AF281 - Wholesale is Easier Than You Think
Getting into wholesale is more affordable than you think. If you are selling on Amazon FBA and you are not buying from wholesale suppliers and distributors you are missing out on thousands of dollars in profit. In this episode, you will learn what it takes and how much it really costs to start buying from wholesale distributors right now!
I have a really interesting topic to talk about today. Something I think we all have said, all have struggled with, and all have worried about. we are talking about wholesale today and how simple wholesale can actually be. Once you know the steps and the process, anything new is going to be intimidating to us. We do not know what we do not know, and that is okay. That is what I am here for. I am going to teach you how to do wholesale, how it can be simple, how can it be affordable, and how you can boost your sales in any store, whether you have Amazon, eBay, Merc, or Facebook marketplace. You can sell wholesale wherever you can sell products.
LISTEN:
WATCH:
One of the biggest myths that I find out about wholesale on a regular basis is people think they can't afford it. They think it is too expensive. When I hear that, I cringe to my core. I hate those words. When I was growing up, I heard the words, “we can't afford it”, all the time. As a kid, I had no concept of money or how expensive things could be. Coming from a single-parent family money was pretty scarce. I mean, all I knew was that I wanted the big, colorful, fancy cereal box with the cool prize in it. And I was told we could not afford that. Now, you can read this whole story in my book, Dream Big, Step Small. You can also get the book at kristinostrander.com.
We are talking about some money mindset issues today with our wholesale because a lot of times it is our mindset that holds us back from doing something, from even taking action on something we know we need to do for our business. I know the truth about money. As a child, I did not really know and understand what things cost and how hard you had to work for your money. I realize that a lot of lies and myths growing up about how much things cost and what you can truly afford. Most people do not talk about this. They just say, “keep going, keep moving, keep doing what you gotta do”. We all have limiting beliefs about our abilities, about our skills, about our money, and learning the truth about how much you need for your business and how much things actually cost, will set you on a path to financial freedom.
We can not have limiting beliefs that we are basting on assumptions. We have to dig deep into this week’s episode. I am going to clear the air about the true cost of wholesale business and a few other money mindset issues that are holding you back from what you have been working so hard for. They have been holding you back, whether you realize it or not, we subscribe to beliefs in our heads. Maybe they come by, maybe they come from our parents, maybe they come from our upbringing, maybe they come from a spouse, maybe they come from a combination of all the different things that we have learned over our lives. You are working towards your financial freedom. Your money mindset is everything, including how you speak to yourself about what is hard, what is difficult, and what is new.
I know how money works and we all have a budget in life and in business, but we also have these limiting beliefs. Things we believe about money, things we believe about how you get money, how you spend money, and how you are supposed to save it. A lot of the time what is holding us back from getting the things that we want and need in life is our own limiting beliefs.
We subscribe to whatever we were taught or we marry all these different thoughts together from where we come and we decide that is what we are going to think and do about money. By swiping away all those limiting beliefs, we can have new ideas and new thoughts about money, abundance, and about creating our own financial freedom. Debt is a part of life, but I hated that. Money does not grow on trees. More money, more problems. I just cannot save my money.
Money burns a hole in my pocket. Money is the root of all evil. Money cannot buy happiness. We are not made of money. Do not waste your money. Be happy with the money you have got. You are in control of what you have. And if you are not, then there is a way to fix it.
The truth is that money is not good or bad. It is just a tool, a resource, something you use to build things, to fix things, to improve things. That is what money is for. You cannot learn from something that you are not taking action on. Staying comfortable will never get you farther.
If you want more, if you want different, if you want better, and if you want to change, that is up to you. So we have to flip the script and tell ourselves a different story about money, instead of saying, “I'm broke”.
You can say, “I am a hard worker and I am capable of improving my income”, instead of saying, “I'm broke”.
You can say, “That is not a priority for me right now”, or “I will make a plan to save for that. I make a plan to save for my vacations. I make a plan to save for something that is not in my normal budget”, instead of saying, “I can't afford it”.
How you think about money is the key to having more or less of it.
Let us get to the wholesale side of things.
Most people who are new to wholesale find this extremely overwhelming. They come into it with limiting beliefs that they cannot afford it or they will not sell to Amazon sellers or there is no profit in wholesale or all these different things. Can we just admit that when we are new, we like to make all kinds of assumptions and excuses and we put together bits and pieces of information that other people have said, things we have read in Facebook groups? And if you are an overthinker or a worrier in general, I am just here to give you a big hug and tell you we are going to get through this, but I'm going to literally yank you along the way because our overthinkers or our worriers are the people that tend to default to that on a regular basis. Love to revel in the excuses and the limiting beliefs that they have.
You have to think about this. How much are you spending on products right now? If you are not doing wholesale, you are probably doing retail arbitrage, online arbitrage, or private label bundles. How much are you spending on OA and RA each week? If you are spending $300 or more than you can afford wholesale, how much time do you spend on this? This is another thing. Being able to afford something or putting something in your budget has more to do with time and money than anything else. How much time do you spend on OA and RA each week? You go out sourcing products for how many hours? How many hours do you spend doing that? Time is money. If you spend five hours making $500, you made a hundred dollars an hour.
My first wholesale order was nearly seven or eight years ago now, and it was $250. The reorder is less too. A lot of times your opening order for a wholesale account is a smaller amount after you reorder after they trust you and know that you are a returning customer. If you're spending more than $300 a week on the product, a retail arbitrage, or online arbitrage, you can afford wholesale.
Secondly, the second myth, they will not sell to Amazon sellers. There are plenty of wholesalers willing to work with Amazon sellers. They have low minimum orders, they even have zero minimums. I have a resource for you for this. I am not just blowing smoke. I have a resource for you. I have a list of five vendors you can start with right now. Some of you have downloaded this list before and how many action steps have you taken?
How many of these did you contact? How many of these products do you carry right now? I will tell you this, I have given away some of my best wholesale resources and found that people still won’t take action. That makes me sad. Why not? Maybe it is because you have some of these limiting beliefs and money and you just have not got around to it. It is not important enough to you or you are scared of something.
You get a list of five wholesalers for free that will work with Amazon sellers that have really $300 or fewer minimums. So now at this very moment, you are now without excuse, you can start wholesale right now with this list. You do not even have to do the work. I did it for you. I am not big on lists because I really want you to learn how to do the process. Learn how to find wholesalers. In my wholesale bundle system, I teach you every single step to do this. Every step. I do not skip steps. There's no fluff. It is A, B, C, D, E. Do this wholesale bundle system can get you wholesale, can get you bundles, can help you with the brand registry, helps you with trademark, helps you with getting products, branding products, putting your products on Amazon, putting wholesale products on Amazon, even arbitrage, if that is what you like, I am all about helping people build their business.
So I am not a big fan of the list, but I gave you a head start here, mommyincome.com/vendors.
Straight-up wholesale can be absolutely profitable if you are purchasing the right things. Here is the problem. Most people jump right onto Jungle Scout or Helium 10, AMZ Scout, or any other platform.
If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got. You have got to do something different in order to get a different result.
Dare to be different. Why? Because bundles were a way for me to increase my wholesale costs. I did find that in the beginning. There is a lot of competition in wholesale. Margins are slim, especially for smaller, inexpensive items. You are making pennies. I am not Walmart. I do not sell 5 million different products for pennies on the dollar.
I have got to be really smart about what I sell and how much money that brings in so that I can support my family with this business. And the best way I found to do that is wholesale bundling. Because in the beginning I found great wholesale products, but then so did all of my competitors and the prices started to go down. Just like retail arbitrage, just like any other thing. When someone finds that great deal and they come in and then they are not making as many sales, they start lowering their price. And now none of us make money. Race to the bottom. You have done this, you have been there, you have heard of this. Or OA lead lists. Now I know that is like a brand or something. I am not specifically calling out a brand or a late lead, but people have these online arbitrage lists that they sell for hundreds of dollars a month and people chase down these leads all the time. What I am saying to you is if you find a profitable product on a lead list, why are you not going to the wholesale source to buy cases and quantities of this item instead of chasing it around from store to store? Why? Is it because you don't know how? Because I can teach you how.
Is it because you feel like those minimum requirements are going to be so expensive? That is a possibility. There are some wholesale products and wholesale companies with minimums of thousands of dollars. I get it. There are also millions and millions of products to sell. You do not have to sell products in the 1%. I'm going to give you a statistic that blows the socks off of most people.
Bundling naturally increases your profit margin. You can charge more for four or five products than you can for one product. The customer realizes they're getting a kit or a set or that you've put something together for them in a box.
So that is what I am here to do, to not just teach you and encourage you, but to go along with you. I am in the same boat that you are in. We are rowing together.
I do not touch my inventory, the prep center touches it. I sit here and create bundles and get really excited about all my catalogs and put bundles together and then I place orders and send them to the wholesale prep center. The prep center bundles all my items and sends them to Amazon for me. That could be your life, that could be your business wholesale. You can even do that with arbitrage if you really wanted to do online arbitrage, private label, any of those things.
Just got back from Dallas doing a confident wholesale bundlers workshop and we went into a building, the World Trade Center in Dallas. It is 18-20 floors of vendor after vendor after vendor after vendor. It is like walking through a shopping mall. If you have never been to a permanent trade show like the Dallas Market Center or Atlanta America's Mart or anything like that, then I am going to try to paint you a picture. It's like a big giant shopping mall where you go from store to store and in the store, they have these displays and it is beautiful and it is all their products and they have customer reps and they are ready to sell you their product. Some of them have digital catalogs, and regular catalogs, but you can walk in and touch different things and see them.
Open the opportunities for yourself. The Wholesale Bundle System is brand new for 2023. It is updated with every single thing that you need to start your Amazon account all the way to bundling, trademarking brand registry, and building your own brand if you want that.
You do not have to build your own brand, but it is just part of the training. You do not have to sell a million products, you do not have to sell a million dollars worth of products.
We have been at a million dollars for several years and we decided to scale back. Why? Because we have learned some things of how to hone in our business, do a little bit better with less. That means fewer hours worked. That means more time to enjoy the finances that I am bringing in. That is real-life people. It is not work, work, work, work until you are 66 and a half and can kind of collect social security and hope for the best. It does not have to be that way.
Go to mommyincome.com/vendor to get the vendor list. Go to mommyincome.com/system to get the wholesale bundle system.
Business requires risk-calculated, smart data-driven risk, but it involves taking chances. I believe that you have what it takes. I really do. The question is, what action are you going to take? What are you going to do right now? What are you going to do right now to improve your business, improve your bottom line, and improve your life? Because it is about your life.
QUOTE:
“Knowing how much things truly cost and how much you can really afford in your business will lead to true financial freedom.” - Kristin Ostrander
RESOURCES:
- 2023 Mommy Income LIVE Events
- Why You Should Sell Wholesale Bundles on Amazon
- Las Vegas Tradeshow
- 3 Reasons to Attend a Tradeshow Walkthrough
- Wholesale Bundle System 3.0
Share your AHA moments with me on my free private Facebook group - the Amazon Files (use the code word WHOLESALE) and tag me so I can celebrate with you!
Have questions? Email me directly at [email protected] with all your questions, concerns, or doubts. I would love to answer them all for you.
Keep on bundling…
-KO
Latest Blogs
