It’s so easy to get started in FBA that it’s easy to forget that you need to keep investing along the way to grow and improve your business and strengthen your brand.
If you’re flush after a good Q4 that can make a great time to invest, but it’s important to consider where are the areas that will make the most difference. What’s good for some businesses won’t be relevant to others; and even if you are sitting pretty right now, you probably want to concentrate on one or two key investments rather than take a scatter-gun approach.
If you want to improve your sales
If you are doing quite well but sales could be faster, then there are quite a few areas you could invest. If you’re happy with your products, reviews, and organic ranking, you might just increase your ad spending. You might target your two best sellers to see if you can really take things up a level, or you might want to try boosting some of your slower selling products.
You might also want to invest in your own website, if you don’t have one. This can be used both to sell from (using Shopify), giving you a second e-commerce channel, and to promote your brand through blogs and useful content. It can be worth investing some money in getting a freelancer to do a really good job for you, and providing some scheduled content to refresh the site over the rest of the year.
If you want to utilize your time better
If you’re spending all the time you can on your business and it’s still not enough, investment can help save your time and let you concentrate on adding the most value to the business.
You might want to spend on software, for instance to keep your accounts, or to run your ad campaigns. For subscriptions, if you can pay an annual sub right now you’ll probably save money on paying monthly. This can save you huge amounts of time.
If you want to improve your brand
Sometimes after a few years you look back and think your brand is looking a bit tired. Maybe a new logo could help, in which case go to a good graphic designer and ask for a full package including not just a logo, but preferred fonts and colors to use so that all your communications are well designed and have the same look and feel.
In fact, sometimes the logo isn’t the problem – it’s getting all your photos, text, and packaging to look right. It’s worth arranging some meetings, whether face to face or via Zoom, to talk to a few professionals about what you have at the moment and whether they feel they can add something.
You might also want to think about hiring a copywriter to do some work on your brand story, if writing isn’t something you find easy. A good copywriter can make a big difference.
If you want to expand your product range
This is a good time to source new products to expand your range. Rather than just reinvesting in stock of your existing products, think about the niches that you haven’t addressed and that look profitable. Sourcing the stock now, you’ll have them launched by the end of spring and nicely established in time for next Q4 sales season.
While you’re getting your samples delivered, don’t forget to earn some interest on your money by putting it in an interest bearing account or using a CD ladder.
And don’t forget to invest in yourself
Whether it’s a conference in Las Vegas or putting yourself through an online MBA, or just buying a book to read each month this year, don’t forget that investing in yourself is important.
Think carefully about what is holding you back. Perhaps it’s time you knew more people in the business. Perhaps it’s time you understood social media a bit better. Perhaps it’s time you got out from behind the desk and got your running shoes on!