Feb. 1, 2024

Living the dream with Amazon selling expert, author, and co-founder of Riverbend Consulting Lesley Hensell

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Dive into the world of Amazon selling with Lesley Hensell, an expert who turned her need for family support into a successful online business. From the early days of the 'wild, wild west' to the complexities of current Amazon policies, Lesley shares her journey and the birth of Riverbend Consulting. This episode is a treasure trove for anyone looking to start or enhance their Amazon venture, offering insights into avoiding suspensions, understanding the platform's intricate rules, and the real potential for profit beyond the get-rich-quick mirage.
www.riverbendconsulting.com

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> Speaker A>Welcome, um, to the living the dream podcast with curveball. If you believe you can achieve cheat, cheat.

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> Speaker A>Welcome to the living the dream with curveball podcast, a show where I and a few guests that teach, motivate and inspire. Today we're going to talk about selling on Amazon as I am joined by Arthur and co founder of, uh, Riverbean consultant Leslie Hensel. Leslie has been an Amazon seller for ten years. She oversees the service department at Riverbean consultant. Riverbean consultant has around 85 employees and what they do is help solve the problems of sellers on Amazon. So we're going to be talking to, uh, Leslie about the platform and all, uh, that she does and what they can help you with if you are a seller or thinking about becoming a seller. So, Leslie, thank you so much for joining me today.

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> Speaker B>Thanks, Curtis. I'm excited to be here.

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> Speaker A>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

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> Speaker B>So I have been a seller on Amazon since 2010.

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> Speaker B>And that's back when it was the wild, wild west, selling on Amazon. Um, and I actually am one of those classic mommypreneur stories that you hear. I started selling on Amazon because of my family.

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> Speaker B>I had a background in management consulting, but, uh, one of my children was diagnosed with autism and a host of learning challenges. So my husband and I decided to homeschool him. And then it was who's going to homeschool him? Uh, so I quit my consulting job and started homeschooling my kiddo. But we needed money for all of the therapy he was doing. So I started selling on Amazon. And uh, my husband would work all day, come home and take over with the kids and I would source inventory at night and on the weekends we would ship it all to Amazon.

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> Speaker B>Uh, so I really got a great education on how Amazon can help families.

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> Speaker B>And, uh, now my kids in college, uh, so I now have a consulting firm that we help Amazon sellers at all stages of growth. But we are still as a family hustling and have that Amazon side business.

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> Speaker A>Okay, well, my son has autism too. He's high functioning. What do you guys actually sell on Amazon?

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> Speaker B>We mostly sell, uh, health and personal care. So lots of beauty products, lotions, body, uh, sprays, those kinds of things. Um, I like them because they are small and light, which keeps those fees down and the shipping costs down.

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> Speaker A>Okay, well, tell us about riverband consulting and everything that you guys do to help the Amazon sellers.

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> Speaker B>So when you get to a certain size on Amazon, it can get a little more challenging, uh, as you go along and sometimes, uh, Amazon has lots of rules, and sometimes sellers run afoul of those rules, don't understand the rules, so they can have an account suspended, they can have an individual item taken down that they can't sell. We help them to communicate with Amazon, appeal that and get back up and running, keep their account healthy.

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> Speaker B>We also help them with a, uh, real challenge for sellers who are like me. I ship all of my inventory to Amazon.

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> Speaker B>They actually fulfill all of the orders for me. So I'm not shipping orders out, they're doing it for me. Sometimes they lose your inventory or don't receive it. And we help clients make sure that they're reimbursed for any of that lost inventory.

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> Speaker A>Okay, and you also help with suspended accounts, too, correct?

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> Speaker B>Absolutely. So, if your account gets suspended, you need a plan of action, or more importantly, you need an outside eye to figure out why you got suspended, uh, to really understand how to fix your business and not have it happen again. That's where I come in.

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> Speaker A>Okay, well, real quick, off topic, because I know that this is real important to you. You serve with a company, and I don't want to butcher the name, but basically what they do is they do medical research for kids with cancer, and they help fund bone marrow matches. So kind of tell us about that and how you got into that and what's that all about?

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> Speaker B>So, I'm on the board of Halle's heroes. Uh, we're a nonprofit, and we raise money, uh, for kids with cancer. So, like you said, curtis, uh, bone marrow matches are so important, especially for kids with leukemia and other blood cancers.

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> Speaker B>And then we, uh, help fund cancer research for pediatrics and help pay for bills for some families that are struggling because their kids have cancer. So my other son, my younger son had cancer. He had Hodgkin's lymphoma at age eight. He's now healthy, strong, gigantic 16 year old football player. Um, but we had some rough years through that, and since then, uh, our whole family has really been moved to m help in the pediatric cancer community. So we volunteer with Halle's heroes and also with a wish with wings.

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> Speaker B>They're a wish granting organization here in Texas. Um, so, yeah, these families need a lot of support in any way that we can support them. We always recognize we're the luckiest family that was on the cancer ward and need to help those whose medical situations aren't as fortunate.

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> Speaker A>Okay, well, we know that for you, Amazon is a real business and not just a get rich quick scheme. But what would you say to those who wonder about that and know they're going to get rich overnight or some kind of get rich scheme, I love.

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> Speaker B>That question so much, Curtis, because if you go out on Google or on YouTube and you search, how do I make money on Amazon? What pops up are ads for a lot of courses and done for you stores and there's a bunch of guys standing in front of lamborghinis and out on the beach saying, oh, it's just a few thousand dollars and you're going to be a millionaire. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I'm, uh, more in the get rich slow camp than the get rich quick camp.

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> Speaker B>You can absolutely still make money on Amazon, but you have to treat it more like an old school, traditional business where you set up your books, you source good inventory, you look for relationships with people that you can resell their items. Um, there are great ways to make money. Uh, will it make you rich overnight? Uh, no, but I do know a lot of very wealthy people who gained their wealth from selling on Amazon over many years.

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> Speaker A>So tell us about the new book that you just wrote, the Amazon incubator. Tell us all about it and what listeners can expect if they read it and why you decide to write it and how they can get it.

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> Speaker B>Thank you for asking that. So, um, my book is called the Amazon Incubator. Grow your business or hatch a new one. I called it that because I believe Amazon is the best business incubator for small businesses in history. Um, there are so many millionaires who have made their money on Amazon, but also people like me back in 2010, moms and dads, uh, kids in college, people who just need that extra income.

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> Speaker A>Ah.

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> Speaker B>So I wrote the book as an antidote to those really expensive get rich quick courses that I was talking about earlier. It's a$25 book. Uh, so for that small investment, you can look through this book, decide if it's for you and it gives you a blueprint. It's a step by step guide. First you set up your business. Here's how. Now we're going to decide your goals. Now we're going to decide what kind of inventory you're going to sell and how to find it. Um, so I walked you through the process of how to legitimately set up a sustainable, long term business and then grow it to the size that you want for your family and your.

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> Speaker A>Well, you know, things are getting more expensive these days.

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> Speaker A>So people are out there looking for side hustles and businesses. So how can someone know whether selling on Amazon would be something that's good for them or not.

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> Speaker B>I am a huge believer in the side hustle. And I'll tell you what's great about selling on Amazon as a side hustle is that you do have to put in the hours, but they're whatever hours you want them to be, so you don't have to work a certain time frame that some boss is telling you you've got to come in for your second job. That's really difficult. Um, so how do you know if you can make money? Uh, that's a great question. First, you set the goal. I need this much. So I need 2000 more dollars a month to pay off debt or I need $1,500 more a month, uh, to feel like I'm getting ahead, whatever that number is. Um, start doing some practice runs. If you're going to do retail arbitrage, that's where you go find products at stores that you can flip on Amazon. Go out a few times and see what you find. Uh, check out all the items in the store, see what they're selling for on Amazon, see what the difference is, and calculate how many units you would have to sell to make that money. In general, when you're flipping products, you're looking for things that are a third, a third, a third. You spend a third of the money on buying the product and then a third of the money goes to all the fees around the product. And then a third of the money is what is left for you. Um, sometimes it's closer to a quarter, but that's the general model you're looking for. So you want to run, uh, through these models and try and figure out if you can do it.

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> Speaker B>But I'll tell you, I know so many people who make an amazing living on Amazon, but also just use it as a side hustle to make an extra 1000, 2000 a month. Um, that can usually be accomplished in ten or 15 hours a month.

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> Speaker A>There's a lot of books out there talking about this topic. In your opinion, what do you feel that sets your book apart from all the other books out there?

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> Speaker B>So a lot of the books that are available, they only focus on the top line. And if everything goes perfectly, so they focus on revenue. Revenue, revenue.

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> Speaker B>Um, and revenue really doesn't matter. Okay, it does matter, but the number you should really care about is your profit. What is left at the end? If you sell $2 million worth of product, but your expenses are 2.2 million, who cares about that 2 million? You, uh, need to have profit left at the end. So I really focus on making sure that your business is profitable. Uh, that's a big part of it.

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> Speaker B>And also, um, that it's really driven on your goals and what you want to get out of the business. Also, because my background is in suspensions and working with problems at Amazon, I help people set up their business in a way that avoids problems. So the risk part of the equation gets ignored by a lot of people. I help people set up systems and basic processes at the beginning of the business just to avoid having any kind of complications as they proceed in the business. And then if, heaven forbid, something happens, they're going to be super prepared and know just what to do.

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> Speaker A>Well, you've talked about the ways of success on Amazon, but let's talk about how somebody could fail. So hopefully we can help customers avoid the pitfalls.

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> Speaker B>Another really great question. Um, so for me, the number one problem is when folks don't know their numbers. So that means they haven't set up their accounting, set up their books, or even tracked their expenses from the beginning.

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> Speaker B>Uh, same thing I was saying earlier about it doesn't matter how much revenue you have if you don't make money, you also have to put value on your time. Your time is important, and your time is what's making the money in this business. So you really need to track how much you're spending on product and how much you're spending on expenses and then compare that to your revenue from very early on. That way you can figure out, gosh, the products that I'm sourcing really aren't making money. Or actually, these two made a lot more money than these two over here, I'm going to focus on the ones that made more money. So to me, the biggest risk is not understanding your expenses, um, as you go and finding out at the end of the year you didn't make any money. Fortunately, it can be as simple as tracking the numbers on a Google spreadsheet, having, um, an accountant work with you, or like I do, I kind of cheat, Curtis. I take the easy way out. I put all of my business expenses, including when I buy inventory on my business account debit card. So it is really easy to see the money coming in and the money going out.

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> Speaker A>That's pretty much the same I do, same way I do with my vending business. So, speaking of success and failure, in your book, you talk about the blueprint for success.

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> Speaker A>So elaborate for the listeners.

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> Speaker A>More on that.

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> Speaker B>Sure. So, um, one challenge with any kind of new business, something that's new to you or skipping important steps.

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> Speaker B>So I walk you through 13 chapters of the book and each chapter, it, uh, goes in a certain order for a reason. It's kind of the thought process of how to first think through your goals, then establish what you're going to sell, then how to get going on Amazon. Choose your fulfillment method and then how to grow. And with each chapter, at the end of the chapter there's a summary and then there are some thought questions. So if you sit and write down answers to each of those thought questions, at the end of every chapter, you're automatically going to have a mini business plan written and ready to go.

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> Speaker A>So give some best practice tips, things that sellers can do if they decide to get on Amazon to avoid enforcement from Amazon.

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> Speaker B>So number one is something very easy, but that a lot of sellers don't do. You need to have invoices and receipts for all the products you buy to sell on Amazon and have them readily available. Um, the most common enforcement by Amazon is when a buyer says your product wasn't new or when they say that it might have been inauthentic. And the easy way to address that is you just show Amazon your receipts or invoices and say, hey, here it is. I can prove it's brand new. Here's where I bought it. It's legit. Um, but we have a lot of clients who come to us who we ask for these documents and they have to go on a treasure hunt through their email or through their office closet or wherever they kept these documents. So the number one is just to keep really good records of everything you purchase and all of your suppliers information.

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> Speaker A>So tell us about the hardest or weirdest Amazon suspension you've ever won or you've ever dealt with.

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> Speaker B>Oh my goodness. I have a really weird one. That's pretty shocking actually. Um, I had a client who sold in the sports and outdoors category and he was drop shipping. So he was buying from a distributor that he would get the orders and then the distributor would drop ship those orders to the buyers. He uploaded the entire catalog of goods from this sports and outdoors company, which sounds harmless until you flip through the catalog and you see it includes gun parts and hand grenades. So he listed hand grenades for sale on Amazon, which obviously not only violates Amazon policy, but it's illegal. Um, and believe it or not, I sent one appeal letter to Amazon and got him reinstated. I was pretty shocked by that. But uh, he learned a valuable lesson to vet every product before he tries to sell it.

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> Speaker A>Absolutely. Definitely remember that listeners.

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> Speaker A>So tell us about black hats. What are black hats and what should Amazon sellers know about these black hats?

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> Speaker B>So there are bad guys in every industry, and in Amazon land we call them black hats.

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> Speaker B>Uh, just like in computer programming, people who are hackers are black hats since so many of their tricks are done via technology.

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> Speaker B>So black hats are folks who are competing with you and might use some nefarious methods to try and beat you on the platform. Where this really happens the most, though, is in a few categories.

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> Speaker B>Um, so people who develop their own products to sell on Amazon are more likely to be attacked by black hat and in certain categories, such as supplements.

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> Speaker B>Um, there are a lot of supplement sellers out there, and it is a cutthroat business. And so a black hat tactic might be to try and put, uh, prohibited words in your have, uh, you're selling a garlic supplement and they put the word cocaine in your listing. And so obviously Amazon takes it down because you can't sell cocaine. Um, these things do happen. Uh, fortunately, they are fixable. It just causes some disruption in the business for a while.

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> Speaker A>Okay, well, tell us about any current upcoming projects that you or Riverbean consultant are, uh, working on that people need to be aware of.

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> Speaker B>Oh, well, thank you for that. Great question.

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> Speaker B>So we go to a lot of industry events. We're going to several industry events this year. And I would really encourage people who are interested in selling on Amazon.

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> Speaker B>There are a lot of seller conferences out there and they are all over the United States, all over the world too, but a lot in the United States. And so if you start searching, you might find one near you where you can meet other sellers and meet people like me who can really give you a really fast education at these events on how to sell. Um, and the other thing that we're really focused on right now is helping sellers by getting them on some monthly programs that we're offering.

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> Speaker B>So a lot of our clients don't have to worry about their accounts. We do the day, uh, to day work to make sure that they are healthy. Uh, we have a valet service that we're rolling out and that's keeping us really busy right now.

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> Speaker A>Okay, so listeners who are interested in Amazon selling can keep up with everything that you're up to or maybe connect with your company, throw out your contact information.

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> Speaker B>Great. So you can find riverbend@riverbendconsulting.com.

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> Speaker B>And you can find the book at the amazonincubator.com.

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> Speaker B>And then if you have questions about the industry you want to figure out if you really want to sell or not, or you're a seller with a challenge, please reach out to me. I'd love to hear from small businesses and entrepreneurs so you can find me, Leslie Hensel, um, on all those social networks, on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, anywhere.

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> Speaker B>So please ping me.

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> Speaker A>And I would love to start with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on, or just any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

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> Speaker B>So, I know so many people out there, um, all of us, are struggling with high prices right now, and it's easy to feel beaten down on finances.

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> Speaker B>Uh, and I like to be a dealer in hope. Um, and if Amazon's not your thing, I would just encourage everyone to figure out what their thing is. There are still ways to make money and have side hustles right now that can make your life and your family's life better. But, uh, if you're willing to give Amazon a shot, I would really encourage you to learn about it. There are so many great ways that you can make money on your own time and your own terms. So don't let all the bad news in the news cycle out there get you down. Uh, try and get out there and learn something new, and it can bring you a lot of peace.

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> Speaker B>I hope some of you will check out the book or just ping me and talk to me, because I am here to be your cheerleader.

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> Speaker A>Absolutely. Ladies and gentlemen, riverbandconsulting.com is the website. If you know of anybody just looking, uh, for a side hustle or looking to check out Amazon as a side hustle follow rate review share this episode to as many people as possible. If you have any guests or suggestion topics, Cjackson 102 at Cox. Net is the place to send them. As always, thank you for listening, and Leslie, thank you for joining us and sharing your expertise.

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> Speaker B>Thank you so much, Curtis.

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> Speaker A>For more information on the living the Dream podcast, visit www.djcurveball.com.

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> Speaker A>Until next time, stay focused on living the dream. Dream.