Five Ways to Finance Your Company’s Expansion

Posted on October 7, 2021February 1, 2025 by Amanda Levine

Are you facing financial constraints in your efforts to expand your business? Many entrepreneurs encounter financial challenges as they grow and expand into new markets. Historically, loans from banks were the solution to this issue for small businesses. Unfortunately, not many companies can navigate the stringent bank loan requirements to access these funds.

Here are five alternative ways you can finance your company for expansion:

1. Find an Angel Investor

Partnering with an angel investor who will invest in your company either for a one time occurrence or for some ownership of the company is a great way to access capital for growth. When seeking an angel investor, apply the contemporary rules of being succinct. Have a clear strategy and avoid jargons. With tough economic turmoil, finding an angel investor may be a tricky route that calls for a strategic approach. Platforms such as angel.co are a great way to access a large networks of angel investors across the world.

2. Try Factoring Financing

Factoring is a form of financing where companies sell receivables at discounted prices to get cash in advance. It can be useful for businesses that have not established comprehensive credit records or manufacturers who must fulfill orders long before payments. You can, for instance, pay a 2% fee that is equivalent to 24% annually. Many firms are now making factoring competitive to improve their bottom-line.

3. Consider Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding sites provide fun and effective means of raising funds. Set a goal about how much you’ll want to raise within a set period. Your family, friends and others then pledge various amounts of money on the site. However, traditional crowdfunding is not a long-term funding alternative. Platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are great for launching new products to market but when it comes to scaling and existing company, they typically come short. Additionally, since the capital typically comes from the company’s existing networks and new customers, traditional crowdfunding has a high marketing cost that typically isn’t considered.

4. Secure an SBA Loan

With banks shying away from committing their money to smaller companies, the government attempted to provided a alternative through their Small Business Administration (SBA) loans. While SBA loans are supposed to be available for all small businesses, there are still qualifications that limit who has access to them. First, the SBA only guarantees loans to businesses that can’t afford the money they need using other means. That means you’ve applied for loans from other lending institutions and have been turned down. Also the business must meet the definition of small business according to the government’s specifications. Their definition of what qualifies as a small business actually closes the door on many companies. There are typically additional criteria that need to be met as the amount you’re applying for increases.

5. A Combination of Solution 1, 2 and 3

A new solution has emerged within the last two years. A mixture of the first three solutions, crowdfinancing is a great way for growing companies to access capital to expand their business. Platforms such as Kickfurther allow scaling businesses to crowdfund their inventory needs from individuals across the United States. Similar to factoring, Kickfuther only works with the funding of physical goods. With crowdfinancing, the capital for expanding businesses comes from a crowd of individuals across the United States. Unlike traditional crowdfunding, this new solution typically involves an existing community that is eager to partner with growing brands meaning there is less emphasis on marketing. Additionally, crowdfinancing has an emphasis on funding existing brands that have a track record of success instead of unproven ideas that have yet to show product-market fit.

Get started today at Kickfurther.com.

7 Major Things You Need To Know About an Invoice

Posted on October 7, 2021February 1, 2025 by Amanda Levine

One of the most important things when people go into business for themselves, either as an entrepreneur or freelancer, is to take care of their finances. This can be an overwhelming process for most, and rightly so.

Generally, small business owners tend to do a lot of their business tasks all by themselves. While this allows them to better control their business, it also means there’s a lot of information out there that they’ll need to catch up on. This includes working on the most important document for increasing cash flow—invoices.

In order to help alleviate that, we’ll look today at some of the most important things you need to know about an invoice.

#1 Be clear about what an invoice is

The most important thing to know about invoices it to actually be clear of what an invoice is.

Invoices are documents sent by a seller to the buyer after the goods or services have been delivered. It identifies the seller, buyer, and the products or services sold, including their quantities and prices.

It is legally-binding after both sides have agreed to the conditions and is also non-negotiable. Any changes that are requested by the buyer should be already prepared for (in your terms and conditions), or added on for an extra price.

However, buyers should not negotiate for lower prices or more goods for the same price when the products or services have already been delivered.

One invoice has two different terms depending on whether you are the seller or buyer. To the seller it’s a sales invoice, while the buyer calls it a purchase invoice. Both invoices are the same document, however, and the difference is in filing purposes only.

A sales invoice goes to account payable, whereas a purchase invoices goes to account receivable.

#2 And what an invoice isn’t

There are two important things that an invoice is not.

Primarily, it is not a receipt. A receipt is a record of what has already been paid, whereas an invoice is a record of what still needs to be paid. Even more, invoices are much more detailed than receipts (where some receipts may have only the total paid, the date, and the store details).

It is important, when a supplier requests an invoice, not to present him a receipt, or vice versa.

Secondly, an invoice is also not a purchase order.

In fact, you can look at them as opposites. Where an invoice is sent by the seller to the buyer for outstanding payment after goods have been delivered, a purchase order is sent by the buyer to the seller before anything has been purchased.

The purchase order includes the conditions of the agreement, including the products/services, quantity, and the agreed-upon price. This is an important document to help protect against surprises in changes to the relationship. For example, if the seller changes his prices, the buyer may be surprised when he receives the invoice.

The purchase order helps avoid that. You can look at the summary below to be clear of the differences between purchase orders and invoices.

#3 Avoid confusion by creating clear policies

One of the most important things to have as an entrepreneur, small business owner or freelancer is a clear general policy in place.

These terms and conditions will act as a way to clarify expectations and the rules of doing business with you. They are similar to the purchase order described above, except that they are not only applicable to one situation. They are also more general and apply to all aspects of your invoicing.

In your terms and conditions, you should decide:

whether you’ll take any payment upfront and, if so, what percentage
how much time you’ll allow for payment to be delivered
what the late fees will be, either as a flat fee or percentage of the invoice total
what forms of payments you’ll accept

When you create these terms, you’ll be able to avoid a lot of confusion and delays in your invoices.

#4 Different regions have different requirements

Invoicing can be quite straightforward in your own country. However, when you start selling goods to people across the world, it can be a bit more complex.

Different regions in the world have different invoicing requirements.

In the US, for example, you may or may not need to send an invoice to your clients. There will also be different types of sales tax that goes with your invoices, and it’s always best to talk with a knowledgeable accountant to make sure you are complying.

In Canada and Australia, for example, you will need to apply GST (goods and services tax) depending on the amount of the invoice. Australia has a similar requirement for GST, especially for international businesses selling to residents of Australia.

The UK requires businesses to use a VAT invoice for those businesses that have more than £83,000 in any 12-month period. The EU also requires VAT, but its invoicing process is much more complicated, seeing as you’ll need to check with the customer in the specific EU member state and determine how much VAT needs to be charged.

Whenever you are selling goods or services to customers internationally, it is best to contact the appropriate government bodies or work with an accountant or tax lawyer specializing in internationalbusiness.

#5 There are necessary parts on your invoice

Although invoices are generally different in different locations around the world, they have some necessary parts.

These are:

The name and contact information of the seller, including the logo, address, email and phone number
The word ‘invoice’ prominently displayed to avoid any confusion
A unique invoice number and invoice date to help you with your record-keeping
The buyer’s name and contact information
A description of the products/services, including the date they were provided, quantities and unit prices
The total amount being charged on the invoice (and you may need to include the tax here)
The date that payment is due which should optimally be set at 14 days, rather than 30 days to increase payment speed.

#6 You can use it as a marketing tool

Your invoice doesn’t have to be a static document that merely lists the goods that have been delivered and the price. You can also use it as a marketing tool.

One of the most difficult parts for marketers when they are sending out emails to their subscribers is to get adequate opening rates. The relationship is simple: the more people reading your emails or marketing materials, the more customers you’ll have.

One overlooked aspect of invoices is that they have a very high open rate. When your customer receives it, he or she will open it (hopefully). There is lots of space on the document, and you can use it for many marketing efforts. These include:

referral incentives, where you offer your customers a reward if a person they referred becomes a customer
customer testimonials, where you can ask customers to provide a testimonial when they are happiest (the moment they receive the product or service)
feedback request, which, similar to a testimonial, except that you want to know the parts of your business that can be improved
discount codes, which is useful to keep your customers returning, as well as providing rewards for loyal customers

#7 You can automate it

One of the difficulties of finance documents in general, not speaking about invoices, is that they can be quite time-consuming to put together.

For example, if you make your invoices from scratch or download one of many invoicing templates online, you still need to enter the information manually.

This usually means going through your records or, more realistically, emails to find your customer’s details. It also means that you have to have a good system of recording invoices so that you can remember what unique invoice number should go on the next document.

Of course, in this modern world, that doesn’t have to be the case. You can actually save yourself a lot of time and energy by automating the whole process with online invoicing software. The online part here is important for a very good reason—because everything is stored on the cloud, that means you can be anywhere and still do your invoices.

This cloud-based invoicing software is a great tool for many small business owners and freelancers, who can often send off an invoice in a few minutes rather than half an hour per document.

This information about invoicing can allow you to have one thing that business people need: more time. More energy. More freedom to focus on your main business and increase your revenue, rather than stressing out and spending a lot of time on more financial documents.

With proper invoicing systems and knowledge in place, you’ll see just how easy and profitable it can be.

Author bio: Bernard Meyer is Head of Marketing at InvoiceBerry, the online invoicing software dedicated to helping small business owners and freelancers create professional-looking, easy invoices quickly and efficiently.

Three Keys to Mastering Your Supply Chain

Posted on October 7, 2021 by Amanda Levine

One of the hardest parts of starting a business is understanding your supply chain. With so many moving parts and barriers, a company’s supply chain can often be one of the biggest setbacks towards reaching success.

Supply chain problems are the biggest cause of failure, as if you can’t get your product to your end consumer, you don’t have a business to start with. To better understand your supply chain, you need to first know the ins and outs of your product.

This mainly revolves around the material and design, and communicating this clearly to your manufacturer is a key to success. If you aren’t on the same page with your manufacturer, there is no way your product will come as specified.

The first step in mastering your supply chain is finding the right manufacturer. You can either use a open database like Alibaba where you’ll spend hours searching or utilize a platform like Sourcify that introduces you to the right manufacturer and walks you through the product development cycle.

Once you’ve found a manufacturer that you think is capable and reliable, it’s time to dive deeper into the manufacturing process. To master your supply chain, you need to know the following three keys:

Product Margin

One of the biggest killers of any business is not knowing your numbers. As an entrepreneur, you should know all facets of cost associated with your product. From the supply chain perspective, this includes cost per specific piece, import tax, shipping fees, and of course the actual unit cost.

For some entrepreneurs, buying wholesale can be an attractive option as you can often buy domestically with lower minimum order quantities. You also don’t have to deal with an overseas manufacturer.

What many entrepreneurs overlook though, is the fact that wholesalers take their own margin and it’s often as high as 60%. With the use of capital being so important to a startup’s success, it almost always makes sense to avoid wholesalers and go directly to the manufacturing source.

Lead Times

If you don’t know the answers to the following two questions you better find out for yourself very fast: How long does it take to finish a production run? How long does it take to ship finished products from your manufacturer to your warehouse?

Lead times can make or break a business and when dealing with manufacturers overseas, you need to understand the expected lead times and variables that may cause delays. As an example, in China during their Chinese New Year, factories can often be closed for up to two weeks. If you aren’t prepared for this off time, your company might not get its products manufactured in time.

Risk Management

The main point in risk management of a supply chain revolves around not being single sourced. This means you should always have a backup manufacturer to produce your products in case something happens to the first.

For example, one of the shoe manufacturers that was working with Sourcify had a building collapse in Thailand due to a landslide. Luckily no one was in the building at the time but as you can imagine, this caused the manufacturer to stop production for a few months as they rebuilt the building.

If this shoe company had been single sourced, they would have been scrambling for another manufacturer. Luckily for them, working with Sourcify enabled them to never be single sourced and they were introduced to a similar manufacturer who was capable of producing their shoes.

Risk management also extends to having contacts to multiple people in a company and multiple points of contact. Though you will mostly be communicating with a sales rep, it is also important to know other reps in that company or a manager.

Creating and managing a supply chain is a full time job and working on your relationships with a manufacturer is an ongoing process. To master your supply chain, you need to understand your product margins, know your lead times, and manage all the risks involved.

A “FIRSTLOOK” at Community

Posted on October 6, 2021February 1, 2025 by Amanda Levine

Community is the buzzword of the moment. It seems like every startup is hiring for a Head of Community (PS checkout our job board because maybe the startup of your dreams is hiring for a Head of Community!)

But what does community actually mean?

According to our founder Brian Folmer, “community is what happens when the brand leaves the room.”

With this definition in mind, we reached out to two people who built communities that fit this description:

Greg Ashton, the founder of GROW, a community for ecomm and DTC brands and Mattie Ellis, the Head of Brand Partnerships at Pop Up Grocer and Emily Schildt’s right hand woman.

Both GROW and Pop Up Grocer have serious traction.

Back in August, GROW hosted a sold-out, in-person event in NYC with hundreds of attendees and an impressive line-up of speakers.

In May, Pop Up Grocer wrapped up its Chicago pop-up where thousands of people walked through its doors to discover new and exciting products.

We know your time is precious, so we made a little TLDR to identify some key points on “community” 😉.

To read the full interviews keep scrollin’.

TLDR:

Scale your community with intention AKA have a set of standards

Greg has 20K members in GROW. He looks at every application and asks himself a series of questions to determine if the applicant is the right fit.
Pop Up Grocer showcases emerging brands. It’s Chicago pop-up had 400+ new products. Mattie vets every single one of these brands to ensure it meets Pop Up Grocer’s criteria on nutrition, founder story, packaging, and sustainability.

Community isn’t a one-off thing, you have to constantly nurture it

In addition to hosting IRL events, Greg hosts a series of Google Hangouts where like-minded marketers can connect, share tips & industry expertise.
Even in the pandemic, Pop-Up-Grocer showed up. Last June, it opened a 30-day pop-up in Austin. Through this activation, it donated 5% of all sales to All Together ATX, a COVID-related community fund.

Don’t forget about the power of IRL experiences. Every community needs a physical forum to meet and connect. It can’t all happen online.

As Mattie Ellis says, “ From day one we have viewed the increase in online shopping as an opportunity for our business — not the threat. We’re excited to continue building on the complementary experiences we create, both online and off.”

Event planning starts a year in advance. As soon as the big event is over, planning for the next one begins.

Greg is already well into planning the next GROW event in LA on Feb 24,2022
Pop Up Grocer is gearing up for its next launch in 2022 that puts another spin on the traditional brick-and-mortar grocery.

Greg Ashton

Greg is the founder of GROW and sustainable sock brand Inside Story
GROW is a global community of online retail brands, technology providers, investors and agencies. GROW has 20K members, an active Slack group with 4K+ members, and a newsletter with ~17K subscribers.

I’m an alien who came to earth for a day. How would you explain GROW to me?

At its core, GROW is a community of marketers.

I believe we live in a time where most people lack a sense of belonging that comes from being a part of a “traditional” community.

With GROW, I’m trying to solve this lack of community, and I’m guided by these questions:

How do I build a true, authentic community that people want to be in?
How do I create a community where people are interested in what others have to say?
How do I build a community that people get value from and then tell other people about?

How do you define community?

Three years ago I saw a quote on Twitter that perfectly summed it up:

Every business today claims to have a community, but if you’re not actually Fostering Connections between your members, you don’t have a community. You just have an audience.

Building a community is not rocket science. The most crucial part of it is to get out of the way and let your members talk to each other.

GROW started as a Slack group with 15 members. Now the Slack has 4K+ members. How did you make that happen?

My background is in e-commerce. I ran a large, e-commerce trade show in Palm Springs for several years.

The initial 15 members were founders from emerging brands that were going against the grain and setting new trends.

It didn’t take a lot of convincing to get them to join. I wasn’t selling them a product or asking them to buy something.

When you offer something with value for free, it makes it very hard to say no.

When you started GROW what milestones did you set for yourself?

My first goal was simply to hit 1000 members. That first 1000 was the hardest to hit but growth was exponential after that.

Starting something is really, really hard in the beginning but it does get easier.

In the early days, many people said monetize the group as quickly as possible, charge a membership fee, add vendors to the group, include advertising in the newsletters, and so on. I was adamant that we should keep everything free, and it still is.

What was it like to throw the first GROW live event?

I created trade shows for a long time, so I knew how to plan & execute a large scale event.

I didn’t want to throw an event that felt like a typical trade-show. We held our first event in a converted factory. It was a big, raw empty space which was pretty cool.

However, the hardest part was figuring out whether or not people would show. I have this recurring dream that nobody shows up and I’m standing on a stage in a completely empty room.

It’s normal to be nervous about guest turnout because there’s a lot of money, sponsorship, and reputation at stake.

Also most people don’t realize this but the day we finish a big event, planning starts for next year’s event. It takes a full year to plan an event of this scale (GROW in-person events have 700+ people attending).

As your community scales, how do you ensure it keeps its value and intention?

I think you have to be very selective with who you actually admit to that community.

When reviewing GROW membership applications, I ask myself these questions:

Is this person an expert in a particular area?
Do they have a strong or different opinion?
Is this person shaking things up?
Is this person adding value to the world of e-comm?

It’s also important to give people a physical forum to meet and connect. I think Comic-Con is a great example of this!

What do the next 12 months look like for GROW?

I’m going to be hiring!

We’re going to throw more in-person events in Los Angeles and New York. I also want to bring GROW over to the UK.

Most importantly, I’ll continue to bring people together in unexpected ways that lead to lasting relationships!

Mattie Ellis

Mattie is the Head of Brand Partnerships at Pop Up Grocer and she runs her own consultancy for emerging CPG brands.

How does Pop Up Grocer (AKA PUG) define community?

Community is an integral to our success and sits at the heart of our business.

And as with any community, ours is defined by shared interests and values (grocery/CPG, curiosity, small business, creativity).

It’s made up of the network of emerging brands we serve, our loyal visitors, and industry collaborators.

We act as a connector between key players in the CPG world — introducing early adopters and tastemakers to the most exciting, new brands, and vice versa. On the B2B side, we create a space for influential buyers and investors to discover new brands, helping them build their roadmap for future growth.

Does PUG work with brands that already have a strong community?

In curating our showcases, we prioritize emerging brands. Oftentimes, being very new-to-market, these brands are in the early stages of developing their own audiences.

Our selection process is focused more so on criteria like nutrition, founder story, packaging, and sustainability. If brands already have a strong following, that’s a bonus!

I’ve noticed a serious increase in attention to launch strategy, given the competition in CPG. From crowdfunding to celebrity endorsements, brands seem to be getting increasingly creative and community-minded at earlier stages.

How does PUG retain a loyal community as a pop-up?

On the brand side, we retain loyalty through successful activations, organized communication, and creative collaboration.

On the consumer side, we retain loyalty through consistency. Shoppers know that every brand on our shelf has been thoughtfully reviewed, selected, and received our PUG stamp of approval. They also trust that our shelves will always have the newest, most exciting brands, and that they’ll be some of the first out there to experience the products.

By consistently delivering on this element of discovery, we’re able to build and retain authentic engagement.

What do the next 12 months look like for PUG?

We’ve got some very exciting things in the works! We’re leveling up on all fronts. We’ll be introducing ourselves in an entirely new format, set to launch in 2022, that puts yet another spin on the traditional brick-and-mortar grocery.

From day one we have viewed the increase in online shopping as an opportunity for our business — not the threat.

We’re excited to continue building on the complementary experiences we create, both online and off. And, as always, I’m thrilled about the brands we’re working with. We always aim to outdo ourselves!

This is a guest post from Firstlook. FirstLook cuts the friction between founders and investors by sending innovative products from emerging, high-growth consumer brands directly to early-stage investors via a subscription box.

Amazon and the Anti-Trust Tech Bill: What the New Legislation Means for the Future of Amazon Sellers

Posted on October 6, 2021February 1, 2025 by Amanda Levine

In mid-August of 2021, many Amazon merchants and vendors received an ominous letter from a third-party site warning them of the following:

“We’re reaching out to a small group of our sellers to make them aware of a package of legislative proposals, currently in Congress, that is aimed at regulating Amazon and other large technology companies,” the email states. “It is early in the process and the bills are subject to change, but we are concerned that they could potentially have significant negative effects on small and medium-sized businesses like yours that sell in our store.”

Because this email didn’t come directly from Amazon, many speculated it was a scam. But it wasn’t. In fact, quite the opposite, Amazon was so serious that this email requested follow-up phone calls with sellers, meant to forewarn (some might say intimidate) third-party sellers of a future that might be the extermination of “Amazon life as we know it.” To exacerbate the confounding situation even more, a dedicated website was issued to the public for sellers and vendors to stay informed of any progress, changes, or implementations.

Here’s what you need to know about the 6 bills introduced in the Anti-Trust Tech bill and what it really means (if anything) for third-party sellers.

What is the Anti-Trust Tech Bill?

In early June of 2021, House legislatures introduced sweeping antitrust legislation (a total of 6 bills) aimed to dismantle the power of companies like Amazon, Apples, Facebook, and Google to prevent them from advertising their own company on their own platform in ways that impede other sellers’ success in marketplaces that can be construed as a monopoly in many skeptics’ eyes.

The bills that were passed by the House of Representatives would make it easier to break up businesses that used their dominance in one area to get a stronghold in another. This would potentially create obstacles for conglomerates trying to procure/monopolize rivaling companies. Conversely, it would also provide funding for regulators to police company protocol.

Should the legislation go into effect, it would change the playing field for many, first and foremost increasing the threshold at which any acquisitions or mergers by big-tech weren’t the results of obstructing competition from third-party sellers or start-ups within their own platform. More specific to Amazon, the new legislation could revoke Amazon’s privilege of selling their over-100 companies on its platform which indefinitely allows the conglomerate the ability to sell cheaper items and utilize PPC strategies that undercut their competitors.

Simply put: Amazon shouldn’t have the ability to sell their own products in a way that directly competes and undercuts those that are using their platform to operate their own business.

Amazon’s Unique Platform Allows Sellers Multiple Advantages

Jeff Bezos has long contributed the success of Amazon to its laser focus on customer happiness. Their quick shipping and logistics coupled with their endless selection of items play a massive part in their strategy to surpass consumer expectations and maintain a loyal customer base.

To deliver on that promise, the strategy has been a long game. It took 7 years for Amazon to turn a profit as they reinvested in building infrastructure and working on their now-famous operational capacity that has set them head and shoulders above any other marketplace. But with such concern over their customers, the question remains: What about their sellers?

While Amazon holds strong that their unique FBA management solutions and their unrivaled bandwidth provides all their sellers a fair and advantageous opportunity over other seller platforms, some merchants would disagree. The behemoth’s pay-to-play set-up (which can be evidenced in PPC rates skyrocketing within the last year) suggests that third-party sellers really aren’t utilizing a fair playing field.

Amazon Has Made Some Monopolizing Decisions in The Past For Sellers

As a result of rising PPC costs and competition, many sellers started to expand to other sales channels that didn’t require such high fees, Amazon came back with a “most favored nation clause’ to add to their seller agreements. The “most favored nation” stated that “You will maintain parity between the products you offer through [other platforms] and the products you list on any Amazon site.” This effectively stated that price, product description, and standards needed to be maintained on all platforms. Amazon’s stance was that it was trying to prevent sellers from price gouging. Yet many contended that it was really to ensure traffic wasn’t driven away from Amazon due to better pricing and advertising.

In 2019, Amazon updated this specific language after antitrust scrutiny, following suit from 6 years prior when they were forced to remove it for similar backlash in the UK. Stories came in of sellers who tried to lower their prices on other platforms only to have their listings suppressed on Amazon within a week. Reports say this wasn’t coincidental given that, when these other competing listings were removed, their Amazon presence was reinstated.

This sort of preemptive gaslighting didn’t stop there. Unsurprisingly, the other seller-funded cash machine on the famous marketplace is advertising. Amazon is the third-largest digital advertising company, outpacing the revenue of Snap, Twitter, Roku, and Pinterest combined – twice over. This only widened the gap between sellers who did or did not choose to pay up, making it nearly impossible for sellers that couldn’t afford PPC to climb the pages of Amazon’s catalog.

Should Amazon Be Allowed to Compete with Their Sellers?

With FBA fees incrementally increasing (particularly around the holidays) and advertising spend pushing self-fulfilling, organic sellers further and further down SERPs, many Amazon sellers have found it nearly impossible to compete with Amazon brands, big companies like Reebok and Apple, and recent aggregators/M&A’s that can afford egregious amounts of advertising real estate.

Amazon has reported that 92% of their third-party sellers utilize FBA, and in 2020 contributed $80.5 billion to their bottom line. This comes as little surprise given the practices highlighted above. Merchants can feel left with little choice other than to utilize FBA services, particularly with the Prime Badge incentivizing Prime members to only purchase products that offer 2-day delivery. Which, for a free marketplace, doesn’t seem so free after a while.

With over 100 private-label brands – not including Amazon Basics – it would appear that Amazon is in direct competition with the same sellers who’ve bolstered and grown the marketplace.

While Amazon claims that the use of their proprietary sales data is simply meant to inform their private label businesses of opportunities and sales trends, this information would obviously give them an edge over any company on their platform (even though Amazon remains unwavering in their claim that they do not look at individual seller data but rather data in aggregate. Regardless, the access to information that only can be known at a platform level can only be interpreted as an unfair competitive advantage over individual sellers. This is the crux of any antitrust accusations to Amazon’s private-label business; that they’ve taken advantage of their competition. This inside information has made them able to acquire, copy, and stifle the competition of these same third-party sellers that once made Amazon the behemoth that it is today.

What Happened in Washington?

In May of 2021, suits were filed against Amazon by the Attorney General of Washington D.C. over their unfair price tactics. This joined the ongoing anti-trust cases against other big tech firms – Google and Facebook. The House Judiciary Committee brought forward 6 bills in an anti-trust legislative sweep that was approved to continue in June. These bills are not directed solely at Amazon, but send a message to big tech companies in general that so far have been able to grow untouched by government regulation. If this move is for better or worse seems to be up for personal opinion. On the surface, the House legislators are trying to even the scales of government intervention across all public sectors and prevent price-fixing or manipulation under the concept of consumer protection.

Of the 6 bills, the one most pointed towards Amazon is the Ending Platform Monopolies Act, which is sponsored by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. Her district covers Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle along with many other tech companies such as Microsoft. This bill aims to prevent platforms from offering a product or service that users must purchase or use in exchange for access to the platform.

If enforced, this could essentially fly in the face of Amazon where sellers pay the FBA premium in exchange for a competitive advantage. Conversely, you could look at it as a premium service offering that in no way bars other sellers from accessing the platform. Where this will land depends largely on the information that only Amazon knows and litigators hope will be uncovered in the upcoming months.

With the increased pressure upon them from lawmakers, Amazon has started to use its considerable war chest to bolster its defense with a D.C. area-based legal team, comprised of former federal prosecutors and regulators. Hoping that these insiders can use their knowledge of the system to steal Amazon against allegations that could affect its future profitability and returns to shareholders.

In addition to the in-house legal council in 2020, Amazon spent in excess of $18 million on lobbying expenditures. This is only second to Facebook’s lobbying spend and is a company record.

They’ve also decided to try to mobilize their sellers – those very people that the legislation is attempting to empower. Amazon’s approach is that big government is going to make it harder for Amazon to do business, thus affecting both vendors and sellers that rely on their domain. In conjunction with an email they sent to all of their merchants, They’ve set up a website to help sellers stay up to date on the newest news, branding both communication attempts to launch fear among the very people Amazon relies on to serve its customers.

In Conclusion

The question then becomes, “Will Amazon completely change its business model if these 6 bills are formally instated? They certainly have the right to, just as any business does. But what becomes of the millions of sellers that currently utilize the marketplace to maintain their lifestyle and their dream? It seems as though sellers are being put in a tough situation: capitulate with Amazon’s commitment to utilize their own platform by selling their own products or support a bill that may change the course of their business forever.

One thing is for certain: Amazon needs to be careful that it doesn’t bite the two hands that feed it – its loyal customers that may be turned off by the new image as well as its army of FBA sellers who bolstered its web presence to stratospheric heights. This isn’t so much a tale of David and Goliath as it is a fight between David (the government) and David (tech titans). The only Goliath is the sellers and end-users in the bleachers trying to avoid being collateral damage as they look on to the ensuing battle.

The good news is that there are certain measures you can take right now to ensure quality products, customer satisfaction, and better reviews and ratings. If you want to compete with the big dogs, you have to remember that your services and products need to be seamless. Part of that entails proper quality inspection of all of your products. Listen here

as we discuss with WAPI the importance of good inspections and don’t forget to check out Movley’s website to learn how you can better your business through unique, ethical, and integrated inspection processes that are unrivaled to any other inspection company.

This is a guest post from Movley. Movley was founded by Sajag Agarwal after his e-commerce brand startup had issues with fraud and bad quality control. Despite well-engineered products, passed inspections, good factories, and good process, Sajag faced brutal worsening quality issues. In 2017, he moved to China visiting factories every day and doing his own inspections. Sajag discovered that good inspections would have identified almost all of his manufacturing defects before shipment.

The Easiest Way to Fund Inventory and Grow your Business after Crowdfunding

Posted on October 6, 2021January 28, 2025 by Amanda Levine

Launching a successful crowdfunding campaign is only the first step of creating a successful business.

After you fulfill your orders for your crowdfunding backers, you’ll want to keep selling on an ecommerce platform or to retailers to keep growing your business.

In order to sell, you need inventory. Sounds simple, but getting inventory isn’t always that easy (or affordable in lieu of the ongoing shipping crisis).

Fortunately, Kickfurther has come up with an amazing solution for funding inventory. Plus, it’s significantly more affordable with a lower barrier to entry than other routes!

Read on to learn how LaunchBoom can get you qualified for Kickfurther and scale your business, and how Kickfurther can get you funding for your first rounds of inventory quickly and affordably!

Launch your product with LaunchBoom

Although funding with Kickfurther is incredibly easy and affordable, there are still basic requirements you need to meet. In order to qualify for Kickfurther’s low cost, quick inventory funding, you have to pass their vetting process by showing revenue documentation, a business credit report and more.

This presents a problem for businesses or businesses launching a new product. They don’t yet have the funds for inventory and they don’t have the history of sales to qualify for Kickfurther funding.

Enter LaunchBoom.

LaunchBoom can validate your product via crowdfunding in as little as 14 days.

We create your sales funnel and gather leads for your crowdfunding campaign so that you crush your funding goal on the first day (a “LaunchBoom”) and raise funds to fulfill the orders to your backers.

Once you’ve delivered on your crowdfunding campaign, your product has a proven sales record and can qualify for Kickfurther’s inventory funding!

Get funding for inventory with Kickfurther

Now that you have revenue documentation and have successfully demonstrated that you can sell your product, it’s time to bring in Kickfurther.

Kickfurther is THE go-to platform for funding inventory after you’ve fulfilled orders from your crowdfunding campaign. It’s a great way for early stage e-commerce companies to buy inventory without taking on debt or giving up equity in the company.

What makes Kickfurther amazing

Kickfuther gets e-commerce brands funding for inventory at rates 30% cheaper than other options like factoring, PO financing and many lenders. Plus, they fund a whopping 99.5% of deals.

Most banks won’t provide you with loans until you have 2 years of profitable tax returns, whereas there is no time in business requirement with Kickfurther.

The only access to capital you’re left with are Merchant Cash Advances (MCA loans a.k.a loan sharks). That’s where they take money directly out of your bank account at annualized interest rates anywhere from 25%-75%. It sucks the cash out of your business and most product businesses can’t afford this, anyway.

How does it work?

Kickfurther’s community crowdfunds working capital to entrepreneurs to help fund their next round of inventory. These funds are available when you need to pay your supplier to produce more inventory. Payments aren’t due until after the inventory sells and customer payment is received, so it’s fully customized around your supply chain.

What’s in it for the backers? Kickfurther’s community gets back 1-2% profit per month on their investment!

1-2% a month (12-24% annualized) is a solid return for the Kickfurther community. That is also significantly lower than MCA loans for the businesses, so it’s a win-win for both sides!

So, after you’ve launched your successful crowdfunding campaign and qualified for Kickfurther’s platform, simply launch your inventory campaign on Kickfurther to raise funds to continue scaling on e-commerce.

Scale your business to the moon with ScaleBoom!

So now that you have all this inventory, the most important thing you need to do with it is sell it.

If you already have a successful product that uses Kickfurther to fund inventory, you can partner with LaunchBoom’s e-commerce division, ScaleBoom, to quickly sell through that inventory and access larger amounts of funding at cheaper rates, and scale into a 7-figure business.

ScaleBoom services

Unlike most digital advertising agencies that just manage your spend and advertising, ScaleBoom partners with you on your business and fully manages your e-commerce store on Shopify.

ScaleBoom does product positioning, web design, web development, copywriting, creative content/production, paid social, SEO, email and SMS marketing.

It’s like having a built-in business consultant. They also give you market feedback and help with inventory forecasting, 3PL partners, pricing and more.

All that’s left for you to manage is fulfillment, product quality, customer service and social media. Leave the selling to ScaleBoom!

A Real Example: TidyBoard leveraged LaunchBoom & Kickfurther for massive success

TidyBoard launched with us on Kickstarter in June 2020. We helped them raise more than $600k during their month-long crowdfunding campaign.

They used the funds from their crowdfunding campaign to deliver their product to all their backers. After that, they had no cash to fund their first inventory order. That’s where Kickfurther came in.

When TidyBoard launched on Kickfurther, more than $53k in inventory was funded in just 30 minutes!

Once TidyBoard got their inventory, they hired ScaleBoom to set up and run their e-commerce business.

ScaleBoom took TidyBoard from $0 in sales to $267,000 in the first 60 days! (That’s a first year run rate of over $1.5M and growing!) 💸

The ScaleBoom team sold the inventory out in ½ the time the inventory was expected to last, meaning Kickfurther buyers got paid back and TidyBoard returned to Kickfurther to fund their second round of inventory which raised $184k in 24 hours. 🎉

LaunchBoom, Kickfurther & ScaleBoom: which is right for you right now?

LaunchBoom, Kickfurther and ScaleBoom are the trifecta when it comes to launching a successful e-commerce business quickly and affordably.

LaunchBoom’s crowdfunding services are perfect to kickoff new projects and get you in a place where you have your first round of orders, are successfully selling, and can utilize Kickfurther’s incredible community to continue scaling your business, like we did with Tidyboard.

Talk to LaunchBoom about launching your product today.

Kickfurther’s inventory funding services are ideal if you’ve already launched a successful crowdfunding campaign and are ready to dive into e-commerce with your first orders of inventory. It’s the easiest, most affordable way to fund your growth and keep your business scaling!

Sign up with Kickfurther for inventory funding.

And finally, if you have a product that you’ve already been selling, but you’re worried about funding with Kickfurther and struggling to sell through your inventory, we’re also here to help with our ecommerce division, ScaleBoom.

We were able to sell through TidyBoard’s inventory so quickly at such a high Return on Ad Spend, that we actually had to slow down our ads to allow them time to replenish their inventory.

Talk to ScaleBoom about growing your e-commerce business today.

This is a guest post from Launchboom. LaunchBoom is the most effective product launch system and full service marketing agency that manages the entire crowdfunding process from start to finish.