Working alone on Amazon, he makes 40,000 yuan a month in gross profit! In 2023, he wants to find a partner to expand

At the end of each year, we always have a lot of thoughts about work and dreams.

So, what exactly is a dream? To paraphrase a line from the movie "Chinese Partners": "A dream is something that makes you feel that persistence is happiness."

In pursuit of dreams, one partner story after another is being played out in the cross-border circle, but not everyone can achieve the same success as the protagonist in the movie, from the initial hit it off and high aspirations to the final parting of ways, or even a breakup.

As the industry environment continues to change, is the "Amazon Partner" project worth more sellers joining in 2023? What minefields should sellers pay attention to when looking for partners?

The seller has been working alone in the urban village for two years.

Looking for a partner to break through the bottleneck

At present, cross-border e-commerce people are either reviewing the gains and losses of 2022, or carefully planning for the new year.

Recently, a full-time Amazon seller who works alone summarized his work in the past year and also expressed his confusion: "I have been in business for two years. I am currently working alone in a peasant house in a village in the city. The monthly gross profit in 2022 is about 40,000 RMB . I want to make a breakthrough in 2023. How can I make a breakthrough?"

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According to him, he has two North American stores, and he operates in a pure white hat way , looking at data and adjusting ads in the morning, and packing and shipping in the afternoon. The products are all common goods, and the supply chain is only 1688. There are currently about 25 listings on sale, with about 100 SKUs. However, there are only 4 listings that are profitable , about 10 listings that break even, and the rest are all in a state of small losses or flat.

To be honest, in the current competitive environment, without supply chain advantages and without using black technology, it is not easy for this seller to achieve a monthly gross profit of 40,000. However, due to limited energy, he basically has no extra time to select products and promote new products, so his performance has basically peaked .

It is understood that this solo seller actually has a partner, but the partner is a part-time worker and the company he works for is very busy. Apart from running his listings, he can’t help with anything else, especially with opening new accounts and promoting new products. This has led to the current bottleneck situation.

In order to seek a breakthrough, the seller thought of recruiting partners . However, due to limited funds (400,000 yuan), expanding the team will face many practical problems , such as whether to move the office from the village to an office building, with a monthly rent of about 7,000 yuan; how to plan the subsequent product selection, is it better to have a fine store with limited funds, with 3-5 new products per month? Or should we just go for the high-quality products?

If you were in the same situation as the seller above, what would you do? Would you settle for the status quo or expand and become stronger? Feel free to leave a message in the comments section!

Lessons from the past:

The confused partnership experience of a 30-year-old operator

Everyone has their own ability limit. For Amazon entrepreneurs, if they want to break through the performance ceiling, finding a partner is a common way and can reduce a lot of risks. Former colleagues and relatives and friends are the two main directions for finding partners, but if you don’t find the right person, the result will be a mess.

People’s minds are unpredictable. Even a senior Amazon operator in his 30s can misjudge people. The following content is compiled from the whistleblower seller:

"I left my job in August last year, and the product manager of my former company asked me to be his partner (we had a good cooperation before, and the new products we launched together were basically launched and profitable, which is also what I value). The condition was that I would be given 10% of the shares as a technical investment, with only the right to dividends and 8k living expenses per month. Out of trust in him and confidence in his products, I accepted the above conditions. Unexpectedly, after starting work, I found that it was very different from what we had discussed before. I came in and kept clearing out the stock, and new products were nowhere in sight . I worked like this for four months, and several long-term storage fees were cleared out. A new product accessory was pushed to the top 30 and profitable, but the new products that were promised before were still not mentioned. What's worse is that after the beginning of the year, I received one salary to do two jobs (plus a European site development). In addition, the office environment is very poor, and I breathe second-hand smoke in the farmer's house every day ..."

This situation put the seller in a dilemma. He had put a lot of effort into building the store, and if he had new products after the Chinese New Year, he would be able to make a profit, but he had not yet received any commission. He was approaching his thirties and the pressure of a mortgage loan had left him at a loss.

In this regard, some netizens suggested that the seller should confront his partner, not waste each other's time, and clearly state the commission and dividend.

Find a childhood friend to partner with, but eventually they turn against each other...

Let’s talk about the “iron rules” of partnering with Amazon!

It is not easy to find a partner who is “like-minded” with you. Therefore, based on emotion and trust, some Amazon entrepreneurs will seek out friends and relatives to partner with them, but they don’t know that this violates the “military rules” of entrepreneurship.

Not long ago, a post-95s operator broke up with his childhood friend A (also a relative) because of their partnership in Amazon. According to him, A was responsible for packaging and shipping, and he was responsible for products and operations, with a 50-50 split. During this period, he also taught A everything he knew. But after nearly a year of cooperation, he found that A's work style was lax. In the end, they broke up because of the problem of profit distribution. What led to the breakup of their relationship was that A actually sold the products they jointly operated directly after the breakup, from listing to suppliers. In the end, his friendship with A for more than ten years ended just like that.

The above cases once again verify the "military rule" of starting a business: don't let relatives and friends become your partners. All the plans and imaginations before the partnership are beautiful and full of hope, but when conflicts arise, family affection will become an obstacle and affect your decision; in the face of interests, emotional ties will become vulnerable.

In this regard, an industry veteran summarized several "military rules" for partnering with Amazon :

1. The first condition is to sign an agreement , but many times this step is missed because it is too familiar. 2. The character and credit of the partner are very important . No matter how good the ability is, if the person is not good, there will be big problems in the middle. 3. The rights and responsibilities must be clear . A team cannot have two people in charge. If it is not clear in advance, it will be difficult to remedy it afterwards. 4. The division of labor and the distribution of benefits must be clearly written in black and white and distributed according to a reasonable rule. 5. The equity mechanism should be as perfect as possible, such as the exit agreement .

In addition, regarding the "Partnership Agreement", it is best for the seller to consult a professional lawyer to clarify the responsibilities and rights of both parties. When business disputes and interest fraud occur, a detailed, fair and equitable contract can protect the ultimate interests of the injured partner.

Confucius said: "If a man is not trustworthy, I don't know what he can do. A large cart without a yoke and a small cart without a shaft, how can they move?" The same is true for partnering with Amazon. I wish every cross-border entrepreneur can find your best partner in 2023!