How to create processes for Amazon sellers - a podcast by Michael Veazey

Understanding how to grow a process system can create great opportunities to scale your business in the wider scheme of things.



Reed’s Background

Two decades in the oil patch - processes.



Reed’s first business pursuit was a quality inspection consultant to oil companies on both quality assurance and quality control (which are both different). They are distinct and misunderstood.



Was also tasked with the investigation of deadly industry failures on how grow a process system.



They all went back to one thing which is they failed to follow processes.



Or people followed the procedures correctly but there was a critical error in the processes. A critical task often lacked a checklist.



In the wider scheme of things, rules had to be followed. The only way that could happen was extreme systemisation.



Checklist vs. Procedures vs. Processes - what is the difference? Reed uses them interchangeably. It’s all about building a system.



It all leads to doing things efficiently.

Reed’s Amazon business

In 2014 Reed was looking for a way to get out of the oil patch.



Took lots of courses and found himself in the oil patch with nothing to do so built his business.



Launched first Private Label brand - took off immediately - but ran into issues.



Grew brand in 10 months to $2M in sales but had no processes! So it was a mess.



Ended up hiring a team of smart people to create SOPs. Now the company has well over 700 processes.



Cost about $100,000 to create and refine those processes.



The company came out with a world-class e-commerce business.



Now they can delegate mundane and competitive tasks with minimum expense and time.

Why processes are critical 

Downsides can be huge: 



* Frustrated staff

* Missed deadlines

* Missed opportunities

* Non-compliance with TOS

* Amazon Account Suspension!

* Ultimately it’s a cost

* Also, there is a cost to your personal time



Upsides



* It allowed Reed to branch out from pure e-commerce selling

* Has allowed him to help 100s of Amazon sellers to launch businesses

* It must have a solid foundation

* Reed could develop software programmes based on spreadsheets - four software companies

* Ceiling vs. Potential



 



There’s a $1m ceiling classically without a set of clear processes.



The second you have the system in place, it opens things up.



You can’t grow past $1m without processes.



If you want to outsource, you have to have processes in place. So you can hire people.



Most conversations with Amazon sellers show that the same issue crops up each time:



“What is truly holding your business back?”



The answer is: most of their time is taken up exclusively by mundane tasks.



The rest of the business world is not waiting for you to grow.

“Ecomprocess”

Earlier in 2018, they started this.



took all processes - had over 700 processes and they are selling them.



99% of amazon daily procedures never change!



Reed has well over 700 Processes, broken into small chunks.



NOT “how do I make 30% revenue growth by PPC?”

How do I start creating a process? (ex. No VAs, 30 SKUs)

You can distinguish in two directions:



Do I have no processes grow a process system?



Or do you have a system you’re building out?

If you have no process

The First process is your naming convention!



That’s the basis of how people understand and search and find what they need to know.

Further episodes of Amazing FBA Amazon and ECommerce Podcast, for Amazon Private Label Sellers, Shopify, Magento or Woocommerce business owners, and other e-commerce sellers and digital entrepreneurs.

Further podcasts by Michael Veazey

Website of Michael Veazey