Build your Slice of the Pie

6 steps to creating a well-rounded online business.

LEGAL NOTICEThis guide is for informational purposes only. The Author has strived to be as accurate and complete as possible in the creation of this ebook, notwithstanding the fact that he does not warrant or represent at any time that the contents within are 100% accurate due to the rapidly changing nature of the Internet.While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in thispublication, the Author assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, orcontrary interpretation of the subject matter herein. Any perceived slights ofspecific persons, peoples, or organizations are unintentional.In practical advice books, like anything else in life, there are no guarantees ofincome made. Readers are cautioned to reply on their own judgment about theirindividual circumstances to act accordingly.This book is not intended for use as a source of legal, business, accounting orfinancial advice. All readers are advised to seek services of competentprofessionals in legal, business, accounting, and finance field. Some links to third party websites are services are included in this book. In some cases,the Author will benefit financially from these links. However, the Author assumes no responsibility for terms, policies or structures of these third party companies.No part of this publication shall be reproduced, transmitted, or sold in whole or inpart in any form, without the prior written consent of the Author. All trademarks andregistered trademarks appearing in this guide are the property of their respective owners.

With that out of the way, let's jump in!

The 6 Steps that I have used to generate 6 figures:

1. Get start up capital2. Sell media3. Arbitrage4. wholesale products5. create a brand6. expand and outsource

INTRODUCTION:

You may have stumbled on this book for one of several reasons, but there is one thing most of you reading this book will have in common: you would like to create supplemental or full time income online. Like many of you reading this book, I spent many many years in low paying and/or unfulfilling jobs feeling trapped and longing for a way out. I was told by many people that that was all there was- you go to a job you hate, you come home for a few hours and hope to have time for something you enjoy, all the while dreading the next day. You go to sleep and do it all over again... until you die. I knew there must be another way- a path that would allow me the freedom I craved to set my own schedule- be my own boss, but nearly everything I attempted was a waste of time.

Without naming names or organizations, I will tell you that I've been involved in a multitude of schemes that promised “quick riches”, the ability to “work from home” and “be your own boss.” I almost gave up. Some were legitimate opportunities, but I realized quickly that only certain types of people could succeed- generally those that did not mind taking advantage of others or were willing to do “hard-close” selling. In other “opportunities” it was simply a case of a ridiculous return ($$) on my time. My wife and I once attempted to put together hand-made jewelry for a company. We couldn't even finish one earring because it was so intricate- needing tiny beads threaded in a specific pattern. If we could finish a pair, we were promised... 12 cents... that's right... 12 CENTS. We gave up after about an hour of trying to work on the 1 earring and never finished! I've sold vacuums, knives, and phone plans. In some cases, I wasn't even completely sure of WHAT I was selling because the schemes were so complicated and intricate. I even got close to getting involved in legal trouble due to responding to some “opportunities.” This is unfortunately the trap that many desperate people like myself fall into- not taking the time to reason through or learn from others' experiences because we just want to find “another way” so so badly.

I came to the point where I thought that maybe everyone I talked to was right. Maybe the only way was to work 8-10 hours a day in a job you don't like, get a little time to yourself each day and continue this process throughout life. I want to be clear. This works for MANY MANY people- it works for friends and family members of mine and many of them are HAPPY with this model. A consistent paycheck- guaranteed income and leaving work behind when they go home. These are all luxuries I don't have, but that model is not for me. It doesn't work for me and it never has. I admit that there are moments that I wish I could have the “security” of that regular paycheck, but all in all, the benefits of the the model I've found FAR outweigh the benefits of a “traditional job.” If you value the regular paycheck and enjoy your job, you can take the principles I will share to create supplemental income if you'd like. However, if you need everything to include certainty, security and guarantees, please stop reading this book. It is not for you. If this is the case, you will be better off getting a second or third job at a set rate. However, if you resonate with any of what I wrote above, please keep reading!

When I got started selling online in 2007, the idea of making money online was not new. In fact, there were individuals and companies that were doing it full time! This got me excited! However, there was very little information available at the time on an exact method of getting started and steps to take. Not only that, but since then, EVERYTHING has changed! Popularity of products have changed at a rapid rate, technology has advanced and much more competition has moved in, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. This is what brings innovation- new ways of thinking about and doing business. This is ultimately more sustainable than just trying to compete with someone else doing exactly what they are doing. I'll talk about that and much more in this book.

What you are about to read has come from years of trial and error and discovery. I'll share everything from little websites where you can go to make money almost immediately to developing a business that can sustain you for years to come. In this book, you'll find a 6 step process- the exact process I've used to build up my business and how I recommend you build yours. You do not need to follow these steps exactly to be successful, but they have worked for me. This book will act as an overview of the 6 steps. If you are interested in digging in deep and getting more details on each step, I would suggest that you sign up for my mailing list if you have not already - by typing your name and email address in the box at the top of my website: alittlesliceofthepie.com. In my newsletters, I share several tips and tricks and things I've learned along the way for free! A great majority of my strategies will also be available on my blog also at alittlesliceofthepie.com. Please don't worry though, this book will be plenty to get you started... hopefully without leaving you overwhelmed!

ABOUT ME:

Before we get started, I wanted to take this opportunity to share my story and what my online income currently looks like. Some of my history is a little embarrassing to talk about, but I believe that transparency brings trust. I recognize that you may be reading this having no idea who I am and therefore have no immediate reason to trust that I have anything to offer you and I want to provide this reason. Read on...

My name is Daniel and as I stated above, I've struggled to find something that would generate the income I needed in order to have the freedom I longed for. I did not do particularly well in school and I am honestly not all that smart. I'm introverted and not at all outgoing – neither of which were in my favor in school or the workplace. I didn't pursue college because I honestly had no idea what I wanted to do with my life after high school. I got married at age 19 in 2001 and my wife and I settled into an apartment. I got a job delivering pizza at night 30 + hours a week and my wife worked a few nights a week at a retirement home. Pizza delivery was not a bad gig since customers would usually tip and even if they didn't, I still made minimum wage (at the time, this was $5.15 per hour). Between the 2 of us, we had no problems paying the bills in our cheap apartment and shopping at discount grocery stores, but I always thought that I'd eventually find my “career” or my “calling.” Fast forward through the next several years- I worked several different jobs from selling cell phones, to driving a truck to installing communication systems to... more pizza delivery... yup... this was my last job before I quit November 2010. I have never made more than $10.00 per hour at any job (and the “$10.00 p/hour job only lasted 4 days!) I've been fired from jobs and have been utterly depressed at times feeling like something was wrong with me and I would never find something that would work. I have had times of unemployment and times after racking up debt on the credit card, not knowing how we were going to pay our bills. As I mentioned previously, there were more than a couple of times that I turned to “systems” promising riches, hope and “answers” only to be let down. However, I was eventually able to start a business with almost no money and virtually no marketable skills (I have always had a bit of an obsession with the internet, but no real marketable skills.) My first year in full time business (after

quitting my “job” and relying 100% on my online business) I made over $100,000 in PROFIT. My second year, I made over $200,000 (profit)! I am currently supporting our family of 4, we got out of debt and paid off our first house. As I write this, we have moved to our next house which we are mortgaging, but we are on track to pay this off within 1-2 years. Since I'm used to living on so little (and still choose to do so!) I also have quite a bit to give away to causes I believe in- something I've never been able to do until now and I am incredibly grateful for that opportunity!

Even after several years, this all still seems hard to believe, but it's true! I'm convinced this is possible for just about anyone. Today, there is opportunity like no other time in history! Someone like me can literally start something with nothing and make more money than any off the street job would ever pay me... even more than most jobs requiring a degree would ever pay me! Please note, I would still recommend college to ANYONE who wishes to go that path. Had I gone to college, I would have had MANY more opportunities leading up to this and would have avoided a lot of pain and despair. Also, an education no doubt would have helped me be even better at what I do now! Consider this: If you have a college education and/or marketable skills, you are already WAY ahead of me in terms of potential. What you can do with these ideas could far surpass what I've done. If you are hard working, ambitious, and determined then you are WAY ahead of me. To be totally honest, I struggle with being lazy, getting discouraged easily and losing focus quickly... and yet, I've managed to make this business work. What could YOU do with the ideas I'm about to share?

Although it was a little awkward to share, I hope you've benefited from my story- even the not-so-pretty parts. I hope you are starting to see that truly anyone can learn to generate income online and be successful with this!

HOW THE BOOK IS LAYED OUT:

Due to the fact that I started this business with almost NO money and NO marketable skills, I have purposefully structured this book in such a way that you can do the same... it will take a lot of work and a lot of time, but it's possible If you already have start up capital ($500 or more), you can skip step 1 and jump right into step 2. Step 2 is not the quickest way to make piles of money, but it is definitely profitable and provides a low investment opportunity to get you started. There are other benefits of the opportunity in step 2 also which I will talk about in that section. You are welcome to start at section 3 if you prefer to make chunks of cash at a higher profit margin. I would advise however, that you at least look at “the reason” in step 2 before you decide this as it may hurt you in the long run. I truly hope this book helps you with your own business! I would NOT recommend beginning with step 4 5 or 6. This may be tempting as this is where things really start to snowball, but starting here could be detrimental. I'm convinced that the reason for failure of a large percentage of people who jump into “online business” is a lack of understanding of the basics. Please do yourself a favor and learn to “walk” (low investment, low risk) before you “run” (higher profit potential but with higher risk and investment)

OVERVIEW:

My business focus is 90% on ecommerce. I have dabbled in other methods of generating income online. The only other area I've had any success in is affiliate marketing, but even so, I've not made significant sustainable income from it. I still do some affiliate marketing and I do make some income from it, but mostly I just have fun with it. In fact, some of the links in this book will be affiliate links. If you're not familiar with affiliate marketing, it is basically making a “commission” off referring people to other people's products. If affiliate marketing works for you to create a sustainable income,

I'm very excited for your success and if you want to learn more about it, there are hundreds, if not thousands of courses out there on it. The very BEST course on this that I've ever gone through is Affiloblueprint which focuses on promoting information products. I've gone through several others, but Mark Ling constantly updates his course, he offers a great guarantee and although I personally don't focus most of my time on affiliate marketing, I learned SO much from this course that I carried with me into my current business from creating logos and graphics, to customer psychology to what fonts to use, text placement on websites for the best conversions, finding niches, researching products that people want, finding your audience, marketing and promotion techniques and more! The information in that course is extremely valuable for both affiliate marketing or e-commerce purposes and I highly recommend the course for the applicable information alone! He has also made millions with the methods he teaches (by actually DOING affiliate marketing- not just TEACHING affiliate marketing), and if you wish to put in the work and if you enjoy that model, it may be worth your time. He also offers a great guarantee. You can check it out as well as TONS of FREE information on this at affilorama.com. With that said, although you can literally get a more “passive income” model with Mark Ling's course (spend a bunch of time on the front end to set up and promote websites that will then run themselves and pay you out for months to come), I tend to naturally go the “easy” route. Consumers are HUNGRY for products- real physical products that they can touch and hold and use and that is what my business is built on. I could spend all day every day working to “promote” these physical products for 4-8% commission (which I also do on the side), but why not actually SELL the products for a 15-500% profit? Yes, you read that right- it's not uncommon to make 100, 200, 500% or MORE profit margin on an item. (a 500% profit margin would mean you spend $10.00 to make $50.00 profit or $100 to make $500 profit!) You simply won't get margins like this and won't find such consistent buyers with any other kind of one-man home-based business that I know of. (In case you're wondering, I have some products that have a 5% margin and others that have a 500% margin, but I average around 35-40% margins and sell a LOT more than I could ever “promote” for 4-8%!). Again, the affiliate model is great because it does not require the investment into inventory and in the world of information products, the profit can also be very very good. Nonetheless, I've found that due to the variety of niche physical products, it's a little easier to “grab your slice of the pie” in this market.

There are a LOT of ways to do ecommerce business, but I focus on Amazon.com. I also have several websites and sell on Ebay, but as I'll talk about later in the book, Amazon.com is the backbone of everything because they handle nearly all the payment processing, ordering, shipping, returns and most of the customer service- even for orders made on my other websites and Ebay. Since 80- 90% of this book will be focused on selling on Amazon in one way or another, you should understand Amazon as opposed to any other selling platform. If you're a regular seller on Amazon.com, feel free to skip this section. However, if you've not sold on Amazon, OR you've sold on other platforms (such as Ebay) you'll want to be sure to read this to get a better understanding of selling on Amazon.com:

1. There are NO listing fees on Amazon. You can list 10 items or 10,000 items and pay the same amount. A single seller account is free (you pay on the back end when and item sells- this account adds an extra $1.00 to the regular fee for each item that sells) A “Professional” seller account is $39.99 per month. If you want to lower your risk (as I always like to), I would recommend signing up for the free account first and then upgrading later once you're selling 40 items per month (upgrading will not cost you anything other than the $39.99 a month and all of your details and feedback will carry over). You can sign up to sell now HERE

2. All items sold on Amazon come with a 30 day money back guarantee. You must abide by this to sell on Amazon

3. Amazon sellers must be approved to sell in certain categories like shoes, clothing, jewelry, watches, automotive and some others. However, there are many other categories like electronics, movies, and kitchen that you can sell in immediately.

4. Amazon sets your shipping costs in the basic account. You can sign up for an account where you have some control over your shipping costs, though all of this is irrelevant if you are going to use FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon- discussed more later)

5. Amazon processes all of the payments BEFORE you are asked to send the item to the customer (or before Amazon sends the item to the customer) You will never need to deal with unpaid items, bounced checks, lack of funds, etc (I can feel the Ebay sellers getting excited about this one!)

6. Amazon offers FREE super saver shipping (slow shipping for orders over $25.00) and FREE 2 Day shipping for Prime members! (Prime members pay $79.00 a year for amazing benefits including free 2 day shipping!)

7. Amazon Prime members are willing to pay a premium for items that are “prime eligible” (and if you use FBA, your items WILL BE!)

8. No outside marketing is allowed on Amazon. The customer belongs to Amazon and they are very strict about this. Don't worry though... there are some ways around this that are still well within Amazon's rules! Amazon can STILL be used as a platform to build YOUR business!

9. Only ONE account per seller. If you try to create multiple accounts, you will be banned (Amazon has a couple rare exceptions for this, but you must be granted permission to be the “exception.”) Ebay allows multiple accounts.

10. As mentioned in #7, Amazon buyers will pay more for most products. Think of Amazon customers as the “elite” customers. Ebay customers tend to go there as a “bargain bin.” They will constantly ask you to lower you price, complain about shipping prices, or cut a deal with you. You will rarely if ever find this on Amazon. Because of this though, you'll also find that customers have very high expectations

11. You can also expect more negative feedback for very small issues on Amazon (or even misunderstandings or things that clearly aren't your fault ie: mailman was rude). However, following step 2 will get your feedback profile built up and with the products you'll be selling, positive feedback is much more easy to come by! Feedback also isn't nearly as important when using FBA

6 STEPS TO A 6 FIGURE INCOME:

Now it's time for the actual 6 steps I've used to build a 6 figure per year income. Please keep in mind that I cannot guarantee that these steps will generate the same kind of income I have made with them. You may make less- you may make MORE! It is actually illegal for me to guarantee you any level of income, but I will say that if you apply all of these steps and you don't make ANY money, you a probably doing something wrong. To reach the greatest potential, I would again recommend signing up to our newsletter at alittlesliceofthepie.com and/or following the blog which will provide you with many free tips!

Step 1: Generate start up capital

We'll get to buying and selling products soon, but if you don't have any money, you obviously can't invest in inventory. However, there are several things you can do for some “quick cash.” Generating “quick cash” is not a sustainable business model, but rather a way to make quick money to pour into inventory- and turn a profit which will get invested in more inventory for a larger profit and then continue to grow! You will not likely make thousands or even hundreds of dollars using these initial start up capital methods, but this is not exactly “slave labor” either. You can make decent chunks of money ($5-$20) for only a little work (an hour or two in most cases)

This section assumes you have some basic things like an internet connection, at least SOME free time (an hour or two a day) as well as a current source of income to pay the bills (probably a “job” of some type). If you have no way to pay the bills right now, you'll want to take care of that problem first. This first step may help with some of your personal expenses, but will not help you build a business if you do not have sustainable income already in place. The money you earn from these ideas should be put 100% toward inventory so you can eventually get out of your “job.” If you put this money toward your regular expenses, you will never gain any traction. If you need money for bills, go to your local pizza establishment and ask if they are hiring drivers. You can put me down as a reference! ;)

Below are 7 great ways to start making money quickly (you may need to wait up to 2 weeks for a check or to be paid via Paypal). Please note not all of these are online methods, but many are. The goal is to earn a little start up capital. You'll want at least $500 to get started with this model:

1. Paid Surveys:Yes, this is legitimate. I've done it. In fact, when I started on cashcrate.com I made $75 in less than an hour! Don't expect to make this kind of money over and over again. Generally you will make between $.25 and $1.50 per survey, but higher payouts can be made with trial offers. When I started, Cashcrate would pay nice chunks of money for me to try these offers. If I didn't like it or want it, I simply needed to cancel in 30 days (read up on the cancellation policy BEFORE signing up for the offer- many require you to cancel by phone and they may try to talk you into “sticking with it.” but I never had trouble canceling any of these.) Legitimate paid survey and trial offer sites that I've actually used and have had success with are below:cashcrate.comsquishycashtreasuretrooper

These are the 3 I've used, but there are many others as well. If you have any questions about the legitimacy of any you find, let me know and I'll be happy to research it!

With the sites I've used (linked to above,) there are new surveys and offers added on a regular basis so you can literally do this over and over and over again.

No doubt this kind of opportunity can be monotonous and boring. When I did this, I found a neat little program that automates much of the process. Check out roboform which is completely free (there is a premium option as well, but the free version will work just fine for these purposes.) This will let you fill in all of your information ONE TIME and will auto fill most of this information in the paid surveys. This will exponentially speed up the process for you!

2. User Testing:

This is a fantastic site that pays users $10.00 to test websites. I used this extensively while I was starting out. It took me around 15 minutes for each site. $10.00 for 15 minutes is a great deal! Keep in mind though that this is not a full time gig. You will need to be fast because you'll be competing with others to visit these sites to test and you can only test the sites when they come available (you'll get an email every time a site is available for testing. Once you claim it, it's yours. This opportunity does require a microphone to test the sites, but I purchased a headphone/mic set for under $20.00 HERE. A lot of laptops and even some desktops now come with microphones!

Learn more at: usertesting.com (scroll down to the very bottom and click “get paid to test.”)

3. Sell your stuff on Ebay:

This is perhaps the most obvious, but also potentially the most profitable opportunity. You'd be surprised how much profitable stuff you have laying around! and if you've never sold on Ebay.com, this will be the perfect way to get your feet wet to eventually building a sustainable online business! The process is pretty simple- sign up, take a picture of the item, do some quick research (click on “completed listings to see what other similar items have sold for) list it, sell it, ship it! Don't be too quick to think something CAN'T sell. People will buy anything!

4. Sell your stuff on Craiglist:

Craigslist.org is the place to sell the items that can be difficult to ship- furniture, large musical instruments, vehicles, bikes, etc. You can turn a nice profit very quickly with this method as well

5. Teach a skill:

Do you have a skill that you could teach to others? Consider advertising that you are willing to teach others how to:-play a musical instrument-build a website-use a computer-work on a car-speak a foreign language-get fit (personal trainer)-play a sport (golf lessons, tennis lessons etc)-take professional pictures (photography class)

I personally play the guitar and the piano and I also do a little closeup magic (the non-geeky kind of COURSE!) I managed to get a few people to “enroll” in weekly lessons for guitar, and magic. I also put on some paid magic shows here and there. Be creative and teach YOUR skill! Craigslist is a great way to advertise this for free!

6. Offer a service (freelance)

Elance.com is a great place to find some “jobs.” Do you know how to design a graphic or a whole website? Do you know how to translate a foreign document from one language to another? There are jobs posted every day at Elance and you're bound to find something you can do and get PAID to do it! You can also post your skills and wait for people to come to you LOOKING to hire you. Fiverr.com is another place you can do this, but for this site, you'll want to be sure your “service” is something you can offer that does not take much time since initially you get less than $5.00 for each job (fiverr takes their cut of course!). With that said, please note that over the years, fiverr HAS changed! Now you can offer upsells and upgrades at any price you wish. Also, it is possible to offer a service that “costs” 4 or 5 gigs ($20-$25.000) Go check it out at fiverr.com

7. Write articles

Good at writing? You can get paid for every article you write! As with many of these opportunities, you're not going to make thousands of dollars, but if you get a system going, you can make a chunk of change every day and build up the start up capital every day. I spent a great deal of time in the early days writing articles. I admit I did not enjoy it much, but it is certainly a reliable option to get your start up capital! I found that the best way to write articles INCREDIBLY fast is to use Instant Article Factory or Dragon Speech recognition software. Both of these are paid programs. If you plan to only write a few articles a couple of times, just use the free method- simply type as fast as possible! :)

There are dozens, maybe even hundreds of websites that will pay you to write content. However, many of these rely on you having knowledge in a specific, specialized niche. Others have you submit articles for free in the hopes that someone will click on ads, links etc for you to get paid residual income (squidoo, hub pages etc). The two biggest sites I know of to get paid directly in exchange for writing on a variety of topics are:

hirewriters.comiwriter.com

BONUS IDEAS:There are a few other websites I know of that offer quick cash. Please note I have not tried these personally, but have verified that they are 100% legitimate and know others who have tried them out and have had some success:

ticketpuller.com (requires the ability to type 60+ words per minute)voice123.com (voice overs for cash!)live person (help others by being an “expert” in a particular field of skill

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Selling physical products is one of the best and quickest ways to make cash. Running a sustainable business selling physical products will almost always require an up front investment. However, there

are a couple of exceptions to this. Becoming and Ebay trading assistant or drop shipping are great ways to generate income selling physical products while investing nothing (or close to nothing depending on the method you choose to go about it)! I did not include these in the “official” list because these ideas are a little more complex than the methods above. My personal experience with these methods are also limited. However, I have and do dropship a couple of products and I personally work with an Ebay trading assistant who runs a good part of her business drop shipping as well (on Ebay!)

EBAY TRADING ASSISTANT

You can sign up to be an Ebay trading assistant HERE. You'll basically advertise that you'll help others sell their things. They will drop off their merchandise, you'll sell it and you'll get a percentage of the profit (you will determine this). This does require a good working knowledge of Ebay and the selling process. It will also help to be fairly organized and good with numbers as you'll need to maintain your profits and percentages. I personally use an Ebay trading assistant to sell off many of my returns, samples, closeout/discontinued items, overstock etc. More of this will be covered in step 6...

DROPSHIPPING:

Dropshipping is one of those things that I got really excited about early on. Basically, you connect with a supplier, you advertise their product, when you make a sale, they ship the item for you and give you a percentage of the profit. This sounds great since you never actually touch the inventory. The truth is, it DOES work. However, the margins are generally low and if you don't find a good supplier you may run into inventory shortages and other problems. If you sell something, you'll want to make sure the product is available for shipping or you will have some angry customers! It is generally recommended to use this approach on a website that you own. However, as I mentioned, my Ebay Trading Assistant manages to sell hundreds of drop-shipped products right on Ebay! She is very organized and always checks inventory every day to be sure she is advertising items that are “in stock.” She can literally work from anywhere doing this. The basic process is to find a reputable drop-ship company, list their products on Ebay at a price that leaves room for you to profit and when it sells, e-mail the company, pay them their cost and they will ship to the customer... and you keep your percentage of the sale! I wouldn't recommend starting with this, but it's something worth trying once you get comfortable with the selling process and it can literally continue to be a chunk of your income going forward!

If none of these options appeal to you, you can always get a “night job” to earn some quick start up capital. Remember the goal is to make at least $500. I would recommend shooting for $1000 if you can. You can start on less, but the more money you start with, the quicker this business will get rolling. Depending on the methods you use, how much time you have and how creative you get (and what you have to sell) generating $500-$1000 could take a couple of days or it could take a couple of months or more. Hang in there and keep going!

Step 2: Sell New Media on Amazon.com!

Despite the “digital revolution,” DVDs, Blu rays, CDs, and Books continue to be hot sellers on Amazon! It's important to start your account selling something that you can get at a relatively low cost and will sell quickly! It is very possible to build an entire business around selling media, and you'll find many sellers that have, but be aware, that this is a VOLUME business. The margin on new DVDs, CDs, and blu rays and books is very small. On average, I expect to pay an around $5.00 for a DVD and make around $1.00 in profit. This means if you invest your entire $500, you'll make $100 in profit. I know you're wondering right now WHY you would want to do this. There are several reasons which I will outline below. In fact, despite the fact that I have products that make a 500% profit margin or more, I continue to sell DVDs- and have actually expanded this portion of my business.

REASONS TO SELL MEDIA

a. Feedback generator:

Although feedback is not as relevant if you are selling through FBA (fulfillment by Amazon) it is still a HUGE factor in gaining the buyer's trust. Feedback is incredibly difficult to get when starting out on Amazon- particularly if you're only selling a few products. Buyers also are much quicker to leave negative feedback on Amazon than they are on Ebay. Feedback is left for sellers only (which gives the buyer no incentive to leave positive feedback unless they were thrilled with the product and/or service... which brings me to my next point)

b. Lack of returns:

Returns are a HUGE headache. I've sold many electronic products over the years and have gotten fairly consistent returns due to lack of knowledge on the customer's end or buying the wrong product because they did not do the proper research etc. With DVDs, CDs, video games, etc, in 99.9% of all cases, the buyer knows exactly what they are buying, and how to make it “work.” Furthermore, Amazon has some pretty strict policies on returning media that discourages the customer from doing so.

c. Low investment

You can get a nice mixed lot of several titles for under $100.00. My average cost is a little less than $5.00 per movie, but it's not uncommon to get movies for $1.00 each or less. If movies cost more than $5.00, the profit is usually a little more as well (but not always)

Expect to make around $100 in profit for spending $500. You may make more, you may make less. Although it sounds counter-intuitive, IT REALLY DOESNT MATTER at this point. Even if you only make your $500 back or even lose money, I guarantee, you will get at least a few people who leave you positive feedback. This is the point of this step- to build your reputation and to get a feel for selling. If you've done things REALLY well, you may even end up with $200 or more in profit meaning you'll now have $700-$1200 or more to invest in inventory (depending on what you started with)

HOW TO GET STARTED SELLING MEDIA ON AMAZON:

The first thing you'll need to do is establish a legitimate business. Most suppliers will not sell to you without a business license or tax ID. In my State, this required simply going downtown to the county

clerks office, filling out a “DBA” form and paying $10.00. I then had to register with the IRS (they will give you information on how to do this). I was then “legit.” If this sounds a little intimidating, don't worry... if I can do it, you can too. Just look up your city information and give them a call to inquire how to set up a DBA in your state.

Next, you will need an Amazon selling Account. Again, you can sign up for one HERE. Amazon will guide you through setting up your bank account information with them to get PAID etc. For extensive information on the ins and outs of selling on Amazon, you can refer to the numerous Amazon seller help pages and FBA help pages within your account. However, I will provide the basics as we go through the “selling Media” section. If you need further help, please visit the help pages HERE and HERE

Once you finish the process of setting up your account, you'll need to use SOME of your start up capital to buy up some media to sell on Amazon.

There are endless places to buy media, but don't expect to start off working directly with the studios (Disney, Fox, Warner Bros etc). They have large minimum orders and often will only sell to large chains (Best Buy, Walmart etc) or at least established sellers. Many of them also have contracts that can be intimidating when starting out. You'll want to follow these steps when searching for media to sell:

A. Look for suppliers that deal in closeout, liquidation, and overstock. These suppliers will work with DBAs and small businesses including online business in most cases.

B. Only sell brand new, factory sealed, U.S. Authorized media. Doing anything less can affect your feedback score, or can even lead to legal trouble (if you buy from overseas “suppliers” for instance- most of this is counterfeit so watch out!) You can, of course sell used media on Amazon, but do so at your own risk. I've found that doing so will lead to poor feedback (the customer will either not read or not agree with your “condition” notes or media may not play etc. One note on this- there are many sellers out there that have found great success selling used media- books specifically. If you want to go this route, there are numerous guides on the internet. I personally only deal in brand new factory sealed media though. However, I will touch a little more on these other sellers' strategies in step 3.

C. Avoid titles that have “scratched UPCs”, “cut out UPCs” or “closeout marks.” When a studio closes out or discontinued a title, it is typical that they will liquidate the stock and will put a mark or a cut in the UPC to prevent the title from being returned to a retail store for full value. This is completely legitimate, however, there are some customers who don't like this. I have gotten a couple of negative feedback comments from customers due to this issue even though I disclose it in the notes. I now try to avoid these types of titles. Most liquidators will disclose whether or not a title has a closeout mark.

Some suppliers have “pre-made” lots, but I would advise not wasting your time with anything like this. You never want to purchase something when you don't know what you're getting. It's possible that you could make money this way, but more often than not, this is their way of dumping off the titles that nobody is buying. If you go this route, use some discernment, and ask questions! I would suggest going through their website and hand-picking the profitable titles. With some companies, if your order meets a certain value, they will ship to you free which is a HUGE benefit for your bottom line! Usually this is less than $500 (usually around $200-$300)

HOW TO CHOOSE TITLES:

Choosing titles is actually one of the easiest part of the process. I simply go down their lists of movies (and music) and highlight the UPC (not the title) and paste it into Amazon. This will bring up the title in Amazon. You will want to look at the lowest FBA price. Please understand that if you are using FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon), the self fulfilled merchants are NOT your competition. There may be a DVD that has a low seller at $3.99 with $2.99 shipping ($6.98 total) – the lowest FBA price may be $11.95. You are competing with the $11.99 seller. Prime members pay MORE for the product to take advantage of the 2 day shipping. If you don't believe me, try it out. This is to your advantage. If you can buy a DVD at $3.99, and sell it for $11.99, you'll want to pick this up. You will NOT make $8.00 on this title – you will make about $3.50. This is due to the Amazon fees. You can calculate your average profits HERE. IMPORTANT: Don't forget to calculate the shipping costs to you and to Amazon's warehouse. These will cut into your profit which is why FREE shipping to you is a great deal! You'll find many movies at the popular liquidation websites for $3.99 or less. If you can sell these for $9.50 or higher, you're doing quite well, but watch out! Price is not everything...

SALES RANK:

If you are not familiar with sales rank- it is quite a complicated topic, but to simplify it a bit, think of it like a music top 40 chart. #1 is the highest where #40 is the lowest. This is how the sales rank works. If you have a product with a sales rank of 1 in it's category, that means it is the best selling product in it's category. Consider this: There are over one million products in the movies and TV category and over three million products in the music category! This means that a rank of 500 is actually very very good! In the music category, I try to find titles that have a rank of 200,000 or less and in the DVD category, I look for titles with a rank of 150,000 or less. However, these titles could still take months or longer to sell. When you're starting out, I would recommend looking for titles with a rank of 35,000 or less for movies and 70,000 or less for music. This will keep things rolling along. It will, however, be difficult to find these titles at the right price. I would recommend getting on the mailing list of closeout companies you find... and as always, make sure you can CHOOSE your titles. If you find a company that only sells “random lots” without disclosing the titles, WALK AWAY. When you sign up to a mailing list, most companies will notify you immediately when they receive new titles. This is generally where the best stuff is! However, you should always check out the titles that have been sitting a while too as sellers have passed those by and occasionally the price will go up on Amazon or a title will run out of stock and become extremely valuable. It's possible to make $10, $50, or even $100 on a single title (I've done it!) It doesn't happen often, but it DOES happen!

LISTING:

When you receive your DVDs, it's now time to list them. For small shipments like this, it's very easy to list the titles individually. I use a barcode scanner which you can get HERE but you can just as easily type the UPC into the Amazon search bar, find the title and click “sell yours here.” You are then brought to a screen with some options. The essential parts to fill out are the condition (New), the condition notes and the price. In the condition notes, I will usually point out that it is eligible for Super Saver Shipping and Prime and that Amazon handles all processing, customer service and returns (huge bonus of the FBA program!) Also check the box that says you want to fulfill the item yourself (you will convert this later in bulk)

PRICING:

I would recommend pricing your media just above the lowest FBA price. Many sellers use auto-repricers that will be triggered if a title gets listed at a price below theirs. They may have their auto-repricer set to match your low price, or worse- to undercut you. Then, if you continue to bring your price down, they will continue to bring their price down. If you set yours about 15-20 cents above the lowest offer, you'll not only avoid bringing the price down, but you may win the “buy box.” You can also try a “price match” strategy- matching the lowest price. On items with a higher sales rank, this may be preferred. However, on items with a vary low sales rank, remember if you set your price a little ABOVE the lowest seller, they will sell out first, then making your listing the “lowest.”

THE BUY BOX:

If you're not familiar with “the buy box” this is the little yellow box that says “buy now.” Buyers click this box far more often than going and looking at each individual seller. You can “win” the buy box which means everyone who clicks that box buys from YOU! Amazon does not reveal exactly how to win the buy box, but being an FBA seller has a big influence on it and keeping your price competitive helps too. I've won the buy box even with my price a couple of dollars above the competition, so don't buy into the idea that you always need to have the lowest priced item. That just hurts everyone- including you!

CONVERTING AND SENDING:

When you've clicked “finish” and have reviewed everything, your DVD is now listed on Amazon. You'll then want to go through all of the titles that you just listed (under “manage inventory”) check them all and click “convert to fulfilled by Amazon.” You'll get a warning screen that says you can't send hazardous material etc which you should hit “accept” on and then it asks you how many of each you plan to send. Fill this out and it will then likely split these into shipments for you. You can name each shipment and start “working” on them. Amazon will walk you through the process. You'll need to put stickers over each of the barcodes. This sounds tedious, but it goes very fast once you get the hang of it. You can buy sticker sheets that fit 30 to a sheet HERE. There are several versions and brands of these labels, but I prefer the DigiOrange as I've found them the easiest to peel which speeds up productivity. This is what you'll need. Print the stickers as Amazon directs you, sticker the DVDs, put them in their box, print a packing slip, weight the box and print shipping labels! Another advantage of FBA is the discounted UPS shipping rates! Always select this option as it is going to be your fastest and cheapest option. From there, you simply drop off your boxes at UPS (or you can schedule UPS to pick them up for a fee) and Amazon does the rest! In the next couple of weeks, you'll see money start to trickle in. You'll get emails that say “Amazon shipped an item you sold” which means money being put in your Amazon account! After 2 weeks, they will send this to your bank account! FBA is obviously the method I recommend for fulfilling orders. If you want to ship items yourself, you are welcome to do so, but be aware that you will generally get much smaller margins and there is less incentive for a customer to buy from YOU than any other seller. Also, with FBA, once you send the product in bulk, you don't have to fulfill a single order meaning you have now created some extra TIME! So what should you do with this time while you wait for that money to come in?

You have 2 options: You can just sit and enjoy your “normal life” again, while the money trickles in or you can continue to build up more funds by going back to step 1 while the money trickles in. The fact is, not all of these DVDs and CDs are going to sell right away- some may not sell at all. Before beginning step 3, you will want at least $500. Assuming you started with $500 and invested $300 or

more, you're likely going to end up with more than $500, but it could take some time- maybe months. Again, I would recommend going back to step 1 and generating more income while you wait. Once you reach $500 again, move on to step 3- now with some experience in the “selling on Amazon” world and also (hopefully) with a great feedback profile! The other great thing about working in this order is that you are now going to get into “passive income” mode where money is trickling into your Amazon account WHILE you are actively generating the little bits of “quick cash” from step 1. You're now doing the same thing you did in step 1, but with a greater payoff! (since Amazon is taking care of the processing, shipping, customer inquiries etc and freeing up YOUR time to generate more funds!) Once you get into step 3, this cycle will continue on a larger scale- DVD sales will continue to trickle in while you're finding more inventory for a higher profit. Then that inventory will sell as you go to find more. You'll want to keep this cycle going so that can generate enough cash for step 4- I recommend $3,000-$10,000- don't worry- after leaning step 3, you can simply rinse and repeat as many times as you need to and your funds will start growing exponentially. You'll be surprised how quickly you can generate $3000-$10,000. A quick note on this step- you may want to go in a couple times a week and check your inventory. Prices change on Amazon on a regular basis and sometimes need to be adjusted. However, don't fall into the trap of lowering your prices just because your competition did. Let them sell out FIRST thus opening it up for YOU to sell at a HIGHER price. If you now have your $500 back and you have at least some positive feedback in your account, you're ready for step 3. If not, please repeat steps 1 and 2 until you meet these requirements.

Step 3: Arbitrage:

Now that you have a handle on selling selling media through FBA, it's time to move into other categories. If you're not familiar with the term “arbitrage,” it basically means to “buy low, sell high.” This is probably the most popular method individual sellers use online for several reasons:

A. You don't need to develop relationships with suppliers, manufacturers or distributors

B. You are not bound by minimum quantity, MAP (minimum advertised pricing), or any other wholesaler/retailer agreements

C. You can sell brand name products from suppliers that will not work with small sellers and small businesses

D. The profit potential is enormous! 100% profit margins are extremely common using this model. It is not uncommon to see 200%, 500% or even 1000% or higher margins with some items!

E. The risk is extremely low. You can start with as little $50.00 to get started with this model (though it is recommended that you start with around $500-$1000). Now that you have your feedback score built up, you're comfortable with the selling process and you still have some inventory in FBA, you're ready to start scouting for products locally and online that you can buy low and sell high!

Entire books have been written on the this topic and no matter how much information I provide, there will always be more methods, tips and tricks and more inventory to find and sell! Below I will provide the basics of this method, but I would recommend continuing to engage in the conversation at alittlesliceofthepie.com. Arbitrage continues to be a big contributor to my business and I will be sending exclusive tips and techniques I've learned along the way to my subscribers as well.

THE BASICS:

The concept is very simple. The marketplace is highly inefficient. An item may sell for one price at one store and may sell for 5 times as much at another. This was difficult for me to believe when I started, but I knew others were making a full time income finding inventory at low prices and selling at high prices. I was led to believe that Walmart had the lowest prices- always. This is simply not true. Sometimes the price on Amazon is lower. Sometimes the price at the mom and pop store down the street is lower! Sometimes merchandise can be bought for $1.00 or less at the local discount store and sold for $10, $20 or more on Amazon.com or Ebay.com. I have friends that make a full time income finding inventory second hand at thrift stores, garage sales, estate sales, storage auctions, library sales book stores and other local establishments. You will need to find what works for you, but I personally focus on selling brand new items that I find online and offline at retail stores. As I mentioned, there is unending profit to be made selling second hand items (in fact, when you get good at this, the profit margins can be much higher than what I mentioned above.) It may surprise you, however, that I do not sell used books (one of the biggest markets for Amazon sellers!) used clothing (incredibly profitable business for many on Ebay), antiques, used CDs or DVDs, or really anything that is used, collectible or even refurbished. This is not to say these are bad markets. On the contrary! If you are comfortable with these markets, I would highly suggest getting into this as the inventory and profit potential are endless! You can use these same strategies to do so. I simply prefer to sell brand new consumer goods mostly due to avoiding excessive returns and negative feedback. Here are the basics of my method:

SCOUTING:

You'll want to be sure to get some basic scouting tools before starting. I would recommend a smart phone. You'll need to find one that has unlimited internet or at least a steady supply of data so you can scout for a couple of hours at a time. You likely already have a cell phone service, but if you don't, I've found the cheapest two services are Metro PCS and T-Mobile. I use T-Mobile because I don't get good service in my area with metro PCS. At the time of this writing, Metro PCS is only $40.00 per month and T-Mobile is only $50.00 per month and both include unlimited talk, text and web (there are some restrictions on the web, but it works fine for my requirements). If you want the Iphone, then you'll need to go with Verizon or AT&T.

You'll also need an app/software. There are 2 apps that I recommend:

PROFIT BANDIT: This is a great little app for an amazing price! Although it has some limitations, the features are quite extensive! It is available for the iphone or any android device. You can find this app by clicking on the link above

SCAN POWER: This is basically the “original” scouting app. It was created by Chris Green who is the ultimate Amazon FBA scouting authority. Both programs are good. ScanPower has a monthly fee, but has some features not available in profit bandit such as the quantity of inventory from each seller. This can be helpful when making decisions and can potentially earn you more money. However, I prefer a one time purchase if possible (though I do understand that the monthly fee allows more features and support to be built.) In this case, Profit bandit and Scan Power both offer free updates and unlimited customer support, so for now, I got with Profit Bandit. It works well for me!

You now have at least $500 to work with. Let's look at what you'll be spending to venture into this endeavor. We'll use average costs, but understand you can probably save money here and there if you're careful:

A smart phone will cost you an average of $150 (if you're buying a phone just to use for scouting, consider buying used and spending even less! An iphone will be a little more). HERE is a popular phone if you choose a cheap provider like T-Mobile. If you go with scan power, the app will cost you $39.95 per month. Your cell phone plan should cost you between $50.00 and $100 per month. You're going to be at $250-$300 with just these expenses. This leaves you with $200 to invest in inventory (and if you have more than $500, that's great!) By next month, you should have at LEAST $100 more in your account from the residuals of the DVD sales as well as the profit from the inventory you're about to buy. This will cover your next cell phone bill and your Scan power bill (if you go that route) All sales above this will simply be put into more inventory!

$200 will go a long way at a retail store and a VERY long way at a garage sale, thrift store etc. At this stage, you'll want to focus on products that will give you a 50% return or higher. Later on when you have more experience and more cash, you can diversify a bit more and sell lower profit margin items (this is worth doing on fast selling items where you can get multiples and make profit very quickly), but for now focus on getting 50% to 100% profit margins. This means, if an item costs you $10, you should make at least $5.00 in profit (preferably $10.00 or more) AFTER fees. The best way to do this is to be sure that the lowest FBA selling price is 2 to 3 times your buying price. If you find an item for $7.99, you'll want to selling price to be somewhere between $16.00 and $24.00 (or even higher is just fine!). Profit bandit actually has a feature that allows you to input the cost (to you) and it will calculate

the exact profit after fees! You'll also want to make sure the sales rank is reasonable.

SALES RANK FOR VARIOUS CATEGORIES:

As mentioned in step 2, sales rank is a very important factor when finding items to sell! In general, the lower the rank, the faster the item will sell. However, this rank is based on category. In other words, 150,000 in toys is an ok rank, but 150,000 in video games is a terrible rank. The rank is based on the number of products in that particular category. When buying low and selling high, it is not necessary to have a niche, but I would recommend starting in one category to keep from being overwhelmed. Below is a general sales rank guideline to look for when starting out in each of the main categories:

Appliances: 12,000 or lessArts and Crafts: 40,000 or lessAutomotive: 250,000 or lessBaby Products: 10,000 or lessBeauty: 30,000 or lessBooks: 500,000 or lessCell Phones & Accessories: 80,000 or lessComputers & Accessories: 350,000 or lessElectronics: 500,000 or lessGrocery/Gourmet: 20,000 or lessHeath/Personal care: 100,000 or lessHome & Kitchen: 800,000 or lessIndustrial/Scientific: 80,000 or lessMovies & TV: 40,000 or lessMusic: 80,000 or lessMusical Instruments: 15,000 or lessOffice Products: 90,000 or lessPatio/lawn & garden: 70,000 or lessPet Supplies: 30,000 or lessSoftware: 6,000 or lessSports & Outdoors: 350,000 or lessTools/Home Improvement: 220,000 or lessToys and Games: 90,000 or lessVideo Games: 8,000 or less

As you get more experienced, you can start buying items with a higher sales rank, but for now we want to focus on buying items that will sell fast (within a month or two) to generate income as quickly as possible.

WHERE TO START:

Clearance sales are where I started and you should too! It is not uncommon to find an item for 50, 70 or even 90% off! Clearance can be mixed in with regular retail merchandise, but often it has it's own section- on the end caps or on a center island are the most common places for clearance items. Different categories are on clearance different months as well. A great way to find the clearance items is to simply ask an associate what is on clearance that week!

CATEGORY:

Once you find a category with some great clearance deals, be sure to stick with that category until you've found as many of the great deals that you can! This will require going to multiple stores and online and searching these categories. This will also help you “master the technique” so you will know what to look for next time to “flip” quickly for big profits!

SCHEDULES

It is also helpful to know the clearance schedules. For instance, cookware and kitchen accessories will be on sale in June while cosmetics will be on sale in August- particularly in larger department stores, you can find some great deals on these low investment/high profit items! You'll get to know a store's schedule buy visiting every few weeks. Another great way to know their clearance schedule is to just ask!

COUPONS:

Coupons can take a little off your bottom line. Some coupons cannot be used on clearance items, but many can! Manufacturer and store coupons can be COMBINED for even greater discounts. Coupons can be found in your local paper, in store ads (that you pick up at the front of the store) or online. You can even BUY coupons in bulk off of Ebay for as little as $5.00 for a pack of them!

EXCLUSIVES:

Once you master the art of buying clearance (low) for resale (high), you can start looking for other items like house brands and exclusives. These are the brands or products that are carried ONLY in that particular store. Often there is a lot of demand for these types of products on Amazon.com. Remember not everyone lives near a Walmart (and Walmart happens to have a lot of exclusive products!)

TAXES:

When buying products for resale- even when buying from a retail store, you are not required to pay taxes. That's right- if you have gotten a resale certificate (call your state for information on acquiring on where you live) you need not pay taxes which will save you even more on your bottom line. Ask at the information desk of the store you are shopping at how to set up a tax exempt account. Most stores have a checkout process for this. Some stores require you to set up an account with them and others take care of this at the corporate level. It's not as complicated as it sounds, just ask at the store!

Also, don't forget to keep track of the miles you drive to and from stores! These miles can be written off your taxes at the end of the year! I personally use THIS free app for this!

LIST, BOX, AND SHIP!

Now that you've found some great products at a 50% or higher margin, you're ready to list them on Amazon, box them up the same as you did the DVDs and ship them to Amazon using the FBA workflow! Repeat this as many times as necessary and continue to invest your profits into more products!

MY EXPERIENCE WITH ARBITRAGE:

What I have explained in this course so far is enough to turn into a full time business on it's own! There are many sellers that make a full time living doing this type of business! For me though, this is my “side business.” I scout for products locally just 1 day a week for about 2-4 hours. I also order DVD shipments 1 to 2 times per week and buy up the good online clearance deals once every couple of months.

Consider this:

In February, I received a $30.00 gift card to a local store for my birthday. I found 3 items on clearance for $10.00 each. All 3 of them sold on Amazon for over $40 each! My total profit was around $70! Take the $70 profit plus the $30 I got back (my original cost) and I've now got $100 to work with (when I started with only $30) Now let's take this scenario and multiply it!

If I now take my $100.00 and invest in products at a 100% profit margin, I now have $200.00 ($100 in profit at $100 in costs that I've gotten back when the item sells)! Invest that in the same way and I now have $400.00, then $800.00. As your funds increase, you can choose to continue to invest in several small low priced products or start investing in higher priced items. I bought a video camera on clearance in April (a great time to buy cameras on clearance) for $125.00, but the profit ended up being over $200.00! (see below)

Continuing with this example, the $800 would double as follows:

1,6003,2006,400$12,800$25,600etc, etc

You can see the numbers start growing exponentially! Now, in reality, the growth won't be this linear. Some items won't sell for the full 100% profit margin, some won't sell at all, but others will sell for more! Time is a factor as well. Some products will sell in a couple of days, others a couple of months and others will take longer, but the numbers above show you the potential of this model and you can see how it is possible to turn $500 into $5000... or more! As I mentioned before, I will be discussing arbitrage more extensively on my website at alittlesliceofthepie.com. Be sure to stop by if you want to know more!

Once you master arbitrage you're ready to move into step 4! This is where you can start spending less time on things and make more steady income! When you're ready, read on!

Step 4: Wholesale

As you saw in step 3, arbitrage can be very powerful and incredibly lucrative. In reality though, you'll reach a limit. Arbitrage tends to be quite a lot of “footwork”- driving to and from stores- scanning product after product hoping to find that 50%-100% profit margin or better. Don't get me wrong- it's worth it! You'll generally find 1 highly profitable product for every 10 products you scan- not bad considering you can scan 10 products in a few minutes! Still, the arbitrage model is really an endless search for profitable products. What if you were able to find a product or even better- an assortment of products that were consistently profitable and you could order as many as you wanted whenever you wanted? Welcome to step 4- wholesale!

Buying wholesale basically consists of setting up relationships with suppliers, having those suppliers ship you profitable products in bulk and selling them online over and over... and over! There are a couple of things to be aware of when buying wholesale:

First, the BAD news:

The bad news is that you should not expect 100% profit margins when buying wholesale. The margins when dealing with wholesale suppliers is generally between 5%-40%. 20% is fairly average. Yes, this means you will spend $100.00 to make $20.00. Why in the world would you do that after learning a model where you can make 100% margins or more?... read on...

Now, the GOOD news:

Dealing with wholesale products is FAR less “labor intensive.” You find a profitable product and order it over and over and over. This means that you may need to spend $5000 to make $1000 in profits, but consider 2 things:

A. With arbitrage, you may be able to make $1000 by investing $1000, but it will take a LOT of time to find all of those different products, list them all and ship them all and there is no guarantee you will find these deals again. With wholesale, you find the product one time and list it one time. Then you simply sell unit after unit which takes almost no time and no work (when using FBA) and the profits keep rolling in... and with the right product, you can make good money consistently. Once it's set up, your only job on these products is to replenish!

B. With this 6 step model, your goal is to CONTINUE to implement the previous steps WHILE working on this step. This means, you're still sourcing shipments of DVDs, you're still buying low and selling high WHILE you connect with suppliers and start carrying their products. This means you will have a variety of products to sell at a variety of margins which is exactly what you want!

Even within wholesale sourcing, you will find some products with a high margin (80-90% or higher!) and some with a low margin (10% or less). The goal will be to have a product LINE or multiple product lines!

VARIETY:

Please understand that sourcing wholesale is a complicated subject. In it's simplest form, it's a matter of finding a product you want to sell, contacting the manufacturer or authorized distributor, setting up an account and purchasing products in bulk to sell. In reality, however, here are the roadblocks you

face:

a. many suppliers won't work with small businesses or online sellersb. locating the wholesale supplier for a product can be difficultc. popular products have insane competition and often low to no profit marginsd. scammers pose as “wholesale suppliers” all over the internet!e. Some wholesale suppliers have huge minimum order requirements

For the solution to all of these roadblocks and more, I personally use and recommend worldwide brands at worldwidebrands.com This is a legitimate (and incredibly reputable) company started by Chris Malta who has been selling online for years and has made millions doing so! He started worldwide brands to connect online sellers with legitimate suppliers. Each supplier is pre-screened to make sure they are legitimate and that they are willing to work with small businesses and online sellers. Furthermore, most of these companies have small minimums and sell niche products making competition much lower.

You can go to worldwidebrands.com and benefit from their wealth of totally free information on their site. If it sounds like something that would benefit you, a lifetime membership is $300 and connects you with their entire database of suppliers!

Let me be clear though... you do not need worldwide brands to be successful in this endeavor. Worldwide brands will simply make the process smoother and easier. However, I'll share below the basics of getting ideas for products to sell, connecting with suppliers and setting up accounts! As before, I'll be sharing more about this in my newsletter as well as on the blog (www.alittlesliceofthepie.com).

WHAT TO SELL:This is perhaps the most important question. If you find a profitable product that nobody wants, you won't be very successful on this step. In the same way, if you find a product that everybody wants, but you either can't source it or can't make a profit, you will not do well on this step either! The key is finding a product- or preferably a product line that is profitable and is in demand. The wonderful thing about selling online is that there are thousands of products – maybe millions that are “in demand” online that don't even EXIST in most offline superstores like Walmart or Target. The online audience is so broad, that you can sell some very unique products that may not sell at Walmart but will sell day in and day out online!

In the previous 3 steps, having a “niche” was not necessarily. In this step, it is at helpful to have a niche or multiple niches. One of the best ways to find a product to sell is rely on the data you already have from arbitrage sourcing. Did you find products that you purchased multiples of that sold immediately? What were your best selling and most popular products? Depending on where you found these products, it may be difficult to source the exact product (if it is from a large name brand company for instance). However, it's always worth trying! You'll often be surprised! If you find you cannot source the exact product, start looking around Amazon at “customers who bought this item also bought...” Also, Amazon makes several suggestions based on product searches. I use a piece of software to find exactly what customers are searching to buy on Amazon called FRESHKEY A video explaining this tool is HERE. As the video explains, you can do this manually, but it will take hours. This tool finds search terms in seconds. Keep in mind also that unlike Google, Amazon searches are ALL buying keywords! Customers go on Amazon to buy rather than just to search (like Google).

Another idea when looking for a niche: If you know of a great selling product from your arbitrage sourcing, start thinking about other similar products. For instance, if you sold a furnace filter that sold particularly well, start researching other brands of furnace filters, or check out vacuum filters, or other types of air filters or air purifying systems or accessories. Chances are if one product sells well, similar or related products will also! Use your creativity!The most obvious place to look for what is selling best on Amazon is the best sellers lists. These can be found HERE. Honestly, I have NEVER had any luck sourcing any of the products in best sellers in the main categories. It is essential to “drill down” to the sub categories. You may very well be able to source the products in the main category best sellers, but you will find that they have little to no profit due to the heavy competition. The “riches are in the niches” as the saying goes. Drill down to the sub categories to find some really interesting products from suppliers that will work with you and that you can make a nice profit on! I have had the most success with products that I look at and think “what is THAT?” or “I've never heard of THAT brand!” or simply quirky things I'm interested in. As a rule of thumb, if I discuss it with friends and they have no idea what it is and have never heard of it and don't think anyone would buy it, but it's on Amazon and has a sales rank, it's definitely worth pursuing.

ITEMS NOT ON AMAZON:

I have personally found a lot of success listing items that are NOT currently available on Amazon. In doing this, you have the luxury of being the only seller of that item (at least for a while until the other sellers catch on- but this can take months or even years!) You will need a professional seller's account to do this (which hopefully you already have at this point!). Simply go to “Add a product” under the inventory tab and Amazon will guide you through the process. You MUST have a UPC when listing on Amazon, but nearly every retail item you sell will have one of these! If not, there are some ways around it, but we will get to this in step 5. For now, stick to items that have a UPC. You won't want to purchase items blindly (not knowing what their chances are of selling). The last thing you want is a stock pile of non-selling products. You will want to do a little research so you can be confident that your inventory will have a good chance of selling.

RESEARCH:

There are no guarantees that your items will sell, but I would recommend doing some quick research as follows:

A. Check other brands- are there other brands of the same product that are selling well? You can check this with the Amazon sales rank or with Ebay completed listings (see section C)

B. Check forums- are people talking about the product you're looking to sell or other similar products? This is one way I have personally been successful listing items that are new to Amazon.com. I found forums where people we discussing a particular product that was NOT on Amazon at the time. I found the supplier, I purchased inventory and listed on Amazon. My first unit sold within a week of creating the listing and I still several of these every week at a very nice profit margin!

C. Check Ebay completed listings for the brand you are looking at. This is my favorite method of finding out if a product will sell. If you see a lot of “green” on Ebay's completed listings, this means that the item is selling! See if you can make a profit off of the item selling at the price others are selling it for on Ebay. If so, you can likely list it even higher on Amazon.com! (Amazon buyers will almost always pay more for an item than Ebay buyers)

D. Look through your existing supplier's catalogs. Once you have a couple of established relationships with suppliers, look at the other items they offer. Focus on the items not listed on Amazon.

DIVERSIFY- GO wide, NOT deepThere is nothing worse than ordering hundreds or even thousands of an item only to find out it will not sell (and I... uh... have a “friend” that has done this and I er... HE really regrets that decision). Here is the strategy I recommend for wholesale:

A. Find a product you are interested in selling based on your research of popular products in categories and subcategories

B. Find the supplier for that product (this information will usually be on the back of the product)

C. Call or write to the company/wholesaler, state your name and your company name and ask to be connected with their authorized supplier or distributor for resale (for example: “Hi, this is Tom Godwin from ABC retailer. I am interested in carrying your product. Can you please direct me to your authorized supplier or distributor?”). Once you get in touch with the appropriate party, request a catalog of their products (they should ask you for your Tax ID at this point which you will have since you are a legitimate business)

D. Ask the wholesaler about their pricing and minimum quantity policy. If possible, order samples of the product(s) you are interested in. Get multiple samples if you can (some companies will give these out for free while others will charge) Once you get your samples, list them on Amazon to see if they sell. If and when they do, you know you have a profitable product that seems to have some demand.

E. Ask the supplier if it is possible to order a variety of their products in low quantity (for example, 5 of X, 3 of Y &, 10 of Z etc). Many companies will require you to order the minimum quantity of EACH item. However, I work with several companies that will allow small quantities of each. One company I work with will allow me to order a variety, but will give me the quantity discount for ALL items if I order that number of ONE product. For instance, if they have a price break at 50 units and I order 50 of just ONE item, I can get the 50 unit price break for ALL items I purchase even if I only purchase 1 or 2. This is a great deal and is the type of policy you'll want to look for when “shopping around” for suppliers. The goal is to get 10-50 unique products. You may have only 1 or 2 of a certain product, but your Amazon store will look quite full and as you sell through items, you will have a better idea which products to order 50-100 of and what products to order 1 or 2 of just to keep them available.

Again, Worldwide Brands drastically simplifies the process of finding niches and legitimate suppliers, but if you're not ready to shell out $300, feel free to read on for more free methods!

NON-WHOLESALE SOLUTIONS- BUY FROM YOUR “COMPETITION.”

When I started out, I looked at my potential competition (another online seller), found their supplier and realized quickly that I could never compete with this seller at their prices. What they were doing was ordering thousands of EACH item from the supplier and negotiating massive discounts based on their quantity and their established relationship with the supplier (and you can get there too, but you won't start there.) Instead of ordering from the supplier (and failing to sell the items at a profit!) I approached the retailer and asked if they would be willing to sell in small quantities to me. To my surprise, this company said YES! This may sound crazy, but depending on the niche, this can really be

a win/win. The retailer may be looking for a way to unload excess inventory that still sells, but not as quickly as they'd like. This frees up capital for them to invest in other opportunities and provides you with the variety of inventory you're looking for. I have used this strategy again and again. Sometimes the retailer will say “no” but that's really the worst that can happen.

BUY FROM EBAY

Similar to the strategy above, you can search out Ebayers that are selling merchandise at a good price and buy directly from them to sell on Amazon. Buy a unit or two and ask them to include any website information or contact information in the package because you'd like to do business again in the future. If the product sells well, you can contact them about buying their product(s) in bulk (for a deeper discount!) in the future!

All of what I've discussed above just scratches the surface of this topic! As with the other topics, I will discuss this more in depth at alittlesliceofthepie.com and in my email newsletter. Once you get a handle on this, it's time to dive into building a brand (or multiple brands) by “creating products” with private labeling

Step 5: Create and build a “brand”

There will be advantages and disadvantages to every one of these steps. That is why I recommend eventually using them ALL to create online income. I discovered and developed these steps due to finding the limitations and disadvantages of a particular step. When I found little websites to make some quick cash (step 1) it was great, but I quickly realized it took a lot of time and I wasn't going to make significant income that way. I turned to DVD/Blu ray/media sales (step 2). I began selling DVDs and I realized I could sell a lot of product very quickly and quite easily which solved the limitations of step 1, but the profit margin was quite low. Arbitrage (step 3) increased my profit margin dramatically, but I found that it was quite a lot of “footwork” and profitable inventory had cycles- sometimes hours would be spent with little to show for it and other times I would find hundreds of dollars of profit in just a few minutes! This step was highly profitable (and still well worth it) but was lacking the consistency I was needing. Buying wholesale solved this problem as I could buy once and sell again and again and again. The profit margin was lower, but not as low as media, so this still seemed reasonable. The biggest disadvantage when buying from wholesale sources is that there are always sellers willing to make LESS on the item than you are! Perhaps I want to make $30.00 on every sale, but then “lowball seller” finds the same supplier and gets the same wholesale price and decides that they are content to make only $10.00 on the same item. If I'm selling on Amazon, I will not sell this item at a $30.00 profit when “lowball seller” is selling his for a $10.00 profit. My options are:

1. lower my price and risk “lowball seller” continuing to lower his price and “race to the bottom” so there is no profit left for either of us

2. Keep my price higher and sell fewer (or none- depending on how much higher I keep my price)3. Discontinue selling this item (either move on to the next product or just drop it from my

inventory)or...

4. Create my “OWN product”

CREATE YOUR OWN BRAND = EXCLUSIVE PRODUCTS!

This method has disadvantages also which I will talk about toward the end, but this step literally saved my business at one point when I was relying heavily on a few wholesale products. Although I definitely implement this step “on purpose” these days, it started off almost “by accident.” It was just another way of solving a problem with the limitations I was experiencing of selling from wholesale sources (I still sell regular wholesale products too because not all products can be “private labeled” and it often makes more sense to buy established products wholesale than to “create a new brand.”)

HOW IT “HAPPENED”Let me tell you the story of why and HOW this happened. For me, this happened long before there were any courses or information about this sort of thing available. Now that I've discovered a thing or two about this method, I am thrilled to be able to share it with you that you may benefit from it too!

I had gotten my business “off the ground” and had quit my pizza job. I was selling DVDs, doing arbitrage and had established some relationships with some wholesale suppliers and was doing quite well selling a variety of products mostly through Amazon.com (all self-fulfilled at the time.) Things were going GREAT! One of the products I was selling was a generic product that I had discovered by following popular trends. I predicted that it would do quite well and my prediction was correct! I was among the first to introduce it to Amazon.com which gave me the fantastic position of being the only seller on the listing! I started off with 20 units and they sold out within a few weeks. I ordered 100

more and they sold even faster due to gaining traction (something really great about how Amazon is set up!) I then ordered 500 then 1000. I got to the point where I could not keep them in stock (a problem, but a good one to have!) and the profit was very nice! I was the only seller of this item for a while. One morning I woke up and had NO sales! I checked my listing and saw that another seller jumped on my listing and undercut me- by a LOT... a few weeks later, another seller and then another! I felt the weight of responsibility of providing for my family with this income... and the income was dwindling fast! Of course I had several other products, but by this time, the popularity of most of those products had dropped off. Due to the sudden success of sourcing a very popular product, I had come to rely on this ONE product for a HUGE chunk of my income and therefore I made the mistake of investing nearly ALL of my profits into that ONE product. (not a good place to be in by the way!) Now, even though the PRODUCT was selling well, it wasn't ME doing the SELLING! I had to do something fast!

I tried a few things to make my listing unique, but nothing worked- all of it was copied by competitors fairly quickly. I then remembered several inquiries from customers that I had previously brushed off. When sales were steady, I would receive e-mails several times a month asking “what brand is this product?” I would explain that it was just a generic product. It never occurred to me to create a “brand” particularly because the generic product was selling so well!

A light bulb came on though and I decided to create a “brand”! At the time, the creation of my “brand” was no more than a self-designed quick logo thrown on the product to make it unique. It was nothing more than a strategy to regain some lost traction and get rid of some competition. I simply asked my supplier if they were able to print a logo on the product. They said yes and away we went!

THE VALUE OF A BRAND:

Now that I have a brand (several actually) I finally understand why I received all of those inquiries! When I first changed the listing to reflect the new “brand” the competitors actually stayed on for a while. It wasn't until my brand gained some RECOGNITION that the competitors swiftly removed their listings. The truth is, if my “brand name” is not recognized, customers can purchase it, be sent a generic version and not know the difference, but as soon as the brand gains recognition, the customers will KNOW when they haven't received the “real product.” It's 75-80% psychology really. I was purchasing from a factory that also produced products for multi-million dollar companies that you would recognize- and they used the exact same product molds... just with a different “brand.” However, I guarantee you that the consumer will prefer to buy the version of a product from the multi-million dollar company with a recognizable brand (and at a higher price!) than my generic version which is every bit as good and is produced by the same people in the same factory! I found this “brand loyalty” effect to be true when my brand gained some recognition. My sales skyrocketed! With a “brand” people can search reviews online and find other who are talking about the brand. Just Google “Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 review” and find TONS of reviews and opinions. Now try to find information about that unbranded generic tablet you saw on Ebay with the same specs! How will you know anything about it? What will you search by? Do you see why selling a “brand” helps gain sales?

ADDING MORE VALUE

I said that the reason people buy the “branded” product is 75-80% about psychology. What about the other 20-25%? The truth is, if you simply slap on a label and sell it, this MAY help get you an exclusive listing, but what really sets your brand apart? Most of the time, it won't actually be the product, since it is just a product that anyone can source and put their own label on. However, what can you do to ADD VALUE? This is the question you should be asking when you are looking to build

a brand. Maybe you offer extras or a bundle with your product. Maybe you give away loads of valuable related information or accessories. Maybe your customer service far exceeds your competition (this is the area I focus on with my brands). You can keep it simple as well. You can simply point out the features of your product that your competitors have missed! Even easier, you can simply re-word features in a way that makes it sound unique! I know this sounds too simple, but let me show you what I mean. Let's say you sell your own version the dropcam but you call yours the “flopcam” (probably not the best name to start with if you want to be successful). Yours is made in the same factory as the “dropcam” and is actually basically the same product, but you want something to set it apart. It may be as simple as saying “our flopcam produces higher quality video than other cameras on the market today!” Note that this is entirely honest. You did not say it was higher quality than the dropcam, you only said it was higher quality than other cameras. It is definitely higher quality than the Vivitar 410. (1280X720 vs 640X480). These types of comparisons are great in my opinion because you're being totally honest without comparing to specific products. This technique is wonderful for writing descriptions and adding perceived value. With this said, if you want a brand that is sustainable, I would highly recommend adding some more concrete value in the form of free accessories or bundles, valuable information, support or amazing customer service! This is the stuff that will get others to tell their friends when they actually GET the product!

HOW IT WORKS:

This business method is really just wholesale on steroids. When buying wholesale, you are buying from the brand owner- or often their distributor. You are promoting and selling someone else's brand. They are the manufacturer or brand company. You are the retailer. With “private labeling” you act as the “manufacturer” (brand owner) AND the retailer. This means more work for you, BUT it also means more profit for you. Why do you suppose the profits for wholesale products is generally only between 5% and 40%? The company that sells you that product makes a profit also! Often there is a chain of companies. There may be the brand creator- this is the company that creates and promotes the brand. They have their product produced by the manufacturer. The manufacturer sells to the authorized distributor and you buy from the distributor. Depending on the product there may be even more links in the chain or sometimes less. Private labeling is the most direct way of selling branded products without actually manufacturing them. In many cases you can work directly with the manufacturer- the factory that will produce the products for you. In other cases you will work with a company that stands between you and the factory. This is ok because generally factory's minimums are quite high. If you can buy 100 of a product with your logo on it rather than 10,000 this is better for you as it leaves you in a lower-risk situation. It is best to get as close to the source as possible for maximum profit, but as I mentioned above, you'll always want to take the risk factor into consideration!

THE PROCESS:

The process is almost the same as buying wholesale. You find and approach a manufacturer, wholesaler or distributor and ask if they offer logo printing. I've found this is the best question rather than asking about “custom products” or “private labeling.” Most suppliers I work with are able to print a logo on the product, label or package for free. The next question would be if they offer custom packaging. You can ask “can I have the packaging specially designed to your specifications? If so, please send over a template.” Understand that most companies can produce these products and packaging as needed for the client. Even if they are just a distributor, they likely have access to the manufacturer and can get them printed as you need them. Depending on the product, the minimum quantity may be as little as 10. More often, it is 50-1000 with 500 being the average. If you've followed the steps to this point, this should not be too intimidating- particularly if you can buy the

products for $2-$10 each ($1000-$5000 for your first private label product) If you can though, start with a quantity of 50-100 when “creating” your first product. This lowers the risk and investment. There are many companies out there that will offer smaller quantities even if you have to pay a little more- it's worth it to lower your risk!

LISTING:

Once you have your own product, I would highly recommend listing on Amazon.com and using FBA. I have found that this is the fastest way to gain traction and recognition for a brand. You will need a UPC to list your product. You can find a list of legitimate UPC resellers below:

AI BarcodeAssignableUPC.comBarcode My ProductBarcodes 4 AmazonBarcodes AmericaBar Codes TalkBarcodes USABuy Product BarcodesElfring Fonts Inc.Engaging VenturesEZ UPCI Want My BarcodeLegal BarcodesMozian & Associates, Inc.Nationwide Barcode Quality UPC Quick and Easy BarcodesQuickUPC.comRealUPC.comSingleUPC LLCSpeedy BarcodesUPC4u.comUPCWarehouse.com

Once you have a UPC, you can enter in the the “UPC” field and off you go! Those are the basics of “creating your own product” with private labeling. There are more details to make your product more successful and as with the rest of the material, I will be covering this much more in my posts and in emails sent to subscribers. After going through these 5 steps and spending a little time on alittlesliceofthepie.com and applying the information you learn there, you'll no doubt be making a decent income and have your first private label product on Amazon! Once this gains traction and you begin building your brand, it's time to build it out!

MORE INFORMATION:

You'll notice I kept this “branding” section fairly basic. Please refer to the wholesale section for ideas on how to select a product, find suppliers, etc. As I mentioned, the process is almost identical. However, more promotion is necessary for a new “brand.” I will be covering this more in depth on alittlesliceofthepie.com

Now it's time to develop the business into something bigger and more sustainable!...

Step 6: expand and outsource!

Now that you have the basic strategies for creating some profitable income streams online, it's important to know that NOTHING works forever. This idea of “passive income” is actually a little misleading- and any honest person who makes this kind of income will tell you this. While I DO actually get paid while I sleep and I CAN take a day off or even a vacation and come home to thousands in my account, this will not go on forever and ever without my ACTIVE involvement in the business. The only difference is, I don't trade time for money. However, I partner with many people who ARE willing to trade time for money- my outsourcers :) There is really nothing wrong with trading time for money. Many of us are in situations where this is really the only option. Others are simply happy with this model. It's very defined, usually predictable, it's more secure and risk free in many ways and it's consistent. Those who I partner with are not being “tricked” into working this model- they actually prefer it!

WHAT IS “OUTSOURCING?”

“Outsourcing” has become a big “buzz” word in business- particularly online business. Often people think of this word as hiring overseas labor- and sometimes it is. However, Wikipedia defines outsourcing as “contracting a business process to a third party.” Have you ever hired a plumber? Congratulations! You understand the basics of outsourcing! Now, take that concept and transfer it to business needs instead of home needs. The other difference of course is that generally you're going to train somebody to do this work. There are situations where this is not the case, but in general, the person will need specific training to understand your specific business. When “outsourcing”, you then have free time to do other things. You can choose to sit on the beach and drink little umbrella drinks if you'd like, but I personally suggest focusing on expanding your existing business! Remember, in most cases, an outsourcer is really only going to do tasks that you were doing in the beginning. If you hire someone to do this so that you can do NOTHING, you'll have the SAME level of business with less profit. Then again, if, like me, time is one of your most sought after assests, it may be WORTH losing a bit of profit to gain some time. What you do with it is your choice!

CREATING A WIN/WIN:

Let's first talk about outsourcing and then talk about the expansion you can do with your extra time. Pizza delivery has taught me some tremendous lessons about creating win/win situations (thus the blog built around a pizza theme- it has a special place in my heart). Unfortunately, the lessons were sometimes learned by seeing it done poorly. Now that I've been on both sides, it's interesting to look back. When I was a driver, I would often feel frustrated when the manger could not see the drivers' point of view. There were some policies that were set up that made things very challenging for the drivers. WE (the drivers) all understood why these policies made things difficult, but the managers only saw things from a “manager's point of view.” Now that I'm in a position to “manage people” I am grateful for the lesson I learned and always do my best to respect the needs of my “business partners” and listen to their ideas. However, I now understand frustrations from the manager's perspective as well! In general, drivers don't care about the betterment of the company, the focus of the vision or the bottom line at the end of the day- they care about getting hours (to make money) and getting the maximum tips in the least amount of time possible. It's important to understand both sides. This helps create a win/win. If I hire someone to help run my business while ONLY thinking of how it will benefit me, I'm not going to keep this person very long. I need to think about his or her needs as well! With this said, it is sometimes surprising to learn about people's perspective who are happily trading time for money. Here is an example:

One of my local guys works on a commission structure and is very aware that I ultimately make a much larger cut than he does even though he is doing most of the work. However, we've discussed this and it turns out he is very happy with this. He finds me products to sell AND boxes them up AND ships them to Amazon for me. He basically does most of step 2 and all of step 3 for me. He could literally earn a living himself doing this on his own at higher profits... BUT I pointed out the benefits to him when he started:

– I train you. You don't need to spend years figuring this out like I did

– You don't have to deal with returns

– You don't have to deal with inventory that doesn't sell (liquidations, auctions etc)

– You don't have to deal with the loss taken of inventory that plummets in price (he gets paid a commission on what it is selling for WHEN he finds it, not what it ultimately sells for – which could be much less.)

– You don't have to deal with any customer service or support

– You don't have to deal with account management, customer feedback or any other system or customer related issues

– You don't have to spend ANY of your own money- no investment, no risk

He also still gets the benefit of working at his house on his schedule and making as much or as little as he wants to depending on how much time he spends searching for products and when he finds a product to sell. Also, his commission is INSTANT (mine may be more, but I have to wait for it... sometimes for months... and sometimes the items don't sell in which case he gets PAID and I take a LOSS). BUT I of course get this all done for me and save hours upon hours of time- and I still make a decent profit off of the items he finds, ships and sends!

EXPAND:

In my opinion, this extra time you'll now have is valuable. Expanding the business is a great way to spend this time that will maximize the possibility of a sustainable future. I have about 5 people who currently partner with me. 2 are local and 3 are international. They all have different tasks and focus on different areas of the business. This gives me time to focus and build on the areas that I believe I should never outsource which include:

Finding and adding new products or product lines to my existing brands

Creating new brands of products

Finding more suppliers and wholesalers for existing brands

I also handle all of my own customer service. This may change in the future, but so far, this is a central part of my business and it's been difficult for me to let go of this- particularly because my level of customer service sets me apart from the competition. If this were outsourced, I would need to be sure to find the right person!

I also expand in areas that CAN be outsourced. A HUGE way to expand is to take advantage of Amazon's “multi-channel fulfillment” service. This allows you to send items from Amazon's warehouse that are purchased from ANYWHERE! I have several of the products in Amazon's warehouse also listed on Ebay, and my business websites. This creates even more ways to sell the

products and create an income! One of the girls who partners with my business creates Ebay listings for my inventory so I don't need to take the time to do this and can focus on the more important tasks!

I also have my suppliers do much of the work these days. In the early days I would have all products sent to my house. I would then unbox and repackage everything according to my requirements. I now have the manufacturer's a suppliers do ALL of this. They put stickers on when necessary (to Amazon's specifications), include packing slips and ship straight to Amazon's warehouses! Most products that I sell, I no longer see!

Adding more products to your inventory and growing out your brand will help create a sustainable income.

When you are comfortable with all of this, it may be the time to build a website (or multiple websites) which can have HUGE advantages for your products, brands and your bottom line (significantly lower fees to process transactions). HostGator is the hosting company I use which allows for unlimited domains/websites in a single, low cost package (the “baby” package). However, I would advise getting comfortable with Amazon before expanding to Ebay and your own website. I'll go into much more detail about this in future posts on the blog: www.alittlesliceofthepie.com

CONCLUSION:

As you can see, a lucrative, sustainable business can be created in this day and age from the comfort of your home- or from ANYWHERE! I hope you found these principles helpful. I would VERY much appreciate hearing any questions that came up from this guide. Please feel free to leave them in the comments section on my first post at: www.alittlesliceofthepie.com. I will write about the most popular questions in my posts and dive into detail to help you build your own business! Thanks for reading!

Daniel

alittlesliceofthepie.com