By Ali Khoddami, founder of Vela K Products Ltd., a registered British Columbia distribution company selling brand-direct on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com since 2021. Updated November 3, 2026.

Short answer: yes, if you build it in the right order, give it two to three hours a day, use money that is separate from your living costs, and have someone check the decisions before they cost you anything. Most of the people I build with have a job. Many of them keep it.

This post is for the careful person: the accountant, the dentist, the office professional, the person at a large company or a bank who has done the research, run the numbers, looked at franchises and courses, and still has not started. Here is how I think about it, and what the work actually looks like beside a job.

A good job is a strong base. It is not something you own.

I started my corporate career at 17, in Vancouver. By 22 I was working for one of the biggest real estate asset management companies in the country, on projects in every large city in Canada. I bought my own apartment and my dream car before I was 23. And something was still missing.

What I noticed were the people who had been there for 18 years. Good people, good at their jobs, still worried about their jobs. Still competing with the person at the next desk. Still nervous about a mistake. A job can pay well and still not build anything that belongs to you.

I am not against employment. A good job is a strong base, and the people I work with keep it as long as they want to. The question is whether something is being built on that base that is yours. In a job, someone else decides what changes to your role. In a business you own, you decide.

Why careful people pick this model

Brand-direct wholesale is a quiet business. You buy products from brands people already buy, through a company in your own name, and you sell them on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com. There is no product to invent and no audience to build from zero. Amazon stores the stock and ships every order. The work is finding the right products, getting approved by the brands, and reordering what sells. That work fits into evenings and early mornings, which is why it suits people who already have a full day.

The appetite is real. In a December 2025 Ownr survey of 1,000 Canadian adults, 46% said starting a business was one of their goals for the year ahead. Statistics Canada counted $5.7 billion in Canadian online retail sales in June 2026 alone, as reported by Nova Scotia Finance. Those figures describe the people surveyed and the market, not Vela K students, but they say something about where careful people are looking.

What two to three hours a day actually looks like

Here is a realistic week for someone building beside a job.

• Early mornings or evenings, 30 to 45 minutes: brand emails and follow-ups. These are short, written from templates, and sent to brands you have already checked. Ten emails take less time than most people think.
• Two or three evenings a week, about an hour: product checks. You run the same numbers on every product before an order, and in the program nobody places an order before we have looked at it together.
• One evening a week: the live group session, where you bring your questions and hear everyone else's.
• Lunch breaks: replies from brands, supplier paperwork, the small things.

What you do not do is guess. The first year has about ten decisions that matter: the company, the account, the category, the first brand, the first order and a few more. Made in the wrong order, they cost months. Made in the right order, with someone who does this every day checking them, they take weeks.

The order, and what it costs besides the program

We build your company and your online presence first, so brands see a real business when they search your name. Then the product sourcing methods. Then the brand outreach, sent together. Then the follow-up system, because a brand that has not answered has not said no. What Systems Do You Need to Run an Amazon FBA Business? covers the systems that keep it running after launch.

Plan for the real costs. Setting up the company and the website is roughly $500, one time. The monthly tools, including your Amazon seller account, are roughly $200 a month. Your first inventory is usually $2,000 to $5,000, and it grows from what the business brings in. The mentorship is on top of that, and we go through it on the call. If that money is not separate from your living costs yet, it is too early, and I would rather tell you that than take it.

Who this is not for

This is not for people running from a job. It is for careful people who want something of their own, built properly, beside the work they already do. It is not for anyone who wants someone else to run it, anyone looking for a shortcut, or anyone who wants a result promised before they start.

The risks are the same for everyone. Stock can sell slower than planned or at a lower price and money can be lost. A brand can decline. Amazon can restrict a listing or an account. Building in the right order, with invoices from the brand itself, reduces those risks. It does not remove them.

Common questions

Do I need to leave my job to do this? No. The build and the outreach fit into two to three hours a day. Whether you ever change that is your decision, made later, with real numbers in front of you.

Can my employer object to a side business? Some employment agreements have rules about outside business activity. Read yours, and ask a lawyer if anything is unclear. This article is not legal advice.

How much money do I need to start? Roughly $500 for set-up, roughly $200 a month for tools, and $2,000 to $5,000 for first inventory, plus the mentorship. It should come from money set aside, not from living costs.

My spouse or partner is part of this decision. Is that normal? Very. Most of the people I work with decide together, and the second call is often the one they join.

What if I have a seller account already but never sold? That is a common starting point. We check the account, fix what needs fixing, and build the rest around it.

The short version

You can build a brand-direct Amazon business beside a full-time job if you build it in the right order, give it two to three hours a day, fund it from money set aside, and have every decision checked before it costs you. The job stays your base. The business becomes something you own. Waiting another year is also a decision.

I build brand-direct Amazon businesses with people one to one, in a paid private mentorship, and I take ten new people a month, most of them with a job. To apply for a call, start at academy.velakproducts.com/programs. No result is promised.

Ali Khoddami is the founder of Vela K Products Ltd., a distribution company registered in British Columbia, Canada, with operations in Coquitlam, BC and Blaine, WA. He teaches brand-direct Amazon wholesale through Vela K Academy. Vela K Products Ltd. is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Amazon.com, Inc. This article is educational and is not legal, tax, or financial advice.