FIRST, THIS IS NOT AN AFFILIATE POST IN ANY WAY.
I believe that to grow my business I need to constantly learn. That includes blogs, webinars, listening to podcasts, reading books, mentorship, basically anything and anywhere I can get access to information that I currently to not know (and since Bo Don’t Know Diddily, I can learn from a lot of places and people).
Ok.
This might get personal for me. I am going to admit something here.
If I had to pick my number one man-crush for FBA sellers, I would pick Stephen Smotherman.
Seriously!
Here are two quick examples of why.
- In the Resellers Guide to Board Games (see section 1) he gives a very specific board game BOLO, called Snorta. I found one the day I read the book, in a Facebook group, for $3 used.He “claimed” he sold it for $99 new, to which I scoffed.
My copy I found was missing a few of the game cards, so I was forced to use my guide and improvise. I listed the 12 individual game pieces on eBay and sold each of them for 9.95 over a period of around 4 months, thus getting more than his new one sold for, albeit with a bit more effort.
- In the Guide to A Year in FBA, he talks extensively about Halloween Candy, specifically candy corn. Off rough memory, I believe it says something like “people buy candy corn year round.”And while I believed him, I was also at Target on November 1st and could have bought several hundred bags of candy corn and autumn mix (candy corn shaped like pumpkins) for 1.79 each.
I opted to get 50.
And I sent in.
I mean, it seemed like a ton of candy.My autumn mix sold out in about 12 hours at 11.57 each. Needless to say the rest were gone when I went back.
So.
That brings me to my point.
He has a new book out, as of last week, and its extremely time sensitive.
And it is around a very unique and interesting topic that people can easily overlook.
BLACK FRIDAY IS NOT JUST FOR SELLING ON AMAZON!
Yes, it is one of the greatest days any person who dives deep in the retail trade has for sales, and yes, it is a precursor for Cyber Monday.
But did you neglect to consider the possibility of using Black Friday as the single greatest sourcing day all year?
This book is solid. It is not only written by Stephen, a full time seller, but his co-author is Kristin Ostrander, who is also a full time multi-year veteran of both Amazon selling and reselling in general.
Anyway, that is my commercial.
I have read through this book, and it is FILLED with actionable steps and basically a roadmap to profit from purchasing on this day. It helps to have a LARGE budget to spend, large is relative of course, but if you spend $250 a week this book may not help you as much as if you could go drop 5K on Black Friday.
So what’s the point of all this? Besides giving a shout out to a book that I didn’t write and is not affiliate linked?
It’s this.
The year is winding down.
How can I say that before Thanksgiving?
Pretty easily actually. I believe the rule of thumb is that you need to have your product in by November 11th in order to “ensure” availability on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. So the stuff I have sent in this week and the backlog of 1000 items at home I need to ship in (yes, I am way behind, we have been busy buying a house so most days we have been on the prowl) is for late week 1 of December sales. That’s how I estimate in my head, anyway.
My point my point my point I drift early and often.
The year is over. LOL.
So what are you going to do for next year?
As a website and as an audience, I feel we have grown and are continuing to grow.
We have a tremendous amount of content here, especially for newer sellers. We have a whole plan designed to help get you started quickly and efficiently here.
And we are excited, because as our readers have become friends and friends become readers, we are all getting more experience.
We have some courses coming out very soon. Designed for an “older” crowd, I.E. more experienced.
We have the Andy Slamans Project.
Mike has a trick up his sleeve that he is saving for February.
And Chris, well. Here, I wouldn’t miss this one:
Anyway.
Source Black Friday.
And prepare yourselves.
Because we are about to take off.
2016 is going to have some HUGE things in store, and honestly, I cannot wait til I can talk more about it.
Cheers.