Thrift stores are a great source of inventory for FBA sellers and it is an adventure every time in more ways than one…I’m writing this week about Goodwill in particular because it is a slightly different beast than the typical neighborhood thrift store.  For one thing, Goodwill is a huge organization with locations all over North America including Canada and Mexico. What does this mean to you? It means they tend to be really well organized with warehouses and the ability to distribute huge lots of goods across a large region. If this sounds a tiny bit like “BigLots,” it should.  Goodwill gets new and slightly damaged merchandise in large lots from businesses and manufacturers of all kinds and it balances out where the goods go so no one store is overwhelmed by a particular item. It may even spread a large lot across multiple regions which means that other Goodwill shoppers across the country might have the same item, not just local stores.

If you find a good seller in one Goodwill near you, it is likely that you can pick up more at another Goodwill. These are brand new items although sometimes the boxes are beat up and not good for selling. Often Amazon is no longer (or never did) selling these items because they are discontinued which is also nice for us. A huge preponderance of new Goodwill items sell between $2 and $6.

Of course, the majority of inventory at a Goodwill is used, donated items from individuals and small groups. These items are collected either at individual stores or collection sites throughout the city.  They are then sorted (lots of stuff is trashed on the spot – you’d be amazed at the garbage some people donate) and often taken to a central warehouse where the goods are balanced out a bit.  My local Goodwills, for example, are full of used textbooks right now – most of them only $2 – and I’m seeing some repeats from store to store. I’ve bought entire shopping carts full of textbooks with under 1 million rankings and I’m thrilled. I can only speculate where they got them because normally you’d only see a few textbooks at a Goodwill and yet the past couple of weeks have been staggering. 

By the way, the reason you only see a few textbooks at most Goodwills is because many of them are now selling their more valuable books on…Amazon!  Because each region is under different management, you see a lot of “Goodwills” selling online. Their competency in selling is highly variable and they don’t usually have the manpower to plow through all the books they get, but textbooks usually get some scrutiny. They are easy to pick out of a pile for one thing.

Which brings me to the question, what can you buy at a Goodwill to sell on FBA? Unlike eBay, there are many categories on Amazon where you can ONLY sell new items like “baby” and “toys,” so be sure you know what can be sold used. Plus, FBA sellers are restricted from certain categories or need special permission (like “collectible books,” or “clothing” for example). If you aren’t sure, look it up in the “help” section of Seller Central. Amazon is very clear.

One thing you can’t really anticipate is the “who is forbidding us to sell now?” question. Some manufacturers have clout with Amazon and restrict third-party sellers of their goods. I bought some new party plates at Target with “Cars 2” on them which I found out after a couple of weeks of selling them that I could no longer sell them. Ironically, the matching napkins were no problem and I sold all of those. The plates came back to me and I’m selling them through another channel. Amazon doesn’t publish a list or anything you can check so this is how most people find out that they can’t sell something that looked so great on the scanner. You can call Amazon before listing a product if you are concerned – this was the solution they offered me when I asked what we sellers could do.

If you see an item with no FBA sellers, which is clearly branded, be aware that it might end up being something you have to merchant-fulfill or sell in another category. I just bought a brand-new Disney iPhone case for $2 at Goodwill. There are merchant but no FBA sellers. I suspect it might end up going the eBay route or merchant-fulfilled, but I couldn’t resist the deal. They sell new from Disney for around $30.

So here’s how I work a Goodwill:

• Stuff up front in bins or on display shelves – This is often the new merchandise they are trying to move. I bought new sports goods and toys this weekend.
• Books – I’m looking for non-fiction for the most part.
• Collectible Games – the exception to the rule that all toys must be new is if it is a collectible meaning it is discontinued, old, rare, hard-to-find. Another clue is that Amazon is not selling it either. If they are selling it, it is definitely not collectible. Bring a small knife to open any tape and make sure all the pieces are there before you leave or that they are easy and cheap to replace like timers, clay, dice, etc. You have to sell complete games. At some Goodwills they will let you bring incomplete games back, but most of them don’t so be sure to check for pieces.
• New merchandise hidden in the kitchen/appliance area – air filters, designer napkins, vacuum cleaner bags…who knew?
• Allowable used appliances. In one of his eBooks, Jordan Malik turned me on to Sharper Image air purifiers and how people will buy them used and in a box of my own making (they are oddly shaped). With the exception of large items like this, I personally only buy products that are in their original packaging even if they clearly used. It saves me creating a box and is more appealing to potential customers to buy an “open box” item. Be sure to plug in any appliances before you leave the store and check that they are working.
• VHS tapes – new, sealed in plastic, only. Don’t bother with used from a Goodwill, most are in terrible shape and will only bring you negative feedback. Also, make sure there is really good margin on the tape. VHS sell slowly and you want to make sure your margin can afford a year or so worth of storage fees if it comes to that. You want tapes that aren’t available on DVD and are rare and hard to find.
• Computer software and games – used is fine. Make sure the discs look very clean. If you’re doubtful, don’t buy it. If you are looking at a jewel case and there is no barcode on it, the software/video game originally came in a box, probably with other stuff like a booklet. You cannot sell it without the box and original stuff.
• DVDs – you probably won’t find much of value in this section since people tend to donate their unwanted DVDs (translate=blockbusters that everyone has) so it is usually last on my list EXCEPT if it is brand new, sealed in package. Then I’ll check it out. With Roku and iTunes, fewer and fewer people are buying DVDs so keep the rank low (I suggest under 100,000 but this is not a hard and fast rule and other sellers may disagree with me).
• Stuffed animals – usually stuffed animals are piled up on top of clothing racks. I’ve occasionally found brand new toys with their original tags that show no wear whatsoever. I found two Harley Davidson branded toys this way and I suspect they were protected rather than played with which was great for me. Some toys will have matted fur or worn tags. These are not new and you can’t sell them. If they smell like cigarettes or cats, don’t sell them.  In Amazon’s world, “New is New” and not “nearly” or “mostly” new.
• Baby items – must be new. Boxes must look great, don’t pick up a slightly dinged or scratched box. Moms are very picky. It is not worth the grief. Be aware of items that are not sellable like crib bumpers and check all butt wipes and diapers to see what size package they are sold in. Most times what I find at Goodwill is not enough to sell on Amazon (like there are 12 packages in a case kind of thing). Don’t sell formula or food unless the expiration is more than 6 months out.
• High-dollar items – usually there is a locked case somewhere with higher priced items in excellent condition. These might be collectibles, new items or even auction items (i.e. you have to bid to win them). They’ll let you scan while they watch. You can find some very nice things in the case like expensive digital cameras, collectible comic books and more.

Things to know:

1. Sale items and books are not returnable in most Goodwills and thrift stores. They get so many books – they do NOT want them back. 
2. Books and other departments will go on sale fairly regularly.
3. Some Goodwills are so organized they have “clubs” with membership cards, discounts, special sales…just like any typical retailer.  Sign up, they’re worth it. I’m a member of the Goodwill group that covers West Chicago up to Central Wisconsin.  Why? Because my friend Lynn lives there and we go shopping together when I visit.
4. You will need to sign up with each Goodwill separately with your sales tax certificate unless it is one of those highly organized and technology interconnected groups (like the Chicago area). In most cases, they three-hole punch your form and put it in a notebook to check against next time. I’m not kidding. In North Texas, we’re lucky the cash registers don’t use pop-up numbers. It is ironic since we’re in the Telecom Corridor.

As a special caveat, I will warn you that part of Goodwill’s mission is to train unskilled and formerly homeless people for jobs. Often the person behind the counter is close to illiterate and finds a cash register intimidating. Things like ringing up your purchase as “non-taxable” can be a problem.  Checking out with multiple shopping carts can be a problem. Finding your sales tax certificate in the 3-ring notebook can be a problem.  Be patient and cheerful and remember this is normal and part of the mission. Checkout for me can take half an hour sometimes.

This caveat applies to a lot of non-profit thrift stores, not just Goodwill of course.  Salvation Army is also an excellent resource. I don’t know about the rest of the country, but they are not quite as organized down here as Goodwill. You have to go to the right neighborhood to find the real finds for Salvation Army whereas I find the Goodwills to be fairly consistent throughout a region. In terms of working the store, I pretty much work them all the same.

Many thrift stores have special sale days each month or special sections of the store on sale (like books). When my Mom is in town, we go shopping together to take advantage of her seniors discount. Some move inventory like crazy, some have the same old stuff every time.  Your mission is to find the stores with swift turnover and visit regularly. One thrift store I know of discounts books to 10 cents on Saturdays and their turnover is very fast. It is a dirty, crowded hole-in-the-wall but an excellent find for an FBA scout. 

If you would like to learn more about thrifting from other FBA sellers, Chris Green has videos that he records live of some of his shopping trips. Scan Power has a YouTube channel with episodes like “Thrifting with the Boys” and “Thrift Store Haul with Chris Green at the Salvation Army.” In addition, there is a regular internet radio show (with archives!) called “Thrifting for Profit – The Amazon Way” with Debra Conrad and “Thrifting-with-the-Boys” with Jason Smith that you may find interesting.

What about you? Do you scout thrift stores? What have you learned? Please share your stories in the comments below!

When I was a young whippersnapper in New York City and learning my craft, I used to get discouraged sometimes. As a publicist I was calling members of the media all day long. They were busy, annoyed and didn’t want to hear from me. Sometimes they were rude and it would get to me after a while. I would become afraid.  The term “call reluctance” doesn’t really explain how heavy the phone gets at times like that.  One day I was confiding in my Dad how tough it was and the mean things the reporters were saying to me. He told me to close my office door and throw my briefcase to the floor. Then, while he was on the phone, I had to jump over it back and forth and say to myself out loud, “I am! I am! I am the best publicist I know!”

I did this until I was too exhausted to be afraid, basically. While I felt ridiculous and sweaty, it absolutely worked.  Looking back now I know why it worked: 1) my Dad loved me and was helping me which was heartening – connection can change your world in an instant; 2) it changed my state of mind as I giggled at the absurdity of what I was doing in my sensible suit and hose (Tony Robbins calls it a “pattern interrupt”) and 3) it got oxygen into my system which is a natural euphoric. It was also 4) a positive affirmation that I needed to tell myself.

He learned this trick when he was paying his way through college as a door-to-door Bible salesman. I was surprised to learn that he’d ever been discouraged because he was a really great salesman. He even sold Bibles to atheists, which is saying something. The fact is we all get discouraged sometimes. It is hard to run into obstacles over and over again. We can feel like failures even when what we’re experiencing is absolutely normal. For my Dad and me, rejection was an expected part of our jobs and yet it would be hard to take sometimes.

As Amazon sellers, we don’t have to worry about doors slammed in our faces or people swearing at us over the phone and calling us “little girl.” The worst we experience is usually a negative rating or angry buyer.  And yet there are obstacles that can get us down. I went shopping at Walmart recently with a fellow seller and there was nothing to speak of for our hours of scanning. I wanted to show her that you can find good product at big box stores, but yesterday was not the day to prove that point, alas.

I’ve got listing errors in my inventory that I’m trying to unravel with Amazon and many of them are turning out to be things I can no longer sell which is discouraging. I’m having them destroyed or sent back if I think I can sell them some other way. Amazon’s rules change all the time. Manufacturers move in to forbid us from selling their brands. Fees go up, Amazon lowers its prices on your best seller, sales taxes are a pain in the butt…I could go on and on.

What keeps me moving forward (mostly) cheerfully is that I learned a long time ago that change is a constant and normal. It is in every business so I might as well love the one I’m with instead of trying to find that perfect business without any troubles or at least very few (thank you Dr. Seuss for writing I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew).

Amazon’s FBA program is much simpler than my day job and heavily technology enabled which is helpful…and sometimes a curse when the technology goes awry. Dad’s exercise helped me a lot when I was younger because I was afraid that I wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t up to the task. I was somehow a fraud and now the world was about to catch up with me. He reminded me then that what I was experiencing was temporary and normal. I reminded myself as I was jumping that I was a good salesperson/publicist and this was just a tough day – nothing more.

I’ve done this exercise at different times in my career when I needed it and I usually felt better afterwards. Then I got back on the phone again and kept calling. I wouldn’t always have a success right away but I knew I would eventually. Persistence is the key to public relations as it is for most businesses. My failure at Walmart was forgotten by a fabulous morning thrifting and garage saling.

I don’t have the same fears any more so my briefcase remains unmolested today. I have internalized the beliefs that keep me going and I rarely have to speak them aloud, but I thought I’d share some of them in case they might help you in a discouraged moment:

• I will figure this out. I always do, eventually.
• When the rules change, an opportunity is created for me – I just need to find it.
• My business is not quite like anyone else’s.
• I am learning constantly.
• I have something to contribute.
• I am not alone.
• The end result is worth the trouble getting there.
• My work is important and meaningful (and thus, worth doing).

Say these out loud to yourself over time until you believe them, too. Find specific examples from your own life that prove these points to you. Remind yourself of their truth for you.

The first three on this list are hard-won, forged in sweat and tears. Basically, they come from experience. Change can be terrifying and letting go and having faith that I will figure it out only came after I faced failure and did it over and over again. Same with when the rules change.  My profession is radically different from when I started back in 1988. Our “secret sauce” used to be our lists – lists that anyone can buy off the internet today. I’ve had to reinvent myself many times in the past 24 years to stay relevant in the marketplace.

The third point is enormously important to me – it may not matter a bit to you.  This belief is what allows me to work with my competitors – “co-opetition.” Throughout my career and in my Amazon business I work closely with my so-called competitors. In my day job, I hired them for projects and worked with them side-by-side.  In the Amazon business I’m training my competitors to perform better than me and I collaborate with other sellers to make the industry better for all of us.

While we all do the same thing – sell stuff online – I know that my business is sufficiently unique that I won’t be stumbling all over my colleagues. My inventory is different from yours because I am different from you. My interests, what I look for, those reflect me. I have a weakness for designer Barbie dolls, for example, that is entirely about my childhood and not at all about their profitability (per se). There are lots of items that have bigger margins and are less fussy to deal with than collectible dolls, but I like them. I like buying them. I like thinking about people displaying them. I’m weird that way…and so are you. You have your things that you gravitate to without even realizing it. You have your shopping spots, your “secret sauce.”

You work your business slightly differently than anyone else; you enjoy different aspects of the business. My friend Robert Prince, for example, loves competition. He may not verbalize it this way, but when he talks about how he whips other sellers into shape and gets them to charge the same amount he does for an item by his price maneuvers rather than playing the downward price spiral game, there is real joy and satisfaction in his voice far beyond the fact that he’s making margin. So why is it important that my business is unique? Because it reminds me that there is room enough for all of us – I’m a “big pie” person – and that I absolutely can compete and succeed even with lots of other sellers. There is a place for me in this industry…and a place for you.

“I am learning constantly” is the flip side of “I don’t know everything.” It is dangerous to think that I know everything there is to know about any of my businesses. Change is a constant so I need to be learning all the time in order to flow with it. I make mistakes and if I didn’t learn from them…I’d be a failure. Learning allows me to keep growing.

Learning also makes you willing to make mistakes in the first place. If you ever get afraid of making mistakes, that’s when you stop growing and trying new things. You become rigid in your operations. It is sure failure in a business like ours. No one likes to make mistakes, but if you are confident in your ability to get through it and learn from it, it is not a scary proposition.

You have something to contribute. You are not only selling stuff online, you are bringing value to our industry/community.  You are important beyond being an economic engine. I see this constantly on Yahoo and Facebook forums where sellers help sellers perform better. Everyone brings something different to the table. I learn from other sellers all the time.

This belief that my contribution is valuable is also what helps make my work meaningful to me. I think about people paying their bills, planning vacations, sending their kids to school, realizing their dreams because I wrote about Amazon’s FBA program. It is a huge source of satisfaction and joy for me. It has always mattered to me that the work I did was valuable in some way. With the Amazon business I am helping more than a handful of clients and it is what keeps me writing my blog and learning new things.

This motivates me more than the money although I certainly wouldn’t do this business if I wasn’t making money. I have bills to pay, too! But when I’m doing something particularly boring like processing inventory, it sustains me. Knowing that what I’m doing is bigger than myself and the potential worth of this used book in front of me, keeps me going. When I’m struggling with all the sales tax stuff and other necessary but tedious business BS, I think “this will make a great blog post one day,” and it keeps me going. So does the belief that the end result is worth the trouble.

I pay for my son’s school with my Amazon income. I’m planning a family vacation this summer with my Amazon income. This makes me happy and keeps me motivated when things aren’t going perfectly. My family matters more to me than anything else. What are your emotionally satisfying reasons for selling online?

I am not alone. I have my family, friends and colleagues. When I’m discouraged, I call someone and that helps me change my negative thinking. Maybe we think through a problem or share “exciting moments in scouting.” Sometimes I go online to the forums and read about other people’s problems and realize we are all rowing in the same direction. Maybe I can find help from the community. Reaching outside of myself keeps me from being isolated and lonely. It gives me the connection I need at that moment. It changes my thinking.

What about you? What are your beliefs that keep you going? Do you have affirmations or “tricks” that help you when you are discouraged? Please share in the comments below!

Now that we’ve had so much fun talking about sales tax over the past couple of weeks, let’s really rip it up and talk about federal taxes for a minute.  If you are successful and making money, you’re going to have taxes and Uncle Sam expects you to keep decent records to back up your deductions.  With thousands of items up at Amazon at any given time, it could potentially be a nightmare. Before I tell you how I do it (which, by the way, is not by any means the only way), let’s look at what the IRS wants to know and what you want to know about your business:

Uncle Sam:

• How much your inventory cost when you bought it
• How much your supplies cost to run the business
• Any services, bank fees, software, miles on your car, utilities, rent, etc., it takes to keep your business in operation
• For how much you sold your inventory
• How much inventory is left up at Amazon at the end of your fiscal year (usually Dec. 31)

You:

• How much money do I have left after expenses and taxes?
• Am I making money on my inventory or losing it?
• Which items are most/least profitable?

Now you could do this the hard way or the slightly less hard way and it really depends on your personal need for detail.  I’m a big picture girl and I hate bookkeeping so you can guess where I’m going with this.

Bookkeeping Software

First, you need some kind of bookkeeping system for Uncle Sam. I recommend Outright.com or Quickbooks because I’m most familiar with them but there are many packages out there. If you are accustomed to using Peachtree in another business, for example, then use Peachtree.  Outright.com is very simple and aimed squarely at online sellers. This may be your best bet if you are new seller and don’t run other businesses. You can read a past blog post about it HERE. I use Quickbooks Online because I’ve used QB for nearly 20 years and I run two other service businesses on it already. Whatever system you use, the purpose is to keep track of your business expenses and deductions and to produce reports for you that show you if you are losing or making money. You can tie it to your business bank account, PayPal, Amazon Payments – whatever you use to sell. This will help you keep track of your deductions and expenses.

If you are incorporated, you owe taxes on whatever is left after your business pays its expenses. If you are a sole proprietor you pay taxes on your income at a higher rate and pay your expenses out of what’s left. It is the number one reason for incorporating. Corporations have lots more expenses they can write off than sole proprietors. I mention this here because obviously it will affect your bookkeeping if you are incorporated or not. If you are using a lot of tax strategies, you may wish to use a more comprehensive program like Quickbooks which will help you better keep track of them.

Amazon Reports

I rely heavily on Amazon to provide me with inventory reports for Uncle Sam and sales tax reports for the individual states where I collect them.  At the end of each year on December 31 or January 1 I download these reports which help me show my CPA how much inventory is at Amazon. In addition, Amazon’s financial reports tell my CPA my gross and expenses from Amazon. I strongly suggest you put a reminder in your calendar RIGHT NOW to run these reports on December 31. Go to “Reports” and “Fulfillment” in Seller Central and print off:

• Received Inventory – tells you exactly what you sent to Amazon during the past year
• Amazon Fulfilled Inventory – Snapshot of exactly what is in the warehouse that day. Tells your CPA what inventory will roll over into 2013, basically. This can only be run on December 31 (or January 1 if you wish. That’s close enough for the IRS) as it is a real-time report, NOT historical. Amazon does not have a historical report that shows you what inventory you had in the warehouse when, so whether you pull the other reports or not, be sure to pull this one.
• Monthly Inventory History – This report can be run for the whole year and will show you what you sold each month.
• All Statements – You’ll find this one under “Reports”, “Payments” rather than “Fulfillment.” You can print off your statements for your CPA of all your payments for the year if you’ve not been doing it as you went along. There’s a summary view and then you can drill down into the detail. This report shows you Amazon’s fees, your gross, your net, basically.

Throughout the year I look at what items are selling and my profit or loss through the financial transaction reports.

My Receipts/Inventory Costs

One thing Amazon’s reports won’t tell me is how much my inventory is actually worth at the end of the year – i.e. the sum of what I paid out-of-pocket for the inventory that is still up there at the end of the year. There are several approaches to this problem:

1. Keep records of every single item of inventory you have and what it cost in an excel spreadsheet. Compare it to your report of the thousands of items up at Amazon at the end of the year. Calculate the actual value of your inventory.  Shoot yourself out of desperation.
   • This is my current solution except I don’t keep track of the costs as I go. I do it all at the end and I feel desperate every year when I have to go through this but I can do it in a few hellish hours. I have a couple of drinks afterwards.  Basically, I take the Amazon Fulfilled Inventory report and import it into Excel. Then I go through my receipts and/or Scan Power and key in the cost for each item in a new column.  I have Excel add it up for me and give the number to my CPA.
   • Because so many of my items are books and I can tell from my MSKU where and when I bought them, it is pretty easy to price them without looking up each individual item. What I do is go to my receipt where I marked how many books I bought (200 books for $100, that kind of thing). I average it out (each book = 50 cents on average in this example) and put that number in for all the books that correlate to that book sale. While some books may have actually been $1 and others 25 cents, the price range is so small, the average is close enough.
   • I keep all my receipts sorted by year and month so it is easy to find the one I need when the time comes.
2. OR, Keep your spreadsheet up-to-date as you go. In other words, as you buy and sell stuff, add/remove it from the spreadsheet so at the end of the year all you have to do is add up what’s not sold yet in your spreadsheet. This requires discipline and an ongoing devotion to bookkeeping. Pay to palm off this tedious chore on a virtual assistant or bookkeeper or you will want to shoot yourself on a monthly basis.
3. Use inventory management software to do it for you. There are stand-alone programs and those that integrate with major accounting packages. What is most important is that they integrate with Amazon.com because Amazon is the most up-to-date program with your actual sales. This approach is particularly relevant to multi-channel sellers. Some of the software out there is very slick and can help you manage inventory across multiple platforms easily.
   • I spoke with Stitch and tried their free trial. They have a free 15-day trial and integrate with Amazon. After that it is $25 a month. This means you can pull in your current inventory automatically into Stitch. The downside for a small fry like me is that I still have to enter all the costs manually and I have thousands of items. All the other details (MSKU, etc.) are pulled in for me by the program, but not the out-of-pocket cost.  Since I’m not multi-channel, I’m not going to pursue the program, but it is worth a look for you if you do sell the same item across platforms.
   • There are others.  Key in “FBA inventory management software” into Google and see what works with your bookkeeping software. Many will work with QuickBooks and other programs if you want to take that approach.

If you know of something better for FBA sellers, please let me know!  I’d be thrilled to try it out and share. Most programs that I researched so far will require you to still enter your out-of-pocket cost for the items as you go. There is really no way around this yet which is why I do the spreadsheet thing. It’s free.  You can download the real-time report from Amazon and create a column for cost.

I’m hoping that the guys at Scan Power are reading this and will create reports for us from Scan Power’s Repricer that will allow us to see how much we spent per item (see below). If I could synch my inventory with Scan Power Repricer on 12/31 and the spreadsheet included a column with how much I paid for that item, I’d be deliriously happy.  I’m currently putting in that information as I go with Scan Power to help me with repricing and would love to have this extra functionality. And I’d pay extra to have it.  If you feel the same, email the guys at Scan Power: support@scanpower.com and maybe they can add it to their to-do list. I know they are busy creating new features for us all the time.

Scan Power

I use Scan Power. If you use Listtee or some other program, you most likely have the same capabilities – you’ll want to check.  Scan Power allows me to record my actual cost at the time that I list an item. If you’ve not noticed this feature, see the picture.  This is a big help when I am repricing and also if I ever want to see exactly how much I made on an item. I can pull it up on Scan Power or Scan Power Repricer by its MSKU and see what I originally paid. Amazon’s financial report will show me how much it actually sold for and my cut after expenses. This helps me answer the question of whether or not an item was profitable or not. Obviously it is when I originally price the item or I wouldn’t send it in, but sometimes I have to cut my prices in order to make the sale and then the item isn’t profitable or as profitable. I’ve been doing this long enough that I can often tell just by looking at the transaction report.  But, if I’m not sure, now I can use Scan Power to help me determine my profit or loss on a particular item.

When you price your item in Scan Power, you can put in your actual cost (1) as well as your desired “floor” (2) and “ceiling” (3) for the item. This will help you a lot when repricing. Right now I only put in my cost as most of my repricing is done manually.

What’s in my Office

Basically, from a bookkeeping perspective, my receipts are in my file drawer plus copies of all my tax forms. My receipts for each year are in a compact 13-month plastic expand-a-file pouch with a fold-over flap that I get from the Container Store. It is the perfect size and easy to store in my file drawer. I always use three slots for November/December since I have so many receipts. 

I have a file folder for each state where I pay sales tax which includes my sales tax certificates and instructions from the state.  Everything else is in my computer, in the cloud, or available somewhere online. I pay all my state and most of my federal taxes online.

My business bank account, my AMEX, credit card payments (for my book) and PayPal all feed into QB.  Amazon deposits into my bank account. I make sure expenses are going into the right categories (many of them are monthly repeats and automatically are categorized) and reconcile every month or so. That’s it.

I use Carbonite.com to store all my data securely off-site.  Carbonite is GREAT! It works behind the scenes in real time. I don’t have to remember to do a back-up and it is very easy to recover files should anything happen. I’ve replaced my laptop several times during the years I’ve used Carbonite and it is very easy to download my data files to the new laptop.  I have a terabyte drive on my desk which stores a lot of my pictures and big files that I don’t access every day like years’ worth of business files and taxes. Carbonite backs that up, too.  It is wonderful and provides great peace of mind. My CPA also has copies of all my tax forms as does Quickbooks Online so I feel secure going paperless.

I am sometimes asked after I write blogs recommending products/services if I am an affiliate. Occasionally I am and I’m very clear when that is the case. In today’s case, these are my opinions and I am not paid for them. I would love to hear from you about your solution to bookkeeping for your Amazon business.

My readers have such great questions. I try to answer personally when I can but that is getting harder as volume increases. This week I thought I’d reprint some recent questions in the hopes that others may have had the same question. In addition, there are some follow-up answers from the recent sales tax blogs. Have a great week selling!

Q. Do you have any recommendations for a smartphone to use with this business?

There are two approaches to this question:  1) buy the phone outright and pay for a lower per-month plan; or 2) get the phone cheap or for free and pay more per month on an ongoing basis.  A friend of mine chose the first option and paid about $200 for an Android phone and then got a cheap ($40/month) month-to-month unlimited data plan. I chose the second option and paid one penny (yep, 1 cent) for a top-of-the-line Android phone from Amazon.com’s cell phone store. I was locked in to a two-year contract, however. My son has an iPhone and between the two of us, our bill is about $120 a month or about $60 per month each.

An Android phone will be significantly cheaper than the iPhone usually (unless you are buying an older iPhone model perhaps).  4G is better than 3G without a doubt.  Chris Green uses Sprint.  I use AT&T. We are both happy with our service providers. I’m not a fan of T-Mobile.  My husband has that with his work phone and it seems to have a lot of problems with service quality. Your best bet when choosing a service provider is to do some online research in your area and find out which providers have the best coverage at the highest speed. It doesn’t make much sense to pay extra for a 4G phone, for example, if no one offers 4G service in your area.

Q. Is there a HazMat issue with shaving cream? I’m worried about it exploding from the pressure during shipping.

I’ve never sent in shaving cream, but I did send in a toy once that shot webbing out (Spiderman webbing) and they confiscated and destroyed it with no reimbursement for me.  Basically, anything under pressure is a problem. This link will take you to the latest list of possible HazMat items from Amazon.  Shaving cream is on the list.  In the future, if you are not sure and your item isn’t on Amazon’s list, call Amazon first and ask to speak to an FBA specialist about HazMat.  Hopefully he/she can save you the trouble of shipping it in if it is forbidden under HazMat guidelines. You can still merchant fulfill the item, of course.

Also, even though something is on this list or not on this list, doesn’t mean you have the right answer. In other words, some cameras are sold on Amazon even though they have batteries in them and there are many items that are HazMat that aren’t on this list like my Spiderman web shooter. They allow teeth whiteners even though they are technically HazMat.  Fun, right? Your best bet in doubt is to call first.

Q. Can Amazon customers see the seller’s email? I’m wondering if I should have a special email or if my Yahoo account is OK…

All email correspondence with a customer gores through Amazon’s system which changes the email addresses on both ends. You can’t see the customer’s email address and they can’t see yours. So use any email you like. Be aware, that you are not allowed to put in hyperlinks, phone numbers, email addresses or URLs in any correspondence with a customer.

Q. I have some friends who would like me to sell books for them on Amazon. They have entire cases full of books they want to get rid of. What do you recommend in terms of a consignment arrangement?

Generally, there are two approaches to this. You can offer them a flat sum for their items and then sell them and keep the profit. This is, basically, the garage sale approach except you will likely be offering them better than they could get at a garage sale, plus you are collecting and disposing of these items for them which is valuable. In this scenario, you might offer them a flat 25 cents, 50 cents or $1 for each book/item you can sell which is much better than Half Price Books will give them. Are their books textbooks and expensive looking non-fictions or are they mostly best-selling novels? That will help you determine what to offer.

The other approach is a shared consignment. In that case, you offer to split the profits together in some sort of equitable split. Profits are after expenses are taken out including shipping, all Amazon fees and a reasonable amount for materials (say 3-5 cents a book to cover your cost for boxes, tape, labels, packing paper, etc.). For example, you might offer them 40% of the profit. When you send in their books, be sure to use a unique SKU so it will be easy to pick out their sales. You can reconcile with them once a month until all the books sell.

What would this look like? Most books I sell are in the $7-$12 range, which means you’ll clear $2-$5 after fees and shipping.  40% would be $.80 – $2 for your friends for a typical book. In this case, they would make more per book, but it might take longer to get it.  The benefit to you of this approach is no out-of-pocket costs to get the inventory – you can pay with your sales. There is more bookkeeping on your part, however, so you’ll need to weigh that in your decision-making.

For the books that you can’t sell on Amazon, take them to Half-Price Books or some other used bookstore. They will generally give you a nickel to 10 cents a book, but sometimes you get lucky and they pay more. You could also post an ad on Craigslist selling them by the boxful for $3-$5 a box. There are plenty of merchant fulfilled sellers who will take those books and sell them on Amazon. The nice part about this approach is they pick up the heavy books at your house. The downside of this approach is they pick up the books at your house. If you are worried about crazy Craigslist people, meet them somewhere well populated for the exchange.

Q. Is there any way I can compare the rank of an item from when I sent it to Amazon vs. when it sold? I have a CD that sold at 205,000 rank and I’m wondering what rank it was when I sent it in.

I’m afraid rank is only a snapshot in time. There is no way to go back and find out what a rank was when you bought it versus after it sold. The rank of 205,000 that you saw was after it sold which tells me that this is a fairly slow selling CD, plus the fact that you sent it in December and it just sold now (late March 2013).

When I’m experimenting on rank in a new category or one where I don’t have a lot of experience, I will take note of my “experiments” to see when they sell. For example, if I buy a CD at some high rank, I’ll make a note of it and then when it sells, I’ll note that to myself. I bought a bunch of CDs at a book sale for 10 cents apiece which makes for an excellent and inexpensive test for me. I noted the ones with the highest, a middle rank and a relatively low rank to see when they sell (so 3 or 4 CDs, not all of them). I once bought some fancy shampoos in beauty for what I thought was a relatively low rank – WRONG! It took nearly a year to sell even one unit. Ideally you want to be the only FBA seller for that item so it is more likely you will be the next sale. Also, I usually price near the merchant prices for these experiments. In other words, you don’t want to be testing too many factors in your experiment when you are testing rank.

Q. I’m overwhelmed by the thought of incorporating. Do I have to incorporate to start this business?

You don’t have to incorporate to get started with Amazon, but eventually you will want to for financial reasons.

Here are two books I recommend about incorporating that explain the whys and hows of it in plain English:

Incorporate and Grow Rich

Start Your Own Corporation: Why the Rich Own Their Own Companies and Everyone Else Works for Them

Whether or not selling on Amazon is the right business for you, these books will help you in any venture you start-up.

Q. I have 12 of the same item (used books) how do I label them – all with the same label? What if I have different descriptions for some of the books?

This reader uses Scan Power and my answer relates to Scan Power. Each condition requires a separate SKU. Amazon perceives them as separate products. If you have 12 books, you need to condition them. If they are all “good” for example, then you can send them in together under one SKU.  If you need to write notes, add them to the one description. This description may say “has personal inscription on first page and minor highlights and notes” and only a few of the books actually have those issues. For the other people who get their book without a personal inscription or notes, they are happy.

If 2 of the 12 are “very good” or “like new,” then you should send them in a separate batch. In other words, click “ship” for the 10 that are “good” (plus whatever else you had in the batch). Then start a new batch and scan in the book again. This time, change the condition and notes in Scan Power to “very good.” It will try to automatically make them “good” since that is what you recently sent in. You have to edit the listing – sometimes twice to get it to take. Then you click ship again and add it to your existing batch in the shipping queue. Now you have 10 “good” and 2 “very good.”

Q. Amazon keeps having me send multiple items to warehouses all over the country which is expensive and inconvenient – what should I do?

It depends. If the other warehouse is one where I send merchandise fairly regularly, I will simply wait until I have a full box which makes the shipping cost lower (Scan Power and Amazon let you add to existing shipments on the Shipping Queue). If the extra shipping cost to the other warehouse cuts into my margin too much I can either take the goods back (walk of shame…) or I can try to re-list them later in a separate batch (delete the original shipment, in other words). Sometimes when I do that, my goods are suddenly going to my regular warehouse again.  As a final option, Amazon will allow you to combine items into one box. Be aware that they charge for this service and they charge a per-item fee for everything in your box not just the extra items.  If your items are fairly bulky like toys, this may not be a big deal because you can only fit a certain number in a box anyway.

This service, called Inventory Placement Service, allows you to send all quantities of a single merchant SKU to a single fulfillment center. They charge 30 cents for each standard-sized item and $1.30 for each oversized unit. Standard size is up to 18”X14”X8” and 20 lbs. Anything bigger is oversized. You can change your settings with Amazon such that they will always do this for you when you have multiples:

• Go to “Settings” and “Fulfillment by Amazon.”
• Under “Inventory Placement” option, click “edit.”
• Select your preferred option
• Click the “update” button.

Obviously, you need to make sure you have enough margin in your items to cover these additional fees.

Q. Does Scan Power offer a Canadian version of its software for the new Canada FBA program?

Not at this time. You will need to either use Amazon’s listing system or find a vendor who has a Canadian version. While Amazon’s version is less efficient, it is free, which is a huge boon to a new seller.  Right now, the following vendors providing listing software in the U.S. and perhaps in Canada, too.  If you find a vendor you like down the road, I would greatly appreciate an email letting me know so I can help future Canadian customers:

• ASellerTool – support@asellertool.com; www.asellertool.com  
• Seller Engine – support@sellerengine.com; www.sellerengine.com
• Listtee – www.listtee.com; help@listee.com
• NeatoScan (for a mobile scanning tool) – www.neatoscan.com; info@neatoscan.com

Q. Big Lots won’t let me use my sales tax certificate and get credit on its rewards program. Is there a workaround for that?

Until recently I would have said “no,” but one of my readers told me how he does it.  Steve submits his receipts after the fact into the rewards program. There is a number on the receipt that you key in.  What you do is login to your Buzz Club Rewards.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page.  You will see “Add a prior Purchase to Acccount.”

Q. How can I check to make sure that someone else doesn’t have my Amazon seller name before I register it with my state and get a tax ID#, etc.?

My suggestion for you would be to search for your seller name on Amazon beforehand.  You can do this at Amazon.com.  Go to the search box and put in your desired name. Amazon will then bring up everything related to that name. IF it is the name of a seller, you’ll find that out by clicking on one of the products and looking at the FBA sellers for that item. For example, in looking at a product recently, I saw that one of the other sellers was “Iggy’s Toy Shoppe.”  I typed that name into the search bar and a whole bunch of toys came up on the screen. I clicked on one of the toys and looked at all the new sellers and found Iggy’s Toy Shoppe. If I was really interested in Iggy, I could have clicked on his/her name and I would have been able to see the complete online catalog of Iggy’s inventory which is pretty cool. Anyway, that’s the only way I know to do it.

One thing to think about when choosing a name is to either choose a name that is very similar to other, big-name sellers or very different from everyone. If the name is similar, then you get some of their reflected glory when people shop because they might think you are someone else. If the name is very different, you stand out and people remember you. I knew my name was unique and didn’t even look on Amazon in advance because I had done a nationwide search for my name long before I sold on Amazon.

My other advice about choosing a name is not to use your real name as part of it. While this is likely to make it more unique, you’ve now created a potential problem for yourself in that it is much easier for people (crazy people are the ones I’m worried about here) to find you outside of Amazon. You want all your correspondence with customers to go through the Amazon interface. So pick a name that is not easily traceable.

Lastly, there’s a really good chance that no one has your desired name. Amazon’s FBA program is still young, compared to eBay or other sites like that. There aren’t that many sellers and so a reasonable effort at a unique name is very likely to win the day.  Good luck with your new business!

Q. Why are the Amazon sales tax reports wrong?

I’ve not been able to get a straight answer on this topic from Amazon which is unusual and frustrating.  However, I got two very helpful answers from TaxJar.com and online seller Keith Yockey on the ThatKat! Facebook group.  One of the issues I raised in my blog was Pennsylvania and how when I sold in Philadelphia or Alleghany county, Amazon wasn’t collecting extra taxes.  According to this terrific blog from TaxJar.com, we don’t actually owe extra taxes in Philadelphia and Allegheny County because PA is what they call an “origin-based” sales tax state. Since the Amazon warehouse is not in Philadelphia, nor in Allegheny County, we will never owe that additional tax. We can set the tax to 6% for all transactions in PA and collect what is required.  See the details here at Why Amazon Doesn’t Collect Local Tax Rates in PA. I feel much better knowing that.

According to Keith Yockey, Amazon uses a third-party provider to figure tax.  This is why there is no one at Amazon who can answer our questions about the reports – they are not making them.  It would be nice if Amazon would tell us this instead of driving us mad with stupid and wrong answers. Keith runs a Facebook group called Stop Sales Tax Fees Now where they are currently talking about the sales tax bill in the Senate and House right now.

Q.  Do I need to pay sales tax in all the states where Amazon has a warehouse or just the states where Amazon is paying sales tax?

The short answer is “the former.” Many people have noticed that Amazon is only paying taxes in nine states right now and not all of them even have a warehouse.  What are FBA sellers like us supposed to do?  On this issue, there are 20 years of state sales tax law dictating that what we are supposed to do. It is just that most did not comply. Why should we? If Amazon wasn’t paying sales tax, why should we? Things have changed now that Amazon is being sued by all the states to pay up.  They’ve settled with nine so far, but more will follow. 

To be clear, though, what affects Amazon does not necessarily affect us. Amazon has a lot more physical locations than warehouses, plus they own many entities like Zappos and Woot! that have nothing to do with us selling on Amazon. Sometimes they are complying even without a physical presence.  In New York, for example, they don’t even have a nexus but have agreed to pay anyway. That does not mean we are obligated to pay in New York.

So what’s new in the last year or so? The states have claimed – successfully – that a warehouse is a physical presence (nexus). That does affect us since we sell online and store our merchandise in Amazon’s warehouses. If I were storing my inventory in my home or a storage unit instead, for example, then I would only owe sales tax for Texas.

Amazon often moves inventory around after we send it in to a warehouse. They do this to keep inventory close to potential customers.  So I may never send merchandise to Pennsylvania, but later I’ll find out that the PA warehouse delivered my goods to a customer.  Because of this policy of Amazon, I have to list with all the states where there are warehouses if I want to be in compliance.

For this reason, I’m signed up or in the process of signing up in 13 of the 15 states where Amazon has a warehouse. Two states (Delaware & NH) do not collect sales tax.

Q. I clicked on one of your “Step-by-Step” links and I was asked by Scribd to pay a fee to download/print the PDF – what gives?

This problem should be resolved now. My online document storage company Scribd decided to monetize its site and didn’t tell its users that all their previously free content was now premium.  I’ve changed my Scribd settings such that this should never happen again.  However, if you are still getting the message, it may mean you need to clear your cache or reboot your computer such that the Scribd “cookies” go away and your internet browser will display the new settings for you.

Last week Amazon was having trouble with generating reports. For the blog I cheated and used an old report I already had from March. This was a mistake and it affected my Step-by-Step – particularly the part where people can change all their listings to “A_GEN_TAX.” I’m sorry for my mistake.  I’ve fixed it with this updated Step-by-Step.  I want to thank Mark, one of my readers, for letting me know so I could share it with you. If you are one of the nearly 300 people who downloaded the earlier version, please download it again. 

In addition, another reader – Janet – noticed that my Step-by-Steps hosted on Scribd were suddenly asking people to pay to download the file.  You could read it online for free but the download cost money. I was horrified and want to make it clear that my blog is free. Any add-on products like the Step-by-Step are free, too, unless I specifically tell you in advance (like for my classes, consulting, etc.). After some back and forth with Scribd, I was able to remove this restriction from all my files posted there. They are trying to monetize their site which I understand, but they didn’t share that surprise with their community and I didn’t know.  If anyone else was frustrated like Janet because you couldn’t download one of my files for free, please try again.  That restriction should be removed now.  If not, please let me know so I can find another solution for you, including sending you the files personally until I get things worked out.

Next, if you find a mistake or something isn’t working like Mark and Janet discovered, please let me know.  My goal is help new sellers be successful, not frustrated. I make mistakes and I really appreciate the opportunity to fix them.  You can always post on this blog or send me an email directly at cynthia@fbastepbystep.com.

Lastly, I want to thank all my wonderful readers who help me make this a useful blog for the community by asking questions and sharing your selling experience.  I appreciate you!

I can’t believe I’m writing about sales tax again but it is such an important issue for the community, I feel compelled to talk about it, especially given recent events (see below). I created a detailed Sales Tax Step-by-Step for this blog post to help sellers understand the new report offered by Amazon to its FBA sellers who collect sales tax.

As many of you know, when Amazon started conceding to the states and collecting sales tax, I felt like I needed to comply. While most online businesses have not paid sales tax traditionally, this was simply a matter of it being too hard and too expensive for the states to track us down and because no one else was paying, either. How could they go after little fish like us and leave the big boys like Amazon, Wal-Mart, Target, and TRU alone? Each state that collects sales taxes has laws on the books that online sellers owe them money for sales they make in their states if we have a presence in their state.  What you may not realize is that some of those states also have requirements for the recipients of online goods to pay tax. Very few consumers do. Some states are getting militant with their residents about paying so those customers would actually be relieved for us to collect the sales tax.

So what’s happening now? Amazon has buckled under.  There are currently nine states where it collects sales tax and more are lined up to start over the next two years depending on the dates it has negotiated with the state(s). Wikipedia has a lot of great information on Amazon and sales tax if you want to read more. The company has stated unequivocally that it will comply with state law in those states. What does that mean for us? It is unclear. Will a state request Amazon turn over its sales records for third-party sellers over a certain level of sales? It might. The federal government already does which is why Amazon fills out a 1099-K for each seller who grosses over a certain amount.

I figure we have about a year or so to comply. What is most likely to happen (in my humble opinion) is Amazon will send out a notice that it will be providing a 1099-K equivalent to individual states. At that point sellers over a certain amount will have to be on board. I am currently signed up with or nearly done signing up with 13 states.  There are 15 states where Amazon has a warehouse which, technically, creates a “nexus” for us in that state. Two of those states, Delaware and New Hampshire, don’t collect sales taxes so we don’t need to do anything with them. Click HERE for the latest warehouse list.

In case you are wondering about the other 13 states where I’m signed up: Arizona; California; Indiana; Kansas; Kentucky; Massachusetts; Nevada; Pennsylvania; South Carolina; Tennessee; Texas; Virginia; and Washington. Amazon is building a warehouse in New Jersey that is scheduled to open in 2014 as well. Kat Simpson and Michael Rice wrote a book called Introduction to Sales Tax for Amazon FBA Sellers that you might find helpful. It includes links to set up in those states and explains the legality of everything. Michael is a tax attorney.

OK, enough history. Why am I writing about this today?  Well, for those of you who are already paying Amazon to charge sales tax and give you reports for one or more states, you need to check your reports carefully. I just learned the hard way that Amazon has not been taking out sufficient taxes for certain states like Arizona and Pennsylvania where there are higher rates for certain cities and counties. This is a problem with the new report that started on March 1. It not only looks different and is impossible to sort by state; it shows that Amazon is also not charging our customers enough tax for some transactions. This means you get to make up the difference out of your pocket.

Consider this the “FURY” part of this blog. It has been very frustrating and sellers all over social media are complaining.

I talked with TaxJar.com and Outright.com representatives and they take their data from Amazon, too. Thus, you can’t rely on their reports to be accurate if Amazon isn’t accurate. You may owe more money than you think. There are three main reasons why Amazon may not be collecting correctly; two you can correct yourself and one only Amazon can fix.

So how do you know if Amazon is collecting your taxes correctly? You look at the new report and see if they’ve collected for counties and cities where applicable. When you got your sales tax certificate you most likely got a paper tax form with this information on it so you as a new seller would know what you are supposed to collect. Arizona sent me one every month until I switched to online filing. In states like Arizona, you need to record sales in specific counties (Maricopa) and cities (like Peoria) where they have extra taxes.

This link will take you to a Sales Tax Step-by-Step PDF that will show you how to download the new report and check it for accuracy.  In addition, I will show you how to check your sales tax settings on Seller Central to make sure you are telling Amazon to collect county and city taxes. Sometimes the problem is your items are incorrectly marked as “exempt” or “A_GEN_NOTAX.” I’ll show you how to fix that problem, too. Go pull your report and come back.

Now that you are looking at your report, there are two possible reasons why Amazon is not collecting taxes properly for you. One possible reason is that the item that was sold is exempt. It may be exempt because that item is always exempt. In New Jersey, for example, there is no sales tax on food and clothing.

But what if the item is clearly not exempt like a book? This can happen when you’ve not set up your tax collection properly on Amazon (see the Sales Tax Step-by-Step™ to learn how to correct your settings) or you use a listing service to list your products. The default for some listing services is “A_GEN_NOTAX” and all your listings go to Amazon with that embedded in the listing. This tells Amazon not to charge sales tax for that item. If you have your sales tax certificate and wish for all your listings to be eligible for taxes there are two things you need to do:

1. Tell your listing company that you want all your listings to default to taxable [A_GEN_TAX] – a simple email to support@scanpower.com takes care of all future listings for Scan Power. If you use a different service, check with them to see how to fix that problem.
2. Fix your listings that are already up at Amazon so they all say A_GEN_TAX. – Go to the Sales Tax Step-by-Step if you want to know how to do that. It is pretty simple as long as you have basic Excel skills.

What if all your sales tax settings are correct but tax is still not being collected properly? Be sure to complain. You will be one of many voices which help them hear us loud and clear, plus they will follow up with you when they have fixed the problem – which I am confident they will. In the 3+ years I’ve worked with Amazon, they’ve been pretty great about solving problems and helping their sellers be successful.

As of this writing, the problem with Pennsylvania tax collection is not fixed. I will follow up to let you know the solution.

One of the reasons I don’t like to write about taxes too much is that I don’t want to scare off newcomers. Sales tax is an issue for established sellers. Many people start their Amazon businesses not sure if it is right for them. They want to give it a few months before wading in and getting a sales tax certificate. While I am not a tax lawyer and this in no way constitutes legal advice, my approach was to take it Step-by-Step. Frankly, you need to have income in order to pay taxes. Get those sales up and see that it is going to work for you. Learn the basics of the business like sending boxes to Amazon and how Seller Central works, then take on something new. You may want to start with your state first as I did. Then when you are comfortable using your sales tax certificate and having Amazon collect taxes for you, move on to the other states in a methodical way that doesn’t drive you crazy. Amazon is rolling out its compliance over time, you can too (within reason).

I am often asked “Do I have to get a sales tax certificate?” Life is certainly simpler if you don’t have to collect sales tax. This depends on the state where you live. In Texas, if you pay sales tax at the point of sale and keep your receipts, they won’t come after you. I’ve been told this by the State of Texas more than once (my CPA did not believe me when I told her) but I suggest my Texas readers call for themselves. I also suggest people get settled in the business first. You are paying sales tax when you buy merchandise. The fact that it is not enough (you are usually obligated to pay sales tax on the difference between the purchase price and sale price as well) may or may not be an issue for your state but if you are ever forced to pay up down the road, you’ve already paid some tax and can prove it. I decided to get a sales tax certificate because I wanted to save 8.25% on everything I bought.  Texas has one of the highest sales tax rates in the country. This way, my customers pay the tax when they buy from me. Now that Amazon has capitulated on paying sales tax, I ultimately need one for every state where I am liable.

The definitive and correct answer to this question will come from your state. Contact them and ask as I did what their policy is about online sellers. Tell them what you believe you are currently selling in Texas per month. Be sure to write down with whom you spoke and their employee number as well as the date and notes on what they said. That way if you are ever audited you can prove that you relied on information from the state and are, thus, not a criminal…even if you end up owing more taxes. Also, you may want to ask more than once and/or in more than one way to be clear. Just like the IRS, state sales tax people make mistakes, too. In Dallas we had a local office so I could go in. This was very helpful because they helped me get set up, answered my questions and showed me how to fill out my sales tax form. I felt confident when I left the building that I could handle this and that I was properly set up.

There are few things more frustrating than not being able to figure out a problem. I had a reader contact me this week desperate because she wasn’t able to fix a problem with her inventory and couldn’t get the help she needed. Boy have I been there. Technology is so great when it works that we feel incapacitated when it doesn’t. Here are some of the best ways I’ve found to get help when I’m stuck:

Amazon “Contact Us”

This is my go-to resource for a lot of problems.  Inside your SellerCentral, click on the “Help” link. From there look for “Contact Us” in the middle right-hand-side of the page and click on it.  You will now have a huge variety of problems to choose from. Click on the one that best covers your issue and fill in as much information as possible about your issue including MSKU, ASIN and any other relevant facts. At the very bottom of the email page you will be given the option to either email your issue to Amazon or have them call you. I usually have them call me.  Type in your phone number, click “call” and your phone will ring right away.

At first you will get a general seller customer service person. Depending on your issue, they may pass you on to an FBA specialist.  They can see everything you wrote in that email form which saves time on the call and can cut-and-paste the ASIN and MSKU, etc., which is why it is worthwhile to fill out the form rather than just drop down to the “call me” line. The FBA support team is absolutely wonderful. They will sit on the phone with you until your problem is solved. I’ve learned so much from these guys.

You can, of course, send an email. That option is most likely to be outsourced to someone overseas. They are very fast on response but everything is pretty much auto-scripted if you know what I mean.  Email is great for issues where you know what the problem is already and you are simply giving directions “Please change the condition of this MSKU from “new” to “like new” for me,” for example. Or “Please expedite HazMat approval on ASIN#…” Or “Please remove this negative feedback.” In fact, for negative feedback they insist you use email and not call.

Be sure you are contacting customer service from inside your SellerCentral and not your personal buyer account. I had a reader do that once. He was really frustrated because no one could help him and it turned out he was talking to the wrong people inside of Amazon.

Online Seller Groups

Sometimes your fellow sellers know exactly how to fix your problem because they’ve been through it themselves. If you get in a pickle, post your problem on one of these sites. Someone almost always has the answer.

• FBA Forum — http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/FBAForum/ Moderated by long-time online seller Bob Willey, this private Yahoo group is the world’s largest FBA group and has over 3000 members. It is also a very positive, solution-oriented group. Bob is firm about his “No Negativity” policy. You can search by keywords and may find your question has already been answered. His members use all kinds of technology solutions and range in size from small sellers to large.
• That Kat Facebook Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThatKat/members/ Run by master seller Kat Simpson, this private group covers all things relating to eCommerce and Technology.  Kat sells on both eBay and Amazon so many of the posts and questions have to do with eBay as well as Amazon. A great place for those who want to sell on multiple channels. There are about 700 members in this group.
• Scan Power Facebook Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/scanpower/ A good place for questions about Scan Power, of course, but also general issues relating to retail arbitrage and selling online. Chris Green regularly posts about sourcing and news that affects online sellers. He also sells on eBay and uses FBA to do it.

Private Consultations

Need additional support? Maybe your question is less technical and more business-oriented like “am I pricing correctly?” or “why isn’t my inventory selling?” I offer private consultations live and on the phone and so do several other sellers that I know. There are other coaches out there besides these, I’m sure, I just don’t know them. If you have a coach/consultant that you have used successfully, let me know and I’ll be sure to mention them in future updates to my resources list:

• Cynthia Stine – 214-296-0984, cynthia@fbastepbystep.com.  Hourly rates of $150 (minus $50 for the first hour for those who bought my book) or a flat fee for scouting or book sale trips. I’m strictly Amazon FBA. I cover a range of topics from running your business to how to add a new listing to the Amazon catalog. It is customized to your need.
• Chris Green – chris@scanpower.com. 214-298-6866. Chris used to offer a one-hour consultation with him. You could buy it off of eBay. I couldn’t find it when I was writing this, but contact him directly if you are interested. Nobody knows retail arbitrage like Chris Green and he walks the walk every day in his Amazon business.
• Kat Simpson – through facebook or on her That Kat! Radio show chat room or her blog site – whew! http://www.thatkat.com/hire-thatkat/thatkat-the-coach/. She has webinars and private coaching. I don’t know her hourly rate but she is an experienced eBay and Amazon FBA seller with over 25 years of selling online.
• Lisa Suttora – Master eBay seller and FBA seller Lisa teaches classes on topics like wholesaling and sourcing plus she offers a personal 90-minute business strategy session http://bizstrategysession.com/ with her for $297 where she goes over all aspects of her business with you. www.lisasuttora.com

Scan Power Support

If you have an issue with Scan Power, your best bet is to email: support@scanpower.com and someone will get back to you quickly. Sometimes the issue may actually be Amazon and not Scan Power and they’ll tell you that. You can also call them although email is often faster:

Call us: 1-855-322-7693 for TECHNICAL SUPPORT
9 AM – 5 PM EST, Monday – Friday.

You can find a wide variety of videos and support documentation online to support you:

• How to set up your Dymo printer – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1up1DkAZThY
• How to use Scan Power to prepare your first FBA shipment – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-skizy5-2A
• Connect your Scanfob to an iPhone — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVDThKPnM-8
• Connect your Scanfob to an Android phone — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9H78l5hHH4
• How to use ScanPower Scout — http://www.scanpower.com/features/scanpower-scouting/
• Directions for ScanPower Repricing — http://www.scanpower.com/features/scanpower-repricing/
• Free trial for ScanPower Inventory Evaluator — http://www.scanpower.com/features/inventory-evaluator/
• Other videos – Scan Power has its own YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/ScanPowerTV which covers technical and selling issues as well as shopping trips with Chris Green.

I used to have the Dymo printer bookmarked because I would move around and it seemed like every time I unplugged and replugged in my printer I had to fiddle with the margins to get the labels right. Also, I had to adjust when I switched to a different browser so mark that one down, you’ll need it more than once.

I use Scan Power’s products so that is what I know best. However, I didn’t want to exclude other products:

Listtee

I could not find a call number for tech support.  Email is: help@listee.com

• Online support chat room — https://getsatisfaction.com/listtee Listtee employees answer questions here.
• Setup guide — https://listtee.zendesk.com/categories/20022213-setup-guide Includes how to set up your Dymo, add items to Listtee and customize your MSKUs.
• Twitter support — https://twitter.com/Listtee Reach out and tweet someone

ASellerTool

ASellerTool has several PDFs online with instructions on how to use its products. In addition, you can call, use the live support online function or email:

Our business hours are Monday to Friday, from 8AM to 4PM PST. If you are not available during our regular business hours, please email us to setup an appointment after-hours.

Phone: (888) 604-8886

Press 1 for technical support, OR press 2 for sales

support@asellertool.com

• PDA Scouting Tutorial – http://www.asellertool.com/support/PDADatabase.htm
• Real-time FBAScan Tutorial – http://www.asellertool.com/support/FBAScan.htm (both iPhone and Android are here)
• Listing Tool Tutorial – http://www.asellertool.com/support/ListingTool.htm

NeatoScan

There’s not much on the website for support, but I’m guessing that if I logged in there would be a lot more. Mostly likely you have to login first to see your support options.

SellerEngine Plus

SellerEngine offers support for each of its products through email, documentation, a blog and a community forum: support@profitbanditapp.com; support@sellerengine.com; seller@sellerengine.com

• Community Forum — https://getsatisfaction.com/sellerengine/
• ProfitBandit documentation – https://sellerengine.zendesk.com/categories/20052982-profit-bandit-help-documentation
• SellerEngine Plus documentation – https://sellerengine.zendesk.com/categories/20062018-sellerengine-plus-help-documentation
• Sellery documentation — https://sellerengine.zendesk.com/categories/20082437-sellery-help-documentation

What about you? Do you have an additional resource you use when you need help with your Amazon FBA business? Please share in the comments below!

Sometimes questions I get from my readers have been answered in previous blogs but they didn’t see them for one reason or another so this week I thought I’d list common questions and where to find the more detailed answers on my blog. For those of you who have been reading from the beginning, I realize it is a bit of a re-cap, but perhaps an issue that wasn’t important to you then is more important today:

Q. How do I reprice my Amazon inventory?

I’ve written two blogs about repricing.  One walks you through repricing on Amazon using Seller Central. The other is a step-by-step for Scan Power’s repricing tool that is included with its listing tool.

Repricing Part 1 – Mar 4, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/repricing-part-1/

Repricing Part 2 – Mar 12, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/repricing-part-ii/

Q. Where can I find inventory?

The shorter question is where can’t you find inventory. I’ve written several blogs on this topic:

Is it hard to find inventory – Jan 9, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/inventory-insight-is-it-hard-to-find-inventory/

Where do I find inventory? Retail Edition – Oct 7, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/inventoryretailedition/

Where do I find inventory? Book Edition – http://www.fbastepbystep.com/bookinventory/

Q. What about sales tax?

This is a tough topic because the rules are changing all the time. Amazon has stated it will comply with state laws where it has a nexus. A nexus is a fancy word for “physical presence” like a warehouse. Since they already track us for the federal government, you better believe they’ll report us to the state governments if required.  What does that mean for you as an online seller? I choose to comply. Here are the blogs I’ve written about sales tax.

How much sales tax will I owe – Feb 9, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/how-much-sales-tax-will-i-owe/

Don’t let sales tax stress get in your way – Jul 24, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/salestaxbook/

Q. How can I fix negative seller feedback?

Generally, polite persistence will win the day in many situations. The blog post goes into more depth with how you can turn those frowns upside down and get neutral or negative feedback removed.

Don’t let negative feedback get you in a frenzy – Jul 5, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/feedbackfrenzy/

Q. How do I approach key retail stores like ToysRUs, Big Lots, Tuesday Morning and Target?

I’ve written or had guest authors write specific blogs on these big box stores.

Target – Mar 20, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/on-target/

Tuesday Morning – Jul 16, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/tuesdaymorning/

Big Lots – Apr 20, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/biglots/

Toys R Us – Mar 27, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/toysrus/

Q. Have you written about sources of mouse-driven inventory?

In addition to shopping in stores, some people choose to let their mouse do the shopping online.  This blog covers Woot! which is a fun site.  Target, Wal-Mart and ToysRUs also have online sites and specials – especially on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

Who gives a Woot? – May 21, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/woot/

Q. How should I pack my boxes?

An actual Amazon.com warehouse worker was kind enough to guest-write a blog on the mistakes and problems with FBA seller packing she sees in the warehouse.

Lessons from the warehouse floor – April 15, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/pack-right/

Q. I’m getting a bunch of reports from Amazon. What do they all mean?

Now that you are an FBA seller, you are getting reports and newsletters from them every day (sometimes every hour on the hour is what it seems like!). These blogs talk about some of the regular reports – which ones require your immediate attention, which ones can be read later. In addition, the second blog talks about Amazon’s Selling Coach report in detail.

What do all these emails mean? – Mar 16, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/amazon-emails/

What does THAT mean? – May 1, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/sellingcoachreport/

Q. Where can I find answers to my questions about Amazon’s FBA program?

There is a ton of information on Amazon’s FBA program but it can be hard to find on Seller Central. This post and accompanying Step-by-Step guide shows you exactly how to find the information you need through Seller Central “Help.”

Where can I find…? – May 16, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/sellercentralhelp/

Q. I’ve been selling for a year and got a notice about long-term storage fees – what are they?

Amazon likes inventory to move fast and so if you have some old mistakes hanging around the warehouse, they’re going to charge you a fee after a year.  This post covers the fees and how to avoid them.

Don’t get surprised by long-term storage fees! – Feb 15, 2013 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/storagefees/

Q. What do these messages on Scan Power Scout mean?

Sometimes when you are scouting you’ll get a message like “not available on Amazon” or you’ll run into an item without a barcode. This blog post talks about how to address these issues. PS. The product was called “FBA Scout” when I first wrote about it.

What does it mean? – Feb 5, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/what-does-it-mean/

Q. I’m in an inventory slump. How do I get out of it?

It happens to all of us, we’re selling, selling, selling and all of a sudden things slow down. This post talks about what might be going on and how to snap out of an inventory slump.

Inventory Slump? Snap out of it! – Apr 5, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/inventory-slump/

Q. Can I start my business without incorporating?

The short answer to this is “yes.”

Can I start my business without incorporating? Jan 19, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/can-i-start-my-business-without-incorporating/

Q. Where can I find a step-by-step of Seller Central’s shipping queue?

Getting that first box off to Amazon can be daunting. There’s a lot to learn the first time around. This blog post has a link to a detailed step-by-step of the Shipping Queue for new sellers.

Your first box to Amazon – Feb 12, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/yourfirstbox/

Q. How do you work a book sale?

I’ve written several posts about book sales. They are one of the cheapest ways to get high-margin inventory. Even in a sale with lots of other scanners, I find books for 25 cents to $2 that I can re-sell for $7-$15 (on average) with the occasional high-value find ($30-$100) that makes my day particularly cheerful.

Book’em Danno – Feb 17, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/bookem-danno/

How to work a book sale – Mar 2, 2013 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/booksale/

Q. Can you tell me more about rank?

This topic gets a lot of different answers depending on who you ask. Since Amazon doesn’t share exactly how ranking works, it is guesswork and experience on the part of sellers. This guest blog from Peter Valley has a reasonable approach for beginners. Ultimately, you will learn and set your own parameters for rank and decide for yourself the answer to the question “Is this a good rank?”

Rank, risk reward – Mar 13, 2013 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/rank-risk-reward/

Q. What pricing strategies do you use?

Sometimes it seems like other FBA sellers are just plumb crazy. They’re selling books for under $4 or for $500, what’s up with that? This post talks about the pricing rules I use for myself.

Pricing: The good, the bad & the ugly – Feb 20, 2013 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/pricinggoodbadugly/

Q. Is there a simple way to keep my books for my Amazon business?

In this post I look at a program specifically designed for online sellers (eBay, Amazon, Etsy, etc.) called Outright.

Keep it Simple! – Sept 2, 2012 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/outright-bookkeeping/

Q. Where can I find money for inventory?

Kabbage is a resource for experienced sellers (at least 6 months of sales) to get money to buy inventory. This blog post covers how it works and my experience with them.

Kabbage brings the green – Mar 22, 2013 http://www.fbastepbystep.com/kabbage/

In this blog I write a lot about the tactical elements of running an Amazon FBA business, getting your first box to Amazon, using the tools, new rules from Amazon, that kind of thing. I get a lot of questions that are ostensibly about running a business but essentially boil down to “Is this going to work for me?”  It’s a good question to ask and the reason that I’m going to talk today about YOU – the inner qualities that help determine success.

While only you can truly answer this question for yourself, Grasshopper*, I have found that successful sellers tend to have these characteristics that keep them going in the face of set-backs, adversity, mistakes and negative emotions. I refer to “Zen” in this blog as a reference to our poetic, intuitive self rather than the logical, analytical self. I am not referring to the ancient spiritual practice, per se. These characteristics to which I refer are not typical business advice but reflect the poetic contradictions often found in Zen:

Embrace Uncertainty

Many people trained by years in corporate America think about business in terms of goals and achievements. They start their Amazon businesses with grand plans. They think they can control the outcomes and get very stressed out when it turns out not to be true.  They see business as an equation: A(mazon) + M(e) = I(ncome).

Control is an illusion. The real equation is A(mazon) + M(e) + C(haos) = I(ncome). There are a lot of factors you will never be able to influence including when someone will buy your item and for what price, exactly how much money you are going to make each month, how long it will take you to get comfortable with the tools, Amazon’s fees and rules, how many mistakes you are going to make and on and on and on.

Those who are able to embrace the uncertainty are much calmer in their businesses.  They do their best and let it be good enough.  They let go of the expectations, “rules” and timeline in their heads. They forgive their mistakes and take them as learning experiences. When possible, they laugh at themselves. They are confident in themselves and their ability to adapt to change whether it is new fees, new rules, and new taxes: whatever it is they know they will rise to the occasion.

My personal goal when I started this business was to make at least $1,500 net each month so I could pay my son’s school tuition.  I had no idea how long it would take or exactly what it would take (how many sales? how much sourcing?), but I was resolved to keep working at it until I achieved it. I was OK with not knowing and learning as I went. Having run other businesses in the past, I expected uncertainty.

Be Simple

It is easy to get overwhelmed with this business. There are many options for sourcing inventory, many techniques. There are gurus with advice and courses. Some folks want to jump in, learn everything and set up some ideal, perfect business for themselves that optimizes profits, reduces out-of-pocket expenditures and leads to a business nirvana.

What more often happens is they get frozen with too many choices and options. There is conflicting advice and they are afraid of what they don’t know. It paralyzes them. They don’t have enough experience to know the right path for themselves and they sometimes make mistakes which causes anxiety.

The Zen approach is to be simple. Don’t try to do everything. Don’t read everything or take every course.  Get your first boxes off to Amazon. Make some money. Learn what is working and build on it. As you master your tools and how Amazon works, add something new to the mix like a new category, repricing or take a course and get inspired by a super seller.

I gave my Dad Retail Arbitrage by Chris Green when it first came out hoping it would help him with his Christmas sales. He didn’t read it until well after Christmas but when he did he was delighted and said “there’s some really great stuff in here.” I realized that if he had read it when I gave it to him, a lot of it would have been over his head and he might have been overwhelmed. Because Dad had some sales experience under his belt, he was inspired by what he learned and ready to incorporate new ideas into his business.

Most of the experts in this business started small and simple.  Chris Green sold tools on eBay and moved up to Amazon FBA later. Others like Skip McGrath and Bob Willey started with books and branched out to other categories over time. They learned how to be online sellers by being an online seller and you will, too.  The best teacher is experience.

A lot of people ask me about sales tax and more advanced issues like that before they’ve even sold anything on Amazon. My advice is to sell stuff first. Buy inventory at retail prices (your state is getting paid sales tax when you buy, remember), garage sales, book sales, etc. Make some money. Decide if this business is for you.  Once you are comfortable with selling; then move on to getting a sales tax certificate in your state and others where Amazon has a nexus. You don’t have to do it all from day one.

Amazingly, it will happen sooner than you think. After the first few months of learning, you will suddenly find it easy and quick to send off a box to Amazon.  Then it is time to up your game. Take it one step at a time and one day you’ll be a super seller, too.

Change Your Day, Change Your Life

Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution and then not kept it? What happened? If you are like most people, you either tried to change everything at once and got overwhelmed, tired and gave up; OR you failed to figure out how to make that resolution part of your daily life and once something “urgent” came up, you dropped the resolution.

Rather than making your Amazon business an “add-on” to your life, it needs to be a daily part of your life: a habit like eating lunch.

Selling online can be a force for huge change in your life. It can bring you income, security in uncertain times and it can be fun. To get these benefits, however, takes daily action on your part. Even if you are only working your business in a few hours a week, you need to have awareness and some planning to make it happen, or it will be too easy to start missing sourcing time or packing time because of other life events.

One of my friends, for example, has certain thrift stores she scouts while her boys are at weekly activities. She generally only has two hours a week this way but it keeps her business moving ahead. She then processes the inventory at night after they’ve gone to bed. Another friend sources on her way home from work once a week, while her husband makes dinner for the kids.

Change your life and make this a resolution you keep – make it a part of your daily life like brushing your teeth.

Get Support

Many people when they start something new get excited and tell all their friends and family. Sometimes they get shot down like a clay pigeon and lose heart before they even get started. They are asked a bunch of questions they can’t answer yet and regaled with stories of people who tried to sell stuff online and failed.

My suggestion? Wait to tell everyone until you’ve actually sold some items and mastered some of the process. Then you can address the concerns of your well-meaning friends and family from a position of strength and competence. You may find some are inspired by you at that point which will make it even more fun for you as you become the teacher. So what do I mean by “Get Support?” if not from friends and family?

Get support from others who are doing what you are doing. There are several wonderful resources for new sellers like Bob Willey’s FBA Forum Yahoo Group, Chris Green’s Scan Power Facebook Group, Kat Simpson’s ThatKat Facebook Group and radio show. You can ask questions in these forums and get answers from folks who are doing it and know where you are coming from. Amazon sellers in these groups are warm, supportive and generous people. They were all new once and are now paying back the help they received as newbies.

In addition, by putting out your commitment to others “I am doing this,” it reinforces your desire to see it through even if you are confused or frustrated at the moment. The fact that you are not alone is comforting and encouraging. Other people’s success stories can be inspiring as well.

Keep Going

Life events come up that can interrupt your business. In the years I’ve been doing this there have been deaths, huge family dramas, summer vacation (a huge disruptor every year), school events and more that have impacted my sales.

During those times, my business would dwindle as I neglected it.  And yet, it was always profitable. I would come back weeks, sometimes months, later with a rush of new inventory up to Amazon and push up my sales again. This is a part-time business for me so my expectations are different than someone who is relying on this business for full-time income, of course.  My point here is that I kept coming back.

Also, you will make mistakes – some of them more expensive than others. It is inevitable. During these times, you need to forgive yourself and keep going. Remember that if you weren’t making mistakes you would be a freak of humanity and that every successful seller has made plenty of mistakes that cost them time and money and possibly earned them negative feedback.

As long as you keep coming back, you will realize the benefits of this business of increased income and greater security. Make a commitment to yourself that if you get derailed by life or make a big mistake, you’ll come back.  That’s it. Pretty simple.  And yet, so many people don’t come back, which is why they fail. They take mistakes as a sign that they shouldn’t keep trying. This is the wrong message. Mistakes are a sign that you are on your way to success. You are taking action.

Redefine Success

Success is a highly subjective word…one that people incorrectly try to define with objective terms. Successful sellers recognize that money is only one of aspects of “success” as an online seller and even money is subjective.  Is $2,000 a month successful? What about $40,000 a month? It really depends on who you are and your desired achievements.

In my book I ask my readers to consider why they are reading my book and what they want to achieve in personal, emotional terms. For many people it is about freedom from uncertainty. Here is something that is theirs even if they lose their day jobs, for example. For others it is about a particular goal like paying for a child’s private school or paying off a particular debt like a credit card or a home mortgage.

It is not about the money, it is about what the money allows you achieve – an education, ownership of an important asset, freedom from creditors, freedom from insecurity, the ability to retire, etc. These are the real goals that give people “juice” and excitement about their businesses, not a particular dollar figure in the bank.

Successful sellers are excited about their businesses and they don’t measure success by someone else’s yardstick. They start simply and grow from there. As they achieve more, they are happy. It makes it worth the work they put into the business. They are taking care of themselves and their families.

One of my readers is a busy teacher. She works her business around Christmas time pretty hard and in the summer. The rest of the year she’s happy if she gets in one shipment a month to Amazon.  Her business has allowed her family to take vacations, pay for needed repairs around the house and pay for her son’s private pre-school. Her business is a success for her.

I started off with the goal of paying for my son’s tuition. Now I look to achieve more from my business because I know I can. I have succeeded so far and I will keep succeeding…on my own terms.

Let Go

Starting a new venture is full of uncertainty, insecurity and anxiety. There’s a lot of unknown stuff. You’re excited by the possibilities, nervous about what you don’t know.  You will be happier and more successful if you can let it go.

This is one of the hardest Zen ideas. As humans, we get attached to things, people and outcomes. We take outside ideas/people/things and make judgments about ourselves from them.

Zen recognizes that none of these things, people or ideas defines us or is us. We are separate from them just as we are separate from our thoughts. Zen recognizes that attachments and thoughts can cause us pain. The more we are able to let go of our attachments, the happier, calmer and more productive we are.

Letting go means not fretting over the things you can’t control. It means not comparing yourself to others. We are all inspired by the super sellers who have achieved huge incomes, but if you dwell on the discrepancy between them and where you are right now, you’ll be unnecessarily discouraged. They were all small once.

Letting go means that if you make a mistake or if your business isn’t making what you’d like right now, you stay the course. You don’t let set-backs stop you or prey on your mind. Resilience requires persistence, patience and confidence.

Most importantly, letting go means freeing your heart from negative feelings that are absolutely deadly to entrepreneurs and fledgling businesses. Tell yourself, “I’m doing the best I can and I’m going to continue to do the best I can.” You may have to say it dozens of times on some days until you feel it inside. Give yourself a break.

This is easier said, than done and I don’t want to imply that I’ve mastered “letting go” or don’t struggle with negative feelings. I do. All the time. Letting go is an ongoing life process. When negative thoughts and feelings start to take over, take several deep breaths (it really works – why do you think smokers smoke more when they are stressed? Their bodies want oxygen, ironically).  Walk away from the computer and take a break.  Get some oxygen by walking, biking, yoga or working out. Call a friend and cry on their shoulder and listen to their pep talk. Eat veggies at dinner. Get a good night’s sleep.

All these techniques you know about, but how often do you actually do them? As a business owner, it is absolutely imperative that you find what helps you let it go. You need a clear mind and heart to tackle the problems that will come up in your business and in life.

Rather than “manage” negative stress, successful sellers work to let it go. They feel their negative feelings and then let them go so they can get back to work.

It is normal to get upset and distressed.  Letting go will help you get back to equilibrium. It will help you focus on solutions rather than problems. It will help you get back to your business and keep going. It will help you remember your successes to date and be OK where you are right here, right now.

So what is the Zen of Selling? Self-management: your expectations, your feelings, your discipline, your persistence, your trust in yourself, your patience, your ability to forgive yourself and your ability to let it go. It’s true, Grasshopper*, the answer to success is inside you.

*If you don’t get this reference, you are young my friend.  Way younger than me.

Have you ever thought “if I only had more money for inventory, my business would really take off?”

A few months ago I heard about a company called Kabbage that provides money to online businesses like ours based on our sales history rather than a huge long application form and pledged collateral. I was intrigued and decided to try it out…but also wary. The business model sounds a bit like “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today” and I expected to read a bunch of fine print and find hidden fees and caveats galore.

I was quite pleased to be wrong.  Kabbage is simple and straight-forward. They give you money, you pay it off over six months or sooner and they get a fee for this.

You can use the money however you like in your business – there are no stipulations – but the way I used it is to buy inventory.

Your Kabbage account is connected to your Amazon account so they can see your history. They also connect to eBay, Etsy, Yahoo! and Shopify if you also sell there. In addition, you can attach your PayPal, Authorize.net and Quickbooks accounts for a greater possible advance.

They extend funds based on your history, level of sales, and a patented algorithm of their own making. This means that people with good sales may qualify for some level of funds even if they have some dings on their credit.  In fact, the founding inspiration behind Kabbage was that they knew online sellers often had money tied up in inventory and sometimes had cash flow issues.

I asked a company spokesperson about how much history they need to see to extend funds and he said a minimum of six months, so this is not a solution for start-up cash, but rather a way to speed up your growth once you are an established seller.

Unlike a bank line of credit or a credit card, Kabbage does not charge interest. Instead, they charge a fee based on the amount you borrow and how quickly you pay it back. It is set up so you fully repay the loan in six months, if not sooner. They take the money out of your bank account. If you pay it off sooner, you save money on fees which is really cool.

For my experiment, I advanced $500 to buy additional inventory for the Christmas rush. My fee was calculated to be $35 for the first month which means I now owed $535 to Kabbage. I turned that $500 into a $1,200+ profit so it was well worth the $35 fee minimum.

Here’s how they figured my payback:

Month 1 – $118.34 plus $35.00 fee.

Month 2 – $118.34 + $5 fee.

Month 3 – $88.34 + $5 fee.

Month 4 – $88.34 + $5 fee.

Month 5 – $43.32 + $5 fee.

Month 6 – $43.32 + $5 fee.

I’m paying it off this week so I won’t owe the fees for months 4-6. The minute I made my first payment, I had funds to spend again. I don’t have to wait until the whole thing is paid off to pull out more money. In addition, my good repayment history and level of sales qualifies me for more funds.

One of the things that impressed me about Kabbage was how easy it was to get started. They promise on their website seven minutes or less to sign up and they weren’t kidding. I had money allocated to me in about five minutes. The walk-thru screens and directions to attach my Amazon and bank accounts were easy.

I like the Kabbage approach, too, because they are not a credit card. In the past, I’ve been burned badly by the card guys who would hike up my interest rate because I was late on someone else’s bill and dirty tricks like that. Aside from my AMEX, I don’t have credit cards today and I don’t ever plan to again because I hate those guys. Living on a cash basis has other benefits, too, of course.

Anyway, a straight fee that I know about in advance is very appealing and business friendly.

Kabbage is currently available in the U.S. and the U.K. While Kabbage is not free money, it is cheap money and a great option for people who want to grow their sales. Having gone through it myself, I can recommend Kabbage wholeheartedly. Assuming you have a history of success in the business, there’s no reason not to take their money and grow faster.

If you decide to give Kabbage a try and click on one of the links in this article, I will get a referral fee from them. My decision to try out the program and write about my experience came long before I learned about their referral program, however. You can go to their website without my link here: www.Kabbage.com.