How To Sell On Amazon And Quit Your Day Job

Hello! Today, I have an amazing interview to share with you that will show you how to make extra money by learning how to sell on Amazon.

If you are looking for a new job or even just a side hustle for extra income, this may be something that you want to look into.

Today, I want to introduce you to, perhaps, a new way of thinking about how you can go about building a business on Amazon.

It’s called ‘The Marketplace Model.’

I learned all about this from Stephen Somers; a friend of mine from Ireland who has built numerous multi-million dollar businesses on Amazon using this model – not to mention the 5,000+ people in his community he’s helped.

So, what is the Marketplace Model?

1. You find products on Amazon that are already selling
2. You then create your own, unique, branded version
3. Then you find a supplier and test a small trial order
4. You then sell those products on Amazon.com
5. Finally, expand out into Amazon’s global marketplaces – which is really simple and straightforward to do!

Check out the interview below for more information on how to start selling on Amazon. In the interview below you will learn:

• How Stephen got started selling on Amazon
• How much a new business owner can expect to make
• How a person can start their own business on Amazon
• How you determine what to sell on Amazon
• How much it costs to start this type of business
• And his best tips for getting started.

Stephen also has a free webinar training that shows you how to sell simple, low competition products on Amazon. In this training you’ll learn how to build an Amazon business from scratch, what product types work well, their strategy, and more. You can sign up for free here.

And don’t worry… Stephen has assured me that you won’t need any prior experience or next level tech skills for any of this to work for you. It’s all actionable and you can start implementing his method right away.

Related articles on selling on Amazon:

Here is how you can make money selling on Amazon:

Please give us a little background on yourself, how you started selling on Amazon, and how it’s going for you right now.

Hey! My name’s Stephen Somers and I’m coming to you today from my hometown here in Wexford, Ireland. 

I’m currently 32 years old, and you could say I started out in business when I was back in college. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but I was really into playing music – so I made the decision that’s what I wanted to do for a living. 

Unfortunately, things didn’t work out and I never became the next Ed Sheeran – but my failed music career did pave the way for things to come.

At the time, I had a job as a data processor (*the most* boring job ever!) I was completely directionless and spent most of my spare time on lunch breaks looking for ways that I could make money online as a way of escaping the 9-5, and finally do something that I actually wanted to do with my life.

Unfortunately, I was in a negative and desperate headspace and got scammed left, right, and centre, buying into all the BS that was out there. The advice back then with the whole ‘make money online’ thing was absolutely awful in most cases.

Some people were telling me that I could go around my house and find products that I bought – and how they were potential products to sell. Things like…

• Bottled water (what?!)
• Beef jerky
• Paper clips
• Used books 
• Energy bars 

People literally lifting up random items from their desk and claiming that you could just sell those things and become an overnight millionaire.

It’s no wonder I was so damn confused! 

Either that or I’d find somebody trying to show me how I could make money online by teaching other people how to make money online. How the hell was I going to do that (and feel good about it) if I’d never made any money online before?!

It all just felt weird to me.

So from then on, I knew I needed to find something that I didn’t have to be an expert in and something that I could feel great about doing. 

I realized that physical products made great sense as I could eventually reach a point where I didn’t even have to handle the products myself.

And that’s when I came across Robert.

My first mentor who is still my business partner to this day. 

Weirdly, I met him through my Aunt and she mentioned to him that I wanted to get into this sort of thing. So I got in contact with him and he agreed to let me come up, work for a week, and learn how all this stuff worked.

Of course I thought I was about to walk into the ‘laptop lifestyle.’

Where I could open up my computer, punch in a few numbers, enjoy a coffee while I was doing it, and start making money online.

Wow, how wrong I was!

I got to Northern Island where Robert’s business was based. It was freezing cold. There were rats running around outside and all of a sudden he turned to me and said, ‘I hope you’re wearing work boots because you’re going to be lifting boxes all day!’ 

I thought this was WAY different to all the stuff I’d seen online about a physical product business. Anyway, I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was a blessing in disguise because I started to actually learn how this type of business worked. Sure it was hard work, but I absolutely LOVED it! 

So I did what any logical person would do…I think. 

I quit my job, went all-in and spent about 9 months working with Robert, learning how the business worked during the day, and at night worked on my own personal development as well as how to do online marketing.

To cut a long story short, I started to take all the book knowledge I’d been studying and put it together with the stuff I was learning from Robert and from there, we completely re-engineered his business from the ground up.

That meant getting rid of the two huge rat-infested warehouses and 8 members of staff, to where it was just myself and Robert. We worked HARD for about 18 months and grew that business into a multi-7 figure business.

We knew we had a process that worked, and we knew we could teach this to other people. And that’s how Marketplace SuperHeroes was born – which is now a training and service business with over 5,200 members. 

How much can a new business owner expect to make? How much can a person expect to make around one year after they start?

That’s a very common question – none-the-less a great one! When it comes to an Amazon-based business selling private label products, it really depends.

It’d be wrong of me to just throw a number into thin air.

If you’re reading this and you’re considering starting your own business selling on Amazon, and you’re wondering how much you can realistically make, the sky really is the limit. 

I know that’s not the answer you were hoping for but whether you want to grow to an income that supports your lifestyle and sets you financially-free, or maybe you want to scale that growth into a multi 6 or 7-figure business, it’s all 100% possible as long as you have the correct system in place, and you’re willing to invest the time, capital and effort.

Here’s a few screenshot results I grabbed from our community to show you what some of our Heroes have achieved in their first year – or less – selling on Amazon.

What do you like about selling on Amazon?

If you were looking for a business opportunity that had the potential for you to set your own hours and work when and how you want, then selling physical products on Amazon could be a fantastic option for you.

By selling physical products on Amazon the way that we teach, you’re able to reach a far greater customer base than on any of the other e-commerce platforms, like eBay. 

One of the great things about Amazon is that you can potentially make more money but by doing far less work (all thanks to Amazon’s unbelievable fulfillment service). Take for instance Amazon’s EFN – the European Fulfillment Network…

This is great for Amazon sellers because it allows us to store all our products in a single country (the UK) and fulfill orders all across Europe. That includes 27 countries spread across  Amazon’s German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch marketplaces. Here’s a cool screengrab showing how effective this ‘market multiplication’ effect can be when it’s in full swing:

(Gary is one of the Heroes who has achieved phenomenal results selling globally on Amazon.) 

Not only that, but Amazon is usually the first place somebody will search to find a product. That means you can piggyback on their reputation and sell more of your products without having to build up a relationship with your customer first.

How can a person start their own business on Amazon? How does this business model work?

If you wanted to start your own Amazon business selling private label products from scratch, here are 5 tips:

#1 Find a System
Trust me, don’t waste your time trying to figure all this stuff out on your own! Find a proven model that works, follow it, and you WILL get results.

#2 Product Research
Product research is the most important thing you’ll ever do in this business. Place the majority of your time getting good at finding products that are going to sell. 

#3 Raise Capital
The key to sustainable success with this business is to consistently raise investable capital. If you can put $25 aside every day for 6 months, that’s nearly $4500 that you can invest straight into more products.

#4 Invest
As soon as you’re ready, pull the trigger and get that first product ordered. Taking action and continually investing in new products is the best way to achieve success with this business.

#5 More Products!
As soon as you’ve got your first product selling, congratulations! Now it’s time to focus on getting the next product into the pipeline of your business – which is exactly what Beth has done, helping her smash almost close to 6-figures in the US and $50k in the EU:

How do you determine what to sell on Amazon?

At Marketplace SuperHeroes, we use four key elements to determine what to sell on Amazon.
Here’s our B.E.S.T framework:

Boring
Find boring, everyday products that routinely sell online. 

Established
Only sell items that are established and have proven demand.

Sustainable
Focus on creating a sustainable business with sustainable products (example – don’t try to sell the latest iPhone case as it will be out of date within the same year!)

Tangible
Make certain that everything you sell is tangible (i.e the customer can physically handle the product)

How do I create my own product? Is it hard? Do I ship the item myself?

The unique thing about Marketplace SuperHeroes is that we don’t need to create our own products. One of our core principles is to always fulfill demand – we never try to create it. Therefore we’re simply looking for products that are already selling with proven demand. We simply look at ways to improve offers that are currently available by adding different pack sizes or a tangible bonus item. #winner

When it comes to shipping…Amazon handles all this for you thanks FBA (fulfillment by Amazon). 

You simply send your products into Amazon’s warehouses.

Then, once a product sells, Amazon automatically sends that product to the customer. They also deal with all the customer service too which is brilliant if you’re like me and hate those annoying customer headaches!

Can you give me an example of items that can be sold on Amazon?

Sure! By using our B.E.S.T framework, a few examples that spring to mind are things like plastic shoe boxes, wall-mounted TV stands, and rubber feet that go underneath washing machines.

See what I mean by boring? It’s kinda hard to get excited about a plastic shoe box, right? 

But these items are proven to be in-demand. They’re  already selling. All we have to do is identify ways to improve the offer. 

Now that I’ve said that…

*please do not try to sell plastic shoe boxes*

Those are products we sold a number of years ago – and remember – markets DO change from time to time – which is why it’s always important to focus on finding more items to fill your product pipeline.

How much does it cost to start this type of business and how much on a monthly basis to maintain it?

I’ve seen a bunch of ‘gurus’ underestimate the costs involved in starting an Amazon FBA business (probably because they want you to leave enough room in your budget to buy their course!) I’m not trying to do that – I’m trying to be as honest and transparent about this business as I can.

Roughly speaking, to get your first product imported and selling on Amazon, you’re realistically looking at between $1,000 – $3,000. 

For monthly on-going fees, the two main things:

Seller Subscription Fee:
A seller subscription fee is either £25 for the UK or $39 for selling in the USA. This is paid regardless of if you’re selling or not (this is why we don’t recommend you open an Amazon Seller account until you have a product to sell.)

FBA Fee:
These fees depend on factors like, size, weight, marketplace, and item category. FBA fees usually always consist of a fulfillment and storage fee.

Fulfillment fee: A flat fee per unit based on the item’s dimension and weight.
Storage fee: Calculated per cubic foot per month, pro-rata*

*We actually created a freight and storage service (SuperHero Freight) for our members where we are able to offer much lower storage costs as well as taking care of all the importing of products from China – at a price that simply can’t be beaten.

There’s no need to allow Amazon selling fees to swallow up your profits!

Are there any other tips that you have for someone who wants to try selling on Amazon?

If you’re looking at getting started with an Amazon-based business selling physical products, I’d always have a long-term focus and think about selling your products on a global basis (that way you get the benefit of marketplace multiplication).

Now, I know you offer a course to help others create successful Amazon businesses. What can a person learn from your course?

Our Core Program is designed with one goal in mind: to teach you exactly how to find simple, low competition, high profit products and sell them globally on Amazon.

We’ve created the most complete, step-by-step program that literally anybody can follow. Whether you’re just starting out and you’ve never started a business in your life, or you’re an Amazon veteran looking to expand your business – our Core course has you in mind. 

You can find more info about Marketplace SuperHeroes and our Core program here.

Are you interested in learning how to sell on Amazon?