I’m back again with another Amazon income report. After improbably beating my December sales numbers in January was I able to do it again in February?
Missed the other updates? Read these first:
Month #1, Month #2, Month #3, Month #4, Month #5, Month#6
February 2015 Report:
[yellowbox]BONUS: Click here to access your free video training on how to create a 6 figure plus Amazon FBA business in your spare time.
This step by step guide is the exact formula I’ve used to create my Amazon business[/yellowbox]
Alas, I fell short of surpassing my January sales but with 3 less days in February it was still close. I ended the month with total sales of $21,492.55:
To be completely transparent and for verification purposes I also like to film a quick video walk through of my numbers as well:
I had around 40 percent profit margins on that number (after inventory costs, FBA fees, Amazon ad spend etc).
Ongoing Monthly Amazon Charts:
New Barrier Crossed: $100,000+ in total sales
I crossed another new benchmark this month with over $100,000 in total sales. Exciting!
Common Question: How do I actually make money selling physical products on Amazon?
The short answer is that I created my own brand of products to sell on Amazon. I recorded a podcast which provides a great overview of the business model and how it works which you can listen to here. But I got started because podcast 17 guest Brian told me about this business model and how he learned how to do it. I went through the same course he learned from and then took action with the information.
Want To Learn How To Do This?
I run a mastermind group with a friend where we teach others how to build Amazon businesses (Brian from Podcast 17).
Our coaching group is currently closed but we’ll open the group again on April 22nd, 2015. This will be your last chance to join the group before the group closes down again for an unforeseen period of time.
Next month I’ll post more screenshots from our successful students. We had yet again more people pass me in monthly sales. Aaargh – I gotta catch up with the people I’m supposed to be teaching! Hah, in all seriousness I get a lot of personal fulfillment out of helping people in our group and I also learn a lot from them as well.
Waiting list to work with us is here.
Analysis Of February Results
February was a bit of a lazy month for me because everyone takes off for Chinese New Year in February. My suppliers were off for a couple weeks, but now that they’re back I’m going to get more orders in and start work on more new products. For obvious reasons I won’t be sharing precisely how many products I have at any one time but I’ve said all along my strategy has been to have a lot of products.
Ultimately I’m sure as I launch more products some will be fantastic, some will be just alright and some will flop. The best part is that all I’m doing is reinvesting profits to place more investments in developing new products.
My objectives for February from last month were:
Objective 1: Create listing for new product
I’m done with this and have more listings to create in March.
Objective 2: Try something to market my product(s) besides relying on Amazon (round 3)
This is laughable. I’ve had this on my list now for literally over 120 days. I’m still just getting traffic from Amazon to drive my sales. I have a plan in place to execute on this strategy, but as I’ve said before this is just one of four businesses I’m involved in (and it’s not really close to the biggest). I’m going to actually execute on this strategy in March.
My Plan For March 2015
Objective 1: Find two new suppliers
This is a business of finding great suppliers as much as it is of finding a great product to sell. Finding two suppliers is actually a tall order, but I have a few new product ideas and simply need to walk through the steps of speaking with new suppliers again. I have the funds available from the success of the business thus far to drop a significant amount into more inventory so I’ll likely place larger inventory orders for the new products I launch.
If you’re new you don’t have to start with a lot of inventory (my very first order was only 500 units and I originally planned on only doing 250 units) but with my aggressive growth goals I need to get more products out the door quickly so I can focus my efforts on marketing them.
Objective 2:� Try something to market my product(s) besides relying on Amazon (round 4)
I’m actually going to do it this time – really
My Long Term 2015 Goal:
I’m still confident that before the end of 2015 I’ll have at least one $100,000 month in sales. Again, I’d like to hit the $100k mark before November though since the holidays is sort of cheating with people buying anything and everything.
Need help finding a product or market to target on Amazon?
We’ve already created tools to help you find the right product to sell.
Check out a preview and join the wait list here.
If you have any questions, comments or feedback I’d love to hear them.
[yellowbox]BONUS: Click here to access your free video training on how to create a 6 figure plus Amazon FBA business in your spare time.This step by step guide is the exact formula I’ve used to create my Amazon business[/yellowbox]
Chris…Great achievement in passing that 100k mark! I have registered my interest in your mastermind course…can’t wait until it starts! You mentioned it was in Vegas…is it requirement to be in attendance or can the course be done remotely?
Hey Ash, no you don’t have to come to any live events. For example, Bruno from the first group we had didn’t have the money to come to the live event because he wanted to reinvest more back into inventory. He came to our second event though and then later told me he called his boss to quit his job (so that was cool) and recently posted his sales of $55k in the last 30 days 😀
I recommend only coming if you have sufficient capital – the key is to have plenty for inventory and marketing. You can always watch the recordings when we post them shortly after.
“I recommend only coming if you have sufficient capital ”
how much is sufficient ?
Really depends on your niche and the product you go after. I spent about $1000 on my first order. But I had previously negotiated an order half that size – so only $500
Hi Chris,
Great report as always and congrats on the revenue increase! I was wondering, do you have an idea of how long it took you to make your first sale with your own products? I know it varies and depends on a lot of factors, but I just want to get an idea. Do you have a post on that info as well? Thanks and keep up the good work!
Keep inspiring,
Warren
Tough to say as it varies by niche. Going after lower competition requires less effort than say a super high competition supplement. Stay tuned for our upcoming webinar when we reopen our group and have more opportunities to ask questions etc about this business model.
Hi Chris,
Awesome effort. Quite a dip mid-month, without that you would have smashed the January sales.
I am very interested in the cashflow. As you sell greater volume, and add more product, how does the income and expenditure look over time? I appreciate that you are holding your cards pretty close to your chest to minimize the risk of your niche being outed, however I am trying to work out how much cash I need over the first 12 months: if I release 3-4 products that sell for $20-40 and use 40% margin, reinvesting all revenue. Can you perhaps do an example spreadsheet or graph to give me an idea of cashflow?
Thanks.
Cheers,
Jason
Hey Jason, you can expect a dip in production costs (hard to say precisely how much as it will change based on niche and your initial inventory purchase). There is a “cost of success” in that initially you’re reinvesting profits to fund more inventory so you have more breathing room because the last thing you want to do is run out of stock (especially when you’re making money on every sale).
The only cash I’ve invested is the initial for the 500 units I purchased and everything else has just been reinvestment. I could be paying myself a median US household income wage (and still grow) but I don’t really need the money as my other businesses more than cover my personal expenses.
But the point is you could just go the reinvestment approach initially and all you need is your initial investment.
Chris
Hi, Chris,
I track your records right from November and I am anxious to test AMA Suite, but it was postponed at least 3rd time (February 19th, March 10th, March 17th). Can you give me a link to buy it earlier and then just update when it will be finally released?
Yah send me an email. We delayed a bit because we were adding a few things extra (even though we’ve already had customers using it for several months we’re continually improving before we even publicly launch)
Awesome reports Chris. I haven’t checked out any FBA programs yet as they are pretty expensive, plus the money you need to order products up front. How much do you think would someone need to start out? Thanks.
Depends. I was going to start with only 250 units but ended up going with 500. For a $20 item (selling on Amazon) you’re probably looking at ~$3 a unit before shipping for healthy margins. But ultimately as long as you’re making some profit (even if it were only 10 – 20 percent) who cares? Keep running that product then move onto the next one and try to find better margins.
Ultimately you could start with several hundred but ideally the more the better (e.g. several thousand) because there are things you want to do with your first inventory to help generate momentum (like getting reviews).
Cool. I could only spare a few hundred right now, but it also depends on what product I use.
Thanks again.
Chris, is it expensive to start up? I think my biggest issue, besides funds, would be figuring everything out.. what to physically sell, etc.
It is more expensive than starting a website up. The way I like to describe it is that this is more of a “real business” that we’re helping people build. You have something to sell and you’re building a brand and then our mastermind covers that process.
There are tons of people that have no idea what they’re doing (in large part because they aren’t getting any help and are just reading blog posts and trying things out) and it can cost a lot of time and money in mistakes. I look in the official Amazon Seller Central forum just to look at what people are posting sometimes and it’s crazy just how many people have no idea what we’re doing.
That’s why going into our 3rd group here in April I’m confident of value we’re offering.
Thanks for the info.
Forgot to ask, I see that it is on April 22, do you know about what time?
It will be in the early part of the day I believe last time was like 11 AM pacific but don’t know for sure. More info coming soon though.
Of course, during my work day lol!
What is the product you sell on Amazon?
I won’t share that for obvious reasons. I’d prefer not to shine a spotlight on my business. People individually are fine, but in large crowds they tend to do stupid things (like copy something that is working until it stops working).
Hello chris,
I learned a lot from you.
As a thank you, i would like to sign a webhost through your site and also get the niche profit course.
But i would like to use siteground for hosting.
Thanks – I don’t have a siteground aff link but I do have one for bluehost and hostgator 😀
Hi Chris, really inspirational numbers once again! On a couple podcasts you mention that you estimate the maximum number of sales that can be achieved with your product. Is there a way to estimate sales per day for a given best seller ranking? Would really appreciate any tips. Thanks!
Mike
We’re working on a software solution to this question which we’ll offer up in the future.
great! would be very interested in that. Last question. I was googling seller’s rank and sales per day and found a link to a site called fbatoolkit. In your experience does this give accurate estimates.
Not even close to accurate. We have something on the way… stay tuned.
hahaha, ok thanks. looking forward to it!
My product is currently being sent via shipment.
I surprised to find that shipment costs (even for a light product) were rather expensive.
Just wondering, what position are you ranking for your keyword on Amazon?
You typically want to get quotes before you order your product (this is something we would have talked about in our group so that you can avoid these large expenses without knowing) hah you should join us…
Hey Chris ! Woww you done amazing! I really hope I can catch you up. Out of interest did you attain these results with or without the ASM tools they give? Im waiting for ASM to reopen 🙂
Hey Niraj, I learned from ASM but then we’ve come up with a lot of stuff beyond ASM that we offer in tools and trainings. If you’re waiting for ASM you’ll have to join our group in April 😀
[…] monthly incomes reports of Pat Flynn,�Chris Guthrie and […]
Hey Chris, I’m wanting to join your group and learn about this Amazon business model.
I already have knowledge about it in some ways, aka, finding products, finding suppliers, private labeling, branding etc.
I think I just need the guidance to move forward.
Please email me with info.
Thanks
Hey Larry, sign up for our waiting list at AzonMasters.com but if you’re on my email list you’ll see details very shortly.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the monthly updates. They’re keeping both me and my wife excited to start this! Became debt free at the start of the year, and that’s freed up enough to get the class and have a little capital to boot. (After working odd jobs around the county along with a full-time!)
So, thanks for the encouragements, and I can’t wait to get started in just about a month!
Boo yah. So are you planning to join our group in April then?
Yep! I’ll be using your link so that I can get into your group come April. Looking forward to it!
Awesome – thanks!
Can Ama Suite take a list of UPCs and look up all the information about them Price, Rank, etc in bulk then have it exported into an Excel Doc?
Not at this time, but what is the use case? Why do you need to do this? (Knowing the why can help me understand how we could implement as a feature / why it would be important to do so)
This would be useful if you got a list of UPCs from a wholesaler. You could quickly see the viable products. I know this wasn’t the intended use of AMA but thought it might have that capability for some other reason.
Hi, nice sharing
DO you think this will this work for international seller, I am in China
Will I meet any issue when launch a store on amazon since I can’t handle the tax issue.
Hi how can I get a new product on Amazon if they don’t already have it ? Could you give me the steps ? They are asking for all sorts.
thanks
Troy
Stay tuned for our webinar when our group opens up. I learned from a course that taught me all of that.
Hey Chris,
Like others, this concept is new to me and sounds exciting!
I live in Australia and wouldn’t be able to attend � will all the training be available online?
It would be a great challenge to sell my own item�s through Amazon, instead other people�s through SEO.
Cheers,
Nigel
Yah all of the training is available online. The community behind the course that I’ve learned from is pretty cool and their new members area is pretty slick too.
Hi Chris, I really enjoy reading your blog. I have been selling FBA for almost a year now. About a month and a half ago, I launched a new, branded product on Amazon. I think, due to competition, it has struggled to gain traction in the marketplace. I’ve probably sold about 17 units in a month’s time at an average price of $15. Do you do any advertising outside of using the Amazon campaign manager? I’ve been running an Amazon campaign for almost a month now.
Thanks!
I haven’t yet but sometimes with some products you need to get more creative in your marketing I think.
Chris,
I’m curious. How much of this is the pack helping each other out? If I have 200 guys in my group, it seems that it would be much easier for me to in-organically gather a ton of reviews.
As we know reviews are a huge part of this. Is that a part of the advantage of the mastermind? Or are you guys really just idea swapping?
[…] to be live on Amazon in the next few days!� I have no idea what to expect with this, but after seeing what Chris Guthrie has done in a short period of time, I know there is a lot of […]
Hey Chris! Whenwill the ASM course be open this year
April 22nd – so if you sign up for the waiting list we’ll start to share more info about it soon. Thanks
when are you posting the next updatE???
Just did 🙂
Hi Chris,
I am inspired of the learning material and have read your 10 days free course. I want to work with Amazon but issue is my website is quite new with a little visitors. How can I get registered with Amazon?
Can you please guide in this regard.
Thanks in Advance.