For problems with no standard answer

Custom consulting is a one-on-one working model built for business-specific and often high-risk situations that no predefined service package covers. Services like company formation, trademark registration, accounting or PPC management have a clear scope and a clear deliverable. By contrast, questions such as why an account was suspended, which marketplaces to enter and in what order, or how a brand should be positioned before a sale cannot be solved within a standard scope. These questions require an accurate diagnosis first and a purpose-built plan second.

There are typically three situations that lead to this service. The first is crisis: the account is suspended, ASINs are removed, payments are blocked and hours start to matter. The second is a plateau: revenue is growing but profit is not, ad spend is rising but profitable sales are not, a new marketplace was launched but it is not working. The third is transition: periods that change the structure of the business, such as building a team, raising investment, acquiring or selling.

The work always starts with diagnosis. We review Account Health, catalog structure, unit economics, advertising data, supply and the cash cycle. Findings are driven by data, not by hypothesis. We then produce a prioritized action plan with a named owner and a defined timeline for each item.

What Mentoreis brings to this work is volume from the field: more than 1,500 US company formations, more than 600 trademark registration processes and annual tax filings for more than 100 companies. That volume means a one-off problem is handled with knowledge of how similar cases ended, rather than being seen for the first time.

An Amazon account suspension is the harshest event a seller can face, stopping cash flow in a single day. What matters is accurate diagnosis more than speed: a Plan of Action written against the wrong reason burns your appeal and makes the second attempt harder.

A suspension does not come from a single cause. Performance-driven ones arise when metrics like order defect rate, late shipment rate and cancellation rate cross their thresholds. Policy-driven ones come from product safety complaints, restricted product violations, intellectual property complaints or review manipulation allegations. Verification-driven ones begin when Amazon asks again for identity, address, invoice and supply chain documents. There are also related account suspensions, which surface when two seemingly unrelated accounts are linked through the same IP, the same payment method or the same document.

Each one has a different path to resolution. In a performance-driven suspension, operational root cause analysis and corrective actions come first. With IP claims, the solution is usually produced through communication with the rights holder who filed the claim rather than with Amazon; once a retraction is obtained, the case closes far faster. In verification-driven requests, document consistency is decisive: the legal name, address and product description on the supplier invoice must match the account records exactly.

On files like these we first identify the actual reason behind the event, then build an appeal structured around root cause, corrective actions taken and permanent measures that prevent recurrence. The outcome cannot be guaranteed; no consulting firm has control over Amazon's final decision. But presenting the case with the right reason, the right documents and complete on the first submission directly affects the result.

Opening a new marketplace is not copying your existing catalog into another country. Every market has its own tax regime, its own fee structure, its own compliance rules and its own consumer behavior. Expansion done in the wrong order can turn a profitable business into a loss-making one.

In European expansion the first issue is tax. In the United Kingdom and EU countries, if VAT registration, distance selling thresholds, the OSS and IOSS mechanisms and the post-Brexit customs split are not set up correctly, a retroactive tax liability follows. The second issue is compliance: product labeling, EPR registrations and packaging obligations are now a precondition for selling in many countries. Germany's packaging legislation and France's extended producer responsibility registrations are examples.

In Canada and Mexico the problem is mostly operational and mathematical. Fee structures differ from the US; Canada works in metric units and Mexico uses its own price-tiered fulfillment structure. Sellers who carry over their US calculation as-is build their unit economics wrong. We base the expansion decision on unit economics recalculated for each market, not on instinct.

The third dimension is channel diversification. Channels outside Amazon reduce dependence on a single platform and build brand value. Setting up your own channel on Shopify, entering social commerce through TikTok Shop, testing niche segments on Etsy or moving into B2B through wholesale platforms like Faire: which one fits your product and your margin depends on product type, return rate and customer acquisition cost. Not every channel suits every product, and running that assessment upfront is better than losing six months.

Growing revenue on Amazon is relatively easy; growing profit is hard. The pattern many sellers live through looks like this: sales rise, ad spend rises faster, inventory turnover slows, cash gets locked in stock and by year end the growth has not turned into profit. This is not an advertising problem, it is a portfolio and pricing problem.

The work starts at the catalog level. We build the real unit economics for every ASIN: referral fee, fulfillment fee, storage, aged inventory cost, return rate and return processing cost, advertising share and product cost included. That table usually reveals a small number of profitable products carrying most of the revenue, plus a long tail that contributes to revenue but not to profit. The decisions become clear after that: which product to scale, which to reprice, which to repackage, which to liquidate.

The second layer is price and variation architecture. Because fee tiers are tied to price thresholds, a difference of a few dollars can change the margin fundamentally. In the same way, small corrections to product dimensions can shift the size tier and create permanent per-unit savings. These are far higher-return and more durable interventions than advertising.

The third layer is the brand itself. Positioning, price segment, the order in which the product range expands, packaging and brand narrative. A catalog that competes on price alone inevitably enters a race that drives the margin toward zero. A defensible brand raises the repeat purchase rate and lowers customer acquisition cost, which makes it the only real long-term leverage.

Most Amazon businesses think they have a profit problem; what they actually have is a cash cycle problem. As long as money is locked in inventory, in transit or in Amazon's payment schedule, the business cannot grow even if it looks profitable on paper.

The first area of intervention is inventory planning. Excess stock raises storage fees and aged inventory costs, locks up capital and creates opportunity cost. Too little stock leads to stockouts, lost ranking and the cost of regaining position. The right answer is a reorder point calculated from the product's sales velocity, lead time and seasonality. For stock that has not moved for a long time, the decision has to be made early: price reduction, packaging change, B2B bulk sale or liquidation. Postponing these decisions month after month multiplies the cost.

The second area is supplier structure. Depending on a single supplier means lost leverage in price negotiations and exposure to disruption. Payment terms, quality control protocol, sampling processes and a pool of alternative suppliers are designed together. On the customs and freight side, the choice of shipping mode, consolidation and entry procedures directly affect unit cost.

The third area is the warehousing and shipping model. FBA is not the only route. A hybrid structure supported by a 3PL can substantially lower storage cost for high-volume or slow-turning products, while FBM works more flexibly for certain product types. The right model is determined product by product, not imposed as a single rule across the business.

Selling an Amazon brand is not the same as transferring an account. A buyer is not purchasing a revenue stream, they are purchasing a repeatable and transferable business. What sets the valuation multiple is, to a large extent, that transferability.

Pre-sale preparation should generally begin 9 to 18 months before the sale conversation, because buyers look at the last 12 months of financials. Every correction made in that window shows up in the multiple. Preparation moves along these lines: the trademark registered in the correct class and under the correct legal entity, an active Brand Registry enrollment, financial records that are separated and consistent, no mixing of the owner's personal spending with company expenses, supplier relationships backed by written contracts, and an operation that no longer depends on the founder.

During due diligence, buyers typically examine the following: Account Health history and any suspension records, the profit table by ASIN, revenue concentration (dependence on a single product lowers the multiple), the balance between organic and advertised sales, return rates, supplier contracts, the intellectual property file and any disputes. Every weak link on that list either cuts the price or becomes a condition to be fixed before closing.

We work in two roles in this process. On the sell side: making the business audit-ready, setting up the data room, closing weak links in advance and preparing for buyer questions. On the buy side: reviewing the real profit table, account risks and brand file of an Amazon business you are considering acquiring, with an independent eye. No valuation amount and no guarantee of finding a buyer is given; the consultant's job here is to make the business ready and to make the risks visible.

Past a certain size, the purpose of a consulting relationship is not to do the work for you but to get your team to the point where they can do it. A PPC account managed from outside can produce results, but when the knowledge does not stay inside the company, the dependency becomes permanent.

In-house training programs are built around the team's current level. For the operations team: catalog management, listing quality, inventory planning and case management. For the marketing team: campaign structure, keyword strategy, bid management and reading reports. For the finance team: unit economics, reading settlement reports and calculating real profit. Training is run on your own account data, not on a generic curriculum. The team examines its own products, its own numbers and its own mistakes.

Process setup comes alongside the training. Who reads which report and how often, which action is triggered when a metric crosses which threshold, where decision authority sits. Written procedures and repeatable checklists are what keep quality standing even when the team changes. This is also the direct solution to the founder dependency problem in exit preparation.

The working format varies with the need: an intensive workshop on a single topic, mentoring sessions running over a set period, or close collaboration at a weekly rhythm through a critical stretch. Scope, duration and format are decided together in the first diagnostic conversation.