206 The WRONG way to start selling on Amazon

How to start selling on amazon?
Want to start selling on Amazon?  Where to start?

The standard answer for a few years has been - by plunging straight into private label.

As that's how I started myself - and eventually succeeded, until recently I taught that myself.

I'm no longer convinced

But after 18 months of mentoring people trying to start selling on amazon, and a year of masterminds mostly focussed on those, I've seen the struggles up close. I've seen inside too many businesses and too many minds. It's a hard way to start.

All business has challenges starting. That's a given. You need a tough mindset. I just happen to think that in late 2017, the old model just isn't cutting for those who are trying to start selling on Amazon now.
Are you still focussed on Private Label?
Yes I am. I believe private label on Amazon is still a big opportunity.  I have many friends making loads more money than me to back that up. It's not theory.
So I believe that Private label - and even better, developing unique products -works on Amazon.
However, when it comes to how to start selling on Amazon, that's a different kettle of fish.
I think the irony is that by prematurely plunging into private label, many sellers actually miss out on properly executed private label. How can that be true?

It's simple really. They  blow their budget on the first budget. They  bust their confidence in the business model, and indeed in themselves. And then they quit too early - and miss out on $10s or even hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue per month
I'm not talking about what the overall goal is - rather,  it’s about how we GET there!

Whatever Works is good
Also I’m increasingly happy with whatever WORKS rather than being puritanical about business models.
As I've talked over the past two years to many Amazon experts, it's clear from the sharper people (especially the master himself, Will Tjernlund )  that there are several models that can work. And you don't have to start with private label.
Focus is good and learning a particular set of skills-  but so is PROGRESSION:
from simple to advanced; from low-risk to higher risk; from quick wins to projects that take months to come to fruition.
There is  a natural progression in terms of risk in the various business models available to ecommerce sellers in general, and ways to start selling on Amazon in particular.

Real learning versus the the Art of Aping...
It's like my old job of piano teaching.
Sure, I can teach little Johnny to seem like an accomplished pianist by teaching him or her three specific pieces and about 10 scales. You get a certificate, you look good, the parents are happy. 

Trouble is, he doesn't know his way round a piano, he can't read the music, he can't play by ear, he doesn't understand what he's playing or why...in short, he's not becoming any kind of real musician. Or any kind of real pianist. 
He's aping the real thing. But he's basically little more than a trained monkey.
Put him in any situation that demands real understanding of music, or real control of a piano, and he is finished.

My experience with Amazon sellers who try to learn  how to start selling on Amazon with Private label is remarkably similar.

Indeed, it mirrors my own journey as an Amazon seller myself. And it also mirrors my journey as a piano student/musician to a frighteningly similar degree too.
Vested interests trump real learning
That's not surprising. There are a lot of vested interests in trying to "pre-package" business building skills and mindset. Same as there were in pretending you can become a pianist, with 20 minutes' practice a day and three pieces at a time, with some bullshit "grades" scale.

(By the way, I have 7 years' higher education in classical music, I'm engaged to a pianist - so this is not the ranting of an amateur. On the contrary. It's the ranting of an ex-professional).

Both things, I'm afraid,