Tariffs are Here.. It's over for Amazon FBA Sellers

Hey, how's it going, y'all? Hopefully this is working already. Let's see, hopefully I'm good. Yeah, looks like I'm good. Perfect. How's it going, guys? So today we're gonna be discussing tariffs. It's a big thing that's going on in the Amazon FBA world right now. I'm getting a lot of questions as far as, you know, how we're impacted. What does this mean for Amazon FBA sellers? And just wanted to go ahead and basically do this live just to kind of get some clarity as far as what's going on with Amazon and just tariffs as a whole, right? Because as an Amazon FBA seller, we've been through like COVID, we've been through a different number of hurdles when it comes to both Amazon, China, and just the economy as a whole, right? Because we can't control what we can't control. So we can only go ahead and do stuff based on what is given to us. So in this actual, you know, live video, we're gonna go over a lot of things, right? So we're gonna go over like the overview of the new tariffs, the direct impact for Amazon FBA sellers, like the economy effect and why this is happening, a political strategy as far as what Trump is doing, why we're going ahead and doing this, and if I think it's gonna stick, right? Like there are a lot of like frequently asked questions right now that's going on in the Amazon FBA realm. And I want to be able to go ahead and kind of answer everything to the best of my ability. For one, because I'm using different strategies in my business and I'm going ahead and kind of implementing them now as well to try and offset these tariffs, because we knew these tariffs were going to come. We just didn't know how crazy they were going to be. And we're going to go over how crazy every single country tariff actually is. And then there also is like a silver lining to all of this. Like you can see it on my screen right now. Like there's this loophole that's officially been closed. And basically with the, the, the minimus, and I know I'm going ahead and saying it wrong, but basically this was, was like Shein and like these companies like Temu were able to kind of ship from China into the US without having to pay these exorbitant amounts of money on shipping. And that's where you're able to go ahead and get like super cheap items from China for relatively like nothing because of this, this loophole right here that was closed. Um, because it's a duty-free kind of shipment. Anything below $800, if it's a one-time thing, if it's one item that's less than $800, you can go ahead and bypass these large shipping fees. So what also we want to go over is basically my final thoughts as well. So I'm just gonna go ahead and give some people a few minutes to go ahead and get in here. I'm gonna try and see if there's any, you know, further questions here that we can go ahead and go over before I kind of officially go live. So yeah, I'm here right now. So we got a few viewers. I have it kind of live right now, um, on both, uh, YouTube, Instagram, and others. So let's go ahead and kind of jump into this right now, and then let's go do a few wins as well. So let me go ahead and share that first before anything else. We have one of our members, Sherwin, that actually purchased a house. So congratulations to Sherwin. How's Cali? Cali's good, man. Cali's good. So let's just jump in on it. So the overview of tariffs. Sorry, guys. I'm just having some technical difficulties right now. As far as different voices. All right, so I think we're ready. So as far as our overview of tariffs, you guys can go ahead and see my screen now. Oh, got it fixed. So what is going to get affected as far as these tariffs are concerned? Well, right now most of us make our products in China, and every single country had a tariff of at least 10%, and now we went ahead and implemented an extra 10%. So originally before April and this whole announcement of what ended up happening, we had a baseline of 20% tariffs when it came to China as a whole. And now we went ahead and added an extra 34% tariff on any Chinese imports. So now we're looking at 54% total tariffs in China, which again, it's crazy. And basically here is kind of the breakdown, um, as far as how these tariffs look like. You might not be able to go ahead and see it, but there it is. So China is getting basically an extra 34%, European Union 20%, Vietnam 46%, 32%. You guys go ahead and get the picture here, right? So in total, if you're importing something from China, you're basically going ahead and getting what I mentioned over here, a 54% total tariff. So that means if you have a product that you're producing for $10, Now you're paying an extra $5.40 per unit on this actual tariff on China, which again, it's going to have ripple effects for years to come if this stands. Right. So again, that's a big if, if it stands again, and let's go ahead and see, like, is everything being cool? As far as the stream, is everything cool on the stream itself? Yeah. You guys can go ahead and see, just trying to make sure everything's working properly. It's the first time we're going ahead and using YouTube. YouTube. So I want to make sure that everything is working out fine, which it seems like it is. Okay, so let's go back to this. So other countries that are affected is gonna be Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, the EU, Japan. So you guys can go ahead and see that the total tariffs for these actual countries— so even if you produce your products in China, you're trying to go ahead and go to a different country to avoid these tariffs from China, like, there is no hiding. Right? Like you might be able to go ahead and find a country like we mentioned here that might not have like, let's say, you know, Colombia or like Chile or like Israel or Singapore that already have just a 10% type of tariff. Like we might be able to go ahead and go into those countries to start manufacturing, but you have to understand that these countries are not known for manufacturing. So that's, that's the whole complexity of this, right? Like countries that are known for manufacturing items, are hit the hardest with these tariffs. So again, that's crazy to me, right? So again, we talked about this and when these actually come into effect, well, some of these tariffs actually are coming into effect the 5th, but most of these tariffs, if not all of these tariffs, are going to be in effect starting April 9th, which again, that is crazy to think that we barely got a 7-day notice of how crazy these tariffs are going to go ahead and directly impact us. So how is this going to be basically directly impacting us Amazon FBA sellers? Well, I've stated here as far as some bullet points, right? Like there's going to be massive cost increases on goods sourced from China and other affected countries. There is no hiding it. Right. And like, I'm not here to sugarcoat anything. Like this is basically like a black swan type of event. And the closest thing to this is like COVID and COVID was completely different, right? Like we knew COVID was going to pass. Somehow, some way, this tariff basically seems like it's here to stay. I know that it might be a negotiating tactic, which we'll go over a little bit extra in this actual video later on. But this is a black swan event, and we can go ahead and only react to what the information or like, you know, based on what's what's going ahead and happening. And again, every single type of of of of supplies is going to be impacted, right? Supplements, electronics, textiles, home goods—nearly every single category is impacted on this. So you guys have to go ahead and realize that regardless of what type of product you're going to go ahead and sell, like you're going to be impacted. And even U.S.-made products, right? Like let's say people are going to go ahead and say like, okay, let's start going ahead and making products in the United States, right? Like made in USA products, which is okay. It's fine to go ahead and say that in theory, but you have to understand that most of these manufacturers are also sourcing a lot of their raw material from China. Right? So even their cost is going up, and it's not like they're going to absorb all of these actual raw material costs, right? So basically no one is safe, right? So tariffs tie up cash flow, raises landed cost, and squeeze margins. And this is kind of the, the biggest one here, right? Like, the thing is, like, um, tariffs being increased by 54%, like, every single manufacturer Is going to feel this some way or another, right? That's why I don't think the 54% tariff in China or these exorbitant amounts of tariffs that we kind of went over earlier is going to stick. Like there's no way it sticks because that means that a bunch of different companies are about to go under, right? So I'm going to pull up like the stock market right now and like how it kind of ended because again, I do think that this is a black swan event. Um, and that is why the stock market is like crashing. Like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take for an example, right, like Apple today, right? So let me share my screen again. So Apple today is down 10%. This is a $3 trillion company, right? So that means right around $300 billion got erased from Apple. Because of these tariff news, and think about it. It's not just Apple, right? Like, think about Nike. Think about Lululemon. Think about these basically all of these products being made either China or somewhere. You know, basically anybody who sells direct to consumer, direct to another B to B as far as wholesaling. Think about all those companies that are getting impacted by this, right? This is why I mean that this is a black swan event, and you know if this actually holds true, a lot of these businesses are going to go out of business. Because they have employees, they go ahead and have overhead costs. And the only way they are able to make an exorbitant amount of profit is because one, we don't get tariffs that much, but they manufacture in places that are known to manufacture certain items, right? So even you can see like Amazon's getting impacted, Microsoft, Nvidia is getting impacted. I know Facebook was down like 7% too. And you would think, say, well, how— why is Facebook You know, getting impacted by this? Well, the reason why is because they make their money on advertising. And who advertises on Facebook, right? People that sell products. And if they're no longer being able to go ahead and sell those products, this obviously means that they're going to have a huge ripple effect on every single type of industry, which again, it's gonna make a huge impact, right? So let me check right now first to see if I have any questions. On both here. Ghana's here. How's it going, Ghana? Krem's here. Any questions on Discord? I don't have any questions on Discord right now. All right, well, they'll come. I'll keep on checking to see if you guys have questions, but let's go ahead and continue on with, um, this over here. So again, Chinese sellers are also impacted, um, but many still win on price, right? So what I was going to say here, and the reason why I put that, is I felt like Okay, maybe there is a silver lining to you know this right because Chinese sellers are going to be impacted, but mostly because of this ruling right here. Right, as opposed to like us selling on Amazon and other Amazon FBA sellers from China, I felt like okay, maybe now that you know these tariffs are in effect, they might be impacted. But the truth of the matter is that these sellers are you know it's not going to be impacted so much. They're still going to have a cheaper price than us, right? They're still going to manufacture. gonna be able to show a lower cost of goods sold amount, and these tariffs are going to kind of impact them as well. Right. So yeah, they're impacted, but they still win on price, right? So we're still gonna have that same problem where, you know, Chinese sellers are still gonna be able to go ahead and beat us on price. So that's why, you know, we have to go ahead and win on positioning, segmentation, targeting, and basically just positioning our way to, to, To a higher price point, right? So what are the ripple effects here, right? So imports from overseas is $3.2 trillion, which is 12% of our GDP, right? So if we take into account this number right over here, like this is insane. Let me just go ahead into here. It looks like yeah. So 12% of our entire GDP. So what this means is that we are likely going into a recession very, very soon, right? If we're not in one already. So The thing is that this might impact 12%, but it's going to have a ripple effect into every single industry. We just mentioned Facebook, right? If people aren't advertising on Facebook, their earnings are obviously going to go ahead and show that they're down year over year, month over month, quarter over quarter. It's going to vastly accelerate. Again, 12% is a huge number. And if people start getting laid off, that means now the local economy starts suffering. That means the service industry starts suffering. So again, by us impacting 12% of our entire GDP with imports from overseas, like, again, I, I don't see how this can't lead into like kind of like Great Depression type numbers, which again, I don't like to be a doom and gloom type of guy. And again, I— you'll see later on, I don't, I don't feel like this is going to go ahead and stick, but as it is right now, these are some type of doom and gloom type depression type things that are going on right now. All right. So it's also in the short term, like you might actually see sales pick up in the short term because there's going to be very high inflationary pressures because the first thing that people are going to jump to the most, and I don't, I don't foresee you guys doing it right now, is they see tariffs coming in. So they're going to start raising their prices very quickly. And the people that are very new to Amazon FBA, that's the first thing they're going to go ahead and do. Right. And this is kind of like a simple way of thinking where consumers are going to say, look, They're going to raise their prices over time. So why not go ahead and purchase all my products now before this price increases? So that's a mindset that a customer might have. So you might actually see more sales in the short term, but obviously it's going to even out in the, in, over time where people are going to go ahead and, you know, not purchase as often, but there definitely will be inflationary pressures. Right. And we'll go over like strategies that I'm going to go ahead and be doing and strategies I think you guys should be going ahead and doing. And there might be some supply chain reshuffling likely, right? So what people have already started about— started talking about doing is instead of going from China to the US, going from China to like Mexico, where, you know, Mexico's impacted by 25% in these tariffs, right? So by being able to go ahead and instead of shipping your product straight from China into the United States, go ahead and go to Mexico first and then get into the United States afterwards, right? So there's some positioning. You might have to still do something in Mexico, like packaging this type of stuff in order to go ahead and kind of bypass this. But there's certain strategies already being talked about as far as offsetting these type of tariffs that are going on. Again, I'm just trying to go ahead and give you as much value as possible or information as possible. And over time, like I mentioned before, consumer demand may soften. Sellers must brace for slower sales in the long term, right? If this stuff sticks. So again, I'm going to go ahead and see if we have any questions so far here. I want to be able to go ahead and answer as much. So how government apply the tariffs, apply tariffs to the US because you ship a company from China to send our goods directly to Amazon. Are they asked the value of the goods? Yeah. So talk to the freight forwarder. I'll give you my freight forwarder as well, Ghana. You're, you're in the one-on-one mentorship. So I've already started talking to our freight forwarder to see kind of what strategies we can go ahead and start doing already to kind of either lower the cost of goods or whatever it might be. Right. So obviously legal type of strategies that we can go ahead and do because based on some stuff happening right now, it's a panic, right? There's so much panic right now. Like people are trying to get boats out of China before the 9th when these tariffs actually are enacted. So it's going to be like a shit show, to be honest with you. Like these next week is going to be crazy. So again, just message me on the side and we'll go ahead and kind of discuss what the strategies are moving forward. We'll go ahead and be able to go ahead and kind of not necessarily bypass this, but see what type of strategies we can go ahead and use. And let me just go ahead and check other outlets to see if we have any other questions somewhere else. No, I'm not seeing them there. Okay, let me just check one more thing here. Okay, so no questions there. Okay, let's go ahead and move on to the next question. So what's the strategy? Like, what's the political strategy of the United States, right? This is likely a strategic move to just push trade leverage with China, right? So obviously this has already been said on multiple fronts that this is just leverage that we're going ahead and doing because these, these type of tariffs are crazy to even think about. All right. Like adding a 34% tariff already on top of the 10% tariff from everybody on top of, you know, the extra 10% tariff they already went ahead and made in China. Like this has to be A retaliation type of move, right? Like that—that's what it seems like, right? That's what we're all hoping for, right? So may not stick if the new administration comes in. So I was thinking about this as far as like okay, this might be crazy for the first like one or two years if this sticks, right? But chances are we're going to get back to a free market eventually. You see, the only reason why this is all going on, and I can you kind of use the most basic examples, is that we're buying rice from you know China, right? In exchange, they're buying our beans. And right now we're buying way more rice than China is buying our beans. And we want to get to an equilibrium, right? So if China is, is not going to buy the beans, then the only way we can go ahead and have, you know, it be fair is that we raise tariffs. So we're going to be collecting the same amount as if they are buying our beans, right? Because you have to understand that these countries that we're enacting these tariffs to, They can't afford American-made products. Can you, can you like, can you imagine that? Like, let's think about like one of the poorest countries in the world. Like, think about it in your head. I'm not gonna say a country, but like, just think about the poorest country. And now, you know, this administration is going ahead and telling them, you have to purchase our goods. How are they supposed to purchase our goods? Right? Like, you— everybody already has that mindset that it's so expensive in the United States to go ahead and purchase stuff. Like, we're obviously going to go ahead— they can't purchase our, our goods, right? So That's the whole concept of like, this just doesn't make sense, right? Like, obviously people think that it's going to bring jobs back to America. And obviously I would hope that they do surveys to see like what type of people would like to go ahead and work in these type of fields that we're purchasing these products from. But again, that'll be a different story for a different day. So we had a similar in 2018 and '20 trade war. The tariffs often became long-term. So there was tariffs that we enacted nowhere near the size of these tariffs. And they did stick. So there is a concern that even if the new administration does come in in the next four years, that this you know tariffs might stick because people get used to it. So changes are possible, right? In 2029, especially if we enter into Great Depression type numbers that again, if this sticks, there is a possibility that this does happen, right? Like again, this is kind of a black swan event. Like we knew tariffs were coming, but We never knew to these extents. Okay. And again, I don't like to go go ahead and get political here. Like Trump has done amazing things already as far as like the borders and everything like that. But this one is is kind of like everybody's scratching their head about it, right? Like there's there's no way around us scratching our heads. So so how do you calculate your new cost for the tariffs? It's kind of important for every Amazon FBA seller, right? So let's say you're going ahead and producing a ten dollar item right now to produce. Right now we're not paying too much in tariffs, right? Like the original ten percent plus the original ten percent plus twenty percent tariff, right? So that means that Instead of going ahead and paying, you know, $10 to produce a product or, you know, get it manufactured, now we have to pay $12, right? So definitely impacts us. It's definitely gonna impact the bottom line, but it's manageable, right? With the 54% tariff, that means that that $10 product is now $15. And just in perspective, let's say we, the only thing we do is raise our price. That means that we have to increase our actual purchase price, our retail price of our actual item. From $30 to $40 increased, right? So you guys know if you guys are you know in the one-on-one course that for every $10 item, I expect you guys to go ahead and be able to charge at least $60 for your product, right? Or get close to at $60. So a six to x amount. So if you're charging $60 and now you're implementing a you know 54% tariff, that means that no longer sticks anymore. You have to charge 90. To $100 for your actual item. So again, that's a huge markup on your actual products. Are you going to be able to do that? Most people might say no right now, but if everybody raising their prices is justifiable, right? So again, the first thing you should do is not to increase these prices this high. We're going to try and find different ways to go ahead and offset these prices. But just know, so again, renegotiating with your supplier, your freight forwarder, these are kind of the action plans, right? Like you have to go ahead and try and do this. Everyone's feeling the pain and everybody from China manufacturers, they don't want to go ahead and see you not order products, right? They don't want to see you not ship products because that's going to impact their economy very, very harsh. Right? So again, we're all in this kind of together to basically help each other ourselves. So if you've been working with your freight forwarder or your manufacturer for a very long period of time, like go ahead and reach out to them and see what you can go ahead and negotiate. Okay, I'm just trying to see if there's any other questions here. No questions here. Any questions here? Yeah, if you guys have any questions throughout, man, like again, I'm, I'm just here to give you as much knowledge as possible. Let's see. Do you think that most people won't even start Amazon FBA because of the tariffs? Do you think most people will quit Amazon FBA because of being scared from the tariffs? That's a great question, man. And that's gonna— we're gonna go over this. I do think that, you know, some-minded individuals— I'm not gonna say what type, but some-minded individuals, like, take any type of inconvenience and convince themselves that this is not possible anymore, right? So I don't think this is the case, man. Like, I'm not gonna go and, like, sell all my businesses and not do Amazon FBA ever again. These are just adjustments that we have to go ahead and make. Like, the higher the barrier to entry, to be honest with you, The better, because it's going to sway away so many different types of people that it's going to be less competitive in the long term. Like I can already see a lot of like Chinese competitors or people that are barely starting out. They're just going to quit and say, "I'm going to move on to the next thing," right? Which again, do I blame them? No. I mean, if they don't have the knowledge and expertise or like the calmness to kind of navigate this, it's understandable, right? Okay. Do you think this would be the new norm? Will people just pay for a higher price? but they know about the tariffs. That's the thing, man. Like, eventually— like, inflation has been around for a very long time, and, you know, uh, inflation, you know, is, is a thing, right? Stuff goes up, stuff comes down, stuff stays sideways. I do think that eventually this will be the new normal, but the thing is, it's— that's a great question. It's a very great, very, very great question. Um, Let me let me kind of I'm digesting it right now. So what I what I think is that because I think this is a black swan event, I do think that it could result in a depression if you know this nothing changes, right? And if it does spark a depression, I do think that you know tariffs have to go away, right? So I don't think that this customers will get used to this if a depression does happen. But let's say, you know, we do have that soft landing that we've been kind of discussing, and I think we're very close to a soft landing in the economy. Um, I do think that if we do, you know, have this soft landing, um, I think people will get used to these higher prices, to be honest with you. Just like gas prices, right? Like gas prices used to be that $5 a gallon was crazy, especially here in, you know, California or in Los Angeles. But now $5 a gallon is like the normal. It's like, you know, people are used to going ahead and paying that. Right. All right. Let's see if I have any other questions here. All right. So let's go ahead and kind of move on forward on this here. So again, renegotiating there, where should you source next? Right. Mexico, India, Thailand. The thing is that if there's, there's always this concept called China plus one. And what does this mean? Right. That means that if you manufacture all your products in China, you better make sure you have a plus one. Of something like this might be happening, right? The thing is that let's say you go ahead and start producing your products in the United States. Again, some of these manufacturers have to source their material from other countries like China, right? And they're gonna have to pay an import fee, so they're obviously gonna raise their prices. But at the same time, their, their employees cost a lot more, right? So the cost of goods sold is already going to be higher in places like the United States. It's already going to be higher in places like Mexico, right? As compared to China or India or, you know, places that are known for manufacturing. That's the whole reason why we manufacture in these countries is because the mindset of an individual there is very hardworking. They're going to go ahead and go ahead and, and, you know, have better quality. I've seen stuff that is made in the United States that is way lesser quality than stuff that's made in China. It's just that this perception that we have with stuff that's made in China, right? So I wouldn't go ahead and, you know, source Anywhere else for the short term right now. Just play it out. Let's wait to play it out and kind of see from here. But I do think it is time to start, you know, reaching out to manufacturers in Mexico, in India, and other places like that. Well, Amazon help. Okay. It's unlikely that Amazon's gonna go ahead and help indirectly. So what I mean by this is that Amazon's probably down just as much as yeah, you can see right here. Amazon's down. 9%, 10%, um, today. So obviously they know that they're going to go ahead and get impacted a lot too, right? So Amazon has like 2 choices, right? Like how any, how any business is run, you have 2 choices, right? Like just stay the status quo or take initiative. So I do think that if these tariffs do stick, they're going to, you know, lower fees for Amazon FBA sellers to try and figure out how to go ahead and bypass these tariffs and bypassed, you know, all these different types of expenses. So I do think that there are going to be some indirect support that Amazon will do, whether that's going ahead and lowering their FBA costs or lowering, you know, their storage costs or lowering their seller fees somewhere right there. Right. So they, the smart move for Amazon to do is to lower these fees because over time they know that if they do this and they're helping sellers, more and more sellers are going to remember and stay loyal to Amazon. Right? So this, this is kind of like a great case study that's going to be done with Amazon to see what they actually do with their sellers. And if they go ahead and give them, you know, a life vest, right? And then a question, should you quit Amazon? No, adapt. Don't quit, man. Again, everybody said that Amazon FBA has been dead for the last couple of years. And I remember in 2020, like that was kind of the time that A lot of people walked away from Amazon FBA because it's like, I can't get my stuff out of China. I can only ship in a few things into Amazon. And look what happened in 2021. People had their best year ever, 2021, 2022, right? Like these numbers that people were selling on Amazon for 2021 and '22, when everybody started quitting, like it was insane. And think about it like this, man. Like look at the trend going forward, right? If we're like a retail, like a brick and mortar location and like some stuff like this happened, It might be time to kind of pivot to somewhere else, right? But where do you see yourself like shopping in the next 5 years, right? Is it going to be online or is it going to be in person? Is it going to be, you know, like, you know, in different country? The thing is that like Amazon is going to continue to grow and it's going to be a platform that continuously gets more and more people actually shopping on their platform. So let's see if we have any more questions here. All right. Is TerraBase— wow. Okay. Does customers still buy, um, The product when we mark up the price too high because it's very sensitive about the price. Amazon customers' habits are not really like that. Yeah, I mean again, I wouldn't raise your prices right now, right? I would wait and see what ends up actually happening April 9th. Like the good thing is that like it's only a few days away if these actual tariffs are going to go ahead and stick. Once we kind of get some more clarity and we start getting charged that big amount in tariffs, then we can go ahead and decide what we're going to go ahead and do, right? Because these If your products are already on a cargo, and I just confirmed this with our freight forwarder, if your goods are already on a cargo, you're not going to get charged the extra tariff. It's only for new items that are leaving China, which unlucky for me, I have a lot of shipment that's going to leave China and I didn't make the April 9th deadline. So I'm going to have to wait and see what actually happens. Yeah. So Amazon should lower the fee. You're right, man. All right. Any other questions here? Yeah, but the last thing you guys should go ahead and do is you know jump ship from Amazon. Okay, all right. So, which you guys all came here like what are the strategies right moving forward? Okay, so it's like renegotiating with suppliers, right? Like you have to look at every single thing in the supply chain, and the supply chain obviously starts with manufacturing. So going back to your manufacturer and seeing what type of incentive they can go ahead and give you, chances are if you've been working with them for a very long time and they haven't raised the price on you or they haven't lowered the price on you, that means that they've been making money, right? And I learned this kind of the hard way where, you know, when I started partnering up with like investors, the one thing that stuck with me was that I would tell them like, look, my manufacturer never raised their price on me. Like they've been very loyal to me. They've been very good. Never raised the price. And they told me that if it's been 7 years and they've never raised their prices on you, that means that they have made money off of you and they've charged you enough money for them to be happy without giving you a price increase. And that stuck with me. It kind of stung me, you know, in a sense, because he's right. It's right. Like these, these suppliers are known and very good at negotiating. You have to understand that this is what they do for a living, right? So Again, going back there, and even if they tell you that they can't, they can't bring the price even lower, now it's time to go ahead and start going to a different manufacturer that will bring that price down, right? This is a free market that we have in China. If one person doesn't, you know, agree on a price, or like we don't like their price, there's a— there's another manufacturer that can go ahead and make it. And oftentimes the same quality with the same stitching, or if not, or if not, I've seen— I've worked with China enough to know that they have material that they can go ahead and substitute your material That will make your product even better at a cheaper price point, because some of these materials are high just because you know there's certain types of materials. So that's one thing to kind of go and renegotiate, making sure that you know maybe there is some other type of you know material that they can go ahead and change your product to that will be actually cheaper or weigh less. Or you know that's what I mean about the whole supply chain, right? Like obviously we can go ahead and ask to renegotiate our prices with our manufacturer. We can ask our freight forwarder and Amazon, obviously we can't ask them, but we can go ahead and kind of lower our weight for our actual product. Maybe go ahead and make a smaller version of our actual product. So we can go ahead and get to the lowest tier when it comes to FBA fees and there, right there and then we can go ahead and kind of make up for all of this tariff talk, right? It will make up for all of it in my opinion, but there's certain different ways to go ahead and do that. And different sites, explore new sourcing countries, right? Like I mentioned before, the China plus one, right? Trying to figure out like if there is other places, right? Like that can go ahead and produce our items for a cheaper price point. And then optimizing shipping and PPC to reclaim lost margin, right? If we don't have a lot of margin or actual product, it might be time to go ahead and kind of focus on like tacos. I hate focusing on tacos on Amazon FBA, just because, you know, The most important thing is you going ahead and making a profit at the end of the day, right? As long as you're spending on PPC and you're making enough money and profit that you're satisfied with it, who cares what the metrics think as far as like TACoS is concerned? But you know, if you aren't making any money and you can't absorb these, now it's time to actually have some strategy behind your PPC and only target keywords that are actually going ahead and delivering and only focusing on that bottom line, right? And then consider local light manufacturing for select SKUs. Again, that's what I mentioned before, like maybe going ahead and substituting different material or, or whatnot for different SKUs that you currently have. And then let me get to the silver lining. But before I get to the silver lining, let me see if there's any more questions here. Amazon should lower their fees. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. They should. Any questions here? No questions there. All right. All right. So let's get to the silver lining, right? So silver lining here is like Chinese sellers now also face tariff for more of a level playing field, right? So it's not like we are the only ones that have to go ahead and like pay these tariffs. Everybody does, right? There might be some people that got lucky and are manufacturing their products in India, which I have one supplier that we're closing on a business that you know our suppliers from India. We obviously still get impacted though. Like even though we're not paying 54%, we're still paying upwards of 20% on these tariffs. So but that's the silver lining there that that it's it's not like someone's getting singled out, right? Like everybody's going to go ahead and get impacted the most. And this is a quote. This is a crazy thing, right? It's like most of most of these larger companies like Taiwan Semiconductor. TSMC and like Facebook, they told Trump that they're going to go ahead and invest all this money in the United States in hopes that they don't go ahead and be implemented like semiconductors for TSMC, like don't get impacted by these tariffs, right? So they said they're going to pledge, you know, $900 million to go ahead and invest in Arizona or anything like that. But the truth of the matter is that like they don't have to do that all up front, right? They can just promise in the next 10 years to go ahead and do this. And then when the new administration comes in, And, you know, these tariffs are over with now. They don't have to invest in the United States, right? So again, this is just a political game. And just, um, that's what I think, I think it mostly is, right? It's just a political game at this point in time to try and see how much we can go ahead and, um, you know, make money off of these individuals on these individual countries. All right. So a nearshoring trend, right? So what I mentioned before, they're not going to ship straight from China into the US. If these tariffs stick, they're going to go ahead and kind of get rerouted, whether that be you know producing all your products in China and then the final package is going to be done in Mexico and then from Mexico it's going to go ahead and get shipped over right here. So again, that's just one tactic that you can go ahead and already use based on this, right? So again, most people aren't going to go ahead and tell you these kind of like secrets that you can go ahead and do. One because they don't know, right? That's that's the whole concept of like Amazon FBA and I hate. You know, sellers that actually don't sell on Amazon because they really have no skin in the game. They have no incentive, right? Like I have to figure out this whole tariff situation and I have to find different ways that I can go ahead and save costs. Why? Because I depend on Amazon FBA. So I need to go ahead and figure out this way. And this is why I always give advice as far as what I do in my business. I always like to go ahead and share it because obviously it's going to help some people. And I believe in good karma. Okay, next thing: sellers who adapt can gain market share as others quit. I mentioned before, that's the number one question you know I'm getting asked before. Is Amazon FBA still worth it after these tariffs? And Amazon FBA is still worth it. Okay, and the more people think that Amazon FBA is dead or you know it's not going to be sufficient enough, that's less competition for you and I, right? So. So some products may become viable for made in the US. Yeah, there might be some. I put it right here. There might be some. I don't want to go ahead and discredit like made in the US just because I don't want to seem like I'm bashing making your products in the US or anything like that. Obviously, I live in the US. I love the US. But most of the time, made in the US products aren't going to be quote unquote cheaper, right? They're obviously— they're actually going to be way more expensive. And when they're way more expensive, it's harder to compete. So final thoughts here. We survived COVID, right? Before I go over this, let me go ahead and see if we have any other kind of questions here. No questions there. Cool. Okay, so we survived COVID, right? There was restock limits. There was insane freight hikes. Oh my God, I remember that, man. It was like triple the price to go ahead and get containers to to get into the U.S. I'm sorry, you're not even looking at my screen. Insane freight hikes, right? Like if you can survive that, which was probably the craziest time to be an Amazon FBA seller because at least we got some warning off of these tariffs, right? We did not get any warning with when COVID hit and everything shut down, especially in China where nothing was moving. Like I was out of stock on some items. So like if if you can survive that, I think that this is, this is a piece of cake to go ahead and survive, to be honest with you. Obviously I don't want to say a piece of cake, but it kind of holds a candle to what happened with COVID right? So the fear is unknown, but that's always been the part of e-com, right? Like there's always different types of complexities that go on in the Amazon FBA world. There's always some unknown. And look, this is not just include ecommerce, right? This includes every single type of industry. Like, how many times have you heard that the housing market is going to go ahead and crash, right? And right now, probably the last 2 years, real estate agents have had the hardest job ever with the highest interest rates and nobody going ahead and purchasing houses, mortgage brokers going hungry, going out of business, man. Like, it's not just ecommerce, right? Like, there's different industries that have to deal with certain stuff. It's just a matter of time now that we have to go ahead and deal with something like this. Right? So again, the only the strong people are going to survive. And this may you know spark better systems, suppliers, branding, and margins long term. And like if you can go in there and raise your prices, and now you're making exorbitant amounts of money. What happens if the next administration goes and gets rid of tariffs? Right? Like what ends up happening there? That means that you are going to be printing money in 2029. Right, and I think, to be honest with you, the best time to become a real estate agent was in 2012 when everything hit the bottom because you went into real estate with everything hitting the fan, like being the worst time to be a real estate agent. And if you started in 2012, you basically you know didn't know what it was like to have the good times of real estate, and now you're starting at the bottom, and there's nothing you can go at. There's nothing. There's nothing better than starting a career where there's only good things about to happen in the future, right? So again, that's the advice I would give if you're starting Amazon FBA right now, that a bunch of people are going to make a bunch of noise about this happening. But just know that if this is the bottom, right? Like if this is something like, you know, people are going to call it quits, this is the best time to start Amazon FBA, in my opinion. Okay. So the strong will get stronger. Prepare. Don't panic. That's the only advice I can go ahead and give you. As you guys know, if you guys appreciate anything I said like in this, uh, live stream, I'm gonna check to see if there's any other questions. Are you in contract with any brand there on Empire Flippers? Good brands to buy, I just want to buy them all. Yeah, man, you know what, so with Empire Flippers right now, there's not a lot of buyers out there. And I think a mistake I made with Empire Flippers, again, we kind of went over everything of Zara's Tarot, so I'm happy to go ahead and kind of talk about this. So, um, with Empire Flippers right now, there's not a lot of buyers. So a lot of people have put a lot of, you know, their purchases on hold, especially this tariff talk. Like, I, I, there might not be a time to actually sell your business until this tariff thing is over and we get year-on-year numbers, right? So for instance, if I'm a buyer right now, I don't, which I am, I'm very hesitant to buy an Amazon FBA business. Why? Because I really don't know the impact of this. So every single product is going to be different. I don't know as far as like how much price sensitivity these categories do have or they don't have. So yeah, I know you want to go ahead and purchase a bunch of these products on Empire Flippers. I would just take a pause on that. I think this time, honestly, it might be a better time to start from scratch than it is to buy Amazon FBA business, no matter how good the margins are. Unless, unless, unless you can go ahead and get a huge deal, right? These are the opportunities where you can scoop up a lot of people that want to sell their business. And because of all of the uncertainty, you can negotiate, right? Like if I can get a business right now that can go ahead and generate, I would say, like, let's say they generate $100,000 If I can get a business and it's generating $100,000 per year, and I can go in there and charge, like, buy this business for $150,000, which again, I think it might be possible. Honestly, if somebody's hungry enough to sell their business, especially with these whole news with these tariffs, if you can go in there and buy it for that multiple, that's where I'll go ahead and purchase. So it really depends as far as how far this market's gonna go ahead and deep dive. But that's just my opinion on that. You know, Empire Flippers. All right, let's see if I have any questions here. Okay. All right, and then if you guys want any of the links to like all my information that I had, like I'll show you guys here. Like obviously this one was like from Twitter. I had this one as far as me showing as far as the top imports and how it contributes to right around 14.6% of our total GDP. I had the whole liberation talk as far as the whole baseline. So I'm not talking just to talk. I went ahead and pulled up all this information. But I'm going to go ahead and give us one more second to see if anybody has— and I just dropped my Topo Chico, so I got to clean that up soon. Uh, so what happens when you go live? But let me go check one more time to see if anybody else has questions, right? Even with seller financing, giving a little bit, a bit better of your cash on cash would be good as well. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, right now I would pause purchasing, but if you can get a huge deal like we mentioned right now, like, if you can get a huge deal like that and you can get seller financing on top of that, then I think that's the perfect storm for you to go ahead and purchase the business. As long as you buy good brands, high reviews, preferably replenishable products. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. I mean, you know the deal, man. Like, you, you, you seem like you've been going ahead and searching up Amplifier Flippers to go ahead and purchase the business, so it seems like you know what you're doing. If you have any questions, you can always just email me. I try my best to try and respond back. Um, other than that, anybody else have any questions? If you guys don't have any questions, then I'm gonna go ahead and end this live. Um, it's been good here. Oh man. I appreciate that, man. I appreciate that. All right, all right, guys. Well, I don't really like pitching our, uh, yeah, I don't like pitching the one-on-one. If you guys are interested in one-on-one, I feel like a lot of people that have signed up already— we already have 10 people that signed up— um, are getting really good value on it. It's taking up a lot of my time, man. Like, I didn't know it was gonna take up this much of my time, but You know, I like doing it. I like going ahead and teaching people. I have fun in the meantime. And then I like, you know, I do have a strategy behind it, right? Like in the future, I do want to go ahead and like get people that join on one-on-ones to kind of build something out in the future because these are kind of like-minded individuals like myself that, you know, want to scale, have the ambition. And, you know, one day I do feel like opening up like a private equity firm and, you know, the best of the best people, I can go ahead and, you know, have first dibs on that. I hope that we can get very good exits this year or next. Let's go. Yeah, yeah, I hope so too, man. Like, I'm not disappointed that we didn't— that we're not selling Maverick right now. It doesn't seem like there's a lot of, you know, demand for it. But honestly, I think it's because Empire Flippers is a mom-and-pop type of, uh, marketplace, which again, you know, I purchase businesses anywhere between, you know, uh, $200,000 to $600,000, which seems like a lot of money, but in the real world, as far as like investments is concerned, this is like, you know, mom-and-pop type style, right? And we're way too small for private equity. Like, I spoke to private equity and they were saying that I can't— they can't even consider buying my brand unless it's making upwards like of $120,000 to $150,000 per month, which again sounds crazy, but for them to go ahead and do that, that's how attainable it is, right? So the sky's always the limit, especially with Amazon FBA. But again, the— when, when there's blood on the streets, that's when you should go ahead and, you know, take advantage like you mentioned before. But all right guys, it doesn't seem like I have any more, um, questions here. Doesn't seem like that here. So I try and do this every week. Now, uh, it's gonna be mostly for, you know, the people that are in the one-on-one mentorship. But if you appreciated this video, I'll go ahead and kind of post it live as well. Um, but until next time guys, peace.