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Amazon Myth #1 Startup capital : $1000 is enough.
- The first Amazon myth is that you can start a Private Label business with $1000 or so. Reality: $1500 is an absolute bare minimum; $3000 is more realistic for private labelling.
- Of course you can start making money on Amazon with just a few hundred dollars – but not with Private Label, unless you get very lucky. You’ll be looking at models like Retail Arbitrage, Online Arbitrage or flipping generic products from Aliexpress to Amazon. That’s all cool – go for it! Just be clear that that’s a different way of doing things.
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Amazon Myth #2 Simplicity: It’s simple to run an Amazon private label business.
- Reality: Amazon is highly automated. But product ordering and freight are not. The business of finding products that will actually sell at a profit is not that easy. And ordering from China the first time takes some experience and willingness to learn a lot fast.
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Amazon Myth #3 Speed of ROI: you can get your money back fast (say 2 months)
- Reality: In theory, you can; in practice, it could take 6+ months. From idea of starting this to reality of PL product live in Amazon usually takes at least 4 months at a minimum.
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Amazon Myth #4 Scalability: You can just grow this to any size without adding to your business
- Reality: Amazon will scale selling and fulfilment- but your capital is not going to grow so fast as to organically expand aggressively with private label because your money will only turn over 3-4 times a year.
- If you scale up your scales 10X, then you increase your capital requirement 10X. Expecting to 10X your capital in one year, or even a few months, means a 1000% ROI per annum. That’s pretty unlikely unless you get very very lucky. And luck is not a strategy you can depend on.
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Amazon Myth #5 Systemisation: Amazon takes care of nearly everything
- Reality: Amazon takes care of sales & Fulfillment. But you need to Select product niches and find/work with suppliers. Of course you can – and should – create automated systems and delegate. But that takes quite a bit of time, experience, money and effort.
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Amazon Myth #6 Saleability: It’s easy to sell your business after 12-18 months if wanted.
- Reality – actually can be true. But you are looking at 10-20X monthly cashflow – it’s not about sales volume so much. And you will need to have built a sustainable business – see Coran Woodmass’s excellent interview for more guidance on the reality selling an Amazon business.
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Amazon Myth #7 Sustainability: Amazon is growing; commerce is growing, therefore there is room for lots more Private Label sellers and it’s easy to make sales and profits.
- Reality: Yes Amazon is growing and dominates ecommerce; However, there are many PL sellers – it’s now competitive. To make sales and profits, you need to look HARD and move Fast and expect your products to have a shorter lifespan than previously.
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Extra Myths:
- Time Needed – Myth: You can work this on a few hours a week & Succeed
- Reality: You can and should work it part-time. But it’s going to take many hours a week (probably 20+ hours/week)
- Skills – Myth: It’s quick and easy to learn the necessary skills
- Reality: You can learn anything but you’re going to need to work hard and keep working
- “It’s Easy” – Myth
- Reality: If it looks too good to be true, it normally is! Real things require real work. By all means work smart, but expect to work hard at least upfront.
Creating an Private Label business is much much easier and lower risk than a brick and mortar retail business. And it is still a huge opportunity. But it’s good to go in with your eyes open. That’s actually one of the key ways to maximize your chances of success.
Watch 7 Amazon Startup Myths for Beginners
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