tmount
Administrator
My friend Nick, who writes Personal Finance Digest asked me a great question, that I think really weighs into this whole reselling stuff that I write about. It was in response to my FBA Beginner’s guide.
I don’t have a feel for the logistical aspects–how much time does it take to pack stuff, mail, shop for packing material, etc? How much extra space do you need to handle everything–does a corner of the garage work?
So let me break that down into a couple of points:
Shipping
I spend way too much time thinking about shipping. For me, the golden goose of shipping, is figuring out how to get Amazon to let me ship my stuff to the closest Fulfillment Centers. In fact, even after writing Shipping 101 and Shipping 201, I still play around with options, and don’t see myself stopping anytime soon! So, from the perspective of putting the items in and creating shipping plans, I sometimes spend more time than I should, because I’m doing the trial and error approach.
As far as packing stuff up, and mailing it. I like to think I’m pretty efficient. Every week I pack stuff up once. It is an anomaly when I do this more than once. Why? Because I like the idea of batching things together. I’d rather spend a half hour once, getting 15-20 boxes together, than 10 minutes every day. I normally don’t bother actually taking the packages to UPS or Staples anymore either, I usually schedule pick-ups for my normal work from home day (since my employer rocks like that). So, for that purpose, lets say the actual “shipping” takes about 5 minutes, just enough time for the UPS guy to pick up the boxes from my front stoop. I usually like to offer him a bottle of water, just because it is usually a bunch of stuff.
Warehouse Space
I think I’ve shared some photos in the past of the TaggingMiles’ Warehouse.
My staging center, used under Creative Commons from Wendell.
Ok, kidding, here’s my real staging area.
Yes, I like to have a beautiful oriental rug in my warehouse, because, it keeps the employees, and the guard dog happy.
But, in all seriousness, the way I resell, I average shipping out about 15-20 boxes per week, it doesn’t take more than about a 10×20 room that at least in my house, never really had a purpose (other than to house books and a really nice oriental rug). Would I operate such an operation out of my garage? Heck no! Garages are for cars, Charlie Brown! Besides, I wouldn’t want to leave laptops, tablets, or really anything in a garage during the heat of summer or the frigid wastelandness of winter. That and, it would be a much less comfortable work environment when I’m trying to pack stuff up, and we hear at Tagging Miles care about providing a comfortable work environment.
Wrapping Up
So, I hope that has answer Nick’s question, and anyone else’s with regard to how simple it is to start your own shop. Oriental rug optional. Guard dog, less optional.
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