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Chad Rubin is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of Skubana, an operations platform for Amazon sellers to automate and optimize their business. He is also the founder of Profasee, a dynamic pricing platform that enables Amazon brands to predict the perfect price for every product. Listen in as Chad shares his journey, including the successful sale of multiple businesses, the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship, and the emotional challenges of managing and scaling companies. Chad also shares valuable insights on leadership, adapting your business, and the importance of self-care and personal development. Links: Profasee: https://profasee.com/ Chad's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itschadrubin/
Can a laid-off Wall Street analyst turn a small vacuum cleaner parts store into a thriving e-commerce empire? Chad Rubin did just that, and in this episode, he shares his remarkable journey from the financial crisis of 2008 to becoming a pioneer in the world of Amazon selling. We explore how Chad's commitment to high-quality products and strategic pricing propelled his private-label business to success. Discover the pivotal moments that led to the birth of Skubana, a multi-marketplace management powerhouse, and his latest venture, Profasee, which revolutionizes dynamic pricing for sellers. Chad's story is a testament to the power of continuous innovation in e-commerce. We discuss the relentless need for product iteration, the complexities of protecting intellectual property in China, and the creation of Skubana as a response to the inefficiencies in existing inventory management systems. From transitioning between platforms like Volusion, Magento, and Shopify to addressing the unique challenges of the e-commerce landscape, Chad provides invaluable insights that every entrepreneur can learn from. But Chad's contributions go beyond his own businesses. Tune in to hear about the evolution of the Prosper Show conferences, a leading event for Amazon sellers co-founded by Chad to foster community and knowledge sharing. We also dive into the intricacies of dynamic pricing strategies with Profasee, comparing them to Uber's surge pricing and exploring their impact on profitability. Whether you're an e-commerce novice or a seasoned seller, Chad's expertise and passion for the industry will leave you inspired and armed with strategies to elevate your own Amazon business. In episode 410 of the AM/PM Podcast, Kevin and Chad discuss: 08:17 - Evolution of Aftermarket Parts Industry 11:09 - Constant Innovation in E-Commerce Business 13:39 - Challenges of Protecting Intellectual Property 18:47 - Evolution of Prosper Show Conferences 18:48 - Entrepreneur Launches Various Business Ventures 24:12 - Evolution of International Seller Conference 29:45 - The Truth About E-Commerce Conferences 35:10 - Advanced Pricing Strategies for E-Commerce Sellers 39:59 - Enhancing E-Commerce Pricing Strategies 40:43 - Effectiveness of Static Pricing Strategy 46:03 - More Strategies for E-Commerce Success 51:52 - Kevin King's Words Of Wisdom
Episode SummaryThere are plenty of problems to solve in the ecommerce space. As the market gets larger it also gets more complex with new problems to solve arriving almost daily. Throughout my career in ecommerce, I have come across a “mafia” of founders - that is people who see and experience the problems firsthand, build a software solution to solve it, get the business to the right scale for an exit; rinse, and repeat. We are oversimplifying some of the complexities, but it can never be understated how much focus and commitment is required to build and exit a software business in any market AND do it more than once.In this episode of In/organic, I was joined by Chad Rubin, founder of commerce ecosystem notables including Prospershow, Skubana, Sellers Choice, and more recently Profasee. Every business Chad has built was started to solve a problem he experienced as an online retailer and whereby he brought the solution to market to help thousands of online sellers thrive. In this episode, I explore with Chad the formula for success as a repeat founder and his experiences and learnings along the way of building and exiting thoughtfully.TakeawaysChad's approach to building businesses involves identifying real pains in commerce, experiencing those pains directly, and building companies around them.The decision to sell a business involves considering market trends, acquisition behavior, and economic impact, as well as ensuring a successful outcome for stakeholders and employees.The sale process requires careful consideration of the vision and execution of the acquiring party, as well as the deal structure and post-sale arrangements.Chad's journey highlights the importance of perseverance, non-consensus thinking, and proving oneself right in the face of skepticism from investors and VCs. Life after a successful exit may not bring the expected life-changing outcomes.Balancing work and personal life is essential for long-term success and fulfillment.Market opportunities in e-commerce are evolving, with a focus on multichannel and niche markets.The entrepreneurship journey involves continuous learning and adaptation, focusing on personal growth and well-being.Chapters00:00 Introduction02:59 Chad Rubin's background04:16 Building a business 06:53 Strategic thinking about outcomes09:00 Learnings from selling a business12:43 The decision to sell17:42 Running the sale process22:56 Insights for founders selling a business25:42 Experiences as a serial founder and exiter30:41 Optimizing for platforms of varying maturity levels34:39 Maximizing the outcome35:47 The pattern of building and selling38:47 Advice for aspiring serial foundersConnect with Christian & In/organic PodcastChristian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/In/organic on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/inorganic-podcastIn/organic on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@InorganicPodcast/featuredConnect with Chad Rubin on LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/itschadrubin/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this week's episode, we discuss profit-boosting strategies with Chad Rubin, an e-commerce veteran. Chad, who has built and sold companies like Skubana and The Prosper Show, shares insights on pricing strategies, data-driven decisions, and AI in e-commerce. Key points include optimizing Amazon listings, managing ad spend with POAS, and understanding algorithmic brands' future. Chad's extensive experience and passion for e-commerce success are evident. He's also a global speaker and author of the Amazon bestseller "Cheaper, Easier, Direct." Like, comment, and subscribe for more finance and e-commerce insights! Takeaways:Data-Driven Decisions: Aggregators and successful sellers leverage data science teams to drive decisions. This approach, known as algorithmic branding, involves using algorithms for PPC, inventory management, and pricing to optimize business operations. Understanding and Adapting to Fees: Sellers need to get used to Amazon's changing fee structure. Operating smarter by predicting inventory levels, adjusting prices, and being efficient with inventory can help maintain profitability despite fee increases. Profit on Ad Spend (POAS): Instead of focusing on ACOS (Advertising Cost of Sales), consider using POAS, which takes into account the total cost of delivering a unit to the customer. This metric provides a clearer picture of profitability. Bundle and Pack Products: To avoid price competition, consider selling products in bundles or packs. This approach can create additional value for customers, making direct price comparisons with competitors more difficult. Optimize Pricing: Use dynamic pricing strategies to adjust prices based on demand and competition. By harmonizing price and ad spend, sellers can increase their contribution profit. External Traffic: Analyze and optimize external traffic sources in addition to organic and paid traffic within Amazon. A higher percentage of external traffic can diversify sales channels and reduce dependency on Amazon's internal ecosystem. Quote of the Show:Start adjusting prices to understand their impact on your objectives. I created it out of necessity when nothing on the market met my needs. Start by creating a spreadsheet with your ASIN and objective, then input all relevant factors like price, fees, ad spend, and competition. See how price adjustments affect your goals.Links :Website – Profasee : https://profasee.com/Twitter – Profasee : https://twitter.com/theeprofaseeLinkedIn – Profasee : https://www.linkedin.com/company/81280009LinkedIn – Personal : https://www.linkedin.com/in/itschadrubin/Twitter – Personal : https://twitter.com/itschadrubinWant To Level Up Your Business? Register With Our SponsorsViably is the complete financial solution to help e-commerce business owners extend their cash flow through funding. Viably's revenue-based funding programs are designed to provide online sellers with the funding they need to achieve their business goals. Whether you need to increase your inventory or ramp up your marketing efforts, Viably can help you access the capital you need to succeed.Claim your extra $1,500 when you qualify for $25,000 or more in funding. Go to https://www.runviably.com/legends and start your application today.
Life is not a sprint, it's a marathon. The same could be said for the Amazon sphere as it develops. Since 2006, our guest Chad Rubin has been immersed in a world of the unexpected with selling on Amazon. Founder & CEO of Profasee, a dynamic pricing platform aimed at helping sellers on Amazon maximize profits, Chad has seen a lot of changes and stages in the lifecycle of the marketplace and he gives us his perspective on what's currently happening. Don't believe him? That's okay. Reality is negotiable after all, right? Feel free to experiment and test everything we say on this episode of The Longer Game. That's how Chad has been successful anyhow. The Longer Game is a podcast focused on leaning into the trends and advancements in retail so brands see a clearer path to success across ALL channels. We're looking at retail in a whole new way, looking to better understand the future of retail. It's Retail Reimagined. Sharing hope about the future. No one channel can a business sustain. Go omni-channel. Like what you're hearing? Subscribe to our channel and make sure to click or tap the bell so you get notified whenever new episodes drop. Want to learn more about The Longer Game? Head over to https://thelongergame.com to read show notes, watch more episodes, or contact us. Follow us on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/thelongergame Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thelongergame Follow us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/thelongergame Our guest Guest Name is Chad Rubin. Chad Rubin leads Profasee's operations and oversees its strategy. He often speaks about e-commerce, amazon and leveraging AI strategies on webinars and conferences worldwide. He's also the author of the Amazon bestseller, Cheaper, Easier Direct. Prior to Profasee, he founded Think Crucial and co-founded Skubana, and the Prosper Show. He is also a father, husband and loves coffee and tacos. You can find him at... Website: https://profasee.com Find them on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itschadrubin/ Michael Maher, the host, would love to connect with you. Reach out to him at… Email: michael@thinkcartology.com LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/immichaelmaher This podcast is sponsored by Cartology and Arch Podcastify Me. Cartology is a customized done-for-you service agency that helps brands accelerate growth and get profitable on the Amazon marketplace. They work directly with brands to create strategy and then go right out and execute it. Want to find out more? Website: https://thinkcartology.com Find Cartology on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/cartology Find Cartology on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thinkcartology Find Cartology on Facebook: https://facebook.com/thinkcartology Podcastify Me is designed to help coaches of all kinds enter the podcasting space with minimal lift for them. And, inviting past, current and future clients to your show as part of your marketing and sales process sets you apart from your competition, in a time where podcasting is really gaining popularity. Website: https://podcastify.me Find Podcastify Me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/podcastify-me/ Find Podcastify Me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/podcastify.me/ Find Podcastify Me on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf2biqOTN2UbZ5aaM4Sx6NQ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thelongergame/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thelongergame/support
In 2006, Chad Rubin built Skubana, a tool specifically designed to streamline the operation of his e-commerce store across diverse channels. Sensing the software's potential, Rubin decided to offer Skubana to other online store owners. The platform rapidly resonated with e-commerce entrepreneurs, accumulating $5 million in annual recurring revenue by 2021. The company's success drew the interest of prospective buyers, eventually culminating in an irresistible offer from 3PL Central, a premier provider of warehouse management software.
Chad Rubin is an ecommerce pioneer and serial entrepreneur. Profasee, an Amazon repricing tool, is his fourth company, having founded Crucial (a seller of vacuum and coffee filters), Prosper Show (an Amazon conference), and Skubana (an order management platform). He's hired a lot of employees, in other words. He's also fired a lot — over 100, he says.His employee screening process now involves an IQ test to evaluate long-term potential. But his key metric on employee success is happiness, believing an unhappy employee is a low performer. "Success with employees stems from happiness," he told me. "When I have a one-on-one employee meeting, I typically start by asking if they're happy."For an edited and condensed transcript with embedded audio, see: https://pec-ly.com/?6oK9For all condensed transcripts with audio, see: https://www.practicalecommerce.com/tag/podcasts******The mission of Practical Ecommerce is to help online merchants improve their businesses. We do this with expert articles, podcasts, and webinars. We are an independent publishing company founded in 2005 and unaffiliated with any ecommerce platform or provider. http://www.practicalecommerce.com
Chad Rubin is the Founder and CEO of Profasee, a pricing platform enabling Amazon brands to predict product pricing. Chad began his career in the e-commerce industry in 2008 and has since founded six companies, including Deep and Sassy, Think Crucial, and Skubana. As a speaker and Amazon expert, he speaks about e-commerce, Amazon, and SaaS at global conferences and webinars. Chad is also the author of the Amazon bestseller Cheaper, Easier, Direct, which guides readers on uncovering success by disrupting industries. In this episode... Amazon has become one of the largest e-commerce platforms for brands large and small. Consumers prefer shopping on the platform for its reasonable prices and convenience. However, to offer competitive pricing, Amazon brands have sacrificed profitability by focusing on achieving ACOS and ROAS targets. What can you implement immediately to improve your profitability on Amazon? Many e-commerce professionals encourage you to spend your valuable time on keyword research and ad spending. Chad Rubin, an e-commerce business owner, refers to the phenomenon as the ROAS illusion — capable of plummeting your business' success and profitability. A Harvard Business Review study determined a 1% price increase can improve your EBITA by 14%. If product pricing has a direct effect on profitability, why wouldn't you reconsider your pricing strategy? Chad implores business owners to revisit profitability fundamentals. On this episode of the Up Arrow Podcast, William Harris welcomes Chad Rubin, Founder and CEO of Profasee, to discuss how e-commerce brands can increase their profitability on Amazon. Chad shares how to structure your pricing on Amazon and the risk of focusing on ACOS and ROAS strategies. He also discusses the reliability of AI resources and how it contributes to business development.
Chad Rubin leads Profasee's operations and oversees its strategy. He often speaks about e-commerce, amazon, and leveraging AI strategies on webinars and conferences worldwide. He's also the author of the Amazon bestseller, Cheaper, Easier Direct. Prior to Profasee, he founded Think Crucial and co-founded Skubana and the Prosper Show. In this episode... Skubana Acquisition and Rebooting Post Exit Turning Around his Ecommerce Business, Think Crucial The Fallacy of Managing PPC Spend to ACOS The Art and Science of Pricing SAAS Mistakes and Learning Lessons from Skubana (Post Mortem) Sponsor for this episode... This episode is brought to you by BSR Digital. BSR Digital helps e-commerce brands that want to scale their business to the next level through paid ads & email marketing. To learn more about BSR Digital, visit their website or book a call here.
As more businesses sell products on Amazon, pricing has become more competitive. However, many brands don't pay enough attention to pricing because it's complicated. But pricing has a big impact on profits, so it's important to find the right price to help your product stand out on Amazon. What's the best way to make sure you're making the most money?In this episode of The Seller Process Podcast, Gianmarco talks with Chad Rubin about identifying the most profitable price product for entrepreneurs. Chad is the founder of Profasee, a company that enables Amazon brands to predict the perfect price for every product—dynamically and automatically, every time.Here's a breakdown of what to expect in this episode:• Finding the optimal price for products• Maximizing the potential of product listings• Pricing as a significant lever of impact• Misconception that pricing is a one-size-fits-all solution.• Increasing sales velocity, conversion rates, and profitability.• The importance of pricing discipline in e-commerce• Why sellers should focus on profit, not just revenue.• Profasee's AI solutions in automating and systemizing pricing decisions.Download the spreadsheet “Pricing Campaign Framework” by Profasee, to learn how to find the optimal price for your listing! About Chad Rubin:Chad Rubin leads Profasee's operations and oversees its strategy. He often speaks about e-commerce, amazon, and leveraging AI strategies on webinars and conferences worldwide. He's also the author of the Amazon bestseller, Cheaper, Easier Direct. Prior to Profasee, he founded Think Crucial and co-founded Skubana and the Prosper ShowConnect with Chad Rubin…Website: https://profasee.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itschadrubin/Twitter: https://twitter.com/itschadrubinConnect with Gianmarco!Website: https://www.thesellerprocess.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/gianmeli/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesellerprocessLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gianmarco-meli/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB07vjOEJnu3mhYxmoaVlegFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/gianmarco.meliTools & Useful ResourcesBrandPush - Get your brand featured on FOX, USA Today, and other media - Best quality/price PR agency for ecommerce brands. Your brand will get featured on hundreds of media outlets in just few days. Get 25$ off with code: TSPP - https://www.thesellerprocess.com/brandpushBillo - Top quality UGC videos - Our favorite place to create product videos for Amazon and social ads. It connects you with hundreds of video content creators that will shoot professional videos starting at 59$. Get 20$ off with code TSP20 - https://www.thesellerprocess.com/billo/
Sea 3 Ep 6 Chad Rubin - “Finding Profit Selling On Amazon!” 5/4/2023 It is the year of PROFIT apparently, so are you making money on your business on Amazon? Do you know how to know for sure? Chad Rubin, Founder and CEO of Profasee joins us to peel the onion on what to look for and what really matters! Chad was one of the first large sellers on Amazon years ago with his own ecommerce brand Think Crucial, then started a SAAS solution SKUBANA to better manage your marketplace business. Alway creating solutions to challenges he found in his own ecommerce business, his newest business finds profit! Hayley Brucker, Summer Jubelirer and I cover so many other topics on how to get to long term and sustainable profit on Amazon. What really works to launch a product on Amazon, what to believe and what is not real or the answer to grow on Amazon. How to think about Best Seller Rank and the famous A9 algorithm. All that and more with Scott Ohsman, Summer Jubelirer. Always Off Brand Simplifies Ecommerce and guarantees to make you laugh and learn at the same time! QUICKFIRE Info: Website: https://www.quickfirenow.com/ Email the Show: info@quickfirenow.com Talk to us on Social: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quickfireproductions Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quickfire__/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@quickfiremarketing LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/quickfire-productions-llc/about/ Guest: Chad Rubin Founder/CEO of Profasee LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/in/itschadrubin/ Profasee Website: https://profasee.com/ Awesome Chad Rubin Profit Table Link Mentioned in the Show: https://www.loom.com/i/77b96b39f0b34a86b922ca4faed02fa6 HOSTS: Summer Jubelirer has been in digital commerce and marketing for over 15 years. After spending many years working for digital and ecommerce agencies working with multi-million dollar brands and running teams of Account Managers, she is now the Amazon Manager at OLLY PBC. LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/summerjubelirer/ Scott Ohsman has been working with brands for over 27 years in retail, online and has launched over 200 brands on Amazon. Owning his own sales and marketing agency in the Pacific NW, is now VP of Digital Commerce for Quickfire LLC. Scott has been a featured speaker at national trade shows and has developed distribution strategies for many top brands. LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-ohsman-861196a6/ Hayley Brucker has been working in retail and with Amazon for years. She is currently a Marketing Coordinator at Channel Key LLC. Hayley has extensive experience in digital advertising, both seller and vendor central on Amazon. Hayley is based out of North Carolina and has worked in multiple product categories and has also worked on the brand side and started with Nordstrom on the retail floor. LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayley-brucker-1945bb229/ Huge thanks to Cytrus our show theme music “Office Party” available wherever you get your music. Check them out here: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/cytrusmusic Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cytrusmusic/ Twitter https://twitter.com/cytrusmusic SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6VrNLN6Thj1iUMsiL4Yt5q?si=MeRsjqYfQiafl0f021kHwg APPLE MUSIC https://music.apple.com/us/artist/cytrus/1462321449 “Always Off Brand” is part of the Quickfire Podcast Network and produced by Quickfire LLC.
Chad Rubin is the Founder and CEO of Profasee, a dynamic pricing platform enabling brands to predict the optimum price for every product. He has built several successful companies, including Deep and Sassy, Think Crucial, and Skubana, which was acquired by 3PL Central. As a speaker and world-class Amazon expert, Chad gives presentations about ecommerce, SaaS, and Amazon at global conferences and webinars. He is also the co-author of the Amazon bestseller Cheaper Easier Direct. In this episode… Pricing on Amazon is becoming increasingly competitive, and given its complexities, brands often disregard this portion of their business. Yet product pricing affects profitability substantially, so establishing an exact price point is crucial to increase discovery on Amazon. So what's an ideal method for optimizing revenue? According to Chad Rubin, traditional, manual pricing models utilize if-then scenarios, allowing for human error and compromising lucrative opportunities. AI is an evolving tool that brands can leverage to develop a dynamic pricing framework that improves product detail pages and forecasts demand. AI models can recognize user inputs to make decisions that maximize revenue. Profasee is disrupting price algorithms on Amazon by leveraging AI pricing models to outperform the competition. Founder and CEO of Profasee, Chad Rubin, is interviewed by Joshua Chin on this episode of the eCommerce Profits Podcast about AI's role in dynamic pricing. Chad also discusses how brands can utilize dynamic pricing to generate profit, his thoughts about AI surpassing human intelligence, and advice for structuring pricing on Amazon and Shopify.
The guest on today's episode is Chad Rubin. He leads Profasee's operations and oversees its strategy. He often speaks about e-commerce, amazon and leveraging AI strategies on webinars and conferences worldwide. He's also the author of the Amazon bestseller, Cheaper, Easier Direct. Prior to Profasee, he founded Think Crucial and co-founded Skubana, and the Prosper Show. In today's episode, he discusses assigning the right price to your products. Takeaways:Having a dynamic pricing structure can maximize your profit and increase sales.You can use AI technology to make your price dynamic and find a suitable model to maximize profit.Most times topline growth comes from reducing the price and bottom-line growth comes from reducing the expense.There are a lot of services associated with Amazon to help hellers handle returns, suspensions, issues with fees, etc.The third-party app that helps to prevent returns from happening is called the “On-Site Program”.When entering Amazon it is really important that you have a mentor. Quote of the Show: It is pretty simple; you increase your price as everyone says. Sometimes that might be the right decision. On the other hand, lowering the price might be more beneficial. When you lower your price, you might increase your demand, which pushes up your unit velocity. The knock-on effect not only produces more profit dollars but also increases your ranking. Links:Website – Profasee : https://profasee.com/Twitter – Profasee : https://twitter.com/theeprofaseeLinkedIn – Profasee : https://www.linkedin.com/company/81280009LinkedIn – Personal : https://www.linkedin.com/in/itschadrubin/Twitter – Personal : https://twitter.com/itschadrubinWays to tune in:Apple PodcastiHeart RadioSpotifyGoogle PodcastStitcherYouTubeTo learn more about Amazon PPC Campaigns, check out Mina Elias episode:Website : https://argometrix.com/Everything-You-Wanted-to-Know-About-Amazon-PPC-CampaignsYoutube : https://youtu.be/YJyFgUsobnIBuzzprout : https://www.buzzsprout.com/1835870/12305265Amazon Legends is sponsored by Argometrix, the authority on, and a leading supplier of, competitive intelligence for online retail. To learn more, head over to https://argometrix.com/
On today's Lunch With Norm, we are with the founder of "Think Crucial", who co-founded Skubana, and the Prosper Show, Chad Rubin! We discuss the Amazon truth bombs - what sellers need to hear. Find out the art and science of pricing on Amazon, the Amazon truth bombs, and the rise of the Amazon algorithmic brand. Our guests lead Profasee's operations and oversee its strategy. He often speaks about e-commerce, Amazon, and leveraging AI strategies on webinars and conferences worldwide. He's also the author of the Amazon bestseller, Cheaper, and Easier Direct. Post Purchase PRO specializes in helping Amazon sellers create more sales, ranking, and reviews through post purchase marketing. Finally your email marketing can be actively managed by professionals with over 30 years experience so you can focus on running your business. Increase repeat purchases, drive better organic search term ranking, get more reviews, and build a real asset. For more information visit https://www.postpurchasepro.com/lunch This episode is brought to you by Startup Club Startup Club is the largest club on Clubhouse supporting the Startup ecosystem. Startup Club offers an exciting sense of belonging to established and aspiring entrepreneurs, startup businesses, and companies wanting to Learn, Connect, and Grow. Join us for conversations with founders, entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists, subject matter experts, and more. For More information visit https://Startup.club In this episode, we are joined by Linkedin Influencer and entrepreneur, Cory Sanchez. Today, we learn how to drive millions of impressions to your brand using YouTube and Google Ads. Michael is the Founder of Mojo Global, an entrepreneur, investor, author and breakfast burrito aficionado. This episode is brought to you by Jeff Schick Legal Protect your business from legal threats that could severely disrupt your normal business operations. I designed my monthly retainer plan with the sellers in mind, because I've been in your shoes. For a very low, monthly retainer of $89, Get access to Amazon attorney Jeff Schick. Mention Lunch with Norm and receive 50% off the first 2 months. For more information visit https://jeffschick.com – drive online sales, increase conversions and help build your brand. This episode is brought to you by Rebaid. Attention sellers and brand owners! Are you looking for a way to reach more shoppers and promote your products? Try Rebaid! Rebaid's platform connects you with shoppers looking for great deals on exciting new products. We make it easy to offer promotional deals and handle rebate payments with seamless redemption and efficient processing. Don't just take our word for it, see why we have an Excellent rating on Trustpilot® and rave reviews from thousands of satisfied customers. Increase your sales and reach more shoppers with Rebaid today! For more information visit https://www.rebaid.com In this episode, the founder of Think Crucial and co-founded Skubana, and the Prosper Show, Chad Rubin is here. Today, we discuss the Amazon truth bombs - what sellers need to hear. He often speaks about e-commerce, amazon and leveraging AI strategies on webinars and conferences worldwide. He's also the author of the Amazon bestseller, Cheaper, and Easier Direct. This episode is brought to you by Startup Club, Rebaid, Post Purchase Pro, Jeff Schick Legal and HONU Worldwide.
Chad Rubin is the Founder and CEO of Profasee, a dynamic pricing platform that enables e-commerce brands to predict the perfect price for their products. He leads the company's operations and oversees strategy. Chad was the founder of Skubana and co-founded Think Crucial and The Prosper Show. He has over 15 years of experience in the e-commerce space and often speaks about e-commerce, Amazon, and leveraging AI strategies on webinars and conferences worldwide. In this episode... Product pricing is a key component in the growth of a business. By implementing the right pricing strategies, you can increase your profits and quickly scale your business. With over 15 years of experience in the e-commerce space, Chad Rubin knows the benefits of not only creating a differentiated product but also how to leverage pricing and AI to create an amazing brand. So how can you optimize product pricing to maximize sales? What strategies can you implement to increase your return on investments? In this episode of the Innovations and Breakthroughs Podcast, Rich Goldstein is joined by Chad Rubin, the Founder and CEO of Profasee, to talk about e-commerce pricing and marketing strategies. They also discuss Chad's process for building a team, his marketing strategies, and the challenges he has faced growing Profasee.
According to Chad Rubin, there's a lot of reckless advice from "gurus" when it comes to pricing on Amazon. Just raising your price because of inflation, might not be your optimal move. In some cases lowering your price, improving sell through, improving BSR can raise your total profits. But lowering your price could have devastating impact to your profits. So should you raise or lower your price? The short answer is - it depends. The key is to test, watch the data, and optimize. Chad Rubin recently exited Skubana, Prosper Show and his own agency. He's now the founder of Profasee a dynamic AI repricing tool for Amazon sellers to help you maximize profits without hurting your ranking on Amazon. Here's a look at what we cover: Prepping your business to sell and how Chad successfully exited Skubana. The fallacy of managing your Amazon ad spend to an ACoS goal. The art & science of Amazon pricing. How to price on other marketplaces so you maximize sales on amazon and preserve margin. Product assortment strategies on and off Amazon and where Chad would launch a new eComm brand if he started today.
Amazon sellers need to be flexible to adapt to market fluctuations, changes in consumer behavior, and supply chain disruptions. But one area where they tend to remain rigid is in their pricing. Chad Rubin believes this is a fatal flaw for FBA business. This flaw inspired him to create Profasee, a dynamic repricing tool that helps sellers maximize profits without sacrificing their product ranking on Amazon. In this episode, Chad joins us to discuss the origins of Profasee and walks us through his experiences as the founder of Skubana and co-founder of the Prosper Show. He shares why he chose to exit those businesses, and the challenges of being a multi-disciplined entrepreneur running eCommerce, agency, Saas, and event businesses. Chad explains how Profasee was born out of his need to revive his flagging eCommerce business, and how pricing is an often overlooked growth opportunity by Amazon sellers. According to Chad, “Your price should never be static. Especially in a fast marketplace like Amazon. Your competitors are changing prices. Your inventory, stock positions, your positioning on Amazon, your BSR, your ad spend - everything is changing. So your price should always change too. It's the quickest lever to pull that nobody's pulling on Amazon.” Chad also debunks some common misconceptions about Ai in SaaS and shares how he integrated Ai into Profasee to forecast optimal pricing. We dig into the signals and data that his Ai uses to calculate dynamic pricing, and how his data science team co-pilots the Ai. Plus, Chad shares his predictions on upcoming trends that will shape the Amazon FBA industry in the coming years, including how embracing Ai is the key to ensuring the longevity of your brand. This episode is overflowing with information on how to maximize your profits, stay ahead of the competition and secure the long-term success of your online business. Don't miss out! Topics Discussed in This Episode: A brief look into Chad's background and entrepreneurial journey (02:11) How Chad manages multiple brands simultaneously (04:50) How an Integrator can help businesses grow (07:41) The mistakes and obstacles Chad faced when building Skubana (10:12) Chad sheds some light on his exit from Skubana (13:40) How Chad became involved in the creation of Prosper show (23:51) A breakdown of Profasee and how it uses Ai to calculate optimal pricing (30:27) The most common mistakes FBA sellers make when it comes to pricing (42:51) The trends Chad foresees in the Amazon FBA industry moving forward (50:29) Mentions: Empire Flippers Podcast Empire Flippers Marketplace Schedule a call with our expert sales advisors Create your own Empire Flippers account Profasee Prosper Show Chat GBT Sit back, grab a coffee, and learn how to gain the upper hand on Amazon by using dynamic pricing!
Amazon sellers need to be flexible to adapt to market fluctuations, changes in consumer behavior, and supply chain disruptions. But one area where they tend to remain rigid is in their pricing. Chad Rubin believes this is a fatal flaw for FBA business. This flaw inspired him to create Profasee, a dynamic repricing tool that helps sellers maximize profits without sacrificing their product ranking on Amazon. In this episode, Chad joins us to discuss the origins of Profasee and walks us through his experiences as the founder of Skubana and co-founder of the Prosper Show. He shares why he chose to exit those businesses, and the challenges of being a multi-disciplined entrepreneur running eCommerce, agency, Saas, and event businesses. Chad explains how Profasee was born out of his need to revive his flagging eCommerce business, and how pricing is an often overlooked growth opportunity by Amazon sellers. According to Chad, “Your price should never be static. Especially in a fast marketplace like Amazon. Your competitors are changing prices. Your inventory, stock positions, your positioning on Amazon, your BSR, your ad spend - everything is changing. So your price should always change too. It's the quickest lever to pull that nobody's pulling on Amazon.” Chad also debunks some common misconceptions about Ai in SaaS and shares how he integrated Ai into Profasee to forecast optimal pricing. We dig into the signals and data that his Ai uses to calculate dynamic pricing, and how his data science team co-pilots the Ai. Plus, Chad shares his predictions on upcoming trends that will shape the Amazon FBA industry in the coming years, including how embracing Ai is the key to ensuring the longevity of your brand. This episode is overflowing with information on how to maximize your profits, stay ahead of the competition and secure the long-term success of your online business. Don't miss out! Topics Discussed in This Episode: A brief look into Chad's background and entrepreneurial journey (02:11) How Chad manages multiple brands simultaneously (04:50) How an Integrator can help businesses grow (07:41) The mistakes and obstacles Chad faced when building Skubana (10:12) Chad sheds some light on his exit from Skubana (13:40) How Chad became involved in the creation of Prosper show (23:51) A breakdown of Profasee and how it uses Ai to calculate optimal pricing (30:27) The most common mistakes FBA sellers make when it comes to pricing (42:51) The trends Chad foresees in the Amazon FBA industry moving forward (50:29) Mentions: Empire Flippers Podcast Empire Flippers Marketplace Schedule a call with our expert sales advisors Create your own Empire Flippers account Profasee Prosper Show Chat GBT Sit back, grab a coffee, and learn how to gain the upper hand on Amazon by using dynamic pricing!
The worlds of e-commerce and AI are changing so fast, it sometimes feels impossible to keep up. Fortunately, Chad Rubin, Founder, and CEO of Profasee, is a renowned expert in e-commerce, Amazon, and leveraging AI strategies, and shares his massive knowledge with Meny on this special episode of Let's Talk Business. Listen in as they talk about how Chad sold his business (and what you can learn from his experience), the opportunities and threats associated with ChatGPT and AI, whether you should start selling on Amazon and then move into other channels, the most effective way of differentiating your product on Amazon, and much more. Chad Rubin leads Profasee's operations and oversees its strategy. He often speaks about e-commerce, amazon, and leveraging AI strategies on webinars and conferences worldwide. He's also the author of the Amazon bestseller, Cheaper, Easier Direct. Prior to Profasee, he founded Think Crucial and co-founded Skubana and the Prosper Show. He is also a father, and husband and loves coffee and tacos. [00:01 - 07:27] Opening Segment • How Chad launched his startup and exited it • Leveraging AI strategies on webinars and conferences worldwide • The need for events in the e-commerce space How they can help entrepreneurs become 1% better [07:28 - 21:14] Why Timing Is Everything • Why and how Chad decided to build Skubana • How to know when is the optimal time to sell Focus on the revenue-generating side of the business rather than cost saving • The reason why timing is key when selling a business • How one entrepreneur found success after the "Great Reset" [21:15 - 35:45] AI is the Future: Maximizing Profit and Discoverability with AI • AI is still in its early stages but is developing quickly Business owners can start getting acquainted with AI • How Chat GPT can make writers better • Starting a brand on Amazon requires a plan and tight margins • Chad's insights about aggregators and Amazon [35:46 - 45:52] Closing Segment • Your idea must be differentiated to succeed • Chad on the rapid-four questions • Q&A: What is your risk tolerance? Want to connect with Chad? Follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter. Head to Profasee, and predict the perfect price every time! Key Quotes: "So my goal, at least from a career perspective, is to leave an industry far better than how I found it." - Chad Rubin "It's much easier to show people how you can make more money than how you can save money." - Chad Rubin Connect with Ptex Group: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn LEAVE A REVIEW + and SHARE this episode with someone who wants to achieve in business. Listen to previous episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts!
Welcome to the UNmiss podcast, where we explore the latest trends and best practices in e-commerce and digital marketing. Today, we have a special guest, Chad Rubin, a leading expert in the thriving art of pricing on Amazon and the founder of Skubana, an e-commerce automation software. In this episode, Chad shares his knowledge and…
Chad Rubin is the Founder and CEO of Profasee, a pricing platform that enables Amazon brands to predict ideal product prices. He leads Profasee's operations and overseas IT strategy. Chad often speaks about e-commerce, Amazon, and leveraging AI strategies on webinars and conferences worldwide. He is also the author of the Amazon bestseller, Cheaper, Easier, Direct. Before Profasee, Chad founded Think Crucial and co-founded Skubana and the Prosper Show. In this episode… Are you an Amazon brand that relies on traditional pricing strategies alone? There's a chance you leave lots of money on the table that could increase your profit margin. So, how can you optimize your Amazon sales, increase your profits, and incorporate AI into your e-commerce businesses? According to Amazon expert Chad Rubin, many brands have great products and even bigger ambitions but leave pricing strategies up to fate. It was the same for Chad with his e-commerce brand. As he looked for new ways to unlock huge profits, he discovered that pricing is the most relevant lever that flows to the bottom line, and it's a huge blind spot to many. Because there are few tools in the Amazon space to test prices, he built a world-class AI model that analyzes hundreds of real-time data points to help e-commerce brands pinpoint the perfect price for them to start profiting. Tune into this episode of the eComm Breakthrough Podcast with host Josh Hadley as he sits down with Chad Rubin, the Founder and CEO of Profasee. The two discuss how pricing is a challenge to many, how to change prices to maximize profits without sacrificing your BSR, and the importance of leveraging AI as an e-commerce business. Resources mentioned in this episode: Josh Hadley on LinkedIn eComm Breakthrough Consulting eComm Breakthrough Podcast Email Josh: Josh@eCommBreakthrough.com Hadley Designs Hadley Designs on Amazon Profasee Chad Rubin on LinkedIn Chad Rubin's Email: chad@profasee.com Chad Rubin on Twitter Cheaper Easier Direct by Chad Rubin and Frank Turner Prosper Show James Thomson on LinkedIn Skubana Think Crucial The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Eric Jorgenson The Great CEO Within: The Tactical Guide to Company Building by Matt Machory, Alex MacCaw, and Misha Talavera Notion Brandon Young on LinkedIn Steven Pope on LinkedIn Special Mention(s): Kevin King My Amazon Guy Past episode(s): “Kevin King's Wicked-Smart Tips for Building an Audience of Raving Fans” “Four Critical Pillars for Amazon Listing Optimization” "Seven Acquisition Strategies To Scale To Eight Figures and Beyond"
Chad Rubin is the CEO and Founder of Profasee, a dynamic pricing platform that enables Amazon brands to predict the perfect price for every product at each precise moment. He has worked in the e-commerce space since 2008 and is the author of Cheaper, Easier, Direct. Chad is the Founder of Deep and Saasy, Founder and Board Member of Think Crucial, and an Advisor for PickFu. He was the Co-founder and CEO of Skubana, which was acquired by 3PL Central, and was a Founding Board Member of the Prosper Show. In this episode… Pricing products for optimal profits can be confusing and frustrating. How can you program AI to charge prices to maximize profit for Amazon sellers? Chad Rubin used his own experience and knowledge of growing an Amazon brand to create an AI model that does just that. Leveraging AI to price products can help keep your brand current in the market and work smarter, not harder. By using this method, your brand could have a 30% increase in profit and decrease the number of mistakes typical pricing makes. Chad used his knowledge and insight of SKU pricing to produce a technology that helps Amazon brands increase profits — and can lead to a great exit! Stop deploying and start harvesting with this episode. In this episode of the Quiet Light Podcast, Joe Valley sits down with Chad Rubin, CEO and Founder of Profasee, to discuss how AI can predict the perfect price to win on Amazon by maximizing your profitability. Chad talks about the importance of networking, setting price boundaries for growth, and the competitive advantage of AI. Stay tuned!
Tackling the Slippery Slope of Scaling In this episode, Nate is joined by Chad Rubin, Founder and Board Member of Think Crucial and CEO and Founder of Profasee, to talk about the challenges of scaling for small and growing businesses. Among many other things, Chad is an expert in identifying industry problems and finding the appropriate solutions. Make sure you pour yourself up your favorite brew and get to your favorite podcast-watching spot to take in all of the fascinating insights Chad had to offer. From one coffee-loving e-com professional to another: enjoy! YT Timestamps: 0:00-0:27 Intro 0:28-2:30: Introducing Chad and his coffee of choice 2:31-4:46: Going from finance to e-commerce 4:47-6:20: The evolution of Crucial Vacuum into Think Crucial 6:21-8:34: The inspiration for Skubana [extends into the next section] 8:35-12:30: The thought process behind Profasee 12:31-17:46: Communication: a lesson from tough times 17:47-20:26: Which startups succeed and fail 20:27-24:33: Major scaling challenges 24:34-26:22: Learning to pass on the torch 26:23-28:44: How to use automation 28:45-33:02: Software solutions to be aware of 33:03-35:36: Retrospective advice 35:37-37:53: The importance of taking time off to build on yourself 37:54-38:25: Where to get in contact with Chad 38:26-38:43: Outro
Hey everybody and welcome back to Eggs! Today we have special guest — the founder and CEO of Profasee — Chad Rubin.Chad is a lifelong entrepreneur. In 2008 he decided to set up his first eCommerce shop — Crucial vacuum — selling vacuum cleaner parts out of his garage. It was a great success! It wasn't long before that site exploded from just one to thousands of different SKUs, but that experience showed Chad one thing. Due to a lack of proper technology to manage their growth — and thousands of products — their warehouse became an absolute jungle to manage. To solve his own problem, Chad created Skubana, which went on to become one of the most powerful operations platforms in e-commerce.On the back of the Skubana platform, Crucial Vacuum evolved from selling vacuum cleaner parts exclusively to covering all the replacement parts for your home. It also got a new name — Think Crucial. Skubana was eventually acquired by 3PL central, and in addition to the continued success of Think Crucial, in 2021 Chad launched his latest venture — Profasee. Profasee is a platform that enables Amazon resellers to dynamically predict the perfect price and the perfect moment for the products they sell using AI and comprehensive data management.Joining us today for a conversation about his entrepreneurial journey, starting, scaling, and selling businesses, the state of eCommerce and so much more. Please join us in welcoming to the show, Chad Rubin. Our Guest:Chad RubinFounder and CEO of ProfaseeOfficial website: https://profasee.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itschadrubin/----Credits:Hosted by Michael Smith and Ryan RoghaarTheme music: "Perfect Day" by OPMThe Carton:https://medium.com/the-carton-by-eggsThe Eggs Podcast Spotify playlist:bit.ly/eggstunesThe Plugs:The Showeggscast.com@eggshow on twitter and instagramOn iTunes: itun.es/i6dX3pCOn Stitcher: bit.ly/eggs_on_stitcherAlso available on Google Play Music!Mike "DJ Ontic" shows and infodjontic.com@djontic on twitterRyan Roghaarhttp://rogha.ar
WBSRocks: Business Growth with ERP and Digital Transformation
eCommerce business models have grown in complexity exponentially. The channels such as Amazon and Walmart are always modifying their rules and business models. And it's hard for eCommerce brands to keep up with these regulations and have KPIs aligned with the changed regulations. If they are not aligned and measured, the brands may experience significant financial consequences. But most of these eCommerce platforms are targeted at a specific audience that might be on QuickBooks and may have under $5 mil in revenue. So what challenges can you expect once you grow past $5 mi in revenue? In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss Skubana Detailed Independent Review. We discussed their strength and weaknesses and where they might fit in the eCommerce architecture. Finally, we discussed their exit strategy and market positioning, where they are the best fit, and where they might struggle.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.
Chad Rubin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Skubana, a service that integrates products, fulfillment centers, and sales channels onto a single platform. After seeing a hole in the e-commerce industry, Chad started his own business to fill that space and thus, Skubana was born. Their platform solves the most serious problems of order processing and inventory management that cause millions of dollars in losses for e-commerce sellers every year. Chad has worked in e-commerce since 2007 and is passionate about helping other vendors avoid the frustrations he experienced. Additionally, he is the Board Member Emeritus for the Prosper Show, a conference for established Amazon sellers. In this episode… Inventory management is one of the keys to a successful e-commerce business. Accurate and relevant data keeps products both stocked and moving. While there are solutions for the front and back end of online business, there are far less options for daily operation. Chad Rubin experienced this problem with his own company and set to work designing his solution. His answer was co-founding Skubana, a platform which seeks to bring together each step of the process into one service. From fulfillment centers to sales channels to the products themselves, all of these are centralized in a single service. This week on the Ecommerce Wizards Podcast, Chad Rubin, the CEO and Co-Founder of Skubana, talks about what sets his business apart from other inventory management solutions. He explains the origins of the company, how Skubana is utilized, and how they use order bots to remove the thinking out of fulfillment. This is a brief but powerful episode that you won't want to miss.
In this Prime Talk Podcast Video Sponsored by GETIDA – Chad Rubin - Co-Founder & CEO of Skubana - a cutting edge eCommerce management platform, shares his life's journey into eCommerce. Chad was born and raised in Rego Park in New York City, to a family of Holocaust survivors. His parents opened a store for vacuum-cleaners in Westfield, NJ where he eventually moved and lived when he was in third grade. He is the first college graduate in his family and got his degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2006. During college, he also met his wife to be as they were college sweethearts. When he graduated he entered the finance industry and started working on Wall-Street for the investment firm Thomas Weisel. During the 2008 economic meltdown in the finance world, he eventually got laid off in 2009 during another downsizing round. He then shifted his focus and energy on developing a multi-channel eCommerce infrastructure for his parents' vacuum-cleaning business and shifting it to sell online. In 2012 Chad lost his father who passed away from an illness right when the online business was gaining momentum. Over time Chad has developed his own branded products in the vacuum-cleaning and coffee filters categories to great success. Through many trials, errors, and great challenges his online business grew to large dimensions and presented further opportunities for Chad to keep innovating and eventually being involved in other ventures. He turned out to become a co-founder of the Prosper Show - the largest Amazon Seller Conference in the world, and wrote a best-selling book about his entrepreneurial journey called "Cheaper Easier Direct". However, the main challenges he was facing with growing his brand's Direct To Consumer (DTC) online reach led him to co-found Skubana. Today Skubana is a cutting edge eCommerce management platform that helps DTC brands grow and manage their online operations. He advocates entrepreneurs to focus on developing businesses that they are passionate about and essentially become an extension of themselves. He believes this approach can be a key factor for long-term success. Find out more about Skubana https://www.skubana.com/ Find Chad's book on Amazon https://amzn.to/2MR27bu Find out more about GETIDA: https://getida.com/ Please subscribe to our channel and share your thoughts and comments below. Stay safe and healthy in the meantime! #AmazonInventoryManagement #AmazonMultiChannel #AmazonERP
Today's guest is Chad Rubin of Skubana, all those ecom stores out there gearing up for Black Friday, you'll want to listen to this. Having worked in corporate finance covering internet stocks, Chad started his own ecommerce storefront in 2008. As CrucialVacuum.com Chad discovered a real need to solve the most serious problems of order processing and inventory management that cause millions of dollars in losses for e-commerce sellers every year. Like most of the best SaaS products out there, the need to solve these pain points was how Skubana was born. Tell us about what your software does for people? If you think of Shopify, it is everything you can see above the earth, whereas Skubana is everything below ground. Skubana makes it possible to manage your online store operations, especially if you are going multi-channel. Skubana helps ecommerce companies run and automate their businesses. How does Skubana differ from competitors? They built it from their own challenges, which means it works extremely well. They have built inventory and order management systems together. They have unified the software. How did you help found Skubana? He had a problem that he needed to solve for, he needed a multi-channel system that actually worked. He couldn’t find any software that truly solved his problem. They started Skubana to solve the problem. What made you decide that you needed to build your own software? Had was working with his business partner to try and get a software solution. When they realised they could not get pre-built software to adequately solve their issues they decided to build one themselves. What were some of the moments when you realized what the software needed? Chad gives credit to his business partner DJ, who pointed out that what they needed was not just an inventory system but an operations platform with everything unified. What sort of problems did you have when you scaled and grew? They needed more investments than they initially thought What made you decide to narrow the vision for your software? Going after specialized expertise has tremendous value. At a Shopify conference and saw a presentation that made them realize that with an open API allowed people to build into their software, which would allow others to build into their platform and essentially do some of the work for them. What did you do to keep your family afloat while building Skubana? Chad is a first generation Amazon seller, which brings a lot of benefits. His store helped to fund him while he was building Skubana. He didn’t take a paycheck from Skubana for a long time. What difficulties did you face when starting the company and how did you overcome them? Getting people to believe in their software. He made a list of the top 10 ecommerce entrepreneurs he wanted to get involved and invest. After his first investor many others followed, and eventually he got 2 people from that top 10 list. What sort of questions do investors ask during the seed round? You will need to think through every aspect of your business logistics. One seed investor asked what’s happening with Chad’s other business and what his role in the new business was. Think through all the hard topics so that you have an answer. Have some proof of concept conversations to better ready yourself for the real conversations. Make a pitch deck, and send it out and ask for feedback. Build a relationship with potential investors. How has the business changed from the early days? The stakes are higher They have a bigger team They have a much better product They have better product market fit They have become more focused on what they are great at What advice would you give to entrepreneurs that are just starting out? Being able to find light in the dark times, and get through them helps you come out a better person. There is always room for the best on the open market. What works for one person may not work for you, follow your own rainbow. Find the people who have the problem your product solves. Resources: Chad@Skubana.com Websites: Skubana Data Automation Suggest a SaaS founder for the Automate, Delegate, Eliminate show at: podcast@dataautomation.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How on earth did Chad Rubin of ThinkCrucial and Skubana get to where he is now?Find out in this podcast, and tune into these other topics: - What’s stopping sellers from the results that they need to get to the next level?- Horror stories about Amazon restrictions and account shutdowns, and how to get out of them and prevent them from happening- Diversification tactics for marketplaces so you'll never get hurt by restrictions or account shutdowns- How to figure out where all of your buyers frequent so you can capture and convert them===================
Shopify Unite 2019: Multisite, Smart Shipping Rules, Fulfillment Network & More, Amazon, the New King of Shipping, FedEx Lures Online Sellers With Two-Day Air Shipping at Ground Rates, Cloudflare Update Causes a Number of Sites to Go Down, and more. You can see the full show notes for this episode at https://www.ecommercefuel.com/july-3-2019/ The News Cart features industry news, community discussions, compelling job opportunities and interesting content around the web from the previous two weeks.
Chad Rubin did not want to be an entrepreneur and did not want to be in the vacuum industry. Well, he successfully failed at both of those. Joining his parents' vacuum store in 2007, Chad saw the potential of online marketing and sales and decided to help move the business to e-commerce. But, as the business eventually took off, it became increasingly harder to fulfill all the orders, keep track of all the logistics, and properly scale the growth of his company. Seeing as there was no clear solution out there, Chad decided to create one. Skubana was born out of necessity, but now is a powerhouse that helps companies grow to their full potential with the tools they need. This is Chad's story, and his inspiration to keep fueling his passion. Check out more including the transcript at www.deathwishcoffee.com/chadrubin
When sourcing an Amazon business, there are many complex factors that go into finding the right product and getting the right margins. Today's guest founded Sourcify, a SaaS product that helps people source the product and improve the manufacturing process. Sourcify takes a look at every factor possible when building out margins and lead times to optimize the logistics behind the ordering process. By decreasing costs, revenue increases and therefore the value of your business goes up. Nathan Resnick started this fast-growing b to b software-driven sourcing company in 2002. His fascination with e-commerce and foreign imports goes back to when he was living in China as a high school exchange student and started importing products to the US, making a few thousand dollars a year. He started a Shopify store at age 19 and reached his first six-figure income year. Nathan became fascinated by the process and the capacity of these factories. Sourcify makes it easy for you to bring products to the marketplace, streamline errors, and cut unit costs. Episode Highlights: How Sourcify's offices are structured for optimal global presence. The current tariff policy issues and how Nathan recently landed in the press. Ways a strong team and strong factory relations benefit both sides of the sourcing process. IP protection and factory relationships. Percentage margins sellers should look for in a factory. Shortcuts to avoid with suppliers. The importance of having quality control parameters in place before shipment. Markets where Nathan sees production increases emerging apart from China. One of the most common problems with Amazon business when it comes to inventory management. Avoiding duties and taxes via Mexico. The domestic and international laws that can allow for this at certain values. Mistakes in creating and retailing that Nathan sees and his tips for going around them on the manufacturing side. How important/beneficial it is to visit the factories for e-commerce entrepreneurs. Scaling up and understanding the factory's capacity to match that scale. Transcription: Joe: Mark, one of the biggest challenges for startup entrepreneurs much like Amanda talked about on the podcast is sourcing great products. There's lots of experts out there with podcasts that help and they're very, very good information but sometimes people need a little bit of a boost; a little hand-holding. And I understand you had Nathan Resnick from Sourcify on the podcast to talk about just that. Mark: Yeah, absolutely. So he founded Sourcify.com which is a SaaS product. They have thousands of pre-vetted factories, hundreds of product categories, and what they do is they help you source that product and also improve that entire sourcing process. Because there's a lot of complex factors when it comes to A. finding the right products and then B. making sure that you're getting the right margins out of those products and getting your timing right. I mean Joe how many Amazon businesses have you looked at where the owner says well if you could just figure out the inventory ordering system because I missed out and ran out of inventory business could have done so much more. It's like every single business, right? Joe: Every single one I asked the question have you ever ran out of inventory? The answer is always yes, the follow up question is how much revenue did you lose during that time period and then how do you overcome that? And yeah it's often working capital, better planning, software, things of that nature. It's always a challenge though. Mark: Well, so the software does this. It takes a look at … and he explained this. He says imagine you're selling watches; you're not just working with one factory because that factory might be ordering the wristbands from a completely different part of the world and so you need to factor all of this in when you are building out your lead times and also understanding your margins as well. And so we talked a lot about how do you negotiate better rates, when should you negotiate better rates, how do you establish good relationships with your manufacturers and other ways that you can really optimize logistics behind your ordering process. This guy … I'll just be blunt, he's way smarter than I am. Joe: Okay, well that's not very hard though Mark. Come on now. Mark: Well, that's not. That's like 95% of the people in the podcast. Joe: I understand he had one really, really cool tip in terms of importing. Mark: I'm not going to try and explain what it is here on the intro. You're going to have to wait and listen for it but he talks about using Mexico as a place to import products to be able to save a substantial amount of money on that importing process. So I'm going to let you guys listen to that and tell me … send me an e-mail if you found that tip to be absolutely killer because it literally … like you'll probably hear me in the interview, he threw me off my normal pacing that I don't have because I didn't know where to go. I was like wow that was really an incredible tip. So listen for that and … yeah, a really interesting guy who's done a lot in just a couple of years. Joe: Well, I think any tips and tricks that people can learn to decrease their cost increase their discretionary earnings increases the value of their business if and when they ever decided to sell it so I'm looking forward to listening to this one myself. Just a quick reminder everyone, movie quote, if you heard it, if you want to rewind, if you know what it is, drop it in the notes below and we'll give you a shout out on the next episode. Mark: Nathan thanks so much for joining me. Nathan: Mark, it's my pleasure. I'm really excited to be here. Mark: You and I just met. We met at Prosper Show. We talked for I think like two minutes before I was like you got to be on my podcast. I want you to come on board. And you were very gracious to agree. Would you mind giving everybody just a quick background on who you are, the company you're with, and why I asked you to come on the podcast? Nathan: Totally. Yeah, I mean I run a company called Sourcify. We are the fastest growing B2B manufacturing order management system. What we do is enable companies to source out the best factories in the world as well as bring their supply chain online so they can be data driven and understand how their unit cost, lead times, and quality defect rates have been fluctuating per product and per factory. People always ask okay Nathan how did you get in to all this? And really it actually stems 10 years ago. I was living in China as a foreign exchange student with a host family that didn't speak English, attending a local Chinese high school, and started importing products from different markets in Beijing where I was living. So we import all sorts of products, sell them on e-Bay and Amazon. In high school, I think senior year where you're just making a few thousand dollars a month and then by the time I turned 19 I had my first low six figure year through my own Shopify store and really just became so fascinated by e-commerce as well as the power of these factories to produce all sorts of products. So about two years ago I started Sourcify and we've been on an awesome journey so far. I'm really excited to continue to help organizations streamline and optimize their production overseas. Mark: Yeah, I just was doing a little bit of show prep here and people that listen to the show are probably going to laugh at that because we don't do a ton of show prep. That's why I don't do the intro. But you've gotten some really impressive press with what you're doing. I saw Forbes publish a piece on you and the growth in Shopify. Share where your offices are right now. You have multiple offices all across the world. Nathan: Yeah, so I mean kind of crazy [inaudible 00:06:05.0] with us and press was last year, especially with this China trade tariffs. Everyone was talking about how these tariffs are affecting companies that are importing products from China. And for us we have offices in China, Vietnam, and India and run production everywhere from the Philippines to Pakistan; basically every country in Asia. And so we became a hot topic. We were on CNN, CNBC, and nearly all over the news and it was an exciting time and still is. I mean I think really if you looked at China as a whole it's gotten more expensive and so for us, we've got three offices overseas and then in America; we're headquartered in San Diego and have small offices in Las Vegas as well as [inaudible 06:43.7] Utah, right outside Salt Lake City. Mark: Yeah the Las Vegas area, that's got to be just for all the conferences that are held there right? Nathan: Yeah. Mark: I mean we're always out there. Nathan: Yeah. Not for all the partying. Mark: Right. I wish I had known this a year ago … or not a year ago but when all the tariffs that was hitting. I had James Thompson who's the co-founder of Prosper Show. I had him come on the podcast and we were joking that we had to have a Canadian come on the show to explain US policy as it relates to China but cool. How old is Sourcify? Nathan: So we started in March of 2017 so just about two years old and it's been a pretty amazing journey. We produce in over 300 product categories; everything from hair extensions to bags to bunk beds. I mean you name it. Our abilities are widespread and really that stems from having a strong sourcing team as well as strong factory relationships. So a lot of times organizations when they work with Sourcify they're able to increase their margin just by buying in volume through our customers that might be producing similar products and so that's one of the main benefits I think. Mark: Yeah, I want to get into a lot of the kind of details of these … of sourcing products and also some of the differentiation. And you kind of … you touched on something that I was going to ask about so I'm going to jump the gun a bit here with this. Is this an open sort of book where you can see some of the other products that are being manufactured here and if so the question [inaudible 00:08:12.1] Joe's mind is protection of IP through your platform. What does that look like? How do you protect people's intellectual property? Nathan: It's a great question. So first and foremost every customer that uses Sourcify has complete transparency. They can see who the factory is and our goal as a software driven sourcing company is to enable these organizations that work with Sourcify both buyers and factories to have better workflow management and a production process to actually understand what's going on in the production runs. Right now like pretty much every company we talk to is using e-mail and Excel spread sheets to manage production and that works to an extent but it gets very complex. And so from an IP perspective number one every customer keeps their factories in their own database and number two basically when we talk about IP it's protected at the borders. So a lot of organizations and a lot of people ask Nathan should we go try to file trademark, should we go try to file patents in China or through Asia and most of the time it's not going to be worth your money or time to go out and try to file those patents or trademarks in China. But what you should do is file trademarks and patents here in America on your products. So if a company is importing your products under your brand name or trying to sell on Amazon under your brand name a lot of times you can show the Customs and Border Patrol or Amazon themselves and say hey I own this brand, this company is clearly knocking me off. I did not authorize them to import or sell these products on my behalf. And the right thing that these law enforcement agencies or Amazon should do is to give you full control of your products to sell them yourselves. Mark: Okay cool. So let's talk about you've already mentioned that some of these guys are kind of they're starting out with these in Excel spreadsheets and to control the manufacturing process and it works for an extent. I would love to know because in our world we're helping people prepare their businesses for sale. We run into this all the time. We have people who come to us with all the metrics that they think they should be presenting and all the metrics that they think are important when it comes to selling and then we have to kind of adjust their mindset as to alright that's a good start here's what we should be doing. So let's start with this, how do you find people mostly attack that product sourcing and product development? Nathan: Yeah I mean I think first and foremost it stems from a vendor analysis. Are you actually working with the right factory that should be producing your product? Hopefully, you've done enough due diligence with your supply chain to understand if you're working with a factory or trading company or wholesaler or agent. Best bet is you're working with a factory that's great, that's fantastic. Hopefully, you haven't outgrown them. There's a lot of organizations that we see haven't renegotiated their terms or prices in two or three years and you've 10X the production volume that you're buying at and you're still paying a higher rate. I mean the smart thing you do is go renegotiate those existing contracts and prices with that factory. If you do an analysis and you find out you are working with a trading company or agent number one you've got to understand okay how much margin do I think this trading company or agent is making. We see a lot of organizations that a rep will say we see the factory numbers they're only making 1% or 2% on my production run. I mean unless they're a really large scale facility that's trying to just take up but like keep their production line going there's no business that's going to run off of a 1 or 2% margin. I mean you can't even put bread on the table with a 1% margin in most organizations. And so when you come with that perspective in mind and you think that you've out negotiated everyone and really have a strong factory it's not to say that they're not strong factory it's just to say that I mean I don't even think you should try to get your factory to run on a 1% margin because it's just not sustainable. They'll probably be even making quality cuts or messing up the lead times or working with the wrong vendors because I think what a lot of people and supply chain team members don't necessarily understand about manufacturing is that most of these facilities that are exporting products to America or Europe or wherever your products are going are dealing with a lot of sub suppliers. So they have suppliers that handle the different components that make up your products. So, for example, let's say you're producing watches. Those watch factories are going to have the watch strap, the watch taste, the watch movement, the watch hands; all of these little pieces that make up that watch are assembled and put together by the factory that you're working with. And until you get to a scale where you're spending at least a few hundred thousand dollars probably more so a few million dollars on production overseas you aren't going to dive into those sub-suppliers and really understand okay how much is each little component costing. And even then building relationships with those sub-suppliers to cut costs is not going to be worth your time until you're spending a significant amount of money on production overseas. Mark: Yeah. So what margin should people be expecting there? You said 1% is probably not realistic. What should they be expecting? Nathan: I mean we've had the opportunity actually to invest and buy factories at Sourcify and we haven't done that and I don't think we will in the near future. But I mean most factories that are attractive to us are running on at least 15 to 30% gross margins and I think that's sustainable. I think as a business you want to have some margin to reinvest in new machines. You want to have the margin to invest in your team. You've got to have margin there to grow and create a good environment. And I think that's a key dynamic of any business let alone factories and especially even factories when sometimes especially as your brand might grow you try to sell into larger retailers like Walmart or Disney or whatever it may be. Those larger retailers have their own requirements of your facilities to be able to sell your products in that retailer. So if your factory can't pass a Walmart cert or a Disney cert you're not even going to have the opportunity to sell into those larger retailers. Mark: Yeah, so that makes sense to just be investing and making sure that … I think that the mindset that I hear sometimes from both buyers and then also some of the owners of these businesses when they're renegotiating these contracts over and over with their suppliers is forgetting that on the other side there's somebody still trying to run a business and it affects that downstream quality. I'm sure it's downstream, probably upstream quality of the product that you're getting in return and trying to sell which leads nicely into my next question which would be what are some things that people should be looking out for with their current supply chain and maybe trends over time? Everything starts out good with the first batch of products you receive and everything is going well, what should things that would people be looking for on a regular basis from their suppliers? Nathan: Definitely. I mean I think first and foremost there's a lot of people that I think try to take short cuts in their supply chain. I think the biggest short cut that I see people taking is not booking quality control inspections before shipment and before you pay that production balance. I mean you can get a quality control inspection done through our partner for QC is Asia Inspection. They just rebranded to Qima. They charge under $300 or around $300 to send a person to the factory to inspect those products before shipment and before you pay that deposit. And if you don't have a quality control inspection process or program in place you're going to be getting a container load that might have defective products or might all be wrong and there's no reason for you not to put those checks and balances in place on every single production run. I mean I don't care if you've been working with the factory for two or three years there's always going to be some products that might be defective. And I'm not saying these QC teams are going to check every single product. They might check 10, 20, 30% of the products depending on the size of the production run but at least you have images and an analysis of what's going on with those products. And sometimes these are very simple mistakes or quality defects where like for example on … I know one of the production runs that we had going on this week there was threads that hadn't been cut on these bags. There were loose threads. We said hey before these are shipped we like all these threads to be cut. We don't want these bags coming into America with these threads hanging out. So sometimes it's very simple quality control metrics and other times you find out the code being on certain furniture or certain lamp is wrong whatever it may be. And so having that in place I think is really just a must. I mean there's no reason not to have quality control in place before shipment because you don't want your products showing up at an FBA warehouse or your own warehouse and you find out oh wow the 30% of these products are defective. So you've got to have checks and balances in place before shipment and then also one of the things that we do at Sourcify that I recommend everyone do if they can depending on their buying power is say to their factories and put in contracts, say we aren't going to pay for defective products. If the products don't meet our quality control inspection we aren't going to pay for them and we're going to discount them from our purchase order. So let's say 3% of your products have quality control defects, well now you're saving 3% of your PO because those products are defective. And so putting that in writing, making sure that's clear with the factory is really I think the biggest kind of misstep I see companies doing when they're producing products overseas. And then when we talk about trends it was really the last year it still is right now but transitioning and diversifying supply chains outside of China is huge. I mean so many companies literally every single day are talking to us about producing products in Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, with Philippines. I mean all across Asia. I was on a flight last quarter the Philippines back to Guangzhou from Manila and on my right and on my left were two Chinese factory owners that have just transitioned some of their facility to the outskirts of Manila to start factories in the Philippines. And the reason being is labor rates are more affordable in the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia. The biggest challenge stems from the operations of a factory which these Chinese factory owners already know how to operate a factory effectively and you know really just the raw material where do these raw materials come from or produce these products. These factory owners in China have that figured out and there are some free economic zones in certain parts of Southeast Asia where you can actually import products from other countries into this free economic zone, manufacture the product in that economic zone and then export it for free. The benefit of the country is just to really increase labor rates in that area. And so that's I think really the biggest trend and kind of what's most overlooked in current companies that are producing products overseas. Mark: Yeah, you anticipated one of my questions which was the different markets where you're seeing production increase. I know with the tariffs were being threatened and imposed there was a lot of question about well where can we go if these prices rise up? And dump tell that in with some of the reality of the issues that Amazon sellers are dealing with producing China, right? This three month kind of standard lead times if you're shipping on an ocean it makes it really difficult for people to manage their inventory. So on this side of the ocean what countries are you seeing emerge at this point as potential viable players if any? Nathan: Definitely, I mean I think right off the bat I want to touch on the inventory side in terms of inventory planning. I think we're both friends with Chad at Skubana. I think they do a great job of inventory management and helping you manage that across different channels. One of the key components that I think a lot of companies fall short on is how do you tie that data into factory lead times. And so when you can take lead time data from Sourcify and tie it into you inventory analytics that you have through a tool like Skubana that's a lot of powerful insight that you can put together. And when you're starting to diversify your supply chain outside of China you've got to understand that now the raw materials are potentially coming from a different country than your products should be manufactured in. So for example in Vietnam, we work with a pretty high end apparel brand and they get their fabric from Taiwan. It's about a two week lead time to get the fabric from Taiwan and put it to their facility in Vietnam and all the cut and sew there and so another timeline that they have to put into their analytics and planning. I mean I think forecasting is a huge challenge with any e-commerce business. Ad I think in any … I mean you probably see this all the time in any Amazon business or any e-commerce business a lot of times when you're going through a high growth period there's going to be a time where you're almost running out of inventory or you did run out of inventory either because you misplanned or because you're going to have to cash to put in the inventory. And so I think it's a crazy dance that these e-commerce companies play when they're trying to understand okay how much money should I put in the inventory, how much should I spend on paid acquisition. It's a balance that's really hard to figure out on the early days and until you have the data to forecast more effectively you're going to be playing that dance. And I don't know if there is like a one size fits all answer. I mean you might know … have a bit more insight in regards to that than I do but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on that. Mark: No. Honestly again I mean as I know a lot of the people that listen to the podcast here are looking for their own acquisitions and they're trying … they look to this podcast for some insights and if you can figure this one part out this is the number one problem that we … no maybe not the number one problem but one of the most common problems I see with Amazon businesses is that most have some level of seasonality; typically Q4 unless … but I mean not always but some have some sort of seasonality. And so we see one of two things happen either they run out of inventory at the most crucial time of the year on some of their best sellers or they overbuy or their shipment dates miss the seasonal period. And so let's say that you overbuy and you have a seasonal product where you're hitting December … November and December for that Q4 Christmas rush now January hits and you got to sit on a whole bunch of inventory for a year. Or even worse … and again this happens more often than people might want to admit, they get those shipments late. They get them the second week of January. And it could be even more difficult if you have spring seasonality because you have Chinese New Year in there. And if you get caught up in that well you can completely miss all of your windows there. So the idea of combining something like Skubana; yes Chad is a friend. I had him on the podcast. A great guy. Super smart. Combining that with Sourcify, anyone who figures that part out most of the businesses that we list are undervalued in some way given that they've missed their hot periods one way or another. Nathan: Yeah I mean I think that ship times there is something that you should be able to control in terms of planning at an early stage. That could be a bit challenging, I could see. But in terms of your ship times I mean that's something that you should really have under control and under wraps with your freight forwarder and with your factory. What's crazy to me just talking about ship time briefly is that even a lot of freight forwarders they're getting looped into factories over e-mail and trying to go back and forth to schedule a freight pickup. I mean all of that should be able to be effectively synced up and e-mail is a fine channel to do that but I mean I think there's got to be a better method. I mean a lot of companies that use Sourcify they link in their freight forwarders so they communicate directly with their factory online and track what's going on. But otherwise it's just a bunch of people CC'ed on different emails and it's actually kind of entertaining sometimes to see the back and forth between a factory and a freight forwarder got to figure out when they can schedule a pick-up of products. Mark: That's fascinating. Alright, I'm not going to skip on the other question though about this side of the ocean countries and emerging markets if any and maybe you are going to say this— Nathan: Oh in terms of like North America? Mark: North America or even South America, but [crosstalk 00:23:42.8] three month sort of lead time. Nathan: Yeah. So I've actually been doing a lot of research into Mexico. We're headquartered in San Diego and so there is a huge amount of opportunity in Mexico just south of the border here. And I think it stems from … basically, it's kind of a similar dance that these companies play that are transitioning production outside of China is where does the raw material come from. There's a lot of … not a lot of raw material sources in Mexico and so a lot of those facilities that are doing injection molds or cut and sew are importing those products from other countries. But there are a lot of companies that are producing products in Mexico and I think it's a growing opportunity. The other dynamic that I want to touch on that a lot of e-commerce companies are starting to look into and I think it's a huge trend is actually handling their warehousing and fulfillment right out of Mexico just across the border from San Diego. And you can actually if you're doing pick and pack B2C shipments directly to consumers you can actually avoid duties and tariffs no matter where the product was produced. And I'll walk you through in how this works. So basically you can avoid duties and tariffs by handling your fulfillment and warehousing in Mexico while having the same experience as if these products were fulfilled from California. And the way that that works is there's two laws you have to know of. Number one is Section 321 which is an American law that says when you're importing a product that's valued under $800 you don't have to pay duties or tariffs and that product. The law number two that you need to know is the IMX program which is part of NAFTA; the North American Free Trade Agreement, and what that enables our organization to do is import a product into Mexico and export a product back into America without having to pay any duties or tariffs between America and Mexico. And so the way that this works is that you import your products from China or Vietnam or any country that are producing these products to import them in bond into the port of Long Beach, have them trucked down in bond across the border, warehouses directly across the border from San Diego, your warehouse and pick and pack your products out of there. Every time you have a customer and buy a product in your website it's pre-labeled in Mexico and there's trucks going across the border every single day and under Section 321 because those products are pre-labeled and each under $800 in value you don't have to pay duties and tariffs on those products. And it's basically these trucks go across the border every day, drop these products off at USPS, UPS, FedEx, there's distribution centers literally right across the border from Mexico and San Diego and it's been incredible doing research and exploring that dynamic down there. And there's companies that are literally wiping off millions of dollars in duties and tariffs from their balance sheets just by handling fulfillment and logistics out of Mexico. And there's a lot of big companies that we all know like Taylor Guitars, Bombas Socks, these hundred plus million dollar organizations have been doing fulfillment and warehousing in Mexico for three plus years now. I mean it's really a robust operation and there is one provider that I know of called Baja Fulfillment that handles mid to smaller sized e-commerce companies. But for the most part, most of these organizations are focused on larger enterprises because that's where you're going to get the volume. Mark: That is phenomenal. It's actually such good information you knocked me completely off my game as to the other questions I wanted to ask. Nathan: Well, I mean we can answer questions in regards to this because a lot of people don't necessarily understand the dynamics and how it works. It's nothing necessarily new but here's the key dynamic. So every drop shipping entrepreneur that's drop shipping products from China into America they're using Section 321. That's how these e-packet shipments work because you don't pay duties and tariffs on those products because each one is pre-labeled and pre-sold and shipped over via China Postal Service and then USPS into America. And the reason why those products are so cheap is number one those shipments are subsidized by our government. There's a lot in the air in regards of those if that's going to change but Section 321 is here to stay. I mean that's a law that's been passed through Congress even if something were to happen … would happen with our current Trump administration I mean he wouldn't be able to change it himself is basically what I'm saying. And so there are millions of packets that come into America every single quarter that are based on Section 321. The key dynamic here is instead of having to warehouse your products in China or wherever you're producing your products you can actually import the container duty free, truck it down to Mexico in bond, and then you're basically picking and packing those products out of Mexico with the same fulfillment experience as if it was out of California because these trucks are going across the border every single day. So it's pretty crazy dynamic and there's not many providers or even e-commerce companies that are really doing it right now. But being here in San Diego it's something that I've been spending a lot of time on and really just become very interested in. Mark: That's fantastic; I'm going to completely shift gears mainly because I don't have any questions on that. That was a phenomenal bit of advice. I want to talk a little bit about that product manufacturing process and developing new products. Obviously most e-commerce businesses you need to be continually releasing new products or at least variations on that. What are some of the mistakes that you see from people creating and retailing some of these proprietary products in that process of looking for the factory, the manufacturer, and maybe shortening up that exchange that happens between the manufacturer and eventually getting it out to retail? Nathan: Yeah definitely. That's a great question. I would say if it's a product under IP protection what a lot of companies do is have one piece made at one facility, another piece made at another facility, and then either have one of the facilities assemble it or assemble it here in America. I would not suggest really assembling domestically just the labor cost and headache is going to be too much. But sometimes it doesn't make sense to diversify your supply chain to have more IP protection under place. I think at the end of the day a lot of this IP protection in China really revolves around your factory relationship and dynamic with them. But then again if it's a really, really hot selling product like these fidget spinners or the inflatable chairs that came out the other year; those things shot up like a rocket ship and literally everyone was claiming to sell them and invent them and all this is craziness. So I think really when it comes IP protection it still stems from having that dialed in here domestically but overseas it's a matter sometimes of diversifying your supply chain, building a relationship with your factory, and I would also recommend visit them face to face. I mean I'm in China once a month at our office in Guangzhou and in Vietnam and it's a lot of travel but it really helps us establish a brand and connection overseas. Mark: How important do you think that is? Because I've had clients play on both sides where they are there at least once a year, I've had other people say I visited once like five years ago and I just don't see the need to visit more frequently. Nathan: Yeah I mean I don't think it's necessarily a need. I think it depends on your business. For us, we've got a subsidiary in China. We have a dozen or so full time employees in China and more in Vietnam and in India. And the dynamic there is mostly just our business puts me in a position where it's a lot of management and making sure things are operating smoothly there. But if I was an e-commerce entrepreneur I mean as long as I have my checks and balances in place, communication is fluid, and everything is going smoothly, there's not necessary a reason to go over there. All you're going to do is see the facility, probably have some tea at the facility, grab dinner, maybe drink some bijou or something and basically break bread with your factory which is awesome. It's a great experience and really a cool culture dynamic. But I think if you just … if you're really going over to optimize costs or really negotiate in person I mean that could be beneficial especially if you're having a challenge with kind of things getting lost in translation between communications with your supplier. So I think it depends on the business. I mean I know eight figure e-commerce companies where the founders have never met their suppliers before and do exceptionally well and I know eight figure founders that don't go … that go over once a quarter or pretty often. So it depends, I mean I don't think there's a one size fits all answer to that. I just think it depends how your supplier has been performing and I think it's the key question that you have to ask. Mark: I want to talk real quick about scaling and also scaling up with the factory and their ability to match scale. Have you seen clients run into problems with that where they scaled so quickly manufacturers simply can't keep up and finding quality factories to be able to backfill that demand? Nathan: Definitely. I mean I think there's two key ways for Amazon businesses to scale up. Number one is just increasing paid acquisition or ranking higher for keywords, the other is to diversify your product offering; start selling products and product categories that you weren't selling in before. And there's different strategies, I mean if you're selling products in new product categories you're going to have to do a lot of sourcing work to make sure you're getting those products made effectively and that's … it takes a lot of work and a lot of time. Whereas if you're scaling up with the same products every factory that you work with if you say hey I'm going to order 10 times the number of units they're going to be thrilled. They're going to be very excited. Does that mean that all those products can be produced at their own facility? Maybe not, there could be a dynamic where they produce products with sub-contracting factories that might not have the cleanest facilities, might have a higher quality defect rate. And so that's something to be aware of as really understand okay, what is my actual true factory capacity? That's hard to understand without actually going to visit the facility but there is … I think kind of the key way to understand that is what I call just the kind of white paper trick where you could basically have the rep that you talk with at the factory write your name and date on a piece of paper and have them go around the facility filming a video with that piece of paper in the video or pictures so you can actually see what that facility looks like without going there. And that way you know at least this rep that you're talking to you has theaccess to that facility. Who knows if it's the actual factory that is producing your products or not or maybe you'd be able to see your products on the production line but at least you know that that rep has access to that facility. Mark: This has been really useful and we're unfortunately running out of time. So let's end it with this and I'm … you've offered a ton of useful information so let's talk real quick about Sourcify and the particular benefit that Amazon sellers are going to see from it. You touched on it at the beginning but this is a kind of chance to be maybe a little more direct with that. Nathan: Yeah totally. I mean our goal is to enable organizations to optimize our supply chain. Typically when a company works with Sourcify, they save anywhere from 10 to 50% of their costs overall in their supply chain. The way we do that is either by enabling them to work more effectively with their existing factories through our software, diversify their supply chain across Asia, or diversify the vendors that they're working with in China if they're just producing products in China. So we got boots on the ground here. You're more than welcome to come visit us and we'd be happy to connect online. You can find me on LinkedIn [inaudible 00:35:18.8] just Nathan Resnick or if you go to Sourcify.com that's where we're at. Mark: Very cool. Thanks so much for coming on and a huge shout out to John Corcoran and Jeremy from Rise 25 for connecting us actually at Prosper Show. I think I was talking to Jeremy and he's like hey you got to meet this guy. He's great you're going to love him. And he was right. So thank you guys for the introduction. Thanks for coming on and yeah I'm sure I'll be talking in the future. Nathan: Awesome. Thank you. Links and Resources: Sourcify Nathan's LinkedIn Skubana
The Top Entrepreneurs in Money, Marketing, Business and Life
Chad Rubin (Ecommerce Renegade) builds e-commerce businesses. Fresh out of college and Wall Street, he took his family vacuum business online and built his own direct to consumer e-commerce business called Crucial Vacuum. He grew it from 0 a $20 million dollar valuation in just 7 years. He happens to be a top 250 Amazon seller. He co-founded Skubana with DJ Kunovac and built one of e-commerce's hottest operational softwares.
In the second installment of our Incredible Exits series, we welcome Mike Jackness back to the podcast. Mike, one of our favorite guests, is here discussing the recent sale of his online business, ColorIt. Mike is a lifelong entrepreneur and hosts a podcast with a 30k listener following. On his show, he talks all things about e-commerce, email marketing, and Amazon. Mike's decision to sell this particular business was based not on struggling to grow it, but simply on the the need to offload something from his plate. He was well aware of what he'd done to grow it, and the potential for its future growth, he simply knew it was time to hand over the reins. We wanted to have Mike on to tell us firsthand how that process went, the challenges he faced, and how he eventually reached multiple offers. He shares some of the key things he did to get the business sold at 96% of the list price. We discuss how some acquisitions don't go as smoothly as others, even for someone who seems to have a great grip on how to grow and eventually sell an online business. Ths episode chronicles the sale and buying process: what Mike has done right and what he would change if he could. Episode Highlights: We hear about Mike's journey as an entrepreneur and what led him to start the Ecomcrew podcast. The factors that led him to sell one of his e-commerce businesses. Mike talks us through the 10 risk factors to take into account for e-commerce success. How Amazon can be the judge and jury when it comes to keeping your e-commerce business alive. The one thing he would go back and do differently in the transaction. The importance of planning in advance for an easier buyer transition. Why some entrepreneurs get caught up in the squirrel syndrome and often find that as they take on too much they run into trouble. Mike takes us through the launch process and how we got to the multiple with the right buyer. The importance of instilling confidence in the buyer. The inventory issue specific to this brand and how that affected the sale. Why one can't plan the perfect inventory in e-commerce business. How to find middle ground on the inventory excess in the sale and acquiescing when necessary. Why the seller makes all the difference in the sellability of the business. The way a seller should act under any circumstances. Transcription: Mark: Joe you got to have one of our favorite podcast guests on; Mike Jackness. And Mike actually retained you or hired you to help sell one of his properties. And we get to do another episode … is this part of our Amazing Acquisitions? I don't know … our Amazing Exits I'm sorry. Joe: Incredible Exits, come on Mark get it right. Mark: My goodness, I made it up. It's a good— Joe: I don't even know what it's called. Somebody's going to tell me there's a certain term for things that flow off the tongue very well … incredible. Mark: It's almost as if I'm not paying attention to what you're doing at all. You got to have him on the podcast about selling his business. Joe: Indeed. Mark: I'd like to know about it. Joe: You know he's just an awesome human being and that made selling his business and the person buying it that more excited about it. Look, Mike is an influencer. He has a podcast where he's got 30,000 people listening to him every month and he talks about e-commerce and email marketing and Amazon. We had challenges because people are like well if Mike Jackness isn't killing it with this I don't know if I can do any better. But the reality was Mike was just simply chasing too many rabbits as he says. He had four brands inside of one seller account. He has the podcast and he has other projects going on. So he wasn't giving his full attention to this. So really the reason I wanted to have him on was to have people hear from him some of his … well-known and an influencer much larger audience in his podcast than we have what he was doing wrong. If he could go back and do it all over again how he would have changed things so that it would have been an easier process for him and we would have had … we had multiple offers but would have had a much easier process in reaching those multiple offers. And some of the key differences that he did to seal the deal. He didn't do it to seal the deal, he was just doing it anyway and it is what sealed the deal and got us under LOI at 96% of the list price. Mark: Yeah you know one of the most popular articles that I wrote on our blog back when I was doing all the blogging on Quiet Light Brokerage was the story of my own process of buying a business and in my own estimation failing at it. And frankly, as the founder of Quiet Light, it's kind of humbling to go out there and say yup I made an acquisition I completely failed but here is why. And I got so much good feedback from that saying this is great thank you for sharing these details because it really helps. So hearing from someone like Mike Jackness and his episode that you did with him is probably my favorite episode that we have that I've listened to. I don't listen to my own episodes which is why they aren't like [inaudible 00:03:51.2]. That episode from Mike Jackness in all seriousness he talks about email marketing and how he does email marketing. That's fantastic so if you haven't listened to it, go back and listen to it. It would be interesting to hear what he had as far as his own self-assessment when it comes to selling his business and some of the struggles that he had as well. And I think it might be encouraging for those of us that are out there like how are these guys doing all of it because we only hear about the successes, right? Joe: Yeah. There are challenges in here and I was … my initial plan was to do a two part series but we managed to get it all in. It's a little long folks. It's about 45 minutes or so and then the plan is to do a follow up episode about due diligence, closing, transition, and training. We may even have the buyer on and have all three of us on the podcast. Mark: It's 45 minutes? Joe: Yes. Mark: Well, I should shut up. We should get to it. Joe: Let's go to it. Joe: Hey, folks Joe Valley here from Quiet Light Brokerage and today I've got somebody that's been on before; Michael Jackness from EcomCrew. Welcome to the Quiet Light Podcast. Mike: Welcome back. Joe: Welcome back is right. You actually inspired this type of episode as I said before we recorded. Folks Mike has … when he was on before he shared his expertise on email marketing and the use of Klaviyo. Today he's actually going to be our first exit entrepreneur or Incredible Exits guest. Mike decided to list his business for sale last December. We talked about it. We got it listed. And now we're under Letter Of Intent. We're recording this on February 12th and we wanted to share Mike's direct experience so that you hear it … hear about the process, and what you should do right, what you've done right and what you do wrong, and hear from somebody other than me. Mike has been through it. He's got an audience of 30,000 that listens on a monthly basis at EcomCrew. If you're not listening to EcomCrew … I know I'm promoting another podcast but it's one of the absolute best out there. Go to EcomCrew.com they're always helping entrepreneurs in the e-commerce space. So Michael Jackness, 30 seconds just tell some folks who you are again for those that didn't listen to the first episode that we did together. Mike: I'm basically a serial entrepreneur. I started my first business when I was a kid. I did have a stint for seven years in corporate life. One of my clients did hire me but for the last 15 years, I've been doing my own thing either in affiliate marketing or e-commerce lest the 5 plus years. And when I got on e-commerce I realized that we were coming at things a little bit differently. We kind of got at it as a tech company rather than a product company. And we realized we had a lot to share. So the entire process pretty much; as you mentioned EcomCrew, even blogging, and podcasting, and telling the world about what we've been doing. But one of the things that make us unique is we also talk about all the negatives not just the positive sunshine blue smoke up your ass crap. In fact we go out of our way to talk about some of the hardships of running a business and specifically e-commerce. So yeah that's a 10,000 foot view. Joe: And in just about 30 seconds; so thanks. Yeah, I get it, I can't emphasize enough. If you are a current e-commerce owner you should listen EcomCrew as well especially the Under the Hood series that I enjoy so much and inspired the Incredible Exit series here at Quiet Light. All right Mike at one point, you came to me. You reached out I think probably around Thanksgiving or so and said you wanted to exit. Did you plan that well in advance or did you just find yourself tired and ready to move on? Mike: Yeah, there were a ton of factors that went into that initial conversation. We had a different plan. I can tell you what. We'll talk a little bit about that but the plan was to do this a little bit longer. But I actually just did a podcast about risk factors in e-commerce and we don't have 30 minutes to go over the entire episode but there were 10 risk factors that I called out. Which basically were like the amount of inventory that you have, tariffs, taxes … just kind of like a risk to reward type of thing, competition, Amazon getting involved in brands, Amazon shutting your account down, getting unbalanced to be more Amazon than not off Amazon things of this nature. And for me what I realized … I started waking up one day realizing that for us this stuff they've kind of gone a little bit out of balance. We're at a point right now as we're doing this podcast because I haven't quite done the exit yet where we have $1.3 million in inventory total company wide as we've been growing. As you know in e-commerce it's hard to get any money out of your business because we are growing it 100% per year and it's a situation where money just keeps on piling back in the business. You have a tax bill every year and without the money to even pay for that because you're plowing everything back in the inventory for growth. And we have been running at that speed for almost four years. And because of some of those other risk factors, the kind of leverage is changing a little bit. I felt like it was time that we needed to take some chips off the table. And combining that with just honestly being a little burned out; running at that speed is definitely exhausting. I found myself either dreaming about Amazon shutting my account down or waking up every morning first thing and checking my inbox and seeing if they had been shut down. Not because we do anything black hat at all but because I see things that happen out there because of EcomCrew and also [inaudible 00:09:05.1]. You hear stories of people that legitimately didn't do anything wrong but it doesn't matter because Amazon can be the judge and jury and executioner all in one. And factoring all these different things in it just … it felt like it was time. And we didn't know it when I had that initial conversation with you. I didn't know exactly what that was going to look like. At one time we had talked about selling everything. I was kind of like just in a bit of bad mood that day and then we kind of start walking through some more realistic and better options to kind of end up [inaudible 00:09:35.9]. Joe: Yeah, let's talk about that the realistic option of selling everything I have things or setup because I really want people to learn from this process and what your goals were and the challenges that we've had and some of the amazing things that you have done throughout the process as well. So the first thing we looked at was selling all four of the brands that you have. You have it under one LLC and two of the brands are doing very, very well. And two of the brands are start up brands where they're really working at a loss because you have a tendency to just focus on organic traffic and brand recognition for a series of months to a year and don't mind operating at a lost. First and foremost Mark had a podcast with somebody from a PE firm that painted this picture. He said the thing about private equity investors is … well, think about it when you were a kid. And he says you get a bag of marbles from and you try to negotiate a deal with your buddy for the bag of marbles. The first thing you want to do is reach into that bag of marbles and take out all the chipped ones. You don't want to buy the chipped marbles. And then you want to focus on the best marbles. And so when looking at your four brands, two of them were really operating at a loss so my advice right away was let's take those out of the picture. Because when you're selling a business let's say at a three time multiple and you have two brands in the bag and they're both operating at let's say negative $10,000 in discretionary earnings; that's $20,000 times three that's $60,000 off the list price of your business if you go with the multiple of discretionary earnings valuation model which is what we do in marketplace valuations. So we had to pull those two out. And then we looked at what at the time was one of the larger brands of the two. We've got ColorIt that we've talked about. We've talked about it openly and you've done presentations all over the world on your email marketing campaigns with Klaviyo and ColorIt. But the other one, different space, and we had a challenge. See one of the things that we talk about all the time are the 4 pillars of sellable businesses; age, documentation, growth, transferability. And the big thing that we had a problem there was the transferability of that particular brand. Two of the SKUs that you had which were not the largest used by any stretch, you were reselling those, right? And you reached out to your vendor to confirm that you could transfer those and what did they say? Mike: They said no. Joe: Simple as that. So that takes away one of the pillars. It makes it more complicated. But again as you said you were in a bad mood that day that we talked. A lot of emotions in selling your business and as you say in the introduction that we did for ColorIt, you've been chasing too many rabbits. When you're doing that you're getting tired, exhausted, and pulled into many different directions and often going nowhere. So we ended up setting that one aside as well and focused only on ColorIt and went with that to launch. Before we get into the initial launch multiple and things that we found that were really amazing about it we found one more challenge or maybe two. You have one LLC with all four brands under one LLC and all four brands in one seller account. What have you done since our initial conversations back in late November early December to rectify that? Mike: Let me kind of set the stage just real quick of why we got there as well because it's interesting in business. There's two phenomena that is existing, first of all, I've been in business for 15 years so I kind of knew some of the hiccups and roadblocks we might get into down the road. But I had run multiple businesses in the past. So whenever you do something and you don't like it you tend to correct for that in another way in a future endeavor whether it's a business or in personal life. And the thought of like having … we actually have more than four things going through this LLC, there are other non e-commerce stuff and some other things as well. And the thought of having six or seven different tax returns and credit cards for each business and trying to figure out how we're going to separate employees or like the lease or back in software like Skubana or you know a UPS count; all these different things like having to have them all segmented out just was not appealing to me in any way shape or form. And I was more concerned about today than tomorrow as far as operating the business. And I also had this thought process of when I'm ready to get out of e-commerce I'm going to get rid of all of it once. I'm a pretty binary kind of guy like I'm either all in or not doing it. And I thought the day that … when it came that we would get out of e-commerce we would just sell that conglomerate. But life happens and business happens and like I said some of these risk factors changed and the reality was that we wanted to pivot and change our philosophy and our business plan pretty quickly. I equate this also to like when you want to pay taxes you want to have your business show the lowest amount of money. You're trying to figure out any expense you can have. That's really good for a tax but when you go to apply for a loan it better be showing lots of income. So it's like … it's a similar kind of phenomenon where like in one part it makes sense to do one thing but in another … on the other side, it makes sense to do another. So we were kind of at that spot where it was obvious that this was going to be a problem because the things that came up in the calls over and over again were really two things. Number one shared resources of employees or other resources which I understand the challenge there. And also the fact that everything's in this one Amazon account. And let me tell you man if there was anything I can go back and do differently it would be having multiple Amazon accounts at a much earlier stage. The challenge is Amazon doesn't make this easy. They won't allow you to just create multiple accounts first of all without getting permission. And in order to get permission, you have to have a separate company. You have to have a separate … either separate ownership structure, separate EIN, separate checking account, separate credit card. All this stuff has to be 100% separated out in order for them to grant you permission to create another Amazon account. So we are going through that now and I mean what a disaster. Like we're having to … we're trying to close within about six weeks of recording this. And to hand over the account at closing we have to have just Brand A which is going to be ColorIt and the Amazon account and Brand C or B, C, D have to be out of the Amazon account and in a new account and it has to happen as seamlessly as possible which is impossible because we're … we only have inventory in Amazon. All of our inventory is on Amazon. So we're having to recall some of it and relabel it, get it into the other account. And we keep a relatively [inaudible 00:16:34.1] amount of stuff in Amazon so it's not … looking on a SKU by SKU basis it isn't that big of a deal but because we're a high seven figure seller total we're recalling truckloads with the goods from Amazon. It's not going to be cheap and when you recall stuff it gets damaged a lot of times. The stuff shows up and looks used by the time that … you're shipping it in and it's getting … someone's handling it and putting it on the shelf and they got to go take it off the shelf put it in another box and crate and when you recall stuff it doesn't come back in the best of shape. So yeah I mean it's kind of a disaster all around but this is what we've had to do to get to where we are. And moving forward they all are all going to be in separate companies. So at any point when the time comes to put Business B up for sale, we'll have it all in one clear concise company; one account and we'll just pull the trigger and be done. Joe: You know I think you had said at one point you knew what to do and you had one plan and it was to sell the entity and all the brands within it at one time. And then we found three stumbling blocks. Two of them were operating at a loss because you are focused on organic traffic and brand building. And one where two of the vendors said: “yeah no, we like you, Mike, we don't know anybody else we're not going to do this deal with anyone else”. So you ran into challenges there. And you also said if you have to make those changes someday you'll do that. And all of a sudden you woke up and someday was here and we had an action that we wanted to take right away whereas the idea of I always say don't decide to sell which is eventually you do decide to sell but plan to sell. So my little slogan there doesn't actually work all that well. But seriously though I think the thing to do is to plan it out in advance as much as possible to make it strangely enough as easy and seamless as possible for the buyer. For that person that is going to put a million dollars of their life savings on the line or two or three or 100,000. The amount doesn't matter. It's a lot of money for the person that stroking the check or sending the wire. So that's the key thing. Mike: Can I just … I want to mention one other thing if you don't mind? [inaudible 00:18:48.4] this thing. Joe: Yeah. Mike: You're asking just kind of like some of the other things that kind went wrong and we could've done better. This is stuff that's often not talked about again in entrepreneurship but the reality is is that it would have been better just to have one brand and focus on it or maybe two rather than trying to do too many things at once which is a trap that a lot of entrepreneurs get caught in. Something I tell myself all the time, I even had it in writing on a blog post like eight years ago like I won't do that again; get into too many things. Entrepreneurs are different … there are different classes of entrepreneurs but the kind of entrepreneur that I am it's the squirrel syndrome. It's always exciting to do something new rather than what you're working on. I get bored really easily. To me, the business aspects are way less about the money than the personal enjoyment and excitement part of it. And oftentimes you end up with this … you chase rabbits both will get away saying that I use all the time. But I give that advice and don't follow it as well as I should. So that's another thing that you could really take away from this if your … the existing business you have is probably the best one that you have, the same type of thing with a car like the cheapest car that you'll ever have is the one that you own right now. You are then going on and buying a new one. Or any of these types of things can be applied to other aspects of your life as well. But if you are focused on one company like you typically have all your T's crossed and I's dotted and that's how I like to run my companies because I am a bit of a perfectionist. But as you spread your resources across multiple businesses things like to fall through the cracks that make things less attractive to a buyer. And the reality is is it's not as easy as it should be to just cookie cutter your business into another one. We had a really great podcast about this a year and a half ago. It was actually something we recorded live at E-commerce Fuel Live last year back in Gohana. So I just want to throw those things out as well as just other things that to be thinking about. As you're planning your exit you should be a lot of times it's … well, I want to get in this other thing or as you're growing it's really exciting and it's infectious and you want to keep on that path because it's fun to tell everybody how fast you're growing. And everyone pats you in the back and society makes things even worse because they're always like yeah man good job and everybody is like oh good job you only grew by 5% last year because that's just how we're all wired. Which the reality is that as Dave my partner always says is that revenues are vanity and profits are sanity. Joe: Yeah. Now I love that again this is … I want people to hear from you more than me. I say his stuff all the time and you're someone that's going through it right now and coaches thousands of people on a regular basis to improve their businesses and Dave as well. The other thing that is separating out the brands and separating out the LLC does for you the seller and the potential buyer is it casts a broader net of potential buyers. And the broader the net the more interest level there is going to be in the business. And the more interest level the more likely you're going to get an offer at or close to list price. And in this case we did not say SBA prequalified, technically you can take a business like yours and go through the process and have your accountant separate all those things out and certify it. It's not a full audit and you could try to go through the process and make it SBA prequalified. But in the time frame that you and I were trying to do this, you wanted to be under Letter Of Intent by January 31st. It didn't happen. We came close but we couldn't have gone through that process because that process would have taken six to eight weeks for your attorney to do it. And given the time of year, it might have taken longer because he's in full on tax preparation now. So that's the other thing that separating out your LLC's by brand will do for you is that when you wake up one day and you want to exit it's clean, it's simple and you can do that with a lot less work. And that work Mike we … it was a lot of work in preparing the listing for sale. In the Profit & Loss statements and then in that client interview everybody's heard about it … I told my wife when I sold my business I felt like I was working harder preparing the business for sale and going through the process of getting it sold than I was actually running it. And when I was running my own I was working about 20 hours a week running the business so that tells you what that workload is like. In terms of what we did, I want to talk a little bit about the launch process and talk about the multiples and some of the things we did but you did it just absolutely right spot on. We did go out a little early the right? We talked in late November early, early December and you had a goal and I wanted to help you achieve that goal. I'm human and I think that what I probably should have done in hindsight is said no, this is probably not the best approach. We went out in I think around the 10th of December, listed the business at a pretty strong multiple. It was at a four time multiple. And went out and said Look December is going to be great. Trust us these numbers will drop to a 3.5 once the December numbers are read. And the ultimate answer we got was cool, I think I'll just wait to see if that's true. So we've got a … I think we had a phone call, maybe we had one buyer seller conference call in the month of December and then you're a man of your word and you like to under promise and over deliver. And when December numbers came in they were up 80% year over year. Mike: Yeah. Joe: I've used this analogy with a lot of folks before and they've heard me say this again you can list something at a four time multiple and if it's growing 25% year over year consistently the buyer earns their money back in 2.7 years. I did not do the math on 80% and I won't but that really got people off the fence a little bit. We updated the P&L's, got the December P&L's and then we're relaunching I think on January 8th, 9th, or 10th, in and around there. And we actually dropped the price by $75,000 too. So the multiple didn't drop to just a 3.5 it dropped to a 3.2 multiple and we relaunched. And I think we had three or four phone calls out of the gate. The goal is to have three to five in the first 30 to 45 days and one acceptable offer. We did have just two offers in this case and one was just not there. We had two or three phone calls with them. One was interesting, right? I was traveling to Dallas so I'm on a conference call with Mike and the buyer and I'm actually going through TSA security on the conference call. And thankfully Mike can talk folks. So he was talking as I put my headset down and went through security. I picked it up on the other end and you were still talking. And you had a terrible cold. Mike: Yeah, that was a pretty embarrassing call. Joe: It was great though and the thing that you do so incredibly well is you instill confidence in the buyers. You're honest. People trust you. And it made them … anybody that had the opportunity to talk with you I think wanted to make an offer if they could pull it together. But we couldn't do an SBA buyer because of that commingling issue so we were focused primarily on cash buyers. Keep in mind though that not all SBA buyers don't have the cash. Many of them do they just prefer to make their money go further with an SBA loan. So I think we were both at ECF, that's E-commerce Fuel, at the event down in New Orleans and I drove you nuts a few times saying I think I may have an offer right? Did I—? Mike: It was so funny, you texted me at the opening party I think I have an offer and then you went to bed. I think like you didn't actually have the offer yet I just think I read the text a little long but … so I was like walking around the entire thing looking like anybody know where Joe Valley is? Like I want to know where Joe Valley is. Joe: Yeah, I think I heard somebody say Joe likes to go to bed early. He doesn't stay up late at these events. He's probably in bed. And that … I felt a little embarrassed there. I'm like okay I'm getting a reputation for going bed by nine. But we ended up not going under LOI— Mike: [inaudible 00:27:07.7] morning than I did. Joe: I think I probably did. I was really hopeful that we could go under LOI while at E-commerce Fuel because that would be a great feather in your cap and mine. We would be able to have a drink there and celebrate. But it didn't quite work. It took an extra … probably four or five days. But we had some challenges with the business. We ended up getting fairly close and I'll do the math as you answer this next question in terms of that asking price; that 3.2 multiple. But we had some challenges and the big challenge was something you talked about earlier. One of these big issues that you've got is you're taking all the profits from the business and putting it back into inventory. And when you have a business that's growing at the rate that yours was that's a lot of inventory. Can you talk about that a little bit in terms of the challenges that we had there? Mike: With inventory specifically in terms with ColorIt? Joe: Yes. Mike: Yeah. And this is something that we have worked really hard on in our business and we're very [inaudible 00:28:06.7] which is that you basically want as little inventory as humanly possible at all times. I mean you don't … there's a lot of reasons for this. If you have too much inventory when something goes wrong like you're stuck with a hot potato. That always sucks but probably more importantly especially when you're in this growth phase is cash flow is the most important thing. There's this saying that's been around forever which is cash is king and there's a reason for this; for every dollar that you have an excess inventory that's a dollar that you don't have in some new product … some new product launch or some other thing that can make you more money. And every inventory business is going to go through this. There is no inventory business I think on earth that … especially when it's newer and growing at this speed that can plan inventory perfectly all the time. Either you're going to err on the side of caution of not having too much inventory and be willing to run out of SKUs because of that. Or you're going to err on the side of caution of having too much inventory and err on the side of caution of never running out of a SKU. And for me, we went with the latter because in the early days of selling on Amazon we realize that when you run out of stuff it can be really detrimental. We had one SKU that we still are trying to recover from. It's a part of this issue here with this business sale we're now we have too much inventory because we could never get it to recover back to the point where it was before. So we try to in our inventory business turn our inventory three to four times a year which means that you should have no more than three to four months of inventory at any one time. And with ColorIt that was definitely not the case. So it was not the case. I mean there's a bunch of different exceptions that put things way further out than that but there was an old legacy book manufacturer that we work with that had very high MOQ's. So if we wanted to even sell the item we had to order a year worth of it at one time. And that was a decision that we made in Q2. We had a newer product that we just started selling and it was selling really well so we've ordered more of it and again at their MOQ so we have more than 4 months of inventory there. And so the bottom line was that of the 300 … actually it was $400,000 in total inventory that we have for ColorIt both from stuff that's in stock and things that we had already placed orders for that haven't shown up yet. There was about 100 … I don't have the numbers in front of me but $100,000-ish I think of inventory that that would take longer than 12 months to sell. And so for me because I've been on both sides of the fence as both a buyer and seller of businesses and I really believe living life like don't ask others or don't do what you want to do yourself, I realize that before we even start talking to the buyer that we probably have to make some sort of concession on the inventory. It just would be unrealistic to just be like no you're going to the inventory and too bad because I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that myself. The other thing that I don't like doing is like having someone pay me with my money. So that one thing I was steadfast about was that we're not going to take financing or delay the purchase price. I want an all cash offer for the for the purchase price but the inventory component I thought the right thing to do was to pretty quickly acquiesce and come into a middle ground with a buyer. So what we had agreed to do was, first of all, there was one SKU that I admit that just doesn't sell well. It was a bad buy on us. We just rid it off 100%. It's about $8,000 dollars. They can either … they were in a trash can if they want to transfer or they can keep it and do whatever they want with. There were a couple of SKUs that I kind of conceded to that were slower movers that I felt like was going to be kind of detrimental to their business to buy at with 24 months with the inventory at face value. So what we agreed to was we'll sell you anything that we think is going take longer than 12 months within that inventory at a 50% haircut. We'll just write off half of it and you can buy it for 50% off. So now you … yes, you carrying more inventory but you're buying it at a price that makes sense to carry it. And then the third group of SKUs were things that were basically like in this 12 to 18 month window, they weren't really that low for stock, and the biggest culprit of that was this new item that we're trending higher on. So I think ultimately and I convinced the buyer ultimately especially once the Christmas season comes they aren't going to have … they aren't going to actually have more than 12 months with the inventory. So we agreed that even though our forecast shows it's going to take more than 12 months to sell it's because we were using like a January sales number for that we weren't including sales growth in that forecast and we also weren't including what I believe that was going to happen in December which is December is about 3X any other month in our business. So ultimately we wrote off $40,000 with the inventory and agree to give them 12 months financing on the inventory at 5% interest which basically I think helps normalize that situation for them. And it's also something that I can tolerate as well. Joe: Yeah, and it happened and then we succeeded with it A. because of you; the likability and trust factor. But you have something that I preach again and that's when you've got an inventory based business you should have inventory aging reports. Sophisticated buyers are going to ask for them and they're going to want to see the inventory by SKU when you bought the inventory and how old it is, how many months you've got. As Mike said you want to turn your inventory every three to four months if you can but in his situation, it was 9, 12, 18 months in some rare instances. And so on that inventory report one of the key things that your buyer Matt said that made a difference for him in sealing the steel and getting it done was the inventory aging report and the notes that you put by each SKU and right there in one of them you said this is all inventory and it's not going to sell so we'll write this off. You just acquiesced on that 8,000. He didn't ask for it. You just put it in there because you knew it was the right thing to do. And then you went line by line on every other SKU and justified the 100% value or where you needed to discount. And let me just say for everybody listening, it is rare to need to take a note on inventory. It's rare to have to discount it. But when you've got that much you've got to do the right thing. What I don't want to happen here is for buyers to go “oh well hey Jackness took a note, I'm always going to ask for a note” because that's really, really the exception rather— Mike: Like I wouldn't do that with IceWraps for instance because there's … if we were to sell that we have four months with inventory. It's really clean and smooth. It's a more established business with fewer SKUs. It doesn't have a lot of the other things that cause us to have extra inventory. And like you said I mean just doing the right thing and being realistic of both sides. I mean this is what happens … like a lot of people when they're sellers they want to be way up here when they're buyers they want to be way now here and they're just like … they have this gap in which I think that just makes them not the best of human beings right? I mean you've got to be like more in the middle and realize the person that's buying and what they're thinking and what their [inaudible 00:35:24.6] is. And conversely when you're in the sell side be thinking about as well. It's not always just about you. There is another side of the coin. And I wish our politicians are covering this a little bit as well but it's just good business it's being a good human being. It's what makes deals get done. It's just doing the right thing and being fair about it; being equitable about it. I could … I just … I would feel like a dirty shyster if I have that guy by that one SKU that I know … like he doesn't know the business as well as I do. I know that one SKU [inaudible 00:36:00.9] it's been around here for two years. No matter how hard we try to sell it, we threw it at a 50% off sale or we even did a 75% off sale around Christmas to try to get rid of some of them. People just don't like that title. It was the one title that we made out of 25, it's a pretty good track record but one title out of 25 that was just this complete failure. I'm like how could you have someone take that? That's just basically like I'm stealing from them or trying to pull the rug over their head. And you know when they discover that later which they probably will in due diligence they're not going to trust you. Joe: Yeah, exactly I was just going to say that. They are going to discover in due diligence. And I'll tell you what for folks listening, we're going to run a little bit long on this episode. I'm going to lock this all up in one episode instead of doing two series here. The due diligence process would reveal anything like that so you need to get ahead of it. You have to be a good human being. This is a transaction that has to end with two satisfied individuals or entities at the closing table; that's the buyer and the seller. It's not winner takes all because the buyer is putting their life savings on the line again and they can walk away at any time. If you fake it, lie, cheat, or steal, it is going to be discovered in due diligence. More and more folks are hiring Centurica, your buyer is. That's Chris Yates' team. Chris owns the company called Centurica. C-E-N-T-U-R-I-C-A, they do due diligence for buyers. And honestly, as a broker, I love it when they join the team because they're working for the buyer. And I have yet to see a deal go sideways on any of the listings that we've put out. What they do more than anything else is they reinstill confidence that the numbers are right, that the seller presented information, and they create a roadmap to growth. They can point out certain things where there are flaws and sometimes it's a little scary but the buyer goes oh okay that's a flaw, I can fix that. I can make this better. And it's a path growth that we aren't able to do on the client interview which is great. One other thing I just want to say that we won't get into in great detail but without a question when you plan to sell instead of decide to sell, one of the things that you should always do, your partner Dave did it, is to take a look at your cost of goods sold. And if there's a possibility that you can renegotiate your cost of goods sold 12 months out in advance and reduce that cost of goods sold, for every $10,000.00 you save you're going to wind up with at least 2 ½ to 3 ½ times that depending upon your business and the trends and whatnot. Mike, you did it but you were able to renegotiate the cost of goods sold on just one of your SKU's and you placed an order for it so was locked in and loaded and the future sales would all be locked in at that lower cost of goods sold. And you sold through all of the other stuff at a higher price. So we were able to increase your seller's discretionary earnings by a total of $43,000 on that overall. And it was just because of that one SKU where you were able to renegotiate the cost of goods sold. In hindsight Mike do you wish you had done it on all of the other SKUs as well? Mike: Yeah I mean I don't think this is necessarily a selling your business thing more than this is just good business at that time. Joe: Yeah. Mike: What I've realized again after four plus years of importing stuff from China is that I wasn't as good of a negotiator as I thought I was. And I've always thought of myself as a really good negotiator in all aspects of anything that I do in business. And we had negotiated down from the original price they gave us but it still wasn't like the Chinese price. And when you get like a really good sourcing agent or you have someone that's more in tune with the local business and customs there they'll probably get a better price. And that's what happened for us. We met somebody … and these contacts are hard to find in business. We were out there doing it all ourselves like going to the Canton Fair, walking the floor finding manufacturers, and we did that because we're never really able to really find a good sourcing agent and didn't really know any other way to go about it. But because … mostly because of EcomCrew which is one of these things where the more you get back in life a lot of times the more you get rewarded. A lot of things we do in EcomCrew we don't get anything direct for our time for what we do. Like most of the stuff is just giving people free information and giving back to the community but what I found that happens in these types of situations is that makes relationships with people and the people you meet they know people that makes relationships with other people and eventually that path led to us finding this amazing sourcing agent that not only is he helping with ColorIt but everything else that we're doing now. And he was in our office here one day and we were actually sourcing something else for our tactical brand. I wasn't even looking to resource price I was looking to source new stuff. We were just chit chatting and we have this display up on our wall of all of our products and he is like what if I try to go source this for you? What do you pay for it if I can do better when you buy it from me? And I was like well man I'm also like not just about money. I'm really about relationships. I really like the factory I work with. We've been working with them for a while. It had to be like one hell of a cost savings for me. Like if it was I'm going to save you know a couple $1,000 here and there it's not worth it for me to blow that up. But he came back and was able to reduce the price of that particular thing from … well, he reduced it by 16% is what it was; which is massive. It's like this ridiculous cost savings. And at the same time the other factory as much as I … it's so funny like I'm really big on relationships and I was really concerned about them they actually copied our product during this process and even used our [inaudible 00:41:30.2] that we had paid for and everything and released our product to someone else. Sold our product to someone else. Which we then have to go spend money on a lawsuit to fight them which we got them to stop but … so between those two things we switched. Now the switch engine is going out and repricing our stuff and that's going to end up benefiting the buyer way more than it is for us on ColorIt which is fine. But I guess the end result is you should always be looking at price. Even when you think you have the best price you probably don't. There was a great … a presentation at ECF about this as well when it came to shipping rates. I don't know if you saw Craig Gentry's presentation on FedEx and UPS when he was just like if you think you have great rates you don't. Like there's … you can still do better because there's still another … they make you feel like you're getting the best deal ever because they're really good at negotiating. And it was similar with our products and we realize that we could be saving quite a bit. I mean 16% percent is a huge difference on COGS … I mean it ends up in your net profit. It's way more than 16% percent increase rate because it's going to be SKUed. It makes you … you could just throw money around the bottom line. So yeah I mean it was massive and the timing was great because we did get some benefit. But yes I wish that we had time to go through and renegotiate all those SKUs for sure. Joe: Yeah and I think you said it best. It's just good business. It makes smart business sense. Not necessarily sorry for the exit planning and the eventual exit and sale of your business. Can you say one more time what Dave always says it's not profit it's—? Mike: Yes. Revenues are vanity and profits are sanity. Joe: Perfect. Mike: I'm sorry I'm going to go off on a tangent; another tangent. [Inaudible 00:43:05.7] I got you and just like people are like counting their chest. Like I'm a seven figure seller and well I'm an eight figure seller and I sold this stuff … no one ever goes around saying well I sold 10 million dollars of stuff last year but I actually lost money. I mean there are plenty of businesses out there that are like that. It's very easy to get in that trap because it's actually pretty easy to sell stuff online. You can just spend way too much money on advertising and you can sell stuff but the profit is what really actually matters. Joe: Absolutely and that's where these marketplace valuations are. It's on the profits so discretionary earnings. All right so look I want to read one more thing and I'm going to wrap it up. I've said that you the seller, in this case, you Mike makes a huge difference in the saleability if that's a word, of your business. How you act prior to selling the business, how you manage your business, and how you represent yourself all throughout makes an enormous difference. And the way that you handled yourself on the client interview, on the recorded interview that we did as part of the package, on the conference calls with buyers, in the inventory challenges that we had, in writing those notes there, and just acquiescing on that $8,000 of inventory that you knew was no good; it all made the difference and it's why we're under Letter Of Intent. I did the math. We're actually under Letter Of Intent at 96% of the list price of the business. Again the inventory we're doing on a note which we don't love but sometimes you have to do that. I want to just read an e-mail that you sent to Matt, your buyer within a couple of hours of when we were under Letter Of Intent to just reemphasize what's important and the way that a buyer should treat their sellers … or seller should treat their buyer. So here we go. I feel like I'm in second grade standing up and reading this— Mike: I was not planning on this being read but it's okay read it. Go on. Joe: It says, Matt … his first name is Matt we're not going to say what his last name is. I just received the signed LOI from you and wanted to take a minute to thank you for putting your faith in me and my love child ColorIt. It's been one heck of a ride but I'm ready to pass off the baton and experience a year or two of not having too much on my plate. Of course, I realize there is still a lot to accomplish to get to the finish line but I wanted to say cheers. With the growth rate of ColorIt along with some of the other fundamentals, I'm convinced this will be your best purchase to date. My goal is to make sure that it becomes a reality for you as we progress through the transition. I look forward to working with you in that regard over the next few months. Mike. Guys, that is the way to transact business. It's just the right thing to do and it feels good. And I can tell you [inaudible 00:45:45.4] 80% year over year growth in December and didn't even mention it 74% year over year growth in January. It made a huge difference and Matt making an offer at 96% of the list price. But this kind of thing, the way Mike handled himself as a professional, as a good human being in this entire process sealed the deal ultimately. So Mike, thank you. I appreciate the way that it's gone so far. I think what we'll do is have a follow up episode to talk about due diligence and the training and transition and how the transaction wound up at the end of the process with this closing that we've got if you wanted to come back on. Mike: Yeah. Can I say one thing about the letter that I wrote? Joe: Of course. Mike: Since you took the time to read it I just … I got to preach because I've been on both sides of these deals. There have been times where I've been the buyer and at that moment that you sign the LOI there's always this anxiety, right? Where you like man I'm about to jump into this thing and you don't necessarily know what you're getting … everything that you're getting yourself into. And I just wanted to let the guy know that first of all I appreciate him again like it was sincere like I appreciate him … this was like now the sales person parts over like I'm not trying to sell him anything. It's always awkward when you're saying stuff in the call part of it. It almost sounds manufactured even though I don't do that but I'm sure to them it comes off as like this guy is probably just saying this to get me to write a check. But it's done. The finish line is there from that perspective I just … and I do want it to be a success story. I want the guy to buy it and look back at these years later and feel like he made the right decision. And yeah that was really all; just kind of being sincere about it. And I think all too often again people are more way about themselves they'd be all high fiving everybody and saying that we got an LOI and celebrating their success more than thinking about what this guy's about to endeavor in. And I think that's important. Joe: I appreciate that and the last thing I'll say is what I said to everyone which is we're under Letter Of Intent. There's no guarantee. Mike: You're right; the money is not in the bank yet for sure. Joe: It's not on the bank yet. So let's have another killer month in February. We'll get through all of this. Due diligence is very detailed but again they've got Centurica doing it for them. We've got to do a lot of work but we know it would be done right. And that emotion will be left out of it as much as possible and it'd be math and logic and we'll get through it. And then we'll have you back on the podcast to maybe high five. And maybe we'll get the buyer Matt on it as well. Mike: Yeah, I think it'll be cool to have him and come join us and talk about both sides. Joe: Alright, I'm looking forward to it Mike. You're a good man I'm glad to do business with you. I look forward to hearing you back on the podcast. Mike: Thanks, Joe. Links and Resources: ColorIt.com Mike's Podcast Email Mike Call Mike 703-216-3225
Hey everyone! In today’s episode, I share the mic with Chad Rubin, CEO of ThinkCrucial and Co-Founder of Skubana. Tune in to hear Chad share how he was able to build something to compete with Netsuite, how he manages to keep his remote employees organized and productive, and how he convinced his parents to create a website for their vacuum cleaner business. Click here for show notes and transcript Leave Some Feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @EricSiu
Some sixty percent of people go to Amazon when they shop for a physical product. If you have one to sell and you're not on Amazon, this episode is for you. In today's product market every seller has got to learn the Amazon ecosystem. Today's guest is the person to turn to when looking to save, grow, and make more money on Amazon. Michael Zagare was doing something he hated for many years. He was ready for a change and finally sold his Physical Therapy practice and began dabbling in internet sales. Amazon FBA was a great fit. Mike now owns PPC Entourage and runs his own profitable Amazon business. PPC Entourage is an Amazon Seller software that analyzes all of your sponsored advertising data and then optimizes everything for you. Today Mike shares his insights from his own selling experience and from helping countless Amazon FBA sellers. Episode Highlights: When you should start optimization. Finding a niche in the marketplace and breaking in. Organic rankings versus paid rankings. Lowering ACOS with optimization. Your average ad spend. How to go about optimizing a paid spend. Sifting through the search terms in order to fine-tune your listing. How much data is needed to draw a good conclusion on a product's optimization. What to look for in opportunities to expand through optimization. Creative tips and strategies to use for sponsored ads. What Amazon sellers can implement today in order to start optimizing. Ways sellers can protect against the competition and dying out. Continual product development and brand building. The importance of the intellectual property portion of your products. Transcription: Joe: So, Mark back in the day … I could say that now because I have gray hair on my chin. Back in the day I learned Google Ad Words I used to spend a little bit of money and eventually grew it and grew it and grew it and grew it. It got to the point that I was spending $50,000 a week on Google Ad Words. I maxed it out and then you know just do that on a monthly basis. And I didn't take any courses and I should have. And I didn't hire any experts and I should have. And I didn't outsource it and I should have. Maybe they didn't exist, I don't know what the issue was, it was probably just inside my head. Today there's almost too many experts and in every possible category and some of them really just take your money. But you had someone on the podcast specifically talking about Amazon sponsored ads which if … folks if you've got a physical product and you're not selling on Amazon simply because you don't think you need to … I personally will not shop for anything other than on Amazon. I will go there first. If I can't find it there I think it doesn't exist. So, I think something like 60% of people looking for a physical product shop on Amazon. So, you've got to learn the Amazon ecosystem and sponsored ads and their marketing and things of that nature. And you had Michael Zagari is that how you pronounce his last name talking about this? Mark: Yes, that's right and he is an Amazon ads expert. And you're right back in my day I don't have the same gray hair mainly because I don't have a chin … I'm sorry a beard, I have a chin. Joe: It's very revealing about how you feel about yourself. Mark: Why do you think we've stopped the video? I have no chin. So, I had Michael on and you're right back in the day it used to be that you could setup campaigns with pretty much every advertising platform. Set them up run them and take a little bit to get them up and going but today really need to be an expert in each of these categories, each of these advertising platforms. Amazon is really no different than that. And what Michael does is he really helps people. He's developed a platform that people can use which will help manage their advertising platform through Amazon. Be able to identify those keywords that maybe they are paying for and add them to this negative keyword list to be able to make their ad spend a lot more efficient. In our conversation which … it's pretty funny actually, so he actually has an Amazon store and they sell litter boxes and other cat things and they're in the video which hopefully we'll get some clips up. That's a note to our editor Chris you've got to get the clips up. His cat was literally like walking around all over the chair behind him and everything else so very, very appropriate. We talked a little bit about the strategies that- Joe: I want to say “ah cute” but I'm not sure if it actually was. Mark: I made a joke that we developed into cat videos here at Quiet Light Brokerage just to get more views. We got over some of the strategies that he's employed over the years to be able to get some really crazy returns on his ad spend. And I don't want to quote them off hand, we'll let you listen to this because there are some solid numbers that he puts out and some solid techniques. We really talked about some other techniques that you can do to help out with your organic rankings as well on Amazon. So, anyone that's an Amazon geek or has a business or mobile business on Amazon put this episode on. We got somebody here who's doing this at a pretty high level and very interesting as far as adding that paid portion and maximizing that paid portion to your acquisition channels. Joe: I think you know even if you think you're an expert at it and you do pretty well listening to other folks that do things maybe just slightly differently in the next 30 minutes you maybe will pick up a nugget that will help boost one of your campaigns or decrease your CPA. Mark: All right Michael thank you for joining me. Mike: Hey glad to be here, what's up guys? Mark: All right let's go ahead and start with an introduction and I'm going to let you go ahead and do that like we usually do. Mike: Sure, yes. So, my name is Mike Zagare. I am a recovering physical therapist and I always lead with that because I was doing something from nine to five that I absolutely hated for many, many years. I love that it's helping out people but it was definitely not my passion or my dream job. I'm a thorough grade entrepreneur and I think that runs in my family. And I realized that as I was going through college that this is just like not what I want to do the rest of my life. So actually, my hair is starting to fall out and I kind of went through and was a physical therapist for 10 years. I started and sold a physical therapy home care practice in that time. Thankfully I no longer have that and I can focus now fulltime on Amazon. It has been an amazing journey along the way and a part of that journey was discovering how to build an Amazon business and how to scale that business and get as much traffic and eyeballs to our listings as possible. And that's why we started working with sellers to help that as well. To help them get as many [inaudible 00:05:31.8] for as sufficiently as possible to their listings. Mark: So, when did you start your first Amazon business? Mike: So, I started in 2015 and at the time I had a bunch of … I had a homecare business and I had a bunch of losing entrepreneurial ideas. Actually, the first time I dipped into Amazon it was started off as eBay and I realized well that's not something I can do full time; it's just too time consuming it's not scalable. And then I tried to do retail and online arbitrage. And if you guys have ever heard of that, it can be profitable but I think you really have to be in the right place at the right time and I had no experience. I ended up ordering hundreds and hundreds of the wrong units on my house and completely shut down the post office in doing that. So, like I really had the energy and the intensity but it really had to be channeled in something that was like … something where it was streamlined. Like Amazon FBA was perfect for me because you get to combine value creation and creativity. Create something that's really, really great and new to the marketplace and then it's much more scalable and it's like kind of out of your hands at that point once it gets to the FBA warehouse. Mark: Sure, so with retail arbitrage you're going out and you're finding this kind of products in other places, ordering them, and putting them into Amazon FBA, right? Mike: Yeah that's retail arbitrage. And online arbitrage is finding discounted deals on sites but then the problem with that is if a lot of people found the same deal. So, by the time you got your inventory over to Amazon your profit margins were gone and then you're left with a lot of inventory. So, I just felt like the model wasn't right for me and Amazon FBA was like lethal … definitely the way to go in terms of selling on Amazon. Mark: Sure, and we've had kind of a hierarchy here at Quiet Light as far as the businesses we like to see on Amazon that we consider to be most sellable with the retail arbitrage obviously being towards the bottom of that list because it really requires that special skill in being able to find products. And like you said the problem with that is there's a lot of arbitragers out there. They are looking for all the same opportunities. Everybody has the same equal opportunity for those and it can be pretty difficult to scale that. Not that it can't be done, I've talked to some people that are doing arbitrage at a really, really high level but it's pretty hard to transfer that as well. So when you're saying that you were doing Amazon FBA are you doing private label or did you create a brand and a product? What … where would you fall on that ecosystem? Mike: Yeah, I do private label and we have a brand that we're building. We sell cat products around litter solutions. We started there and basically, we started with one product that did really, really well and we found a niche in the marketplace, made it better, and then we just were the first ones to the market. And then we reinvested all that cash into other products based on the search term report. So basically, we got into the minds of people who are shopping for our products and you can see what they're actually looking for and what they purchased and sometimes it's not always the same thing. So, we would try to find the search terms that were similar to the products we were selling and then come out with those products because we knew that there was an audience there and we knew we could cross sell. And then it steamed rolled into that okay we have a bunch of litter solutions products, why not cat toys and why not this and why not hospitality item and now we're going to health and skin care as well for pets. So, it's just kind of branching out from there and now we have a brand and we're more focused in on building that brand. We have a community manager, we have all these different channels that we're engaging people on. We're getting Facebook groups, YouTube channels, stuff like that to really build up the brand which I know when you get to sell a business I feel like this is the secret sauce that people probably can utilize. Mark: Right and I would agree that brand … being able to have a good brand set up is towards the top end of that scale, right? So, the arbitrage is kind of at the bottom end because it's really, really tough to sell those businesses. It's really tough to transfer those businesses and a brand you obviously have a protection of the brand and the goodwill that comes with that. And even in the pet space too that's awesome man. I know we don't put up our full interviews anymore, we're hopefully going to putting up some clips but your cat is literally like obviously are behind you so. Mike: Yeah, I locked him in the room so he wouldn't make any noise but yeah, he's here and he's the inspiration behind the whole thing. It was me and him. I was a bachelor when the whole thing started and he's been the … he tests all the products so he's at [inaudible 00:09:39.3]. Mark: So, we're now devolving into the world of cat videos at Quiet Light Brokerage. Mike: There we go. Mark: In order to stealth views videos. All right cool so the heart of what I want to get to let's get into like the real meat and potatoes and that is paid product placement on Amazon. And I think there's a lot that we can really talk about here. And I want to start with just sort of the basics with this. And when I say that when I think about an Amazon business, when I know a lot of our buyers are evaluating an Amazon business they're going to take a look at its organic rankings in Amazon. Obviously, you want to have good organic rankings but there's also a really big role that paid placement can take in any Amazon business and especially from a buying opportunity being able to maximize that just in the same way that we would have organic rankings and Google versus paid rankings they are a little bit different they have different flavors too. I'd like to pick your brain for it in the next 20, 25 minutes here about that whole process of paid products within Amazon. So why don't we just kind of start there … what would you describe the difference and kind of the role maybe that a paid product placement on Amazon should take in an Amazon business? Mike: So, it really depends on your strategy. If you're going and you're launching a new product and you're trying to get of the best visibility on Amazon then paid advertising is the way to do it. You can get top line visibility right from the very beginning. And that's something that we've been really doing really well is because now we have an audience and we do paid advertising and we target people from our list over to Amazon and we have them purchase but we also use the paid advertising to supplement that. We love paid advertising because it gives us massive visibility for specific keywords. And we know what people are shopping for and for those specific terms we want to dominate the marketplace. We want to have what's called the sponsored branding ad which is the very top of the ad. We want to have a sponsored product ad which is basically an ad directly to our listing. And then we want to have the organic placement and we call that the swimming the competition approach. Because now we have a lot of visibility for our major keywords and if people see you two or three or sometimes four times because on sponsored branding ads you can have your image in there a couple of times then you're more likely going to get that sale. And the way we look into it is that we make sure that our … what we call the true ACOS which is the average cost of sale which is our ad spend is about 10% of our … [inaudible 00:12:08.7] margin is about 10%. And as long as that's happening we're cool with that. We want to get as much visibility and as much exposure to our brand as possible. So typically, what we look for is what we call an average cost of sale about 40% or less and then we scale at that level. And if it's affecting our account about 10% in total then we're cool with that. When it starts to get more than that then we start to optimize because there's a lot of ways … you can spend a lot of money on Amazon. You have to know how to optimize the right way otherwise you can lose your shirt. You have so many people on that site. And there's different ways to do that with keyword, bid traces, and negative exacts, negative phrases, that kind of stuff. Also sending traffic to the right listing. There're various things you can do but there's a lot to talk about so I'm interested to get into it. Mark: Well let's back up a little bit here because you threw out a couple of numbers here I just want to clarify here. So, it's a 10% into your margins so what do you mean by that? Mike: So, your ad spends, let's say you're spending $10,000 a month and you're making 100k a month then that's 10% percent right there. Mark: Okay and then you said 40% percent of ACOS. Mike: Yeah, so if you're spending 10k a month, let's say you're spending $1,000 on ad spend then you want to make the fourth … so basically the $2,400 you want to make 1,000. That would be 40% ACOS. So, it's 400 in ad spend to make a thousand return on ad spend. Mark: I got it. Thank you. Okay so let's start with just kind of the how this all works. How do you go about optimizing a paid spend because we get a lot of our buyers who … a lot of our listeners are buyers right? They're going to be inheriting a company that has an existing paid account or some paid advertising going on. Where do you start in that evaluation process to find out what you need to do to be able to optimize it? Mike: So, you start by looking at the search term report to see what people are actually searching for and how much the bid prices are. And there's a couple of different ways to optimize you can do on a keyword level. If a keyword is too expensive and it's really not … it's driving a lot of traffic but it's not doing it at a profitable level then that's just not a good thing. You want to start to lower down that keyword bid price to get a lower cost per click. And you really want to determine how many clicks it's going to take you to get that sale. And if it's too many clicks and your average cost per click is too high then you're simply … unless there's another advantage of getting that traffic, maybe you're getting a lot of return customer. You're selling sport supplements and you got to do 100% ACOS to get them in one time and have them come back again and again and again that would be a good idea of wanting to do that. You could be a little bit more aggressive but for somebody like me who sells cat products typically about 12 to 15% of our customers are return customers so we take that into account. But we try to keep it so that it's within our 40% ACOS because of that. And you have to tailor the keywords to make sure that they're not too expensive and that you're wasting all of your ad spend on keywords that are just draining your ad spend. Mark: Okay. All right so you start with a keyword report and then you look in to see what's driving sales right now, the cost, the areas that you could drive that down right? Mike: Yes. Mark: Okay and then where would you go after that? Mike: So basically, we'd start with the keyword report … search term report and then you would also find the search terms that are really, really not doing well at all. Some of them have zero like sales whatsoever but tons of clicks. And those are the ones that you want to start to do a negative exacter phrase on so that you can start to fine tune who's going to your listing and what you're paying for in terms of your ad spend. So, we use a tool inside of entourage called negative word finder which will tell you the words that are never … that have never been associated to a profitable sale. And you find those and you can do a negative phrase match which means any search term that the customer puts in you're not going to get that exposure to your listing and you're never going to get hit again. If you do it on a campaign level your entire campaign will be sensibly shielded from any time somebody types in that word. And then negative exact is like if you could take the exact search term that's not generating any sales and you could use that as a negative exact so that's why you're not getting any exposure to that that search term in its entirety. Mark: How much … this is exactly the same process that you would use with say Google Ad Words itself like you're taking a look to see what people are searching on, the stuff that's not really related or not really driving the traffic to a site, what have you driving conversions that's within the ad words world, how much data do you think you really need before you can start ruling out certain phrases or certain words and adding those negative words? How long do you have to let it run before you can really know and draw any good conclusions? Mike: There's a lot of factors that go into it; seasonality, how new the product is, is the listing seasoned. Because you can make some decisions early on where a listing doesn't have a lot of reviews and doesn't have a lot of questions that people could ask. People could ask questions on a listing so there's a lot of factors that go into it. Typically like a general rule of thumb it could be 10 clicks without a sale is when you start to make some adjustments and optimizations and that's to a really, really good well-seasoned listing. If it's earlier on then there could be a little bit more leniency in terms of when you start to optimize but really the fundamental thing is you have to have a really good listing. You have to have a solid product. You can't just sell a me-too product that's up there just competing based on price. It's got to have a really good high value to people who are searching for it. So, if you start with that then you can really get a better understanding of when you should start to optimize. But the rule of thumb is basically 10 clicks without a sale is when you would start to do some work. Or 10 clicks with a relatively high ACOS you would start to optimize that cost per click so that it's at a better cost … the bid price is better and not as expensive. Mark: Okay so in this case if we're evaluating a business for sale and taking a look at it one of the first things we'll be looking for that low hanging fruit of hey these guys are wasting money on their product sponsored listings spend right? They've got a lot of keywords that they're paying for. We've received 10 maybe 20 clicks we're not getting any sales from them and that cost is pretty high. So that seems like a pretty low hanging fruit there. When you're evaluating the campaign and let's say that it's pretty clean that way and looks like they're doing a decent job of going through and eliminating those nonproductive keywords, where do you look for or what do you look for opportunities to be able to expand a product that they currently have? Mike: So, there's a lot of opportunities when typically you can see keywords that are performing really, really well within the desired ACOS range. Meaning if you're … let's say you got an ACOS of 15% that means for every $15 you're spending you're making a 100. So, you may be missing out on some of the potential opportunity because your bid price is a little bit too low or Amazon doesn't really … maybe your campaign budgets are a little bit too low. So, you want to give Amazon more room to breathe. You want to basically tell them hey this works out for me you know I want to do this any time of the day. And you would then go ahead and optimize your keyword bid price and also raise your campaign budget so that you can get as much exposure to that opportunity as possible. And now it's a lot easier to see that stuff in bulk with software. You can see all of the individual keywords that are performing really, really well over a given period of time and where they really could use a little bit of a boost in terms of their ad spend. So, you can give that more love and then direct traffic there and then negate it elsewhere. Mark: Okay. Do you ever use paid sponsored listings for anything other than just the direct sales? I mean are there some more creative strategies that people can use with these campaigns to be able to maybe do some other parts of like with their organic rankings or other aspects of their account? Mike: There so many things you can do. Yeah, it's really exciting. There're different things that Amazon is coming out with. Now they just came out for sellers and sellers central sponsored brands, headline search ads. So basically, there's a big … there's a much bigger creative element to that and you can really brand to get massive exposure to your brand doing that. And if you've ever seen on Amazon they're very top ad when you go there. There's a [inaudible 00:19:53.2] to the left, there's a headline, and there's three product images and you can direct your traffic to a storefront which is basically your website on Amazon or you can direct it to a single list of items on Amazon. And there's a whole bunch of strategies to do that. Very creative headlines, you have to be really good at copyrighting, good main images, you have to connect the copy to the main image and to the three main products. It is very simple but I feel like there's a lot of opportunity and a lot of sellers really don't take the time to make a good headline. They just kind of put stuff up there and just kind of set in and forget it. And I think that's a really big headline. It also sets the stage for sponsored products and for organic visibility. It's like the first line of defense when people see your brand and then they see unsponsored products they may not want to click on it and they see you organically. And as long as your numbers are right we find that approach really sets stage for a sale. Mark: All right so you're talking about this again once you could be on multiple places so that people have those multiple touch points with you. Okay what are some of these other strategies? You said that there's lots of opportunities, I want to get in to one of these here and see something that the listeners can take away here as something that they could actually implement today. Mike: Right so if you have a brand I think the biggest opportunity is to dig into your search form report and actually find out what people are looking for. That has been the best opportunity there still that people just don't really dig into that as much as they could. So that's like instant intelligence as to what people are looking for and how you can build and expand your brand. The next opportunity I would say is to really dive into sponsored products and headline search ads because a lot of people … well there's opportunity moreso overseas now with sponsored products it's getting a little bit congested in the USA. Canada, UK, Germany, all of these overseas markets there's plenty of opportunity there. If you have a good product in the US that's an easy way to expand. We're getting better numbers over there in terms of our PPC recently as we are in the US. So that's a killer opportunity. And since the world is really open right now there's … the doors have come down. There's plenty of opportunity out there. But in terms of opportunity really coming up with creative ideas and creative products and really diving into that is the way to go in my opinion. Mark: Are you able to share any creative things that you've seen over the past six months? What's one of the most creative … obviously not explaining or giving away anyone's trade secrets here but what are some of the most creative things you've seen in the last six months? Mike: Yeah so, I like to build a listing that incorporates the entire product line. And this basically is you're getting … you're paying for traffic anyways, you're spending a lot of money to get your people to your site why not cross sell your other products, why not … and there's like five or six ways to do it within your listing that I think a lot of sellers aren't doing. You can have an image that has basically a visual of all the products in your line. A bullet point that explains that this is part of a product in your line. You can have a coupon that allows them to purchase another product in that line for a little bit less money. You could have what's called enhanced brand content now which shows the entire product line and has comparison charts with links to your other products and also you can link people to your storefront. So, I feel like that's the big play right now is to get traffic over but then really build the customer [inaudible 00:23:11.7] retarget them with emails and then get them on your sequence and then go from there. And then launching becomes very simple because you have this entire list. We did that process and we have about 7,000 new emails in one year which doesn't seem like a lot but these are customers who came to our site. They basically gave us their information, they registered for a coupon. They're loyal customers and now we're retargeting and also, they're part of our fanbase and we can grow at that rate. That would be a great thing for us. So that's one tip is to get more exposure to other products in your line. Mark: Okay let's talk a little bit about competition this is something that I hear from a lot of people that are looking at the Amazon space looking to possibly buy but aren't quite sure about it and their number one fear and even among sellers for that matter. What I hear is this kind of worry about competition and taking away from that share that maybe they've built up over the years. What are some ways in your opinion that sellers can start to protect against that slow believe that happens so often with product lines? Mike: Yeah it does happen it really does. I mean there's going to be competition within 60 months or less of whatever you're selling. That happens to us with all of our product lines and it's always been about reinventing and coming up with new stuff. If you're not reinventing I feel like there's the entropy is going to take place and that's just inevitable. Also, just keep in mind that Amazon consistently raises their fees. And then also from a PPC perspective there's more competition so the cost per clicks are going up not down. So constantly squeezing out that margin which is something that you have to be very mindful of. So, the protection mechanism that I feel is the best thing is your audience. If there's so many who is loyal to your product brand outside of Amazon … if someone loves you outside of Amazon they're going to come to Amazon to purchase your products even if it's a little bit more expensive. So, you can maintain your profit margins that way. The other thing is having … going where people typically don't go, so oversized items. Like really, really big items. People that are just usually scared away because the cost per unit to purchase that may be a little bit too expensive and basically there's a less … there's a bigger barrier to entry and it scares more people which I feel like is a bigger opportunity. So, if you combine that and even if you sell five or ten of those a day versus 100 widgets a dollar profit it just pays off that way. I think those are ultimately the mechanism to really scale. Mark: And those are things that we've been emphasizing for years. I'm glad that you said that because it makes me look smarter than I probably actually am. But these things, the less desirable is just one that we see you know not with Amazon businesses alone it's actually with any online business, right? The barrier to entry which might be a little bit scary from a buying standpoint. I remember we had a business that was selling a certification program and a lot of buyers are worried because they we're thinking I don't know anything about this how can I actually teach people how to get certified with it. Well you know what that's protection against competition. And so, when you get into that sort of less desirable niches where you have to solve a problem … and I think that's the big thing if you can figure out a solve a problem that problem is something other people are going to have to deal with as well. That's really key. And you're echoing as well with something that Chad Rubin from Skubana told me on the podcast several episodes ago and that is that continual product development. He made the point that Apple comes out with an iPhone every year and pretty much cars come out with a new car every year. It's not that the previous cars don't work well, they do. They could continue to just produce those ones but they want to create some new excitement among their consumers. And then finally get I know I'm literally just reiterating what you said but I think it's important to do so. Moving that brand so it's not just Amazon centric and dependent but creating that brand and kind of loyal customer base outside of Amazon as well. Mike: Yeah so … and one more thing I want to add to that is intellectual property especially at Amazon. I mean that we … I'll give you guys a quick story. So, we sell cat products and we started selling this cooling pad basically two summers ago. And it was a huge seller; a very seasonal item obviously but it was a huge seller. And then the next summer we got an email from a company saying that they had intellectual property rights to that thing. It basically kicked off everybody on Amazon and they are just doing … just normally you can't … now obviously we can't compete with them. And they're making so much money. So, if there is a product out there that you think is … and I've actually had trouble with this. I'm not … I don't have a lot of experience with this but I've never really come up with a product that is truly patentable but I feel like if there is something, some intellectual property you can get and you have something great on Amazon and there's no other competition because you're the only one man you do really well. Mark: Yeah and nobody thinks about the IP portion until it gets crowded right? I mean that's when you start thinking about IP. At first, it's like hey it's a big pie everybody can have some and then you're like why actually this pie is starting to get a little bit crowded. I'd like to be able to protect my slice. But you're right being able protect what you have through intellectual property is a really, really key thing to do and do it early as well. Mike: Oh yeah and then on Amazon it's almost inevitable you'll come up … there'll be people who will try to get your slice. I mean sooner or later and maybe from random countries and sometimes they don't always play the right way. So, it's important to make sure you have that in feel. Mark: Awesome. All right I feel like we could probably branch into another topic but then we would end up going completely off our existing conversation. So, I'm going to have us wrap up right there. I know that you also started PPC Entourage and that is to help Amazon paid accounts correct? Mike: Yes, it is, yeah. Mark: Okay do you want to tells us just a little about what you're doing over there? Mike: Yeah absolutely so in 2016 is when I … I started my business in 2015. 2016 I spent a lot of time with sponsored products and it was just a pain … it was great because we got a lot of visibility but it was frustrating because it just took forever to get it done. So basically, it's my first experience working with a software … a SaaS business and it has been an amazing experience. Basically, what we did is we made sure that everything that we did to scale our business could be done in like a fraction of the amount of time. So, if you're looking to get more exposure to your Amazon business, if you're looking to spend less on ad spend, if you're looking to optimize in a quick efficient way PPC Entourage can help you do that. Now we have bulk edit tools which allow you to look into campaigns … all of your campaigns all at once to see what those winners are. You can get more money and spend more money on those particular keywords and campaigns. And then also we have something called auto pile which is becoming much more intuitive. Basically, something that goes in every single night looks at your metrics looks at the settings that you place and make sure you calculated adjustments to your keywords so that you're not spending a ton of money on ad spend. It makes adjustments every single night. So that's one of the really cool, we also just launched Spotlight which is our headline search. Basically, our solution to headline search which allows you to create 27 different variations of headline search ads. Anyone who's on seller central knows it's one at a time. It's a huge pain in the butt. It takes forever but this allows you to find the best products. It allows you to find the best images. It allows you to find the best headlines. We have a headline creator. It lets you find 27 different combinations and you can slowly send them off to Amazon over time and then optimize those ads. So that's PPC Entourage and PPC Entourage spotlight and yeah, it's a growing business and we're so excited about where it can go. Mark: Awesome. Well thank you so much for coming on the podcast here and if anyone wants to reach you what's the best way for them to contact you? Mike: Sure, you can go to PPCentourage.com or you can also go and email me at mike@ppcentourage.com. Mark: Awesome. I'll include those links in the show notes. All of those will be at the bottom. Just scroll past the transcript and you'll be able to see it. Thank you so much for coming on and let's have you on again in the future. Mike: All right thanks. Take care Mark. Links and Resources: PPC Entourage Email Mike
Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips
In episode #811, Eric and Neil discuss 7 marketing tools that will skyrocket your growth. Tune in to hear which tools you should be using. Eric and Neil have committed to throwing a FREE Marketing School Live Event in Los Angeles, once Marketing School reaches 1M downloads in a 30 day period. Take action: Rate, review, subscribe, and SHARE. Check the progress here! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] 7 Ecommerce Marketing Tools That'll Skyrocket Your Growth [00:41] 1: HelloBar helps you collect emails and emails help you build and control your audience. [01:01] 2: Cart Abandonment Software (ReJoin, etc.) are helpful. [01:25] This will help you increase your sales by 10%. [01:43] 3: Skubana is inventory management software. [02:18] They have a “god mode” that allows you to use one system to track everything and they won't take a percentage of your revenue. [02:40] 4: Izooto will help you track people who visited your site, but didn't make a purchase. [03:15] It's a great way to increase conversions through directed push notifications. [03:35] 5: Jungle Scout helps you find products that are on the uptick. It tracks sales numbers. [04:15] 6: Bounce Exchange is very expensive, but it's the most complex service for ecommerce. [04:30] It helps track shopping carts from device to device. [05:04] 7: Intercom is a chat bot and can integrate with other apps, like Stripe. [05:24] They have chat agents available 24/7. [05:36] Bonus: LandBot is a great landing page tool. [05:45] It's another chat bot. [05:49] That's all for today! [05:53] Go here to see how many downloads the show is getting. Also rate and review to help Eric and Neil meet their goal of 1 Million downloads per month. Hopefully, we'll see you at the live event in L.A.! Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu
Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips
In episode #811, Eric and Neil discuss 7 marketing tools that will skyrocket your growth. Tune in to hear which tools you should be using. Eric and Neil have committed to throwing a FREE Marketing School Live Event in Los Angeles, once Marketing School reaches 1M downloads in a 30 day period. Take action: Rate, review, subscribe, and SHARE. Check the progress here! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] 7 Ecommerce Marketing Tools That'll Skyrocket Your Growth [00:41] 1: HelloBar helps you collect emails and emails help you build and control your audience. [01:01] 2: Cart Abandonment Software (ReJoin, etc.) are helpful. [01:25] This will help you increase your sales by 10%. [01:43] 3: Skubana is inventory management software. [02:18] They have a “god mode” that allows you to use one system to track everything and they won’t take a percentage of your revenue. [02:40] 4: Izooto will help you track people who visited your site, but didn’t make a purchase. [03:15] It’s a great way to increase conversions through directed push notifications. [03:35] 5: Jungle Scout helps you find products that are on the uptick. It tracks sales numbers. [04:15] 6: Bounce Exchange is very expensive, but it’s the most complex service for ecommerce. [04:30] It helps track shopping carts from device to device. [05:04] 7: Intercom is a chat bot and can integrate with other apps, like Stripe. [05:24] They have chat agents available 24/7. [05:36] Bonus: LandBot is a great landing page tool. [05:45] It’s another chat bot. [05:49] That’s all for today! [05:53] Go here to see how many downloads the show is getting. Also rate and review to help Eric and Neil meet their goal of 1 Million downloads per month. Hopefully, we’ll see you at the live event in L.A.! Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu
After being let go from his comfortable Wall Street position during last decade’s recession, Chad Rubin turned his family’s vacuum company into the successful online retailer Crucial Vacuum, turning it into an eight-figure business in just seven years. He is also a top 250 Amazon seller and the co-founder of operations software company https://www.skubana.com/ (Skubana). On top of his business ventures, Chad is concerned with the environment and sustainability, planting trees to compensate for the paper used to make his companies’ air and coffee filters. In this episode, Chad discusses his path from Wall Street finance to ecommerce, the benefits of direct-to-consumer retail, and why mentorship is so important to him. Also: head over to the http://dowellanddogood.co/facebook/ (Do Well & Do Good Facebook community) to vote on which non-profits nominated by our guests should receive 10% of Dorothy’s agency profits. Show Notes: What is Chad most excited about in his life right now? Building his businesses, specifically Skubana. Why didn’t his parents’ brick and mortar vacuum business inspire him to become an entrepreneur? Parents lived beyond their means and were always struggling to pay rent while every other parent in town had successful careers in finance. How did he go from working on Wall Street to selling vacuum components online? Was overworked on Wall Street, and meanwhile parents’ company was walloped by Walmart. Started researching ecommerce and convincing his parents to sell their parts online. Eventually let go from his finance job, which opened him up to pursue online retail. What was Chad’s mindset when he was laid off? Was rattled because he had just proposed to his now-wife, but quickly took retraining and development classes. Saw an opportunity to help out his dad. Views being laid off as a blessing. What advice does Chad have to those who have been laid off? Hard to feel good in the moment, but you can start looking for opportunities that your job previously closed off to you. What beliefs about money did Chad’s family instill in him growing up? Parents were always preoccupied with paying the bills, which taught him the value of money. Still kind of paranoid about money, which is a good source of drive but can also cause anxiety in other aspects of his life. What has motivated Chad the most to achieve financial freedom? Initially he needed to pay rent and the bills, but also not wanting to replicate what it was like growing up. What’s one of the biggest misconceptions that Chad thinks young people have about achieving financial success? That you ever slow down; even successful entrepreneurs are always on the lookout for new avenues for success. Were there moments that Chad wanted to give up and go back to his old job? Yes, but they were only fleeting moments. Did Chad have to deliberately work on his mindset and stay positive? Yes, and he actually outsourced his warehouse division to cut down on personal and logistic stress. What is the common approach to selling on Amazon, and how does it differ from what Chad teaches in his book? Amazon marketplace has 2-3 million sellers, like a very large digital flea market; instead, Chad sold direct to consumer, cutting out the middleman. What are some similar direct-to-consumer companies? Warby Parker, Dollar Shave Club, and other common podcast advertisers. Does Chad think ecommerce is a good path for those looking to get out of the 9-to-5 rat race? And if so, how can they identify good opportunities in the marketplace? Understand that ecommerce is only 10% of all retail sales right now. There’s a lot of ground that can be capitalized on. If your venture does take off, you need to start working on your next before someone copies and improves on your current one. How has risk-taking played into Chad’s success? He has an appetite for risk, because...
Welcome to Episode 13. On today’s show I’m chatting with Chad Rubin the co-founder of Skubana, a platform that unifies your ecommerce operation and acts as the central nervous system of your Shopify stores operation. We discuss the fragmented solutions that have ruled the commerce landscape for so long. Many Shopify store owners have come to accept that stitching together software, public and private apps, running complicated workflows, and viewing inconsistent data is just part of doing business in ecommerce. Skubana unifies all the tools you need to run your business, automates all repetitive tasks, and even thinks for you about profitability, forecasting, and demand planning. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
This week on the Ecommerce Braintrust podcast is all about software ecosystems on Amazon - a really interesting topic for sellers. Although there is a lot going on with Amazon Seller Central at the moment, the platform is still not easy to navigate and lacks a number of the features that many of the third-party software providers have developed lately. Some of the newer third-party software on the market interprets data, makes it user-friendly, and presents it in a way that's appealing to the user. Today we talk to Chad Rubin, one of the founders of Skubana, “the operating system of commerce”. Chad explains how this multi-channel inventory management system has really exploded in the last few years and has become incredibly helpful to the entire merchant ecosystem.Have you ever wondered how Amazon, with so much data and so many reference points, manages everything? Having a software system that can cope with all of it is vital, so Chad, with the help of a developer, created Skubana around the problems that he experienced as a Top 250 Amazon Seller. On the show today, Chad explains how Skubana can really help to alleviate many of the pain points that Amazon sellers experience, and he also talks about the future of Amazon software and what merchants can expect it to look like, going forward. KEY TAKEAWAYS Chad talks about the birth of Skubana and he explains the problems that it solves for brands. The type of company that Skubana is best suited for. Why Amazon approached Skubana to partner with them. Chad's experience in the Amazon app store. What Amazon has been like to work with, as a partner. The extent to which Chad thinks that Amazon will rely on third-party software developers to empower their sellers. The Amazon repricing tool is a very basic one. Some of the current tech gaps that Chad sees with selling on Amazon. The tech gaps that Amazon may try to fill with third-party vendors. Small features that Amazon adds to help other sellers to level up. Chad's thoughts, as a software developer, about why vendors are continuously ignored. How Skubana supports both 1P and 3P sellers simultaneously. What has been seen at Skubana around the adoption of seller fulfilled prime. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Skubana's WebsiteChad's Email: chad@skubana.com Don’t forget to subscribe to our email list!
There is never enough time in the day. Imagine being able to automate, delegate, and get rid of the things you don't want to do. Then you can focus only on the work that interests you. Today on the show I chat with Chad Rubin, an ecommerce veteran. He runs an 8-figure ecommerce business called Think Crucial and he's also the co-founder & CEO of Skubana. Listen to learn how he's so productive while running two companies. Links: Wavebreak Skubana Think Crucial Cheaper Easier Direct (Chad's Book) Basecamp UpWork Listen on iTunes Get new episodes via email Learn more about Wavebreak Is bad email marketing holding your store back? Black Friday will be here before we know it. Now is the time to take your email marketing to the next level - before it's too late. At Wavebreak, we've got proven frameworks for generating serious revenue Black Friday and beyond. Get your email marketing right before you miss out. Click here to learn more and schedule a call.
Todays Amazon Insights What's Chad's Story? What was Chad's largest challenges when getting started? When do you build an office with regards to team size? Why is Success not judged by the amount of employees? When do you pay yourself with your business? What is the Opportunity Cost? How do you build a $8m business with two people? What is the importance of systematising? How can you improve Current Products? What is Skubaba? What is the benefit of reddit and negative Amazon reviews? Check out on Linkedin Check out on Instagram Check out Skubana The post Interview with 7 Figure Chad Rubin on How He Build His Private Label Business and Skubana ALL-189 appeared first on FBA Allstars.
"So how do you win if you're doing what everyone else is doing? If we're all using Best Selling Rank or BSR, then everyone is always going to sell the same products and we're just flooding the market with all the same products. So we try to go where the puck is going and not where the puck is." - Chad Rubin of Skubana In our second 3 digit episode we have Chad Rubin of Skubana as our guest. "Chad Rubin of Skubana" is how I refer to him but he is so much more than that. He co-founded Skubana, a multi-channel inventory management software that we have been using for over a year now. He is a 7-figure seller who also runs the Accelerate Workshop, an exclusive one-day workshop for high-volume multi-channel ecommerce sellers. Like Kevin Stecko of 80sTees.com, Chad is one of those we jokingly call the "grandfathers of ecommerce" because he has been in ecommerce for a very long time. At the time there was an absence of good ecommerce tools, so to satisfy his own ecommerce needs, he created his own internal tools and shared them with the world, one of which is Skubana. In this episode we talk about a topic that is of crucial importance especially for those just venturing in ecommerce--how do you find profitable products to sell in a market that is already saturated? Many sellers do their research: they look at BSR and probably fire up Jungle Scout to judge profitability, and that could work, but people who do that usually end up selling "me-too products". That saturates the market even more and buries their products beneath thousands of similar others. Chad has a solution. He doesn't want to do what everybody else is doing; he instead focuses on what people are actually looking for but which Amazon does not have yet. He explains how he does this in detail and provides some examples in our conversation. We also covered other topics, including: How to prevent being copied on Amazon How he had his business audited, not for selling purposes, but to increase profitability The systems he put in place to run his business efficiently with just one employee Lifetime value of a customer Amazon's A9 algorithm and ways to rank higher The importance of conversion rate The Accelerate workshop This is a fully packed episode with actionable advice and lots of resources and software recommendations. We've compiled the links below so you can easily check them out. Resources mentioned: AsiaInspection Stamped.io EcomCrew Podcast Episode 35: Chad Rubin on the Development of Skubana Crucial Vacuum Think Crucial Accelerate Workshop Shopify apps he is using: Bold Brain Bold Tiered Pricing Bold Upsell Webinar: International Selling Secrets Direct From Amazon For Maximum ROI on International Marketplaces That's episode 101 guys! We hope you find Chad's valuable actionable advice useful in your own business. If you do and you enjoyed this episode, we'd really love it if you'd leave us an honest review on iTunes. That will help us in our rankings and discoverability so we can reach more ecommerce entrepreneurs out there. As always, thanks for listening. Until the next episode, happy selling!
Today we have Bernie Thompson founder of Efficient Era and Plugable Technologies. Plugable Technologies is a top worldwide brand for USB, Bluetooth, and charging devices. Efficient Era takes the software developed that helped Plugable become one of the larger private label electronics sellers on Amazon to the masses. Bernie has worked as a programmer for IBM, software manager at Microsoft and much more. He is also the author of "FlyWheels and Feedback Loops: A Guide to Success for Amazon Private Label Sellers." Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:00] Jeremy introduces his guest, Bernie Thompson. [2:00] Bernie talks about his early career at IBM and Lynx. [5:00] Strategies of selling globally. [9:30] Where should US based sellers start to branch out internationally? [12:30] The biggest challenges in taking your business internationally. [14:30] What does a product release look like for Bernie and his team? [16:00] Selling as a vendor to Amazon. [18:00] How often Bernie and his team release products & how they decide which products to release. [20:30] Why Bernie and his team release products via Kickstarter. [24:30] How Bernie got the domain name for Plugable and it got started. [29:30] Bernie talks about the first Plugable order. [31:00] Launching the second product. [32:30] Bernie talks about the early lessons from launching Plugable. [34:30] Staying competitive in the marketplace. [37:00] Handling negative reviews. [41:30] Using automation to stay competitive. [46:30] Achieving higher conversion rates. [48:30] The decision to open up Efficient Era to a larger audience. [52:00] The most popular aspect of Efficient Era. [54:00] Diversifying revenue streams. [56:00] Software and tools that Bernie and his team recommends. [59:00] Bernie tells his story of climbing a volcano in a dress. [1:00:30] Closing thoughts from Bernie. [1:04:00] Bernie showcases some Plugable products. In this episode… Can you really build a business off of niche products in today’s marketplace? What does that type of business model look like? How does a business focused on niche products expand and grow? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from entrepreneur and innovator Bernie Thompson. Bernie built Plugable Technologies, a brand focused on delivering USB, Bluetooth, and power-related devices. Through the process of exposing Plugable to a larger market on an international scale, Bernie and his team developed the software company Efficient Era taking their services and tools to ecommerce sellers all over the world. Find out what lessons and insights you can learn from Bernie’s fascinating journey on this episode! As your company expands, you might be considering taking it to the next level and bringing your brand to new marketplaces overseas. What does that process look like? Where is the best place to start when taking your brand international? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from business leader and disruptor, Bernie Thompson. Bernie and his team at Plugable were able to take their brand to an international marketplace with great success. Through this experience, Bernie has some helpful advice for business leaders and ecommerce sellers like you. One of the first pieces of advice that Bernie has to give is to consider expanding to a marketplace where there is no language barrier like Canada or the UK. To hear Bernie expand on this topic and give more helpful insights, make sure to catch this episode! The ecommerce industry is a rapidly growing sector of the global economy. How can business leaders like you take advantage of this massive surge? Is Amazon the best channel for brands to invest in or are there other channels out there that are poised to be the Amazon’s of tomorrow? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from ecommerce expert Bernie Thompson. Bernie strongly encourages business leaders to focus on getting their brand to perform well on Amazon and then consider expanding from there. Make sure to listen to this episode as Bernie shares more insights that can help leaders like you break into the ecommerce industry. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, your company has to do something innovative to stand out from the rest of the crowd? What is your plan to stay competitive and ahead of your rivals? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from Bernie Thompson as he reveals how his company has kept its edge over their competition. Bernie says that the key to their success and competitive edge has been their ability to automate their processes as much as possible. This has led to greater productivity and increased innovation. Hear more from Bernie about the competitive edge of automation and how it impacted their work at Plugable on this episode! Do you know what your company's reputation is with customers and competitors? Does your brand have a good reputation for producing quality items and responding to customer feedback or is this an area where you need to improve? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from business leader and entrepreneur Bernie Thompson. Bernie is passionate about helping leaders like you see the importance of knowing and improving your brand’s reputation in the marketplace. Don’t underestimate the importance of this topic! Learn what your organization can do to stand out from the rest of the crowd! Make sure to listen to this episode to hear more from Bernie! Resources Mentioned on this episode www.newegg.com www.efficientera.com www.ebay.com www.zendesk.com www.plugable.com www.protolabs.com www.prospershow.com www.thesellersconference.com Consumer Electronics Show National Association of Broadcasters Show Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation. *************** Rise25 is where entrepreneurs of 6,7, and 8 figure businesses come together live and in person every few months to solve their biggest business challenges through this high-level Mastermind group. Each member leaves each week with lifelong friendships and actionable steps to take their business to the next level. Check out Rise25.com - a group run by myself and cofounder John Corcoran. Rise 25 is application only.
Listen on Stitcher Listen on iTunes On today's show, Mark shares a conversation that he had with Chad Rubin. Chad is a very large Amazon seller and the founder of Skubana which automates inventory for ecommerce stores. Inventory management is critical when selling a business. We talk about finding the parts of your business that are a grind and then figuring ways to make those things easier. We also talk about how to grow an Amazon business the right way. Chad sees a lot of big stores and sellers, so Mark wanted to delve into the habits Chad has seen from these higher end sellers. Where are they putting their time, and how are they automating and delegating? We also talk about private label products, how much time should be put into product creation, and how much work do you have to do after purchasing an Amazon ecommerce business. Episode Highlights: Chad started selling online in 2007, and now he has created software to manage and automate his business. Chad used to have 30 employees and now he only has 2 employees thanks to Skubana. Chad has 950 skews. Other brands will copy and replicate your process. You have to continue creating useful products. When buying an Amazon business look at the cost of the sale, trends, a revenue analysis, and market conditions. When Chad started he was a reseller. He wondered what value he was adding, so he built his own brand. There is a difference in competency between being a private label brand and being a reseller. To understand demand is go to Amazon and search for what people are searching. Skubana is a good fit for larger scale more complex Amazon businesses. If you have a large business, your time is better spent having a good system and working on strategic moves and finding skews. Bundle like items to increase your average order value. There is also a ton of marketshare off of Amazon. People need to stop and see other channels. Think about the big picture and off Amazon growth and diversification. Your own website can be your second biggest channel. Some people start search on Amazon and Google and now facebook. It's important to pick the right channel and social channel for the market you are targeting. Resources: Ecommerce Renegade Prosper Show Chad Rubin LinkedIn Crucial Vacuum Chad on Twitter @EcommRenegade Cheaper Easier Direct: How to Disrupt the Marketplace and Create Your Own E-Commerce Empire Skubana
We get a lot of questions about what services and applications we use in our day to day business. Today I'm going to give our listeners a list of tools and services that really help us stay on top of our business. To begin with, we have four brands under the EcomCrew umbrella. The four brands are Colorit.com, Icewraps.com, Wild Baby, and Tactical.com. We use all these tools to run every brand and keep track of our customers' needs. Here is a list of those tools: Shopify -- Every brand we have is built on Shopify. It is the best platform we have found for running an ecommerce business. I will explain how we came to that conclusion during the episode. Stamped.io -- We use Stamped.io to get good quality reviews. Of course, they are a sponsor of the podcast, but we use their service because it is the best value. Zipify Pages -- If we are running a promotion or sale, Zipify is the tool we use to build the landing page. Shoelace -- This app allows us to create retargeting ads fast and easy! Rewind -- A tool we use to make sure we have system backups. Skubana -- This app gathers up our orders and distributes them to the right fulfillment station. It is a big time saver. I'm a little frustrated with Skubana, to be honest, but I will get into that during the episode. Klaviyo -- If you are a long time listener, you know I use Klaviyo a lot. It is a time-saving tool that makes email marketing a lot easier. ClickFunnels -- ClickFunnels is a service that helps keep track of our special promotion and contest email campaigns. AdEspresso -- An essential tool for creating great Facebook ads. Quickbooks Online -- The service we use to keep our books. Gleam.io and Up-Viral -- We use both for contest promotions. Phone.com -- This app redirects customer service calls to personal or designated phone numbers, so we can settle customer issues more efficiently. Sellics -- An Amazon based tool that is similar to Skubana. Splitly -- A split testing app. Jungle Scout -- A service we use to research new products and current market trends. RestockPro -- A tool that helps track our inventory and helps us plan reorders with plenty of time to spare! Basecamp -- The newest addition to our toolbox. Basecamp is a project management tool that allows us to keep in touch with all team members, no matter where they are based. So there you have it, our list of tools and services that help us keep the EcomCrew machine humming. I recently did some traveling on the east coast and I attended an EcommerceFuel meetup and met some great people. So hello, to all of you I met up with earlier! We have also released our first course on EcomCrew.com! The course is called Build A $1,000,000 Private Label Business Importing Kickass Products From China, if you are interested in the importing business, check out the link below. As a reminder, I will be speaking at Global Sources (discount code: ec350) during October 17-19 and I will be attending and speaking at EcomerceFuel Live during January 11-13. Please keep in mind that with all this travel the live Facebook shows will be postponed, but there will still be pre-recorded episodes. In closing, we also have a second sponsor for this episode, AsiaInspection. Dave and I both use AsiaInspection for our overseas shipments. They provide a very important service for anyone needing to double check the quality of their shipments. Resources Mentioned Today: AdEspresso AsiaInspection Basecamp ClickFunnels Colorit.com EcomCrew Course EcomCrew Facebook Page EcommerceFuel EcommerceFuel Live Gleam.io Global Sources Icewraps.com Jungle Scout Klaviyo Phone.com Quickbooks Online RestockPro Rewind Sellics Shoelace Shopify Skubana Splitly Stamped.io Tactical.com UpViral Wild Baby Zipify If you have any questions or anything you'd like us to discuss on the podcast please go to ecomcrew.com and fill out the contact form. Also, we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!
Today we have Tom Sanders Founder of Our Pampered Home. They were ranked among the Top 100 sellers overall on Amazon and have had over 212,756 reviews. They have had year over year growth of over 40% for the past 12 years and have grown into one of the top online retailers. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:40] Jeremy introduces his guest, Tom Sanders. [1:30] What are some of the benefits of being hidden? [4:00] Tom talks about challenges they faced in the beginning. [12:00] Mistakes to avoid. [15:00] How Tom and his team’s approach has changed over time. [18:00] The decision making process in the business today. [21:00] Biggest mistakes made and lessons learned. [25:00] What it takes to increase sales. [32:00] Tom talks about watching his parents run a business. [36:00] Working at a cassino helped Tom build his business. [41:00] How Tom built the business. [46:00] Selling your own brand vs. selling other known brands. [49:00] Software and tools Tom and his team use. [51:00] Adapting from customer feedback. [55:30] Expanding to new categories. [1:02:00] How to stand out in a competitive category. [1:08:00] Why it’s important to diversify. [1:13:00] Chad and Tom’s competitive relationship. [1:21:00] Other platforms for ecommerce sellers to check out. [1:28:00] You don’t have to reinvent the wheel - designing a website. [1:33:00] Providing great customer service. [1:38:30] Dealing with mistakes. [1:40:30] The next phase for Our Pampered Home. [1:43:00] Products that perform really well. [1:46:30] Action steps on how to grow your ecommerce business. [1:50:30] The proudest moment in business for Tom. [1:55:00] Hom Tom’s wife has impacted the company. In this episode… What does it take to build a growing and thriving ecommerce business? Does it require luck, business acumen, large startup capital, or a combination of all three? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from ecommerce expert, Tom Sanders. Tom opens up about how sellers like you can get started in the ecommerce industry, lessons he’s learned along the way, what mistakes to avoid, why it’s important to provide high-quality customer service and much more! You don’t want to miss out on Tom’s helpful advice and insight that could be just the motivation you need to get your idea off the ground. Make sure to catch this episode! How do you increase sales and see massive growth on a regular basis in the ecommerce industry? Does it come down to having the perfect product or is there more to it than that? On this episode of Inspired Insider, Tom Sanders explains why his company has seen the growth in sales they’ve enjoyed year after year. According to Tom, the primary reason they continue to see sales growth is due to their large catalog of products. But it’s not just about having lots of products available, Tom says that it’s important to have a cohesive catalog and not just random products that you’ve grouped together. If you’d like to hear Tom expand on this subject and more - don’t miss this episode! Who has made a huge impact on your journey toward success? Were you fortunate enough to have a formal mentor or did you get the opportunity to work for a stellar company or boss who made a positive impression on your mindset and outlook? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from Tom Sanders as he shares how watching his parents run a business while he was a child contributed to his formation as a businessman later in life. What lessons can you learn from Tom’s story? Who will you impact as you grow your business and expand your influence? Listen to this episode to learn more! If you are going to venture into the ecommerce industry, it’s vital that before too long, you establish your own website to grow your own brand and build your business from there. But what does that even look like? How do you build an easy to use and efficient website from scratch? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from Tom Sanders as he retells his journey of developing and launching his company’s website. Tom explains that the journey wasn’t easy and they have had to make modifications along the way but the decision to build their own platform for their brand has led them to increased growth and success. Find out more from Tom’s story on this informative episode! If you were to list out the essential ingredients of building a thriving business, what would you include? Would you say a popular product is necessary? What about a successful business background? On this episode of Inspired Insider, Tom Sanders walks through the one component that he says is a MUST for building a successful business. Tom explains that high-quality customer service is the one piece that every business leader should aim to incorporate into their startup. Don’t underestimate the power of building a reputation as a reliable place for above average customer service! Find out more about this subject and much more from Tom on this episode! Resources Mentioned on this episode Our Pampered Home Google Chrome Microsoft Excel Microsoft Outlook Channel Advisor Skubana Jet Ebay NewEgg Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a software platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation. ****************** Rise25 is where entrepreneurs of 6,7, and 8 figure businesses come together live and in person every few months to solve their biggest business challenges through this high-level Mastermind group. Each member leaves each week with lifelong friendships and actionable steps to take their business to the next level. Check out Rise25.com - a group run by myself and co-founder John Corcoran. Rise 25 is application only.
Jason Boyce is the coFounder and CEO of Dazadi.com They sell home recreational products including basketball hoops, game tables, fitness equipment, bikes, and much more. Jason has over thirteen years of ecommerce experience and started Dazadi.com in 2002 with his three brothers. They have over 10,000 products on their site and 100K skus in queue. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:40] Jeremy introduces his guest, Jason Boyce. [1:30] Jason talks about his passion for Martial Arts. [3:30] Jason talks about his family background. [7:00] Joining the Marines and getting the tools to succeed. [12:30] How Dazadi got started. [17:00] What went well and what didn’t go well when Dazadi got off the ground. [20:00] The next phase of business following the Dot Com bust. [24:00] Lessons learned from working with Amazon. [28:00] Jason’s advice to ecommerce sellers. [38:00] Relying on internal talent to solve problems. Tools Jason and his team uses. [41:30] Recovering from a $1 Million dollar loss. [47:00] How Jason decided which team members to keep and which ones to let go. [49:00] It all comes down to managing your costs. [51:00] Setting up a product for success. [56:00] The biggest challenges in the ecommerce space going forward. [58:00] Evaluating new opportunities and the proudest moment for Jason so far. In this episode… Did you know that finding a niche market could make the difference between encountering average growth and exponential growth? Seriously! You could be just one good idea away from servicing a neglected category in the marketplace and turning it into a huge profit. On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from business leader and entrepreneur Jason Boyce as he opens up about his success in finding a niche market and recovering from a financial loss that almost closed his business. Learn from Jason’s insightful stories, helpful tips, and cautionary tales. You don’t want to miss this powerful episode! What life experiences can help you on your journey toward success? Is the right schooling that will give you an advantage? Is it all about who you know? Do you just need to be in the right place at the right time? While those are all factors that can lead to a successful business career, business expert Jason Boyce is convinced that training, testing, and adversity are the best teachers. On this episode of Inspired Insider, Jason walks through his experience serving in the Marines and how that chapter in his life set him up for a successful career in business. If you’d like to hear more about Jason’s experience, make sure to catch this fascinating episode! One of the best ways to take advantage of find a niche market and building on your success is to empower leaders from inside your organization. Don’t give into the pressure and the ease of doing everything through a third party! While it may be harder in the short term, training and empowering your people will pay off in huge ways down the road. On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from business expert Jason Boyce as he shares how his brand has been able to save time and resources by finding solutions to their needs using in-house talent. Find out what additional tips and lessons you can learn from Jason on this episode! Before you set out with dreams of success and huge profit margins, make sure you are aware of what could happen if it all comes crashing down around you. Are you prepared for that possibility? What will you do if failure and loss hit you in a substantial way? Do you have a plan in place for how you will respond? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from business leader and entrepreneur Jason Boyce as he describes how he and his team responded to a one million dollar loss. Jason describes it as a dark and difficult time but they were able to find their way through and back on the other side of success. To hear how Jason and his team accomplished this feat, make sure to listen to this episode! Do you have a clear idea on what it will take to get your business to grow? Is it all about your product and making it the highest quality? On this episode of Inspired Insider, Jason Boyce explains how a simple truth can help keep your eye on what truly matters, turning a profit. According to Jason, it all comes down to managing your costs. Too often business leaders let their eyes grow too big for their stomach! Make sure you have a good handle on your costs and keep them reigned in. Join Jason on this episode as he goes into further detail on this topic and much more! Resources Mentioned on this episode Rich Dad, Poor Dad EverNote ZenDesk HighRise www.Dazadi.com Google Drive Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business.Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation.
Dubbed the "eCommerce Renegade" Chad Rubin is the author of the book Cheaper, Easier, Direct and is one of the top 250 Amazon Sellers in the world. With over 2 million sellers on Amazon worldwide, cracking the top 250 is no small task. But that's not Chad's only day job. He's also the CEO of Skubana, a multi-channel inventory management, and ERP software. Chad brings a wealth of knowledge on what it takes to build a brand and succeed on Amazon and other marketplaces. You'll love his story and we dive into some very practical and helpful stuff including: - How to build a brand selling on marketplaces - How to become a top 250 seller on Amazon - Should you work with Amazon as a Marketplace Seller (3p) or Selling direct to Amazon (1p) or both? - How to drive traffic and increase conversions on Amazon - and is enhance brand content worth the effort. - How Echo devices and voice search will impact Amazon sales - Biggest mistakes you see sellers making on Amazon - Plus more!
Manuel Becvar is the founder of ImportDojo. He has been living and working in China for over 10 years, with 17 years in the sourcing business. He has a unique perspective because he has his own brand, sells to retailers and is a supplier. He has worked with the biggest retailers in the world, developing, sourcing, and finding new products. These include Wal-Mart, Amazon, Lowes, Sears, Home Depot, and many others. He is also the author of The Import Bible. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:45] Jeremy introduces his guest, Manuel Becvar. [1:45] Manuel talks about the time he met Arnold Schwarzenegger. [3:30] Early mistakes that he made in business. [6:00] What is the Canton Fair? [10:00] Lessons from working with big name brands. [14:30] Common mistakes importers make. [18:20] How do you navigate patents and keep people from hijacking your product? [22:00] Working with inspectors and navigating payment issues. [29:00] Common questions from ecommerce sellers and resources to get started. [32:00] Advice from Manuel on the “Perfect Product” [37:00] Manuel’s first products and how he got started. [44:00] Why is Manuel so open about his products and process? [46:30] Manuel talks about selling in multiple countries. [50:00] What are Chinese sellers doing so well? [55:30] What are the best ways to boost sales? [57:00] Additional next steps and services that Manuel provides. [1:01:00] Challenges that Manuel deals with running his business. [1:04:00] Software Manuel uses to run his business. [1:05:30] What does Manuel use to research products? [1:10:00] The lowest and highest moments in business for Manuel. [1:15:00] The one industry you should invest in. In this episode… What does it take to really succeed in product sourcing for ecommerce sellers? Do you have to have all the right connections? Do you have to live in China and know the industry inside and out? How can sellers use all of their resources to their fullest advantage? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from business leader and entrepreneur Manuel Becvar. Manuel has his finger on the pulse of the product sourcing and ecommerce industry. Make sure to listen to this episode as he goes over how he runs his business, the tools he uses to validate products, how to boost sales, and so much more! You don’t want to miss this fascinating episode! How can importers make the most out of their position in the marketplace? What tools do they need to grow their business and succeed? How can they avoid some of the common mistakes made by most importers? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from expert importer Manuel Becvar as he opens up about how he has found success as an ecommerce seller and importer. Manuel literally wrote the book on the best practices for importers. If you’d like to take advantage of his experience and depth of knowledge, make sure you sit down with pen and paper and listen to this episode! What does it take to get a product that will take off and provide over the top numbers in terms of a return on your investment? Where do you even start to find a product that will perform that well? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from Manuel Becvar as he walks through his strategy on how to validate products and keep a finger on the pulse of the marketplace to stay ahead of market trends. What lessons and tips can you gain from Manuel’s years of experience? Make sure to listen to this episode and get all the info you need to succeed in the ecommerce sector! Are you considering expanding your products into a global marketplace? What plan do you have in place to make this leap? Have you taken the time to learn from importers and ecommerce sellers to get their take on the making that big move? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from ecommerce seller and entrepreneur Manuel Becvar as he shares from his wide range of experience in the ecommerce space. Manuel explains why it is best to start slow and go in a particular order of expanding to different international marketplaces to sell your products. You don’t want to make any big decisions on expanding your brand’s reach before you listen to this helpful episode! How do you expect to succeed as an ecommerce seller? Are you convinced that it will happen overnight and you’ll strike it rich? Do you really think that is an appropriate expectation to have? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from business leader Manuel Becvar as he walks through his experience and why it’s best to have an appropriate expectation of success. Don’t get duped by the personalities that say you can get rich quick! Manuel shares his own story of experiencing extreme highs and extreme lows, you have to be prepared for both! Learn more from his story on this episode! Resources Mentioned on this episode https://importdojo.com/ The Import Bible http://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en/index.aspx http://www.asiainspection.com/ www.alibaba.com www.theamazingseller.com http://www.smartchinasourcing.com/ www.World.taobao.com http://www.globalsources.com/ www.madeinchina.com www.aliexpress.com Jungle Scout Microsoft Office Wave apps TechCrunch Kickstarter Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a software platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation.
Today I'm joined by a man who helped take GoPro from a start-up, to over a billion dollars in sales in just a few short years. He is the author of ‘Buy Now’, and his next book is due out soon. Welcome to DMR, Rick Cesari. [You can find Rick over at CesariIgnite.com.] On this episode of Digital Marketing Radio we discuss The 5 Keys to Building a Great Brand, with topics including: Is building a great brand an integral part to building a great business? Can you not just build a business by offering a great service without worrying too much about your brand? How would you define what a brand is? Can you give me some examples of brands you consider to be great - and why you consider them to be great? I mentioned at the top of the show that we were going to be talking about the 5 Keys to Building a Great Brand - so what are they? Which key to building a great brand is most important? What is the biggest mistakes that businesses tend to make when trying to build a brand? [Tweet ""If you're #marketing a product, spend a lot of time thinking about your #USP" @CesariIgnite"] Software I couldn't live without What software do you currently use in your business that if someone took away from you, it would significantly impact your marketing success? Infusionsoft [Lead & customer management software] What software don't you use, but you've heard good things about, and you've intended to try at some point in the near future? Skubana [Inventory management for e-commerce] My number 1 takeaway What's the single most important step from our discussion that our listeners need to take away and implement in their businesses? If you're marketing a product, spend a lot of time thinking about your unique selling proposition - what makes you unique in the marketplace. Because if you're able to do that, the rest of your marketing will be easier and you'll stand out from your competitors and help drive more traffic and more sales to whatever you're doing.
Scott Margolius is the founder of feedbackrepair.com where he helps protect Amazon and eBay sellers from bad reviews and works to get them removed. He has helped clean up nightmare situations for sellers accounts and has dealt with products getting banned. Scott spent 15 years as COO at FIMCO, a marketing and customer service company. He is a top rated eBay power seller and has been among the top 25 percent of sellers on Amazon for the holiday season. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:50] Jeremy introduces his guest, Scott Margolius. [2:00] Common issues that cause bad feedback on Amazon. [6:30] Why an Amazon “three star” review can be an issue and how to remove it. [12:30] The biggest nightmares Scott has had to help a client's clean up. [18:30] Competitors who target sellers on Amazon. [21:30] Counteracting shaddy competitors. [26:30] Including inserts to communicate with buyers directly. [30:30] What sellers can do to diversify their business interests. [34:00] How sellers should diversify on Amazon. [37:30] Scott talks about his product research tool. [42:00] Where do sellers go to find good deals? [46:30] Building multiple brands on Amazon. [50:30] Defusing an angry customer. [52:00] Boosting sales during the holiday season. [55:00] Scott gives an example products that he has sold on Amazon. [1:05:00] Tips on how to sell with success on Ebay. [1:12:00] Scott tells a story of helping a client find warehouse space. [1:14:00] The challenges of time management. In this episode… With the rise of the ecommerce industry, there is a growing need in the marketplace for businesses that specialize in ecommerce solutions. What lessons can you learn from ecommerce solutions expert Scott Margolius? Scott helps leaders like you who sell products in the ecommerce market. On this episode he goes over issues he’s helped Amazon sellers navigate, the importance of diversification, defusing angry customers, dealing with shady competitors, and much more! Even if you don’t work in the ecommerce industry, there are some helpful lessons and insights you can learn from Scott’s story. Make sure to grab pen and paper as you listen to this helpful episode! Every industry needs someone who can specialize in crafting solutions to very specific issues that come up. This is the reason why we have lawyers who help people navigate the law, brokers who help people navigate finances, and why leaders like Scott Margolius exist to help ecommerce sellers navigate the ever changing ecommerce landscape with ecommerce solutions. On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from Scott as he opens up about the many ways he has helped leaders like you climb out of tough situations and strategize for future growth. Take advantage of Scott’s unique expertise and discover what lessons you can learn in this episode! What are your company’s plans for diversification? How can you ensure that if one route or stream of business dries up that your company won’t go under? Essentially, how do you make sure you don’t have all your eggs in one basket? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from business leader and entrepreneur Scott Margolius as he walks through the importance of diversification. Don’t let your company get caught off guard! You need to think a couple of steps ahead to stay competitive. Learn more on the subject of diversification on this helpful episode! It’s every company’s worst nightmare, finding out that your leading competitor is attacking you and undermining your standing in the marketplace. Have you ever dealt with a shady competitor? How did you find out? What steps did you take to make sure they couldn’t do your company any further damage? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from business leader Scott Margolius as he explains how leaders like you can prepare for and counteract often unethical attacks from competitors. This is a difficult subject to navigate but Scott brings his years of experience to bear and provides helpful insight that leaders like you can use. You don’t want to miss this episode! Do you know what are your best assets and strengths are as a leader? Are you operating out of those strengths or do you find yourself stretching and end up in areas you don’t specialize in? What causes that? How can you avoid it in the future? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from Scott Margolius as provides lessons from his own journey that will help you understand the power of knowing and operating out of your strengths. Don’t let pride and other obstacles rob you of the success you could be experiencing just because you weren’t able to get the right team in place. Learn from Scott’s story and his example on this helpful episode! Resources Mentioned on this episode Feedback Repair’s website: feedbackrepair.com Scott’s Facebook page: facebook.com/ecomsellertools Scott’s Twitter page: twitter.com/ecomsellertools www.indbl.com Adwords www.joelister.com www.skubana.com Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation. *************** Rise25 is where entrepreneurs of 6,7, and 8 figure businesses come together live and in person every few months to solve their biggest business challenges through this high-level Mastermind group. Each member leaves each week with lifelong friendships and actionable steps to take their business to the next level. Check out Rise25.com - a group run by myself and cofounder John Corcoran. Rise 25 is application only.
Today we have Jake Kloberdanz coFounder and CEO of One Hope, a brand with a mission to serve the world. The company started with an award-winning wine brand OneHopeWine.com and has since expanded into gourmet coffee and other gifts. They have gone from 0 to selling over 750,000 bottles a year since its inception. On the serving the world side of things, One Hope has donated more than $2M to date, helping to provide over 1.1 million meals to people in need, plant 56,000 trees, and much more. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:05] Jeremy’s introduction to his guest to Jake Kloberdanz. [5:00] The beginning of Jake’s journey to connect business with social good. [8:30] Jake talks about his mom’s influence on his journey. [12:30] What did Jake want to do when he was younger? [15:00] The beginnings of One Hope Wine. [23:00] Jake tells the story of recruiting a team for One Hope Wine. [28:30] Building the One Hope Wine brand. [33:00] What is Via One Hope? In this episode… What if you could drink a glass of wine and know that with each sip you’ve caused a positive impact on the world? Does that sound crazy to you? Jake Kloberdanz and his team at One Hope Wine got that reaction a lot when they first started out, in fact sometimes they still get that response. But creating a positive impact is what One Hope Wine is all about. Jake and his team want to see social good brought about through their business efforts. On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear as Jake tells the story of how he started One Hope Wine and how it’s mission to create a positive impact is gaining momentum and resonating with people all over the world. You don’t want to miss this fascinating and encouraging episode! What does being held to a high standard do for you? Do you thrive in that type of environment or does it drive you crazy? What would it look like for your company to create a culture of excellence and a quality work ethic? On this episode of Inspired Insider, Jake Kloberdanz shares how he got started in the wine industry working at Gallo. From that positive experience, Jake was able to take away key insights and lessons that would help him go on to create his company, One Hope Wine. He was primarily impressed and influenced by the culture of holding employees to a high standard of excellence and a consistent work ethic, those are qualities that he brought with him into his new endeavor. If you’d like to hear Jake share more about his time working at Gallo and the lessons he’s learned along the way, make sure to catch this episode! Who has made the biggest impact in your life? Do you look back to a particular point in time that they made that impact or has is been an ongoing continual presence in your life? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from entrepreneur and business leader Jake Kloberdanz as he shares the impact his mother has had on this journey toward success. Because Jake grew up with an entrepreneurial mother and two sisters he started off with a very positive and egalitarian view of women and their place in the world. This has translated to the environment that he’s building with One Hope Wine. Jake pointed to the example of his mother as having a huge impact on his journey as an entrepreneur. If you’d like to hear more about Jake and One Hope Wine’s story, listen to this episode! Can you imagine getting recruited to sell a product that could help change the world? What would that pitch look like? What would it mean for you to know that your sales and marketing efforts could help bring someone the shelter, water, food, or medicine they need to live? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from cause entrepreneur and business leader, Jake Kloberdanz as he tells the story about gathering his team to start One Hope Wine. Jake’s offer resonated with his prospective team and they jumped in and were thrilled to join a cause, a brand with a mission that was dedicated to making a positive impact on the world and those in need. If you’d like to hear more about Jake’s journey, make sure to catch this episode! The marketplace is changing and companies that want to keep a competitive edge have to adapt. This approach helped share Jake Kloberdanz’s approach as he built One Hope Wine. Not only are Jake and his team connecting with a new generation of consumers who appreciate a brand that provides a positive impact, they are also creating avenues for other cause entrepreneurs to get in on the process. To hear all about One Hope Wine’s amazing program called Via One Hope, make sure to listen to this episode of Inspired Insider to catch all the details. You don’t want to miss it! Resources Mentioned on this episode Jake’s Twitter page: twitter.com/JakeKloberdanz A Special Offer from Jake: www.onehopewine.com/inspired One Hope Wine’s website: onehopewine.com One Hope Via’s website: viaonehope.com Team Rubicon Gallo Wine Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation.
Today we have Eric Bandholz coFounder of Beardbrand. They sell products for the bearded lifestyle such as beard oils, beard wash, beard softener, beard combs. They have built the company to over $120K per month in revenue and were featured on the hit TV series Shark Tank and even had Lori touch his beard. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:40] Jeremy’s introduction to his guest, Eric Bandholz. [3:00] Eric talks about going to a beard competition. [8:00] What is Urban Beardsman all about? [10:30] Eric talks about growing a YouTube presence. [14:00] Sharing personal struggles in public. [18:00] Eric talks about participating in Shark Tank. [25:30] What are the best selling products? What does Eric use personally? [29:30] From content creation to product creation. [34:00] Expanding growth and creating new products. [38:00] Connecting with suppliers and vendors. [41:00] Responding to customer feedback. [43:00] Eric talks about “Black Marble.” [47:00] What has worked best to increase sales? [52:30] The best YouTube video from Eric and Beardband. [54:00] Mistakes to avoid along the way. Lessons learned from failure. [58:00] Fighting through self-doubt. [59:00] Software that Eric and his team uses. In this episode… If you pay attention to popular culture you may have noticed the resurgence of the beard. From musicians to actors, and right down to the average guy, beards are making a HUGE comeback. On the cutting edge of beard care is Eric Bandholz and his team at Beardbrand. On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear Eric share Beardbrand’s story and how they came to be known as the leader in providing high quality products in the beard care industry. It all started with building a culture of beard care and celebration that lead to a dream to present a high quality product that stands out and makes a difference in men’s lives. To hear more, make sure to catch this episode! Do you ever splurge and treat yourself with a special meal or gadget? Maybe for it’s that high scale dinner you treat yourself to once a year or maybe it’s indulging in buying that high quality product. The truth is most people treat themselves from time to time. Eric Bandholz and his team at Beardbrand have created a high quality product called “Black Marble.” It’s the company's most exclusive and premium offering and has the potential to make a guy feel like a million bucks. If you’d like to hear more about Black Marble and how Eric and his team rolled out a high quality product, don’t miss this episode! What does it take to grow a YouTube presence for your brand? Is it as simple as putting together a potentially viral video or does it take more effort? Image how solidifying a presence on a social media platform like YouTube could impact your brand and position you for success and increased growth. On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from Eric Bandholz as he shares how he was able to slowly but successfully grow his company, Beardbrand’s presence on YouTube. Eric gives his key tips and suggestions for leaders like you who are looking to make an impact on social media platforms. To find out more, don’t miss this episode! Do you ever wonder what it is like to have your brand featured on the hit TV show, Shark Tank? How would you pitch your product, how would you present yourself and your team? Is the process really as impactful for brands and it seems to be? On this episode of Inspired Insider, business leader and entrepreneur Eric Bandholz discusses his experience pitching his company, Beardbrand to the Shark Tank investors. According to Eric, it was a positive experience but there are a few misconceptions that many viewers hold and he gives a little bit of insight on that subject. If you’d like to hear more about Eric’s experience on Shark Tank and how it impacted his product sales, make sure to catch this episode! How does your company respond to customer feedback? Do you actively seek it out and adjust your products accordingly or do take a more passive approach? Many companies are paying attention to how they respond to customer feedback both positive and negative, especially in the age of social media engagement. On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from entrepreneur and business leader Eric Bandholz as he describes his company’s approach to engaging with customer feedback. As you can image, with any company creating products that the public uses that contacts with their skin there will be a lot of feedback. If you’d like to hear how Eric and his team handle feedback, don’t miss this episode! Resources Mentioned on this episode Eric Bandholz on Twitter Beardbrand.com Beardbrand on Tumblr Urban Beardsman Shark Tank Startup Weekend Shopify Stitch Labs Ship Station Shipping Easy Slack Pacific Northwest Print and Fulfillment Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation. Rise25 is where entrepreneurs of 6,7, and 8 figure businesses come together live and in person every few months to solve their biggest business challenges through this high-level Mastermind group. Each member leaves each week with lifelong friendships and actionable steps to take their business to the next level. Check out Rise25.com - a group run by myself and cofounder John Corcoran. Rise 25 is application only.
Ray Nolan is one of Irelands most successful internet entrepreneurs. He founded Raven Computing (later known as Coretime Ltd) in 1989. Coretime Ltd was sold to Sage in 2004. In 1999, he founded the hugely successful online room reservation group Hostelworld.com. It was a leading worldwide brand with distribution contracts in 170 countries and more than 12MM visitors a month. He sold it in November 2009, returning more than $500MM on just $150K total investment. Ray is also the former chairman of Skyscanner. He founded and is acting CEO for XSellco Software, they provide market-leading eCommerce SaaS tools. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:50] Jeremy’s introduction to his guest, Ray Nolan. [2:00] Stories from Ray’s days in the travel industry. [5:00] Adjusting from customer feedback. [11:00] Kissing Frogs to find the Prince. [15:00] The advantage of being a Irish Entrenpuner. [19:00] Why does Ray only have 9 toes? In this episode… There are few things more frustrating than being ignored. But in today’s business industry many companies still don’t fully understand how to respond or adjust to client feedback. Does your company have a process in place to address client feedback and change your policies accordingly? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from entrepreneur and business leader Ray Nolan as he walks through how his company, Xsellco responds to client feedback. They have a streamlined process in place that will help give you an idea of how you could respond to feedback from your clients. This is a helpful episode that you don’t want to miss! One of the qualities that sets entrepreneurs apart is their constant drive to innovate and disrupt the status quo. This means that many entrepreneurs will “Kiss a lot of frogs before they find their prince.” Does that describe you? Do you push through failure to find success? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from entrepreneur and disruptor Ray Nolan. He has built a career around innovating and pushing the limits to find what works best in the marketplace. There are some fascinating lessons to learn from Ray as he shares insights from his years as business leader. Make sure you bring your pen and paper to catch all the helpful tips from Ray and so much more on this episode! With an ever changing and evolving marketplace, what role does location play in your ability to interact and influence key industry leaders? With the new global economy facilitated by the interconnectedness of the internet, does location really matter anymore? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear why Ray Nolan believes his location in Ireland positions him in a huge advantage on the global stage. He also shares how his cultural upbringing as an Irishmen helps him connect with other leaders in a unique way. After hearing from Ray, you’ll have a new appreciation for the role that location still plays in today’s marketplace. Find out more about Ray and his company, Xsellco on this fascinating episode! Resources Mentioned on this episode Ray’s Twitter page: twitter.com/RayNolan Ray’s LinkedIn page: linkedin.com/in/ranolan Xsellco Alibaba Shopify Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation. Rise25 is where entrepreneurs of 6,7, and 8 figure businesses come together live and in person every few months to solve their biggest business challenges through this high-level Mastermind group. Each member leaves each week with lifelong friendships and actionable steps to take their business to the next level. Check out Rise25.com - a group run by myself and cofounder John Corcoran. Rise 25 is application only.
Colt Cobana, once a professional WWE wrestler, has the longest running wrestler to wrestler podcast in existence. He has been doing The Art of Wrestling podcast weekly since 2010 and has interviewed people like CM Punk, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and many more. He has been entertaining crowds around the world as a professional wrestler for over 17 years, in Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, Mexico and all over the US. He even wrestles in cult underground places like Insane Clown Posse’s Gathering of the Juggalos. He has been featured on Marc Maron’s podcast and a cartoon version of Scott is even on a billboard off the highway here in Chicago. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:40] Jeremy’s introduction to his guest, Colt Cabana. [8:30] How did Colt get involved with the Insane Clown Posse? [10:30] Colt talks about the challenges and risks he endures physically. [12:30] A visit to India gives perspective. [16:00] The most hostile environment Colt has wrestled in. [19:30] At what point did Colt start his path to become a professional wrestler? [24:30] The psychology of professional wrestling. [28:00] Colt’s favorite wrestlers. [30:00] The influence Colt’s family had on how he does business. [33:30] Some of Colt’s best selling merchandise. [37:30] The Wrestling Road Diaries. [41:00] Colt talks about starting his podcast. [51:00] How Colt taught himself the technical aspects of running his podcast. [1:13:00] Colts upcoming projects. [1:19:00] How Colt takes care of himself. [1:22:00] Colt talks about his relationship with CM Punk. [1:24:00] Mishaps and lessons from podcasting. [1:36:00] The lowest moment in Colt’s career. [1:40:30] The proudest moments in Colt’s career. In this episode… Talk about putting it all on the line, Pro Wrestlers like Colt Cabana but their bodies through unbelievable amounts of stress and risk. How does someone sustain that kind of a lifestyle? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from Colt as he shares how he adjusted his style of wrestling so he could stay in the industry longer. He also talks about how he has been able to build a thriving business that includes his career as a successful podcast host. Make sure you listen to this episode to catch all of Colt’s fascinating stories, insights, and advice to new podcast hosts just starting out! How does someone get started in the professional wrestling world? What sets them apart from fans and superfans that makes them want to go into wrestling as a career? It’s not like there is a clear and often discussed career path for becoming a wrestler, right? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from Pro Wrestler Colt Cabana as he talks about how he got his start in the wrestling world. This is a guy who has built a successful career and a loyal fan base and has transitioned from life as WWE star to continue his wrestling career and put out content as a podcast host. You don’t want to miss his amazing story on this episode! They say you can tell a lot about someone from looking at their family background. You can trace certain patterns and habits that show up from the lives of parents into the lives of their children later on. What habits and values are you passing on to your children? What was passed down to you? On this episode of Inspired Insider, Pro Wrestler turned podcast host Colt Cabana talks about the influence his father had on how he conducted business early on in his wrestling career. Colt’s story is a fascinating one filled with great stories, interesting lessons, and so much more - don’t miss it! Most people don’t think of a career as a Pro Wrestler as that of a small business owner. In order to succeed and have a thriving career, many professional wrestlers have to adopt that posture. What does that look like? How do someone who is so tuned into entertainment and physical prowess have the time to also wear the hat of a business person? On this episode of Inspired Insider, Colt Cabana reveals how he has successfully navigated a career as a professional wrestler while adopting this business-minded approach. Colt is humorous and wise with the insights and stories he tells, you don’t want to miss a minute of this episode! What does it take to build a robust and growing podcast following? How do you find your niche? What style and aesthetic will resonate with a broad audience? What are the best practices and tools needed to get it off the ground and sound like something a professional put together? On this episode of Inspired Insider, podcast host and professional wrestler Colt Cabana shares how he got his podcast off the ground and built a huge following. Colt also shares the strategies and tools he uses along with how he builds relationships with sponsors and much more! If you have ever wanted a peek into what makes a podcast tick, make sure you catch this episode! Resources Mentioned on this episode www.ColtCabana.com Creative Has Nothing For You Colt Cabana on Twitter Colt Cabana on Instagram Worst Promo Ever Gathering of the Juggalos Art of Wrestling WTF This American Life Comedy Bang Bang Doug Loves Movies Never Not Funny The Nerdist Soundcloud Imovie GarageBand Harrys Five Four Club Square Space Pro Wrestling Tees EarWolf Gimlet ReplyAll PlanetMoney MysteryShow Pro Wrestling Fringe HowlFM CM Punk Stone Cold Steve Austin William Regal Bill Goldberg Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation. Rise25 is where entrepreneurs of 6,7, and 8 figure businesses come together live and in person every few months to solve their biggest business challenges through this high-level Mastermind group. Each member leaves each week with lifelong friendships and actionable steps to take their business to the next level. Check out Rise25.com - a group run by myself and cofounder John Corcoran. Rise 25 is application only.
Today we have Elliot Moskow co-founder of Pricefalls, LLC where he currently serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Pricefalls employs a subscription-based model for online retailers and has been growing rapidly. They have raised over $4million in venture funding and has received coverage by FOX Business, Forbes, The Chicago Sun Times, and TechCrunch. Elliot graduated in May 2010 from Bates College majoring in Economics and in June 2013 from Lee Business School with his MBA. He is currently enrolled in the Evening Program at the William S. Boyd School of Law. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:45] Jeremy introduces his guest, Elliot Moskow. [1:15] How Price Falls started. [2:40] Elliot talks about how his father influenced him. [3:40] Common mistakes among ecommerce leaders. [4:30] How to boost sales. [4:50] Price Falls’ biggest success so far. [5:10] The importance of valuing your customer base. [5:40] Building brand recognition. [6:10] Proudest moment for Elliot so far. In this episode… Wouldn’t it be great to get some inside information on how to boost sales and better position your business for success? Look no further! On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from Elliot Moskow as he shares one key lesson that will help you boost sales and increase your business growth. From Elliot’s perspective, it’s all about dynamic pricing. He encourages business leaders to really take a look at their pricing model and consider how they can optimize their price for maximum profitability. If you’d like to hear Elliot expand on this topic and explain how his company helps leaders explore viable solutions, make sure to listen to this episode! What does it look like to take on industry giants like Amazon and Ebay? Is it even feasible to launch such an ambitious endeavor? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from entrepreneur and disruptor, Elliot Moskow. Elliot and his team at Price Falls are presenting an alternative take on ecommerce and challenging household names like Ebay and Amazon. If you’d like to hear how Price Falls started and the awesome efforts they are engaged with that have the potential to change the ecommerce industry, make sure to catch this episode! When it comes to small business startups, every bit of early support is vital. For business leader Elliot Moskow, that early supporter was his father, a serial entrepreneur himself. Elliot points to his father as a great example he had growing up who instilled a solid work ethic and championed his early efforts with Price Falls. One of the biggest lessons he learned from his father early on is the importance of building upon small advantages and taking deliberate steps toward an end goal that makes sense. If you’d like to hear more of Elliot’s story and how early support from people like his father helped propel Price Falls to success, don’t miss this episode of Inspired Insider! Resources Mentioned on this episode Price Falls Elliot’s LinkedIn page: linkedin.com/in/elliotmoskow Elliot's Twitter page: twitter.com/pricefallsceo Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation. Rise25 is where entrepreneurs of 6,7, and 8 figure businesses come together live and in person every few months to solve their biggest business challenges through this high-level Mastermind group. Each member leaves each week with lifelong friendships and actionable steps to take their business to the next level. Check out Rise25.com - a group run by myself and cofounder John Corcoran. Rise 25 is application only.
Ray Nolan is one of Irelands most successful internet entrepreneurs. He founded Raven Computing (later known as Coretime Ltd) in 1989. Coretime Ltd was sold to Sage in 2004. In 1999, he founded the hugely successful online room reservation group Hostelworld.com. It was a leading worldwide brand with distribution contracts in 170 countries and more than 12MM visitors a month. He sold it in November 2009, returning more than $500MM on just $150K total investment. Ray is also the former chairman of Skyscanner. He founded and is acting CEO for XSellco Software, they provide market-leading eCommerce SaaS tools. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:50] Jeremy’s introduction to his guest, Ray Nolan. [2:00] What is going on with Xsellco? [3:50] Trends that Ray sees in the ecommerce industry. [7:00] How did Xsellco get started? [12:30] How does Ray manage his time? [15:30] Ray talks about rolling out successful products. [19:00] Bootstrapping vs. Raising Money when starting a business. [23:00] Ray talks about building his team for Xsellco. [25:30] Ray’s strengths and weaknesses. [30:00] Valuing employees. [32:00] High points and low points for Ray and Xsellco. [35:00] Ray talks about acquiring smaller companies. [37:00] Ray talks about acquiring Hostels.com [42:00] Difficulty in the travel industry after terrorist attacks. [45:00] Responding to feedback from customers. [51:00] Kissing Frogs. [54:30] The advantage of being an Irish entrepreneur. [59:00] Why does Ray only have 9 toes? In this episode… What is the best startup strategy? Is it bootstrapping or raising money? Which method is best for you and your product to get maximum exposure and investment? There are a lot of people out there that will point to this example or that one but what about someone who has been there and experienced the actual effect of each methodology? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear entrepreneur and business leader Ray Nolan discuss his approach to starting and growing a small e-commerce business back in the late 90’s and how his approach has changed as he builds products and businesses in the e-commerce space today. You don’t want to miss Ray’s valuable insights that can help you understand the marketplace and how to best proceed on your journey toward success! A clear mark of a successful and wise leader is one who knows their strengths and weaknesses. Do you know not only what your strengths and weaknesses are but how to build a team that adapts to them? Don’t neglect this essential step in cultivating a healthy team and thriving work environment! On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear how business leader Ray Nolan has identified his weaknesses and built a team that helps him in those areas so his strengths and shine unhindered. Find out how you and leverage your own strengths and weaknesses to better position your business for success on this episode! In a fast paced and ever growing marketplace, you’ve got to be prepared to respond to opportunities to acquire businesses that would expand your company’s reach and influence. Alternatively, you’ve got to be prepared for the likelihood that if you succeed as a small business, you might be on the radar of your competitor as a company to acquire. On this episode of Inspired Insider, Ray Nolan explains his perspective on business acquisitions and how he has taken advantage of this business practice in the e-commerce industry. Don’t miss this fascinating episode! One of the biggest mistakes that many e-commerce businesses make is failing to adapt to customer feedback. In what ways could your business create an avenue for and begin to implement changes that would instill loyalty and appreciation from your customer base? On this episode, you’ll hear from business leader Ray Nolan as he shares how his company has adjusted their practices based on customer feedback. This implementation has served their customer base better and allowed them to stand out among other competitors in the marketplace. To hear Ray go deeper with this topic, make sure to listen to this episode of Inspired Insider! Sometimes you have to kiss a bunch of frogs before you get a prince. The idea behind this truth is that you have to try and risk before you find the idea or product that will bring you success. Rarely will you get to experience a trouble free or frog free path along your journey. On this episode of Inspired Insider, you will hear from business leader and entrepreneur Ray Nolan. Ray walks through how he’s pushed through difficulty and failure to eventually get his shot at success. This is an encouraging episode that you don’t want to miss! Resources Mentioned on this episode Ray’s Twitter page: twitter.com/RayNolan Ray’s LinkedIn page: linkedin.com/in/ranolan Xsellco Amazon Ebay Alibaba Walmart Shopify Hostels Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation. Rise25 is where entrepreneurs of 6,7, and 8 figure businesses come together live and in person every few months to solve their biggest business challenges through this high-level Mastermind group. Each member leaves each week with lifelong friendships and actionable steps to take their business to the next level. Check out Rise25.com - a group run by myself and cofounder John Corcoran. Rise 25 is application only.
Today we have Chad Rubin, disruptor, CEO of Think Crucial and Skubana. He's an investor, author, and dropper of gold nuggets helping sellers tune out the noise. Skubana solves the most serious problems of order processing and inventory management that cause millions of dollars in losses for e-commerce sellers every year. The result is an e-commerce acceleration platform that has invented a categorically new breed of product: an enterprise-grade, all-in-one cloud portal scalable enough to accommodate small, medium AND enterprise e-commerce companies, all for a fraction of the cost. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:35] Jeremy’s introduction to his guest, Chad Rubin. [1:00] Biggest tip from Chad to increase sales. [1:30] What issues does Skubana solve? [2:00] The biggest mistake ecommerce entrepreneur make. In this episode… Most business leaders are always on the lookout for tips to increase sales. Depending on the leader you ask, you’ll get a wide range of responses. On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from Skubana co-Founder Chad Rubin. Chad encourages e-commerce leaders to sell across multiple channels. Don’t get SO focused on channels like Shopify or Big Commerce that you neglect connecting with retailers like Amazon, WalMart, Sears, and others. Chad is convinced that selling across multiple channels is the way to win in the e-commerce marketplace. To hear more from Chad, make sure to listen to this episode! The unique solution that Chad’s company, Skubana brings to the table is to provide sellers something they’ve never had or experienced before, a centralized platform. They want to empower sellers to sell across multiple channels. Their services seamlessly sync your inventory so when you sell a product on one channel, it updates your inventory availability across all your other sales channels. If you’d like to hear more about the services that Skubana provides and how they can help leaders like you, make sure to listen to this episode of Inspired Insider! One of the biggest mistakes that Chad has observed e-commerce leaders make over the last couple of years is an aversion to Amazon. Because it’s so massive and intimidating, many leaders resist any opportunities to partner with Amazon which ends up hurting the smaller businesses in the long run. Chad encourages e-commerce leaders to quit turning down opportunities to work with Amazon and embrace the possibilities for growth and expansion that are possible in a collaborative relationship with Amazon. If you’d like to hear more insights from Chad, don’t miss this episode of Inspired Insider! Resources Mentioned on this episode Skubana Chad’s LinkedIn page: linkedin.com/in/chadrubin Chad’s Twitter page: twitter.com/EcommRenegade Shopify Big Commerce NewEgg WalMart Amazon Ebay Sears Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation. Rise25 is where entrepreneurs of 6,7, and 8 figure businesses come together live and in person every few months to solve their biggest business challenges through this high-level Mastermind group. Each member leaves each week with lifelong friendships and actionable steps to take their business to the next level. Check out Rise25.com - a group run by myself and cofounder John Corcoran. Rise 25 is application only.
Today we have Ed O’Keefe, Father of seven, grew up in a household of 13 children. He is the author of the book, “Time Collapsing! The New Art of Speed, Money, Power, and Meaning!” He has used his time collapsing methods to leap to the top of industries. He has started multiple companies from scratch to multiple seven and even eight figures. In dentistry, Ed sold over $50,000,000 in marketing systems and seminars. He started Marine Essentials and has sold over $60,000,000 in health supplements. On top of having seven kids and running the businesses mentioned, Ed was a Kokoro 40 Graduate! A 51-hour mini-hell week created by commander Mark Divine. Ed also runs a podcast, the "Ed O'Keefe Show" and invests in KNOWfoods.com a health food company that is disrupting the food industry. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:55] Jeremy introduces today’s guest, Ed O’Keefe. [2:30] What is Know Foods? [4:30] Hell on the Hill. [10:30] Pushing through pain. [13:00] What is Kokoro Camp? [25:00] Tapping into inner strength. [30:00] How Know Foods got started. [36:00] The power of serving and helping others. [38:30] The Freedom Question. [43:30] What Ed learned by studying certain celebrity figures like Will Smith. [54:00] Loosing the friction. [1:03:00] Permission to be yourself and when your soul awakens. [1:07:00] Ed talks about B2B in Dentistry. [1:12:00] Ed’s success with writing sales copy. [1:18:00] Ed’s shift to Marine Essentials. [1:27:00] Lessons learned from direct marketing. In this episode… The heart of our desire in life is to get permission to be ourselves. Do you have that permission? Are you still looking for someone to speak into your life and tell you that you don’t have to perform, that you can be yourself? On this episode of Inspired Insider, business expert Ed O’Keefe walks through what it has meant for him as discovered the key to living in the freedom of permission. What would it be like for you to walk in that same freedom that Ed experiences? Don’t sit around wondering - find out on this episode! Do you ever feel like you are stuck? Do you feel like you are bogged down with the junk and baggage in your life? What if you could declutter from all that and lose the friction that holds you back? On this episode of Inspired Insider, Ed O’Keefe share the wisdom and insights he has learned from observation and sometimes from hard life experiences to help leaders like you succeed! Find out what steps you can take today to start down the road of getting rid of those obstacles and difficulties that are keeping you from your true potential. To hear Ed expand on this topic, make sure to listen to this episode! What if there was one simple question that could unlock massive potential for leaders and companies to see exponential growth? This simple question is hiding in plain sight and most people miss it every day! On this episode of Inspired Insider, entrepreneur and business leader Ed O’Keefe shares how he came to understand “The Freedom Question” and how it’s unlocked his understanding of potential both personally and professionally. Ed has seen the power of this question at work and he wants to share it with leaders like you. Find out how you can learn from Ed’s key insights and leverage them for success on this episode! Think about leaders and individuals that you are drawn to, what qualities do they exude? Are they individuals who are self-centered, egotistical, proud, and boastful? More likely than not, they exhibit the opposite of those qualities, right? Most people want to spend time with leaders and others who are selfless and put other people’s needs above their own. Ed O’Keefe shares how he has witnessed the power of serving and helping others exemplified by key leaders in business. He is convinced that this quality can make all the difference in growing and expanding your influence as a leader. If you’d like to hear more of Ed’s observations, make sure to listen to this episode of Inspired Insider! What do you do when you are faced with a difficult task? How do you tap into the strength you need physically, emotionally, or mentally to overcome obstacles that you face? What if you had a way to truly tap into an inner reserve of strength and inspiration to get through even the most challenging experiences? On this episode of Inspired Insider, business leader Ed O’Keefe shares the lessons he has learned from strength and fitness coaches, influential leaders, and much more to help him develop an inner strength that he’s never experienced before. Learn more from Ed on this episode! Resources Mentioned on this episode Ed’s Facebook page: facebook.com/EdOKeefeShow Ed’s Twitter page: twitter.com/EdOKeefeSHOW Ed’s website: edokeefeshow.com BOOK: Time Collapsing-The New Art of Speed, Money, Power & Meaning PODCAST: The Art of Time Collapsing Podcast & Seminars - Ed OKeefe Show KNOW FOODS Dan Kennedy Gary Halbert John Carlton Spanx http://www.hellonthehill.com/ Mark Divine CrossFit Dirty Jobs Podcast Movie: The Shift Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation. Check out Ruwix to learn the solution of the Rubik's Cube and other twisty puzzles like Pyraminx, Square-1 etc.
Today we have Tom Sanders, founder of Our Pampered Home. They were ranked among the Top 100 sellers overall on Amazon and have had over 212,756 reviews. Our Pampered Home has experienced year over year growth of over 40% for the past 12 years and has grown into one of the top online retailers. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:42] Jeremy’s introduction to his guest, Tom Sanders. [1:40] Tom talks about the best selling products and trends he’s seen. [5:00] Tips to increase eCommerce sales and business success. [9:20] The proudest moment for Tom in business. [13:30] The impact that Tom’s wife has had on the business. In this episode… You’ve heard the old adage, “Work hard, play hard.” It may sound kind of funny but many successful professionals know that in order to keep the momentum going in business you have to know what your personal reward will be. What are you working toward? What will you treat yourself to once you’ve hit your goal? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from business leader Tom Sanders. Tom is convinced that one of his best practices in business is this habit of allowing himself to enjoy a nice reward when he hits certain goals and milestones. If you’d like to hear more of Tom’s story, make sure to listen to this episode! When you set out to build a career, it’s helpful to keep a large view of what really matters. Success can come and go in waves or cycles so it’s important to determine before you get too far down one path if this course is really one you want to be committed to. Entrepreneur Tom Sanders decided early on when he started his company Our Pampered Home that the e-commerce industry was a place where he wanted to pour his time and energy into. Because he and his wife had decided this at the beginning, it made their difficult moments in business easier to handle. Tom wants every business leader to sit down and have that moment for themselves and really decided if what they are doing is really worth through all the ups and downs life will throw their way. To hear Tom speak on this topic in further detail, make sure to catch this episode of Inspired Insider! What is it that allows certain business leaders to succeed? What are some inside tips and insights that YOU can take away and apply to your professional career today? On this episode of Inspired Insider, Tom Sanders share one key insight that he believes fuels the success of his company, Our Pampered Home. Tom points to the practice of staying organized as being one of the best practices he and his team implement to achieve their goals of success. Tom believes that staying organized allows his team the freedom to think big because they aren’t bogged down with clutter, both literally and figuratively. If you’d like to hear more about Our Pampered Home and Tom’s story - don’t miss this episode! Some of the best leaders and companies in the marketplace today exist because someone told them they would never succeed. There’s something about hearing that voice of doubt and suspicion that IGNITES something powerful in certain leaders like Tom Sanders. If you want to see people like Tom succeed, the best thing to do is to tell them they NEVER will - then they will do everything in their power to prove you wrong. It can be incredibly encouraging to hear from leaders like Tom who push through those voices of doubt to grab a hold of success. Get fired up by listening to Tom’s story today on this episode of Inspired Insider! Resources Mentioned on this episode Our Pampered Home’s website: ourpamperedhome.com Our Pampered Home’s Facebook page: facebook.com/Our-Pampered-Home Our Pampered Home’s Twitter page: twitter.com/ourpamperedhome Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation.
Today we have Brandon Checketts co-founder of seller labs with Paul Johnson. They make awesome tools for E-commerce Sellers including Feedback Genius, Snagshout, and Scope. Brandon also founded BookScouter.com that is responsible for tens of millions of dollars of book buyback sales annually. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:40] Jeremy’s introduction to his guest, Brandon Checketts. [1:30] Brandon talks about the success and growth of Bookscouter. [11:20] How Brandon and Paul connected and starting working together. [14:00] Brandon talks about how he started to branch out in the e-commerce space. [16:00] The first software developed; Feedback Genius. [22:30] Common mistakes sellers make when communicating with their customers. [27:00] Brandon talks about how they started to develop SnagShout. [35:00] The Death of Super URLS. [38:00] What is Scope? [43:45] Common e-commerce mistakes. [49:00] Challenges that Brandon and his company ran into developing software. [51:30] Brandon talks about how he runs his team. [58:00] Helpful software for business leaders. In this episode… Wouldn’t it be helpful if you had a suite of tools and e-commerce applications to help grow and develop your business? Imagine how much time, money and energy you’d save with streamlined applications that do the hard work of data collection and analysis for you. Well, look no further! On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from e-commerce expert Brandon Checketts. Brandon is the co-founder of Seller Labs and he wants business leaders like you to take advantage of the high-quality applications and tools he and his team have developed. In addition to the great work he’s done at Seller Labs, Brandon has years of experience as an entrepreneur that will provide you with key insights into market trends and team development strategies. You don’t want to miss this informative episode! If you’ve considered starting your own E-commerce business, you’d be wise to take the time and listen to Brandon Checketts, an e-commerce expert. Brandon has spent many years as an e-commerce business owner and developing tools for e-commerce business leaders. On this episode of Inspired Insider, Brandon shares some of the common mistakes he has noticed new e-commerce leaders make that have delayed or derailed their opportunities for success. This is a chance to learn key insights from one of the leading experts in the industry. Make sure you grab a pen and some paper catch all the lessons on this helpful episode! There is a fine line between serving your customers well and overwhelming them with contact. What is the best strategy when following up with your customers, especially in the e-commerce space? On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from business leader Brandon Checketts. Brandon discusses some best practices when navigating this complex issue. One suggestion that Brandon touches on is making sure you don’t drive the customer away with too much contact after the sale. He gives the example of a buyer purchasing a cell phone case - they don't’ need multiple follow up emails regarding that purchase. Brandon then explains the proper use of email follow up for more expensive and complicated items that buyers purchase. To hear Brandon go into further depth on this topic, make sure to listen to this episode! Some of the best products and services come out of a place of frustration. When leaders and visionaries notice a lack of service for a particular need in the marketplace the conditions for innovation are born! That’s what happened with Brandon Checketts when he went looking for easy to use applications for new e-commerce business leaders like himself. There were no good options on the marketplace at the time so he went to work developing a solution to that problem. Out of that experience, Seller Labs was born. If you’d like to hear more about Brandon’s story and how he and Paul started Seller Labs, don’t miss this episode of Inspired Insider! The American economic landscape is changing, it has been shifting and evolving for a while now. E-Commerce is the future, more and more jobs are being created and revenue is being generated by tech and e-commerce giants every day. On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from e-commerce business leader Brandon Checketts as the explains his observations of the industry and how leaders like you can take advantage of this growing and thriving business sector. Brandon’s story is fascinating and the lessons he shares from his years of business leadership are extremely valuable, don't’ miss this episode! Resources Mentioned on this episode sellerlabs.com/about bookscouter.com sellerlabs.com/apps roundsphere.com slack.com Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation.
Scott Margolius is the founder of feedbackrepair.com where he helps protect Amazon and eBay sellers from bad reviews and works to get them removed. He has helped clean up nightmare situations for sellers accounts and has dealt with products getting banned. Scott spent 15 years as COO at FIMCO, a marketing and customer service company. He is a top rated eBay power seller and has been among the top 25 percent of sellers on Amazon for the holiday season. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:37] Jeremy’s introduction to his guest, Scott Margolius. [3:40] How Scott was able to help a client expand his operation. [5:40] Creating the time to help others. [8:00] Take your personal advantage and leverage it for successful results. In this episode… Everyone has a unique advantage they have to offer. Can you articulate the unique advantage that you have to offer? For some individuals, it takes a long time to discover how to leverage their unique advantage in a professional setting. On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from business leader Scott Margolius and the insight he has learned from discovering his own skillset and abilities. Find out how you can make an impact in your business and leverage your unique advantage on this episode! Getting help and advice can be a difficult process. Does one size fit all when it comes to getting insight and advice from professionals? In some business sectors, you might get very different answers to this question. Scott Margolius is cautious in giving any broad ranging or general advice, rather he enjoys helping individuals in their unique situations discover the solution to their problems. On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear Scott expand on the reasons why he enjoys taking the time to specifically address unique issues with specialized solutions. You don’t want to miss this valuable episode! There are certain individuals who LOVE to help others. Have you been fortunate to run across people like that in your professional career? Business leaders like Scott Margolius are a joy to learn from because you can tell that they truly love to help others. Scott started his business, Feedback Repair to help other business leaders navigate their way out of difficult situations. On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear Scott talk about his passion for helping others and how that has even caused him to put his own businesses growth on the back burner. Don’t miss out on Scott’s fascinating story! Resources Mentioned on this episode Feedback Repair’s website: feedbackrepair.com Scott’s Facebook page: facebook.com/ecomsellertools Scott’s Twitter page: twitter.com/ecomsellertools Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation. Rise25 is where entrepreneurs of 6,7, and 8 figure businesses come together live and in person every few months to solve their biggest business challenges through this high-level Mastermind group. Each member leaves each week with lifelong friendships and actionable steps to take their business to the next level. Check out Rise25.com - a group run by myself and cofounder John Corcoran. Rise 25 is application only.
Today we have Conor McCluskey Founder of BombBomb an interactive email service provider. Basically, you can make quick and easy personalized videos embedded in an email to wow, friends, family or business relationships. Conor co-founded a service company in the multi-family housing industry that grew to 60 employees and over 1.7 million dollars of value in just four years. He is also an owner of a vineyard and winery called “Proper Wines” in Walla Walla, Washington named Best New Winery by Seattle Magazine. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:00] Jeremy’s introduction to his guest, Conor McCluskey. [2:15] Conor talks about how he met his business partner. [5:00] Lessons learned from losing it all. [6:30] Conor talks about his work ethic. [10:00] Parting advice from Conor. In this episode… Sometimes the journey toward success requires leaders to push through failure. Sure people love to hear about instant or overnight success stories, but the fact remains that is not how most leaders will find success in life. Conor McCluskey experienced early success with his friend and business partner but ended up quite suddenly losing it all. He had to start again from square one. Conor speaks of this experience as an eye-opening and humbling one. Through this setback, he learned a lot about himself and how business works. Because he had experienced success, he knew what it would take to get there again, and it wasn’t too long before that became a reality. If you’d like to hear more about how Conor found his way back to business success, listen to this episode of Inspired Insider. Where did you get your work ethic from? Did you learn it from your parents, your peers, or did you have to learn it on your own? Entrepreneur Conor McCluskey learned to “Hustle” and “Grind it out” from his father and grandfather who were themselves, entrepreneurs. Conor talks fondly of how those early years watching and then participating in that hard work shaped him into the focused and driven individual he is today. What lessons can you learn from Conor’s story? Find out on this episode of Inspired Insider! Every business leader has a different answer to why they succeed. Some say it’s their stellar team members, some say it’s the excellent product their company puts forth, still others say it’s the culture of their company. While much of that might be true for Conor McCluskey, the one piece that he says fuels his business success is his core values. Sticking to his core values is the way Conor is able to stay focused on what matters in life and business and tune out the negative or critical voices that come his way. If you’d like to hear more about Conor’s story, make sure to catch this episode of Inspired Insider! Resources Mentioned on this episode Proper Wines’ website: properwines.com BombBomb’s website: bombbomb.com Connor’s LinkedIn page: linkedin.com/in/mccluskeyconor Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation. Rise25 is where entrepreneurs of 6,7, and 8 figure businesses come together live and in person every few months to solve their biggest business challenges through this high-level Mastermind group. Each member leaves each week with lifelong friendships and actionable steps to take their business to the next level. Check out Rise25.com - a group run by myself and cofounder John Corcoran. Rise 25 is application only.
Welcome back to Ecom Crew! Today we are going to discuss a part 2 about how we plan to grow our business from the bottom line, up. We share what we need to work on in our respective companies. Of course what we want to do tends to overlap with each other's lists. We discuss what we want to improve and how those improvements will grow our revenue. Here are some things on our lists and what we discussed: Deciding when to cancel a service. The problem with Skubana. Delegating work that can be done with a process. Why PPC is important to Amazon sales. How to cull your product line. Today's main message is your business shouldn't have to depend on you. Sometimes taking a second look at where your money and time goes is a game changer in your business. We offer some practical advice on today's episode, so join us for the conversation. If you want to be a part of our episodes visit our Facebook page at www. facebook.com/ecomcrew. When you like our page you will get a notification about our live broadcast. Next episode we will have a special guest and Mike will talk about his upcoming trip to China. If you have any questions or anything you'd like us to discuss on the podcast please go to ecomcrew.com and fill out the contact form. Also we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!
Very few companies can claim to have a customer service legacy. But Eddie Lichstein, coFounder of Autoplicity.com can point to the customer service approach they’ve taken to build the company. His auto parts company has gone from 0 to 50 million dollars in 4 years. He is also the Founder of THMotorsports.com that sells car parts - and the company celebrated 10 years and over 100,000 customers just recently. Eddie is also the coFounder of Rejoiner.com, an email marketing automation software for Ecommerce companies. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:15] Jeremy’s introduction to this episode with Eddie Lichstein. [2:28] Why Eddie is focused on building a legacy that helps others. [8:47] The beginning of Autoplicity and the idea for expansion. [9:36] The beginnings of eCommerce 10 years ago. [14:02] The process the company follows to help customers and others via social. [16:49] The initial products and traction for TH Motorsports. [21:36] Building the business’ customer base on forums. [24:49] The things Eddie recommends you have on your website to build trust. [29:00] Learning how to setup your checkout pages from Amazon. [31:52] The challenges the team faced with TH Motorsports. [33:21] Managing cash flow when selling high ticket items. [38:50] Building a catalog to fuel the desired customer service legacy. [42:37] The team who runs the company at this point. [46:29] The toughest part about building and leading a team. [48:21] The key steps that grew the company so quickly. [52:23] Software the company uses. In this episode… Eddie Lichstein and the team at Autoplicity and TH Motorsports built their business by establishing a customer service legacy. They hit the ground running - not through marketing and direct sales but through interactions with real people in online automotive forums. And though they’ve grown beyond that practice, they haven’t left it altogether. To this day forums are a huge place for the company’s representatives to engage with potential clients - and the customer service legacy continues as a result. When you think about what Eddie Lichstein and his team have done - building from 0 to 50 million dollars in 4 years, you realize that it’s an amazing feat for any company. But when you understand that they are selling in one of the most competitive markets - auto parts for all kinds of automobiles, including high profile sports cars - the task becomes even more amazing. In this conversation Jeremy and Eddie chat about how the company got its start, the things that contributed to its rapid growth, and how they continue to excel in customer service and product sales in spite of vicious competition. Content is definitely king for Eddie Lichstein. He’s built three companies on the back of excellent, helpful, incredibly detailed content that provides tremendous value to those looking to purchase anything from auto parts to email marketing services. His companies specialize in providing answers to the questions their potential customers have and they reap the rewards of it in increased sales. Building trust through powerful content marketing is not a theory with Eddie, it’s a proven fact. When it comes to eCommerce the team at Autoplicity and TH Motorsports have figured out how to create shopping carts, checkout pages, and follow up email sequences that bring in more purchases and therefore, more profit. But they didn’t do it by reinventing the wheel. Much of the approach they follow, they learned from examining and analyzing the big brands that do it well - like Amazon. You can learn a lot from what Eddie Lichstein shares about the secrets to higher conversions that are right in front of you on every Amazon checkout page, so be sure you listen. If you are going to start an eCommerce company that sells higher ticket items (like Eddie Lichstein did) he recommends one thing: Don’t go into debt to do it. Take the time to raise capital - because cash flow is the main thing that chokes a startup business and keeps it from growing. You’ll need to be able to do the things necessary to push past the obstacles you’ll encounter - and you can’t do that if you are worried about a load of debt or strapped for cash. That’s just one lesson you’ll learn from this seasoned eCommerce seller, on this episode of Inspired Insider. Resources Mentioned on this episode www.Autoplicity.com www.THMotorsports.com www.Rejoiner.com www.Buy.com www.Rakuten.com [box type="info"] Sponsor for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation.
On this show, I interview two kinds of people. ecommerce entrepreneurs who walk the walk, and ecommerce professionals talk the talk. On rare occasion, you find a unicorn of an entrepreneur who does both. A few weeks ago we had Chad from Skubana who fit the bill. And this week I've found another unicorn! Micheal Steele, a self-made man, who runs a shop with his wife, and then takes the applied learnings from that store and uses them to inform his consultancy, Sell Like a Human. As director of marketing for two ecommerce business, Michael specializes in using marketing automation to sell like a human. What's that mean? We'll find out! — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Learn: What's selling like a human about? What he learned running a niche story with his wife How to improve customer experience with The Hype Email The essentials of a sales funnel Links: SellLikeAHuman.com/unofficialshopify The Hype Email Get a free trial Klaviyo account Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com
Amazon FBA is one of the places James Thomson is a specialist. He is founder of MarketplaceAccelerator.com which is a consulting company for large Amazon sellers typically over $10million. James is the former business head of “Selling on Amazon”. He developed the initial Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) NUDGE program that helped Amazon sellers generate an extra $1 billion in annual sales. He also has a Ph.D. in Marketing Strategy from Northwestern University. His primary focus is President of the PROSPER Show, an educational conference focused on helping online sellers become more profitable. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:15] Jeremy’s introduction of this episode with James Thomson. [1:20] The main tips James has for Amazon sellers who are starting out. [5:22] The biggest mistakes Amazon sellers make. [9:21] The biggest challenge of owning your own brand on Amazon. [11:12] Tips to help with listing products effectively. [15:07] What are the main things sellers on Amazon should focus on to build their success? [18:00] The best ways to optimize a product listing on Amazon. [24:55] The process a seller should to through to determine new sales categories and new products. [30:34] A product analysis scenario. [35:20] At what point does it make sense to sell a product at a loss? [45:06] Suggestions of companies that can help you ship or build a private label brand. [47:49] The competitive advantages successful sellers have. [51:45] What is required to scale a product? [1:03:40] Things James knew when he was at Amazon that he wished he could share. [1:11:58] Software sellers should consider. [1:20:23] What other channels can be used besides Amazon? [1:25:25] Key things to avoid to keep your Amazon account healthy. [1:29:54] How to connect with James. In this episode… Amazon FBA has become a very popular way for everyday people to build their own brand and business online while still maintaining a 9 to 5 job. But when one of those small guy operations becomes successful there’s a whole new level of expertise and specialization that has to come into play. That’s where James Thomson and his company, Marketplace Accelerator come in. James has been helping Amazon sellers make the most of their large-scale FBA and eCommerce business for years, helping them refine their strategies, systems, and team to make the most of the opportunities that are available to successful Amazon FBA companies. The reason James has focused on Amazon FBA so much is because he’s what you might call and “Amazon Insider,” having been employed with Amazon. In fact, James is the creator of the Amazon FBA “nudge” program that helped Amazon generate an additional $1 billion in sales. James Thomson is on the podcast today to talk almost exclusively about Amazon FBA. He shares the biggest mistakes Amazon sellers make and how to avoid them, the biggest challenges growing Amazon sellers will face and how to overcome them, the companies and resources that can make Amazon FBA a winning proposition, and much more. If you are considering Amazon FBA and want to hear from a professional Amazon sales consultant who knows the Amazon way of doing business better than almost everyone, this episode with James Thomson of MarketplaceAccelerator is for you. Be sure you take the time to listen. It will be time well spent. Resources www.ProsperShow.com www.MarketplaceAccelerator.com AP Archway Vox Marketing Tax Jar Avalara Taxify Vertex Tax Processing Tech Finance CFO Bench.co Schwan Packaging Mochilla Fulfillment www.Fulfillment.com www.Skubana.com Channel Advisor SellerCloud Retail Ops Etail Solutions Stitch Labs Rakuten Sponsors for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation. *************** One of our sponsors today is www.Rise25.com where entrepreneurs of 6,7, and 8 figure businesses come together live and in person every few months to solve their biggest business challenges through this high-level Mastermind group. Each member leaves each week with lifelong friendships and actionable steps to take their business to the next level. Check out Rise25.com - a group run by myself and cofounder John Corcoran. Rise 25 is application only.
Chad Rubin builds e-commerce businesses. Fresh out of college and Wall Street, he took his family vacuum business online and built his own direct to consumer e-commerce business called Crucial Vacuum. He grew it from 0 a $20 million dollar valuation in just 7 years. He also happens to be a top 250 Amazon seller. Unsatisfied with existing ERP software, he co-founded Skubana with DJ Kunovac and built one of e-commerces hottest operational softwares. Skubana is the only software that you'll ever need to manage and accelerate the growth of your e-commerce business. It is beautiful, intelligent, and highly intuitive and incorporates every feature imaginable to drive your future success. So how did he get here? And how does he manage multiple businesses? Find out in this candid interview... — Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on iTunes Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast on Stitcher Subscribe to The Unofficial Shopify Podcast via RSS Join The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group — Learn: Chad's mindset for success How Chad grew his businesses to $10mm with only two employees Why you should shop the competition And many more golden nuggets of success wisdom Links: Chad's book: "Cheaper Easier Direct" Skubana Crucial Vacuum Think Crucial Recommended Reading: "Virtual Freedom" Recommended Reading: "Essentialism" Free Guide I want to send you a sample chapter of Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com
The Top Entrepreneurs in Money, Marketing, Business and Life
Chad Rubin. He builds e-commerce businesses. He owns a direct consumer e-commerce business called Crucial Vacuum and grew it from zero to a $20 million valuation in 7 years. He happens to be a Top 250 Amazon Seller. He co-founded Skubana with DJ Kunovac and built one of e-commerce’s hottest operational software. Skubana is the only software that you’ll ever need to manage and accelerate the growth of your ecommerce business. It’s beautiful, intelligent, and highly intuitive and it also incorporates every feature imaginable to drive your future success, especially in ecommerce. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Virtual Freedom What CEO do you follow? – Gary Vaynerchuk Favorite online tool? — Trello or Asana Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Go after passion and change a major in college Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:28 – Nathan introduces Chad to the show 02:17 – Chad shares how he made the zero to $20M valuation for Crucial Vacuum 03:48 – Chad shares what he thinks is Walmart’s biggest mistake 04:27 – Skubana is making 50,000 orders a month 04:47 – Chad shares a mistake he made and how he lost money 05:08 – Chad had to minimize his headcount from 20 employees to 2 05:40 – Skubana is a SaaS business 06:00 – Number of customers that Skubana is currently serving 06:46 – Skubana’s pricing: 07:07 – Minimum of $999 a month 07:10 – Pricing is customized and is based on users 07:34 – Average RPU 08:00 – MRR 08:05 – Skubana did a seed round 08:41 – Raised 880,000 on the first seed round 08:45 – Chad put in $1M 08:59 – James Thompson is one of Skubana’s investors 09:43 – Chad messaged 10 people that he looked up himself to try and get them involved 10:10 – Chad starting building Skubana for 3 years and it just went live last year 10:29 – Chad raised the $880K when they had the prototype 11:15 – First year revenue 12:30 – Chad wanted Skubana to be available for everybody 12:40 – When Chad raised their pricing, a lot of their customers churned off 12:53 – Skubana is not an entry level software 13:27 – Chad individually called customers to inform them about the increase in pricing and they got emails too 14:12 – Most of Skubana’s RPU growth is coming from new customers 14:27 – Chad shares how people find Skubana 14:48 – Chad wrote a book and hit #7 bestseller 15:22 – Chad has a subscription list from their blog because they’re adding value 15:45 – Number of people on their list 16:22 – Skubana is pairing with other companies for a win-win sale 17:30 – Chad cares more about the quality of the customers as opposed to the quantity 18:05 – Chad shares about the successful webinars he held for certain companies 19:00 – Chad spends a lot of time guest blogging 19:25 – CAC is currently zero 21:20 – Team size 21:40 – Total overhead cost 22:00 – Team location is in NYC and New Jersey 22:10 – Chad is still thinking of raising another round 22:29 – Chad wants to raise $1M 23:30 – Connect with Chad through Youtube, Twitter and his email 25:10 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Mistakes happen for us to LEARN from it. Make your product KNOWN to the public at low costs by INCREASING your online presence. Need direction? Go hard after your passion! Resources Mentioned: Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible. Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books. The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens and follow-up with email sequences Youtube – Chad’s business Youtube channel Chad@Skubana.com – Chad’s email address @Ecommrenegade – Chad’s Twitter handle Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives
Business systems are what make or break any eCommerce business. That’s the wise counsel of James Thomson, founder of MarketplaceAccelerator.com which is a consulting company for large Amazon sellers who do over $10 million in sales annually. James is the former business head of “Selling on Amazon”. He developed the initial Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) NUDGE program that helped Amazon sellers generate an extra $1 billion in annual sales. He also has a Ph.D. in Marketing Strategy from Northwestern University. His primary focus is President of the PROSPER Show--this is an educational conference focused on helping online sellers become more profitable. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:15] Jeremy’s introduction of James Thomson, Founder of Marketplace Accelerator. [1:26] James’ best advice for eCommerce sellers regarding business processes. In this episode… Business systems are talked about a lot in the internet space - and for good reason. Systems not only cause your business to run smoothly, they also enable you to extricate yourself from the day to day running of the business in a way that gives you peace of mind that everything will continue to run smoothly. On this episode of Inspired Insider Jeremy chats with James Thomson, Founder of www.MarketplaceAccelerator.com - a company that helps eCommerce sellers maximize their business profits and create a well-oiled machine that generates revenue 24/7. James’ simple advice about the importance of business systems, shared on this episode, will take you some time to implement, but if you push through the difficulty, you’ll be super happy with the results. Resources Mentioned on this episode www.MarketplaceAccelerator.com Sponsors for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation. *************** One of our sponsors today is www.Rise25.com where entrepreneurs of 6,7, and 8 figure businesses come together live and in person every few months to solve their biggest business challenges through this high-level Mastermind group. Each member leaves each week with lifelong friendships and actionable steps to take their business to the next level. Check out Rise25.com - a group run by myself and cofounder John Corcoran. Rise 25 is application only.
When a customer decides to cancel an order - a big order - it’s not an easy thing to handle. On today’s episode Manuel Becvar shares the impact a large cancelled order had on his business as it was just starting to scale. Manuel is the founder of Import Dojo. He has been living and working in China for over 10 years, with 17 years in the sourcing business. He has a unique perspective because he has his own brand, sells to retailers and is a supplier. He has worked with the biggest retailers in the world, developing, sourcing, and finding new products. These include: Wal-Mart, Amazon, Lowes, Sears, Home Depot, and many others. He is author of The Import Bible: the complete beginners guide to successful importing from China. a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:14] Jeremy’s introduction to Manuel Becvar, founder of Import Dojo. [1:34] Manuel’s lowest moment in business so far. [5:29] Places you can go to connect with Manuel. [6:28] Business ideas Manuel wants you to steal (because he doesn’t have time to act on them). In this episode… Any product business lives or dies on the orders of regular customers. It’s a vital part of the way things work. When one of those large clients abruptly cancels a large order the company is depending on, something has to give. On this episode, Manuel Becvar tells of his lowest point in business, when a large client did cancel their order suddenly. You’ll be encouraged by the way Manuel handled this unexpected challenge, so be sure you listen. One of the impacts of losing a big order is that the supplies and resources to fulfill that order may have already been purchased. That means cash flow is restricted and the ability to service other customers effectively could be hampered. Manuel Becvar tells how he and his company dealt with the loss of an important order, on this episode of Inspired Insider. Many savvy business owners set aside reserve funds - savings if you will - for that unexpected event that could destroy the company if cash reserves aren't available. When Import Dojo was suddenly informed that a big order from a customer was canceled the company had to draw on its savings in order to offset the costs already spent. Manuel Becvar tells how the company rebounded from the disappointing loss of that order, on this episode. When a customer order is canceled many things can be effected in a negative way: payroll, other customer orders, overall cash flow, and more. Every company CEO wants to be past the point of one lost order causing a lot of problems, but when the company is in its early stages, it’s almost unavoidable. Find out how Manuel Becvar and the Import Dojo team weathered the situation in its early days, on this episode. Resources Mentioned on this episode www.ImportDojo.com www.GlobalSources.com Sponsors for this episode This is part of the Skubana Ecommerce Mastery Series where top Sellers and Experts teach you what really works to boost your ecommerce business. Skubana is a platform to manage your entire ecommerce operation. *************** One of our sponsors today is www.Rise25.com where entrepreneurs of 6,7, and 8 figure businesses come together live and in person every few months to solve their biggest business challenges through this high-level Mastermind group. Each member leaves each week with lifelong friendships and actionable steps to take their business to the next level. Check out Rise25.com - a group run by myself and cofounder John Corcoran. Rise 25 is application only.
Wes Grudzien (GRUD ZEE AN) knows what it takes to be successful at selling on Amazon. Wes is cofounder of Lullaby Lane. He helped grow the company’s Amazon sales to over 7 million dollars annually in less than 3 years. He is also the founder of Ezonomy where he teaches the exact methods used to grow a 7 figure business and consults with large scale sellers. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:15] Jeremy’s introduction of Wes Grudzien. [1:31] The reasons Lullaby Lane was able to grow so quickly: access to suppliers. [2:53] What separates the LL approach from others who sell the same things? [8:31] The thought process behind coming up with new product ideas. [10:22] The things Amazon private label sellers are doing well and the mistakes they are making. [21:14] The type of things that make a good product bundle on Amazon. [24:45] How Wes gets customers to his own site rather than buying through Amazon. [28:23] Focusing on the things you can control - like inventory control, etc. [32:35] Resources Wes recommends. [46:59] The kind of things Wes used to do for his father’s company. [53:22] When Wes originally got started in ecommerce business. [1:03:00] How Wes helps new sellers to get past the barrier to entry. [1:05:39] The first milestone Lullaby Lane hit online. [1:14:02] The metrics to watch: inventory turnover rate / profit margin. [1:19:38] Why Wes doesn’t use traditional ecommerce software like Skubana. [1:30:04] What terms should Amazon sales businesses seek from manufacturers. [1:32:15] At what point should an ecommerce seller consider raising capital? [1:37:40] The lowest moment Wes experienced in his ecommerce journey. [1:39:48] The highest moment Wes has experienced. [1:41:45] The kind of work Wes does consulting with brands (a story). [1:46:52] Tips for brands selling on Amazon. In this episode… The Amazon marketplace is a very popular starting place for many people who want to enter the ecommerce realm. Selling on Amazon is still a very realistic way to begin making a living online but it’s not without its pitfalls. Wes Grudzien has not only become very successful selling products on the Amazon platform - he’s also built a business that consults with brands and individuals to help them get a start on Amazon as well. Selling on Amazon can work in a number of ways. The two most popular are through retail arbitrage (buying wholesale or at a discount and reselling at retail or above on Amazon) or through what is known as private label sales. Private label sales is the process of sourcing products through a supplier, branding them as your own, and selling on Amazon. Wes Grudzien has done both and is a pro at helping others learn how to create their own online revenue using those models. Wes attributes his company’s success at selling on Amazon to their commitment to follow typical business practices. It may sound simplistic but many who sell on Amazon don’t do adequate product research, don’t work to optimize their processes or listings, and miss many of the little things that can make for a successful sales channel. If you are interested in selling on Amazon you’ll enjoy this conversation with Wes Grudzien. He’s got lots of insights into the way things work on Amazon and what it takes to be successful on the world’s largest retail platform. Make sure you take some time to listen to this one. On this episode Wes Grudzien not only shares his journey as an Amazon private label seller but also the way he’s gotten involved with the Muscular Dystrophy Association as a result. He’s got some moving stories to tell about the difference he’s been able to make in the lives of some very special people. Be sure to listen. Resources Mentioned on this episode www.Skubana.com www.LullabyLane.com www.ezonomy.com/ BOOK: Good to Great BOOK: Great By Choice BOOK: Zero To One BOOK: The Lean Startup Ryan Deiss
Amine Khechfe (AMINE KESHVE) understands the power of customer complains. He cofounded Endicia with Dr. Harry Whitehouse in the 1980’s. Endicia is a leading provider of eCommerce shipping technologies with more than $12 billion in postage printed. They help send over 500 million parcels of mail per year and account for over 60% of all online postage printed in the US. They help businesses run their shipping operations by printing shipping labels or online postage right from your desk. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:15] Jeremy’s introduction to this episode’s guest Amine Khechfe. [1:40] The issue of integration: Getting it right for software tools. [5:16] The first integration partners for Endicia. [11:47] How Endicia’s business goes up in times of recession. [13:54] The trends Amine sees in the ecommerce space because of his work with so many sellers. [20:51] How many of Endicia’s features or services came from customer feedback. [25:21] Making decisions about which ideas to implement into the product, when. [27:30] The business models Endicia works with and how they cater to their needs. [31:05] Exciting new features Endicia is working on now. [36:39] College student partnership at Endicia. [41:11] The common issues customers experience that Endicia tries to solve. [46:50] The trade shows and conferences ecommerce business leaders should attend. [51:30] The creation of the Best Holiday Shipping Bootcamp video. [55:32] How Amazon has impacted the Endicia model (Endicia started around the same time). [57:49] Fun facts about Amine. [1:03:21] Lessons Amine has learned from his co-founder, Dr. Harry Whitehouse. [1:06:06] The challenges of having such a huge customer base. [1:13:37] What Endicia learns from its competition and customers over the years. [1:15:51] How to connect with Endicia and Amine. [1:17:23] The lowest and highest moments of the journey. In this episode… Nobody in business likes to get customer complaints, but Amine Khechfe sees them as a blessing in disguise. That’s because when a customer is willing to express what they don’t like about your product or service, they are helping you to make it better - if you’ll take the initiative to do so. On this episode of Inspired Insider Amine Khechfe of Endicia shares how the company and its leadership have learned over their years of shipping experience to listen to customer complaints with an eye not only toward improvement but also toward gaining insight. Customer complaints tell them exactly what the customer’s needs are so the company can up its game and create better products. If you don’t know how to listen and learn when it comes to customer feedback you’ll wind up becoming cynical and resentful that those using your products appear not to appreciate it… And that’s the entirely wrong approach. The feedback customers provide is a gift to you as a business leader. It’s your window into their souls, into their pain points and needs, which in turn opens the door to the opportunity to increased service and more revenue. On this episode Amine Khechfe also shares the challenges that come with having such a huge number of customers and how the company has learned to address those challenges as they come up and even predict some of them before they happen. It’s a great episode with tons of insight for ecommerce businesses. And don’t miss the “Best Holiday Shipping Bootcamp” video the Endicia team has created. In Jeremy’s words, “The video is funny and engaging. It actually makes shipping sexy.” If you can make shipping sexy, you can make anything sexy. Check out the link shared on this episode to see the video for yourself. Resources Mentioned on this episode www.Skubana.com www.Endicia.com www.eBay.com www.Zoovy.com Best Holiday Shipping Bootcamp Video www.Stamps.com
Company culture is a vital part of the way Travis Romine build his companies. Travis is the Founder of Sharp Commerce. His company is a group of e commerce ninja's helping with customer engagement, retention and advanced marketing. He Took sales from $100/day to $15,000+/day over 10 year period at Paradise Fibers that he cofounded which grew to one of the top performing businesses in the needlecraft industry. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:15] Jeremy’s introduction to Travis Romine, today’s guest. [9:01] How Travis got started in ecommerce alongside his Dad. [14:11] Why Travis moved to Magento. [17:00] People want deals but they also want entertainment, a careful balance. [21:00] Using software properly so you get the biggest use of it. [37:57] Staff growth over the years: how it happened and why. [50:10] How the company had an $80K day of sales. [53:20] Failures along the way. [58:31] The decisions Travis and company had to make about phone systems. [1:07:03] The support and skill of Travis’ wife in the growth of the businesses. [1:13:23] The big mistakes ecommerce businesses are making. [1:18:12] What you can do when your sales plateau. [1:21:21] The types of clients Travis works with. [1:30:25] Software that Travis finds essential for his e commerce businesses. [1:32:40] The things Travis looks for in his software decisions. [1:38:21] Why employees make your business. [1:39:15] How Travis gives ownership of the business to employees. [1:45:40] The software showdown: Travis’ comparisons of major platforms. In this episode… There has been a lot written and said in recent years about the importance of building a healthy company culture. And the larger the company gets the more difficult it is to establish and maintain. One of the most obvious takeaways from this conversation with Travis Romine is the huge success he’s had building successful companies that scale while at the same time keeping the company culture not only healthy, but incredibly strong. All you need to see to believe it is to take a look employee and customer comments from the time frame when Travis was in charge of things. His name is mentioned repeatedly in glowing terms and the way people felt about working for him is obviously positive. Travis prefers not to think that employees are working for him, but alongside him - and that’s a huge reason why the culture of the companies he’s run has been so outstanding. But company culture is not the only thing you’ll hear on this episode. Travis has so much experience and skill in the e commerce space that the interview would be incomplete without tapping into his know-how. Travis generously shares a significant amount of wisdom about what it takes to not only build a strong company culture but to also grow and e commerce business successfully, including the software and packages that make the most sense to keep an e commerce business profitable and running smoothly. The conversation wraps up with what Jeremy calls “The Software Showdown” where he asks Travis to give his opinion about the big players in the e commerce software space, including their strong and weak points, areas where improvement is needed, and how each works in a practical, function way in real life scenarios. If you’ve been looking for the right e commerce solution and haven’t made up your mind yet, you need to listen to this conversation before you do. Resources Mentioned on this episode www.Skubana.com www.SharpCommerce.com www.ParadiseFibers.com www.Volusion.com www.Magento.com www.Bronto.com www.DotMailer.com www.Kayako.com www.Shopify.com www.Asana.com www.ListTrack.com www.SweetTooth.com www.ZenDesk.com BOOK: Drive www.BigCommerce.com
Jordan Gal is founder of Carthook, a cart abandonment software solution that recovers lost revenue by following up with potential customers who don’t complete the checkout process. Jordan previously ran a successful ecommerce business that was acquired. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:15] Jeremy’s introduction of Jordan Gal, ecommerce software developer. [1:28] The most important thing Jordan did: found a good Volusion developer. [6:03] Mistakes made on the checkout page. [7:25] The most common reasons people abandon a cart. [9:06] The power of a live chat functionality that tracks user activity on the site. [12:19] Why people abandon SaaS purchases. [14:28] Observations from working with ecommerce vendors. [20:05] A story that illustrates the importance of phone contact with prospects and customers. [24:50] The good and difficult parts of scaling an ecommerce business. [28:34] Mistakes ecommerce builders should avoid. [31:37] The major skillsets Jordan had that he would never pass to someone else. [37:00] Mistakes Jordan made building an ecommerce business. [42:01] Platforms Jordan recommends - and know that no platform is perfect. [44:38] The power of reviews on your ecommerce site. [46:00] The type of software you must have for effective ecommerce. [55:49] Best time frames for follow up of abandoned carts. [58:00] Email sequence recommendations. [1:03:51] Things Jordan has implemented because of customer feedback. [1:10:04] Things ecommerce people need to check in their business. [1:14:23] Jordan’s typical schedule to balance work and life. [1:17:30] Jordan’s journey from Israel to the U.S. and his family life. [1:25:27] Things Jordan learned from his Dad’s direct response business. [1:33:28] The highest priority step ecommerce owners should do now. In this episode… Cart abandonment is a big issue in the ecommerce space. If you can close that loop you’ll significantly increase your revenue and build a more effective follow up sequence with your customers. This episode is about helping you make cart abandonment a thing of the past. Instead of hitting on the generalities of ecommerce, this episode drills down into some of the most important aspects of how you can optimize your process to convert more shoppers on your website into paying customers. Today’s guest, Jordan Gal has a wealth of experience in direct response sales, the creation and operation of his own successful ecommerce business, and now as a software entrepreneur for Carthook, one of the best shopping cart abandonment solutions in existence. If you want to increase your revenue through capitalizing on the customers that are already visiting your ecommerce site, this episode is for you. Jordan Gal shares best practices for on page optimization, checkout page improvements, and follow up sequences for those who have abandoned the cart on your site. If you’re ready to make cart abandonment a thing of the past on your ecommerce site, this episode with Jordan Gal can move you a long way toward making sure it’s a reality. Don’t miss this one. Resources Mentioned on this episode www.Skubana.com Carthook Jordan on Twitter: @JordanGal Jordan’s blog post: The 10 Foot Test Good Morning America: How to Find and Use Online Coupon Codes GetDrip Grasshopper SiteTuners Google Docs www.GardenGnomes.com Shopify LemonStand WooCommerce Yotpo review software HelpScout Groove AdWords AutoResponder Max Magento BOOK: Startup Nation
Kenny Kane has been coding since the age 13 and began his career as a pharmacy technician at the age of 15. Kenny is COO and Cofounder of stupidcancer and he oversees eCommerce, content curation,and much more. He has also helped develop corporate relationships such as Siemens, General Motors, Seattle Genetics and many more. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:15] Jeremy’s introduction to this episode with Kenny Kane of StupidCancer.org [1:20] What is a must for sellers to boost sales and get more engagement? [5:00] How Kenny has built community for StupidCancer. [6:20] Why Kenny is still a big fan of email connections and marketing. [9:30] Self selection segmentation strategies that have worked. [13:12] The connections StupidCancer provides for people who use it. [14:29] Mistakes people make with ecommerce stores. [16:05] Fun facts about Kenny Kane. [23:08] The start of StupidCancer and what it’s all about. [29:25] The early wins in ecommerce (CafePress). [36:16] How Kenny effectively reaches out to celebrities or media types. [38:40] The “road trip” and how it came about. [43:12] The next steps for StupidCancer ecommerce: what they’re considering and the hesitations about those ideas. [46:00] What’s the toughest part about running an ecommerce store? [48:20] Inventory obstacles and difficulties. [53:46] What works with Skubana for their sales engine and fulfillment. [56:50] Resources and communities Kenny Recommends. [58:07] How to connect with Kenny. [1:01:20] Kenny’s main tip: find the intersection of minimum orders and profit. [1:03:03] Kenny’s proudest moment in ecommerce so far. In this episode… For a person in their 20s or 30s, the worst and most unexpected news they could receive is that they have cancer. When Kenny Kane was faced with the fact that his father had cancer on the day he was graduating, he was motivated to do something about it. Shortly after that he joined a group of guys who began a social movement to support and encourage young people who are battling cancer. He’s now the ecommerce whiz at www.StupidCancer.org and has lots of experience with the ecommerce and community engagement side of what the organization does. When it comes to building a successful ecommerce arm of the nonprofit, Kenny has had some pretty significant success. From promoting the community engagement that fuels the sales of their T-shirts, wristbands, and other items to the actual sales and fulfillment, Kenny has lots of hard learned lessons to share on this episode. One of the major mistakes Kenny Kane sees people make when it comes to running an ecommerce store is to depend too much on social media to drive traffic. He’s still a fan of the good old email way of reaching out, building ongoing community, and promoting sales. But he’s found some helpful ways to allow users to self-segment themselves within his email lists to make sure he’s providing ONLY the information they want to see and drive niched sales to their interests. Beyond the difficulties of driving traffic for an ecommerce store, there’s the issue of fulfillment - a huge monster that can consume your time and attention if you let it. Kenny Kane is trying to help a team run a nonprofit so the last thing he wants to be doing is folding and packaging T-shirts. On this episode he shares the tools and services he’s using to make that process more efficient and truly outsourced so that he can focus on the more important things. Resources Mentioned on this episode http://stupidcancer.org/ http://cancercon.org/ http://www.ynpn.org/ CafePress www.GetBusyLiving.clothing Volusion Big Commerce Karol Media Fulfillment 5thGear www.Inventory-Planner.com www.Skubana.com E Commerce Fuel Practical Ecommerce Shopify Blog
Our guest today is Chad Rubin, the co-founder and CEO of Skubana. Chad shares with us how he and his business partner developed Skubana. Skubana is an All-in-One E-Commerce Operation software. It allows Amazon sellers and other e-marketplace sellers to run their business from one central location without tons of employees or software costs. During the show today Chad tells us about his background and how Skubana has changed the way e-commerce get done. He offers his insight on the future of Amazon and how the Chinese market is going to change things. There is a ton of great information on today's podcast. Some of the topics we cover are: Chad's background on Wall Street and Crucial Vacuum How multiple softwares can get expensive and useless The ups and downs of running a warehouse Working with Wal-Mart.com and Jet.com How e-commerce is like Monopoly Chad's opinion on the future of marketplaces How ecommerce has embraced “Amazon-faction” Also today Chad is offering to give a free copy of his book Cheaper, Easier, Direct to our listeners. Plus anyone needing referrals to 3PLs can e-mail Chad at chad@skubana.com. Resources Mentioned Today: Colorit Cuttingboard.com Skubana Amazon Cheaper, Easier, Direct, by: Chad Rubin and Frank Turner Jet.com Crucial Vacuum If you have any questions or anything you'd like us to discuss on the podcast please go to ecomcrew.com and fill out the contact form. Also we would really appreciate if you would leave us a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!
Today I have Chad Rubin with me on the show. Chad is an ecommerce veteran who has been selling online for quite some time. He’s the founder of Crucial Vacuum which is a company that is worth 20 million dollars with only 2 employees. He’s also the creator of Skubana which is software that will pretty much manage your entire ecommerce operation. What You’ll Learn How Chad got into ecommerce and why he decided to sell vacuum filters. The challenges of selling on his own site. How he exponentially grew his business by leveraging other marketplaces. How he established a […] The post 117: How To Create A 20M Dollar Company With Only 2 Employees Selling Vacuum Filters With Chad Rubin appeared first on MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.
Joe Winke is the Founder of 3 companies... Healthy Surprise which is a subscription healthy snack box, The Dirt Personal Care company- which sells high quality personal items, and Jambo Superfoods company which is high quality herbal and cannibus infused edibles. He has been featured by the Wall Street Journal, Oprah.com, Playboy.com and many others. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: Pre-show Banter [0:01] Joe’s explanations of some intriguing things posted on his Facebook page [12:50] Joe’s travels to Africa. [22:17] The Cannabis business, differences between states. Introduction to this episode [30:00] Jeremy’s introduction of today’s guest, Joe Winke. [31:55] How Jeremy’s company got the name “Give Me The Dirt.” [35:22] How Joe got started in business and personal development. [39:00] Joe’s thoughts on rising early and getting things done. [42:18] One of Joe’s first business ideas that never got going. [45:00] How Joe wound up in Los Angeles on his first cross country trip. [47:20] How saving up money allowed Joe to get started with his business ideas. [48:33] The beginnings of www.HealthySurprise.com [1:08:30] The growth pains and adjustments the business had to make. [1:10:24] The next biggest wave of customers: Daily Deals/Flash Deals. [1:13:50] Figuring out the pricing. [1:18:00] How funding actually works when you raise capital for a startup, and the hard lessons Joe learned.. [1:23:26] The power of being honest with investors and suppliers when you face hard times. [1:28:10] Pivoting from positioning as a “grocery” business into a “gift” business. [1:30:19] When vendors started coming to Joe to be a part of what he was doing. [1:32:00] Customer feedback: lessons learned and reactions. [1:34:20] Why Joe thinks his company survived when others haven’t. [1:37:00] Lessons learned about shipping. [1:38:00] The product as a gift: how it works to make that transition. [1:41:33] Joe’s biggest lesson with HealthySurprise: Charge more. [1:44:01] The current space needs for HealthySurprise. [1:49:46] The biggest points of traction for the company. [1:52:30] Endorsements, marketing efforts, and building authority. [1:57:50] How to press forward and get to be the best at what you do. [1:58:10] The creation of www.JamboSuperFoods.com and why Joe made the move. [2:08:08] challenges and milestones with JamboSuperfoods from the first sale until now. [2:14:04] Why Jeremy has Skubana as a sponsor. [2:14:56] Joe’s lowest point in business. [2:17:30] Joe’s finest moment. [2:19:20] Why Joe describes himself as a mystic. In this episode… Joe Winke is one of those guys who grew up in an entrepreneurial family. His father was a businessman and early on Joe knew he probably would run his own business someday. By the time he finished college he was on his way to California to start a business, even though he didn't know what it would be. On this episode you were going to hear the story and the many successes and failures that have made his companies the outstanding businesses that they are. Starting any business is difficult, but bootstrapping it from your own funds is probably the hardest way. So when he has done that with every business he has built, at least at the beginning stages, but is also a pro at navigating the fundraising aspects of a startup. His experiences and stories on this episode will equip you to navigate those waters as well. A successful business that needed to do better. Joe Winkes first successful business was www.HealthySurprise.com, a subscription service that provides healthy snack foods for people who are conscious of putting only the best things into their bodies. The business was doing great, but he knew it could do better. One of the most important steps he took to make that happen with pivoting the way the business was positioned and promoted. Instead of making it about groceries, he decided should be made out to be a gift. That one crucial pivot changed everything. Learn how he did it and why he did it, and how you can do the same when needed in your business. It's all on this episode. How do you go about pricing your products? It's not an easy answer to come up with. When he was building his business, healthy surprise, Joe Winke discovered that one of the biggest mistakes he had made was underpricing what he was offering. There were too many variables and overhead items and his margins were far too low. He got into a financial bind and one of the answers was to increase his pricing while increasing quality at the same time. Hear Joe’s lessons learned and how he made the adjustments on this episode. What has been your lowest point in business? If you're like most entrepreneurs it probably had to do with tough times surrounding lack of sales or lack of profit. Joe Winke’s story is the same. On this episode you can hear how he struggled through his hardest moments, how he dealt with creditors, and the benefit was to be honest about his struggles from the start. Resources Mentioned on this episode www.Skubana.com www.HealthySurprise.com www.JamboSuperfoods.com www.GiveMeTheDirt.com BOOK: The 4 Hour Work Week The Joe Rogan Podcast
Joe Winke is the Founder of 3 companies... Healthy Surprise which is a subscription healthy snack box, The Dirt Personal Care company- which sells high quality personal items, and Jambo Superfoods company which is high quality herbal and cannibus infused edibles. He has been featured by the Wall Street Journal, Oprah.com, Playboy.com and many others. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: Preshow Banter [0:01] Joe’s explanation of some interesting things on his Facebook page. Introduction of this episode [29:56] Jeremy’s introduction of his guest, Joe Winke. [31:17] The lowest point in Joe’s journey as an entrepreneur. [32:02] Lessons learned about pricing products. [46:03] How you can connect with Joe. [46:50] Why Joe describes himself as a “mystic.” In this episode… What has been your lowest point in business? If you're like most entrepreneurs it probably had to do with tough times surrounding lack of sales or lack of profit. Joe Winke’s story is the same. On this episode you can hear how he struggled through his hardest moments, how he dealt with creditors, and the benefit was to be honest about his struggles from the start. How do you go about pricing your products? It's not an easy answer to come up with. When he was building his business, healthy surprise, Joe Winke discovered that one of the biggest mistakes he had made was underpricing what he was offering. There were too many variables and overhead items and his margins were far too low. He got into a financial bind and one of the answers was to increase his pricing while increasing quality at the same time. Hear Joe’s lessons learned and how he made the adjustments on this episode. Resources Mentioned on this episode www.Skubana.com www.HealthySurprise.com www.JamboSuperfoods.com www.GiveMeTheDirt.com BOOK: The 4 Hour Work Week The Joe Rogan Podcast
Farbod Deylamian and Kyle Lewis are cofounders of Sriracha2Go, a company catering to the needs of Sriracha fans worldwide. they make keychain togo bottles so you can carry your srircha sauce with you everywhere. They sold through their initial order of 20K units in 2 weeks and they sold over 10k 3 packs on groupon in a week and received investment from Mark Cuban’s investment company. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [0:35] Jeremy’s introduction of his guest, Farbod and Kyle. [1:38] Farbod’s “rap” stage when he dominated the scene. [3:24] Kyle’s slicked-back hair as a kid. [4:46] How Kyle and Farbod meet in San Francisco. [5:59] Lessons learned working at a startup. [8:10] Commitments they made to do some things differently in their company. [11:05] Business culture lessons. [17:07] Coming up with innovative ideas to spread the word about their product. [18:02] What led up to their product idea? [22:36] Advice they received as they were starting their business. [25:41] Mistakes made in manufacturing and lessons they learned from them. [29:45] The hardest step before launch. [36:00] A 2 stage launch plan. [43:04] Infrastructure choices: shopping carts, shipment handling, etc. [48:10] The Buzzfeed incident and how it skyrocketed product sales. [53:56] Finding a connection to a new manufacturer that changed everything. [55:29] Packing and shipping the first massive orders by hand and with friends. [58:59] The buzz about their product after the Buzzfeed article. [1:03:00] The impact of Twitter on their product awareness. [1:05:05] Huy Fong Foods reaches out to the guys and they quit their jobs. [1:09:06] The course of the licensing conversation: the legal part and the business part. [1:15:30] Getting sriracha sauce into every person’s hands. [1:16:00] Reaching out to Mark Cuban: what they said in the email to get his response. [1:20:04] Structuring the deal with Mark Cuban’s organization. [1:22:56] The best advice Mark has provided so far. [1:24:06] Invaluable advice and help that’s come from Mark’s team. [1:25:36] Retail sales are rocking. [1:27:30] Finding the right people to get the packaging design right. [1:32:43] The online strategy: word of mouth and more. [1:36:10] Advice about navigating Amazon as a distribution channel. [1:37:45] What’s keeping the guys up at night now? [1:41:56] The product development and ideation process the guys use. [1:44:55] The lowest and proudest moments the guys have experienced in their business journey. In this episode… What’s the craziest roller coaster you’ve ever ridden? Whether you’re a fan of roller coasters or not, you’ll get the comparison when you listen to his episode. That’s because the entrepreneurial journey has been likened to a roller coaster, and in this episode you’re going to hear exactly how true that has been for two ordinary guys who didn’t know what they were getting into. Farbod Deylamian and Kyle Lewis are the founders of a product based company, Sriracha2Go, a miniature, refillable Sriracha dispenser that has rocked the retail world. Their journey begins in the form of a running joke between the two of them that morphed into a product idea. As they pursued the idea, iterated, took another step, then tweaked things a bit more, they finally reached the top of the first big hill and the company has rocketed around the track ever since. In this conversation you’re going to hear their very honest and open answers to Jeremy’s questions regarding how their business started, how the product idea came about, the things they’ve done to move it forward, and the unexpected blessings and hurdles that have come all along the way. Those include running out of product in a matter of days after launch, getting their product licensed by the world’s largest sriracha distributor, sending an investment pitch email to Mark Cuban and getting a response within 2 hours, and much, much more. These two guys have been on the ride of their lives and both feel that there’s still a lot more ahead. Listen in to get the details on their product development, how they chose their software solutions for ecommerce, email, shipping and fulfillment, and lots of other practical, actionable tips. Once you hear this chat, you’ll glad you listened to this episode of Inspired Insider. Resources Mentioned on this episode www.Siracha2Go.com - find them on all social media as well. www.Skubana.com - Ecommerce platform http://www.extol.com/ - the startup where Farbod and Kyle met. www.Oracle.com www.Shopify.com www.BigCommerce.com www.Volusian.com www.WooCommerce.com http://goshippo.com/fresh/ www.MailChimp.com www.Slack.com www.Asana.com Google Analytics Amazon www.BuzzFeed.com Huy Fong Foods Shark Tank Mark Cuban Inc. Magazine Article www.MarkCubanCompanies.com
Farbod Deylamian and Kyle Lewis are cofounders of Sriracha2Go, a company catering to the needs of Sriracha fans worldwide. they make keychain togo bottles so you can carry your srircha sauce with you everywhere. They sold through their initial order of 20K units in 2 weeks and they sold over 10k 3 packs on groupon in a week and received investment from Mark Cuban’s investment company. In this episode… What would you do if the HUGE order of products you got from your distributor sold out much faster than you thought? In this conversation you’re going to hear Farbod and Kyle’s honest and open answers to Jeremy’s questions about their highest and lowest points since the start of their business - and they both happened on the same day, caused by the same event: Running out of product far ahead of what they anticipated. These guys have a great entrepreneurial perseverance that you’ve be inspired by. Listen to their responses to a very challenging situation and discover some tips you can take away to help you navigate the difficult waters your business will face. Resources Mentioned on this episode www.Sriracha2Go.com www.Skubana.com The full interview of these two guys.
Neil Patel is the co-founder of Hello Bar, KISSmetrics and Crazy Egg, businesses that helped over 50K companies grow their revenue. He helped companies like Amazon, NBC, and Viacom grow their profits as well. He runs a popular site Quicksprout, and The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine call him a top influencer on the web. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn in this show: [0:45] Introduction of Neil Patel, today’s guest. [1:56] Neil’s participation at a conference in Romania, what he was doing and what he learned. [2:32] Things that international audiences resonate with just like everyone else. [3:20] Taking the long term approach. [3:38] The most common question from E-commerce founders. [4:40] Recommendations for cart abandonment (a listener question). [5:24] How to take full advantage of the 4th quarter. [5:50] The most important conversion drivers for E-commerce. [6:40] Mistakes e-commerce businesses are making. [7:53] How to drive traffic when you’re first starting out. [10:11] What Neil is up to today and the future of Quicksprout. [11:22] The advice Neil gives to Amazon when he consults with them. [11:49] What should companies be doing for conversion optimization. [12:36] Tools people should use for surveys and reaching out to their customers. [12:49] Challenges coming to E-commerce in the future. [13:33] How does Neil create so much content and decide what he’s going to work on next. [14:05] How to increase engagement with your content. [15:14] Things Neil is working on that he’s excited about. [16:00] The pages to optimize on your E-commerce site. [16:38] How Neil would begin a brand new product site. [17:09] Neil’s latest goal with Quicksprout. [17:37] Software Neil suggests for an E-commerce site. [18:10] A low moment Neil experienced, and a high moment in his business ventures. [18:56] A success story from Neil’s experience. [19:50] Simple ways to define the changes you need to make on your website. [21:05] A typical day for Neil Patel. [22:19] Events coming up where Neil is speaking. [23:10] Things Neil has learned from international relationships. [23:39] How to advance your business the most. [24:34] The best way to advance your E-commerce business today. In this episode… What would happen if your E-commerce business increased sales conversions by 10%? OK, now what about 20%? Depending on your current level of revenue, that could be a significant amount of increased revenue, and it just might have the potential of creating a very merry holiday season for you! If you don’t know Jeremy’s guest on today’s show, Neil Patel, you must be from another universe. Neil is the foremost expert on E-commerce and web traffic. Neil is a very generous guy, both with is knowledge and with his time, and his interaction with Jeremy on this episode of Inspired Insider is no different. In characteristic style, Neil shares an amazing amount of knowledge, very helpful resources, and E-commerce upgrades you can make to your own site that could increase your conversions 10%, 20%, or even more. You’ll also hear the two of them dive into the most common things people ask Neil about E-commerce, the common mistakes people make on their E-com sites, and what things Neil has been learning about the international audiences he’s been interacting with lately, and how those interactions are informing the way he’s modifying his E-commerce and traffic strategies. And what if you’re brand new to all this stuff? How should you get started with E-commerce? Neil answers that exact question by resorting to a tried and true tactic for traffic generation that isn’t the most glamorous tool in the box, but is one of the most effective you’ll find… at least at this point in time. So think about it again: What would your 4th quarter look like if you started increasing your E-commerce and web traffic today? If you’ take the 30 minutes to listen to this episode you’re going to learn some very practical, actionable tips that you could do right now to make that a reality. That’s no joke. So make sure you fit this one into your schedule. It could truly make a difference in your bottom line by the end of the year. Our special and sincere “Thanks” to Neil Patel for giving of his time and energy for the Inspired Insider audience today. Resources Mentioned on this episode www.Skubana.com www.QuickSprout.com www.KissMetrics.com www.CrazyEgg.com Hello Bar Rejoiner & Two Step Checkout www.SurveyMonkey.com Qualaroo Magento Shopify Bounce Exchange www.UserTesting.com
Jason Boyce is coFounder of Dazadi.com. They sell home recreational products including basketball hoops, game tables, fitness equipment, and much more. He has over 13 years of e-commerce experience and started Dazadi.com in 2002 with his 3 brothers. They have over 10,000 products on their site with 100K skus in queue. http://www.inspiredinsider.com/jason-boyce-ecommerce-one-question-inspires/ After completing his Finance degree at Cal State Northridge, Jason Boyce gained valuable management experience as a commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps. After leaving the Marine Corps, Jason worked as a sales person at Johnson & Johnson. In 2002, Jason co-founded Dazadi.com and has been its CEO since 2004. Founded by four brothers - Ari, Jason, Elan and Josh - in May of 2002, Dazadi.com began as a modest basketball hoop internet retailer. Born around the family dinner table and initially headquartered in Ari's small downtown L. A. apartment, Dazadi.com now offers over 5,000 products, an extremely high level of customer service, and some of the finest home recreational goods brands in the world. As natives of Los Angeles, the boys loved playing outdoors almost year-round and shared some of their most memorable bonding experiences on the court. Quality family time often meant an afternoon shooting hoops or taking in a game together. So when Ari first conceived of selling hoops online, he envisioned a company that would reflect his passion for basketball. Jason, then completing his last months as a Marine, found himself immediately thrilled by the idea and was the first of the four to join Ari in his pursuit. They enlisted the help of talented youngest brother Josh. Josh, then only a junior in high school, designed and built the very first website, SuperDuperHoops.com. Shortly after the launch of SuperDuperHoops.com, Elan left his position at Nike to join the family business and expanded the company's focus to include a Game Table category. With a widening selection, and the combined passion and expertise of its four founders, Dazadi.com took shape. The unique name (pronounced DAZZ-uh-dee) is a combination of the word "audacity" (meaning bold or daring) and "tzadik" (the Hebrew word for a righteous person). The Dazadi story continues to be about family. The company is still helmed by Jason, Elan and Josh. These days, Dazadi offers much more than just basketball hoops and game tables. We offer an incredible selection of expertly curated products from bicycles to swimming pools; from treadmills to jukeboxes. We've got you covered from the front yard to the back. As the official Home of Awesome, our goal is to make your yard, game room or family dinner table the place where great memories are shared.
7 years ago, right in the heat of the 2008 recession, Chad Rubin took over his parents' failing vacuum brick and mortar business and converted it to an Ecommerce and Amazon Private Label business called Crucial Vacuum selling own-branded vacuum spare and accessories such as: vacuum bags, vacuum rollers, vacuum hoses, vacuum filter and vacuum belts. Over time, he has turned Crucial Vacuum into a leading brand in the Vacuum parts and accessories space largely through his Amazon stores in the US, Canada, UK and Germany.Where they currently rank number 1 in the vacuum accessory space and are amongst the top 300 sellers on Amazon.com (they ranked #298) and top 1000 Amazon Worldwide sellers (they ranked #540). Chad's entrepreneurial eyes have more recently spotted the absence of a cost efficient all-in-one backend SaaS solution for multi-channel sellers. Realising this gap, he went on to co-found Skubana, a cloud-based multi-channel solution that focuses on backend processes in order fulfillment such as: printing shipping labels, stock and inventory management, warehouse replenishments connected to front end order management systems and SKU profitability analytics. Chad and I had a conversation lasting well over an hour about scaling an Amazon business and the need for a solution like Skubana when scaling an ecommerce business. Message from Our Sponsors: This episode is brought to you by Remarkety. Remarkety is an email marketing platform specifically built for eCommerce businesses.With Remarkety, emails are automatically triggered by shopper behaviour and purchase history.With a few simple clicks, Remarkety allows you Recover abandoned carts, win back inactive customers, make product recommendations, deliver newsletters and more.In other words, emails you will send through Remarkety will be highly targeted: with glaring improvements on your open rates, click rates and, most importantly, conversions. You are also able to track revenue generated from every single email sent by Remarkety. Try Remarkety absolutely free for 30-days. No credit cards and no contracts.To sweeten the deal, 2x eCommerce listeners can get Remarkety for 30% off an entire year using the coupon code PODCAST30. Visit Remarkety.com to learn more.Remarkety is email marketing for eCommerce. Simplified.
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