Today we have another guest post from Jonathan Gosz sharing a bit about his journey as a part time seller on amazon. Here is his post:
Hey everybody Jonathan Gosz here again giving a little update on how I ended the year as a part-time seller on Amazon while working a full time job.
If you would like to take a look at any of my previous posts check them out HERE, HERE, and HERE.
In my most recent post along with sharing some financial numbers I discussed a little about my personal life, the different services I use, and some of my goals for 2014.
In this post I will share my numbers that I ended with in 2014, along with how I faired on accomplishing the goals I had set. I will also discuss some of my new goals for 2015.
For 2014 I had an initial goal of selling $100,000 in total revenue on Amazon, and along with that number I wanted to profit $35,000. I am happy to say I accomplished both of these goals and well exceeded the sales number!
My Final Sales for 2014 on Amazon:
In total in 2014 I sold a total of just over 4,000 units for over $113,000. I did just over $30,000 in December alone and this was by far my best month, possibly something to do with Christmas, but a lot to do with hard work.
Overall I am VERY pleased with these numbers as this was my first full year selling online and again only doing it part-time. These numbers also show me a few areas where I would like to improve, those areas being average sales price per order and average number of units ordered per customer. Now one of those is obvious, buy more expensive items and have a higher average sales price. The other not so much. One way I am going to try and increase my # of units per order is by focusing on items that have synergy with each other where customers may be inclined to buy multiple or two separate items that relate together.
Part of the reason I was able to achieve my profit goals that I set for myself was by keeping my overhead costs extremely low. What I mean by this is I only pay for services that I currently need and that I see the value that is added to my business. These services are InventoryLab and their Scoutify scanning app. This is able to hanldle my accounting needs as well as a mobile scanning app. I feel that these alone are able to help me run an organized profitable selling business. I do not currently use a repricer as I do that manually, though I plan to look at one in the future to see where the true value is. Along with this, I do not currently have employees or warehouse space so no other “extra” costs are taking away from my profitability.
Now, I will discuss a few of my goals for 2015
I am going to lay out a few different styles of goals for 2015, some related directly to sales and numbers, and others related to different styles of sourcing and work.
Sales goals – I am putting a sales # goal of $150,000 with an average sales price of at least $30. Along with this sales # goal I am shooting for $40,000 profit after all costs.
When setting sales goals I like to go back to the classic SMART goal scenario. For those not familiar SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. This means that you want specific end points where you can see if you achieved the goal, make sure you have ways to measure the success, and make sure they are realistic and reachable.
Separate work goals – I would like to hire a part-time helper for some of my shipping needs for the Q4 season. This would most likely be a family member that I can help make some extra money and also expedite my shipping process when needed. I also have a goal of opening at a minimum 2 wholesale accounts that I can order at least $500 a month in product form. Finally, the last goal I will be sharing today is to build a relationship with at least one manufacturer so that I can eliminate the middle stages and purchase for a lower price.
I encourage everyone to set goals and hold yourself accountable to do your best to reach them.
Now for a little tip I would like to share. I encourage everyone to join some sort of small mastermind group. By this I mean join a group of 5-10 people that are likeminded sellers or in similar spots to you to share ideas and business process with. I recently joined a mastermind group with a total of 10 members almost all from Ryan’s Online Selling Experiment Facebook group. We have been a group since January, hold monthly group calls, and have a private Facebook group to share ideas, tips, and ask question to further our businesses. I believe this group will be vital to my success as I get further into my explorations of online selling as a legitimate business.
Along with my continued amazon selling I am working with Ryan on the Online Selling Reviews website where sellers can read reviews of products and services to see if they might be a good fit for their businesses. If you have any selling products, apps or services that you would like to see a review of message us on the Facebook page.
If you would like to connect with me send me a friend request on LinkedIn or leave a comment below.
Thank you to Jonathan for sharing his result for 2014, as well as the tips in this post. If you have any questions please let him know in the comments below.
Hi Jonathan, Thanks for sharing. I am a new seller – about to register with az and prepare my first shipment. I would just like to know if there are specific FBA centers where most of the groceries go. My product comes in cartons of 48 units and I was wondering if I would have to split these up, naturally also being mindful of the impact on shipping costs. I would appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks for sharing, Jonathan. I, too, am working part-time but your results inspire me. Good reminder to set goals – just like we do at our corporate gigs. 🙂
Great job on the Posting, I personally like when a strong Seller will show what their Sales / Profits are, gives me perspective for direction I may need to make. I sold $29,600 last year which was my first year, 1750 Units. In first three months of 2015, we are at $14,900 and 1100 Units. My average selling price is only about $17, big difference than $29.
I respect what others are saying here on the Blog, having tough time with building their business. I would say PLEASE DONT STOP building your AZ business, if you have no time now, you’ll DEFINATELY not have more time in the future. Building your own business will GIVE you your time in the future, maybe start with Books, CD’s, Home items, things you can find new or in thrift stores, send in many items and have them sell year round. I have over 3000 Units at Amazon and sell about 10% a month, it wouldn’t bring in huge money but I could walk away for two months and sell 550-600 items and create income. THAT helps “get your time back”.
Please keep up the great work ALL OF YOU, we all are becoming successful yet it will be in our own time when it manifests…Shawn
Thank you for posting Jonathan! It was a very nice read and also I appreciate that you shared the facebook group chat as I really wanted to join a group of like minded people. That is quite an impressive sales number for part time Amazon selling. Just wondering if you have trouble juggling your full time work along with part time selling?
Keep up the good work and I look forward to your next post!
Hi Jenny,
Thanks for taking the time to read, like anything in life its all about comfortable balance. Balance work with personal or work with work and make sure to save plenty of time to goof around so you dont go crazy.
-Jon
Jonathan thank you the information. My goal this year is $100k but I am no where near being on track to achieve that. Currently my full time job I’m working 14-15 hours and now that
spring is here my chore list is getting longer. How do you handle and find the perfect balance between your FBA business and other commitments. I’m finding it very difficult almost the point of quitting FBA because I cannot devote anytime to it and as you know if you do not feed the beast the beast ends up eating you. Once again thanks!
Thanks for the comment Aaron,
I too find myself struggling for the perfect balance at times, mainly beacuse I dont think there is one. My suggestion is find something that works for you. If it means taking a week or two off from sourcing and shipping do that. If it means only buying for a few weeks then doing one large shipment do that. Try setting weekly or monthly goals that pertain to getting tasks done vs sales numbers, such as shopping at X # of stores this week or X # this month that way there is accountability that can help lead to the larger end goal.
It’s been 2 weeks since I sent in a shipment due to some business travelling, but I am planning on sourcing this week and weekend and hopefully try and turn the remainder of this month around. Also how much of your business and OA vs RA? I see a lot of people adding OA to their business model. Especially for replenishables.