Today I’m going to discuss 2 pros and 2 cons of making a living selling products on Amazon via the FBA program. While I usually write about practical information about how FBA works, I think it’s important to talk about how it feels to own and operate your own Amazon business.
How am I able to offer insight like this? Because after 3+ years of hard work, I left my full-time job in 2018 to pursue selling on Amazon full-time. I no longer have a job or any other source of income, so I rely solely on my earnings from Amazon FBA to make my living.
My fortunes rise and fall on my success or failure at selling on Amazon, so I can tell you exactly how it feels, both the good and the bad.
Let’s start with the pros, because the first pro feels so good…
Pro #1: Freedom
Freedom is far and away the primary benefit of owning an Amazon FBA business. I’m free to live life how I want, and to prioritize activities as I see fit. I’m also free to work on what I want, when I want, and how I want.
Let’s talk about life freedom first.
I’m writing this post on a Friday morning, still in my bathrobe, because I don’t feel like getting dressed yet. I decided to write this post this morning while lying in bed, while thinking about what I wanted to accomplish today. Also, I didn’t get out of bed until 8:15 am, because I don’t have an alarm waking me up, because I don’t have a job I need to commute to.
That’s freedom.
It’s hard to convey just how good it feels to have freedom like this. No artificial priorities, no rushing off to accommodate a schedule that isn’t yours, just you choosing your own way, and what’s best for you.
That’s a pretty fantastic pro, right?
The working freedom you gain is a close second to life freedom.
At this point in my Amazon-selling career, I know very well what activities I should focus on to make my business successful, and what activities to avoid or that won’t make my business successful. I’m free to focus 100% on activities that move me towards success.
For example, I often choose to review spreadsheets from my distributors at night, when I feel like I can really focus on sourcing the right products for my business without distraction.
This level of freedom was not what I experienced when I worked a full-time job.
Like most people, at my job I was given tasks, duties, and/or projects to work on. These were always of someone else’s choosing, without my input as to their value or validity. I was given a schedule or due-date to work towards, and told to “get it done”.
That’s not freedom.
Making my own way with Amazon FBA is so much better. I work to build my business every day, and with the numerous reports, charts, etc. Amazon provides me, I can track my progress towards success in real-time. I know exactly where I stand, and can focus on prioritizing tasks which build my business, which in turn improves my quality of life.
It feels terrific!
Pro #2: Building an Amazon FBA Business = Building a Growing, Passive Income
The second great thing about Amazon FBA is that you’re building a passive income that grows the more you work at it.
When I say passive income, I mean specifically that the income from Amazon FBA continues even if you aren’t actively working on it. Of course you have to do the up-front work of finding product and sending it to Amazon’s warehouses, but if I stopped working on my business for the next week or even the next month, customers would still buy my products, Amazon would continue to fulfill orders, and I would still receive regular bank deposits from Amazon every two weeks.
For example, my sales in 2019, the first year I was completely full-time with my Amazon business, were about 35 times higher than when I started selling part-time in 2015. To think about this in terms of income from a job, that means I grew this business from being the equivalent of a small part-time income to a very respectable full-time income. Have you ever heard of anyone getting pay raises at their job equal to 3500% over the course of 5 years? Neither have I.
That kind of growth takes leverage, in this case the leverage afforded by Amazon FBA fulfilling as many orders as I can send them product to sell. I can say, without a doubt, that my business growth is a direct result of utilizing Amazon’s FBA program. Had I decided to start my own website to sell products, for example, I could have never achieved this kind of growth so quickly, as I would have had to spend time fulfilling individual customer orders, which can be very time-consuming.
The combination of leverage for growth supplied by Amazon FBA fulfilling orders, coupled with the income of owning a potentially fast-growing business, is a major pro of selling on Amazon.
Now let’s shift to the cons of making your living selling products on Amazon FBA.
Con #1: Discipline Required
Starting an Amazon FBA business is like starting any difficult undertaking, such as weight loss or an exercise program. Discipline is required. What exactly do I mean by discipline? Let’s start with an example, using myself and my exercise routine.
I do my best to stay in shape, and I do that by being a runner. Specifically, I run in 5k road races.
In order to be able to run the full distance of a 5k road race, I need to run regularly to maintain the fitness level to endure the 5k distance. That should sound obvious, and even simple, and it is. However, just because something is simple doesn’t mean it’s easy.
On any given day I know I need to run, I sometimes find myself thinking it would be so much easier to watch TV, or read a book, or do anything else that isn’t as hard as running. However, I force myself to run, knowing that I’ll feel great after I’m finished, (the post-run feeling in your body is actually really nice) and that I need to run in order to participate in the 5k races I’ve committed to running.
You need to think about starting an Amazon FBA business the same way: to be successful, you have to muster the discipline to work on your business instead of doing other (easier) activities. The effort required to do this is hard, and it’s probably the biggest con to starting a business like this. It’s not going to be easy. You’re going to feel resistance from within yourself, and you have to find the discipline to push through that resistance and keep at it, because it’s worth the effort (see Pro #1 and #2).
If you’re interested in reading the best book I’ve ever read on discipline and pushing through your inner resistance, I recommend you check out The War of Art.
Con #2: Health Insurance is Expensive
Paying the high cost of health insurance is the most tangible and direct downside to making your own living, whether through Amazon FBA or any other type of business. Without health insurance provided to you by an employer, you have to purchase it yourself, and it’s expensive!
Most people get around this by either having their partner’s or spouse’s health insurance cover both you and/or your family, or by purchasing one of the least expensive options for health insurance available.
Neither of these options were available, or made sense, for my family, so I had to purchase expensive health insurance. This was the biggest barrier to making the jump from being an employee to being full-time with my Amazon FBA business. I had to wait until my business income grew to where it could cover the added cost of health insurance, period.
I estimate I worked at my job 6+ months longer than I wanted, so I could grow my business income enough to cover the cost of health insurance. That’s 6+ months I didn’t experience the life I wanted, and that I had to work at a job I didn’t love, which was very frustrating at the time.
However, I knew the extra effort was worth it, and I’m very happy today knowing I had the discipline to stick to my plan and work toward my goal of making a living through Amazon FBA.
Wrapping it Up
I hope you found this post provided valuable insights into the major good and bad points of life as your own Amazon FBA boss versus being an employee. I think it’s important for anyone thinking about pursuing their own business to know these things in advance so they can be as prepared as possible for the journey ahead.
Interested in learning more about selling with Amazon FBA? See this post for product sourcing locations you can visit today to start your own selling journey.
Want to read about how my business has grown and changed since I first started selling in 2015? See this post here.
Need to know if you have the right tools to start selling? See my full list of tools.