as a result do not need to be added into the cash outflows section.  I have continued to buy significant amounts of inventory, and the goal is to continue to grow the sales through this increased spending on inventory.  The net cash flow was quite a bit higher this month, but that is due partially to the timing of the end of the month, as I will be purchasing significantly more inventory in the early days of March.

Now, here are some screenshots from my amazon account to provide some documentation for the profit numbers.  Here’s a screenshot of my amazon sales for February (click to enlarge, same goes for all screenshots in this post):As you can see, I just barely squeaked out $20K in sales, which I was very happy about.  It was exciting to see this number in the month of February.  Now, here is my sales by category for the month: Toys and grocery have remained 2 of my top categories.  I had a really good find on some high dollar office products that I sold early in the month that had high selling prices and were very profitable.  I am also very happy with my sales levels for beauty and health & personal care, they made up over 16% of my total sales, compared to less than 5% last month.  I plan on continuing to grow these categories, as they should be consistent sellers year round.

As my ebay sales were rather pathetic, I won’t be including a screenshot this month.

Overall, sales for February between amazon and eBay were $20,424.27 compared to $13,588.54 for January.  I am very happy with these results, and excited about the growth that I have seen month to month.  My goal is to keep this momentum going and continue to rapidly grow the sales and profits to strive to reach my goal for the year.

I have the data for the experiments that I did in February ready to go, and I will be providing updates on how those went in the coming days.

That’s all I have for now, if you have any questions or comments PLEASE leave one below or send me an email at grant.ryanj@gmail.com.  Anything is fair game!

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