TRANSCRIPTION

When sellers start to draw around 100k to 200k profits per month from their Amazon businesses, these sellers will generally be categorised as the veteran Amazon sellers. Such sellers will find themselves facing different sets of issues with regards when they were just new, or intermediate Amazon sellers, as they are now going to run an ORGANISATION instead of just a small startup. Be prepared – because it’s not going to be easy.




In this episode, I shall let everyone have a peek into what are the troubles faced by this kind of veteran sellers. Do take note that this is Part 3 of a three-parts podcast series, and in this episode, I will only be talking about the Top 3 Challenges veteran Amazon Sellers usually meet. Look out for the remaining parts of this topic on my website, wah-academy.com if you want to catch up on what else I have shared on this topic previously.




So, the Top 1 Challenge veteran Amazon sellers face will be that… they probably have no idea how to run an organisation. The first thing to do then is NOT TO PANIC, but to put proper SOPs in place. That I have gone through in my previous episode, ‘Top 3 Challenges Met by Intermediate Amazon Sellers’, so I am not going to repeat it here.




What I shall focus on now is another critical issue: supposed you find yourself too stressed up by the thought of heading an organisation, what should you do?




Oh, you may roll your eyes when you hear this and be like, ‘duh!’, but don’t be surprised at how many people have cried into their pillows at night over this matter. It is very stressful to wake up every day and be reminded that you are now responsible for several people’s livelihoods. You need to answer for every one of your decisions, and one step wrong, you will affect whether your employees can put food on their tables for their families.




But not to worry, here’s the solution for this situation: find capable people to help you manage your business together! As the saying goes, ‘two heads are better than one’. You can have someone to discuss the future directions for your company, bounce ideas off one another, and get to know if some decisions are inappropriate or going to end up bad.




Ideally, finding capable partners for your business should be an ongoing process that begins way back at the start when you set up your business, because capable people don’t come by every day. And you will need to give them time to adjust to your company’s culture, understand what you are working on, and be familiar with your operations, etc.




However, let’s say that in the case you did not find any business partners to work with, I will recommend that instead of looking to have more outsiders join your company now, try to see if you can coach someone from your existing pool of employees to take up this role. This is because there should already be mutual trust between you and your employees, and you are probably going to work more comfortably around one another. Nurture the selected candidates and make sure they can undertake certain portions of your business alone. Or else, simply go for coaching your employees such that they become like the mini-versions of yourself. The logic here is simple – you are already successful and very knowledgeable on how to operate your business at this point. If you have ‘copies of you’ helping to run various aspects of your business, most probably nothing hazardous can occur, right?

And speaking of nurturing employees, that will lead to the Number 2 Challenge veteran sellers face – that is, developing leadership qualities within your employees.




Now, if you notice, good bosses always help employees discover their leadership qualities. It’s not just about being kind or what – more importantly, wise employers realise they need to hone their employee’s leadership skills because this will help the whole organisation move forward effectively.




However, developing leaders is not as easy as said. As the person heading your organisation, you need to have the eye to see who are the natural leaders within your employees or who are those who need more coaching, and decide what you should do for each of them. This takes time and practice as you go along managing your business.




Right now, my eCommerce business’ workforce consists of 15 people, and we have a total of 1 General Manager with 4 Project Managers. So, I may not be the greatest boss out there, but I do want the best for each of my teammates. As such, I spent a lot of time mentoring each of my managers and placing them in the right positions. Meanwhile, I also mentor them so that in turn, they can nurture their teammates. This is how our whole organisation move forward together. And as we go along, we will encourage and motivate one another when we run into trouble. This is the kind of company I envisioned for myself, and I am indeed very grateful to have such great teammates working alongside me.




So, if you are planning to grow your business into a real organisation, this will be something you have to think about. Remember, coaching and mentoring your employees are very important – this is the only way your business can move forward eventually.




Last but not least, here’s the Number 3 Challenge veteran sellers face, and that is how to develop an effective selling or exit strategy. This is more for people who intend to sell off their businesses.




So, if you have intentions to sell your business, you will need to build your independent brand. By that, I mean to have your own company website, build social media pages for your company, have your own brand ambassadors, and also to have a couple of influencers working for you. Doing all these will help to develop your company’s brand value, and in turn, add to the valuation for your company.




Here are more pointers to consider if you want to increase the valuation of your company:




Number 1: Do every one of your teams have their own set of viable SOPs?




Number 2: Do your managers portray leadership qualities when managing their teams?




Number 3: Do your teams generate consistent results?




Number 4: Are there any compensation schemes, or bonus schemes for your team members?
Number 5: Does your company have any presence in countries in the world, like in the United States, Germany, The Netherlands, Japan, etc?




Think as if you are an investor in the e-commerce industry. You will want to see all the abovementioned being put in place. Other than that, you will also probably consider if this company is selling through their own website, or are they dependent on Amazon for their sales entirely. This is because it will be very risky if a company is solely dependent on Amazon – imagine if their Amazon account gets shut down one day, that will be zero revenue for that business!




Hence, you need to plan for an effective exit strategy, if you intend to exit your business in future.




With that, I shall end my series on the Top 3 Challenges met by Amazon sellers who are at different stages of their business. See you in the next episode!