Inside your seller central dashboard on Amazon, you’ll be able to find various tools that can help you set up and scale your Amazon FBA business successfully. One of these has to do with your shipping plan. As some of the many components and factors that must be considered in setting up your Amazon FBA business, your shipping plan has important implications for you as well as your customers.
The first thing to do to set up your Amazon FBA shipping plan is to visit your seller central dashboard and click on the button ‘Edit Inventory’. Once this drop-down menu pops open, select the button that says ‘Change to Fulfilled by Amazon’.
At that point in time you will need to click on ‘Convert only’. From this click, you will need to wait several minutes and then refresh the page. Now that this has been ‘Fulfilled by Amazon’, click on ‘Print Item Labels’. The Amazon FBA bar code that is generated is meant to be put on product packaging.
You would then click ‘Edit’ and then ‘Send Replenish Inventory’. The product that you select should be case packed which means that you are going to send all of your products together to Amazon in one large box. If multiple products are being fit into one box and being sent to Amazon FBA, you will select individual products.
In the beginning, your Amazon FBA ‘Shipping from Field’ is likely to be your house. However, this could also be the FBA inspection service that will be responsible for preparing your products if they have been received from a Chinese supplier. In some situations, a pop-up might indicate that you need to fill out the Hazmat Review Form. Depending on your category of product, Amazon might ask you this information just to be safe. You will also need to indicate to Amazon how many units per case you’re sending to their warehouse and how many total cases you’re sending to them.
Most of the products sold on Amazon FBA are not hazardous, so you will want to download an exemption sheet that must be fully filled out. The entire sheet should have the button ‘No’ clicked throughout it, and then save this on your desktop so you can upload it and hit ‘Continue’. At this point in time Amazon will prompt you to fill out the dimensions of your individual product and other preparatory information that must be included. In some cases, you can approximate, and then fill out the units per case and the number of cases being sent.
The next question that will be asked by you in your Amazon FBA shipping process is whether or not preparation is required. This means that they want to know whether or not any assistance by Amazon in the warehouses is required. This should be no. Amazon will automatically decide which warehouse your products are going to by creating a shipping plan.
Ready to sell your Amazon FBA business? Now is the perfect time to talk to our website brokers.
A new program was recently launched by Amazon that could have important impacts on Amazon FBA sellers. The program is known as Sold By Amazon. This enables the company to have greater control over third party product prices in exchange for minimum payment amounts that will be provided to sellers.
The pricing policy at Amazon has come under fire in recent years due to many critics who argue that it prohibits sellers from being able to offer low prices in other places or even forces them to raise prices on the same products they have at other sites. Similar programs have been pursued before by Amazon including one option that allowed the company to reduce third party prices by paying the discount amount separately to sellers.
The way that program works is that sellers give permission to Amazon to cut the price of their products as the massive company sees fit. This is in exchange for a payout that Amazon will then make to FBA or third party sellers known as minimum gross proceed. The main purpose of this, according to Amazon, is to reduce the possibility of unexpected losses for sellers. Sellers will still maintain some level of control over selecting which products to enroll in Sold By Amazon.
This program is currently inviting sellers to participate. Amazon provides a minimum gross proceed for each individual products that the seller chooses to enroll in the SBA program. Those who have already been invited to participate in the Sold By Amazon program are being told that this is to protect their margins as well as to increase sales and save time by automating prices and to give sellers who are active on the platform some peace of mind that they will not receive less than an agreed upon amount for that particular product.
Antitrust concerns have been raised recently regarding Amazon’s practices and pricing policy, particularly by legislators who argue that the price parity clause stops sellers from being able to offer lower prices when those same products are listed at other retailers.
One Democrat legislator, for example, argued about a clause which was since removed even though the policy still states that Amazon has the power to suspend any products or discontinue access to the buy box button in the event that the seller engages in another company proceeds as a pricing practice that hurts consumer trust. Amazon’s marketplace currently makes up approximately 40% of the e-commerce market in the United States. If you are interested in selling your Amazon e-commerce business, scheduling a consultation with our experienced website brokers can help you with your next steps.
Are you an Amazon FBA seller? Are you looking to make a change in your business and sell your company so that you can move on to other pursuits? If this describes you, set aside time to speak with us about selling your Amazon FBA business quickly and easily with the help of a qualified business broker.
One of the most important things you can do when approaching the prospect of deciding to list your company for sale is to undergo a preliminary business valuation. Even speaking with a knowledgeable website broker can help to clarify whether or not your company is truly ready to be listed for sale.
Now might not be the right time, but speaking with a website broker and undergoing an early business valuation can help you to identify some of the key areas that you might be able to evaluate in preparing your company to be sold in the future. The specifics of your business will dictate whether or not it’s the appropriate time to sell as well the steps and stages you should consider to improve and enhance prior to listing the company for sale.
You might not even realize some of these factors and levers at work already, but a consultation with a website broker can help you figure out if now is the right time or if you should wait. If you have the foresight and ability to prepare for your sale up to 12 months ahead of time, the return on your planning when you list and successfully sell the company can be tremendous. While it can take a longer period of time to get to that final offer, investing this time upfront has a potential to pay tremendous dividends and you will be thanking yourself for it after the fact.
This decision could even add hundreds of thousands or thousands of dollars to your final sale price. One of the first things that you should do when contemplating selling your business well in advance is to run as leanly as possible. 12 months prior to listing your company for sale is not the right time to make additional long term investments in your business.
One of the key reasons for this is that your sale price will likely be determined based on the preceding 12 months of earnings. This means that anywhere you can cut cost now will return to you as much as three times in the end transaction. You certainly don’t want to short change the company or do anything that could hurt the future potential prospects of the business when you pass it on to a buyer but be very careful about discretionary planning during this key time period.
If you can get an additional discount like paying for your subscriptions a year in advance and eliminate any bottom-line items that are not necessary to running the business and keeping it profitable, this is a good time to start doing those processes. Sit down with your accountant or in-house financial expert to review all of the expenses currently managed by the company and cut anything that is not critical. Being very intentional about your expenses can set you up for great success down the road. It’s also a great time to get your accounting in order. Your books might not be as tidy as could or should be and one expense that can be well worth making when preparing for a future sale is the right book keeper to ensure that all of your financial details are in proper order.
This makes it that much easier to write your sales prospectus or to advertise your business and also gives you peace of mind as you get closer to the sale as well. Schedule a consultation with knowledgeable business brokers when you are ready to think about selling.
Various factors in your company will help you determine whether or not it’s appropriate to consider listing the business for sale immediately and foregoing some of the additional benefits that you might get for waiting, or if you should take a 6-12 month planning period to structure everything in your business the right way.
Certainly, if you plan ahead, you can almost always get a higher price for your business. However, this is only one aspect of consideration when thinking about whether or not it’s the right option for your situation.
You can do some key calculations to determine if whether or not waiting 12 more months to prepare the business for sale makes sense given your individual circumstances. If things have been down lately and you haven’t been investing your time or expenses in the right way, a 12 month preparation window can give you a chance to get things back on track and to enhance the overall profitability of your company.
This makes it that much more appealing for a prospective buyer. By eliminating unnecessary costs and reinvesting your focus on marketing, you could increase your profitability significantly, which could mean looking at a much higher multiple in the sale of your business. This is an exercise that you should undertake to figure out where things have been to get you to this point and how working with a business broker and internally in the company could help you get a better outcome in the end.
If your business is already profitable now and your previous 12 months of earnings, however, indicate that you could be successful listing your company for sale, you might choose to forego the prospect of planning many months in advance and instead direct your goals towards properly marketing the company as it’s being listed for sale. For some people there are varying reasons why you might want to leave the business sooner rather than later.
All of these considerations can also be discussed directly with a knowledgeable business broker. Website Closers has extensive experience in helping companies decide whether or not now is the right time to sell.
Scheduling a consultation with a website broker can give you a great deal of clarity over many of the most common issues that entrepreneurs are evaluating and considering in developing their next steps. While there are certainly costs to be associated with a fire sale and it can even question some buyers as to why you made the decision to sell so quickly, so long as you have the financial documentation in order and earnings reports indicating your success, you may be able to exit your business faster than you imagined. Hiring the right website broker can definitely be a key component of this decision since a website broker will likely already have a great perspective on how to get the most for your company in the shortest period of time.
So you’re thinking about going the less expensive route and keeping most of the earnings from the potential sale of your business for yourself. There’s no doubt that this has crossed the mind of practically anyone who is thinking about selling their company and is trying to decide whether or not to invest in partnering with a website broker. As with all types of business transactions, there are pros and cons to choosing to work with an experienced professional.
Sure, you’ll give up some of the percentage in a final sale offer but the amount that a business broker could get you by helping you to find the right buyer and in advertising your company the right way might enhance the overall value of your business so much that the percentage paid as commissioned to the broker feels negligible. There are two major choices that you have when approaching selling a company: selling on your own or hiring a business broker and there are pros and cons with each approach.
Pros of Hiring the Right Broker
It’s important to remember that hiring the right business broker to sell your company can make a world of difference in how you feel about outsourcing. There are many different reasons to consider partnering with a broker that has an extensive track record and plenty of testimonials from happy clients who have been able to achieve a high multiple on their sale. The pros of hiring the right business broker include:
- Helping in the negotiation and vetting buyer stage.
- Having someone to walk you through the process and answer your questions from the beginning all the way to post sale.
- Understanding the current multiples and market trends for your individual business.
- Having a list of interested buyers in their network to promote your company to.
- Assist you in creating the necessary documents to list your company for sale.
These are all major benefits that can help a successful business owner to continue running their company without having to worry about many of the aspects of listing the company for sale and interacting with prospective buyers. However, there are also cons associated with working with a broker. These include:
- It’s more expensive since brokers will charge a percentage fee based on the sale price.
- You might prefer to communicate directly with a buyer although this can lead to greater break downs in negotiation and a greater investment of your time.
- The quality of brokers can vary widely so it’s important to choose the right person to partner with by looking at their testimonials and past work in the industry.
- Brokers often incentivize getting a deal to the point of closing as soon as possible, which might not be in your best interests. An ethical broker, however, will consider all aspects of listing your company for sale.
Unless you have existing leads for potential buyers, a strong financial background or some other significant reason to list your company for sale yourself and follow it through to completion, it is strongly recommended that you partner with experienced and qualified business brokers. Having the peace of mind provided by someone who is familiar with this process can be instrumental in helping you to capitalize on exiting your business the right way.
Selling your business is a decision that you might have thought about for just a couple of days but can’t seem to get it out of your mind or something that’s been playing in the back of your mind for several months or even years.
Many people who are currently making money with a business might be grappling with this decision because the company is profitable and successful. Selling any type of business, such as an Amazon FBA business, an e-commerce business or your domain name, can make sense in certain points of your life.
What’s listed below are three common reasons what you might wish to sell your business. The first of these is that you might have a better opportunities elsewhere. Entrepreneurs have limited bandwidth, especially if you are pouring the vast majority of your time and energy into your current business. It might make sense to sell your successful business to focus on other areas. If you have multiple business going up at the same time, selling the one that you are least interested in or the one that you perceive to have least potential for you to grow over the future could be an ideal candidate. Freeing up your bandwidth to invest more heavily in other ventures can ultimately lead to a better ROI for you. Another reason to contemplate selling your business and working directly with an experienced website broker is to mature as an entrepreneur.
If you’ve already established and developed your company to the point that it is extremely successful, you might have overcome many of the challenges and obstacles that you thought were bigger problems when you started the company.
This means that you might have maxed yourself out with the potential growth in this particular business. If you feel like you are ready to move on, this can be a key consideration. If you didn’t have the desire or the ability to meaningfully grow your current business anymore, you might be ready for a new challenge. This could be an ideal opportunity to schedule a consultation with a website broker so that you can direct your efforts elsewhere.
Another common sign that you might want to mature as an entrepreneur is if you are already dealing with burnout in your current business. If you have been deeply committed to this company but it’s no longer providing you with the returns in terms of fulfillment and excitement, it could be time to pass on this business to a new owner with the assistance of an experienced website broker.
Dealing with burnout can be very overwhelming and if left unchecked, could kill your desire to run businesses at all. Finally, some entrepreneurs schedule a consultation with a website broker because they hope to experience an exit. Having a successful exit and transition out of your company can be one of the greatest milestones in the journey of an entrepreneur.
It can feel incredible to accomplish when you realize that you have put together the systems, structures, and processes that can help someone else to step into your business and run this successfully and is a great way to celebrate all of the accomplishments you previously achieved. Going through the process of selling your business can be a challenging prospect, but scheduling a consultation with an experienced business broker can help you get there more effectively.