Play Nice in the Sandbox

I remember the good ole days when selling on FBA was sort of a free-for-all. You didn’t have to follow the rules because there weren’t many. You didn’t have to play nice in the sandbox because no one was watching. Things have changed and now there are policies, processes, metrics, and scary red flag notifications. It’s hard to roll with the punches when your livelihood is at stake, and I remember feeling really out of control, but ultimately, it is Amazon’s playground.

InventoryLab has the same relationship with Amazon that sellers do; we have to make it work in the environment they give us. More recently, Amazon has made efforts to hear the concerns of third-party service providers, and we are thrilled to be part of the Amazon Developer Council.

When I moved into hosting I had an advantage over others who had not been in a similar situation before. All of the listing platforms have their own rules, and it is our job as hosts to abide by them. Instead of spending time being angry about it, I look at this as just a bump in the road. I have realized that reacting and pivoting when needed in the most efficient manner is the best way to proceed. At the end of the day, what you can control is your mindset, and that gives me a leg up on the competition.

Diversify!

When I first got into running my own business, whenever I heard “diversification” I thought to myself, that isn’t me, that’s for those other people with all the money and investments. The truth is that diversifying is important no matter what level you are at! When you are in someone else’s playground, you don’t have control over what is going to happen. You also can’t control the competition or trends. Going wide instead of deep when you have limited resources can help. Developing your own product, making bundles, and diversifying marketplaces are other ways to protect your investment.

I found myself in a similar situation with our rental space and decided to diversify my hosting business. I now list on multiple sites so that all of my business is not coming from one place. I also diversified by splitting one house into two listings (one listing for the entire house and one for a single floor) so that we could capitalize on different types of guests. Creating a website for our main property has also gotten us some leads and is something I need to spend more energy on because that is where I have the most control.

Another avenue I’ve explored is co-hosting in which I manage someone else’s rental property. The hosts benefit from my experience, knowledge, and the fact that I live in close proximity to their property when they’re out of town, and in return I receive a percentage of the revenue.

Know Your Numbers

Back in 2013 when I started really making a go at selling on Amazon I thought a “P&L” was a PNL and always wondered what that stood for! Thankfully, I Googled it before I asked anyone because that would have been mortifying (although I just outed myself for the world to read)! Luckily, I found InventoryLab and started to learn new terminology and the importance of analyzing your business. If you don’t know your bottom line how do you know if you are actually making any money? I spent a lot of time analyzing whether or not a product was a good buy just from the price on the shelf, but in the early days I didn’t really think much about all of the hidden costs and the value of my time.

As I have moved into other adventures I definitely used that lesson to think critically about what I was spending and the return on investment I would be getting. With new insight, I was able to make educated decisions about renovations and amenities for our rental property because I did the numbers up front and estimated my nightly rate, occupancy expectations, depreciation of furnishings, and surveyed the competitive landscape. Now that I am into year two of hosting, I am examining my numbers to make pricing, upgrading, and staffing decisions.

The Devil Is In the Details

We all make mistakes, and I have definitely put an FBA label on the wrong item and had to correct it, counted my inventory wrong, switched the addresses on MF packages… but all of that taught me how important it is to pay attention. When sourcing you have to look at every single variation of a toy line or shirt design because one might be a winner. When creating a new listing the images are so important, as is the description so that people know what to expect from the product you are selling. When packing you have to be detailed with prep, labeling, and boxing.

I took this approach when I designed our first rental space. Is there anything worse than going into an unfamiliar place and having to keep flipping switches until you find one that works? Every single light switch in our listing is labeled with which light it turns on to save guests from experiencing frustration. I spent hours making sure that I did more than the basics to give guests a 5 star experience. Many of the touches I have added did not cost extra, they just require extra attention to detail.

Those lessons have made their way back to InventoryLab where we have made strides to pay more attention to the details that cause frustration and inefficiency. We are currently in the middle of a production cycle that includes numerous items from a usability audit that we conducted. The team went through all of our user suggestions, sourced products with Scoutify, used List, and sent the box contents to Amazon all through Stratify to identify additional pain points. As I move through different roles in my life, I have come to realize that we aren’t just selling a space or a product, we are selling an experience. That experience is created by getting the details correct.

Find Your People

When I first started selling on Amazon I was a member of the main Facebook group that existed back then. Eventually, the demand grew and there was a multitude of resources. I followed them all; some were general and others were for a specific niche or philosophy. I mean, who wants to peel off Tuesday Morning stickers when you can read the latest hilarious reviews or discuss the merits of commingling versus labeling!? When I joined a Mastermind group, a group of geographically dispersed sellers who were all around the same level, I felt that I finally had a group I could grow my business with. I was able to weed out the other groups, forums, pages, and podcasts. It’s important to try out different things and see what works best for you and your business.

I’ve repeated the same process for my role as a host and with InventoryLab. I did not dive into every resource available and fall down a ton of rabbit holes because I learned from my previous mistakes. Instead, I was more cognizant of my time and was intentional about the resources I engaged with. Hosting resources are about as plentiful as they are for Amazon sellers so finding my people in that arena wasn’t too difficult.  

However, as a woman in tech it has been difficult to find a group of people I can relate to. What made it more of a challenge is that even though I help design software I don’t code nor do I have any formal training. My input is all from my knowledge of the industry and my experience as a user of software tools. Many groups are for people who actually do the coding and architecture, and I am not fluent in their language! I eventually started looking for a group of female entrepreneurs and recently became a member of Brazen. In both of these business ventures I now have people to ask for assistance whose values align with mine and who are genuinely interested in my success.

Running a business, any kind of business, is always going to have its challenges. It can be complicated and frustrating, and there are days when I just want to give up completely.

However, the benefits of entrepreneurship far outweigh the struggles. I don’t know what life has in store for me in the future, but I plan to keep enjoying the journey and the learning experiences I gather along the way.

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