Shownotes
Anna speaks our language, she is a seller. She is also a CPA and really has figured out the right balance to good bookkeeping and the freedom you get from a self employed lifestyle. There is a line and finding the one that works for you is really the key to keeping up with the work. We both believe the prepared seller has the best chance of taking advantage of market and channel changes.
Mentioned:
Anna’s previous interviews: # 98 & #157
Sponsors
Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List
Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)
Stephen: [00:00] Wanted to take a second and recognize my sponsors this week. You know Gaye Lisby million dollar arbitrage as Edge and list group. That’s a mouthful. It is. But guess what. It’s a great opportunity. You know you can build a big Amazon business you don’t need a lot of capital. When you start I mean we all started you know most of us started selling books and then move into retail arbitrage. That is the place that you can turn your money the fastest and online arbitrage. And so by having that skill set by learning those skill sets you can get the best bang for your buck. And so Gase group will help you learn online arbitrage. It’s more than just a list service they’re going to give you a whole bunch of actionable inventory every single day. Right. Monday through Friday. However there’s also a mentor ship that goes on and that mentor ship is so important because sometimes it’s great to know what to buy.
Stephen: [01:00] But it’s more important to understand why to buy it. And it’s that you know learning to fish or just getting fed. You know you really want to learn because ultimately you want to strike it on your own. And this is a great way to do it. So how about seven days free trial a free trial. Right. Very very cool. So it’s amazing freedom come forward slashes the mouthful the word momentum. You got to use a hyphen and you put in the word arbitrage. So it’s amazing freedom come forward slash momentum dash arbitrage and you’re going to get a free trial in game group. You got to tell her I sent you. Right. I also have the link in the episode. But
Stephen: [01:38] it’s such a great opportunity. She is amazing amazing I’m in that group so you’ll see me there an amazing amazing person who’s there to answer your questions who was there to help lead you and help guide you and that’s what Kay does. She does it every single day. The testimonials are real. Go take a look. You will be blown away.
Stephen: [01:56] And again it’s a free trial. I have the link on this episode. Reachin you know Sellar labs Jeff Cohen and the team they have blown me away with this scope project. We use this all the time for our business. We do a lot of private label we also do a lot of wholesale and wholesale bundles you know or multipack that kind of thing which a lot of people do but we use scope to help us figure out what are the key words. And so it’s really simple. You basically figure out where you’re going to sell what you’re going to sell what category find that like product. Find the top couple sellers and find their keywords. Boom magic. There you go. You copy the best because it’s working. And guess what that’s a proof of concept and scope allows you to do that.
Stephen: [02:42] So it’s Sellar labs dotcom forward slash scope Sellar labs dotcom forward slash scope use the code word momentum and you’re going to get a couple days free trial and you’re going to save a little bit of money and you got to get some free keywords. It’s worth every penny. I’m in that group. Come and check me out. Celebes dotcom forward slash scope again use the word momentum. Solutions for e-commerce. Karen Locher great great great group.
Stephen: [03:11] I’ve been using them for a long time and I guess over two years and I’m in there and pages like everybody else. Yes she’s a sponsor my show but she makes me pay. And I got the same 50 dollar discount that you can get. Oh by the way you’re going to get that through my link and my link only. Oh and you’re also going to get the free inventory health analysis. Great way to start 2018 get your inventory in line and Karen will help you do that. We use it for everything. I mean basically you know long term storage fees coming up. Guess what. She’ll evaluate. She’ll make some recommendations. And also check check check take these out this return blah blah blah blah blah.
Stephen: [03:48] And magically it’s done. I love it. Love it. Love it. I love the fact that they take and get rid of stranded inventory for me. I see it in there. And then next time I go in and it’s gone. Love it love it love it. Got an IP infringement. She’s going to help you work your way through that. This is the kind of service that you get from Karen Lockard that solutions for the number 4 e-commerce solutions for e-commerce dot com forward slash momentum. Right. So you got it forward slash momentum and you’re going to save 50 dollars a month six bucks a year by just clicking that link. She pays me. I want to hide that I never do. I’m always upfront about that but it doesn’t cost you anything additional. And you’re going to get that have been Torri Health Report the only way you get that is through mine link solutions. The number for e-commerce dotcom forward slash momentum. Welcome
Cool voice guy: [04:39] to the e-commerce momentum podcast where we focus on the people the products and the process of commerce selling your host Stephen Peters and welcome back to the e-commerce MMN and podcast. This
Stephen: [04:54] is episode 270. Anna Hill now you know that I’ve had an on my show a couple times and the reason I bring her back is kind of become our annual thing is really to close out the year and start the new year and it started out right. And she’s in such high demand I have to wait to get her on now because she’s so popular because she’s a plain speaker she talks your language because guess what she’s a seller. She’s been selling for a long time. She knows what she’s doing. So she knows the ins and outs and that’s why people want to talk with her. And so we’re fortunate to get her back. And man oh man I think we get to such a cool place in a conversation. I
Stephen: [05:32] think you’re really all going to benefit. Let’s get into the podcast all right welcome back to e-commerce momentum podcast.
Stephen: [05:39] Very excited to have my guest back. She’s a repeat.
Stephen: [05:44] And the reason is is because she’s smarter than I am and she’s a nerd. More of a nerd than I am but she’s also cooler than I am I’ll admit that too and a hill. Welcome back. Anna
Anna: [05:54] thank you so much. I’m looking forward to our conversation today and you’re a nerd also.
Stephen: [05:58] I know I’m a I’m a poser of a nerd. Now I’m retired. You know it’s funny. Somebody was just asking me Steve has you know I’m like I have no clue I’m not into it. I don’t want to know. You know please sell in the business or the building and they were like hey would you come back no interest. But thank you I appreciate it. You know let me know how it goes. So this is the kind of become our annual discussion about kind of closing out the year and starting the new year. So this is a couple of weeks into 2018 with this run. But you know obviously you could still close out 2017 and do things right and really set themselves up for a great great year because this is Steve’s premise and correct me if I’m wrong or if you don’t agree but I believe that the changes that are going on are going to continue to accelerate and therefore the prepared are going to be able to adapt that much easier. Is that fair.
Anna: [06:52] Oh I completely agree with you. It’s always been that way. I think that’s just the truth of business in general. But I think you’re right with the Amazon environment changing the way that it is an online sales in general. You just have to run a tight ship and books are really important part of that.
Stephen: [07:07] Well it’s the foundation. I mean it really is. You know in the same it’s in our shared space and you like I will coach them through. Like here send this to your account. This payment goes here and this does this because you know you really want to set up that foundation right. And to make sure that that your books are fairly represented because when you have a viable business matter fact Liron just approached their group. There was somebody who was looking to sell their Amazon business as is a large now relatively large e-commerce business that’s looking to sell and they want some serious money for it. But it’s got serious sales and it’s a private label business established with a lot of products. And yet if they don’t have a good set of books. Guess what. Nobody’s buying them right. Exactly.
Stephen: [07:53] You want to know what you’re buying is sound and the only way you’re going to do that is by looking at a good set of financial statements. All right. So let’s close out 2017 what what what should people be doing now to close out 2017. I understand this is two weeks too late for some people like oh my God I should have done this. Oh my god I didn’t run my reports and I forgot to run my reports on January 31st. I stayed up till 11 58 but man I just couldn’t. I drank one too many and I fell asleep. Does that mean it’s over my books are gone.
Anna: [08:24] No that is an urban legend.
Speaker 8: [08:26] I know. It is a myth.
Anna: [08:27] It’s a myth. I think it used to be true several years ago and are certain reports that can only be run live. However the report that feller’s me that tells them how much inventory is on hand is available. You didn’t get it. Months
Stephen: [08:41] and months later months and months. It’s there forever. It’s in perpetuity. Do you remember the days. No I don’t know how old of an account you were to go back and do a year end inventory and have to work on New Year’s Day. You
Anna: [08:57] know I I didn’t have to work on New Year’s Day but I did work on Christmas Eve for five years that a client who closed for two weeks. They were having their party while we were counting.
Speaker 8: [09:06] Oh that’s me. That’s just me. Yeah that’s just me. No oh we got pizza for you guys. Oh excuse me I got to get back to caviars. Getting
Anna: [09:14] that homemade strength and presence and it was awful.
Stephen: [09:18] And you were there listening. And I have worked so many New Year’s days for ever in it. You know I mean it literally you’re just getting home from the party and you’re going into account inventory. Don’t miss those days now. I mean today’s day and age you don’t need to do that with Amazon either right. So you can run a report today for what happened a couple of weeks ago. OK. So that myth is broken. Now it’s dispelled. So that’s pretty important though right. It’s
Anna: [09:46] very important and I think it causes people stress because they don’t know what the steps are what they need to do to prepare for year end.
Stephen: [09:53] So hopefully that alleviate some people’s worry and I’ll qualify this upfront I’m going to have links to and his group which is a free group to join where she gives away all the secrets she does have some services she offers that she wants to sell. Right. I mean that’s part of it what she does. However all this stuff she gives away for free. You don’t even need to buy it. You just buy time if you want to buy somebody’s services. That’s what she sells. But outside of that she gives you the secrets for free.
Speaker 8: [10:21] Oh yeah. It’s all in the group for free and that’s you see that journal entries for God’s sake. I do. Sir or like how many. OK.
Stephen: [10:31] So we run our reports we get our year end numbers and that’s the end of it. But that’s not the beginning of it. Right. You kind of need the beginning inventory place to start to right.
Anna: [10:41] And a lot of people think well what if I started this year what’s my beginning inventory zero. There is zero. Yes. Because you started with nothing and you got from there. If you don’t know what you’re beginning inventory wise and you’ve been in business for several years or more than one year you can check on your prior years tax return and you will see it on there. So all is not lost. You can get that number from several places if you don’t have it.
Stephen: [11:05] So that’s your starting place right is really last year’s tax return that was the point in time that was a snapshot of your business. That’s your starting place. Then you look at the activity that happened throughout the year and then you have an ending snapshot. And the differences where you build these profit and losses hopefully profits.
Anna: [11:23] Exactly. Yes because your inventory is either available for sale or sold.
Stephen: [11:28] It’s one or the other one of the things that I saw you point out and it’s a valid thing to think about. You know inventory in transit and it’s one of those things that most people don’t think about right. Where is the point of ownership right used to be. I remember that you know back in the old days when I was an old nerd that was a real issue for us. You know who owns the inventory right. Is it you know back then life or free hoverboard. You know all that kind of jazz Terrell forgot. But that was a big deal. So what’s the point that people want to pay attention to here.
Anna: [11:59] Well I think you know assuming that you have ownership of it when you pay for it that would be the point in time I would recognize that because you have given money for inventory.
Stephen: [12:10] So even though it’s on my way I bought it you know week of Christmas week right. I bought I was drunk from the party. I made a purchase it’s on its way but I paid for it.
Anna: [12:22] Yeah I own it exactly because you have you know what people do when they do that is they’re exchanging one asset for another. You have turned cash into inventory. Or if you put it on credit and you have changed you’ve increased the liability to increase an asset. So
Stephen: [12:39] you just want to reflect that properly and that liabilities are important so even if you paid for it with a credit card right and you didn’t pay the credit card bill you’re still on the hook for it. So therefore we say this is the easiest way for people to understand if your business went out of business today. Do you have to pay that bill. Yes. Therefore you owe it. So therefore it needs to go on your books and I think that’s the easiest way to think about that. Who owns it. Right. You know it’s that simple to me.
Anna: [13:03] I like that. That’s great.
Stephen: [13:04] It’s just always you know used to coach all my employees about that. Like if we went out of business today who do we owe money to. Well guess what we need to make sure that that’s recognized under books that’s fair right. That’s reasonable. So we now have built this cost of goods which is this complicated model that and it breaks down in like five steps since like run this report do this do that. And she gives that to you for free. And again I’ll put a link to it there. How about revenue. You know my I didn’t get it 10 99 from Amazon or...