Selling on Amazon can be a great source of income. It can be a full time job or a second hand hustle.
But whether your selling on Amazon or driving for Uber, if you are not being efficient then you are losing money.
In the beginning, everyone is trying to figure out what sells on Amazon and what are the best tools to use in order to make the process easier. But most are not thinking about their environment as they are selling.
You could be living in an apartment or a house, either way…your work area is super important when it comes to maximizing your productivity.
In this article we wanted to spotlight one Amazon seller in particular.
He spent a good amount of time thinking through his workspace and the productivity gains he would realize from it.
Meet Bradley Miller and his new garage work space.
Selling on Amazon Garage Layout
The first thing Bradley did was layout his garage on paper and in the photograph. It helps to have a vision of what the space is going to look like before you buy your first piece of wood or swing your hammer.
He planned for optimal room in his space and also thought through all of the different aspects of listing products on Amazon and the different “stations” he would need in this assembly line.
By the way, this is exactly what Amazon does in their fulfillment center warehouses.
After he had a good plan he set out to the hardware store to buy the wood he needed.
He went with 2x3s because 2x4s might have been a little overkill for the space and the books that he will be selling. It’s also a lot harder to drive nails through or drill. KISS (Keep It Stupid Simple)
Other than plenty of flat working space, Bradley knew that the right scale and good height placement was super important.
Selling on Amazon Computer Setup
The computer is where all the magic happens. Whether you are listing products, doing box content or just researching prices…you are much better off having a fast computer and an easy ergonomic set up.Bradley went with dual monitors, dual Dymo printers, a stand mounted scan gun (super important), a laser printer and a Mac mini-printer.
Holy office porn!
Flat boxes and more…
With the workspace defined, clean and flat surfaces present, computers humming and ready to be used…we can now move on to some of the supporting equipment around the garage.
In Bradley’s case he went with a simple tower solution made from quick and easy plastic build blocks to get a great height stack and allow for plenty of storage for boxes and misc items.
These can be picked up from almost any Home Depot or Lowes in your local area.
In addition to the storage tower, he had room and optimized some remaining space for a simple flat table as a section to organize and “pre-condition” his books into piles.
This is a crucial section as you may want to bring in a family member or even an employee to help you scale up your MF or FBA book business.
Tricks of the trade
It wouldn’t be a book selling workspace without sneaking in a few of the industry tools that library and retail book stores use to help them sell more books.
One of the staples of our industry we’ve all seen around our local libraries is the rolling book cart or the mobile book bin
These are great because you can stand books up on their ends and can roll the entire bin around your garage with it’s caster wheels. This makes productivity peak as you can sort and separate books and bring them to you versus having to dedicate one particular space for them.
Another AccelerList customers garage workspace…
The planning here from our customer Frank Mann was even more detailed. Frank opted to use a professional 3D design software to ensure he got it right.
In this first photo you can see he’s has lowered space to accommodate his box scale and he’s even tucked his laser printer away and under his flat working space.
Frank also has plenty of flat working space to stak his books and sort products effectively.
Also included in his design is plenty of workspace for his Merchant Fulfilled books as he’s created a ton of book shelf area to hold his inventory.
In both of these layouts you will notice that the work area has been designed for optimal efficiency. This is exactly how Amazon got started…one small workspace at a time…then warehouses and then cities!
What does your garage workspace look like? Are you ready to plan out your garage and maximize your selling energy?
