Regardless of whether you’re an established Amazon seller and thinking back to your first days or reading this because you’re thinking of starting one, beginning an online business takes a lot of work. We here at RepricerExpress will be looking at advice for two different kinds of business owners: first-time starters, and established professionals looking to branch out with a second business. Hint: repricing on Amazon works for both. So here are our Amazon business startup tips!
Launching the First Business
If you find yourself in this position, you’re both at an advantage and disadvantage. The former because you’re starting off with a completely blank slate and can go in any direction you want; the latter because you have no experience to draw on and have no idea of what really lies ahead. To make things a little easier, let’s take a look at what’s involved in starting an online business.
- The Product to Sell: Everything in your business is going to centre on the products you’re selling, and discovering what your niche is will be no easy feat. There are essentially three different categories you can choose on Amazon — timeless products (e.g. jewellery, antiques), futuristic products (e.g. smartphones, tablets, e-readers) or niche products (e.g. birdhouses, collectibles). You’ll want to balance your own passions with your customers’, making sure that there’s enough of a market out there where you’ll eventually be able to turn a profit.
- Brand: This is a pretty general term and covers everything from your tagline and logo to the demographic you want to attract. It helps if you always keep in the back of your mind the tone you want your business to take. Is it light and fresh, or elegant and serious? Whatever it is, make sure it’s consistent across the board?
- Name: What’s your business going to be called? Try not to overthink this part and put too much pressure on yourself. Instead, look at your competitors and see what they’re calling themselves and remember to keep things short and sweet. You’ll want something that rolls off the tongue easily (e.g. Google), is memorable (e.g. Marks and Sparks Spencer) and is unique enough to not get mixed up with other names (e.g. Alibaba).
- Emails: You’ll be able to communicate with your buyers indirectly, like posting messages on your site, but and directly, like engaging in conversations on Facebook and Twitter. But email marketing campaigns are going to be the crux of your communication and how you get the word out about specials, promotions and just checking in.
- Amazon Perks: We can’t stress enough how important it is to take advantage of things like Fulfilled by Amazon and FBA repricing, as that’ll free up valuable time to spend on growing your business. Plus, if anything negative happens, Amazon has guarantees in place to deal with it.
There are oodles more things to think about but the previous points are them in a nutshell.
Starting a Second Business
The biggest thing you’ll have to think about when starting a second business is organisation. You’ve already proven to yourself you have the ability to successfully start up a business, but the one unknown variable is how you’ll be able to juggle two at once. There’s also the possibility that you can delegate your first, established business to your staff, but we’ll assume — for the purpose of this article — that you’ll be running both at once.
Even given that, you’ll have to be on top of time management like never before. Remember the early days of starting your first business? It’s going to be like that but more, because now you have not just one ‘child’ to tend to but a new one to rear from birth.
Lastly, it’s important to keep passion in mind. While you don’t have to be excited with every fibre of your being, it does help to be interested in your products to a great degree. You’re once again bringing long nights and hard days upon yourself and if you can find something to look forward to each day, you’ll be ahead of the game.
Final Thoughts
No matter if you’re starting your first business, second or tenth, there’s always one common thread you’ll need: awesome repricing software. Competitive pricing is something you’ll always need as an Amazon seller, as it leads to higher sales and more Buy Box spots. Sign up for your 15-day free trial and give yourself one less thing to worry about when starting up an online business.
