How is your time on your Amazon business truly being spent?
Do you know? Are you doing tasks on a day-to-day basis that are less than your "hourly wage"? (To get a rough idea of an hourly wage, take your business profits from the last year and divide by a 40 hour work week). Anything that's less than that hourly wage (within reason) should be cut out or given away to someone else. It's a good practice to actually keep a written log of everything you do in a week. You'll be surprised at all the things you do that are low value tasks that can be outsourced. One of my favorite books on this subject is Mike Michalowicz's Clockwork. Check it out. If you're looking for an app that helps with this kind of stuff, check out Toggl.What kind of tasks are you doing in your Amazon business that are below your hourly wage?
If you're doing them, you're lighting money on fire.Here's some low-value tasks you might be doing already:
- Inventory management
- Packing boxes, labeling items, shipping
- Customer service
- Returns and refunds
- Listing creation
- Photo editing
- Bookkeeping and financial record-keeping
- Supplier communication
- Data entry
- Amazon Posts / Brand Tailored Promotions / Experiments / Manage Your Customer Engagement
And since we're here... 10 high value tasks:
- Product sourcing & research
- Brand identity / mission
- Business structure
- SOP creation & team organization
- Hiring
- New market expansion
- Variation creation
- Securing loans, funding, etc.
- Creative direction
- Product innovation
How to Identify and Eliminate Low-Value Tasks in Your Amazon Business
Most Amazon sellers spend 60-70% of their time on tasks that could be done by someone else for $5-15 per hour. The first step to fixing this is actually tracking where your time goes.
Here is a simple audit process:
- Track every task for one week. Use a spreadsheet or a tool like Toggl. Write down what you did and how long it took.
- Assign a dollar value to each task. Customer service responses might be $8/hour value. Product research and supplier negotiation? $100+/hour.
- Eliminate or delegate anything below your hourly wage. If your business earns $200,000 in profit and you work 2,000 hours per year, your time is worth $100/hour. Every hour spent on a $10/hour task costs you $90 in opportunity.
Common low-value tasks Amazon sellers refuse to let go of: responding to buyer messages, creating FBA shipments, updating spreadsheets, researching competitors, and reconciling inventory. All of these can be handled by a trained VA for $5-10 per hour. Your job is strategy, relationships, and growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
What tasks should an Amazon FBA seller delegate first?
Start with customer service responses, FBA shipment creation, and inventory tracking. These are repetitive, well-documented processes that a VA can learn in a week. Save your time for product research, supplier negotiations, and strategic decisions.
How much does a virtual assistant for Amazon FBA cost?
Experienced Amazon VAs from the Philippines typically cost $4-8 per hour. US-based VAs run $15-25 per hour. For most repetitive tasks, an offshore VA at $5-6 per hour delivers excellent value.
How do I calculate my hourly rate as an Amazon business owner?
Divide your annual business profit by the number of hours you work per year. If you earned $150,000 in profit and worked 2,500 hours, your effective hourly rate is $60. Any task you can delegate for less than $60/hour is a net positive trade.