Florence Clooke – March 03, 2022

Andy Slamans Â€" Amazing Freedom Private Label Download

Who's teaching you how to do private label?

As you're already aware, the people we spend the most time with have a huge influence on our behaviors. And our teachers take things a step farther: they don't just influence our behaviors… they really shape them.

Who's shaping your behaviors?

I left Amazon to start Cascadia Seller Solutions. Having spent years in the individual label and compliance sector, I saw a major gap between regulatory compliance requirements and a layman'south agreement of these things. So our mission at Cascadia is to help immature businesses who are starting out, or who are in the "very small" to "small" category (i-five employees or 6-25 employees respectively) to learn the private characterization business from the inside out.

I'm looking for businesses who want to learn how to do private characterization or branded products on Amazon – the RIGHT way.

Non the…

"get rich quick overnight" mode
"buy cheap garbage from China then market the heck out of it to gull people into buying junk" way
"deliberately import illegal items and sell them anyhow to make a quick buck" fashion
"comply simply with whatever US Customs requires and ignore the rest" way

I've seen all of this, and more than. I've seen other consultants teach all of this, and more.

I'g setting the record straight. It's time for some tough love. It'southward time for some discipline. Take your seats class, school is in session.

Right now, I'm going to break down for you lot what y'all're missing about doing private label or branded products on Amazon. And let me be clear here – Amazon knows you're missing it, also. They just haven't figured out the best way to enforce on this data nevertheless.

Just rest assured that at some point soon, they'll figure out a manner to validate your product'south compliance just similar they take figured out a way to police force nearly everything else on the website. They already have the data. They just demand a method of enforcement.

Do you want to wait until so to become your product lines sorted? Most of u.s.a. wouldn't be comfortable taking that level of adventure. I certainly wouldn't.

If you have been following the Amazing Seller (Scott Voelker), Proven Private Label (Jim Cockrum), Astonishing Liberty (Andy Slamans), Become on AZ (Barrington McIntosh), and pretty much every other similar page I reviewed, you are missing something very important that can cause you to be sued, or fined by the government, or both, and literally lose EVERYTHING.

I am non hyperbolic past nature – I'm a onetime Amazonian, I was there for 8 years total – and Amazon is famous for hiring introverted data geeks who are all too literal.

This is not a joke, and it's non an exaggeration. Y'all could, in all seriousness, lose everything.

This consequence is besides of import to our clients, and as well of import to the seller community as a whole (and the trust that Amazon'due south congenital upward in the community, that we all benefit from), for me to keep being quiet well-nigh this – and more than importantly, keep giving these "gurus" the benefit of the doubt.

It's gone on long enough.

I've said it under my jiff besides many times.

They won't make sure that their communities hear the importance of this message.

Possibly they don't fifty-fifty know how of import it is themselves?

But there I go over again, giving the benefit of the incertitude.

Of course they know.

They simply don't seem to retrieve it'due south important unless Amazon is enforcing on it. And since Amazon has limited enforcement around product compliance right now, this continues to be a gaping pigsty in the product evolution courses you see online, and the advice that unsuspecting entrepreneurs are receiving from these "gurus".

So, what is information technology exactly that they're missing?

All of these "gurus" are missing product compliance. Product compliance refers to a broad range of product based elements: labeling, quality, safety performance, regulatory compliance, and registrations/certifications. None of this is very exciting stuff – it's also very intricate and takes years to acquire, so it's difficult to teach finer.

Imagine: you hire a coach to assist walk you through the Product Evolution process, and they seem really helpful. You lot're learning a lot, and in a few months fourth dimension, you have a production you're quite proud of. Yous put it upwardly on Amazon and y'all outset selling, and before long you receive a report of a kid being put in grave danger every bit a result of using your product. And merely like that, the CPSC is involved, yous're paying fines, and publicly recalling all of your merchandise, which is now unsellable.

This situation happened to someone who concluded up contacting me and becoming a customer over 2 years ago, and I'thousand so glad she did. I was able to help become her oriented on the right (compliant) path. She's slowly recovering just that was a huge blow to her concern and reputation, and it's going to take even more than time to mend.

What this boils down to is that then called "experts" are teaching new entrepreneurs how to import products, and how to sell products to consumers, but not how to protect themselves. Not how to protect the consumer by ensuring their products are safe. And certainly not how not to become sued.

And so why am I pushing on this at present?

There was a recent thread on The Amazing Seller (more on Scott below) in which a seller had his products seized in the UK considering they had a faux CE (Conformite' Europeene, or European Conformity) mark.

Multiple sellers suggested that he only offload the not-befitting product to unsuspecting customers via his ain website, or transport it to another state, even sell information technology on eBay – very few of the sellers on the thread pointed out that the seller should have understood his obligations PRIOR to importing the product.

It's a product business, and you lot should know the laws and regulations that govern the concern you choose to open, where you cull to open information technology.

Sellers are investing tens of thousands of dollars to launch businesses, edifice businesses worth millions, based on a quicksand foundation. You might get lucky at present, you might continue to go lucky for quite some time – merely unless you truly sympathise your take a chance areas and mitigate for them, yous never know when your risk will turn into a port seizure or government fine, a list takedown by Amazon, or worst example scenario: someone getting hurt and you getting sued for everything y'all have.

Permit's take a closer look at some of the more prominent "gurus", i at a time.

Note: I was asked after publication why I chose to use people'south names and not merely their form info or speak in generalities most what's missing. In the consulting and coaching manufacture, your name is your brand. You might take an actual make, just typically people know you by name, and that'south why I included the actual coach/consultant name.

Here is a list of everyone's course I looked at. No one included compliance or noted it equally something that "hey, you should exercise this, even if I'yard not educational activity you, and here's why information technology can ruin your concern if you don't." I chose these 4 due to their Google rank (they're the about likely candidates for newbies to learn from) and being on Facebook threads where my comments pointing this out disappeared (presumably because the moderators had a problem with it), or because when I reviewed their website thoroughly, something jumped out at me as particularly problematic. If anyone sees that compliance has been added to their pages, then that's really fantastic, and kind of the whole point. Wherever I did meet compliance referenced, I tried to call that out, and am happy to go along to exercise so!

Courses in order of their Google search rank:

Jim Cockrum, Proven Amazon Class
Ash Peat, Amazon FBA and Private Label Products – The Complete Course!
Jason Gandy, Launch Your Showtime Private Label Product | Amazon FBA 2017
Scott Voelker, FREE Private Characterization Course
Brendan Yay and Kelly Minakes, AMZ Ninja
Terry Schierer, Private Label Selling
Andy Slamans, Slamazon Private Label
Dean Soto, Online Empire Academy
Mark Scott Adams, Amazon PL Coach and Seller
Andy Slamans, the SMART Private Label course
Adam Snyder, Bootleg Entrepreneur
James, Advanced Private Label Course
Neil & Karen Gwartzman, Import Success Formula
Steve Chou, My Married woman Quit Her Job
Colton Shuell, Gratis Individual Label Course

**NOT a comprehensive list. Just after folio four of Google results, it starts to be more blogs and podcasts than courses.

Then let'due south get into a few examples for illustration purposes.

I have never met Scott Voelker, so I don't pretend to know anything virtually him equally a person. However, I have had some of his erstwhile students as clients, when they were facing shutdown of their ASINs, and potentially the demise of their hard work. Scott'due south course arroyo is to focus on choosing, sourcing, and marketing your product. Well, permit'due south take a await at the good old garlic printing, a stand in for "generic widget" amongst Scott'south Facebook grouping members (non certain where the garlic press widget meme came from, whether Scott himself or just the group).

A garlic press is actually a regulated item, regulated under 21 CFR 170-199, the Food Additives section of the US Code of Federal Regulations. Basically, whatsoever packaging or eating utensils, plates, cups, etc., are considered "unintentional nutrient additives" in that in the normal course of usage, the product might leach into your food and you consume bits of the product your nutrient was fabricated with, stored in, or served on.

In add-on to the federal code governed by the FDA, any product sold in the U.s.a. should be lead free, per the Federal Hazardous Substances Human activity, or accordingly warned confronting if information technology does contain lead, as it has been found that there are no safe exposure levels to atomic number 82 for growing children. So, only like the juice squeezer I recently had tested that failed for lead, then too does a garlic press need to be tested for lead.

And, the CPSC holds sellers responsible for what they sell if it contains atomic number 82, even if they're not the importer or manufacturer.

This is partly why many large companies require certificates and declarations from suppliers before purchasing from them. And if they accept these requirements, y'all should too.

Hither'south a slightly scary breakdown of chemic hazards in the US, and which agencies regulate them. It's not easy to brand certain that the products comply with local regulations. And if you lot're already overwhelmed, don't think for a moment that your Cathay-based supplier is on top of all this. They are non.

No… compliance is not super easy. In fact, it's somewhat complicated and scary. Only, equally a concern person, I would much rather know that ahead of time, make sure to test and mitigate for the risk, maintain solid records, and And then import my production. I would never want to rush ahead blindly, believing information technology'due south like shooting fish in a barrel and prophylactic, potentially putting others in harm's fashion, and risking my ain investment in the procedure.

As a business person, I would exist absolutely livid if I found out I'd trusted someone as my instructor and that person drove me straight into a legal disaster, thanks to the omission of huge chunks of information.

Andy Slamans of Amazing Freedom is a great guy – I've met him a few times, and would absolutely take drinks with him at a bear witness. This doesn't hateful I'd recommend him to teach a friend of mine how to launch their Amazon business – only because someone has a solid grasp of Amazon marketing techniques doesn't hateful they're the correct person to suggest on how to launch a products business. These are two dissever things.

This is a expert betoken to go on in listen – there is nothing wrong with their advice on choosing products or marketing them – in fact, I accept listened to Andy speak and learned some interesting and very useful approaches from him.

But as far equally the compliance slice – the part that doesn't fail oftentimes, just when information technology does, it's catastrophic – that is what is completely missing. On his website, it says that manufacturing with the right supplier is critical – and there's a movie of a hoverboard. Probably the most ironic and inexplainable picture he could have chosen.

Here'due south why I find that baffling: In 2015, Amazon took down tens of thousands of private label hoverboards due to them lighting on burn down unexpectedly, and doing undesirable things like called-for down houses and killing people. These incidents take continued to occur, with many recalls issued past the US CPSC, including a statement that CPSC believes that are no safety hoverboards on the market today (in 2017). But this epitome is the one he chose to illustrate why selecting your supplier is critical…??

I don't know whether to laugh or weep.

In that location aren't very many courses out there specifically aimed at the exterior the of the US market, so in that location aren't a lot of examples to draw from here.

Barrington McIntosh'south form mentions FDA Rules – three guesses every bit to why! Right on the first try – it's one of the few agencies fully integrated with Us Customs, so FDA Customs holds are a regular issue, and knowing whether you lot're sourcing and selling a medical device is a disquisitional component to success (among other FDA regulated products). But I don't see CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) on the list. I don't come across the FCC, or whatsoever voluntary standards organizations.

Missing these can result in getting gated out of your own product subcategory, as Amazon has been slowly gating subcategories this year, or getting shut down for safe violations – simply i part of the compliance puzzle is the U.S. Community requirements. But expert on him for including that, because he was the only ane who explicitly called out compliance at all for every single page I reviewed.

Simply to be perfectly honest, the almost bloodcurdling comments frequently came from Jim Cockrum's grouping, My Silent Team, of which I used to be a Facebook member before I decided to leave the group because I couldn't take my blood pressure rising and then regularly.

And I mean appalling in that it's supposed to exist a moderated group, but people made the near terrible statements about launching without product testing, non knowing what certificates are when asked, and so on.

Overall, the level of ignorance was beyond that of The Amazing Seller, where at least there were some sellers in the recent thread I mentioned that noted that product compliance and safety is "Business 101".

Hither's why this is so disappointing: Jim has actually posted a nifty article on why PL is so risky. Simply somehow, the message was somehow not getting to the group at big.

On My Silent Team I regularly saw comments from users who bought a few dozen products from Alibaba and sold them on Amazon, or got their listings or accounts suspended for not using e-commerce ready packaging, much less properly labeling the products. Annotation, these types of rookie sellers are also on the Amazing Seller – there are just also some experienced sellers who pipe in on the threads I've seen.

Jim's group is primarily focused around people who learned arbitrage methods, and then switched to what I phone call "Prc arbitrage" – basically using the same techniques they used to buy on Wal-Mart clearance and then sell on Amazon, only switched to Alibaba sourcing then listing on Amazon.

The problem hither is that Wal-Mart ensures compliance before cut purchase orders, while Alibaba is a known cesspool of counterfeits and unsafe or illegal products.

And again – the tools and techniques provided in Jim Cockrum's grade as to how to list products, how to respond to customers, how to exist an Amazon seller – ARE Non WRONG and are actually very helpful. The point hither is that they're missing a disquisitional element of the puzzle in developing a products based business that tin cause you severe personal, professional, and financial heartache in the future if y'all don't gear up things asap.

So what can yous do?

The first matter you can and should do is look upward your product on saferproducts.gov and see what kind of issues accept been registered in the database on it (if it'southward a general consumer product). If it's something regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (medical devices, supplements, food, etc), then search fda.gov for "Warning Messages" and recalls to see what kind of issues tin occur.

Sourcing in the US does non automatically comprehend y'all – it makes you a lot safer, just the reality is that domestic producers continue FDA inspectors and bureaucrats more than busy enough without including their work at ports and strange manufacturing facilities.

Some folks I've worked with say "I spoke with my lawyer and my insurance amanuensis, and I'm good to become!"

#1, lawyers don't typically specialize in compliance from a functional/development standpoint. That's typically washed by a product development expert or engineer.

#two, insurance but protects yous in the event of a lawsuit, ONLY if you've exercised "due care" in most cases (due care is the concept that you took the precautions that any reasonable person would in the same situation), and simply up to your insurance coverage limit.

#3, typical compliance efforts require understanding U.South. Customs, laboratory testing, and registration with the government, much of which is only not known even to the regulatory skilful lawyers nosotros work with.

So, y'all're definitely not "practiced to go". You need to dig deeper.

There are 2 times when it is critical to appoint legal counsel – the first is at the kickoff of your Individual Label journey, to practice inquiry on production liability cases that take previously occurred. This will help you better the instruction manuals and alarm labels on your ain product.

Yous can do this research yourself, simply a good lawyer will take the know how to find these cases more quickly and efficiently.

The second is if you lot receive a credible written report of serious impairment acquired by your product, or even potential harm, such equally a strangulation hazard to a child. This report is going to crave you to engage with a regulatory torso. Never engage with a regulatory trunk without legal counsel unless you like paying fines!

I terminal annotation on lawyers – specialized legal advice similar intellectual property research or infringement work is also highly recommended, but this is something that I retrieve nigh sellers are aware of and will bank check for before launching.

What does Cascadia offer?

At Cascadia, nosotros offer a few options on how to make sure you're compliant. The first is our Done For You service, where we really develop new products for you. If yous're primarily an cyberspace marketer, and you either don't empathize or don't like the production evolution process (working with a manufacturing plant, working with a laboratory, making sure labels are accurate and complete) – this is the program for you. Then, you accept the finished (and compliant) products and market the heck out of them.

We as well have a course, for those who desire to learn on their own, or you can sign upward for the waitlist for our side by side group launch. To give you an thought of how serious compliance is, more than half of this course involves compliance related topics: agreement factory certificates, how to set up and review inspections, how to perform regulatory and safety research, what tools and techniques yous should use to manage and maintain quality, how to report incidents to regulatory bodies, and more than.

And as a bonus, anything you take a question almost that isn't covered in the form, you tin enquire most in our individual Facebook group.

We also cover marketing topics in the course, but primarily from the standpoint of how Amazon expects it washed inside TOS (Terms of Service). There are so many marketing experts out there, yous don't need me to be your expert guide in that location. Merely you do demand me to be your expert guide hither.

"But no i else is doing this, won't it price more coin and maybe even price me out?"

Absolutely. The cheaters and the ignorant make it very difficult to compete. But the cracking affair is, most of the time, their products truly are illegal to sell or unsafe to use. All you lot have to do is prove it, by working with a third party independent laboratory, just like I did in the example of the lemon squeezer. Sure, it'southward frustrating, and nosotros'd all rather be doing something else, only one time you've proven their products are unfit to be sold, buh-adieu slimy competitor!

By doing your own due diligence, you lot can take out everyone who has not done theirs.

I want you to be one who takes out the competition, not one who gets taken out past someone who did the right thing. The choice is yours.

We have a client we work with regularly to report dangerous and uncertified products to Amazon and to regulatory authorities. After I published my findings, he wrote to united states: "LOVED your post on the Cascadia blog from earlier in the month. The all-time function was the lemon squeezer with the big FDA logo in their list that independent pb. But unbelievable. Makes me glad (and proud) that we started working with Cascadia when we did."

Multiple times we've gotten competitors removed from the Amazon websites in the Us and Europe through our reports. Nosotros but support in these efforts when it is proven that the product is illegal or dangerous, of course.

It would be unfair and unethical to order false complaints. Just unfortunately, there is so much ignorance about production compliance, it's really not hard to find and report these competitors.

Now yous know what yous're missing – and it bears repeating – Amazon knows information technology too. Every bit I said, they just haven't figured out the all-time way to enforce on sellers yet. Only you tin can definitely rest bodacious that at some point soon, they'll figure out a way to validate product compliance like they take figured out a method to police nearly everything else on the website.

So which side of the fence do you desire to exist on? You tin can either be the one taking out the non-compliant contest, or you tin exist the non-compliant competition that'south getting taken out.

Cascadia's Done For Yous program ensures total compliance in any category you are selling in. We become information technology… you tin't know what you lot don't know! That's why we created Done For You. Y'all tin can rest easy (and then tin nosotros!), knowing your products are compliant.

Correct now, can y'all honestly say that y'all are 100% certain your products are compliant?

I want to get regulatory, quality, or safety guidance to brand sure I'thou ready for Amazon, a regulator, or a lawsuit!

DOWNLOAD HERE

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Florence Clooke

Andy Slamans Â€“ Amazing Freedom Private Label Download UPDATED