#170 - The Amazon Incubator A Step by Step Journey to Financial Freedom

Ever wondered how the leap from everyday consultant to an e-commerce success story unfolds? Lesley Hensell of River Bend Consulting did just that, harnessing the prowess of Amazon's Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to not only build a thriving online business but to also support her son with autism. Our latest episode peels back the layers of Leslie's transformative journey, offering up the rich tapestry of possibilities that lie within Amazon's platform for creating multiple income streams. This isn't just another success story; it's a masterclass in resilience, innovation, and strategic growth.

As we navigate the buzzing world of Amazon selling with Lesley, we uncover the art of profit maximization and the savvy business models that can be your ticket to financial freedom. Dive into the high-octane fourth quarter, where proper preparation meets unparalleled earning potential. Leslie walks us through the ins and outs—from flipping clearance finds to cultivating hometown hero partnerships with local manufacturers—and why aligning these ventures with personal life brings out their greatest potential. It's an episode that transforms the complex into the conquerable, tailored for anyone looking to mirror her success.

Rounding out this treasure trove of insights, Lesley doesn't shy away from the nitty-gritty. She lays down the foundational blocks for launching an Amazon business in 2024, complete with the legal and financial bedrock. Her book, "The Amazon Incubator," emerges as a beacon for aspirants, offering a step-by-step manual to setting up, sourcing, and scaling on Amazon. Leslie's passion is palpable as she extends a hand to those standing on the precipice of their Amazon journey, eager to guide, mentor, and inspire through the intricacies of online entrepreneurship. Tune in, and you might just find the keys to unlock your own e-commerce empire.

To Learn  More about Leslie:
Riverbend Website: https://riverbendconsulting.com/
The Amazon Incubator Book: https://riverbendconsulting.com/theamazonincubator/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesleyhensell/

To Reach Jordan:

Email: Jordan@Edwards.Consulting

Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ejFXH1_BjdnxG4J8u93Zw

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordan.edwards.7503

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanfedwards/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanedwards5/

Hope you find value in this. If so please provide a 5-star and drop a review.

Complimentary Edwards Consulting Session: https://calendly.com/jordan-555/intro-call

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:00

Hey, what's going on, guys? We've got a special guest here today. We have Leslie Hansel. She's the co-founder of River Bend Consulting. And, leslie, I have a question for you today how can people get rich on Amazon?

Speaker 2: 1:15

So I know there are so many get rich quick schemes out there, jordan and if you go out on Google or YouTube and you say how can I make money on Amazon, you're gonna find all of these people who say you work like five minutes and you make a million dollars, right, okay, it's not that bad, but it's almost that bad, but you really can. There are people who become millionaire selling on Amazon right now and it is by creating multiple streams of income on Amazon. Generally, they have graduated from, let's say, baby selling the early stage learning to sell up into selling their own private label products, and then they develop multiple products and brands of their own on Amazon. I know that sounds daunting and difficult, but once you've done it, once it's like you get one winning product up there and you just repeat. So these are people who have multiple products that sell 200 units a month, 300 or even thousands, and those are the guys making millions on Amazon.

Speaker 1: 2:15

Yes, yes, and we will dive into all of that a little bit later today because it's important to realize that where your story kind of started, because you might seem like this Amazon guru understanding all this stuff and it might be intimidating, but where did your journey with Amazon really start? In your journey in e-commerce?

Speaker 2: 2:39

So I started selling back in the Wild West days of Amazon, way back in 2010.

Speaker 2: 2:45

So I've been a seller for 14 years now, but I started out of necessity, not because I just wanted to learn e-commerce.

Speaker 2: 2:54

Back at the time I was a consultant and I was working full-time for other people and my oldest kid was really struggling in school, having a tough time, and we took him to some different doctors and he was diagnosed with autism and a whole bunch of learning disabilities and challenges, and so my husband and I decided we were gonna go all in on Austin.

Speaker 2: 3:20

It was gonna be all about Austin. So I quit my jobs and, because I had multiple consulting jobs and homeschooled this kid and we did therapy and so, I gotta confess, we did a little bit of school and a whole lot of therapy and therapeutic practices for three years. All that therapy is super expensive, even if you've got insurance. So and my husband worked full-time he had insurance, but it still was not enough. So I heard about selling on Amazon and we learned about selling Amazon FBA, which is super efficient for people who are busy, and I started hustling as an Amazon seller and that is how I got him through three years of homeschooling and was able to focus on him during the day and sell nights and weekends. It was fantastic.

Speaker 1: 4:09

Wow, and let's slow it down a little bit. So what caused? Like, when you decided to leave and go and help your son, what was your? Did you guys have like a nest there? Like how did you even think about quitting to going to nothing? Like it's a very interesting thought process because it's like let's help him and then it's like we have to make money somehow.

Speaker 2: 4:34

So I was very fortunate to have some long-term clients that I worked for. That I explained what I was gonna do and instead of saying I quit today, I said, can I wind down over the next two to three months? And I staggered them out. So we kind of held on to some of those income streams for two, three months not very long, but just enough to have those paychecks keep coming in. Because then we had to buy inventory and we did have some savings set aside that we used to buy our first groups of inventory on Amazon, but not a whole lot, it was like $5,000, I think that we really started with buying inventory, so pretty low. We could have done it with less honestly, but it was easier to get going faster with the five grand.

Speaker 1: 5:21

And how did you even come up with this idea of Amazon? Just going about it, cause I know, in 2010, it was still a little early, like things were going on and it was developing, but it's not everyone orders a package a day like it is today.

Speaker 2: 5:40

So I had talked to a couple of friends who had relatives or neighbors, people they knew, who were selling on Amazon. I had actually sold on eBay casually over the years because we had some like old family items, things we inherited that we didn't want, that were too nice to just donate or throw away right that we'd sold on eBay. So I was familiar with that we had done that for a while.

Speaker 2: 6:09

And then I just talked to some friends who were like, you know, if you want to sell online, since you sell on eBay, you could sell on Amazon. I was like, oh, you know, why would I do that? It's I'm doing eBay. But then they explained the whole concept of FBA.

Speaker 1: 6:24

And once I heard about that, I was sold.

Speaker 2: 6:26

So FBA is fulfillment by Amazon and it is truly magical for smaller businesses, family run businesses, because you ship all of your goods, all of your inventory, to the Amazon fulfillment centers and then they pick, pack and ship the orders. So you're not a slave. To the end of every day You're like, oh my goodness, I'm not at the post office yet or UPS yet, I'm gonna miss my shipping cutoff. You don't have to be married to your house so you can ship out your inventory this in the basement or wherever it is and also a storage space, because if you get to where you are doing some wholesale or you know you're flipping for other people or whatever you're doing, you can outgrow a storage space really quickly and it's all at the Amazon warehouse.

Speaker 1: 7:17

So, basically, when you think about that, you purchased the first quadrant, like what would you say was the $5,000 covered? Like how many?

Speaker 2: 7:28

units. So a lot of that, okay. So this is going to real old school on your Jordan. A lot of that was actually used. Books from library book sales.

Speaker 1: 7:38

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2: 7:39

So back then you'd go to these library book sales. So that's like friends of the library organizations would sell. They would collect books and sell them at these. They still happen now. It's just books are harder to sell on Amazon now. It's tougher, more competitive. I'd go to these library book sales and I'd spend 300, 400 bucks and come home with truckloads of books.

Speaker 1: 8:04

So you had so many books over this duration of time and then you sent it all to Amazon. Fba.

Speaker 2: 8:12

All of it, thousands of books.

Speaker 1: 8:14

Wow, because what people don't realize is Amazon. Nowadays they have their own in-house products, but to create it there's tons of sell. Like, if you could just explain the Amazon network and ecosystem for somebody pretend someone has no idea Like, how would you explain that?

Speaker 2: 8:35

So the magical thing about Amazon is only one third of the products listed for sale on Amazon are sold by Amazon itself, as the seller of record, where they actually own the product that they are selling to you. Two thirds is sold by other businesses, many of them small mom and pop businesses, brands that are selling all kinds of resellers, flippers, distributors, you name it. But there are literally more than a million people in the United States who are employed by an Amazon business not by Amazon, but an Amazon third party selling business or like a related software company, consulting firm, people like me a million people y'all. It is a huge industry and I believe it's even bigger. That's just a good industry estimate out there.

Speaker 2: 9:25

So the listing detail pages when you go out on Amazon you search for a product you wanna buy. If you go look a lot of times there might be two sellers, there might be five sellers, there could be 150 sellers. If it's a hot item, anyone who's approved to sell on Amazon that can get approved for that category and item can go list that item and sell it. So you might go buy your favorite book from one of 25, 30, 50 sellers.

Speaker 1: 9:54

And this is happening so much nowadays and majority of the time you don't realize it because I viewed this thing. It helps me with when I make social media content that there's consumers and producers. So there's some people who aimlessly consume all day and then there's people who actually produce the content. It's very similar with Amazon. There's some people who just purchase from Amazon and then there's some people who are producing, where they're putting products up, they're making the pages, they're writing the descriptions and they're getting sales from Amazon. So that means when you buy that scale or you buy that toaster or you buy that book, someone's making a few dollars off of that.

Speaker 2: 10:36

Absolutely. And Jordan, am I allowed to be? I'm the one who does both, because I am so focused on Amazon I don't like to shop. I'm one of those few women who I just do not like to shop, and so I buy everything on Amazon. We get a pile of boxes every week. It's absolutely ridiculous. But you're right, you don't have to be some. Okay, you do have to be an authorized seller because you're someone that they've approved to put on the platform, but you're not some magical company to get to list and sell a product. You can be anybody. You can be me, you can be my next door neighbor, you can be my friend down the street. Anyone can sell on Amazon. You just have to make sure you have quality goods that are authentic, that you've listed for sale.

Speaker 1: 11:24

Yeah, absolutely, and there's just so many of us that don't even see this as an opportunity Because we might be never selling in this capacity. So how did you get introduced to selling online? And I understand that it was the book purchases sent to the FBA, but like it's an intimidating concept to spend $5,000 and go about it Like, how did you think about that?

Speaker 2: 11:53

So the magic happens on Amazon because it has so many users. So there are, I think, 150 million Prime members in the United States alone.

Speaker 1: 12:06

There's only 320 million.

Speaker 2: 12:10

I know, and that is subscriptions, and so think of how many people are in a household. Like there are three people. No, actually my college kid uses my account too. There are four people on my Prime account, right? So like almost everyone in the US is on someone's Prime account. It's insane. So that market they look on Amazon first a lot of times. That's their go to. So let's say, it's back in the day where I've done the library book sales. My next step was retail arbitrage, which is a lot of people's next step, and that's where you go to local stores and you find goods that you can flip on Amazon for more than you bought them and still make a profit, right? So I would go to stores, I would buy merchandise, I would ship it to FBA. You don't have to wait that long for the item to sell. If there's something that you got it at the right price so you can price it correctly, I would see sales the day items were checked in at FBA at Amazon.

Speaker 1: 13:12

Let's use an example. Can you put some numbers behind that, just so people can kind of wrap their head around? Use toilet paper, for example. Like I go to Target and I find toilet paper, how would I go about that? Like what's the toilet paper cost? What's the cost I'm sending to Amazon? Like sure.

Speaker 2: 13:29

So the magic numbers that you're looking for. There are a few different variables you can use. There are a lot of software apps you can actually subscribe to if you're a hardcore seller, but if not, you can just be like you and me and get on your good old Amazon app that you already have on your phone, most likely, right.

Speaker 2: 13:49

So, you go to the store and you scan something in. You scan the barcode into your Amazon app because you want to see how much it's selling for. On Amazon, you're generally looking for products that are a third, a third and a third. A third of the cost is a third of the total price, is the product cost itself, and then a third of it is the fees you're going to pay to the Amazon gods, and then the third that's left is your profit and that is where you're pricing the goods, so a great example can be toys.

Speaker 2: 14:26

Until recently, there was a fantastic chain of stores near where I live called Tuesday Morning. They're all over the country. And they had tons and tons of toys. So you go in there and scan a toy. You're looking for something that they have for five bucks that you can sell on Amazon for 15.

Speaker 1: 14:44

Okay.

Speaker 2: 14:44

Because you're going to buy it for five, you're going to pay fees of five and you're going to have $5 leftover at the end.

Speaker 1: 14:52

Okay, and then that? So, if you think about it, we use $5,000, we purchased a thousand of these toys, send them in. Amazon gets $5,000, your initial cost is $5,000, and then you're making additional $5,000. So you'll get $10,000 afterwards.

Speaker 2: 15:12

Right. So in the end, you're going to essentially Recover your money and then get your yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:19

Exactly. Now those are regressive numbers and I'll tell you why. Because Amazon is my side hustle and so, since Amazon is my side hustle, I don't want to sell products. That I make 10%. That doesn't make sense for me, for my personal goals. I only want to sell. I would rather sell lower volume, higher margin.

Speaker 2: 15:42

Now there are some sellers out there who they do all volume, so they'll do products. They'll sell products that they flip with retail arbitrage, that they're trying to make 20% and because the volume that they do, they make a great living. Then there are people who manufacture their own product that they're shooting for 15% Because there's a lot of systems in place there where they're actually shipping product directly from their manufacturer to Amazon. They never touch it, so there's a lot less cost involved with human beings having to ship things and touch them and package them. So 15% is awesome for them because so much is just happening automatically. That's great. It's almost like semi-passive. There's never passive income on Amazon, but it's like semi-passive income, A lot less involved. So it all depends on your goals and what you're trying to do. But for me and the limited amount of time that I have and my family has to work on our Amazon account. We're always shooting for that. A third, a third, a third.

Speaker 1: 16:49

Okay, gotcha Very cool. And what are some of those areas that you'd find higher margin opportunities in?

Speaker 2: 17:00

So, especially around the holidays, fourth quarter is magic time for Amazon. That's why it's actually really good if someone's considering thinking about selling on Amazon, it's good to get educated and set it up now so that you are ready for Q4 and you already have some cash in the bank that you from flipping things so that you can really buy inventory for fourth quarter. Because fourth quarter is amazing. A lot of the prices on things go up as they start to run out, especially in toys, household goods and electronics. So much wonderful magic in those categories.

Speaker 1: 17:39

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 17:40

But especially in fourth quarter. Lots to be found then. But really you have to do the work of figuring out what you want to sell for a little while before you really see the massive returns 100 percent.

Speaker 1: 17:54

The thing that you were explaining earlier is that there's multiple income streams. How does that work? Because it's tough, like the normal person nine to five worker. They're like I get paid when I put in time. Now you're here telling me I can have multiple Amazon stores, multiple-. How does that even work?

Speaker 2: 18:15

There are so many ways to sell on Amazon and you can either find a model that works for you and repeat it, or you can diversify by trying multiple models.

Speaker 2: 18:26

Let's go over some of the different models. One is your flipping stuff, that it's like the treasure hunt. It's the cool stuff that you find on sale in the Walmart sale aisle and it's going out of stock and there's not going to be many more, so you flip it. That's one way. Another is what people call replenishables. Replenishables are products that are always in the store but they might be specialty-ish or regional. An example there's a cane syrup from Louisiana. That is a very southern product. People move to other parts of the country. They can't find that cane syrup in their Walmart or Target. You have a replenishable. Every month you can sell 20 units of that cane syrup. Those are replenishables. Then we move into wholesale, wholesale and distributors. That's where you find folks who have catalogs of goods. They're buying directly from manufacturers most of the time. The challenge there is there's a whole lot of competition. Sometimes You've really got to find someone who doesn't have 9 million other Amazon sellers. But some people do really great with wholesale.

Speaker 2: 19:41

Then we move into the really fun stuff which is private label creation of your own products. You have a product idea, you find a contract manufacturer, they make the good for you and you can have multiple brands or multiple products under one brand that you launch. Then I've got two more. There's so many ways. One is licensing. This is a flavor of private label. But let's say you have a generic-ish product, so a generic-ish cup or something Dallas Cowboys licensing on. You get Texas Longhorns licensing can you tell I live in Texas. You get Animal Planet licensing on. You get SpongeBob licensing on. All of these are possibilities. Licensing products can be very profitable.

Speaker 2: 20:35

Then, finally, is my very favorite, which I call my hometown hero strategy. This is where you find small manufacturers or retailers who've developed their own products in your neighborhood. You can find them at office parks near you. You can find them in your old-fashioned downtown. They are there and they're selling either through distributors or traditional channels. Some of them have B2B products which, by the way, sell like crazy on Amazon Business, industrial and scientific products there's a ton of it on Amazon. You go to them and say I would love to test your product on Amazon. We give me your best wholesale rate and let me do returns if it doesn't work out, then you market their products and you become their exclusive seller on Amazon. Before you know it, everyone in your community knows who you are, because that guy tells his friend, who tells his friend we have this new sales channel, it's on Amazon. It's that person over there who lives on that street. That's my very favorite, because you have no competition. It's just you.

Speaker 1: 21:40

That right. There is one of the main reasons I wanted to have Leslie on, because that hometown heroes approach is something I've never heard. I've been doing the podcast for over 165 episodes. I hear a lot of different things. I have never heard the approach of the hometown hero, because it makes it approachable for everyone. It makes it accessible for those You're feeling a need that people need.

Speaker 1: 22:07

And the big thing she said is, if it doesn't work out, you can always return the items, which is a big caveat that you want to take care of, because you don't want to just buy the items and then, if they can't sell, you can't return them, because that might be a little bit of an issue. But you could see how you could build these streams out because you would take them, then you send them to the FBA. The FBA if they sell, they sell. If they don't, you get them back and then you give them back to the company and it gives you an opportunity to constantly and make this money while you sleep. So, leslie, for you, was there ever a time when this income really helped you out? Because I can imagine there's Like, once you have this set up, it's not passive, but there's a little bit of maintenance, but it can be very helpful in a lot of different ways and really change people's lives.

Speaker 2: 23:03

It really can. And actually what can help it be a little more passive is if you have a VA. So before I tell you how it really helped me out, I have to have the caveat I have a virtual assistant who works in my account, so there's always someone keeping an eye on customer messages, amazon messages, in case I'm not sitting at my computer. Because you really need someone checking in on your account every day and you can find great low-cost virtual assistants. So I have that in my favor. But yes, several years ago it was actually eight years ago this month I had a lot of inventory built up in my Amazon account. It was blowing and going. I was super happy with it, and my younger son not the older one from before different kid was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, and so we proceeded to spend about eight months going through three surgeries, a whole lot of chemotherapy, some physical therapy, all the comeback stuff, all the exercise, and I spent a lot of time in the hospital with him at home just staring at him, being a mom, trying to take care of him and then trying to make sure he didn't get behind in school. I mean, there was just so much to it. It was a very stressful time, I tell you. When you've got a kid with cancer, you can't even get it together to go to the grocery store and cook a dinner. It's overwhelming.

Speaker 2: 24:34

Well, during that time my VA was watching my account, my Amazon inventory. It just kept clicking. It just kept selling down and selling down and selling down and every two weeks we got to pay out. And so every two weeks that was money in the bank account to help with the extra expenses of mommy not cooking and to help with all the medical bills and the co-pays and all of that.

Speaker 2: 25:00

It was fantastic. It was actually better than a bank account and a savings account because it was profits. It was profits that we were earning, that we were using for our family and you know that inventory. We ran through most of it, as you would hope during that period of time, because you'd hope you would sell through your inventory in about eight months. But it was such a gift and really helped with the stress level just to see that fallen in the bank account all the time. So imagine if you had multiple streams of that going on Amazon with different brands, different ideas and then you know you hit a rough patch. It's gonna be okay, you've still got that minimum income every two weeks coming in.

Speaker 1: 25:42

Because it does bring a comfort level, because it can be very scary. Life happens all the time and we face challenges and a lot of the time we wanna like sit back and feel it, but we're forced to. In this world, we have Instagram, social media, everything so accessible where if you feel any type of discomfort, you can just go on your phone and distract yourself. So that ability to feel because you're not pressured and you can really think more about the situation and help your family in any way, I think it's super beneficial and I'd highly recommend just starting trying. Worst case scenario you spend some money and you learn something. We always spend money anyway. Most of the time we don't learn anything, so it's like why not learn a little bit?

Speaker 2: 26:36

Well, and some of the magic of Amazon also is that it is a. It's a market of people served up to you. So let's say you've always wanted to be an entrepreneur or start your own business. I want to be a dog groomer. What are some of the things you hear? Right, I want to start a food in some kind of a food truck or something. Those are great ideas. I commend people who do them.

Speaker 2: 26:58

But if you're a busy human being with a family, maybe a full-time job that you want to hustle, it's really hard to go drum up business for your pressure washing company that you just started. It's really difficult to go find clients for your new dog grooming business that you're doing on the side. But with Amazon you've got those $150 million prime households that are searching Amazon first for a product. So if you give them products they are interested in, it's like a ready-made market. And then you may have to do some PPC advertising. If you do your own products, you might have to buy some ads on Amazon for your own brand. But for a lot of things you don't even do that. They just buy the products.

Speaker 1: 27:40

Absolutely. And it's interesting because, as you speak about the power washing, I think about someone sells their power washing service. Fantastic, you got paid, now you've got to go power wash for two hours, like you know what I mean when it's always this time for money thing, where this is like no, they just get their product and then they leave. What is the ads component, what does that look like and how does that work?

Speaker 2: 28:05

So the deeper you get and the more you get toward that end of the spectrum that I kind of gave earlier, where we're starting out with, oh, I'm reselling products from Target and then all the way over to I'm developing my own product, you get where you're spending less time doing the physical hustle but more time doing the mental hustle.

Speaker 2: 28:26

And so advertising and marketing are on that mental hustle end, because you're not relying on someone else's product detail page and their photos and their video from someone else already put up there. You're creating the product listing with the bullet points. You are creating the photography or using a service there's great low cost services but you got to find them and send them the product Right. Same for videos and you might have to run some ads. So Amazon actually has an enormous advertising program on the platform and you have to be careful because you don't want to overspend. It can get really exciting to try and hustle up those buyers, but it's a great way to launch a product.

Speaker 2: 29:13

So when you launch a new product, you get a honeymoon phase. So if you've had a honeymoon or you're going to have one soon, you know that in your honeymoon your spouse can do no wrong. Everything they do is magical and perfect and you think they're wonderful. Well, amazon treats your new product that way. When you launch your new product, it's wonderful and every sale you get is like a bonanza and it's worth more than a regular sale because it's a brand new product. And so during that period you do some paper click advertising where you find your keywords and you advertise on those keywords and you drive more sales. You get a better sales rank for your product. It just makes everything flow more smoothly. So that's a little more of an advanced concept that you get to once you've worked your way through the Amazon basics. But it's just like anywhere else. If you want to really drive a big market and have a big product, it's usually going to take some advertising to get there.

Speaker 1: 30:13

Absolutely, and it makes sense, because if you were giving Amazon money, they're going to want to sell your products, because they want you to keep selling your product, because if you're not winning, then you're not going to keep paying for it. It doesn't make sense. So what would be the step by step? I know we talked about your step by step start, but that was 2010. This is 2024. Times have changed. Things are different. How would you recommend someone start or go about this business of Amazon?

Speaker 2: 30:47

So the first step is the most boring, and I'll tell you why. So my job at the consulting firm I have is we help people who've gotten themselves in trouble, and so my goal when I'm talking to news sellers or people interested in selling is to help you set stuff up from the beginning, so you are never one of my clients who got in trouble. So the very basics you have to start out just because you're selling online doesn't mean it's not a real business. It is a real business, which means you might need a business license where you live or a sales tax certificate where you live. You need to set up an LLC. All of this is not expensive. You can do it for a couple hundred bucks. You've got everything covered. But if you really want to sell, you need to do the basics, get a business bank account that's a big one so you can show that this is a real business. It is not just an extension of Jordan or an extension of Leslie and a schedule C on your tax return. You don't want that. It needs to be an LLC. So that's the first thing.

Speaker 2: 31:55

Next, I am really big on being very clear on your goals. So I mentioned earlier Amazon's a side hustle for me because I have to pick how I spend my time. I've got 85 employees in my consulting firm, so it's got to be a side hustle, right. How many things can I do at once and do them well? And I'm a mommy first, so that's even more Right. But if you want to make $1,000 to $3,000 a month net on Amazon, you can do that pretty quickly and without a tremendous time investment.

Speaker 2: 32:24

If you want to make $100,000 a year, it's different. It is a whole different ball game. So getting really clear on what your goals are and what money you have to invest, that's like the big step too, because setting goals determines the next piece, which is the hard part, which is finding your product. So that is deciding your sourcing method. Are you going to start with retail arbitrage? Are you going to start jumping the deep end and trying to private label? Do you want to be a hometown hero? Do you want to do wholesale? Pick that method of sourcing and then, if you're going to do FBA or fulfill products yourself, actually ship them yourself. Those are the next two big business decisions. But those goals that you set are going to determine how you're going to source product and how you're going to fulfill it, yeah.

Speaker 1: 33:15

And it's interesting because I feel like most people would be very okay with that side hustle of $1,000 to $3,000. I think everyone we were talking about it prior on the show when it's people are struggling and a little extra cash can really go a long way. So say someone says $1,000 to $3,000, they save the FBA. What would you say would be the best way to find the products? Because I feel like that's where people get kind of caught up of like, is this a good product? I don't know how do I look at this. What's working? Who knows?

Speaker 2: 33:54

So here's your Amazon starter pack. If I were starting today and I had very limited money to get started which, if you're doing this as a side hustle for that extra income that we all need because of inflation, expenses, rent, all those things you don't have a million dollars and you also don't wanna go deeply into debt on a credit card. You need to set some small amount and go get some product right. So if I've got 500 to 1500 bucks and I wanna see if I can flip it and grow it, I'm going to. This will sound crazy. I'm gonna start going to outlet malls, but you have to look for something very specific in the outlet mall. There's two kinds of stores in an outlet mall. We've all seen this. There are the stores where they're essentially selling everything at full price and they just stuck it in an outlet mall to get more foot traffic. But then there's the outlet mall stores that are actually used almost like clearance centers for the brands, where they've got items they have overstocked or they're changing the packaging. They've got special deals sitting in the back. That's what you're looking for Now. Once you find these, you can go back to them again and again. So don't think you're wasting your time going through outlet malls looking for these real deals at an outlet mall You're not, because the stores that have that clearance strategy in their outlet malls those brands you can return to those stores every month Go once a month for a year. I have done this in my own side hustle business. I'm telling you it works. The other reason I'm telling you outlet malls is that Amazon sees that, as you buying from the brand, you know why you are. So you're looking for the stores where you're actually buying from the brand, because then any invoice or receipt you have it's got the brand name on it, like you're buying directly from them, as though they're your direct supplier. So if they ever were to ask you for an invoice to prove your products authentic, you've got it right there. It's on there. My only thing to avoid at outlet malls is the real luxury brands like the coach store. You're just asking for it because people will complain about those products.

Speaker 2: 36:05

Then, once you're in the store, you ask how do you pick the product? So you look on that Amazon app or on an app. There's some really great apps out there that are scouting apps that are pretty inexpensive. But to start, don't spend the money, just use your Amazon app and you're gonna look at the best seller rank for the category. So if you see something that is in health and personal care and it's ranked 1500, that product's gonna sell and it's gonna sell fast.

Speaker 2: 36:34

If you see something in health and personal care and the product ranking is 3 million, it's never gonna sell and you don't wanna touch it. And there's actually. You can Google product category rankings and there are charts out there by category that will tell you how quickly something sells based on its rank and the category. So it's sports and outdoors is a different number than books how often it's selling. So and then you look at the pricing in the mall, outlet mall, and you look at the pricing on the app and you see how many other sellers there are. So if you see a product that you can get a great deal and it's got two or three other sellers, go for it. If it's got 50 other sellers, don't do it, because they're gonna mark their prices down and you're gonna have to follow them in a race to the bottom. But I promise if you go invest some time in an outlet mall, you're gonna find stuff to sell.

Speaker 1: 37:28

That's incredible. I really enjoy that because that's an actionable step the audience can take, because there is people there looking for these opportunities and it is a great way to have fun with the retail shopping but also make money while it's all happening, because there's so many times in our life where we want to get that experience but we just don't do it because we're like we can't spend money. But now you're investing money and that's a game changer, and so how has investing with e-commerce really helped you expand your perspective and expand everything you do? Because there's so many of us that are stuck in this nine to five grind. But if we can find other opportunities that have other incomes or money while we sleep, it can really change everything.

Speaker 2: 38:22

So I'll tell you a few of my favorite things. One of them is you can literally work anytime you want to, so you can work first thing in the morning, you can work in the middle of the night, you can work on the weekend. The only limitation is if you're shopping in stores, what their hours are and then just making sure you can deliver your goods to UPS so that they can be taken to Amazon when UPS is open. That's about it. Everything else is truly your own time and your own schedule, which I think is so important for people who do work full time and have a family, because how are you supposed to fit in another thing if it's a boss saying you have to be here between this hour and this hour? It's just not gonna work.

Speaker 2: 39:04

So that, to me, is magic. It has added so much to my life because I can pick what hours this month I'm gonna work on my business and say, 10 hours this month here, here, here, here, here. That's it. So that is one thing. Another is the extra stream of income is huge, and what's great about it is you can also decide how big that income stream is gonna be.

Speaker 2: 39:32

I will have times in my life where I am so busy that I'll say, okay, this month we're not going to invest, we're not gonna put up new products, we're not gonna source new inventory, we're just gonna let it ride with what we've got. And then, a few months down the line, we've got some time. Or we have an income need, or I wanna go on a really great vacation this summer, let's ramp it up. Or we've got a payment for the kids tuition at school, let's ramp it up. And we can ramp it up and create that income. Once you have the infrastructure in place for this business, it is so flexible as to how much time and effort you spend and how much income you're gonna create, and you get really good at picking winners and losers.

Speaker 1: 40:12

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 40:13

So at the beginning you're gonna pick some losers. You're gonna have some dogs, you're gonna have stuff, you're gonna have stuff you have to pull off of Amazon and sell on eBay or sell in a garage sale or donate. And it's terrible and painful. But you learn and once you find where you get your winners and what they look like, it's pretty consistent. It's not perfect, but it is a great way to make money as long as you can adjust to that. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.

Speaker 1: 40:42

Mentality Absolutely, and I want everyone to realize that that it's reps. Reps is everything. Reps is us understanding that we will suck for the first 50 products we've put up, and then we will get better and we will improve it, and then we'll start finding winners and then it feels like it's not a big deal. We love Amazon. We can always sell. We always pick winners. That's not true, and it's just you haven't got enough reps. And I say this with the emphasis of like anything that you have failed at and given up on is not you, but it's just you haven't had enough reps. You haven't been able to build that system. So, leslie, I know we've gone a bunch of different directions, but what are you doing with Riverbend Consulting Cause? I know that's the main thing you're doing. What is that? How does that work? Where can people learn more about it?

Speaker 2: 41:39

So we are the emergency room for Amazon sellers and we also help sellers on Walmart, etsy and other platforms, but 90% plus of our business is Amazon. So when occasionally things go wrong at Amazon, sometimes it's that sellers make mistakes. Sometimes they make mistakes they didn't mean to make and sometimes Amazon is a little aggressive with them. Or a buyer is aggressive and complains about products, so Amazon can suspend a seller account. It can suspend an individual product and take it down. There's all kinds of random things that can happen, and when that does happen, sometimes sellers get stuck because Amazon's a bureaucracy. It's kind of like you know, if you have to go to the Social Security office Lord help you or the DMV to try and change an address or get something adjusted, and you sit there for hours and then you go up and you feel like you're speaking two different languages even though you're both speaking English. It's kind of like that. We even say Amazon speaks Amazonian.

Speaker 2: 42:46

They don't speak English, they speak Amazonian. So sometimes folks need help to navigate that bureaucracy. So if they get suspended, we can help them. We write plans of action, we help escalate at Amazon, get them back up and live on the platform, get their products fixed. And sometimes they have fundamental business issues as well, problems that they have internally that they're just not seeing because they're too close to it and we help diagnose those and help them to solve their operational issues so they can make more money and not get in trouble again.

Speaker 1: 43:18

Yeah, which is why it's so important having consultants or having outside people just view your team, view your operation, view how you do things, cause a different perspective can change everything. A little two millimeter switch can change a lot for everybody Awesome. So, leslie, tell us about your book. What's going on with the book I know that was recently released. It's exciting. Tell us about what's going on there.

Speaker 2: 43:45

So I got the opportunity to write a new book called the Amazon Incubator Grow your Business or Hatch a New One and I'm so excited about it it is. It came out recently. It is distributed by Simon and Schuster, so you can find it on all the bookstores, which is so exciting to me. Way back in the day, I used to be a ghostwriter for other people, so to finally write my own book, woo.

Speaker 1: 44:10

It's empowering. It's empowering.

Speaker 2: 44:12

It really is, and I've gotten to write the antidote. So I talked earlier about how you search on Google or YouTube and say how do I make money on Amazon? A lot of the results that pop up are scammers. They are. There are genuine coaches who are quality, and then there's people selling stuff that will actually get you in trouble. There are people who sell courses and systems that are money laundering, and I'm not kidding. You lose the money you paid for the course and then your Amazon account gets shut down and Amazon keeps that money too.

Speaker 2: 44:49

Also, I don't think it's smart to go spend $10,000 to learn about a business that you might not even like. So this is a $25 purchase instead of a $10,000 one, so you can read all about it and figure out if this is right for you. And it's a blueprint. It's the step by step we talked about earlier how to set up the LLC and the bank account and what else you need. How to set your goals, what's realistic and what is not. How to source your products. How do you build a team of VAs who can do the work so you don't have to for a lot of things. How to write the standard operating procedures, the SOPs that they follow, so you can scale and get bigger or so you can just keep it hands off.

Speaker 2: 45:33

It's a great overview. It is very step by step. Every chapter has questions at the end so that you can think about them and be like, okay, I can see what she's saying. If I answer this way, then I should go over here. If I answer that way, I should go over there, because it's overwhelming. There's so many decisions to make in any new business, so it's just meant as your friendly guide to help you get launched on Amazon.

Speaker 1: 46:01

Absolutely so. If anyone had any enjoyment out of this or learned anything, I'd highly recommend getting the book. We'll put that in the show notes. Is there anything else you wanna have in the show notes, Like where can people reach you? Where can they learn more about Riverbend the book, et cetera.

Speaker 2: 46:17

Yeah, so for Riverbend, if you've got Amazon issues, we're at riverbendconsultingcom. For the book we have bonuses. So if you buy it head over to theamazonincubatorcom, you put in your order number and you're gonna get a three-part video course and a companion workbook for free, because thank you for buying the book, yes.

Speaker 2: 46:38

And then you can find me, leslie Hensel, on all the social media channels out there. It's L-E-S-L-E-Y-H-E-N-S-E-L-L. And I say that because if you have questions, if you don't know, if you wanna sell on Amazon or you just have some idea or you wanna know if your product fits, I love to talk to small businesses and entrepreneurs. It is my thing. I would do it all day if I could and just talk to new business owners, small business guys. So reach out to me. Let me answer your questions in brainstorm with you. This isn't like a paid consulting gig. This is a hey, let's be friends and figure this out for you. So please hit me up.

Speaker 1: 47:17

Absolutely. You've been a pleasure and a resource and I really appreciate you making the time.

Speaker 2: 47:23

Thank you so much for having me on.