Category Archives: Spouse

FBA Sourcing + Road Trip = Free Vacation!

Posted on June 22, 2015 by Stephen | 5 comments

It’s summer, and the perfect time to plan a sourcing road trip! Combining a road trip with FBA sourcing is a great idea that combines the fun of a vacation with sourcing in new and exciting places. Imagine driving to a location far from home and stopping at rural Walmarts along the way to find clearance items you can’t find anywhere else. Imagine the possibility of finding new “honey holes” for FBA inventory. Think about how much fun it could be to source at your favorite stores in a new town and find even more of the items you’ve already sourced in your own hometown. The possibilities are endless.

In 2014, Rebecca and I planned a three-day sourcing road trip to Kansas City, Missouri. We live in Fort Worth, Texas, and both thought it’d be fun to take our sourcing on the road. We booked two nights at a hotel in Kansas City and left Fort Worth on a Friday morning.

I’m not saying we’re a good luck charm, but the Royals did go to the World Series the year we went to see them play.

When we got to Kansas City, we checked into our hotel and headed for Kauffman Stadium to see the Royals in action, just a few months before they made it to the World Series. Rebecca and I are both fans of baseball, and it’s been my dream to visit every Major League Baseball ballpark. What better way to liven up our sourcing trip than to work in two baseball games on the road?

Friday night we watched the Royals beat the Angels thanks to an Omar Infante grand slam.

It’s so much fun filling up multiple carts!

On Saturday morning, we got up early and began to source. Before our trip, I made a map that included many of our favorite sourcing stores. We sourced all morning and found some really great inventory items. Come lunchtime, we headed back to Kauffman Stadium for another baseball game. This time, Rebecca and I went to the stadium early and toured the Royals Hall of Fame and walked all the way around the stadium. It was a lot of fun for both of us. The game began, but the clouds started rolling in. Before the sky fell, Rebecca and I decided it was time to go. Sure enough, the rain came hard, and the game was delayed.

Rebecca asked, “Are we going to have enough room in the back for our luggage?” Maybe next time we’ll rent a trailer.

While the game was under a rain delay, there was no time to waste for Rebecca and me. We went back to sourcing and continued to find some amazing deals at stores all over Kansas City. We filled up our van and headed back to the hotel for the night. Bright and early Sunday morning, we packed up all of our things and made the drive back home to Texas.

That road trip to Kansas City was awesome. It was a lot of fun sourcing in a new city and watching the Royals play at Kauffman Stadium. It didn’t hurt that the Royals were also giving away free hats at one game and free bobbleheads at the second game. I sold those freebies on eBay and it helped pay for the game tickets and stadium parking. Not a bad deal.

If you’re looking for a fun way to get some vacation time in while still working some on your FBA business, a sourcing road trip might just work out for you. As long as sourcing (or other work-related activities) are your primary objective, then you would be able to write off the mileage and expenses. I know from experience that it is possible to make a trip like this profitable, even after all of the travel expenses.

Yes, we actually peeled stickers in the hotel room! Click on the image above to get your own Scotty Peelers. They’re awesome!

Rebecca and I have gone on many sourcing road trips and have really found it to be both refreshing and a fun challenge for our business. One night, after coming back to the hotel room after a huge rural Walmart haul, we were so excited about all the inventory items we found that we actually took off all of the price stickers in the comfort of our hotel room. That’s right. We actually brought all of the items into our hotel room. You should have seen the faces of other guests as we loaded up the bellhop luggage cart with bags and bags of Walmart items.

Maybe a sourcing road trip is just the thing to help give you and your FBA business the kick it needs to get out of your comfort zone and source new places – or your normal places in new cities. Take a look at a map and see what surrounds you. See if there are any non-work-related activities you can combine with your sourcing trip. Maybe combine a sourcing trip with white water rafting… or a sourcing trip with camping at a beautiful state park. Maybe you could source on your way to and from a national landmark you want to visit…or to and from a city or state on your bucket list. The possibilities are endless.

There are a few really great resources that can help you make even more out of your sourcing trips. The books Amazon Autopilot: On the Road and Traveltage: Use Your Smartphone & FBA to Make Money, Travel, & Create The Life You Want are both good resources that walk you through everything you need to know (and more) about combining travel with working a successful FBA business. When you go on a sourcing road trip, you really need to know all the ins and outs on how to make the most of your time, energy, money, and resources. Both Amazon Autopilot: On the Road and Traveltage help you gain the knowledge you need to make each and every one of your sourcing road trips a big success.

Now, I’d love to hear from you! Have you been on a sourcing road trip? Where did you go and what did you do? Have any tips to add for a successful sourcing road trip? Comment below and share your story.

5 Comments

Posted in Advanced, Family Involvement, Ideas, Retail Arbitrage, Sourcing, Spouse, Travel

Tagged Amazon, FBA, Ideas, Sourcing, Spouse, Travel

How To Budget for a Profitable FBA Business – Part 1 of 2

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Stephen | 1 comment

“Where, oh where, does all the money go?” It’s the song so many people sing at the end of the month, when the paycheck is running out. Or sometimes in the middle of the month, if things are particularly tight.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. We don’t have to wonder where the money has gone, or question how we always seem to spend it faster than we earn it.

In fact, we can know the future.

Yep. It’s true. When it comes to our money, we can know ahead of time where it’s going to go and how it’s going to cover everything it needs to. There is a simple way to know our money’s future. It’s called budgeting.

Basically, your budget is your plan for your money. It’s not any more complicated than that. I’m assuming that you’re reading this blog post because you enjoy your reselling business and you’re interested in learning how to improve it. Having a good budget is one of the best ways to improve your business. As the old saying goes: “You can’t improve what you can’t measure.” So once you understand your numbers, you can find the ways to make your profits larger.

And I’m not just talking about a business budget here — I’m also talking about a family budget. Now, today’s blog post will cover why budgeting is so important for both your business and your family, and in my next blog post, I’ll move into how you can set up both your personal and business budgets to make sure you maximize profits.

Why Budget?

Whether you’re reselling full-time or part-time, you need to have a plan for how you’ll spend your reselling income, as well as a plan for how you’ll spend any other regular paychecks or income you’re getting from other jobs or business ventures. If you don’t have a plan, the money tends to just dwindle away throughout the month, going out into the wild blue yonder, off to who knows where (I’m not making this up — you’ve experienced this, right?).

In some cases, this leads to a shortage later in the month, to bills that can’t be paid with cash, and then to credit card debt, which basically means you end up paying more for your bills in the long run. In other cases, it means waste and inefficiency. You may think you’re not spending that much extra money throughout the month, and you may even be saving some here and there — but if you sat down and wrote it all out, you would find wasted cash that could otherwise go towards your next vacation, towards a savings goal, towards a charity you love…or towards sourcing. But you won’t know until you sit down and write up that budget to figure out where all your money goes.

Much of what we’ve come to love about budgeting we learned from Dave Ramsey. If you’re not familiar with his work and his methods, we highly recommend you read a couple of his books: Financial Peace Revisited for an overview of his philosophy and The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness for a more step-by-step guide to how to get out of debt, build up emergency savings, and control where you’re spending your money each month (i.e., budgeting).

Both my wife and I had read and started using Dave Ramsey’s methods before we even met, and we’ve continued to use them after we got married — so we can testify that they work for both singles and couples. Though we don’t legalistically follow every word he says in these books to a T, we do find that his philosophy is sound. We’ve seen again and again how having a plan for our money removes a great deal of stress from our lives. It doesn’t eliminate stress — there are still situations that come up where we have disagreements or where we’re surprised by an expense we weren’t planning for. But at least we’re in agreement on some basic principles at the start of those discussions, and we know we ultimately have the same goals in mind — because we set those goals together.

Importance of Budgeting for the Reseller

For those of you who are wondering if you could quit your day job and become a full-time reseller, perhaps the biggest hang-up keeping you from that transition is the thought of having irregular income. The absolute first step toward deciding if you can or should make that transition is to set a family budget. Part of setting a budget is knowing your regular expenses and getting a handle on your irregular (or seasonal) expenses. You have no way to know if your reselling income will be enough to cover those expenses if you don’t even know what those expenses are. Online banking makes keeping track of our expenses easier than ever, but you’d still be surprised how much money dwindles away in cash payments without our ever knowing where it went — doubly so, if you’re accustomed to swiping a credit card for most of your purchases.

Likewise, if you don’t set up a business budget, you have no way to know if your business is being successful in the long run. You must keep track of income and expenses, not just for IRS purposes, but because you need this information to plan for future expenses and strategize how best to invest your capital as you’re sourcing. Simply put, knowing your budget helps you make a good decision when you’re standing on Aisle 3 in a store wondering if an item would be a good product to resell.

Dave Ramsey says, “Winning at money is 80 percent behavior and 20 percent head knowledge. What to do isn’t the problem; doing it is. Most of us know what to do, but we just don’t do it.” Budgeting doesn’t have to involve difficult concepts. It’s mostly just common sense. The biggest part of it is to 1) sit down and make a plan and 2) stick with your plan, making changes as needed. Don’t get sidetracked, be patient, delay gratification, work hard, and see how smart choices can pay off in the long run.

If your reselling business is more of a get-rich-quick set-up, we don’t have a lot of advice for you. But if you’re wanting to see steady growth and a healthier business, we highly recommend that you take the time to budget.

Bonus Perk of Budgeting: Did you know there’s one simple way you can reduce stress in your family life, eliminate arguing over finances, free up funds to do more of what your family finds important, and ultimately grow your business? Just set a budget and stick with it for a while, and you’re likely to see all of those things happen. In our book, Married To Reselling, we have a whole chapter dedicated to budgeting with your spouse. We break down all the steps to creating a budget with your spouse and how that leads to a better marriage between both you and your spouse.

So now you understand why a budget is important to maximizing profits — be on the lookout for our next blog post where I break down exactly how Rebecca and I budget both our personal and business numbers. To be sure you don’t miss the next blog post, scroll up and click on the subscribe button in the top right side of the screen.

Do you have any budgeting tips for other Full-Time FBA readers? I’d love to hear what tips work best for you and your business. Comment below!

1 Comment

Posted in Business, Family Involvement, Getting Started, How To, Spouse

Tagged Amazon, Budgeting, FBA, Finances, How To, Profit, Spouse

How to Handle FBA Money Issues With Your Spouse

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Stephen | 3 comments

Taking financial risks is a defining element of being an entrepreneur. After all, becoming your own boss and living off of an irregular income can be a pretty risky adventure to undertake.

One of the biggest risks that an entrepreneur faces relates to capital. Money is limited, so it’s crucial to use it correctly. While on the one hand it’s important to play it safe and not needlessly waste your money, you could argue that it’s equally important to take wise, calculated risks to better yourself and your bottom line. Taking risks is a necessity if you want to succeed. There would be no successful entrepreneurs if everyone always played it safe. However, at the same time you don’t want to sacrifice your marriage or family for the sake of your business by taking too many risks that are beyond what you and your family can handle.

When just starting out in the reselling world, it could look like every possible financial move is risky. Do I sign up for a selling program with a monthly fee? Do I need to buy a special printer or will my regular printer be just fine? Do I even need a scanner? Should I buy the ebook about reselling books or the ebook about grocery? The list of possibilities goes on, but one thing remains: Each step you take contains some level of financial risk.

Risk tolerance (in the reselling world) is the amount of risk that you are comfortable taking with the possibility of losing time or money. For example, if you’re unwilling to take the chance that a potential inventory item might drop in price, then you have little or no risk tolerance. On the other hand, if you are willing to take some risks with inventory that could possibly go up or down in value, then you have a greater risk tolerance.

Risk tolerance doesn’t just apply to sourcing inventory. A reseller may also invest time and money in an ebook that promises to help them get a return of better business practices and increased profits. Another reseller may invest in the latest gadget in hopes to help streamline the reselling process. All possible investments (time, money, energy, etc) are potential risks, and each of us has a different level of risk we are willing to endure in order to get the desired outcome of said risk.

When taking risks, most individuals have a realistic understanding of their own ability and willingness to handle the possible outcomes of the risk being taken, but a difficulty comes into play in how your risk tolerance affects your spouse — and how their tolerance for risk affects you. As in so many other personal characteristics, just because you’re married to each other doesn’t mean your tolerance for risk will necessarily line up with each other’s.

Handling Differences With a Non-reselling Spouse

For many of you, your spouse is not involved in the day-to-day aspects of your online business, but that doesn’t mean they are not impacted by how you handle risks, especially when it comes to money.

If you had a “normal” job where you were in charge of spending for your employer, then most likely your spouse wouldn’t worry about how much money you spent on office supplies, office space, or employees. When you work at home, though, the money you spend might not seem like “work money” to your spouse. They see this money as their money too, and they might disagree with how you handle business expenses. It can be risky to spend money on supplies, subscriptions, and inventory when you’re not guaranteed that it will all pay off in the end. Your risk tolerance can have an effect on your spouse, whether they tell you or not.

If your spouse communicates a concern about your business, the worst thing to do is completely disregard their concern. You may think that they don’t know what they are talking about, and that might be true to an extent, but their concerns are real and must be dealt with if you want to have a balanced family and work life.

If they don’t communicate any concerns, it doesn’t mean that there are none. I suggest sitting down with your spouse to initiate a conversation about possible concerns with your business. Some of you may think I’m crazy to recommend this. You may think I’m just opening up the door for a huge disagreement and that we all should just “let sleeping dogs lie.” My argument here is that if there is an actual concern, then it will eventually come up. It is so much better to be the one who initiates this conversation up front before there is a big problem than to have to deal with all the repercussions on your spouse and your relationship coming from this concern over financial risk. If you wait until they bring it up, then the road to recovery will be so much harder and longer, and there could be damaging effects on your marriage for the long term.

On Sale Today!

Overall, it helps to do your best to inform your spouse why you feel your business decisions are wise in the long run. Your spouse might not be able to (or want to) understand all aspects of the business, but you could probably come up with a way to explain it so they can understand the main points. During these types of conversations, don’t just spend the whole time explaining your point of view. Again, the key here is to listen to your spouse. Really listen to their concerns and see if there is a compromise you can come to. Maybe you want to buy an impulse sealer, a Scanfob, and that brand new ebook course that just came out. If the amount of money needed for all these items is a concern to your spouse, perhaps you could compromise and just choose one of those items to invest your money in for now.

In the end, it all comes down to making sure that your spouse feels heard and understood. Your spouse and family should always be your priority.

If you want to read more on the topic of balancing family life with your online business, check out our book, Married to Reselling.

So what about you? Do you have any advice to others about how to best handle FBA related differences with your spouse? Comment below and share with us.

3 Comments

Posted in Business, Family Involvement, How To, Spouse

Tagged Amazon, FBA, Finances, Spouse

Married to Reselling: Balancing Family Life with your Online Business

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Stephen | Leave a comment

Today, I’m excited to tell you that our new book, Married To Reselling: Balancing Family Life With Your Online Business, is now available! Ever since I joined online reselling groups on Facebook, I kept seeing the same questions pop up:

How can I work at home and still keep family time a priority?
How can I convince my spouse that I’m not wasting my time or our money with reselling?
My family doesn’t get that selling online is a real job.
How can I get my spouse on board with reselling?
I’m single and run my online business by myself. How can I find a support system? (Yes, this book is for singles too)
My spouse thinks my online business is “nice,” but won’t lend an ounce of help.
How can I balance my business budget with my personal budget
How can I get work done with my kids always wanting my attention

Rebecca & Stephen Smotherman

For those who have a “normal” 9-5 job, the moment we get home in the evening, we can usually disconnect from thinking about work and just enjoy time with our family and friends. But for many resellers, the whole concept of working at home is a new frontier filled with complicated issues.

To help address these issues, my wife and I set out to write up an article to help resellers and their families find true balance. What started out as a blog post evolved into a book that addresses all these issues.

Married To Reselling 3D clear While most reselling ebooks focus on helping you make more profits, the focus of this book is to prioritize your family. You might become very successful selling online, but you don’t want to neglect your family. We believe you can succeed in relationships and business at the same time. To read more about Married to Reselling, click here.

BONUS: If you act now, you’ll get a special introductory deal of 33% off regular price!

Interview with a New Full-Time FBA Seller

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Rebecca Smotherman | 18 comments

Full-time selling through FBA. Being your own boss. Setting your own schedule. Earning your own profits.

For many who read this blog, full-time selling through FBA is at least a consideration as a possibility in your future, if not your active goal as a reseller. Today we want to bring you an interview with someone who is in the process of making the transition from part-time to full-time on FBA. Brian, an active contributor to the online FBA seller community, recently announced to the wide world that he’s given notice at his day job and is striking off on his own as a full-time reseller. We thought our readers would enjoy and benefit from hearing his story, so without further ado, here’s our interview with Brian from Canada!

To start off, tell us a little about yourself and how you got started with reselling.

Thanks for reaching out to me. The first thing I tell any of the other sellers is that I am Canadian. I live in Nova Scotia with my wife and 7 year old son. The business of reselling things has me hooked. I love the thrill of finding opportunities, and the opportunity with Amazon FBA really makes this a viable full time business.

About 4 years ago I was feeling like I wasn’t making my income work hard enough. I had a decent job, as did my wife, but we really were not getting ahead. So I started researching money, ways to save, invest, passive income… I stumbled upon Dave Ramsey, and it just clicked with me. I slowly convinced my wife we needed to get rid of debt, budget, and build emergency funds.

A year into that process I bought a book that Chris Green had written an article in. He wrote about combining discounts, parting out items such as power wheels and tool kits, and that really clicked with me. I joined his Facebook group and learned about selling on Amazon FBA.

I started dabbling in resale…when I needed a remote for my Xbox. I bought an Xbox lot and pieced out the rest of the gear and made a nice profit and got a free remote. I [sold] used video games, consoles, and parts for a while on eBay, and then moved to yard sale collectible items on eBay, and then cell phones, and now Amazon with mostly toys.

What was your criteria for deciding now is the time to resign your full-time job?

I have been doing Amazon FBA since October 2012, and for most of that time [I’ve been] considering doing this full time. In January of this year, I received notice at my work that I would be laid off in April. I knew this may be my opportunity. So back to the Dave Ramsey teachings, I knew I had to stop paying extra on our house [and] halt our retirement savings because we were headed for a possible emergency. At that time we had 5 months household expenses banked, and we started adding more. We added another 4 months’ worth.

During the first 3 months of the year, I noticed my sales didn’t drop off like I expected they would; now they were higher than non Q4 months of the previous year. I was feeling like [selling full-time] was possible and was looking forward to being laid off. But April came, and we got extended another month, and then finally the notice was withdrawn. I now had 9 months emergency funds, and I had received another [6 months’ worth of salary] for stock I had owned and refund from my taxes. I [worked up] a budget based on a lowered take-home per month…and I knew this was a number I could achieve.

Also around this time, we found out that we were having another baby due in December. My wife, who was somewhat accepting of my plan, gave me the final push when she said it’s now or never.

How long did it take you to get to where you’re comfortable with resigning?

I had been doing this part time for almost 2 years. In my mind it seems things really change around Christmas time; that is when my business made the largest advance. It may have been possible before this time, but I am pretty cautious about these things and want to make sure that I am not putting everything in a major risk.

What excites you the most about making this transition?

I love to travel, even if it is 3-4 hours away, so I am looking forward to hitting the open road in search of treasure. Also, ever since my wife has been a teacher, I wanted to spend more time with her and my son. I guess in Canada you spend so much time in the house hiding from the bad weather, when summer hits it is really important to enjoy it as much as possible. Lastly, doing this part time I always felt rushed in the stores, never having more than 1 hour in a store. Hopefully I can find even more opportunities now.

What are your fears going into this transition?

I need to fear the possibility that this model is not viable sometime in the future or that I am somehow prevented from being able to do it. These scenarios may not be probable, but I think it would be foolish not to acknowledge them. I also fear getting tired of this business and wanting to move on to something else.

Are you making any major or minor changes to your business model or strategy during this transition?

Two things I am thinking of, predictability and diversification. On the predictability side, I want to have more items that I know will sell at a given rate each month, so I am looking for items where I can sell 5+ of each month, rather than going from homerun to homerun. Also in this direction, I am looking for wholesale opportunities. In terms of diversification, I am looking to add eBay [as a sales channel] and brainstorming other income ideas that I can add to protect myself in the future.

How has your family responded to your decision?

My wife is happy to see me doing what I enjoy, but is not completely sold on me making less income. I just told my son this week, and he seemed to be happy that if he got sick during school, he could stay home with me. I really believe that if this works, it will be so much better for all of us and that there will be many benefits that we will enjoy because of this.

What advice do you have for anyone contemplating this transition to full-time selling on FBA?

I am a firm believer in being financially prepared, paying down debt, [saving] emergency funds, and living off less than you make before jumping. I base my decisions off what is happening now in terms of my sales rather than banking on an increase in sales due to being full time. One thing I think is really important and probably was the key to us being successful in paying off debt is unity. Once my wife and I were in agreement to how we’re going to approach money, it was so much easier. On my decision to do this full time, we are both in agreement, and hopefully over time we will both increase our resolve that this is the best idea.

Also with me, I was sitting at a desk of what most people would call a decent job, daydreaming of being out looking for profits. It just seemed like a waste to everyone involved. If you do truly love this business, I would suggest you start planning your exit.

Thanks for sharing your story with us, Brian!

Want more info on how to make FBA your full-time job? Scroll up, look at the right side of your screen, and subscribe.

18 Comments

Posted in Business, Interviews, Spouse, Travel

Tagged Amazon, FBA, Finances, Interview

How to be Married to FBA

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Stephen | 3 comments

A couple of weeks ago, Stephen posted a quiz to test if you’re ready to make the transition to selling via FBA as a full-time job. His questions got me (Rebecca) to thinking about the flip side of the FBA coin — the spouse’s side. It’s one thing if you decide you’re ready to get further into selling on Amazon, but how does your spouse feel about this scenario?

I will never forget the first time I went with Stephen on his Friday morning garage sale route. Mostly I won’t forget it because Stephen likes to remind me of my reaction that day. After a few hours of riding with him around town, getting in and out of the car, not finding a whole lot at each place (but walking away with a few great deals), I told him, “It’s great you enjoy doing that, dear, but I don’t care to ever try that again.” Something about the methodical process of going from house to house on his list just ruined garage sales for me. Stephen felt like he was on an adventure to find hidden treasure. I felt like we were skipping over all the cool stuff (old mason jars! an antique sewing machine!) to look for brand new toys and games. Boring.

Thankfully, he convinced me to stick with the idea of helping him source for FBA, and he gladly did the bulk of our garage saling while I focused more on thrift stores, used books, and retail. Since that time, we’ve had many conversations about the dynamics of working together on FBA while maintaining a healthy marriage. Not everybody who reads this blog is married, and not everybody who reads the blog wants to sell on FBA full-time. Still, there are factors involved in selling on FBA that affect our relationships, regardless of which season of life we’re in, and hopefully we can all benefit from thinking through these factors.

On that note, here are a few things to consider about FBA and marriage, whether you’re working together with your spouse at FBA or your spouse does a different line of work:

Risk tolerance. Many entrepreneurs, not just FBA sellers, experience conflict with their spouse over different levels of risk tolerance when investing money is concerned. For some, the amount of money involved is a hot spot. For others, it’s the waiting period and uncertainty of when you’ll see a return on your investment. Lots of open communication and patience with one another are necessary to come to agreements and make decisions. Bottom line, your marriage should come before your business, so there may be times when you have to forego your own wants and desires in the business for the sake of your spouse’s comfort level.

Personality differences. I am an introvert, and Stephen is an extrovert. Whether he’s at a garage sale or a liquidation store, he loves chatting with folks, negotiating, working out deals. I prefer to go in, get things done, and go home. At times we’ve had to plan out our daily tasks according to these differences. In some instances one or both of us might end up having to do tasks outside our area of strength, but as a general rule we keep an open line of communication going so that we’re both predominantly working in areas best suited for our personalities.

Personal interests. It’s very obvious when Stephen and I are sourcing together where each of our personal interests lie. Whether we’re at a retail store, thrift store, or garage sale, he heads for the toys and games, and I head for the books or kitchen items. We never really discussed this as a strategy — it just happened naturally. If you’re working at FBA and see that your spouse isn’t all that interested in getting involved, perhaps all you need is a change of category. Maybe you’ve always found media to be profitable, but your spouse might enjoy sourcing for health and beauty items instead. Explore the options of different Amazon categories as a way to pique your spouse’s interest.

Agreement on business model. If you’re both working together at your FBA business, it’s important that you agree on the type of business model you set up. Are you looking mostly for fast turns? Are you comfortable waiting out the profits of long-tail items? Ask yourselves these types of questions and discuss your answers ahead of time, before actual money is involved so you can avoid conflict in the heat of the moment. For those who are working at FBA while your spouse does something else, discuss with your spouse your level of commitment to your business. Talk with one another about whether you’re actively trying to grow the business or whether you’re pursuing it as a hobby. Your involvement in FBA brings an opportunity cost of time and money that aren’t being spent on your marriage, family, or other relationships — always, always come to an agreement with your spouse on the level of involvement you’re both comfortable with.

Amount of time spent together. If you and your spouse are considering working at FBA together, one important factor to remember is the amount of time you’ll be working together, whether at your home office, in your storage space, or out sourcing. Many people, Stephen and I included, choose to do FBA for that exact reason — we enjoy spending time together and would prefer to have flexibility of schedule rather than be tied to separate jobs in separate offices. Working together does create the potential for more conflict, so it’s important to be gracious to one another and communicate and listen well. We’ve also found that it’s good to plan separate activities at times throughout the week, just so we’re not becoming too inwardly focused in our marriage and still have healthy outside relationships.

Communication. I’ve already mentioned it a few times above, but good communication is key if you’re going to work together with your spouse at FBA or maintain a healthy marriage while you work at FBA with your spouse’s support. I can’t stress this enough. You’re going to need to communicate well with each other about expectations for schedules, about buying decisions, about how the space in your house is being used. I don’t come from a business background, and I’ve struggled at times to understand everything that’s involved in running a successful FBA business. If I couldn’t openly express my concerns to Stephen and he couldn’t patiently explain to me (for the fiftieth time) what’s going on in certain situations, we wouldn’t make it as a couple or in this business. My biggest advice to all couples involved in FBA in any fashion: talk to each other. A lot. Kindly and honestly.

I’m sure there are other factors that come to mind when you think of selling through FBA and relating to a spouse or other family. We would love to hear your thoughts — please leave a comment and help us further the conversation!

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Working from home sounds easy, but if you’ve done it for any amount of time, you know it can be difficult. In Married to Reselling, my wife Rebecca and I will walk with you through ways we can all find success in balancing our time with family while working from home.

We’ll tackle both the business and personal sides of life as a reseller, and we’ll help you explore a system that works best for you and your family. If you’re looking for ways to balance your family life with your online business and find success with both, then this book is for you.

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Posted in Beginner, Business, Family Involvement, How To, Ideas, Sourcing, Spouse, Tips & Tricks

Tagged Amazon, Family, FBA, Finances, Getting Started, How To, Ideas, Money, Spouse, Tips

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