Do you have goals for your FBA business?

If you’re like most Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) sellers, you want your business to grow and succeed. That means you’ve got to cover all the basics, of course — offer great products at a competitive price, create good listings, get the word out, etc.

But FBA success also requires other things all businesses should do, activities such as planning, setting goals, and tracking those goals. You might be surprised by how many business owners neglect that part, because they get bogged down in the day-to-day stuff. When they finally look up in six months, a year, or more, they might discover they’re not where they wanted to be.

Don’t let that happen to you. Instead, take some time to work on your businesses, instead of just in your business. Asking yourself these questions can help.

What’s my long-term goal?

Maybe you want to do $1 million in sales, eventually. Or get to a point where you do FBA full-time instead of as a side gig. Or build your business to where you can sell it and retire. It doesn’t have to be a big goal — you could just decide you want your business to provide a comfortable income for you every year.

However big or small your overall goal is for your FBA business, it’s important to define one. Setting a goal can keep you motivated and help you make the right decisions going forward.

What are my short-term goals?

Ideally, shorter-term goals will help you build up to your long-term goal. For example, if you want to do $1 million in sales in 2020, you might set increasing quarterly and yearly goals for the rest of 2018 and 2019. Or you could decide that an expanded product offering will help to meet your big goal and set a goal of adding at least two new products every month.

Short-term goals don’t all have to be directly related to your long-term goal, though. Perhaps you want to set a goal of getting 25 product reviews every quarter — that’s a great goal and one that almost certainly will help your business even if you can’t definitively say it increased your revenue.

What actions do I need to take to reach my goals?

Now that you have a better idea of the results you want, how do you get there? Define strategies and tactics to help you reach your short-term goals because ultimately, those should help you achieve the long-term goal.

Do you need to increase your marketing efforts to meet your new quarterly sales goals? Is it time to research new products to see what would be profitable and add to your bottom line? Would it make sense to move your business in a new direction, such as exploring private labeling? Should you engage with your customers in different ways to make them more likely to leave a review?

There are no wrong answers here — brainstorm as many different ideas as you can, then narrow them to the ones you think will work best. You can always adjust as you go.

What’s next?

Once your goals are set, and you know what you need to do to reach them, it’s best to set up a way to track your progress. Schedule time at regular intervals (weekly, monthly, quarterly, whatever works best for you) to evaluate some key indicators such as revenue, new customers, returning customers, etc. If a short-term goal is hitting $100,000 in sales during Q4, for instance, you’ll want to see how you’re trending each month in Q3. That way you can make changes to your marketing, improve your listings, or take other actions if needed.

We know it’s easy to push things like this aside, especially when it feels like you’ve got a million other things to do for your business every day. That’s why it pays to increase your efficiency wherever possible — and tools such as Avalara TrustFile can help. We’ll take the hassle of sales tax filing off your plate, so you can start thinking more about the future.