🌴Tropical Trivia🌴
It is customary to pay Filipino Virtual Assistants an entire extra month at the end of the year as a bonus – in The Philippines, they call this “Thirteenth month pay.”
Today’s Newsletter: More value than a glowing 5-star review on your newly launched product!
  • How to calculate your year end inventory
  • Auto opt-in Amazon programs that cost you $$
  • Use your hotel TV as a second monitor
  • Reducing your year-end taxes
  • Deep Sea Fishing on your next trip to Costa Rica
What’s Going on at the Beach?
Watch out, Tiger Woods!
Happy New Year!
We hope everyone had a happy holiday and is in the process of goal setting for 2024!
We snuck out to Orlando for 2 weeks to visit some family and were lucky enough to have some friends to overlap on the visit.  We had an “Amazon Beach Club Event” at Top Golf with our friends Brian Vienneau and his family… that was our company holiday party (Yes, thats a tax deduction)!
We’ve been talking about how Amazon keeps increasing its fees and all the other changes that have been happening. Like anything else in life, it’s not easy. The world of Amazon keeps shifting, but we’re learning and changing too. As always, you can choose to stop or keep going. Some people might think it’s easier to just quit Amazon, but I believe it’s still a one of the best and easiest ways to make money in 2024.
Remember to always focus on the basics first – pay attention to your business, know what you’re earning and spending, and adjust as needed.
As an Amazon Seller, and your year end comes to a close, one of the most important things you will need to do is calculate your ending inventory for tax purposes.  This applies to both sole proprietors and corporations.  If you are wondering how to calculate year end inventory on Amazon, this is the article for you.
Also, don’t worry, this can be completed after December 31, 2023.
…Also, don’t forget about your GST returns mentioned in the last Newsletter. Not sure how to file tax returns for Amazon sales? Check our our how to course and save yourself some cash (and the CRA’s wrath 😢).
credit: midjourney / Happy New Year! 2024 is going to be your year.. right?
The 1% Zone 👊Actionable Amazon Tips
Have you read James Clear’s Atomic Habits? Little things add up.
Here’s something you can to TODAY to improve your business:
The Danger of “In Stock Head Start”
…Do you know if yours is turned on or not?
Amazon’s “In Stock Head Start” program allows sellers to offer their out of stock listings for sale. This initiative allows your incoming inventory to be listed for sale with a future delivery date, helping you avoid showing as “out of stock.”
Originally noticed that it might be okay if you’re briefly out of stock and expect a quick refill (and if Amazon can accurately track your incoming deliveries). However, there are significant drawbacks if that’s not your situation. Your product page could end up displaying delivery dates several months away, which we know can drastically reduce conversions.
And low conversions will negatively impact your ranking. Unless you manually intervene, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising remains active for these ASINs, leading you to spend on ads for a listing that’s not converting. This can disrupt your campaigns and further harm your organic rankings.
Think running PPC to a product which has inventory in a “Reserved” state.
How to turn it off: 
Navigate to:
Scroll down and turn it off. Your products will no longer show as active when you are OOS.
Embarking on the entrepreneurial journey or hitting the road for travel can often lead to a sense of isolation. Roadpreneur offers a newsletter that streamlines your business approach, cutting through unnecessary complexities and fostering new connections.
Kimberly Crossland has established a community for entrepreneurs with a fervor for the RV lifestyle, providing a space where they can unite, challenge conventional work standards, and simplify their business ventures. Dive in and explore!
2/ Traveler’s Toolkit ✈️The Latest Travel Hacks
Flights, hotels, packing and everything in between.
Use the Hotel TV as a Second Monitor
Shout out to Bradley Sutton for this tip. If you often find the transition from desktop computer (and your multiple monitors?) to laptop in a hotel difficult, this tip can be super useful:
Simply bring a $5 HDMI Cord with you. Then, connect it to the TV and your laptop. Voila! You now have a giant second monitor. 
Another option, buy a small foldable monitor you can store with your laptop – something like this.
3/ The Local Lowdown🌴
Things You Didn’t Know About Paradise
The good, the bad, the f***ing great.
Deep Sea Fishing off the Costa Rican Pacific Coast 
If you are looking to try to land yourself a Marlin with a fishing rod, Costa Rica has some wonderful ocean fishing spots. Some species: Marlin, Sailfish, Roosterfish and Billfish (a fast moving fighting fish) all have a strict catch and release law, so hook them, land it, take a photo and let them go. Laws like this are important because it protects the fish and means there is often a good chance of everyone catching one.
Also… there’s no need to double up with the gym on a fishing day – it’s  a workout!
Here’s a few tips:
  1. Best to find a boat/referral and contact them directly on their Website/Facebook.  Lots of guys on the beach will try to refer you to various operators who pay them a commission.  It is common for them to show you a photo of a big boat that you will go on, but at the last minute find yourself of a much smaller boat.  The ol’ bait and switch (there’s a nautical-themed saying for ya 😉)
  2. Ask what they have been catching the last few days and what’s in season.  Good captains will have no problem telling you.  They won’t want to take you out looking for Marlin and get nothing if they are not running.  You won’t be happy and you won’t tip them.  Trust me, they want you to catch fish!
  3. Consider fishing inshore.  The big Sailfish are further out, but a fun balance is going out looking for Sailfish for a few hours, them coming back closer to shore.  The closer you are to shore the easier it is to catch something.
  4. Understand the rates they are charging.  Half day or full day.  Most will include beer and non alcoholic drinks, some fruit snacks and sometimes a sandwich.  Make sure to ask what’s included!
  5. These trips will run you somewhere in the range of $400-$800 for a half day.
  6. If i you want to keep some of the catch (Tuna is okay to keep) make sure you ask the crew to clean the fish for you.  Many restaurants will gladly cook up your catch for a fee. I guarantee you there is nothing better then eating something you’ve caught.
4/ SFTB Community❓
Stuff You May Have Missed
Value-packed community posts.
5/ The Sand in my Swimming Trunks🤬
(What I’m Pissed About Lately)
Amazon AI is automatically changing product titles! Amy Wees noted that a few weeks ago Amazon was saying they were going to start changing titles and now it’s happened.
Apparently in one case the title included a competitiors brand name!
…And getting it changed back through Amazon Seller Support (ASS) has been near impossible. Make sure you’re tracking your title changes using Helium10 or Sellerise. Let us know if you’ve seen anything happen to your listings.
Hey Amazon, how about you stop developing systems that don’t work…and then have no way for sellers to un-do the damage you created?

 
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Hungry for More? 
“One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior.“
-James Clear
Speak Up! Community Comments & Questions:
No comments or questions this week. Want to have your question answered in the newsletter? Want to give us a piece of your mind? Send us an email at info@sellingfrom.co
It’s over? Aw 🙁  
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