what is up everyone we have a very
special guest for you I told you guys
that I was going to get a Canadian power
seller and Australian power seller and a
UK power seller this is one of my good
friends Louis 7 he has been gracious
enough to come and talk to us and answer
a few questions as far as you know how a
seller from the australia/oceania new
zealand type area is able to sell on the
USA market and so if you want to give a
little introduction about how you got
into the Amazon FBA world please feel
free and welcome to the show ok thank
you very much I am and moved about 10
years ago to New Zealand and then very
recently have moved full time into
Australia and of non Sydney nice I'm a
chartered accountant and was involved in
property but sold the business and was
looking for something to do watch
youtube videos found this amazing and
then we share something we were both
accountants in past lives and we left
that drudgery behind us so that's a very
good thing and without further ado we
are gonna kick it off because you know
we don't like to ever waste time or have
any fluff so let's get right to the
question so these are the questions that
my students voted we have a lot of
people from Oceania from Australia from
New Zealand from that area of the world
and they want to get started on Amazon
FBA or they are already starting and
they just kind of want to make sure that
they're set up in the best way from a
tax perspective from a business
perspective and things like that so the
first question that we have for you from
the student group is do you have any
recommendations for setting up a company
living in Australia what's the process
you use and like selling in the USA do
you recommend setting up like an LLC or
an equivalent in Australia or do you
recommend setting one up in the USA
that I was cleverer than Amazon I think
so I started out by setting up an LLC in
the United States one of these things
where everything was like like I came up
with the US address which forwarded post
to me in in New Zealand and a US
telephone number which forwarded the
telephone number to me in New Zealand
and you know and I did that first and I
can talk about that but what I want to
say is that there was just a bad idea
okay
there was no reason to do it because all
along you have to be providing proof of
address at every step along the way
where they did in the freight forwarding
whether you dealing with Amazon people
want to know are you real where are you
what's your bank account and and the
more kind of not real it is the harder
it is and there was no reason to have a
US company a u.s. LLC right the only
reason I did that was because when I
started looking for products I thought
that I could actually find some service
in America in the states that would sell
to me and would only really feel
comfortable selling to a US company and
that's kind of I think why I did it but
but now I'm not doing that in the world
of doing 100% private label and I would
recommend fully to anyone that you must
do a Australian company so how do you
actually have the company set up then in
Australia or is it in New Zealand like
do you want to give some specifics on
the best way to set that up for people
who are you know based in New Zealand or
Australia and are wanting to sell in the
USA okay so is two different things the
one is setting up a company that you can
do anything with because the sitting in
USA is any part of what the company does
the company's gonna have a bank account
on the company's gonna be buying stocks
from factories in China or whatever
right and how many do Marcel in other
countries what I mean States so you've
got a company you set it up online and
it's
it's very very simple you can do it for
example in New Zealand you can do it
just just online same since Australia
I've since I've moved from New Zealand
to Australia I've just clicked on one of
New Zealand's but you set up online you
connect yourself as a director you need
to proof of their dress then once you've
got that set up you then go and open up
a bank account right which is equally
easy process in Australia New Zealand
unlike other parts in the world it's
very very straightforward with your
company documents you get your bank
account details right for Amazon your
company your bank account
everything has to tie up you know that
your bank account address yes to match
your bank statement your address in your
bank statement has to match your address
that you tell Amazon this way you live I
think it's very very difficult if you're
not using real okay
so then that kind of leads us into the
second question that my students had
which was how did you set up your bank
account living in Australia but selling
in the USA market and it sounds like
it's pretty it's pretty easy to do that
if you do have a Australian LLC is that
the case yeah right and you saw strain
you know on their list and if you know
analysts are cons picture but if you're
on that list what that means is you
don't need any you is anything right you
I'll get to the ein later that's the
sort of us in port number that as far as
bank accounts you just use your regular
Australian bank account regular
Australian address business address
Australian GST number and you just
interval that information into Amazon
USA okay and for those of you who are
you know not on the Amazon
country list or you don't know about
that we actually did a YouTube video
about you know which countries out there
in the world are do allow you to use
your native bank account on Amazon and
which countries allow you to use a
service called Payoneer
so if you are questioning about that if
you do live in a different country then
make sure you check out the video about
international sellers on our YouTube
channel we go through all of that and
how to figure out whether or not you do
qualify so the third question that my
students have for you is how do you
handle taxation living in Australia but
selling in the USA market and you know
that being said we know you're not
giving tax advice or anything like that
we just want to know kind of your
thoughts on it and your insights okay so
these two parts of text there's GST and
then there is income tax okay
GST is you are supposed to pay GST in
the States in your state that you have
Nexus in and I don't know if you've done
that sort of stuff but with you you're
going to that right brother or wherever
you have your inventory Amazon gives you
the list of states that you have to pay
GST - and that's what you should be
doing am i doing that the answer is no
and I think a lot of FBA sellers also
don't just because it it's it seems like
it's a great big mess especially living
overseas and and and if Amazon got their
ducks in a row that they would just
start taking the GST from us on behalf
of the IRS right they but they're not so
that's GST okay then it depends on how
closely you you know follow all the
guidelines but there is a not in New
Zealand that in Australia there is a
legal or tax or argument that says well
you have to paint GST in Australia so
these sales that you doing in America
and a not other so but but you you know
everybody must do what they want to do
she's concerned I don't pay any GST out
on any of the sales but neither am i
that's stupid - then try and claim GST
input you know so that your gonna give
refunds
so I'm kind of just negligible from
plummeting but all the way around then
in context which is then I pay income
tax historically when I lived in New
Zealand they income tax on any money
that came into New Zealand and now I'm
in Australia I'm gonna pay income tax
Australian income tax on any income that
comes into Australia what is the income
that comes into Australia every two
weeks when Amazon pays you and that
money goes into your registered
Australian bank account then their
chances money coming in whichever
accounts off 20 years whatever you use
you you you'll then that's the money in
that you pay tax on right but then
obviously all your expenses such as
buying of inventories or factories
advertising on Amazon all that sort of
stuff all your expenses are deducted
against it and then you paying tax which
is what you say right
okay cool so thank you that that does
answer our question and I think a lot of
other people are kind of like that
whether you're in the USA as well right
taxes are very complicated for the most
part it boils down to Nexus where you
owe specific state taxes to and whether
or not you know if you sell one unit in
Rhode Island are you really going to
file a state return how you're
technically supposed to on that you know
fifteen cents of Taxation that you do
owe right so it's all risk versus reward
we do recommend that you talk to your
CPA or you know an accountant in some
way but it is nice to hear kind of voice
and yeah hopefully your accountants
aren't us because we don't want to be
accountants anymore so hopefully you
have accounts that actually want to be
accountants so the next question that we
have for you is have you ever sold in
any other markets besides the USA and if
not or if so tell us about it and then
also how do you kind of feel about
Amazon coming to Australia so I was the
second person to find that inflatable
each
some couch of the lambs lack inflatable
calyx and I push the thing over in China
to get these inflatable beach bags and
then by the top the Chinese truck check
my order ready to ship
I've been realized on Amazon that they
were like ten thousand sailors and never
compete and I paid way too much and I
made a decision at that point to bring
the infantry to my house which was a
thousand so on the one hand I made a bit
of money and it certainly can work but I
think you have to kind of specialize and
if you're gonna go Shopify roots and
sealant in New Zealand you know doing
shop and scented expose you know South
Australia you can do that but I'm
finding I'm not doing it I'm not doing
it out of choice all right so that's two
important lessons for anyone watching
right about the beauty of amazon FBA
taking the kind of grunt work drudgery
of actually fulfilling things yourself
right if you have heavy things obviously
it gets much worse and the second lesson
for people right there's always a way
out so even if you you know you do your
due diligence to do everything right you
get the product into the Amazon FBA
warehouse and then you know some
external factor changes and you can't
sell it on Amazon there usually is a way
out you
have to be resourceful like Luis was and
you'll be a-ok if you're willing to put
the work in shipping out 12 inflatable
couches per day so the next question we
have for you is about currency
conversion so kind of talk about how
does it work living in Australia having
a bank account in Australia but getting
paid in USD from your customers
obviously that are paying in USD in the
United States
first of all everything can work let's
talk on getting money in Amazon pays
into your bank account in Australian
dollars they give you a conversion rate
themselves and I guess maybe when I'm
big and grown up and I've got thousands
of Amazon accounts and hundreds of stuff
maybe I could then start looking at hold
on is that exchange rate really good
enough and is there maybe a more
efficient way but certainly for now it
works and it's the cost of doing
business and it's the cost of selling
into the u.s. living in Australia I
imagine that the Ellison exchange
charges but the money arrives in master
bank accounts of an Australian dollars
like no okay then you know you have to
pay are to factories I use factories in
in China India and estates and and you
have to pay in US dollars so your bank
in Australia you can do online banking
you can make the online payment to to
the to the you know in US dollars
overseas it can be a bit expensive doing
it through your PIN and so I'll make use
of a company called high effects and
char effects calm and basically they
just come like an intermediary where you
pay locally into their bank accounts and
then you've set up the instruction that
then was paid in u.s. dollars somewhere
in a particular country and the fees are
just a bit less but but I'm yeah it's
just the cost of doing business
okay yeah right so there are ways to you
know try to minimize that we will talk
about that
next kind of interview with the UK
gentleman because he doesn't like losing
even that half percentage so he's going
to talk about his little method to kind
of get around that so if you guys are
interested check out that other video
but for now we're gonna move on what 23
hours a day in those 23 hours if you're
gonna be focusing on things like
exchange charges yeah you've got to get
your first product in it's so hard and
it's so difficult you know and if you're
gonna be stuck on these little things I
guarantee you you're not gonna get your
product in and it's not gonna work yeah
kind of hitting there get going and then
you use that kind of Japanese cars in
forever improving and yes next month
maybe you're gonna trim a half a percent
off your charges and the following month
you can trim another half a percent but
but I wouldn't you know I wouldn't even
think about it tens of thousands of
dollars coming in every month from
Amazon USA you know before we start
focusing on it right yeah and that's a
obviously a great point and well said
and I have nothing to add to that focus
on getting a product in focus on finding
the right product focus on getting it up
right you're gonna learn as you go and
you just take it from there if you focus
on the little stuff you'll get bogged
down you'll get overwhelmed and you'll
never do it you'll never leave that
cubicle as an accountant like I force
myself to leave um and Louis so the next
question for you is were you were you
profitable at first on your first
product or did it take you several
products become profitable how long were
you selling on Amazon before you could
do it full-time I'm lucky in business
and I had capital and I gave myself one
year to get profitable and so I started
on Amazon full time with no experience
and I was very lucky
you know because I was able to get it
yep straightaway I took the approach
that said I'm not
going to try and find this diamond
product that is going to sell 500 units
a day and I'm gonna market research it
to death and do all that sort of stuff
for a few reason the money that I'm kind
of scared of having a great product like
an amazing product
everybody's gonna be on my back
everyone's gonna be trying to hijack me
copy me do it better than me Amazon's
gonna try and take over take it over so
kind of just maybe be we're having this
amazing product and so if you could have
a product that sells 500 a day or if you
could have the headspace to be able to
control and coordinate 500 different
products each selling one a day you're
gonna make a ton of money man don't
stuff up in there if you're gonna try
and only sell one a day you're gonna
have so much inventory that the one a
day is gonna take you 10 years to sell
art so but can't just make sure that
your inventory levels are okay but I'm
kind of in the school of thought that
says I'd rather sell 30 you know there
was that the whole jungle Scott you go
you gotta you gotta sell 30 and you know
whatever it is I I I did it the other
way around I said I'd rather sell 30
products doing one versus one doing 30
provided you get your inventory levels
right don't sit with 10,000 units which
you're gonna sell want to death row then
you might strike it lucky and hit a
diamond you know I'll give the products
that you really do it and that's kind of
what tempered with me products that I've
never thought in many years were
actually gonna sell well I'm not doing
quite well right so how have things been
profitable I would say within a year I
was breaking even and what I call
breaking even means that it was paying
for my living expenses I was not
creating wealth
I was just everything that I was getting
I was spending four
delivering food right back so within
about six months I got to the point
where it was paying me a salary and I
could look right but that's not where I
want to end I mean I want to create
wealth and and so over and above
breaking even meaning not the business
breaking even my lifestyle breaking even
open above you know living hand-to-mouth
I want to I want to be able to create
you know bringing my money right and so
we're gonna we're gonna mention that
Luis has three private jets and two
Ferraris so his lifestyle you know takes
a little bit of money to keep up with um
but it's Anna makes a few important
points right talking about inventory
forecasting we talked about that in the
course if you follow any of the stuff
that I do on YouTube we talk about the
fact that we're not looking for that
product selling 500 today it brings too
much competition too much you know
everyone saw what happened with the
fidgets right and now the people that
jumped in on that too late have you know
5,000 10,000 in stock and they're not
selling at all right so we'd rather have
a product in the 5 to 15,000 a month
revenue range right in the 10,000 give
or take profit per month range just to
keep you know too many eyes off of you
but to keep it worth your you know your
while actually putting in the work to
create that infrastructure and you know
a point that Louis is you know he's
being very humble but a point that he's
not mentioning is you know once you kind
of do the upfront work for these
products the downstream profitability
and you know reiterated income is
significantly less work than it was
upfront right so all of these products
that he put the work in to set up now
are basically creating passive income
for him allowing him to create these new
opportunities for himself right and so
of my day I'm spending maybe 90 percent
of my day on new products right exactly
it's like so I'm spending 10% of my day
servicing my annuity income exactly and
that that right there everyone should
think about 10 times because that is the
beauty of amazon FBA
building the infrastructure building the
equity right building the barrier to
entry for these products through reviews
through you know that PageRank and
keyword rank and kind of the grandfather
nature of you know historical aged
products that you know we are building
adding these products to our portfolios
as time passes so the next question we
have for you we you mentioned earlier
you kind of knew that I was going to
bring it up
do Australian sellers require an EIN and
if so how does this work and what is the
business structure you recommend which
you get from the IRS so when I initially
did it I was trying to have this facade
of having a US company of different
accounts on Amazon and one more recent
ones from Australia no I never asked for
it it just Amazon question it just said
all your reasons in America the answer's
no give all your Australian text details
and a passport correct again and you
were do they require a passport in that
case or not yes you know you need to
prove who you are and you can't get away
from that and that's why I found if you
do it anything other than exactly how it
is it's it's it's impossible
so the Amazon will require a copy of
your passport and copy of some sort of a
proof of address which will be a bench
statement in Australian accent all right
cool so yeah it's not as complicated as
people think right again don't let
yourselves get bogged down by the
details right nothing can stop you as an
Amazon FBA seller nothing can stop you
getting away from that nine-to-five job
and kind of getting the free
that everyone you know is working
towards so the next question we have for
you is what would you tell yourself what
would you tell yourself knowing what you
do now if you were just starting out
selling on Amazon FBA again number two
is you you you have to take ownership of
your own decisions because the end of
the day you you're caring you're
carrying the can set so so if somebody
will say to you you have to do this on
your listing they would not it's not
they're not going to lose money you lose
money you have it's it's you it's sorry
and keep going you want to find a
product that is just sweetest product
there is thousand dollars a month and
you want eight or ten of those products
and you you set up profit you know and
you just keep looking for it there right
okay yeah so I mean those are those are
great those are great points obviously
right and he's being conservative again
a thousand dollars profit a month is
very doable for products and you know
whether you're kind of going about the
path trying to find that one product
that's you know generating the three
thousand five thousand even ten thousand
dollar range versus finding ten products
that do that one thousand dollar range
you know you're going to be okay either
way so another point that you know I
think is important to touch on is the
seasonality of products and the
importance of q4 right so for a lot of
sellers out there including me and I'm
sure I'm not gonna speak for you but I
would assume including you
you know people are doing
fifty percent or more of their annual
sales during just q4 would you say that
that is accurate for you and could you
talk a little bit about Q for Q for
Jesus what I think about I've been
getting mad for q4 worried for about the
last two months and I remember a quote
that somebody just left in a Facebook
group in January this year where he said
note to self
when planning next year's q4 inventory
work out accurately what you're going to
need multiply by ten and you'll thank me
you know let's just stuck with me and
them so it's a - two things happen in q4
well it's a three things even happen in
q4 I sold out a brand on the end of
November in my best-selling products and
then people sell out all the way through
December but if you think when people
actually are doing their Christmas
shopping they're doing it in that
between the 15 18th of December almost
the 20th of December and points it can
get so close to December that only
Amazon can ship it in time and even if
you brought it yourself at the mall you
wouldn't get it to you your owns or or
whatever that you want to send a gift
you and so come there last week of
December there are a few things and play
number one everybody else is sold out so
if you were one of 10 sellers each of
you were we're selling a hundred a month
so so if you're a regular sinner and
there's this 10 of you and all 10 of
yours
come Christmas two things are happening
number one seven or eight of those
sellers of chicken diets not ordered
enough stock and they're sold out then
there's not ten of you trying to sell to
the buyers there's only two or three of
you and the buyers are not buying a
regular amount they're buying that five
or six or seven times more and if you're
brave enough to have the stock then
you're gonna be selling fifteen or
twenty times more than what you're
knowing yourself right it's a gift
product not not not not like a thousand
products in health that there's no
there's no queue for you know I saw some
products in an office office and in
stationery and things like that and
there's no queue for things but but but
a regular a regular gift you you just
have to literally put the house on it
and I mean that's what I've done I've
I've gone to the bank with a business
plan I said this isn't these are my
numbers I suspect that I'm gonna be
selling twenty or thirty two arms these
numbers in those final weeks of the year
and I need finance to to bar the
inventory now in july/august
to ship it in right right yeah and it's
I mean until you experience q4 as a
seller you don't you can't possibly
understand right so if you have gift
oriented products which again if you
follow any of the stuff I talked about I
always preach that you should you know
be focused on gift oriented products
your return rates are incredibly lower
just because of the taboo of returning a
gift right and then the seasonality of
different holidays right there's a ton
in America Mother's Day Father's Day
Valentine's Day you know Halloween
Christmas Thanksgiving all of them right
q4 is just unbelievable and until you
experience it you can't really truly
understand but take it from Louis you
know 10 to 20 times what you're normally
experiencing is definitely not unheard
of and it's definitely possible to do so
okay so two more questions from the
students and then we will let you go we
know we've taken up some of your time
already so could you recommend software
you use to track your profits and
expenses and to prepare for taxes and do
you do you have a recommendation for an
accountant
/tpa living in Australia so so so I make
use of 0x er oh it's coming online
accounting software
it came tired with Amazon if you wanted
it to meaning every single cell you make
on Amazon actually gets accounted for in
Xero as the sale of the invoice number
which is just a crazy idea whoever would
think of doing that really crazy cuz
you're dealing with thousands of cells
and so it's so I just account for my
it's my accountant soccer but but but I
do make use of stand-alone software to
help me account for and run my Amazon
business I'm making use of forecasting
software called for costly and and
that's it that's been working well for
me trying to think what other accounting
software so how do you actually export
data like how do you get data into Xero
are you manually you know entering
totals or what do you what exactly are
you doing for the people out there who
don't have experience doing this
themselves zero it's very very easy and
because what it does is it connects
directly with a bank feed you just you
know just you just do it online and it
connects to your bank accounts your
Australian bank account and so what that
means is any money that comes in or any
money that goes out who needs to be
explained what that is that explaining
is the accounting of it and so zero is
going to say to you what is this ten
thousand dollars from the US you know
well that there to money from Amazon
okay you know inside it you're
accounting for your cash coming in and
you account for your character or not
and the difference between the two is
you know your profits and inserts it's
quite straightforward it's not it's not
hard that don't you don't
stuck on there especially in the
beginning if you don't even wanted to
products you can account for it just not
a piece of paper I mean you're gonna
place them an order for a factory I mean
yeah you know you don't need a piece of
software to tell me that you've placed
in water to ten thousand dollars you
know you're gonna have to pay it and
ship it and so don't get don't get you
stuck on the account okay as far as a
CPA guys any CPI can can help you I
would avoid going for someone that's
like an expert in Amazon or something
okay because that just probably sounds
expensive because this is just living in
Australia selling stuff affected its
American basis either your money that
you're coming in is what your credit
excellent
okay and so they actually might suit
inside another question kind of a kind
of a small one but you know important
nonetheless do you kind of make use of
any credit card bonuses because you know
we as Amazon sellers we have a huge
amount of expenses right with PPC and
everything could you talk about that for
a New Zealand or Australian based folks
how they can make it take advantage of
those you know delicious credit card
points only if you promise me that once
you've already got products selling you
know you're not building your Amazon
business thinking about how am I going
to make money in Krita course because
that's you know that's that's not that's
not where the money is right of course
the final product in the products then
yes I I do as much as possible use my
credit card I use PayPal as much as
possible and and the same credit card is
on paper and you earn points and this is
my accountants coming out the points I
don't get converted to my kind of
investments with the Bank luck
you know new at ease at the bank and so
I'm saving for my retirement by using my
credit card so the one very golden rule
that everybody must do is make sure that
they're advertising sponsored at
is charged to the credit card and not to
the Amazon account that's number one
right well but then don't be stupid in
trying to put too much on to your credit
card because when you pay with your
critical little excited using PayPal you
you're paying quite a higher fee and so
on the one hand you might be making a
half a percent of a bet that you're
gonna end up paying of three or four
percent fee no than if you just do the
wire transfer right and there's a kind
of a break-even point in my calculations
it's a thousand dollars u.s. and so if
something is under a thousand dollars
you can pay for it on PayPal and that's
the best way to do it but as soon as
things get more than a thousand dollars
like a factory of some poor or like a
deposit or something like it in I'm
using my hire fix wire transfers okay
okay cool
so that is the end of our questions
thank you so much again for coming on
I'm sure a lot of Australian and New
Zealand based sellers are very
appreciative of it if you have you know
just one kind of maybe the biggest
mistake you've made or you know just an
insight that you've learned recently
that you want to kind of give people as
like a closing note just to kind of
insight some of your wisdom on us you
know it can be anything whether a
mistake or something that you've learned
recently or something just to kind of
leave us on the old New Zealand Aussie
happy note I guess that my mind is that
you can't market research a product - -
- tisha - to be absolutely sure you have
to have the heart and the tolerance to
take a little bit of a risk and you have
to order as lower quantity as possible
on as many different products as
possible and layering you will find what
is actually selling right and so I would
I would urge that to anyone instead of
buying ten thousand of one try and buy
twenty different products five hundred
units at you know yes you're gonna pain
worshipping yes you're gonna pay more
everything but they're in your you'll
find your little golden nugget you know
all right yeah and you know the the
moral of the story I heard there is you
know fine somebody who is an expert at
product research you know I'm not saying
me but you know somebody out there who
can teach you you know how to do your
due diligence and take as much of the
risk out of it as possible and then you
know go for small mo cues and you know
sample a bunch of different products
reinvest quickly in the ones that work
and just let the ones who that don't you
know kind of sell themselves out slowly
and basically scale your business from
there so thank you so much again Luis we
do appreciate it I'm sure that we
probably will get a lot of questions for
you so I will maybe provide Louis's
contact information until he gets
overwhelmed by the questions and maybe
we could have him on the show again so
thank you so much Luis and we will talk
to you again soon okay
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