£3,000 in 30 Days With ONE Private Label Product - Tim Savage

Welcome. Great to have you here. Oh, Tim.

Hello.

Got there in the end.

Yeah, it was being a bit weird.

I kept pressing the thing and it kept saying adding, and nothing was happening.

As ever. I've had to resort to the phone, but that's fine.

Great stuff. So how you been, man? All right?

Yeah, really well, thanks. Yeah. Enjoy some sunshine at last.

Yeah, Sweden's been, like, hotter than Spain, apparently, so that's a kind of event. Not complaining. Cool. So we've got a room full of people who are so eager and so excited to hear your story, man. So how about you start from back when you first had your sale on Amazon and what happened back then?

Yeah, gosh, last October.

Yeah, that guys hit that, like, button as well. Give Tim some encouragement here. The more you guys interact, the more he'll share and the more you'll get out of this. So hit that, like, button. Give us some.

Can you hear me now?

Awesome. Can hear you perfectly. Yeah, fire away, man.

Give me two seconds.

Oh, yeah, no worries.

Right, are we there?

Yeah, absolutely.

Okay.

So you joined with the ABC Challenge back in November, is that right?

I did. And I won.

Of course you did. Yeah, of course you did. So walk us through what happened then.

I found Ollie. I found you in. In fact, it was my son who started following you a few months before I found you. And he just sent me a link to one of your webinars. I went on it, had a look, thought, this is something I can do, and signed up for the ABC challenge and just smashed it in 14 days or whatever it was, or 30 days. I can't remember now.

Two weeks.

It was two weeks.

What happened through those two weeks then that got you from never having sold anything on Amazon before to getting some crazy sales? What happened? What actions did you have to take? What mindset?

I think that's the word, actually. It's action. Ollie. I'm a business coach and reality of life is most business coaches or most businesses don't survive because of inertia and failure to do something. And I just went out there and every single day. A bit like Layla Cook's doing at the moment, I think, with her challenge. Now she's back in uk. I went around the shops every single day. I bought up stock that appeared on my Amazon seller app. That's all I use. I just use the Amazon seller app and just did as you told me to do. Just go and scan 100 products and just get used to using it. Get used to looking out and finding the type of stock that you want so you know everything that you talk about, so perhaps no more than a kilo in weight, stuff that will fit in a shoebox, all that kind of stuff. And then the biggest challenge then, of course was coming back and actually opening up your Amazon seller account and then getting. And whether that's via a UTR or a business, either way, but then actually learning how to create a shipment, add inventory, all that kind of stuff. And that's why doing ra, I think, right at the beginning was so helpful, because you make all your mistakes with just little things that don't matter.

Thousand units.

Yeah, absolutely. And you learn how to create a shipment, you learn how to not to cock it up, and you learn how to add to a shipment instead of creating a second one. And all the mistakes that we all make when we first start this business. And you just get used to using Amazon Seller Central, because it's kind of intuitive, but it's not.

It's kind of ugly and messy.

It is. And you just have to work your way around it and just get used to it. And in fact, I'm helping a friend of mine who wants to start on Amazon and I've just told. He's been prevaricating for months and months now. And I said, look, just go. And we actually went out together because I went to visit him. I said, what are you doing for the next two hours? I said, let's go and find some stock. And he said, what do you mean? I said, let's just go down to Saints, Queensberries and Tesco and see what we can find. And he went, oh, all right then. And we found 500 quids worth of stock for him, which was just like, wow, I would have bought it, but I was doing it for him. And we came back and I showed him how to create a shipment and I showed him how to label it up and all the rest of it because, you know, you don't have to learn this stuff. It doesn't come naturally if you've never done it before and just practice. And so I, I think I sent in, over the 14 days, seven shipments and made my. You know, I sold. I can't remember. I bought about 1500 pounds worth of stock, I think, in 14 days. It just went bananas.

I remember it just going. Yeah, you just kept.

And the excitement of making your first sale can never be underestimated.

Where were you? Do you remember where you were when you saw the notification?

Oh, I can't remember, but I was. You know, you open up your seller app and you see something come up as a sale and you just go, what? What have I sold? Because you've sent in like 10 different items and whether it's sold in UK or whether it's in Italy or Germany. Because the other thing I did was learn very quickly that France and Germany and Italy don't have the supermarkets that we have in uk. They don't have lots of discount stores. And so if you're selling stuff at a reasonable price on uk, you absolutely should be offering it and selling it overseas, because they will buy it up. I think in that challenge, I think that the ratio was about 60% UK and the rest of it was in Europe, which was astonishing for me. I never thought I'd sell that much in Europe straight away. And so here's Tim's first top tip of the day, I guess, is that you can start selling in Germany and France and the other countries without registering for VAT until you hit €10,000, I think it is in France, about €35,000 and euros in Germany. So don't have any fear about vat. Don't let little things stop you from doing something. Just start selling, because you're not going to get over ten grand in months in France or in Germany, but just start used to the idea of selling overseas. And in fact, my chum who I sold, I helped him buy 500 quid of the stock, made his first sale yesterday and it was in Italy. And it was three items in Italy. And he only did it by accident. He'd accidentally collected Italy. He didn't even realize he'd done it. And he sold three items in Italy. That's amazing. So, you know, it is just a question. Yeah.

When you're looking for products, it feels like you're kind of messing around.

Hey.

Yeah, cheers. I got some water. But, yeah, when you're looking for products and you're looking at bestseller ranks and profit margins and scanning apps, it's fun, but it doesn't feel real. But then when you get that first sale, all of a sudden, money.

I'm then an Amazon seller, but people tell us what to do. I said, oh, I'm an Amazon seller. I only sold like two things at that point. But it sounds really exciting.

Awesome. Okay, so you did arbitrage for how long then?

I did it right up through Christmas and I sold nearly £15,000 worth of stock over quarter four. I just cleaned out Tesco's locally. I mean, Tesco's, particularly at Christmas time, just had the most incredible giveaways. And I just. I used to Go in there every day and used to get the most fantastic nooks from all the staff. As I walk through with 40 my little ponies and goodness knows what else, and they turn around and say, oh, somebody's having a good Christmas, aren't they? And I just smile and say, yeah, yeah, yeah, and pay for it quite happily. And if I was feeling particularly sort of sensitive that day, I'd just go through the self scan bit and get it done that way and put it back on the trolley. The supermarket piled high with My Little Pony stuff and Transformers and God knows what else I was selling at the time, all of which were just selling out the moment I sent it into Amazon. And you just do it every single day. I literally went around the shops because at Christmas time they changed their stock every morning.

Oh, really?

Oh, absolutely. And because I was doing my travels, what was really interesting is I go to Hampshire once a month to do. To go and see my clients. And I literally went into Tesco's in Sainsbury's in Basingstoke in Winchester in Newbury and absolutely clean them out. And I had a van, I've got a camper van, and I literally filled my camper van up with toys and brought them back after three days. I think it took about 12 boxes, I think, to get it all to Amazon at the time, because that's the time when you make hay and you just think, well, quarter four is nuts and if you can sell stuff, then you can sell stuff. It just walks off the shelf at that point.

Especially toys.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

So you made 15 grand in sales from about November to about December. Do you have any idea of the profit margins with those revenue figures?

I reckon I made about three grand. And, you know, it was. Sometimes it was a bit more, but I used to aim for, try and make about 30% margin, 30% profit, sort of, something like that. And I think Steve Wilson sort of made a lovely comment in one of the many, many moons ago, saying that he wouldn't buy anything that gave him less than £5 profit. I think those were the sort of rough figures. I mean, if it was four quid and it was a lot of them, you'd say, yeah, I'll buy that lot and put 40 in. And that's still 160 quid profit. Thanks very much. But you can work too hard in this business as well. And I guess that's where we're leading on to, is that retail arbitrage is a fantastic way to start and to learn and to get used to the systems. But I really don't want to be doing that forever. My life is not going around supermarkets buying up toys and sending them into Amazon and hoping that somebody will buy them. If you're going to build an Amazon business, I mean a proper business, then you have to take it to the next level. And I think the nice thing is, and this is not, this is why I think Amazon is so good for so many people and why your particular, your program does work for everybody. Because you can be a part time Amazon seller doing ra and if you're a mum sitting at home and you can make an extra three or four hundred quid a month, that's absolutely fantastic because you can't do that anywhere else. And you can find the toys while you're doing the shopping. And whether you're a bloke or a woman, you can do that as a part time business. But if you want to take this to be a full time business that might replace your current job or allow your wife to stop work, which is what my target is, then you have to take it to the next level beyond retail arbitrage, which quite frankly then you get into private labeling and importing from China.

Yeah, that's the beautiful thing about this business. You really can take it to any level you want. You can just be a casual arbitrage. Yeah, just do little bits. Or you can go full on and build a seven figure brand and take it off Amazon. A lot of people are using Amazon as almost like a testing ground, proving ground for their brand to try out products. Because you don't have to build a website, you know, you don't have to send traffic, you don't have to advertise.

Yeah.

And test the products on Amazon. If it works great, then they build out their website and really take things off. So I'd like to hear about the transition. So what happened between quarter four last year when you were doing all this running around, making money and between then and now?

Well, I guess I think I bought FBA Secret. I think I was originally a member of your inner circle and I had access to I think perfect private label, I think, and FBA too. And I just started thinking to myself, well, how do I take this to the next level? I now understand how the system works, I understand how Amazon pays me, how to create shipments and do all that kind of stuff. But what have I got to do now to get my first private label product going? And at that point, you know, it's just me and like everyone else, you've got to sit down at night after doing your work and say, right, okay, let's get on to Jungle Scout. I only use Jungle Scout and Chrome and that's the only, they're the only products that I've ever used to try and find stock. And quite frankly, Jungle Scout has been phenomenal. I love it, absolutely love it. I've got the Extension Chrome, the Extension Pro, which I think you pay a one time license for what is $160, something like that. And I just use that inside Chrome and just start thinking, well, what can I sell? And you know, you start looking around the house and you start looking around and you ask your friends and you start just typing in random stuff using all the training you've done with the old minor searches. So everything comes up and you just start thinking and ticking stuff off and thinking, well, what can I sell that it comes up on Jumbo Scout, you check it out for its opportunity score. If it's rubbish, you move on. If it's got an opportunity, you do a little more research. And at that point I think I came up a list of about 10 potential products that I could possibly start selling.

When was the beginning? Just beginning of February, March.

Yeah, I mean it was late January I think. But I just thought, just try and take this to another level. And so at that point I created my good old Alibaba account and had a chat to them and started just putting in a request for quotes and things like that and spoke to a couple of people. And don't be scared about talking to Chinese suppliers. I think particularly on Alibaba, you can look at their rankings, you can look at, there's a system to show them how long they've been on, what quality they are, how much they're selling. I mean, these people have got a reputation to uphold, as much as you or me have. They're not trying to rip people off, they're all trying to make profit. Of course we are. But they're pretty helpful. You just start talking to them on Skype. So you sort of start the initial chat into Alibaba and then they normally turn around and say, hey, do you fancy chat on Skype? Most of the time it's not video, it's Skype chat. And you just turn around and say, hey, what are you doing? Can you send me stuff? And I think I imported five or six samples. Samples and just thought, you know, I'll just have a look at some of these samples and you know, a couple of them are crap. And you just sort of turn around but, nope, don't want to do those. Thanks very much. And a couple of really interesting. And at that point, you then just get into a general discussion about what's the minimum order quantity? How quickly can I get them here? Are they big enough to perhaps get a test batch in that I could ship in via perhaps AliExpress on a smaller order so I can do a sort of test run and see them out? All part of, like, the training that you do. And to be honest, the product that I found was relatively lightweight. I think it weighs about half a kilo. It's sort of shoebox size. And they were arguing that I had to order a minimum of a thousand of each because I wanted two different colors. And I beat them down to. I said, well, I'll have a thousand for both and let's say 504 each or something. And eventually it came out and it cost me $1.58, I think $1.57. 58 to buy each product. So I ordered a thousand, just a product. So that was me turning around and just taking a bit of a punt. So the price per product was a $57 or $1.58.

Okay.

And that was before. Yeah. So that's. That's what they call X works. So exw. So I'm. It's my responsibility to pick that up from the factory gate. So my freight forwarder, wow, that is.

So cheap than any of mine.

Well, it was a punt because effectively I've invested, what's that, two and a half or $1,500, if you like, on a product. So 1,000 pounds or so. And I recognize that everybody's got 1,000 pounds to spend and everything else. And I could have ordered a smaller batch and tested them out. It would have cost me a bit more. But in reality, I thought, well, I thought I'd find the right product. So let's give it a punt. And part of this private label business that they imported from China is you have to come over the fear of that first order because it is scary, because you're thinking, well, what happens if I'm sitting there with a thousand items and nobody wants them? The truth is that if you've done your research, the product will sell. It's just a question of how fast it will sell. So at that point, then it's just a question of, well, I might not make a lot of money because I might have to drop the price to sell a bit. But you will sell it and get your money back. It's unlikely. It's not unheard of, but it's unlikely that if you've done your research properly that you won't sell anything at all. And so I ordered a thousand X words. Go on.

I think there's a slight lag. So when I start talking it's like a little bit mismatched. But anyway, that's what I tell people when they are petrified to place an order from China. It's you hit the nail on the head like, yes, you may not have picked the perfect smash hit product that's going to sell, you know, tens of thousands a month, but first case scenario, if you've got all your ducks lined up, it's going to sell slower, slower than you expected. So $1.50 works per unit. And what did you pay for shipping?

Well, all up, including shipping and then VAT and import duty. And of course you pay double tax because you pay the VAT on the bloody import duty as well. All up. And then I paid 36 pence per product to have them labeled and checked by FBA Prep and then onward forwarded on from FBA Prep to Amazon. So by the time I got to Amazon, the total cost of me to be able to sell it on Amazon was three pounds and 60 pence. So in my mind, yeah, yeah. And so that's including all the shipping, all of that, all the Import duty at 6.5% I think for this particular product and the labeling and indeed the forward onward from FBA Prep to the finally to the Amazon warehouse prep center. Here's the other tip that you and I can't emphasize this enough if people are going through your training is that I ordered 100 extra empty cartons to come with the order of 1000 and FBA prep used about 50 of them to re box about 50 of them where there had been some damage in terms of the shipping side. And of course that's huge because that's 50 products Amazon aren't then getting rid of because they're not good enough to sell. And you can be pretty sure that once the prep center have checked it, that by the time it gets to Amazon it's in good nick and it's ready to sell. So that was a real positive for me is that that was the first time I'd used FBA Prep. It's the first time I'd used, I used RJJ Freight, who I think one of the guys he recommended as my freight forwarder. I got really confused right at the beginning between understanding all the terminology of shipping from exw to FOB free on board and all that kind of stuff. And I think that again, people just need to understand from my perspective and correct me if I'm wrong here, please jump in. But EX Works was explained to me that basically the factory make it and you pick it up from the factory, which means your freight forwarder has to organize somebody from China in China or their people in China to pick it up from the factory and take it to the port, pay the taxes in the port and the freight bit and the handling to get it on board the boat. Whereas free on board means that the factory themselves have probably put it inside a container and taken it to the port, done all the duty, paid all the handling charges, and effectively it goes on board at that price. Does that make sense?

That's absolutely right. And I tell you that makes perfect sense. I still don't know all of the import export terminology. I'm always finding new ones. To be honest with you, it seems strange to me why it's all so complicated like always, like there's always something, you know, getting confused about.

I tried to get someone to explain it to me and I just said, look, you know, what's the difference in price between EXW and fob? And they were sort of, oh, well, it's this and it's that. And eventually I just turn around and said, look, it can't be that much difference because one way or another I'm gonna have to pay somebody to get it from the factories or the port, whether that's the supplier or whether it's the freight forwarder. So I couldn't believe that the difference in price was going to be huge. And quite frankly, for the sums we were talking about, which is relative pence, I just thought, right, okay, I'll pick the whole lot up. And so I asked RJJ Freight to pick it up from the factory and deliver it effectively to the FBA Prep center. So there's Tim's top tip. And number two is that when you have to supply, because you do have to supply for your importance license and everything else, and the invoicing a final destination of where the shipper is going to send it to. And so I had it the FBA Prep center.

That's another really good point. As you're going through all this stuff and as you're making your first import, it's so nice having a freight forwarder to actually assist you. Because any questions you have about terminology or, you know, paying the taxes at either end and all the freight and moving it on and like even like the EROI number. I didn't.

Yeah, you got it. You've got to register for. No, I didn't either. And you have to go onto gov.uk and register for EORI number. And basically all that is just so that people know, is it? So the government can track imports and exports in and out of the country so they can work out what our balance of payments are as a country. So their EORA number is. Tim Savage imported £1,000 worth of stuff from China. We charge him 6.5% import duty and he paid his VAT and it's now allowed in the country into the EU effectively, or even though he might be leaving the eu. And now it's gone on to the FBA Prep center. So all those little things happen. The RJJ freight handle all the payments. So all you do is you get an email from them saying, great news, Tim, your stuff's arrived in UK, it's with Customs. They've sent us a bill for £550. Whatever happens to be, please pay up. And you pay them and they then pay the customs people. So the handling of it all was just, I mean, to be honest, other than by email and I think I had the occasional phone call with them because like all first time importers, you have a bit of a panic occasionally and need to ask a few, ask a few questions about what's going on. They were really helpful and they just, you know, and it just arrived in the prep center. So I think Greg. I don't know if Greg's on here tonight, but Greg Jones at FBA Prep, you know, just took it all in and then just said, yeah, we got it, Tim. And it'll take us about four or five days to label it, check it and ship it on. It took a little longer. Everything took a little longer, I think, than I thought and that's probably because I've had no experience of it. So I guess when you're. I think I put in a, in the Facebook group recently that if you allow 100 days between ordering it and it actually arriving at Amazon to be sold, you're probably not going to be far wrong. It might be a bit quicker, but it's unlikely to be any longer than that because the order time or the ship is 60 days normally. So normally you're giving a Chinese supply will take 60 days for the order to fulfill. If they can do it quicker than that, fantastic news. And then it's sort of somewhere between 20 and 30 days for it to get to UK by ship. If that's what you're doing it by ship, and then, you know, anywhere between 10 and 12 days for it to clear customs, get to the FBA prep center, have them to do it, then get to Amazon for them to unload it and unpack it, and for it to finally appear in your inventory. So if you're reordering stock or thinking about, if you've, like me, you've suddenly got a product that's just flying off the shelves, I'm frantically reordering and hoping my next batch is going to get here before I run out.

Brilliant timing is everything, really. Yeah. So, okay, so I just want to bring us up to speed with your story then. So now, how long did you spend researching products? In all.

I did quite a lot of research on stuff and I think for anyone starting out, the research is the really important bit. It's just process. But. And here's the big but. Don't get bogged down in trying to find the perfect product, because otherwise you'll never start doing anything at all. And like you say, some of them will be better than others, but all of them are likely to sell if you do enough decent research. And Jungle Scout, I mean, Jungle Scout's extraordinary. It's the only business I know where you can see what everyone else is selling, how many they're selling, what price they're selling it at, whether or not they're doing sponsored products, everything bit of information is there for you. So if you pick the wrong one. Yeah, so I was really quite. And I suppose the other thing is, and you taught me this, and I do this in my own as a business coach, is don't look for the cheap products because everyone races to the bottom on Amazon. And actually you don't want to be selling cheap rubbish. I mean, the stuff that I'm selling, the product that I'm selling is selling, is selling for a third, a third of what I sell mine for, and I'm smashing them in sales. So don't always think that it's. It's the cheap stuff that will always.

Sell if you don't take anything else away from this broadcast. Remember that premium pricing is the key. So Tim's product is three times more expensive than the other one and he's beating them. Yeah, and that's another point. A lot of people think that, you know, the way to, to win when it comes to Amazon is to get the most sales and to be the number one bestseller. If you look at most niches, the number one best seller isn't Making more profit and more revenue than number two or number three. Because the only reason they're winning in terms of sales is because they're priced so low. And it's a losing strategy. Unless you're Amazon themselves who can get unbelievably cheap prices for bulk stock, then it's a losing battle. Okay, so how many weeks did it take you to research the product and then from.

I reckon, I reckon I did probably three to four weeks of research in total. That includes then getting shipments in samples. In samples, get about take. They come by air. You'll pay between 30 and $50 generally because they will pay for the air freight. You get it shipped pretty quickly. I had my products within four or five days come through with either UPS or FedEx or whichever one they used. And so getting products, don't be afraid of getting a product because it's not going to hold you up that much. You'll have products in four or five days. If you order a sample, you pay for it generally through PayPal. They just give you a don't be afraid again to go off Alibaba for samples and pay them 50 bucks on PayPal through the email address they give you. They're pretty sensible at this. They know what they're doing. You get a nice receipt for it and four or five days later you can expect to see that come through the post for you with a lovely postie and getting a feel for it and looking at the samples and seeing what they're like is really important to you because it overcomes that fear of Christ, what the hell am I importing and is it any good and is it going to sell or are they just going to send me a bunch of cheap shit that nobody wants? So feeling it and handling it is really quite useful.

Try and use it for whatever its purpose. Try and use it and see if it breaks.

And more importantly, that's the point. And actually go back to them and say, can you do this or can you do that? Or I like this, but I don't like that. And they will change things for you. They're pretty amenable to changing stuff and making it yours as it were, making it different because it's like trying to find. I mean, with this particular product I'm selling, I looked at what everyone else is selling and I thought, well, how can I make mine a little bit different? So I've added a spare in. And so I'm the only person where this particular product comes with a spare something. And actually that's been really so it cost me. That cost me, I think because the original cost of the product was about a dollar thirty, I think. So for an extra 28 cents, I've got a spare in now all packed in the same box, it's no bigger. And it's then a selling point for me because all my copy they can talk about comes with a free spare. Da da da da da. And that's how you start to sort of differentiate your product then and why you can quite happily charge more.

And that's why customers have a reason to buy your product over. Yeah, the 10, 15 other products on the same page. Awesome. Okay, so two weeks product research, two weeks for the import process. How long did it take you to get your first private label sale?

Oh, I sold three on the first day it was open. I was leaping up and down in the air, getting really excited by and I started a sponsored ad campaign straight away. So I thought, well, I, I need to get these products started to sell and get myself up the rankings and all the rest of it. And it's a bit like Google, you know, if you spend a bit of money with Amazon, they look after you. And so I had a sale on for the first week and so I discounted my price for a bit and after about three days I just thought, I just thought this is too cheap. So I put the price up. It was still a slight discount, but it wasn't much of a discount. I think I put, I think it was 10% or something rather than the 23, 24% I was discounting to start with and sales went up, so that was quite interesting. So I put my price up and sales went up and then accidentally my sale ended because I'd only had it going for a week, I'd forgotten I'd only had the sale for a week and then the price went up overnight and that following day I woke up. Check my phone as you do, because you're getting really excited about how many sales you made for the day. And I was quite happily selling products at full price with no change in the number that I was selling. So at that point I haven't discounted it any further. I'm selling everything at full price and yes, I'm paying a little bit for ads and that's where my margin is being pushed back slightly because I'm paying a bit for adverts, but my margin is £6 net profit per product. So this product cost me £3 60 to get to Amazon. Amazon are charging me £4 27 for FBA fees. Which sounds horrendous, but I haven't got to do anything. And so that's £7.97. I think it is. 7.87. So call it 8 quid. I think I'm paying about a quid for each advert, so I'm making £5 profit still on every sale, so don't be afraid to. Bit more than that. Yeah, it's about 35. Yeah, so 33. 35%. So I'm really chuffed with that. Really chuffed with that. Someone. We can. We could. We can talk about how I worked out the pricing later because I've got a sort of bit of a spreadsheet that I can explain how I do it. But yeah, it was really interesting. And then sales just went bananas. I mean, utterly bananas. I mean, the first. For the first. Actually, funny enough, I cocked it up at the beginning because I did a manual sponsored ad post thinking that I know my keywords. And I did and all the rest of it and I got nothing and I couldn't understand it, so I just canceled that and just went into the good old Amazon. Just do it for me. You know the keywords, let's pretend you know everything as you do and I'll just pay for you to send me. Traffic and overnight sales just jumped through the roof. And it was you that told me to basically beat the competition out of the sky with how much you were prepared to pay initially for your clicks, because Google was turning around and saying. Not Google, sorry. Amazon was turning around and saying, if you pay, we recommend. I think it was 45 pence to get a click. And then they have a little thing that turns around and says that the average cost of this Click is between 41 and 70 or something. And you said to me, smash them out the park, charge them, you know, offer a £50 effectively, you won't pay a £50, but offer to pay a £50 because no one else will go anywhere near that to try and pay that for a click. And so I did and suddenly I was selling 10, 15, 20 of those a day. And actually I ended up only paying. I think my average cost per click at the moment is about 72 pence. So it's not much different to what they were saying at the top end. But because I was willing to pay more, I've just beaten the competition out of the way, quite frankly. And when I kept looking at having a sneaky look on someone else's laptop of where my product was and showing it, within a week, I'm on page One of Amazon, I'm being sponsored and I've appeared on three emails that I've had from Amazon for toilet brushes and bathroom sets and all that kind of stuff that they send through. And, you know, that's really been really interesting because suddenly if you're selling well, they're very happy to advertise you because they're making 4 pound 27 out of you every time they make a sale.

Yeah. They want to push as much traffic to you as possible. They've got the budget.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So I reckon. So in month, this is what you. On the 30th today. So I started selling literally on the 1st of May. Today's sales, including today's sales, I have made just under 3,300 sales for the month so far in UK and I've sold another €370 worth of stuff across Europe. So I've gone over 3,500 in sales in month one.

Amazing. And that's with about £1,000 or more profit, right?

Yeah, I think, yeah, I'm just. I'm just over the grand mark. Somewhere between. Somewhere between a grand and 1200 when I do my final testings, but definitely made some money and I'm just really chuffed because I only need four more of those and, you know, I've hit my target for the year of five grand a month net profit.

So how many hours have you worked, say over the past 30 days whilst that three. Three grands come in. How much attention? Because obviously arbitrage takes every second of your.

Other than getting excited by looking at my seller app eight times a day, I've done nothing.

Wow. So it's almost. It's not passive income. It's not. But.

I've now employed a va, so I've got a VA in the Philippines who is now doing my product research for me. She's only working part time. She does between 15 and 20 hours a week and I'm very happy with that. You know, it's costing me $2 an hour. So as a business owner, for someone to do 15 hours worth of research a week for me is costing me 30 bucks, 20 quid. That's just bonkers. And my lovely lady is really happy. We have a great relationship. I talk to her regularly and she's chuffed to bits because she's got two kids at home and that money makes a big difference in the Philippines. And when she can work more and improve her hours, she will earn more and I'm willing to share my profits. So if she finds me a great product, then I'll share the wealth and she gets a bonus because she's found me a great product. And when we've made 500 sales, I'm going to send her a nice check. But to say thank you for finding that product and helping me out, because quite frankly, the money is not important in that regard. I prefer to have someone who's really happy to work for me and reward them for finding good stuff for me. It's not about keeping it all for yourself, it's about spreading the wealth. You can suck it up and you can be greedy all you like, but the truth is that the people, the people in your business are the people that make the business. And if you find a good person and find good people, then you should reward them, you know, handsomely, in my view, to carry on working for you because they're part of the team. And so I've got. I've got. So I'm not doing, to be honest. We've got a shared folder in Google. I've set up a spreadsheet such that she has to fill in. So she'll fill in, for example, the type of product, the best seller ranking, how many reviews it has, what Jungle Scout opportunity score is, whether it's a national brand or not, average sales, all that kind of stuff. So all the stuff that you teach in your training, and she has to fill that spreadsheet in at the end of it, she either turns it green to turn around and say, tim, I think I found a product, or she'll turn it red to turn around and say, well, I've done the research and I don't think this is a product that we should sell. The point being is that. And she didn't get this at first. And I want her to put in a spreadsheet everything she's done, because a trend will emerge of the stuff that is not viable for selling. I'm absolutely convinced that what I don't want to do is to waste her time going back to all the stuff that you teach in your training. And she has to fill that spreadsheet in at the end of it, she either turns it green to turn around and say, tim, I think I found a product. Or she'll turn it red to turn around and say, well, I've done the research and I don't think this is a product that we should sell. The point being is that. And she didn't get this at first. And I want her to put in a spreadsheet everything she's done, because a trend will emerge of the stuff that is not viable for selling. I'm absolutely convinced that what I don't want to do is to waste her time going back to looking at the same products in a month or two months time because she's already looked at those and she won't know she's looked at those unless we've got it listed, even if it's not a product that we can sell or we don't think we can sell at the moment. So if you're going to get someone to do research for you, there's another great tip is make sure you keep all the products that you look at, whether they're good or bad, because it stops you going back and rechecking the same stuff again and again because you will forget.

Awesome. Well, Tim, it's amazing to hear your story, man, and like, the more I probe you with questions and stuff, the more gems we're getting for everyone. In fact, guys, let us know in the chat. Type yes in the chat right now if you're finding this useful. If you've already picked up a couple of gems that are going to help you type yes in the chat and let us know. And what we're going to do next is actually have Tim answer some of your questions. There's a ton of questions in the event page in the group and I'm here and yeah, I think if we whizz through these, hopefully. Tim.

Yeah, I'm gonna stay. I'm just trying to find me on the questions because I can't see. I'm on the phone so I won't be able to see them. But you can ask away.

Awesome. All right, guys, let me know if you're alive here. Type yes in the chat if you're finding this valuable. Trying to make sure you guys are still alive. I'm having too much fun here, you see. So I forget that we've got an audience.

I think I would say is that I've been so chuffed with the simplicity of the training that you offer Ollie. And for anyone who's listening, Ollie's not paying me to say any of this. I'm not getting paid to do this today or anything else. The truth is that if you follow the training, it's simple because it is simple. And this is a business that you've got to keep simple. Don't complicate it and don't try and shortcut things. If you have got to pay an extra 20p or 30p to get it properly labeled and checked, pay the extra 20 30p. Because in the great scheme of life, you'll save more money that way than having Amazon kick your stuff out because it's rubbish when it got there.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks for saying that. I'm really glad that, you know, you found the training valuable and clearly you're getting some amazing result and yeah, I agree. Invest in the areas where it's going to matter. I think that's education, learning the easy way to do stuff rather than wasting money and wasting time. And also in leverage. You know, like you say, labeling, boxing, prepping. That stuff takes time and other people are better at it than us. We should be focusing on building a brand, not sitting around with 3,000 cardboard boxes and all that stuff. So, Tim, I've just seen a ton of people saying that this is massively valuable.

So good.

They're all alive. Some reason the comments aren't coming up on my phone, but they're all coming.

Up on the laptop, so that's okay.

Just trying to. He's trying to screw us over, isn't he?

Ask away.

He's probably sending our data, actually, whilst we're talking, he's probably just trying to decide.

Awesome.

If I keep on like this, tomorrow my account's going to get shut down and this group will disappear. So let's get onto the question. So Tim Bright asks, how difficult was it to locate a successful private label product to sell on Amazon? How hard was it really? I think he wants to know, like, you know, the real answer.

It genuinely wasn't that hard. I mean, I just typed, I just went to Alibaba, typed in on the search bar what you were looking for and be quite specific. So, you know, if you're looking for a silver something or a white something, or type that in and you'll just come up with a whole list of products, just like you would on Google if you were looking to buy something and just start scrolling through and some of it looks shit and some of it, you go, oh, that looks quite nice, that looks quite nice. And if you see something nice, click on it, have a look at it. The price they advertise is generally not the price of course that you're going to pay. It tends to be, they'll say, oh, it's from a dollar. But when you find that paying it is $1.50 or something. But you know, just send someone a request, just talk to people. Don't be afraid to just, you know, tap in an email, turn around and say, hey, I saw this. I'm, you know, we're looking to import this, you know, big yourself up a little bit. A bit like you say, turn around and say that is generally not the price of course that you're going to pay. It tends to be, you know, they'll say, oh, it's from a dollar but when you find that paying it is $1.50 or something. But you know, just send someone a request, just, just talk to people. Don't be afraid to just, you know, tap in an email, turn around and say, hey, I saw this. I'm, you know, I'm contacting on behalf of my business so they can think there's more one people in the business. We're looking to import this. You know, big yourself up a little bit. A bit like you say, turn around and say that business, we're quite keen on selling this particular product in the UK through E commerce. Can you give an indication of the middle order quantity and a rough price? Can you give me a quote? And they'll come back and chat and say, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, I'm contacting on behalf of my business so they can think there's more one people in the bill, send you a quote and you just move on. You say, thanks very much. Don't be afraid, don't be afraid to. Then just leave them for a day or two because they'll come back to you and say, oh, have you made a decision yet? You tell us. Well, no, I'm just looking around, thanks very much. And I went to three or four suppliers and you're generally. I then had a couple of samples sent to me and made a choice and you can look at, you can get scared and turn around and say, I'll order another five samples. I'll order another five samples. The truth is, pick something man, because you know, if it's going to be good enough to sell and it's going to come in a nice box and you can sell it and just turn around and say, do you know what? That's the one I'm going to try and I'm going to get that in and give me a final quote please and just get on with it and bloody do it. You'll pay 30% up front for them to start the order and you'll then pay 70% on delivery. So the day that you get picked up next works for the factory, you'll pay your final 70%.

You made a great point there. Just go for it. Because here's the funny thing, people are okay with spending thousands and thousands and thousands on course after Course after course, coach, mentor, learn how to do all this stuff 100% properly. When it comes to spending $500 on an importance, people freak out, but they freeze you hundreds of thousands over years. Yeah, yeah, they freeze up, exactly. But that's the thing. So the key is not to worry too much that just trust the criteria, the training, just check off all the boxes and at the end of the day, go with your gut feeling and something 100% agree. So, great answer there. Mark asks, how did you overcome situations back in where you had a profitable product from retail arbitrage sent into the Amazon warehouse to see it be massively uncut and everybody's racing to the bottom.

I just held my prices. I mean, they're no different to you. Someone's found five and they've got it in there and they're trying to sell it really quickly and make a return. And once their five is gone, they're gone and you just. Your price that goes back up again. I try to avoid the rust to the bottom at Christmas time. The buy box is quite important, so being amongst the lowest is quite useful. But yeah, I mean, it's what you can. Hold on. This is why it's so important to find the right products to sell in and not just think that you can. I mean, there's one particular product I got and I'm not giving anything away, but My Little Ponies started selling Tesco, started selling, selling My Little Pony, a six pack. It's quite a big thing. It was an oversized product, actually, and they were flogging it originally for 60 quid. They're still flogging it for 60 quid today, but just before Christmas they started flogging it up for 30 half price and Amazon and the people on Amazon were selling it at the time for 49. So that's £19 profit, less the fees and all the rest of it. So I think it was about a tenor, I think profit. And I bought. God, I cleaned the shelves out. I think I bought about 40 of those and sent them all in. And yeah, the price came down to about 44, 45 quid, but. And so I made a little less on the ones I sent in, but I'm still making £5 at time. I never made a loss on anything that I sent in. I just either refused to sell it or just waited till everyone else had run out of stock and then just, you know, they then had nothing but to do but to come and buy from me. The Germans, the Germans and the French just go nuts over Christmas. Because you can sell it. If you can't sell in uk, keep your prices high over there. In fact, here's the Tim's big top tip is don't sell cheap in France and Germany because they won't buy it because they'll think it's rubbish. Germans in particular absolutely equate quality with price. So don't sell cheap over there, put the price up and I was selling them over there quite merrily.

That's some great advice. It's often the simplest strategies that work the best. Some people go in there with auto reprices and try and snipe everyone and all this. Sometimes it's a case of doing the thing that's actually just going to make you feel mentally clear. And for me and for you, Tim, you agree is put your price there, leave it and just wait for it to sell. So great advice. I hope that helped you out there. Mark Nahid asks what type of transport is working the best when importing in a way that doesn't reduce profit making on the product? So what type of transport do you transport? Air freight, Tim?

No, no. Unless you've got really small products that are lightweight, don't go for air freight. I just see freight, just accept that it's going to take a bit longer. I did sea freight, I mean in this particular when you're selling a thousand, I mean. No, I did sea freight and in fact the next order is going to be big enough for me to be able to fill, nearly fill a 20 foot container. And for that, and what's quite interesting for me is that they're offering me now an FOB price rather than X works price, which means the factory are very happy to fill a container up and take it to the port and clear it for me. And that saves me quite a bit of money because they're filling it with one container with all my stock and it's easy for them and therefore they give me a better price for it. And more importantly, here's another great tip is the first products I imported, yes, they put my label on, so my brand label, but I paid FBA Prep in UK to label it with my EANS that I'd bought and in fact the Chinese supplier this time round will label those as well for me. So what they've done is I sent them the EAN via a PDF and they have created a one label with my logo on it and the EAN all in one label so that it saves me a bit of money on the UK side to have it labeled in UK because the shipper will do. The supplier will do that for me. Now that's another 29 pence saved. 29 pence for every product. If you're selling thousands is a lot of money.

Yeah, absolutely. Mark asks, how did you know it was the right time to step it up a level and start transitioning to private labels? What was it that made you.

And you know, it's easy for them and therefore they give me a better price for it. And more importantly, here's another great tip is the first time I. The first products I imported, yes, they put my label on. So my product, not my brand label, but I paid FBA Prep in UK to label it with my EANS that I bought.

Now's the time I wanted.

I wanted it, I wanted a bigger business. I had a plan. My plan is for my wife to stop work. And so we. I've made a commitment to her that I will build this Amazon business big enough such that by the middle of next year, certainly by the end of next year, I will have a stable Amazon business that I know will give me the money that I want and we want to live the lifestyle we want and she can stop work. I can't do that through ra. And I'm also. I'm still a business coach, I'm still having fun. But you've got to want, you've got to understand what you want from it. If 500 quid a month is all you need, you can crack on and do retail arbitrage and play it at a lower level and there's nothing wrong in that. If that's what you want, that's what you want. But if you want something more from it, you've got to step up to the plate and say, you've got to get on with it, man. Importing and finding products is the only way that you're going to make. And in fact, the Chinese supplier this time round will label those as well for me. So what they've done is I sent them the EAN via a PDF and they have created a one label with my decent money, that is real money, to stop you working anywhere else. A bit like you or lots of other logo on it and the EAN all in one label so that it saves people who are doing it. And I'm utterly convinced that by the end of this year I will have a business that's big enough for my wife to stop work. We'll probably give it another six months to make sure it's nice and stuff, stable. And I've got the right products and I can keep doing it and then she'll stop work. So I've got, it's a, it's not just a vision. I've got an absolute, you know, I've promised my wife a bit of money on the UK side to have it labeled in UK because the shipper will do well. So the supplier will do that for me. Now that. That's another 29 pence saved. 29 pence for every product. If you're selling thousands is a lot of that. She can give up work next year. So I can either keep. I can either keep that promise or I can, you know, get in the shit for it and she has to carry on working because I've not worked hard enough.

Such a great point. In fact, you made two good points there, man. Number one, have a vision and have a reason why you're starting to build an amazing business that will help smash your head for all the walls. You're going to face the barriers. And second of all, find someone to hold you accountable. Tell people you're doing this and therefore you'll feel less like, Absolutely. Mark asks, how did you know it was the right time to quit? Because you told them.

This is what you want. I mean, even inside the group, go public with it, tell everyone what you're doing. I mean, people turn around to me and said, why are you sharing this stuff in a group? Well, a, it's because hopefully it's helpful. But more importantly, I'm just, I'm sharing the fact that I'm doing this because I really, really want it. If you don't want it, it's a bit like turning around and saying, I'd like to make half. I'd like to make a million dollars next year. And you say, why? And they go, well, I don't know, because I just like to make a million dollars. You'll never get it because there's no reason for it. If you don't need a million dollars, you haven't got a reason to have a million dollars.

You step it up a level and start transitioning to private labels. What was it that made you think.

You won't fight for it? If you're going to get kicked out your house next month because you haven't got for the rent, you'll get on with it and do something.

Exactly. Exactly. Donna asks, what did you do to research what products to sell? Quick summary of your research.

Junglescope. I typed in a minor search on Amazon using Google.

Think now's the time.

I wanted, I wanted it I wanted a bigger business. I had a plan. My plan is for my wife to stop work. And so we. I've made a commitment to her that I will pro because that's what Jungle Scout works on and literally just started looking through the products thinking, well that's too big, that's too expensive. I had the criteria, I think it was between 15 and 40 pounds in terms of selling price. Didn't want electricals, didn't want anything too difficult because without being too rude, consumers are idiots and if they've got a reason to sell it or send it back or they can't put it together really simply, they'll just go, oh, it's all too difficult to send it back. So keep it really simple. Find stuff that works, find stuff that sells. I used Google Trends. Build this Amazon business big enough such that by the middle of next year, certainly by the end of next year. So once I'd found something I'd type that into Google Trends and Google Trends would give you a sort of I will have a stable Amazon business that I know will give me the money that I want. And we want sort of a year's overview to see whether it was all at Christmas or seasonal or whether this was selling all year. And that's what you're looking for. You're looking generally for someone to live the lifestyle we want and she can stop work. I can't do that through ra and I'm also, I'm still a business coach, I'm still having fun. But you've got to want you've got something that will sell reasonably well all year round, albeit with the odd blip, one hopes and it just use Jungle Scout. I mean anything if you've never used Jungle Scout or if you use Jungle Scout, the opportunity score I had or I focus on is six plus. So anything six and above, I'm thinking, well there's a possibility there. And so seven is great, six is, you know, I'll start looking at six but if I can hit seven a Jungle Scout score, even eight, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to go for this. If Jungle Scout is saying to you you've got an opportunity score of 7 or 8 and the reviews are pretty low and there's people selling, I think again the criteria was there's at least three people selling three grands worth of stuff a month, I think so understand what you want from it. If 500 quid somewhere around there you've got an in and there's no reason why with some sponsored ads and A decent product. If 500 quid a month is all you need, you can crack on and do retail arbitrage and, you know, and some good copy writing. Good copy. You can't absolutely smash your way into it. And that's all I've done. I'm now ranked, if I look on Jungle Scout now, I'm ranked number five in my first month for my particular product, which is just bonkers, utterly bonked, played at a lower level. And there's nothing wrong in that. If that's what you want, that's what you want. But if you want something more from it, you've got to step up to the plate and say, you've got to get on with it, man.

That ties on very nicely to the next question, which is how do you get to page one of the search results and how difficult is it to get there? And can you give anyone advice of how to. What marketing strategies did you use?

Let me just say I'm going to find it. Hang on a second. Give me two seconds, I'll show you the book. Hang on.

Yeah, no worries. Some awesome questions from you guys, by the way. Really, really excited, right?

Oh, there we are. I think it was one of your, one of your webinars actually where you had somebody come on. But I bought that Dana Derek and importing and finding products is the only way that you're going to make decent money, real money to stop you working anywhere else. A bit like you or lots of other. And it's the perfect how to create the perfect listing. Let the number one Amazon copywriter in the world force you to craft the most irresistible profit maximized money dispensing, listing impossible. I have people who are doing it, you know, and I'm utterly convinced that by the end of this year. Written copy before. But this was a really simple way of understanding I will have a business that's big enough for my wife to stop work. We'll probably give it another six months to make how to write a listing and what to write. And don't underestimate the listing itself. I mean, I'm using words and explaining things and got great photographs. Here's another top tip when you actually want to sell stuff is you get the best photographs. I got a product. I send a product to a professional photographer. I find them on PeoplePerHour. If you go onto PeoplePerHour, there are dozens and dozens of photographers who do product photographs on a white background. I send it to them. So it cost me £5 to send in the post. They take 5, 6, 7, 8. Great photographs. They email them to me and it cost me 20 quid. 25 quid? Sure, it's nice and stable and I've got the right products and I can keep doing it and then she'll stop work. So I've got. It's not just a vision. I've got an absolute, you know, I promised my wife 25 quid for eight fantastic photographs that she can give up work next year. So I can either keep that promise or I can get the shit for it. And she has to carry on working because I've not worked hard enough. They can keep the bloody product after that. I don't care, quite frankly, whether they send me back or not. But at that price, I've got eight fantastic photographs that help sell, so lots of photographs. I noticed someone else in the Facebook group actually is creating videos. I haven't done a video for this particular product, but I will for future products. People love watching videos. So how to put it together? If it just takes a little bit of assembly, this is what it looks like in its box. All that kind of stuff. People love that stuff. And you get a quality listing score. So you'll notice on Amazon that they have an LQS listing quality score. And most of the listing quality scores are pretty low, to be honest. I mean, people are selling 15, 20,000 pounds worth of.

Such a great point. In fact, you made two good points there, man. Number one, have a vision and have a reason why you're starting to build an Amazon business that will help mash your head for all the walls. You're going to face the barriers. And second of all, find someone, a.

Product with a listing quality score of 4, which is like 4 out of 10, which is pathetic. So I think. So what have I done? I've created a good listing with some great photographs. I've paid for it. Let's be blunt about it. I've gone on to sponsored ads and said, okay, Mr. Amazon, send me traffic. Drive traffic to my product and help.

Me hold you accountable. Tell people you're doing this and therefore.

You'Ll feel less likely not to sell this stuff. I did have a sale for the first week to encourage sales. So, you know, be prepared to give up a little bit of your profit for the, you know, if you've imported a thousand, I'm prepared to, if not, give away certainly, you know, give away most of my profit for the first hundred, because 100 sales gets me up the rankings, up the organic rankings. And then Amazon turn around and say, oh, he's selling these, I'll send him some more clicks and lower the price because this is really selling well. Because remember, every time you make a sale, they're making money too. So it's in their interest to promote you if you're paying them a little bit of money. Absolutely. And don't be afraid to. The only thing I haven't done yet, and it's remiss of me to quit.

Because you've taken, told them this is.

What you want, even inside the group, go public with it, tell everyone what you're doing. People turn around to me and said, why are you sharing this stuff in a group? Well, a, it's because hopefully it's helpful. But more importantly, I need to set up in seller central the automatic emails that go out 24 hours afterwards to turn around and say, hope you like the product. If there's anything wrong with it, please contact me. You know, please can you leave me a nice review? All that kind of stuff. How else have I done it? Let's be blunt about it. We all do it. We go to our friends and we say, can you buy one of these for me? I'll send you, which is 15, 20 quid. And when you get it, can you write me a nice review, please? And because it's come from a trusted somebody who's bought the product rather than you, you know, Amazon, go, yep, thanks very much. Be aware, of course, that your competitors might well buy the product and diss it in the same way. But that's life. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it is a bit of a ruthless business at times and you've just got to, you know, sometimes you've just got to roll with the shots and, you know, you get a bad review most of the time, you know, people will see the bad review for what it is. You know, if you've had, you know, six excellence and one rubbish one, they go, well, the rubbish one, you know, sharing the fact that I'm doing this because I really, really want it. If you don't want it, it's a bit like turning around saying, I'd like to make Alpha, I'd like to make a million dollars next year. And you say, why? And they go, well, I don't know, because I just like to make a million dollars. You'll never get it because there's no reason for it. If you don't need a million dollars, you haven't got a reason to have a million dollars. Perhaps it was just a competitor who was mucking around.

But yeah, if you have all five Stuff. It looks weird, to be honest. You know, it looks good to have one bad review because you're not set, you know.

Correct. So. So I think pay for it, write a great listing, get great photographs and. And, you know, get a few reviews from mates to help things along to start with. That's my. That's my trick. Keep it simple.

Yeah, yeah. The only other thing you can add is promotions. Have you done any promotions yet?

It's through. Where? Sorry? Through Amazon.

So I use AMZ Tracker to do giveaways sometimes, like coupons and stuff. You don't have to do it, but have you?

I haven't yet and I haven't used AMZ Tracker yet. You won't fight for it. If you're going to get kicked out your house next month because you haven't got for the rent, you'll get on with it and do something.

Exactly. Exactly. Donna asks, what did you do to research what products to sell? Quick summary of your. It's worth trying, man, because you can. Yeah, they've got a huge network of buyers who just want to buy cheap stuff.

Yeah.

Just your product down to 50%. Give it away for free.

Yeah. You have a bit of a boost.

In rank, to be honest, if your stuff's working already without that, I probably wouldn't bother. I'd probably just keep. Because you're making money.

This.

This is another Jungle Scope.

I typed in a minus search on Amazon using Google.

So maybe when you do a bigger import 2,000, 3,000 units, then it's time to do that.

Yeah, that's a really cool idea for me.

Yeah. Awesome. Wade says when you've done your research and you think you found the right product, did you just buy it on impulse when all the stats matched? Or did you sit there, wait for a while and see how the product performed for a little bit over time before making the decision?

Get on with it. Once you think you found the right one, get on with it. Otherwise you just look at it for six bloody months going, oh, I'm not sure. It might be the right time. It might not be the right time. Do you know what? There's never the bloody right time to buy something. It's never the best time, it's never the perfect time. If you wait for the perfect time, you will still be here at Christmas worrying about it. The truth is that Jungle Scout gives you enormous amounts of data over previous Chrome because that's what Jungle Scout works on. And literally just started looking through the products, thinking, well, that's too big. That's Too expensive. I had the criteria, months of what's selling. You just have to trust this, trust the system. The system tells you that this stuff is selling consistently every month, month on month. Why would it start it was between 15 and 40 pounds in terms of selling price. Didn't want electricals, didn't want anything too difficult because without being too rude, consumers, why would it stop selling? Just like if you find a product, here's a tip is find a product that doesn't last forever and find a product that will keep on selling. So people don't mind if every two years they got to replace it or three years they got to replace it. Or stuff that every time you move house, there's stuff you leave behind and there's stuff you buy at the new house because you want new in your house every time. So all those kind of tricks that you think, well, what do people buy consistently? You know, people. 4 million people move house every year in UK. So what are 4 million sellers or buyers do every time they move house? Well, in simplistic terms, they're probably replacing curtains, they're probably replacing shower curtains, bath mats, the whole heap of stuff right throughout the house. And if they've got a reason to sell it or send it back or they can't put it together really simply, they'll just go, oh, oh, it's all too difficult to send it back. So keep it really simple. Find stuff that works, find stuff that sells. I used Google Trends, so once I'd found something, I'd type that into Google Trends and Google Trends would give you a sort of cardboard boxes, the whole heap of stuff that people do when they sell and they move house. You know, think about when people change their cars, think about people when all sorts of things where, when they get something new, they don't want to put the old shit in with it, they'll buy something new to go in their new sexy thing they've just bought. And you got to trust the system. And in truth, it's a bit like you said right at the beginning, you won't buy a product that won't sell, you'll just buy a product that sells more slowly. And to be honest, I mean, I think I've been really lucky with my first product. I do, you know, yes, I did some good research and all the rest of it, but it has gone way, way better than I expected, which is great. Whether the second one or the third one will be as good. Hey, who knows? We'll have to wait and see. But the point is that I'm not going to worry about it because I know that I can make stuff sell by writing a copy, by selling a bit on sponsored ads, perhaps by using Amazon Tracker and giving away a few bits and bobs, you can make sort of a year's overview to see whether it was all at Christmas or stuff. Become a salesman. Think like a salesman. Think like the person who's buying your product seasonal or whether this was selling all year. And that's what you're looking for. You're looking generally for something that will sell reasonably well all year round, albeit with the odd blip, one hopes. And just use Jungle Scout. I mean, anything, if you.

Some great advice. Kirsten says, did you run a test batch first? And you didn't run a test batch?

No, I didn't.

$1,000 arguably was your test batch, is that right?

Yeah, it was really. I mean, you can't. You could have. I could have sort of bought. I could have bought 100, I guess, and had them shipped over AliExpress and Air, shipped them and done a test batch and all the rest of it. And I guess that if I was. If I was buying a product that was more expensive, you know, 30 or 40 quid, I don't think I would have bought a thousand of them, but. And I probably would have done a test patch, but the price I was paying for them, I mean, in the end, to get to Amazon ready to go, ready to sell, cost me £3,600, which is still quite a lot of money. It's a nice investment, but I'm going to get that back. And in fact, I've got way more than that back and I've got enough to buy the next batch in, albeit that there's a time lag with cash flow. Yeah, never use Jungle Scout. Or if you use Jungle Scout, the opportunity score I had was. Or I focus on is six plus. So anything six and above, I'm thinking, well, there's a possibility there. And so seven is great. Six is, you know, I'll start looking at six. But if I can hit seven, a Jungle Scout score, even eight, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to go for this.

There always is. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, okay, awesome. Few more questions, man, and then, yeah, we'll. Nick says, what's the total monetary investment that you've spent on your private label so far? And so how has it split up between the product, the virtual assistant and your software and stuff? Maybe like a rough estimate of how much you've spent on it.

So Far. Well, I bought, I bought your, I think, perfect private label, I think was. But I probably bought the first one, so I don't want to pay for that. Whatever I pay for that, you know, it was on a discount, I'm sure. Yes. I've spent some money on some software on Jungle Scout and I bought a set. If Jungle Scout is saying to you, you've got an opportunity score of 7 or 8 and the reviews are pretty low and there's people selling, I think again, the criteria license for my va. So. And Jungle Scout, here's another great tip. Jungle Scout will give you a discount on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th licenses if you buy them from Chrome. All you got to do is contact them through the website and say, hey, look, I'm looking to buy one for my business. For my. Someone in the business was, you know, there's at least three people selling three grand worth of stuff a month, I think, or somewhere around there you've got an in. And there's no reason why, with some sponsored ads and a decent product as. But I don't want to keep having to buy a new license every time I change my VA and they turn around and say, yeah, absolutely fine, we'll notify this as a business one and you can just change the email address that it's associated with. If you have to change a member of staff, they're very helpful, very helpful. And then I spent, you know, I think I spent about two or three hundred dollars on samples. So I guess before anything happened, I might have spent six or seven hundred quid on stuff which to be honest, I made through retail arbitrage back fairly quickly by pushing that really hard to make a bit of money. I think that's a great tip. It works really well in quarter four. Whether it's quite as quick in other quarters, I don't know because I'm not doing it very much at the moment. But don't be afraid. And some good copy writing. Good copy. You can't absolutely smash your way into it. And that's all I've done. I'm now ranked, if I look on Jungle Scout now I'm ranked number five in my first month for my particular product, which is just bonkers. Utterly bonked. To really go at the retail arbitrage side and make perhaps a thousand pounds, because that first thousand pounds pays for your first import, or certainly most of your first import if you have to go down the route and you're quite positive about it and you're confident in.

Your ability to manage that Time on very nicely to the next question, which is how do you get to page one?

Make a bit of money. Don't be afraid to look at a 0% credit card. It's the cheapest form of credit in the market and if you can put 3 or 4,000 pounds on a credit card with 0%, you've got 24 months to clear it before you start paying interest. So that's the cheapest form of credit there is in UK at the moment. Don't be afraid. You know, if you're confident about it and you think you can make a bit of money, you can pay that off. That's a. It's certainly something to think about.

Awesome. Mark says, how have you overcome the gap in time between getting paid by Amazon and ordering more products to send? And I think you actually just answered that with the credit option and.

Yeah, but a credit option, I mean, you could go to the, you can go to the bank. The bank, the bank would, I think the bank would give me a credit line now because I've got enough of a sales record to be able to show them I can sell search results.

And how difficult is it to get there? And can you give anyone advice of how to. What marketing strategies did you use?

Let me just see. I'm going to find it. Hang on a second. Give me two seconds, I'll show you the book. Hang on.

Yeah, no worries. Some awesome questions from you guys, by the way. Really, really excited stuff.

The trouble is with banks is they take so bloody long to make a decision. So, you know, investors, you know, you might find that, you know, whether it's friends, whether it's family, you know, ask your mum for a grand and tell her you'll pay her back in three months time. I mean, sometimes you've just got to hold on. I mean, I've paid my 30% to order the next shipment and I know from the day I pay my 30%, I've got 60 days to collect the rest of the money to pay the other 70%. So 60 days more selling on Amazon.

Good point.

And then, you know, hopefully then I've got enough money in and if there's a small gap, well, I can lend the money 500, I can lend the business 500 quid of my money and you know. Right. Oh, there we are. I think it was one of your, one of your webinars actually where you had somebody come on. But I bought that Dana Derricks and it's how to create the perfect list and pay for it and take it back out again next month when Amazon pay me again. But you know, you do have to accept that when you're first starting there's sometimes a bit of a time lag. It doesn't make you less profitable. Don't confuse cash flow with profit. You know you can be profitable. You can be profitable and make money but still have cash flow crisis where you need some money occasionally. They're two very different things.

Seven figure businesses have got loan amounts in the bank sometimes absolutely. Just because of timing. All right, Erica asks how did you ensure all your costs are accounted for when calculating your profit? Did you have any hidden costs or unexpected costs that you didn't know about? Creep up.

Okay, this is how I did it. A simple spreadsheet with let the number one Amazon copywriter in the world force you to craft the most irresistible profit name of the product, cost price, purchase price. So there's your first column is purchase price. Convert that into pounds. Because it's normally you're paying in dollars on our maximized money Dispensing listing possible. I have written copy before, but this was a really simple way of understanding how to write a listing and what to write. And don't underestimate the listing barber. Then you turn around and say, well okay, what's then the shipping cost? And your freight forwarder will be able to give you the total cost of shipping or at least certainly a very good estimate of the cost of shipping to get it to the prep center. So let's just say that's a thousand pounds for want of a better term. And you're ordering a thousand items. So that's a pound. So each item is going to cost me a pound. So add pound into the cost of shipping to uk. Then there's a cost of the prep center. Let's just say it's another 50 pence for the prep center to label it and to check it. And then the final bit that I missed at first, there's then a final cost of shipping it from the prep center to the Amazon warehouse. So that's the final cost itself. I mean I'm using words and explaining things and got great photographs.

Sorry, that you didn't account for. Was that at a cost that you didn't account for?

Here's another top tip. When you actually want to sell stuff is you get the best photographs. About a week beforehand I suddenly thought, Christ is probably about another 400 quid in shipping cost. I got a product, I send the product to a professional photographer and interesting enough, it was cheaper for me. I find them on PeoplePerHour, if you go onto PeoplePerHour there are to get the FBA prep center to send it via their freight handler than it was to send it via UPS on through my Amazon seller account. So UPS wanted to charge me about 400 quid and in fact it ended up costing about 250 for the freight forwarder to send it. So don't be afraid to ask the freight forwarder, sorry, the FBA prep center, what their quote is to get it to the Amazon warehouse as opposed to what UPS will charge you to get it there. Because you might find there's a saving. It's not always but you might find there's a saving there as well. And I suppose just the final thing inside all that freight forwarder stuff will be because he's picking up ex works, remember so he's picking up the factory. Dozens of dozens of photographers who do product photographs on a white background. I send it to them so it cost me five quid to send in the post. They take five, six, seven will be cost of shipping it to the Chinese port, paying the Chinese port taxes or whatever. They're going to pay the shipping to get it to the port in uk. Then you're going to pay one time customs fee of generally about 150 pounds to process all the import documentation. Eight great photographs, they email them to me and it cost me 20 quid. 25 quid. 25, 25 quid for eight fantastic photographs. You're then going to pay import duty of whatever percentage it is, depending on what you're importing. You're then going to pay VAT on the total cost of import duty, shipping and the cost of your invoice to actually purchase the product. All of which then gets charged at 20% VAT and you'll pay 20%. So you pay import duty 6.5% and then you're paying 20% tax on top of the 6.5% which all sounds a huge amount of money but in reality I went from a pound roughly or £20 I guess to buy this thing to having £3 60. I reckon if you say you buy something for you know, £2 3, they can keep the bloody product after that. I don't care quite frankly when they send you back or not. But at that price I've got eight, I've got eight fantastic photographs that help sell. So lots of photographs. I noticed someone else in the Facebook group actually is creating videos. I haven't done a video for this particular product. You could probably do another 150% on top of that, to get it to the warehouse, as a rough guess. And then, you know, and Jungle Scout will tell you what the Amazon. And of course, then here's the final thing, of course is so you know how much it cost you to get it to the Amazon warehouse. Let's call that a fiver. And then you what? I will. For future products, people love watching videos. So how to put it together? If it just takes. Turn around and say, well, okay, Amazon are going to charge me a fiver. Let's call it a fiver for simplistic terms, to get it to the customer. So the total cost to me to get it from China, or sorry, total cost to me to get it to the customer is 10 quid. I'm charging, I'm paying 15. So there's five pounds net profit for me that gets paid back to me.

That's usually bang on. It's usually sale price. Let's say £15. Yeah, usually it's 30% or 33% will be your profit.

Yeah.

So 66% will usually incur, you know, cost of the product, advertising, shipping.

Yeah. Fba, a little bit of assembly. This is what it looks like in its box, all that kind of stuff. People love that stuff. And you get a quality listing score. So you'll notice on Amazon, Amazon fees.

And all that stuff, you'll have 33% and you've shown that perfectly with your product. One last question from Erica. It's a very good question to end on, actually moving forward. Are you selecting related products to launch next to build a brand, or are you just choosing any old product that fits in the criteria?

They have an LQS listing quality score and most of the listing quality scores are pretty low, to be honest. I mean, people are selling 15, 20,000 pounds worth of both, I think. Yes, I'm looking for a complementary product because I'd like to sell something together as a batch product and I will be asking Ollie and Steve how to do that because I'm just slightly confused about that. If I do I have to put them in one box or can I. Can they be shipped separately but then put together by Amazon? So there's all sorts of questions. I haven't asked about that yet myself. But yes, I am looking for a complimentary product with a listing quality score of 4, which is like 4 out of 10, which is pathetic product because I think if you have a line, I am looking to get myself. My next step is to get myself trademarked and I'm in The process of trademarking my brand because as soon as I get myself trademarked, I get protected by Amazon because I can then register as a brand on Amazon, which means I can open up. I think I can have a shop front, doesn't it? I think on Amazon, is that correct? So I think so. What have I done? I've created a good listing with some great photographs. I've paid for it. Let's be blunt about it. I've gone on to sponsored ads and said, okay, Mr. Amazon, send me traffic, drive traffic to my product and help me start dolly.

I believe so, yeah, I believe you can have a shop front. I experimented with that personally.

But I think in terms of protection, in terms of terms of the products I'm importing as a private label, I think it's worthwhile me trademarking. That's probably going to cost me 500 quid, I think to get myself trademarked up properly across Europe. So. Yeah, but I'm on the lookout for something. In fact, the next two products I'm ordering have nothing at all to do with the first product I'm selling. They just are the products that in jungle scale, opportunity terms and in price terms I've turned around and said I'm gonna have a go and give it a run.

Awesome. Well, Tim, this has been so eye.

Opening not to sell this stuff. I did have a sale for the first week to encourage sales.

So, you know, and we touched on so many elements of the private label journey, in fact the whole Amazon. Joe, so thanks so much for coming on here and pleasure being so open and answering the questions so well.

Hope it's been helpful and you know, thanks for listening guys. And if anybody's be prepared to give up a little bit of your profit for the feed. If you've import a thousand, I'm prepared to, if not give away, certainly give away most of my profit for the first hundred because 100 sales gets me up the rankings, up the organic rankings and then Amazon turn around and say, oh, he's selling these. Got any questions? You know, bang him in the group and I'll try and answer them as well if I can when I get back in again. But you know, the only thing I would say is, and this is not just for me, I suspect it's for everybody, is that I keep Facebook generally for my friends. So don't try and become a friend on a Facebook account because I won't make you a friend of my Facebook account. But I'd be delighted to answer the inside the group Facebook for me. Is having fun with my mates and businesses kept separately inside a group. So if you got asked questions to ask me, ask away in the group and I'd be delighted to help.

That's very generous.

I'll send him some more clicks, you know, and lower the price because this is really selling well.

Yeah, guys, don't bombard Tim's inbox, but feel free to ask some questions in the group and he'll be there for you. So, awesome. Thanks so much, everybody, for being here for today's session has been lots of fun. Hit the like button if you enjoyed it and you want more stuff like this. And, Tim, thanks so much for being here and hopefully I'll catch up with.

You soon because remember, every time you make a sale, they're making money too, so it's in their interest to promote you. If you're paying them a little bit of money.

Absolutely.

And don't be afraid to. The only thing I haven't done yet.

And it's remiss of when you've got 25 private label.

I'll be back, tell you all about it. In fact, I'll tell you by the end of the year. Get me back towards the end of the year and I'll tell you. I'm nitpicked by five. Or not speak to you soon.

Absolutely. I'd love to hear about it. All right, Tim, thanks a lot, man. Have a great evening and cheers, mate.

Bye. I need to set up in seller central the automatic emails that go out 24 hours afterwards to turn around and say, hope you like the product. If there's anything wrong with it, please contact me. You know, please can you leave me a nice review? All that kind of stuff. How else have I done it? Let's be blunt about it. We all do it. We go to our friends and we say, can you buy one of these for me? I'll send you. How much is 15, 20 quid? And when you get it, can you write me a nice review, please? And because it's come from a trusted somebody who's bought the product rather than you, you know Amazon, go. Yep. Thanks very much. Be aware, of course, that your competitors might well, buy the product and diss it in the same way. But that's life. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it is a bit of a ruthless business at times and you've just got to. Sometimes you've just got to roll with shots and you get a bad review. Most of the time, people will see the bad review for what it is. If you've had six excellence and one rubbish one, I go, well, the rubbish one, you know, perhaps it was just a competitor who was mucking around.

But, yeah, if you have all five stars, it looks weird, to be honest. You know, it looks good to have one bad review because then it shows that, you know, you're not set, you know.

Correct. So. So I think pay for it, write a great listing, get great photographs and. And, you know, get a few reviews from mates to help things along to start with. That's my trick. Keep it simple.

Yeah, yeah. The only other thing you can add is promotions. Have you done any promotions yet?

It's through where? Sorry? Through Amazon.

So I use AMZ Tracker to do giveaways sometimes, like coupons and stuff. You don't have to do it, but have you?

I haven't yet and I haven't used AMZ Tracker yet.

It's worth trying, man, because you can. Yeah, they've got a huge network of buyers who just want to buy cheap stuff.

Yeah.

Just your product, down to 50%, give it away for free.

Yeah. You have a bit of a boost.

In rank, to be honest. If your stuff's working already without that, I probably wouldn't bother. I probably just keep. Because you're making money. This, this is another. So maybe when you do a bigger import, 2,000, 3,000 units, then it's time to do that.

Yeah, that's a really cool idea for me.

Yeah. Awesome. Wade says, when you've done your research and you think you found the right product, did you just buy it on impulse when all the stats matched, or did you sit there, wait for a while and see how the product performed for a little bit over time before making the decision?

Get on with it. Once you think you found the right one, get on with it. Otherwise you just look at it for six bloody months going, oh, I'm not sure. It might be the right time, it might not be the right time. Do you know what? There's never the bloody right time to buy something. It's never the best time, it's never the perfect time. If you wait for the perfect time, you will still be at Christmas worrying about it. The truth is that we did. Jungle Scout gives you enormous amounts of data over previous months of what's selling. You just have to trust this. Trust the system. The system tells you that this stuff is selling consistently every month, month on month. Why would it stop? Why would it stop selling? Just like if you find a product, here's a tip, is find a product that doesn't last forever and find a product that will keep on selling. So people don't mind if every two years they got to replace it or three years they got to replace it or stuff. Every time you move house, there's stuff you leave behind and there's stuff you buy at the new house because you want new in your house every time. So all those kind of tricks that you think, well, what do people buy consistently? You know, people. 4 million people move house every year in UK. So what are 4 million sellers or buyers do every time they move house? Well, you know, in simplistic terms, they're replacing, they're probably replacing curtains, they're probably replacing, you know, shower curtains, bath mats, the whole heap of stuff right throughout the house, you know, cardboard boxes, the whole heap of stuff that people do when they sell and they move house. You know, think about when people change their cars, think about people when all sorts of things where, when they get something new, they don't want to put the old shit in with it. They'll buy something new to go in their new sexy thing they've just bought. And you know, you can, you gotta trust the system. And in truth, it's a bit like we said right at the beginning, you will, you won't buy a product that won't sell, you'll just buy a product that sells more slowly. And to be honest, I mean, I think I've been really lucky with my first product. I do, you know, yes, I did some good research and all the rest of it, but it has gone way, way better than I expected, which is great. Whether the second one or the third one will be as good. Hey, who knows? We'll have to wait and see. But the point is that I'm not going to worry about it because I know that I can make stuff sell by writing a copy, by selling a bit on sponsored ads, perhaps by using Amazon Tracker and giving away a few bits and bobs, you can make stuff. Become a salesman. Think like a salesman. Think like the person who's buying your product.

Some great advice. Kirsten says, did you run a test batch first and you didn't run a test batch?

Well, no, I didn't.

Arguably was your test batch, is that right?

Yeah, it was really. I mean you can't, you could have. You. I could have sort of bought. I could have bought 100, I guess and had them shipped over AliExpress and air shipped them and done a test batch and all rest it. And I guess that if I was, if I was buying a product that was more expensive, you know, 30 or 40 quid I don't think I would have bought a thousand of them and I probably would have done a test patch, but the price I was paying for them, I mean, in the end, to get to Amazon ready to go, ready to sell, cost me £3,600, which is still quite a lot of money. It's a nice investment, but I'm going to get that back. And in fact, I've got way more than that back and I've got enough to buy the next batch in, albeit that there's a time lag with cash flow.

Yeah, there always is. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, okay, awesome. A few more questions, man, and then, yeah, we'll call it a day. So Nick says, what's the total monetary investment that you've spent on your private label so far? And so how has it split up between the product, the virtual assistant and your software and stuff? Maybe like a rough estimate of how much you've spent on it so far?

Well, I bought, I bought your, I think, perfect private label, I think was. But I probably bought the first one, so I don't want to pay for that. Whatever I pay for that, you know, it was, it was, it was on a discount, I'm sure. Yes, I've spent some money on some software on Jungle Scout and I bought a separate license for my va, so. And Jungle Scout, here's another great tip. Jungle Scout will give you a discount on the second, third and fourth licenses if, if you buy them from Chrome, all you got to do is contact them through the website and say, hey, look, I'm looking to buy one for my business, for someone in the business, but I don't want to keep having to buy a new license every time I change my va and they turn around and say, yeah, absolutely fine, we'll notify this as a business one and you can just change the email address that it's associated with. If you have to change a member of staff, they're very helpful. Very helpful. And then I spent, you know, I think I spent about two or three hundred dollars on samples. So I guess before anything happened, I might have spent six or seven hundred quid on stuff, which, to be honest, I made through retail arbitrage back fairly quickly by pushing that really hard to make a bit of money. I think that's a great tip. It works really well in quarter four. Whether it's quite as quick in other quarters, I don't know because I'm not doing it very much at the moment. But don't be afraid to really go at the retail arbitrage side and make perhaps £1,000 because that first thousand pounds pays for your first import, or certainly most of your first import. If you have to go down that route and you're quite positive about it and you're confident in your ability to make a bit of money, don't be afraid to look at a 0% credit card. It's the cheapest form of credit in the market and if you can put 3 or 4,000 pounds on a credit card with 0%, you've got 24 months to clear it before you start paying interest. So that's a, that's the cheapest form of credit there is in UK at the moment. Don't be afraid. You know, if you're confident about it and you think you can make a bit of money, you can pay that off. That's a, it's certainly something to think about.

Awesome. Mark says, how have you overcome the gap in time between getting paid by Amazon and ordering more products to send? And I think you actually just answered that with the credit option and.

Yeah, but a credit option, I mean you could go to the, you can go to the bank. The bank, the bank. I think the bank would give me a credit line now because I've got enough of a sales record to be able to show them I can sell stuff. The trouble is with banks is they take so bloody long to make a decision. So, you know, investors, you know, you might find that, you know, whether it's friends, whether it's family, well, you know, asking mum for a grand and telling your payer back in three months time, I mean, sometimes you've just got to hold on. I mean, I've paid my 30% to order the next shipment and I know from the day I pay my 30%, I've got 60 days to collect the rest of the money to pay the other 70%. So 60 days more selling on Amazon and then, you know, hopefully then I've got enough money in and if there's a small gap, well, I can lend the money 500, I can lend the business 500 quid of my money and you know.