In this article, let’s learn from FBA Makayla as we go through her Amazon journey.
Today, I’m super excited to share with you an interview with someone who I recently met at the Miami Seller’s conference, who is smashing the wholesale game on Amazon. But we’re going to talk about in particular how they’ve done it and also what goes on in the financing side of it, while also sharing tips and tricks that will hopefully help you to reach the heights that her business has reached.
Suppose you’re interested in what someone who has a successful Amazon wholesale business has to teach about her journey and the technicalities of getting to where she is today, along with some lessons that will help you in your Amazon journey. In that case, read on!
Topic Rundown:
- Who is FBA Makayla?
- How many hours did FBA Makayla spend sourcing to achieve $120,000?
- What is FBA Makayla’s long-term goal?
- What is FBA Makayla’s ideology about letting go of control of her business?
- What made FBA Makayla change her business model?
- How did FBA Makayla develop a great business relationship with her VAs?
- How did FBA Makayla handle the 180s throughout her Amazon journey?
- FBA Makayla’s advice to other people
Who is FBA Makayla?
Makayla is a citizen living in the Midwestern region of the USA in Ohio. She had only started selling on Amazon last year, while only 24 years old. Her entrepreneurial journey started in the Facebook marketplace and continued to eBay, where she sold for around 4 to 5 months.
At some point in her career on both platforms, she wanted to explore other revenue streams which were more sustainable and market crashes wouldn’t affect as much that she experienced in her time selling GPUs on the Facebook marketplace. A friend of Makayla’s was, at the time, selling on Amazon, which piqued her interest and allowed her to explore what Amazon had to offer.
She had started once before on Amazon but had difficulties getting ungated, so she gave up. Fortunately for her, she had a chance to enter a mentorship group that taught her and led her down the path she is on today.
What business model is she using right now?
Originally, when she first started, she was doing Online Arbitrage. As time went on and her business grew to where it was, she decided to go wholesale. She managed to reach $1,500,000 in her first 12 months.
Why did she decide to move into wholesale from online arbitrage?
Her transition was in September 2022, and she didn’t place her first order until October of that year. Makayla decided to switch over to wholesale because she noticed that she kept hitting $120,000 every month in revenue, which made her realize that if she took the right step forward, it could mean a spike in her revenues, which she realized the correct step forward would be wholesale.
What are the operations behind her business look like currently?
In the first 6 months of her business, she had experienced having a virtual assistant but was on and off. She didn’t have a prep center at first, all her family did the prep in-house. Her first experience with going and dealing with an actual prep center was in June or July 2022.
She did $60,000 to $70,000 of sales from her home. Now, she owns her prep center, named the Oregon Prep Center. Currently hired 3 virtual assistants mainly focused on wholesale.
How many hours did FBA Makayla spend sourcing to achieve $120,000?
At first, she didn’t put a lot of effort into sourcing in the first 4 months of her business. But once the revenue started to roll in and the results came back from the proof of concept, it was a big shock to her. She wasn’t doing online selling full time. Makayla never had any intention of selling on Amazon as a full-time job.
She was set on becoming a doctor, and eventually, when she saw the opportunity and the doors waiting to be opened at Amazon, she took the step forward and did at least 6-8 hours daily to source, only to source products. When she worked, she worked all day. Even on weekends, she wanted to either spend her time sourcing or prepping. There were no rest days. When she had time, she was putting it into her business, making it grow.
What is FBA Makayla’s long-term goal?
Makayla works 7 days a week because she sees the long term, she wants to retire young. She wants to be able to enjoy her good health as much as possible. If you wait until you’re in your 60s to 70s, you’re not going to be able to enjoy it much. That’s why she does everything that she can to help her goal of retiring early and living off of assets and not working anymore.
What is FBA Makayla’s ideology about letting go of control of her business?
When she decided to switch from OA to wholesale, she knew that at some point; she wanted to remove herself from the business. To work on the business, instead of working inside of it. She wanted to pursue other, bigger ventures. If she kept up her work schedule and shifted to wholesale, she’d be able to eventually phase herself out of the work side of the business and benefit from the free time that would allow her.
Makayla admittedly says that the first VA she hired when she first started doing wholesale is a lucky break for her. There is no substitute for actual knowledge and experience. You need to know what you’re doing and have a good idea of how to teach skills to a new hire. You can’t teach someone you don’t already know how to do. This VA in particular helped her in so many ways and taught her as much as she taught them, both learning from each other. This VA had experience running a seven-figure store, which greatly helped them both in conducting Makayla’s business.
Finding trustworthy and dependable VAs and forming a good team around them is her goal for allowing the business to run on its own without having her constantly watch and micromanage everything in her business. Which is helping her ultimate goal of having the business run itself, and her reaping the benefits of building the structure and foundation which allows that to happen.
8 Things I Learned from FBA Makayla about Reselling on Amazon
Growing to a 7 figure Amazon seller despite her medical issues, FBA Makayla is a tenacious spirit. We chat about her career pivot from healthcare to entrepreneurship and how that has worked out for her with a diversified business portfolio.
How did FBA Makayla develop a great business relationship with her VAs?
It was all about communication; being honest and open, and trusting the individuals. Some people will track their VAs and see what they’re doing and everything. But Makayla has a philosophy that if she can’t trust them, then they have no part in her business. FBA Makayla builds her business from values like trust, honesty, and hard work.
Where are her VAs from and why are they different?
In the Philippines, the way she treats her employees by telling them that she is not above them in any way. She doesn’t like for herself to be seen as a ‘superior’. She sees every individual as part of the team. There is no “I” in “team”. They’re all in this together. They are a collective, and not one individual is worth more than the other.
How did FBA Makayla handle the 180s throughout her Amazon journey?
The first 180 she went through was going from almost all OA to wholesale within a few months. She is currently 100% wholesale. Though Makayla does still have some OA inventory that she’s still selling through, she hasn’t purchased anything OA since mid-December of last year.
It's scary, but once you kind of have that in your head, it's a risk, but a risk you’re willing to take to reach your goals and aspirations. Taking the risk is what it all boils down to.
The second 180 she went through was when she decided that she didn’t want to sell apparel anymore. She shifted to doing more grocery and decided that would be her new niche. Makayla thought that it would do well, but fate had other plans for her business. It didn’t work out the way that she had hoped. She was doing okay, but she wasn’t used to the pace that grocery items sold for. She was accustomed to items selling fast, where the profit margins were really good.
The recent 180 that she experienced was shifting from grocery, to finally where her niche is currently Electronics.
FBA Makayla’s advice to other people
When she first started her Amazon business, she had $10,000 worth of cash that she earned from her eBay business. She recommends that when you first start, play with your own money and don’t create debt for yourself without actually having money to spend from your pocket.
The last thing you want is for you to open up a multitude of credit cards and not be able to pay a single one of them. Use your own money first, and get a proof of concept before diving into actually using credit cards. Once you’ve managed and learned good money management skills, you’re picking the right products, then you can move on to a business credit card.
What did you learn from FBA Makayla?
You can follow her journey by following her at Instagram and Twitter profile. You can also subscribe to her YouTube account to be updated on what's going on in her Amazon business.
If you still want to learn more from other Amazon sellers. We got you! Check out our previous articles about Romer the Roamer, Raiken Profit, The Gravy Train, Scott Needham, Checkmate Flips, Fields of Profit, Gavin Sweeney, Jonny Smith, Flips4Miles, Clear The Shelf, Oliver Flips, Taylor Jones, 1000 ASINS, and lastly Soros to know more about online arbitrage and their Amazon journey.