How To Start Amazon Business. Starting your own business is an incredible way to make yourself feel good as you pursue your dreams. With all of the freedom that comes with running your own company, it can be helpful to have some extra guidance at first to help you figure out what the next steps are.
Running your own business includes things such as owning a store, managing a restaurant, designing products or offering services — there’s really no limit to what you could do.
There are many ways to start off on this path by investing in the right resources and learning how to run a routine business activity. And while most people don’t get into the entrepreneurial spirit until much later in life, anyone can launch their own business!
In fact, over half of businesses, today were started by someone who was just trying to make enough money to survive otherwise.
Make a list of your products
After you have determined that starting an online business is right for you, you will need to know what products or services you want to sell. This could be anything from digital music gear to fashion items to educational materials to gyms to gadgets to whatever products or services you are already providing for sale at present!
The best way to find out if there’s an audience for your product is by creating a product inventory – or a collection of products that include both quality and low cost. By having lower price points, you open up the market size for your products.
You can start with selling one product per category to test the waters before investing in more expensive marketing tools like Facebook, Google+, and Twitter advertising campaigns. These three apps together make up the backbone of most successful businesses today.
And don’t forget about using your personal network to begin building buzz around your products! Just because you cannot afford to advertise does not mean you cannot create word-of-mouth momentum.
Create your website
After you have gathered all of your supplies, it is time to start creating your business! The next step in starting your online business is setting up an easy-to-find domain name for your site and creating an internet presence that people will know about.
You can use Google or other free resources to find your domain name and test out your web address. Make sure to check if there are any current trademarks using this domain before purchasing.
Once you have found your domain, you will need to pick either a paid hosting plan or a free hosting account to house your website. Paid accounts offer more features than free ones, so do not worry about cost until later!
Paid hosting comes with additional settings such as direct messaging and email forwarding, which help promote your business. You can pick from sites like Bluehost, WPEngine, and Media Temple, among others.
Register your business
The next step in starting your online business is registering your business with either Amazon or another marketplace that allows you to sell on their site. This is totally free to do!
Most major marketplaces offer a beginner’s plan where you can start selling products without making any money. These are great opportunities to try out the marketplace before investing in more advanced services.
By going through this process, you will get familiarized with the platform, and you’ll be able to pick which ones you want to invest in later.
There are several ways to register your business with Amazon, and it really depends on what kind of seller you desire to become. For example, if you just wanted to make some extra income by listing items for sale, then you can choose to use the FBA (Fulfillment By Owner) service.
This way you won’t have to find suppliers or handle shipping – everything is done for you! However, there are times when this service isn’t appropriate so it is best to know both options.
Apply for licenses
Before you can start your business, you will need to apply for several licenses. These include seller license applications, business tax forms, and online merchant account registrations. Some of these require proof of money or income, so make sure to have those before you begin!
Most states offer some kind of sellers’ program where you do not need a seller’s license but rather an attachment like ABP (Amazon Business Portal) which is free to join. This makes it easy to list items and manage your listings while under the covers as an individual agent.
Some other attachments such as AEP (Agent Express Profile) and AMS (Advanced Merchant Services) are paid membership services that give you more features. Both of these cost around $200 per year.
There are also third party solutions like Sellerpad or Waymark which help connect you with various vendors and keep tabs on your sales. These too are paid memberships in the same range as AEP and AMS.
Choose a business location
Before you can start your online business, you will need to pick where you want to do it. This could be from outside sources like city directories or research done yourself to determine which areas of the city would be good places to open an internet business.
People who live in those areas may already have digital businesses that they are doing well so make sure to check out what types of businesses they have and how successful they were before opening yours!
Another way to find out if there is enough demand for your product/service is by looking at reviews for similar businesses around you. You can also talk to people about their experiences with companies in the area to get some insights.
If you cannot find any strong signs then probably not.
Choose your business name
The hardest part of starting an online business is deciding on a good business name! There are many ways to go about this, but my recommendation is simply to choose a simple, easy to remember name that incorporates your website’s domain (for example, howyoudoethis.com) or reflects what you offer (for example, Bestselling Author).
Once you have that locked down, get some catchy slogans and test them out with different fonts and styles to see which ones work best for you. I recommend doing a free week trial of Shopify so you can create your own store there if you want to!
That way you won’t be investing too much money up front, and you will at least have some resources available to grow your business from.
Buy insurance
It is important to have adequate business liability coverage. This includes having personal liability for accidents that may occur at your place of business, as well as being able to cover any losses in merchandise or money caused due to theft or malicious damage.
Business owners are usually required by law to carry this coverage. Some experts recommend having one million dollars in coverage to be truly safe. These policies can easily cost around $1,000 per month, but some offer discounts if you do not spend very much each year!
By buying online business insurance through an agency or broker that specializes in these products, it will help ensure that your policy is the right fit for you. They can also help you compare prices from different companies to find the best deal.
On top of that, most people agree that Allianz is one of the better companies to use for business insurance. You should look into what types of policies they offer before choosing which ones to purchase.
Plan for disasters
Starting your business on Amazon is great, but it’s not necessarily easy! There are lots of things you need to think about, including potential problems that might arise.
The most common problem is something we call “faux launches.” That happens when people try to launch an invalidated product or service on Amazon, sometimes with disastrous results.
In fact, one well-known entrepreneur told us that he actually lost money due to a fake launch! Luckily, his situation was slightly different than average, so here he is giving you some tips on how to avoid this in yours.
He explained what happened, how he recovered, and why this can be avoided by being prepared.
