- Did you know there are thousands of people like you
and I making real money by selling on Amazon
doing retail arbitrage?
(cash register rings)
But there's also a lot of hard work
that goes into Amazon FBA
before you can ever become profitable.
So how are people making money by selling on Amazon?
Today I'm gonna tell you how I built my profitable
Amazon selling business and the five things
I wish I knew when I started.
If you're new to my channel,
my name is Nikki Kirk, and in 2017,
I quit my Los Angeles desk job making over $70,000 a year
to travel the country full time in an RV.
I started selling on Amazon doing retail arbitrage,
and within six months I was able to turn a profit
and replace that desk job income,
all while working part-time hours.
The first thing I wish I knew when I started was simply
that just starting is the hardest part.
So many people just can't get over
that first hump of starting.
When I started, I actually bought a training
in June of 2017, but I did not send in my first shipment
until the end of August of 2017.
I was in that hurdle of just starting.
And of course, we always reasons why
we're not starting something, right?
Whether we're scared or we're fearful,
or we just don't know what we're getting into,
and so we kind of like that fear of the unknown
drag our feet on it.
But if you can just simply start,
start where you're at, start with what you have,
the income and capital that you can invest into it,
start learning, and that is enough to get started.
If you can get over that first hump of watching videos
to just starting, creating your Amazon account,
that is a huge hurdle to pass.
It sounds kind of simple, right?
But literally, you can't make any money if you don't start.
And so just start where you're at is the number one thing
that I am always encouraging new sellers to start.
Right on the heels of just starting is
what I wish I would have known, number two,
which is you are going to second guess yourself a lot.
A lot.
I second guessed everything.
I started sourcing probably in early August,
but it wasn't till the end of August
that I finally pulled the trigger and bought some items.
I would second guess myself, I would go into groups,
I would talk to other sellers and say like, "Is this good?
I don't know what I'm really doing.
Does it seem like it's good?
Is it gonna make any money?"
I knew I was learning this whole new language,
but I also was second guessing everything,
because again, that fear of failure, fear of not doing it,
fear of doing something wrong.
I was just so worried that this wasn't gonna be a good buy
and so I second guessed everything.
A lot of the second guessing comes from not being confident.
You're not fully sure you understand
that you're buying a good thing,
is this gonna be profitable,
is it gonna hold its price, is it gonna tank
in its price, all these questions
that you simply don't know when you're starting.
So you're second guessing everything.
The best advice I can give you is to go out
to a Walmart or a discount store, if you have one,
and just go through and scan one full aisle.
I found this item when I started selling.
I found it in the Walmart clearance aisle.
I would literally go through the clearance aisle
and scan everything.
It kind of leads you to items
that you might not have thought of.
I didn't think I was gonna be selling Odor Eaters at all.
I don't use insoles in my shoes.
It never would have crossed my mind.
But since it was in the clearance aisle,
I went ahead and scanned it, and it made a profit.
Here's the thing, it wasn't actually a clearance item.
It was actually a brand new item
that just had launched in 2017.
And because that Walmart didn't want to put it
in their regular shelf, they didn't have space for it,
I was able to get it on the clearance aisle,
because that's where I found it.
But I went to every other Walmart
that did have space for it in the aisle
and I went and I cleared the shelf.
According to the tool Inventory>ab, which I use,
I sold 138 of these in my first year for $578 of profit.
That's pretty crazy considering I found this
just by scanning one Walmart clearance aisle.
But I didn't start clearing the shelves right away.
I was second guessing everything.
So I knew it made money, it was lightweight,
it was gonna be easy, it didn't require any packaging,
all I had to do was put a label on it, and so I tested it.
I think I probably found five or six
in that clearance aisle and I sent them in.
As soon as they sold,
that's when I went to the other Walmarts,
because I saw this thing was selling.
As the price started to come down,
well then I stopped sending them in
because they weren't really making any money anymore.
And that's just how Amazon selling goes.
But while I could sell it and make a profit,
I was selling it, 138 insoles.
The third thing is something I actually knew,
but that I wish more YouTubers and people who sell
would convey to new sellers is
that it's going to take time to make money.
You are not gonna make money in a month.
No business is successful right out the gate like that,
and Amazon is no different.
The thing is it's not even technically possible
to make money within a month,
because let's say I sent out a product today into Amazon.
Well, it's gonna take a couple days for UPS
to drop it to Amazon and Amazon's gonna take a while
to process it and it's gonna become available
and it's gonna come up for sale.
It might take awhile to sell.
So even if the best case scenario I sent it in today
and it was available next week,
an Amazon customer bought it because I bought
that hot product and it just sold right away,
Amazon's gonna hold that money back to cover returns,
chargebacks, all of that, for another week or two.
And then it will become available in my next payout.
It's a really long game.
So whatever money you're putting into it now,
it will sell eventually if you found the right product,
but it's not gonna be an overnight success.
It technically can't even happen within four weeks.
But it really does work.
Sellers are getting started every day
and they are making it on Amazon.
My whole community is full of these sellers
who are making it.
You can make money selling on Amazon,
but you do have to take the time and put in the time
because it's not gonna happen overnight.
In fact, it might take you six months
before you ever really can pull any kind
of substantial profit out of your business.
That $12,000 profit I showed you in the beginning,
that was my Q4 last year profit.
And this Q4 is actually looking that I'm gonna do 30% more.
So almost $16,000 of profit by selling on Amazon.
And like I said in the beginning, I do this part-time.
I go sourcing one day a week, I pack stuff up another day,
sometimes it takes two days depending
on how big the shipment is, and then that's it.
That's my whole work week, two or three days.
The fourth thing I wish I knew when I started was
that ungating is worth the investment.
So if you're totally new to Amazon,
there are restricted brands and categories.
Like when I started, I couldn't sell in grocery.
It goes off and on.
As of right now, I think it's still gated in grocery,
but like toys, you'll be gated in a lot of big toy brands.
You might be gated in health and personal care,
beauty type items.
So those gated categories are usually, in my case,
where all of the high profit is,
especially at retail arbitrage.
I sell so much grocery, so much beauty items.
I am selling a lot of toys also,
but the thing that I wish I would have done
was get ungated first.
The reason I didn't do it is because it's an investment.
I'm gonna spend this money to place the order
to get the invoice, and then,
if I even find products to order
from the distributor that make a profit,
they might not make more than like 50 cents or a dollar.
So it's basically money that you're kind of
just throwing away to get the invoice,
but you're not throwing it away.
It's an investment because now that you're ungated
with this invoice, you can go out to retail arbitrage
and buy all of the different brands
and categories that you got ungated for,
and that is where the real profit is.
Here's another snapshot of some of my high profit items
I've sold over the years, and you'll notice
they're all beauty and grocery.
So for me, I waited, I started in August,
and I didn't get ungated until October.
What is that, like two months?
But that two months was so crucial.
I was kicking myself, literally, as soon as I got ungated
that I waited even just two months.
So if you can get ungated, definitely get ungated.
I wish I would have done it sooner.
And you've probably heard me say in videos
because it's my number one regret
when I started was not getting ungated sooner.
The fifth and final thing that I wish I would have known
or had a real grasp on is that it's physically
and mentally exhausting.
Selling on Amazon is work.
And you have to put in that time and effort
and physical work to make money and make a profit
and make this a viable business.
Amazon is always changing.
They updated their whole site this year,
and that's the third time since I started four years ago.
So everything is always changing on Amazon.
They might send you an email about something,
a product needs this, or you might get some kind
of complaint or you'll get a customer return,
and you're like, "Ugh."
So many things are gonna get thrown at you all the time.
You will always be learning something in this business.
And when you're outsourcing doing retail arbitrage,
it's physically exhausting.
If you're like me and you only go one day a week,
I go all day and I go hard.
I go 12-hour sourcing trips driving all over, exhausted.
I have to remind myself to eat.
I will go get coffee to give myself that perk,
but it's exhausting.
Your feet hurt, your back hurt, everything hurts.
But more than that, it's mentally exhausting.
When you're dealing with all the different things
that come with running a business,
because you are running a business,
it can be really easy to throw in the towel,
if that is an option in your mind.
So I always recommend set your mindset,
give yourself I'm gonna test this out for six months
and I'm not gonna quit, I'm gonna give it my all.
Because if you allow any of that mental negative energy in,
you're gonna be a lot easier
to just throw in the towel and quit.
You will have bad days, I'll tell you right now,
they will happen.
You will have frustrating days.
You will have awesome days.
All of it is just the joys of running your own business,
and they have ups and downs.
So I always recommend getting into a community,
talking to other sellers, because if you have family members
or spouse or a partner who does not think
that this thing is gonna work or who thinks you're crazy
as your kitchen table is piled high of inventory,
well, it's gonna be really easy to kind of give up
when that's what you're surrounded with.
But if you surround yourself, not only with that,
but with this whole community of sellers
who are encouraging you, they're celebrating your wins
that maybe no one else really understands,
it really is all the difference.
I love networking with other Amazon sellers.
I learn something new every day, it's awesome.
And so I strongly encourage you to get connected
into a community if you can.
So how did I become profitable?
Literally, it's as easy as I did not give up.
I never allowed quitting to be an option.
I gave myself this timeframe.
I had the money I was gonna invest in it.
I learned the tools, I took the trainings,
I did all the work and I went out
and I sourced and I made it happen.
The process of doing retail arbitrage
is really kind of simple.
However, it is a lot of work.
So it's you go buy something and you sell it on Amazon.
It's simple, right?
But there's so many factors, like is it a good buy,
is it a bad buy, is it gonna make money,
is it gonna tank in price, can I even sell it?
All these different things that come up.
And so that's why I am so excited
to help new sellers anyway I can.
I created all kinds of different courses and guides
to help new sellers get started
to minimize those pain points that I had when I started.
I kept rolling over my profit.
Every time I would send a shipment in and get my money back
from Amazon, I will go buy more inventory
and I would keep feeding the beast, as they say.
So I just kept sending stuff into Amazon
and all of that stuff would sell.
Some of it for great profit, some of them for okay profit,
but I would just keep selling over and over.
And eventually that's how I became profitable.
I kept going, I didn't quit,
and I kept sending in inventory.
Anything you can do, as much capital as you can,
you can start selling on Amazon.
If you want my help, I have the Beginner FBA selling course
where I walk you through 14 courses step-by-step
how to get started from opening your account
to how to source inventory,
doing retail arbitrage and online arbitrage.
I walk you through Amazon FBA and FBM,
which is fulfilled by merchant,
or as I call it, fulfilled by me.
And I walk you through the whole process
of just running your business,
really helping you get through that first six months.
And because I'm all about community,
it comes with a really awesome support group of sellers
so that you're not going it alone.
If you have a question, I'm in there answering it.
I have live every third Thursday live Q and A
right in the Facebook group so that you can ask me questions
and I will answer them live.
And it's just got a really great community of sellers
to help you on your way.
Experienced sellers, new sellers,
answering all of your questions,
and we all learn this Amazon thing together.
I'm gonna leave this video with you,
but a couple of the community successes from sellers
who have taken the beginner FBAs course.
If you liked this video, don't forget to subscribe,
and I'll see you back here for another Amazon selling video.
(upbeat music)