Don’t let Jeff Bezos’ questionably shaped space rocket annoy you. Get your piece of the pie and learn how to start an Amazon FBA business with little money, a few hours a week, and a basic understanding of the process. We can fill in the details as we go.
You can make fun of Jeff Bezos’ questionably shaped space rocket all you want, but he’s going to space with his second bazillion dollar company, and you’re… not.
As we all know, Amazon is a behemoth of a company.
We all use it, and probably way too much.
Not that we necessarily want to, but it’s just So. Dang. Easy.
Two days later, anything you can think of can be at your door.
Like Amazon or hate it, there is no denying that it has revolutionized business and shopping in general. It has also made a lot of people, other than Jeff Bezos, very wealthy.
Since it doesn’t look like things will change in the near future, let’s not try to swim upstream. Let’s use Amazon FBA (fulfilled by Amazon) to our advantage and get the H off the J.O.B. treadmill.
The no money, no time, and no know-how excuses need to be thrown away – for myself included.
Together, we’ll learn how to start an Amazon FBA business with little money, a few hours every week, and a basic understanding of the process. We’ll fill in the details as we go.
This post may contain affiliate links. This means I could earn a commission if you purchase through my links, however, there is no cost to you. Rest assured, I only promote products that I use or think are great. Thanks for reading!!
How to Start an Amazon FBA Business with Little Money
Step 1: Choose a Product to Sell
It goes without saying, that if you’re going to be selling on Amazon, you need a product of some sort to sell.
You can’t just sell your lovely thoughts after all.
Before you just jump in and choose your favorite thing to repackage and sell, you’re going to have to figure out if there is an audience for it. You’ll also have to decide if that audience has too many other options to consider – i.e. if your product idea is in demand and if it is competitive or not. You want to be able to actually make a profit.
To start your search, head on over to Amazon itself and look though all of the different product categories. You want to see a lot of sales and not too many other people selling the same thing.
After you get a general idea of the direction you want to go, you can invest in some online tools that can make finding a profitable product a lot easier.
Jungle Scout or Helium 10 are two big players in the Amazon FBA product searching game.
I’ve personally used Jungle Scout and was happy with it. It was very robust and made it easy to figure out a profit margin, sales volume, and competitiveness.
After you’ve narrowed down the type of product you would like to sell, look at Amazon’s Best Seller Rank (BSR) to see how much demand there is. You can also look through the questions and reviews to see if there are any common issues that you could address with your new product to one up your competition.
If you are not swimming in cash, consider the size and weight of your product. The bigger the product, the more it will cost to make and ship.
Step 2: Source Your Amazon Product
Ok, now that you’ve decided on what you’re going to sell, you have to figure out where to get it.
This is where things can get a little confusing and where you will have to make some decisions as to how your Amazon FBA business is going to work.
If you want to learn how to start an Amazon FBA business with little money, you will have to choose your product sourcing carefully.
Your choices are:
- Wholesale and/or Private Label – A wholesale supplier will have ready-made products that you can buy in bulk for a discount that you can then mark-up and resell on Amazon.
Some wholesale suppliers also offer the option to private label their products. This is where you create your own brand and logo and then have it placed on the wholesale products. - Manufacture and Private Label – This is the traditional route when you think of product creation. You contact a manufacturer and have them make the product for you with your logo and company name on it.
If you take this route, you’ll have to decide if you will choose a manufacturer in your own country or from overseas. This is where a lot of people turn to Alibaba. Keep in mind that there will be shipping fees and timelines, as well as minimums you may have to meet. - Retail and/or Online Arbitrage – This is the good ol’ buy low sell high idea. Find products online or in retails stores at a discount and resell them on Amazon.
With any of these options, try to get at least a couple of the products or samples first to check quality and to be able to take pictures, etc…
You can even try to sell your samples on a site like Ebay first to see if it sells easily to check overall demand in the marketplace.
Start on Online Store with Amazon FBA products
As a side note: Once you actually have a product to sell, you are not limited to just selling on Amazon. You can also start your own online store and keep all of the profits.
To learn more, check out my post Make the Dream Read: How to Start Your Own Online Store
Step 3: Get an Amazon Seller Account
Here’s where you’re now entering Amazon’s territory.
You need an Amazon Seller’s Account.
There are two types of seller’s accounts to choose from – professional and individual.
A professional account has a monthly fee of around $40, but does not charge a fee for each individual item.
An individual account does not have a monthly charge, but charges for each separate item you list.
If any of your items sell, there will obviously be selling fees. Amazon wants their money. Boo.
If you are planning on making this a business, you are going to eventually want to sell more than one product, so a professional account would make more sense.
Physically setting up a seller’s account is not too difficult. Follow the prompts on Amazon and you should be set to go in a few minutes. You will need a bank account and a credit card, so make sure you have those ready.
Business Structure
Something to think about – a lot of people who are turning this into a business will set up a business structure, like an LLC, with a separate bank account and a federal EIN (Employer Identification Number), like a business social security number.
I am not an accountant or tax professional, nor do I try to play one on the internet, so consult the professionals that you need to so you have the piece of mind that you need.
Step 4: Amazon Product Listings
Now that you are officially in business with Amazon, you need to actually list your products for sale on the platform.
Take note of how others list their products.
Be as detailed as you can, making sure to list all of the benefits to your product over the competitors.
Take professional, well-lit, high-resolution images.
The one thing to keep in mind is to try to incorporate keywords into your product listings as much as you can. This will help Amazon’s algorithm find your products when people search. Just like Google. Annoying, but true.
Step 5: Amazon FBA – Get Your Products to Amazon
This is the whole FBA part of Amazon FBA – Fulfilled by Amazon.
Amazon fulfills, or ships the products to the customers for you. You just have to gAmazon your products so they have something to ship.
You will want to ship your products directly to Amazon’s fulfillment center.
A shipment plan will be created with Amazon where you let them know the type of product, quantity, and what fulfillment center you are sending to. Amazon will then give you the shipping labels and packing instructions from there.
Step 6: Marketing Time
The nice thing about learning how to start an Amazon FBA business with little money is that Amazon does a lot of the marketing for you.
Obviously, everyone and their brother is on Amazon already, so as long as you have used good keywords to describe your product, you should get some traffic naturally, for free.
This is also where your choice for a low competition product comes into play. You want your product to stand out from the bunch as people are scrolling.
If you are feeling like you have some money to spare, you can try Amazon’s PPC (pay-per-click) advertising or utilize Amazon coupons and giveaways.
Do your research with these since the costs can go up quickly if you are not watching.
Next, you have your usual marketing players:
- Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, etc… also free. Once you get going, you can use a scheduler software like Tailwind to help you streamline your posting to make things easier.
- Email marketing: This usually requires a website or landing page so you can have a form to collect people’s email addresses. Email marketing is beyond effective since these people are already interested in your product and you can send them emails whenever you’d like. I like ConvertKit for this since it is free when you are just getting started and has a lot of systems already built in.
- Start a Blog: Along with email marketing, starting a blog helps you attract search engine traffic. By targeting your product keywords in blog posts, you can expand your online reach and drive those people to your Amazon listing to purchase.
Read my article Believe the Hype: How to Start a Blog and Make Money for more information.
Step 7: Refine Your Listing as Needed
This is where things get interesting!
If you’ve done all the hard work and you’ve gotten a sale or two, now you’ve got some cash-o-la to show for your efforts!
Next step, refine your keywords and product descriptions and see if you can get your product more views and mover up the best seller rank on Amazon.
Change up your marketing headlines or try a new social media platform.
Step 8: Celebrate
Yay! You did it! If you’ve made it this far, you’ve officially started an Amazon FBA business.
You should be proud of yourself. You went further than most people out there.
Pour a drink, relax a little, or go out and dance around your living room.
Resources to Check Out:
There are also thousands of resources online about Amazon FBA, but if you want the most comprehensive information, I always recommend Steve’s course Create a Profitable Online Store Course. This course covers selling on your own website, as well as selling on Amazon. I did this course and still login to the resources to this day. It is continuously updated and is beyond helpful. If you need info on sourcing products from overseas to listing products to promotion, this course is your best bet.
If you don’t want a giant course of info, but want more than what I’ve provided above, your best bet is to head on over to Amazon and get one of the books or eBooks that dive into the particular area of Amazon FBA that you’re interested in.
You will also need to start marketing your Amazon listings on social media. I use Tailwind to manage everything.
If you need help with product mock-ups or getting your pictures right for listings, I recommend checking out Fiverr for inexpensive help.
You Now Know How to Start an Amazon FBA business with Little Money
Learning how to start an Amazon FBA business with little money can seem daunting, and to be honest it kinda is.
It’s not for the faint of heart, but if you really break it down, it isn’t that technically difficult.
Frustrating and confusing at times? Yes.
Do you need an engineering degree to figure it out? No.
Just think how fulfilling (pun intended) it would be to have your own product selling on Amazon over and over again.
There is definitely a feeling of accomplishment in that.
A feeling you don’t get after finishing a project at work that no ones cares about and has no impact on your life.
So, get going, one step at a time and send me the link to your product when you have it up!
