Podcasts about sourcify

Nathan Resnick is the Founder of Sourcify, the fastest-growing sourcing platform that helps hundreds of companies manufacture products worldwide. He has launched dozens of products and, until recently, owned three companies before exiting one of his entities. Nathan has penned several articles for Entrepreneur, The Next Web, and frequents as a guest expert on CNBC. Nathan spent several years living in China and is fluent in Mandarin. In this episode… Sourcing is the process of finding and acquiring products a business needs to sell. Though a complex and time-consuming process, it's essential to the success of a business. But if you're an amateur e-commerce entrepreneur, you may not know where to start.  Sourcing expert Nathan Resnick recommends doing the research, as there are different ways to source products. You can find suppliers through online directories, trade shows, or networking with other businesses. Once you've found a few potential suppliers, your next step is to carefully evaluate them to ensure they'll provide you with products at a competitive rate.  In this episode of the eComm Breakthrough Podcast, Josh Hadley welcomes Nathan Resnick, Founder and CEO of Sourcify, to discuss product sourcing and supply chain. Nathan shares sourcing strategies to scale a business, how to negotiate with manufacturers, and why business owners should use Section 321. Whether you're a veteran or novice entrepreneur, Nathan is primed with useful nuggets to supercharge your business. So, stop what you're doing and tune in now! 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 Nathan Resnick on LinkedIn Nathan on Twitter Sourcify Special Mention(s): Kevin King Howard Thai on LinkedIn Steve Simonson on LinkedIn Dylan Whitman on LinkedIn Tim Ferriss on LinkedIn The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss Related Episode(s): “Kevin King's Wicked-Smart Tips for Building an Audience of Raving Fans” “Mastermind Level Strategies From a Former Top 50 Amazon Seller With Howard Thai” “Actions You Must Take To Prepare Your Business for a Recession”

Today I’m excited to have Nathan Resnick back on the show. Nathan is the founder of Sourcify, which is a company that helps you find manufacturers to produce your products. The sourcing landscape has changed dramatically since COVID, so Nathan is going to give us a run down of the sourcing environment in China and how you should negotiate with suppliers today. What You’ll Learn The future of ecommerce product sourcing How the sourcing environment has changed since COVID-19 The current state of freight forwarding Other Resources And Books Sourcify Sponsors Postscript.io – Postscript.io is the SMS marketing platform that […] The post 448: The Future of Ecommerce Product Sourcing: What You Need to Know With Nathan Resnick appeared first on MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.

On this episode of DTC Pod, Nathan joins Blaine to talk about how to work with manufacturing partners to bring a product to life. They cover lessons from working with over 1000s of factories in several countries, avoiding the biggest pitfalls of manufacturing, building software to streamline the process, moving from CEO to the board, frameworks for building companies, new projects he's excited about, AI and it's application to CX, finding scale, and more.Timestamps:[00:03:01] Bringing a product to life requires many details; choosing the right factory is essential for successful ecommerce.[00:05:59] COVID has prevented travel to Asia, alibaba is pay to play, communication via WeChat, verify factory capacity and history, specs detailed in tech pack, test production run, third party inspection.[00:11:03] Factories typically produce same products in same city; forecasting and transparency important; visit factory to understand how product is made; consider potential defect areas.[00:14:15] Few ask how product costs are determined.[00:16:03] Started in 2016 with flat fee product sourcing, raised seed round, built software, SaaS revenue plus commission on production, saved customers 10% of unit costs, worked with/outgrown by customers, new deal with isba, hired CEO, reinvest in technology/team/customers.[00:20:05] Building relationships with suppliers and expanding sourcing team to source globally for better terms and pricing.[00:23:28] China remains the world's manufacturing hub due to low cost of labor, electricity and nuclear energy. America is providing incentives to bring manufacturing back to the US, but it is difficult to compete with China.[00:26:54] Never be single-sourced; have backup supplier; consider cost and lead time when exploring outside of China.[00:29:38] AI used for faster iteration in marketing and customer service with Caffeinated CX for improved efficiency.[00:32:19] Using AI to increase brand impressions by clipping and reposting ads on YouTube Shorts, TikToks, etc., and looking at blended ROAS for success."Bringing Products to Life: "There's so many nuances to it, even this hat, there's so many different materials that go into a simple hat like this. A lot of people come to us and say, hey, we want to produce a T shirt, right? But there's so many cuts and trims and fabrics that go into a shirt that you really have to dial in exactly what you want."— Nathan Resnick 03:01"Third-Party Inspections: "When you receive product and it's not what you expected, it's a horrible position to be in - so get third-party inspections done, even at the scale of sourceify, we always do them, because it's just insurance for your product."— Nathan Resnick 05:59Shownotes powered by Castmagic Past guests & brands on DTC Pod include Gilt, PopSugar, Glossier, MadeIN, Prose, Bala, P.volve, Ritual, Bite, Oura, Levels, General Mills, Mid Day Squares, Prose, Arrae, Olipop, Ghia, Rosaluna, Form, Uncle Studios & many more.Additional episodes you might like:• #175 Ariel Vaisbort - How OLIPOP Runs Influencer, Community, & Affiliate Growth• #184 Jake Karls, Midday Squares - Turning Your Brand Into The Influencer With Content• #205 Kasey Stewart: Suckerz- - Powering Your Launch With 300 Million Organic Views• #219 JT Barnett: The TikTok Masterclass For Brands• #223 Lauren Kleinman: The PR & Affiliate Marketing Playbook• ​​​​#243 Kian Golzari - Source & Develop Products Like The World's Best Brands-----Have any questions about the show or topics you'd like us to explore further?Shoot us a DM; we'd love to hear from you.Want the weekly TL;DR of tips delivered to your mailbox?Check out our newsletter hereFollow us for content, clips, giveaways, & updates!DTCPod InstagramDTCPod TwitterDTCPod TikTokNathan Resnick - Founder of SourcifyRamon Berrios - CEO of Trend.ioBlaine Bolus - Co-Founder of Seated

Nathan Resnick is the CEO of Sourcify, a platform that makes manufacturing easy for their clients and Bubble Hotels, a leader in the "glamping" industry that builds clear dome bubbles to allow for camping under the stars without sacrificing the comforts of home. In the past, Nathan has brought dozens of products to market, ran three ecommerce companies, and been a part of projects on Kickstarter raising over seven figures.

Any time is a good time to start a company. In this episode, I talked with Nathan Resnick who started young as 15 for being a businessman and entrepreneur. After graduating college in 2017, he founded Sourcify - an international sourcing company that has remarkably brought approximately 10% of savings on costs and production to hundreds of brands around the world. Nathan Resnick is the founder and CEO of Sourcify, a platform that simplifies manufacturing. Throughout his career, he has developed dozens of products. He's now running his 8 figure company Sourcify and Bubble Hotel. In this episode, we discussed hows the supply chain internationally during pandemics, his a venture into real estate, and many more. Quotable Quotes: "We're always looking to help our customers cut costs, while also improving quality and lead time. So those are kind of the three main pillars, we look at cost, quality, and lead time. (15:17) “I was never a good writer, like, I got to actually D in English. My junior year of high school, I was like, so bad in English class, my teacher was like; “Hey never going to publish, never going to be an author or whatever.” (11:08) “In real estate, in general, it's all about finding the deal. You know, it doesn't matter if you're doing duplexes doesn't matter. If you're doing storage units, it's literally all about finding the deal.” (29:10) Don't Miss: Nathan's E-commerce Journey when he's 15 (1:26) Supply Chain Difficulties during pandemic (12:24) Unique Glamping Hotel Experience with Bubble Hotel (19:55) E-commerce to Real Estate Venture (21:55) Hospitality Business (27:44) Nathan's Bussiness and Personal Goal (40:47) Connect with Nathan: LinkedIn Want to hear about new episodes? Subscribe via email and check us out on Twitter: @TheNextGenPod

Nathan Resnick is the President and Co-founder of Sourcify, the fastest-growing sourcing platform that helps hundreds of companies manufacture products around the world. He's also the Owner of Bubble Hotels, is an angel investor and startup advisor, and is a Writer for Entrepreneur Media and HuffPost. Nathan prides himself on his ability to learn and move fast. By the age of 27, he had three seven-figure startups under his belt. He believes that anyone can be an A player with the right tools. In this episode… From the pandemic to supply chain issues to global tensions, ecommerce brands have faced severe challenges over the past few years. So what can you do to grow your brand during these difficult times? According to Nathan Resnick, shipping delays, costs, and supply chain issues will likely decrease in the future. However, many successful brands have already learned where they need to focus their efforts: on the data and the big picture. This is true for both established ecommerce brands and companies in their early stages. To work through challenges, you need to become more data-driven, plan further ahead, and keep the big picture top of mind. In this episode of the eCommerce Profits Podcast, Joshua Chin is joined by Nathan Resnick, President and Co-founder of Sourcify, to talk about his strategies to grow and scale a brand. Nathan shares stories from his entrepreneurial journey, his thoughts on the future of global manufacturing, and tips for building a brand or product around a community.

Nathan Resnick, CEO & Co-founder of Sourcify, joins us as he shares: ✔️How studying abroad in China (and learning Mandarin!) during high school led him to starting his first e-commerce company and ultimately co-founding Sourcify. ✔️ His experiences bringing dozens of products to market, running three e-commerce companies (and selling one), and being a part of projects on Kickstarter that raised over seven figures. ✔️ His story of how he got into Y-Combinator, travelled Europe for FREE for 6 months, and additional advice for entrepreneurs and startups. ✔️ The ins and outs of turning ideas into reality, taking action on any project, learning quickly, and all while having fun doing it!

François Majean (@Franmjn) & Jeddi Mees (@antinertia) présentent le 4ième épisode The Farmspot Podcast dans lequel ils discutent des business intéressants qu'ils découvrent. Dans cet épisode, on parle : 1. De l'avènement des communautés "Men only" (wejunto.com, joinsail.co, dailydad.com) 2. De thieve.co : le site web de produits Aliexpress "community sourced" instagramable qui sert d'inspi à toute une communauté de dropshippers 3. De sourcify.com, l'outil de sourcing d'usines qualifiées en Chine 4. Des market networks, ces nouvelles marketplaces intégrées qui poussent l'expérience utilisateur à 360° 5. Du maker (https://twitter.com/jdnoc) qui a créé un addon chrome qui génère $29k/m & qui permet aux vendeurs d'automatiser plein d'actions poshmark closet.tools 6. cloudkidzpreschool.com, une autre école en ligne gérée par une seule personne ! Si toi aussi tu cherches les meilleurs spot de farm sur internet, abonne toi à notre newsletter sur www.farmspot.co et rejoins la communauté : https://team826127.typeform.com/to/wH... Retrouvez-nous sur twitter Jeddi Mees (@antinertia) : https://twitter.com/antinertia François Majean (@Franmjn) : https://twitter.com/Franmjn

Alex Carter joins us from Product Sourcing School as he has now launched his ecom brand, Flatbed Footwear. Alex walks us through his manufacturing process, brand vision, and goals on this episode of Product Sourcing Stories! For more information on Flatbed Footwear, go to https://flatbedfootwear.com/ For more information on Sourcify, go to www.sourcify.com

To learn more about Bomfy Blankets, visit: https://bomfyb.com/ To learn more about Sourcify, visit: https://www.sourcify.com/

Dee Murthy is building a modern day ecommerce empire, running a number of brands including Menlo Club, Grand AC, New Republic, and more To follow Dee, find him on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/deemurthy To learn more about Sourcify, visit https://www.sourcify.com/

In this episode, we dive into third party logistics with Andrew Sutton, the Head of Operations at Tipsy Elves. To learn more about Tipsy Elves, visit: https://www.tipsyelves.com/ To learn more about Sourcify, visit: https://www.sourcify.com/

In this interview with Roe Morris and Evan Tate, we learn the ins and outs of Brutal Buddha. To see their products, visit https://www.brutalbuddhagear.com/ To learn more about Sourcify, visit https://www.sourcify.com/

Nathan Resnick, CEO of Sourcify, brought to life 100 products and projects by democratizing manufacturing. He shares his strategies given the current pandemic as well as the looming trade war of the US with China.~WHAT YOU’LL LEARN~ Working with China in the time of the Pandemic Effects of the Trade Tension of the US with China How to get started with Sourcing Trends and Tips ~KEY POINTS~ China remains to be the biggest possible manufacturing partner given that requirements for orders are very low. Other nations would be working with bigger companies that have bigger order volume.Diversification of supply source would depend on the particular country given that each country would have its own expertise.When sourcing, it is important that your specifications are ready, especially if the item is customized. This prevents miscommunication and loss on both parties.There is a rise in single product funnels that have a possibility for upscales and cross sales in the ecomm community.~CONTACT DETAILS~Nathan Resnick on LinkedIn or Twitterwww.Sourcify.com

To learn more about Sourcify, visit www.sourcify.com To learn more about Organifi, visit www.organifi.com

Nathan Resnick is the CEO of Sourcify, the fastest growing sourcing platform backed by YCombinator that helps hundreds of companies manufacture products around the world. In the past, Nathan has brought dozens of products to market, ran three e-commerce companies (sold one), and been a part of projects on Kickstarter raising over seven figures. He writes for media outlets like Entrepreneur, The Next Web and Business.com, just to name a few. Nathan also frequently appears on television networks like CNBC and CNN to comment on the China-US trade war, tariffs, COVID-19 and other current affairs that have a huge impact on global sourcing and manufacturing. Nathan also used to live in China and speaks Mandarin fluently. When he's not in a factory or selling software, he can be found mountain biking, sailing, skiing, fishing, or hiking. Nathan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanresnick/ Nathan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/naterez94 Nathan's company: https://www.sourcify.com/ Product Sourcing School: https://www.sourcify.com/programs/ Companies Nathan mentioned in our conversation: https://italic.com/ - Luxury without labels https://cutsclothing.com/ - Fashion https://www.freightos.com/ - Freight forwarding https://www.flexport.com/ - Freight forwarding https://www.v-trust.com/ - Quality control in China https://www.qima.com/ - Quality control in Asia

Jason Vessey is a former senior consultant turned ecommerce founder who runs Arcturus Gear, the creators of legendary outdoor sporting gear. To learn more about Arcturus Gear, visit: https://arcturusgear.com/ To learn more about Sourcify, visit https://www.sourcify.com/

If you make goods or want to make goods, this episode is for you. Nathan Resnick, CEO of Sourcify, joins me to discuss the sourcing industry. Nathan has a lot of great insight on making bids, sourcing, manufacturing, where there's opportunity, the future of sourcing and more. As a B2B manufacturing platform, Sourcify has helped 100's of companies make products.  Connection with Nathan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanresnick/ Follow Dee on: Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/deemurthy Twitter → https://twitter.com/deemurthy LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/dee-murthy-8a3557/

Nathan Resnick CEO at Sourcify is interviewed in this episode. Sourcify is the fastest growing sourcing platform backed by YCombinator that helps hundreds of companies manufacture products around the world. Follow Adam on Instagram at Ask Adam Torres for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule. Apply to become a featured co-author in one of Adam's upcoming books: https://www.moneymatterstoptips.com/coauthor --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/moneymatters/support

Sourcing is one of our go-to topics on the podcast. There are so many moving parts and different ways to approach it.  I’ve been so fortunate to have sourcing experts come on the show and share insights on this. Today’s episode is no different.  I’m joined by Nathan Resnick, the CEO, and co-founder of Sourcify, an intuitive sourcing platform that helps companies find new products around the world.  In our discussion, Nathan speaks mainly on how to go about sourcing when you’re a novice. And, if you’re a veteran at it, how to cut costs without sacrificing product quality.  In this episode you’ll learn: How Nathan got into sourcing (8:42) How to source your first product (9:11) Ratios: private labeling versus manufacturing your own - customized molds (16:49) The three-pillar approach for cutting costs on sourcing products (23:44) On the importance of third-party inspections (32:29) Our talk ends with Nathan emphasizing the importance of striking an effective balance when dealing with the three pillars of sourcing - price, quality, and lead time.  We recently did a series of webinars with Helium 10, which we turned into a mini-course. Head over to ecomcrew.com/helium to watch the entire 3-part series. In Vancouver this week? Drop by the CRAFT Beer Market and have a drink with us. Sign up for the meetup here! Finally, if you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

Nathan Resnick is the founder of Sourcify, the fastest growing sourcing platform that helps hundreds of companies manufacture products around the world. In the past, Nathan has brought dozens of products to market, ran three ecommerce companies (sold one), and has been a part of projects on Kickstarter that raised over seven figures. He writes for media outlets like Entrepreneur, The Next Web, Business.com, and more. Nathan also used to live in China and speaks Mandarin.   Nathan’s goal with Sourcify is to bring a level of transparency to sourcing that makes it clear what you are paying for your product and simple to use.    To learn more, visit: https://electriceye.io/podcast   Resources: Learn more at: https://www.sourcify.com/ Blog: https://www.sourcify.com/blog/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nathan.resnick8 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanresnick/ Start a Simplr free trial: simplr.ai/honest   Honest eCommerce is produced by Crate Media

Nathan Resnick is currently the CEO of Sourcify, a job he’s been unknowingly working toward since his first day in middle school when he resold Livestrong bracelets at a margin. At Sourcify, Nathan helps companies manage and organize their entire production process within a single platform, helping them to say aligned and efficient. “Growing up, I was always entrepreneurial,” Nathan says. “I don't know if I learned it from anyone necessarily, but really a turning point or information and resource that I had was honestly The 4-Hour Workweek. I read that book my senior year of high school and it was just an eye-opener. Honestly, I was like, ‘Wow we can optimize, automate, and it doesn't seem that hard to start a business.’” Of course, starting a business is far from easy, and everyone who builds their own company knows that there are hardships and challenges along the way. But for Nathan, simply having processes in place for everything, keeping his ideas and plans mapped out, and hiring the right people have made a world of difference.  On today’s episode, he explains his secrets to success, including how he overcame the challenge of his co-founder quitting on him the day they were supposed to launch the business, and what his plans are for the future of Sourcify.  – Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.orgWe own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right!

On this episode of Follow The Data, Casey sits down with Nate Resnick of Sourcify.  Nate shares his journey from successful Amazon seller to founding and growing Sourcify, a company that connects entrepreneurs to pre-vetted manufacturers over seas.  If you think you know everything you need to know about sourcing products, think again.  Nate shares on tariffs, sourcing outside of China, how to check quality and so much more. 

When they've gone door to door to sell a product for any amount of time, a salesperson truly learns what they can take. Being a good sales rep can absolutely be nurture over nature and with the right processes in place, any company can turn out a good sales team and garner great results. Today's guest,  Ali Mirza, comes from a pure sales background. These days, he is mixing his true old-school sales experience with expertise in the online world. He started Rosegarden consulting about 8 years ago and now focuses on helping SaaS businesses build out their sales processes. Rosegarden helps set up a salesforce that does what they need to make the sales while following a set of parameters that can be repeated over and over again. Each of his custom sales processes is tailored for the client to achieve consistent, long-term growth. Episode Highlights: Ali's sales background and how he got into his current business. His beliefs on natural-born salespeople. How to find and hire rockstar salespeople. Where Ali starts in creating sales processes for the client. How much the process changes from client to client. The amount of flexibility given to sales reps within an organization in order for them to be able to do what they do best. The correct balance of product knowledge for the reps who are selling the SaaS product. How SaaS business owners can achieve continuity between the sales reps and the backend team. When a business should start to think about systematizing their sales processes. How the process is measured by Ali and his team. Some standout successes Ali and his team have achieved Transcription: Joe: Mark I understand that our friend John Corcoran referred someone to Quiet Light to be a guest on the podcast; Ali Mirza. He's from Rose Garden Consulting. First of all, John thank you very much and if anyone else has suggestions for a great guest like Ali please send us an email. We'd love to have some people on that can help you grow your business or sell your business or even buy your business. Now as I understand it Ali is in the SaaS world helping people optimize that sales process, that onboarding process which is kind of challenging and critically important in the SaaS area right? Mark: Absolutely and John and Jeremy I think they're just going to become our new podcast guest sourcing agents because they've been referring so many awesome people over that have really added to the podcast quite a bit. But Ali comes from this traditional sales background and he and I talked quite a bit about this because that's my background as well. When I was a teenager my very first job was a telemarketing job. Yes, I was one of those guys. And then I also did B2B door to door sales for long distance optimization. I mean talk about some of the most brutal conditions for learning basic entrepreneurship. Ali comes from that background; he's really good at it. He's a killer sales person and so what he does now is he works with SaaS organizations to help optimize their onboarding processes. And how do you set up a sales team that is both free to do what they need to do … is it not this tight like script that a sales person has to have but still have these processes that are repeatable and can be optimized so that you're not losing money through your onboarding process. It's the same thing as like CRO; Conversion Rate Optimization.  So many people have these leaky conversion funnels and just by optimizing those they can increase the revenue substantially. This is the same thing with any group and any SaaS business that has an onboarding process for potential clients. So kind of an old school soul … young guy but old school soul when it comes to the sales process and mixed it in with the online world. Joe: I'm looking forward to listening to this one myself, let's get to it. Mark: Ali, thank you so much for joining me I appreciate … first of all your patience because I cancelled this podcast on you twice both for totally legitimate reasons. My mom's basement was flooding the first time. I was literally like outside shoveling snow when I was texting you saying I can't make this one and then the last time was I a little bit lost my voice. And it's still kind of gone but thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. Ali: No problem. I appreciate you having me. Mark: Do me a favor and let our listeners know basically why I'm having you on the podcast; what's your story and what do you do. Ali: So what I do I'm still trying to figure that out half the time but my story … so I got in the sales when I was 19 years old. So I was a guy that would go door to door at Sun Life insurance. I did that for four years. I built up a team. I was the number one agent in the country and handled about 50 sales reps under my belt. Things are great and all but as a true entrepreneur, I knew that that wasn't exactly where I wanted to be for the rest of my life and obviously my [inaudible 00:04:19.6] wasn't fulfilled. Long story short we have decided to start my own company; Rose Garden. That was almost eight years ago now. Originally we started off as kind of like a hired gun. I didn't like the bureaucracy and all that stuff that came with selling insurance and so I just hey I'm a salesman just let me sell that's all I want to do. So we'd go into companies, you put us on retainer and we could sell for you and when we close the deal you pay us bigger. That worked out great for a while; 2 ½ years or so then one of my clients this is great but if you get hit by a bus tomorrow we're back to square one. And I said yeah you're right about that and then he said well why don't you write down what you do for us. I said well that wasn't our original engagement so why don't you pay me for it? And so he said yes. And that's kind of when the light bulb went off and I understood that wait hang on, building people sales processes is infinitely more scalable than me actually selling for people. So that's about five or six years ago or so we pivoted. And since then we've almost exclusively been building out sales processes for our companies. Mark: That's awesome. So I actually come from that direct sales background as well; like I cut my teeth my very first job. And most people's first job was like McDonald's or something like that right, fast food? I think at the age of 12 or 13 I made a promise to myself I would never work in fast food and so my very first job was a telemarketing position. And boy you learn pretty quickly how to deal with that and I think probably … I'll put this as my worst job because I was kind of burnt out at this point. I was in that for about five years of doing telemarketing in some of the worst stuff out there too. I did door to door business, door to door telephone long distance service sales. They would send us down, it was a team of us, we'd go down in like teams of three and we would really hit like a downtown area and some small town, knock on doors to come see a long distance bill. All these are … oh my gosh man that was brutal but it was an awesome experience as far as learning how to A. be an entrepreneur but also B. how to sell. Ali: Yeah. Mark: A great background for an entrepreneur. Ali: Yeah I know I mean going door to door that will put some hair on your chest. And once you do that I mean you don't really fear things anymore. I think a lot of what holds people back as entrepreneurs is the fear of what could or what realistically what will happen right? If I take this risk will it pay off with, will it break me? I don't have that anymore. When you have to knock on someone's door and try and sell them some life insurance it's … all inhibitions … when you do that for a few years all inhibitions are gone. You just have enough wee care anymore. Mark: Yeah you learn how to laugh off the nose and actually appreciate the guys that just like in telemarketing the best thing that we could have happen is somebody hangs up on us right? Because that's a very quick no, I can immediately get on to that next prospect. And you get kind of this cold like I don't care if you do that. There was one guy at the door to door telephone long distance company where he actually had somebody throw a wrench at him so that's actually a little bit more aggressive. Hopefully, that doesn't happen but yeah you're right that puts hair on your chest. You learn very quickly to lose that fear. So alright today I want to talk … you do a lot of consulting for SaaS companies and helping build their sales processes. And this is obviously really important for just lowering that cost of acquisition. If you have a more efficient sales team you're going to be signing up more people. So I want to get in that. I'm going to kind of open up with a question here that … I don't know maybe it's a softball question but aren't there natural born salespeople? I mean isn't it really coming down to … and I know what you're going to answer on this but doesn't it come down to … again I did a little show prep; thanks me. Doesn't it come down to finding just those rock star sales people? Ali: So those are two different questions right? So a natural born sales person in my opinion and my opinion is always right of course. Mark:  [inaudible 00:08:11.9] Ali: Yeah exactly, right? I would do it. I think it was the Charles Barkley book where it was like I may be wrong but I doubt it. But in my opinion, there's no such thing as a born sales person. The only things that are born are baby boys and baby girls. Sales people are trained. No different than there's no lawyer gene, there's no doctor gene, all these other things. There's no sales gene as much as people would like to believe. A lot of what we attribute that to is people that are just outgoing, charismatic, extroverts. That's learned. That's nature not … oh, I'm sorry that's nurtured not nature. So it depends on external environment built, factors and things of that nature of what your personality ends up to be. That doesn't necessarily guarantee that you're going to be at closing and actually bring money in the door. We know lots of extroverts that just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk and burn deals. So there is no such thing as a born sales person. Now, looking for a rock star that's a different thing; you're looking for someone that's … you may not know what you're asking for but really what you're asking for is somebody that's already trained that someone else has put the work into and now you're going to … you're fixing to benefit off of their work. That is more reasonable than looking for a natural born salesperson because at that point what you're really saying is someone that doesn't have sales training but just going to sell. And so looking for a rock star is someone that has that sales training that you can vet their experience. Now that being said that's incredibly difficult to find especially in today's market. I mean if you can sell your … sales is the only money side of the balance sheet. Everyone else is an expense we're the only income, right? So sales … when someone can sell someone's picking up your company, you're not going to let them go. So good salespeople are golden handcuffed in. Of course, there are founders and companies that drop the ball with great sales people but the likelihood that you're going to find that person on the open market is next to none. They know people that know people that don't land on their feet pretty quick. Mark: Yeah I think one of the problems I see with a lot of companies especially as they're scaling is the founder might have that ability to sell the product but they can never really expand beyond that. And I actually have this problem with Quiet Light when I started initially. I went through … I think it was probably within the first year of Quiet Light, I went out and I hired five people that I thought were going to be really good at this but they ended up not really working out. Some of them did a little bit but not really, they all kind of phased out. It wasn't until Jason joined the team that I stumbled upon I would guess in your world the sales process. And I never really thought about in terms of a process because we don't think about in the same way here at Quiet Light but I'd like to get into this a little bit as far as finding out what that process is for your company. I would imagine depending on what you're selling and within the SaaS world specifically as well. The process is going to differ quite a bit from if you're selling say a $300 a month SaaS product versus … I think I just talked to somebody yesterday where his average price upon is $20,000 per year with three year minimum commitments. So what does that process look like when you're going into an organization and you want to start to identify A. the characteristics of that sales process and am I even putting this in the right way or do we talk [crosstalk 00:11:35.1] skill process? Ali: That's exactly what we do. So every sales process we build is custom and unique. Now at the surface level or at the face value after the fact there's only so many ways to skin a cat and so I could just turn around and be like oh you know what Company A sales process looks quite a bit like Company B but we can't start there, right? So we have to treat everything unique and custom from the beginning. And then it may end up looking somewhat similar to someone else's but we arrive at that independent of that. So we're not trying to predetermine. Yeah, so our process of how we do that is first thing we do is we do an assessment. So we'll actually go in there and spend a day on site and work with their sales leader, the founders, work with the sales team and really understand everything that they're doing right that they need to continue doing, everything that they're doing wrong that they need to stop or change, and everything that they're not doing that they need to be doing. And so we start at a very high level, they walk us through their process, they walk us through their typical deal flows and cycles and so we start to really pick out things from there. I'll get them into one of those three categories and then from there we get very granular and look at all the tactics. Then we build a report and say step by step right if I was your VP of sales or if I was the founder of this company or you know I had to build a process this is what I would do. So you get a little diagnostic and I basically can walk you through it step by step. It helps you understand what you need to do in what you do. Because sometimes even if things that we're doing is right it's just having that extra validation from someone who sees it from … we've seen hundreds of SaaS companies do it the right and the wrong way. I've seen crazy growth, I've seen two, three, 400% month over month and I've seen one or 2% year over year. So you can pick out patterns pretty quick. Mark: Yeah. How much has that sales process changed though from one organization to the next? I mean for example Quiet Light Brokerage, when I hired on those first five people as brokers I took on somebody who was really good at relationship based sales and was fine with taking that sort of long term sort of approach and then I also hired somebody who is the number one salesperson for Quick Books Online but he was much more close. He was a closer and that's what he wants to do and frankly, he struggled a lot and didn't really do so well. So at one point and more specifically for the people listening here and they're thinking about the sales team that they have how much do you look at the company, what do you look at with a company I should ask to start to determine okay this approach is right versus this approach is wrong as far as what they're doing? Ali: I mean you got to start with who they're selling to because even within a particular company between the service, offering, product, solution, whatever it is that they're selling depending on which market and depending on who is buying that sales process very well could change. So I'll give you a perfect example, one of our clients a SaaS company sells into the education or is an education platform. Let's call it an online education platform that sells to large organizations. But they also have individuals, freelancers, people like … let's call them hobbyists coming in there and buying their solution as well. So it's an online learning platform but their goal is to sell large organizations packages and number of seats but they also have one offs coming in as well. So the sales process is completely unique for the one offs and the people that are buying less than five seats, a small organization that has one, two, three, developers or just someone that wants to up level their own development game. I'm not a developer so I don't even know if I'm using the right terminology but that's irrelevant. Mark: It sounds great. Ali: Yeah exactly there isn't enough coloring right on a black screen with green— Mark: Just like the Matrix. Ali: Exactly, yeah. So the sales people what we have to do with them was we have to get that stuff off the sales people's plate because we're paying our sales people too much, in my opinion, to sit there and sell a $49 a month deal. It's pointless, right? We were losing money at that point on that sale if we had to not only pay the sales person salary because there was some cost to fulfillment even though it was SaaS and then pay him a commission off of that and then it was just annoying the salespeople. Now you got to look at opportunity costs. So what we did was we segmented them completely because the guy that's buying one or two seats is going to ask maybe not all of the questions but they're going to ask a fair bit of the same questions that the person that we're selling one to 200 seats too and I want all my sales people focused on that. So we have to segment that out, we have to change up the sales process, there was a lot of things that we did there. So even within the organization, the sales process changes. Now again we had to build that unique for them and we have to look at their … we started with their who's buying, what are they buying, why are they buying, how are they buying, etcetera and reverse engineer the sales process that way. And you could look at that sales process and probably compare it to 10 other clients that I have and say well there's a lot of similarities. Well yeah, there's only so many ways to skin a cat but at the end of the day, if I had been like wow who does this client remind me of, it reminds me of this person let me bring this in here then you're … it's like renovating a house. I mean yeah you can put lipstick on a pig but at the end of the day, it's still a pig. Mark: So how much of that sales process vary within an organization, the concern I would have would be having a one size fits all sort of a strategy when different clients are going to be coming with different needs. So how much latitude do you give the sales people within an organization to be able to freelance that process or even within that process at certain steps? Ali: A lot, so here's what we do if you don't have anything to benchmark off of how will you ever measure success? How will you know that … if you don't have a control group you will never know whether you're picking up all the money off the table? With that being said I'm not looking to handcuff and put my extra salespeople in a straightjacket so we give them parameters. We tell them here's what you need to do. And again what it's really used for is making sure that at first 18 months of a sales person they have more than paid for themselves. After 18 months, after someone's been working … selling for a year and a half in a company they've pretty much worked most if not all types of deals that walk in and they know what to do. What I don't want is oh you know this person … we say hey just go sell. What are they going to do? They're going to burn deals and they're going to flush out within six months so you have to give them something. But again if it's too tight they're not going to close or they're going to look for ways around it. And your best salespeople, that same part of the brain that it takes to kind of see the seams and run that route and through a sales process, the same part of the brain to get to that and score a touchdown is the same part of the brain that does it internally and tries to figure out okay how can I max out my commission, where do I need to sandbag, what do I need to do, what leverage do I need to pull to maximize it for myself? And sometimes … a lot of times it ends up being very detrimental to the company. So don't give your sales people enough rope where they're going to hang themselves with. So give them a process because they're going to go outside that process so anticipate that and say look here's what a typical process looks like you go from A, B, C, and D. Understand though if circumstance 1, 2, or 3 arises this is where you can jump to, this is what you can do, this is how you can do it. And now you're starting to turn their brain and you're designing where they can cut corners because they're going to do it anyways. So you at least design and you account for it.  I always do … figuring out when your P&L six months later after John's left and be like oh shit all of his deals are about to fall through and we just … yeah. And then that happens all the time as much as … no one brags about that right? None of your entrepreneur friends are going to sit around and be like oh yeah I just got shafted for $50,000 of commissions that I paid some guy three months ago and now he's gone and all his deals are about to fall through, I'm about to lose a lot of money. No one brags about that. Everyone brags about the logo that they closed. But that stuff happens all the time I get to see it from the inside. Mark: Yeah absolutely and keeping that process, you're absolutely right. I hated it when I was in sales especially in telemarketing. Telemarketing is really churn and burn, get through as many numbers as you can and if I did a telemarketing job and was handed a script I guarantee you I freelanced because you know … you hear it, we all get the call … those annoying calls and the person can't pronounce your name and they can't really even … they're tripping over the script and all that sort of stuff and that's an extreme example obviously but having that looseness. Now with a SaaS product, obviously there's a certain amount of expertise that somebody has to have, how important do you see that in the process of developing a sales team to make sure that you're front end people doing product demos and everything else know that product in and out and how much emphasis should SaaS owners be putting on that part of the sales training process? Ali: It's a fine balance. So here is the thing, knowledge is ammunition and the more ammunition you have sometimes you might use like a tank to try and kill a mosquito because we see that all the time; it's the show up and throw up right? But on the flip side if you don't know what you're selling how are you going to sell it so it's a fine balance. Here's the way that I like to position in and I don't want anyone to get this confusing but I would like to teach my sales people everything they need to know about the product but also more importantly is teach them how to position it. It's more important than teaching them what it actually does and when to bring it up and how to bring it up. Because I think that that's important and once you start explaining that it prevents a little bit of that throw up and show up type of thing but on the flip side and this … everyone's going to freak out when I say this but you need to know this much more than a prospect in order to sell. I have sold things that I have absolutely no clue what I'm talking about for one reason and one reason only subtext. It's not what you say, half the time it's what you don't say. So if you're a really good salesperson you don't need to know anything about anything you just show up I mean not to toot my own horn but I mean like my head is already big enough as it and as you can tell I'm … no one is more impressed by me than me but I've closed seven figure deals not knowing what it was that I was selling. Because if you can ask the right questions not only are they going to tell you everything you need to know but they're going to answer their own questions and all … you just have to know so little and position things. And sometimes it's just as simple as nodding your head and be like “yup, uh-huh, yup” and it's just answering their questions. And then they're like you know what Ali I think I need to move forward with it. People do not understand the importance of subtext. Most sales people will never be able to master that so, as a result, it's very important that you need to be able to teach them. You need to not only teach them what the product does but then how to position. I think that's more important than the product knowledge itself but if we're going to get really philosophical with it in my opinion subtext is far more important than anything else. Mark: The most valuable lesson I ever learned in sales was learning how to shut up. Honestly and I think it was in a Zig Ziglar book that I read way back in the day where he talked about that active listening and just being quiet and more importantly not just being quiet and looking and kind of blankly not listening but listening to what the prospect says and then being able to simply when you're invited to that point to respond, responding to what they actually say. And we've seen this at Quiet Light and this is completely unintentional, we have a pretty soft approach with our sales process. But what I've found in the past is that when I tell somebody not to sell their business which we tell people a lot because I honestly think it's in their best interest; oftentimes when we tell somebody not to do something the opposite starts to happen. They end up becoming more determined to do it and part of that is just dealing with entrepreneurs where all the smartest people are in the room and they wanted to … okay, I have one more question for you. I have two so if we can fit two in we'll do it but one more big question and this is something that I find to be a problem with a lot of online service based companies and SaaS companies and that is the continuity between the sales person upfront and the back end team; so pretty simple sales person is over delivering, over promising what's going to happen after. Do you consult in this area at all and how can business owners, SaaS owners look towards that continuity between their upfront sales person because not having to do the account management necessarily after the sale? Ali: See both of that are training, right? A lot of times … let's call me an optimist in this and I believe that most sales people don't typically want to lie and so if they know that they're lying they'll probably shy away from it. Unless you get a shady sales person then all bets are off type of thing but I'd say the vast majority of sales people don't want to lie and it's just because you haven't taken the time to properly train them on what actually happens after the deal is done. So for us, it's very important to sit with customers of SaaS and really understand how because that's really how we create the pitch. So we sit with costumers of SaaS, we see what people are saying, how they're saying it, we interview customers, and once we understand that we reverse engineer the pitch. Once you give someone the pitch it's black and white; what we do, what we don't do, how we do it, and if you're going off script it's very easy to call you in and be like hey brother what's going on here? You're supposed to say we do X, Y, and Z why are you saying one, two, three, and then it happens a couple of times and you help them transition out. But you're 100% right it's all about setting expectations on the front end from a sales person with the prospect so that when they do become a client it's not a problem but you as the founder, business owner, VP, whatever, the sales leader have to also do that. You have to set expectations with the sales people because a lot of times you're like oh … and a lot of times this also happens, I'll be brief with this is the founder is this visionary, delusional, optimist who thinks their product is the best products since sliced bread and is pitching it that way and the salesperson gets all jazzed, full of piss and vinegar, gets excited and says the exact same thing to a prospect then the prospect comes and finds out that half the widgets don't work. I see that all the time too. So just be reasonable. Mark: Yeah I know. I mean I dealt with that with a service company recently where the sales person showed me graphs and all these beautiful things and I'm like this is so clear like if they can deliver on half this and then I got into the account management stage and there's a lot of tampering of expectations. Ali: That doesn't work at all. That's on our roadmap for Q4. Mark: Yeah I'm like well at this point you need to just kind of sit back and just kind of wait for  … that's not what I saw, that not what I was told upfront. At what should somebody be thinking about putting in the sales process and I'm thinking again about really early stage people here they're maybe just coming out of beta, they're starting to go off for a launch and they might be hiring one maybe two sales people here. When should somebody be saying we need to start getting this process honed in? Ali: I'd say first few sell. As the founder, you need to sell. After you've sold a few and you've kind of figured out what happens, what's good, what's not good I'd recommend hiring two sales people; let them battle it out together. Let them feed off each other, learn from each other. The goal is not the strongest survives the goal is both of them steel … was it steel, sharpen steel or whatever. Get back going and before you go and hire employee number … or salesperson number three, four, five, six, ten, that's when you need to start the process. So after the first two people have started to prove it out then go from there. That's when you need to start building it out and systematizing and documenting everything. And now you have become … it makes your life so much easier after that because again sales process is not something that you build once and that's it. It's a living breathing document that's constantly being iterated but you need you to be the foundations start off of. Mark: How do people measure this? I mean do you set up milestones along that sales process that you're going to be measuring kind of like a funnel or are you just looking at inbound and out as far as inbound calls coming in or prospects and actual conversion rate. Ali: I mean it's both. I mean you're doing a qualitative and a quantitative. So overall you … I look at the quantitative just so that I can have … it's like a measuring stick but I really believe it's more qualitative. You've got to listen to the calls because there is no perfect closing percentage. And I'm always concerned when someone has too high of a close percentage. When they're like oh I close 80% of my deals I'm like something's wrong there. So you're either selling it too short or you're dequeuing people that you shouldn't be dequeuing, all of this other stuff. So the quantitative will only tell you what you're prepared to understand and what you're prepared to understand is filled in by the qualitative. So you got to listen to calls. You've got to figure out did we sell that for as much as we could have, was that too easy, was that too hard, what was going on in there. You got to figure all those things out and data can't tell you that. Data can only tell you if that improved or didn't improve and if you're not doing the qualitative you very likely are leaving a lot of money on the table. Mark: Absolutely 100%. Alright I want to talk about some of the success stories that you guys have had at Rose Garden Consulting because really when you start to look at this again I think two of the lowest hanging fruit areas of any business would be conversion rate optimization and two if you have a sales process where you have this on boarding process and you're having that customer interaction improving that process as well because you don't have to do anymore as far as bringing in the inbound traffic, you're just optimizing what's coming in. So I'd love to know more about some of the successes that you guys have had. What are some of the things that kind of stand out in your mind as far as kind of eye popping numbers? Ali: One of our clients in three weeks we … their average deal was 35k, within three weeks just changing out their process we closed three deals that I think is just over 70 something and then it just kind of stayed there. And it was just by changing up the way that they spoke to their clients. So right there from the qualitative standpoint, we 2X in less than a month. That was a good one. One of our clients and the cases are online and so one of our clients we took from 5 million ARR to 12 million in one year and rank 500 in the fastest growing company. We've got several stories like that but for me the numbers are great and all but for me, it's really … I just like going in there and proving things wrong because the best are the stories in where hey everything is great, we just need to go from 5 to 50 reps and then you start to find things that hey why are we doing it this way, why are we doing it this way? And all the sudden instead of going from 5 to 50 reps to hit their goal we go from 5 to maybe 15 and we're hitting their goal because there was so much money on the table. So those are the ones that I really enjoy. Mark: Yeah just making the existing team that much more efficient and being able to find out areas where like you said some of that qualitative stuff, they might have a high closing rate but they're disqualifying people way too aggressively or they're just not selling for it as much as they possibly could be. This is fantastic information. Where can people learn more about you or reach out to you if they are interested in getting somebody in to take a look at their existing sales processes? Ali: RoseGardenConsulting.com is our website. You can always email me at Ali@RoseGardenConsulting.com rose like the flower. My podcast is For The Close; that's ForTheClose.com so anywhere shape or form hit us up I'm always happy to help and talking sales is my jam so I really enjoy it so anytime I can help I am always happy to. Mark: And a huge shout out to Jeremy and John from Rise25, they connected us over at Traffic and Conversion. You're actually the second guest that I'm having on who they hooked me up with. Ali: Second, how am I not the first? You got me right in my fiddles there. Mark: You know what you're not the first because I had a delay. I had to cancel on you twice. Ali: Who is number one? Who is first? Mark: I just talked to him yesterday and you put me on the spot man so who was it? Oh the guy from Sourcify. It's a completely different area and he's talking about sourcing products from all over the world and manufacturing products and a fascinating, really smart guy. He made me feel like a complete idiot. But— Ali:  [inaudible 00:32:31.5] on me. Mark: You know what I like about having you on is that you're a sales guy cut from the same cloth that I came from and so that's just … I don't know manufacturing like that other guy did. I feel like I could talk more with you although you know infinitely more than I do about scaling up these sales processes and I appreciate you coming on and sharing some of this information. I think you and I are probably going to talk for a full hour just because I could talk about sales forever. I think it's fascinating but yeah thanks for coming on. Ali: Yeah, no problem. Thank you for having me, brother. I appreciate it. Links and Resources: Rosegarden Consulting Email Ali For the Close Podcast

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

Bio:Nathan Resnick is the CEO of Sourcify, the fastest growing sourcing platform that helps hundreds of companies manufacture products around the world. In the past, Nathan has brought dozens of products to market, ran three e-commerce companies (sold one), and been a part of projects on Kickstarter raising over seven figures. He writes for media outlets like Entrepreneur, The Next Web, Business.com, and more. Nathan also used to live in China and speaks Mandarin. Links: https://www.sourcify.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanresnickhttps://twitter.com/naterez94 Sponsored by: Spark Shipping – Dropshipping Automation

GFA240. In this episode, we have Nathan Resnick, CEO of Sourcify discuss about building China-USA sourcing platform. For full show notes, check out GlobalFromAsia.com/episode240. The post The Story Of Building a Sourcing Platform Between China and USA with Nathan Resnick appeared first on Global From Asia.

Nathan Resnick is a sourcing pro and the founder of Sourcify. He has built multiple ecommerce companies, 7-figure Kickstarter projects, and speaks fluent Mandarin. Sourcify is the fastest growing sourcing platform backed by YCombinator that helps hundreds of companies manufacture products around the world. Nathan even managed to get a cease and desist from Connor McGregor, yes, the UFC competitor. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:15] Jeremy introduces his guest, Nathan Resnick. [2:20] Learning from mistakes made. [5:00] Nathan talks about visiting China. [8:30] How transparency sets Sourcify apart. [14:00] Nathan shares a customer success story. [17:00] How ecommerce sellers should choose a product to sell. [21:00] The danger of relying on a single source. [24:10] How extending a product line can help a brand thrive. [27:10] Products that Nathan and his team stay away from. [31:00] How do Nathan and his team deal with copycats? [34:15] Nathan talks about his experience with Y Combinator. [37:20] Some of the feedback Nathan and his team have received. [41:45] A low moment in business for Nathan. [47:40] Nathan talks about milestones he’s proud of. [50:00] How did Nathan get a cease and desist letter from Connor McGregor? In this episode… Too often people take the concept of transparency for granted. From politicians they elect to the phone bill they pay, everyone wants transparency, but many times it is the last thing a business is willing to give its clients. On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from entrepreneur and innovator Nathan Resnick. In his conversation with Jeremy, Nathan opens up about how he started Sourcify, learning from the mistakes he made, why it’s important for ecommerce sellers to diversify their product sources, how sellers should choose their products, what it was like participating with Y Combinator, and so much more! You don’t want to miss this fascinating and informative episode featuring Nathan! Do you realize how rare it is to hear a business owner lead with the value of transparency? Time and time again, businesses take advantage of customers just because they can. In an increasingly global marketplace, the company that stands out will be the ones that treat value and respect their customers. Leading that charge in the product sourcing sector is Nathan Resnick and his business, Sourcify. At Sourcify, they pride themselves as, “Enterprise sourcing with built-in adaptability and transparency.” While it may not be easy, this approach seems to be resonating with many ecommerce sellers. What is the primary value for your organization? One of the most frustrating roadblocks that a business leader can face is a lack of options. What would it look like if there were more options to chose from in your business sector? Ecommerce sellers have been limited when it comes to sourcing for years. As supply has shifted from the US to overseas, this aspect of ecommerce business has become increasingly complicated. Is there a solution in the marketplace to cut through this complexity? Nathan and his team at Sourcify are working hard to help sellers send their production needs directly to their factories. That means no more delays due to communication issues with sourcing agents or time spent internally finding a factory. Hearing from Nathan, you get the sense that he is passionate about solving problems for as many ecommerce sellers as possible. What do you do with the mistakes and challenges you’ve faced in your career? Do you run and hide from them and never consider them again or do you learn from them, grow, and move forward? For Nathan Resnick, reflecting on mistakes and challenges seems to be something that he is comfortable doing. As he looks back to his early career, Nathan can quickly point to an error he had made but was able to turn it around into a positive quickly. Unfortunately, every mistake can’t be so quickly corrected, but the opportunity to learn from our mistakes is always present. What can you learn from Nathan’s story? When was the last time you took advantage of a fantastic opportunity to try something new, professionally? As you advance in your career, those opportunities will become few and far between, make sure you take advantage now! Nathan Resnick jumped at the chance when he found out he was invited to present his business to the folks at Y Combinator. Taking full advantage of this amazing opportunity ended up securing critical funding for Sourcify in its early stages of growth. Don’t wait for the perfect moment to come and knock on your door, go out and seize the day! Resources Mentioned on this episode Sourcify's website GoFundMe Y Combinator DropBox How I Built This Michael Dell Connor McGregor Shopify MVMT Watches Flexport Original Grain Intro Music by Kidd Russell Sponsor for this episode Rise25 creates 100% outsourced VIP days for software companies and conference organizers to serve their highest level customers. Rise25 VIP Days have a proven track record of helping companies to get more referrals, increase retention with their VIP customers, and get more engaged new customers without adding extra work to that company’s plate. Rise25 partners and collaborates with entrepreneur-focused communities, with particular emphasis on creating events for high volume Amazon sellers, Walmart sellers, multichannel ecommerce sellers, and founders who want to take their business to the next level. Rise25 has hosted VIP events in cities such as Austin, Chicago, Santa Barbara, San Diego, New York, Sonoma, and Las Vegas to name a few. If your company appreciates the value of bringing your highest level customers together to connect and collaborate, you can learn more and contact us to find out if your company qualifies at Rise25.com. Rise25 was cofounded by Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran.

Today I’m really excited to have Nathan Resnick back on the show. If you don’t remember Nathan, he is the founder of Sourcify which is a company that helps you find manufacturers to produce your products. Anyway, Nathan has been on television multiple times in the past month to talk about the Trump tariffs and since he’s an expert on the topic, I thought I’d have him on to discuss his thoughts. Enjoy! What You’ll Learn The current state of the tariffs and which products they affect What impact the tariffs have on large businesses vs small businesses How to […] The post 229: The Trump Trade Tariffs – Everything You Need To Know With Nathan Resnick appeared first on MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.

Nathan Resnick is a sourcing pro and the founder of Sourcify. He has built multiple ecommerce companies, 7-figure Kickstarter projects, and speaks fluent Mandarin. Sourcify is the fastest growing sourcing platform backed by YCombinator that helps hundreds of companies manufacture products around the world. Nathan even managed to get a cease and desist from Connor McGregor, yes, the UFC competitor. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: [1:15] Jeremy introduces his guest, Nathan Resnick. [2:20] A low moment in business for Nathan. [8:15] Nathan talks about milestones he’s proud of. [10:30] How did Nathan get a cease and desist letter from Connor McGregor? In this episode… What does it take to weather the storm of adversity and personal loss to come out the other side ready to build a business? Most people don’t have what it takes to start a business under the best circumstances let alone personal and professional losses! On this episode of Inspired Insider, you’ll hear from business leader and entrepreneur, Nathan Resnick. In his conversation with Jeremy, Nathan opens up about co-founder backing out of the business, struggling with the loss of his grandmother, professional milestones in business, legally wrestling with Connor McGregor, and much more! Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from Nathan’s fascinating story! How would you respond if you had a close family member pass away and had a business partner back out of your startup plans on the same day? Sounds like too much for anyone to endure! Somehow, through all the pain and adversity, Nathan Resnick went on to start Sourcify and grow it to one of the most successful sourcing platforms backed by YCombinator that helps hundreds of companies manufacture products around the world. Nathan looks back at those early days of adversity and is thankful that he found the strength to push through the pain, due in large part to what he knew his grandmother would have wanted him to do. What can you learn from Nathan’s story? What fires you up about the work you do? Does your business provide a service or product that helps people? Are you able to use your business to fund your passion projects? Nathan Resnick’s work with his organization, Sourcify is his passion project! They are able to help ecommerce leaders all over the world follow their dreams by bringing a product they’ve dreamed of to the marketplace. Nathan takes great joy in his ability to maintain a powerhouse of a platform for creativity. Don’t waste your time doing something you can’t be proud of, make sure to connect your passion to your work. Resources Mentioned on this episode Sourcify's website GoFundMe DropBox How I Built This Michael Dell Connor McGregor Intro Music by Kidd Russell

When it comes to collaborating with overseas factories, there are certain things any ecommerce store owner should know. So today I’ve got Nathan Resnick from Sourcify—a company that helps store owners pick the right factories for their design products and streamline their sourcing, design, and development—on the show to discuss how things work in China. Nathan has had tons of experience over there learning the language and culture, and he travels there six or more times per year, so he has a great understanding of the country. In this episode, he shares the logistics of selling and exporting goods to China, environmental policies being enacted over there, and some of the misunderstandings Westerners tend to have. Listen in to get a unique perspective on China from someone who knows the country really well. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/2NDV4i3 

Are there methods and connections out there on the marketplace that can enable ecommerce sellers to move away from gatekeepers like Alibaba? What is the best way to make those connections? On this episode of The Amazing Seller, you’ll hear from special guest and product sourcing expert Nathan Resnick. In his conversation with Scott, Nathan opens up about his background in the ecommerce industry, how ended up in China, what channels are available to sellers like you, why he created his company, Sourcify, and much more! Don’t miss a minute of this engaging episode featuring Nathan! How a white guy ended up in China. Nathan Resnick had no idea that a year-long visit to China while in high school would set him on the path to becoming a product sourcing expert in the ecommerce industry. Pulling the thread of curiosity, Nathan went from an average student in America to full cultural immersion on the streets of Beijing, China. Visiting the markets there and discovering the type of craftsmanship when into the products ignited a spark in Nathan that he fanned into the flame of entrepreneurship. To hear more about Nathan’s story and what he learned from his experiences in China, make sure to check out this fascinating episode, you don't’ want to miss it! Don’t be afraid to shop around! If you are at the stage of building your ecommerce business where you are looking for ways to save on your production costs, consider looking for a new supplier! You might not want to rock the boat once you’ve found a solid supplier and that’s understandable, but you need to know that there are some amazing options out there. Why not explore the options and diversify your supply chain? If you’ve heard it once from Scott, you’ve heard it a thousand times - make sure your business isn’t dependent on one channel, product, or supplier for your success! To hear more about shopping your product around to reputable suppliers, make sure to listen to this episode of The Amazing Seller! The 3 pillars of a valuable supply chain. Did you know that a valuable supply chain can be broken up into three aspects? It’s true! On this episode of The Amazing Seller, you’ll hear from Nathan Resnick as he shares the three pillars of Sourcify’s successful supply chain. Here are the three pillars of a valuable supply chain; Price Lead time Quality While it’s extremely difficult to piece together a supply chain that hits all three pillars, it’s not impossible! Find out how Nathan and his team can help sellers like you hone in on a supply process that can take your business to the next level of growth! Why you should check out Sourcify. Are you ready to take your ecommerce brand to the next level? What will you do to get your brand in the best position for growth? One of the best resources in the marketplace right now for ecommerce entrepreneurs is Sourcify. Nathan and his team at Sourcify are hard at work to make life easier for sellers like you in a multitude of ways. From clear cut timelines to a streamlined production process, the factories that work with Sourcify are vetted and ready to take whatever you can throw their way! Hear more about the story of Sourcify and why you should check them out by listening to this informative episode of The Amazing Seller! OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SELLER [0:03] Scott’s introduction to this episode of the podcast! [4:15] Nathan Resnick joins the podcast and shares his ecommerce background. [8:15] How did Nathan end up in China? [13:00] Nathan talks about sourcing products outside of Alibaba. [26:00] The three factors of product production. [28:00] Why ecommerce leaders need to think about factory capacity. [31:00] Is it worth it to investigate cheaper production options? [33:15] What is the Sourcify process of getting a product rolled out? [35:00] Who should work with Sourcify? [39:00] What you need to know about Chinese tariffs. [44:00] Closing thoughts from Scott. RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE www.tasinnercircle.com Sourcify Steve Chou Seller’s Summit Shopify Ebay Etsy Alibaba 1688 Google Translate FlexPort

Welcome to Episode 16. On today’s episode, I sat down and had a chat with Nathan Resnick the co-founder of Sourcify. They are an automated sourcing platform that provides a straightforward way to source products from overseas factories. You get pre-vetted factories, real-time messaging with suppliers, product specification tools, and a team of dedicated sourcing experts to make running your production needs through Sourcify simple, reliable, and safe. Matching your product with the right overseas factory is their specialty. They really take pride in helping their customers build better products while increasing margins that allow their brands grow beyond the original vision. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I don’t think I have ever discussed the intricacies and complexity of product sourcing on the show. Today is going to be a first of hopefully many more episodes I will be covering this topic. My guest on today’s episode, Nathan Resnick is a sourcing expert and supply chain management specialist that focuses on ecommerce businesses.  He runs a fast-growing platform called Sourcify, which streamlines the process of finding factories, getting initial production runs going and also sampling.    He used to live in China and speak Mandarin. He has built three ecommerce businesses, one of which he sold. He has successfully launched and delivered $1m+ Kickstarter project.   And on today’s episode, he is not only talking about Sourcify but also will be providing golden nuggets how to effectively find the right factories around the world.   ----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by: Klaviyo  Klaviyo is a game-changing email automation tool specifically built for scaling eCommerce businesses. I am not just saying it…I use Klaviyo in my ecommerce store as well in a number of stores I advise for. With Klaviyo, in just a few clicks you are able to activate pre-built email automation flows such as cart abandonment, up-sells and win-backs.  Klaviyo also seamlessly integrates with Facebook Audiences. If you’re an eCommerce manager, I cannot recommend Klaviyo enough. Give Klaviyo a try today on  www.klaviyo.com.      

Today we're diving into the world of product sourcing, just how do you go about getting your products manufactured to a quality and price you're happy with. AND then get them to you so you can sell? It's a complex process, and yet another skill for an eCommerce business owner to understand. An essential skill too as if you get it right it will increase your margins, and speed to market. So to help you get to grips with it I'm joined today by Nathan Resnick. Nathan is the founder of Sourcify, a platform/service he's built to guide you through the process of sourcing your products. And he has some serious skill in this area – having run three different eCommerce companies, bought dozens of products to market, and even been involved in Kickstarters that have raised over 7-figures. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

Nathan Resnick went from selling Livestrong bracelets in middle school to founding Sourcify —the fastest growing B2B sourcing platform backed by Y Combinator. He started Sourcify a year ago and has since helped thousands of different companies bring their products to life.   In this episode, Nathan reveals how to spot opportunity in creating and sourcing products as well as what it takes to make it as a product-based business.   Episode Topics E-commerce, e-commerce, e-commerce How Nathan got the idea for Sourcify Uncovering opportunities in creating and sourcing products Nathan’s business model and marketing strategy Knowing when to pivot in business What it’s like applying to and getting backed by Y Combinator Financing as an opportunity in the supply chain The single most impactful experience that lead to Sourcify’s success Purchasing and profiting from manufacture runoff The one quality every entrepreneur must have to be successful according to Nathan [4:41] Starting line: In middle school, Nathan noticed the Livestrong bracelet trend and realized he could buy them in bulk online. He resold them to his friends for a "pretty good margin."   [9:05] Evolving Entrepreneur: Early in high school, he made money sneaker hunting for his friends.   [10:53] During his junior year, he spent a year in China as a foreign exchange student. He’d go to local markets and purchase runoff units at a steep discount then resell them online for a "very hefty" margin.   [13:14] Bitten by the bug: Nathan saw how products were produced on the ground floor. "As that dynamic grew, I always wanted to create my own product and felt the urge to. I didn't wanna sell someone else's product."    [13:30] First invention: In college, he invented the 1st leather watch strap without holes and grew it to a 6-figure store on Shopify the 1st year. As the company grew, he attracted media outlets like Huffington Post and Entrepreneur.   [14:56] Seeing and solving a problem: After people started asking how he produced products overseas faster and more effectively, "We realized there was a huge opportunity to create a platform that would streamline that manufacturing process." Sourcify was born.   [18:40] There has to have been a problem on the manufacturing side...?   [19:45] Seeing opportunity: How Nathan discovered that low-quality leads were a problem for manufacturers.    [22:15] First-hand experience: What it's like applying to Y Combinator...and getting accepted!   [27:26] Winning business model: "There's obviously a lot of ways to manufacture products...but our approach is different and our mindset behind what we do is a lot different — and that's what sets us apart."   [30:54] "It took Dropbox 11 years to go public. A lot of these billion-dollar companies that people think happened overnight happen actually over 10+ years."   [31:13] Growth strategy: Sourcify's growth is fueled by providing value through content marketing (webinars, blogs) and SEO.   [33:05] Single out the most impactful experience you had that lead to your Sourcify success: “People talk about passion, determination, and motivation but if you don't have the ability to get back up when someone says no to you, then you're not gonna be successful."   [34:50] Points of conflict: “You have to be excited about what you're doing or you won't be as determined to work as hard.”   [35:40] Show recap.       Connect with Nathan: TrySourcify.com

In episode 173 of the AMPM Podcast, host Manny Coats talks with private label manufacturing expert and Sourcify CEO Nathan Resnick about how to source private label products efficiently. Nathan also reveals his methods for choosing the best manufacturing options for your product and category. Nathan got started in selling on Amazon in school and created his first private label product: a first-of-its-kind leather watch strap without holes. He founded Sourcify to help sellers to find the best methods for manufacturing and how to source private label products. How to Source Private Label Products from Suppliers Around the World In this episode, Nathan discusses many anecdotes, including the following: 00:25 Introduction to Nathan Resnick 00:57 Inventing the First Leather Watch Strap Without Holes 02:06 What is Sourcify? 03:27 What is the Right Way to Manufacture a Product? 05:55 Spending Only a Quarter of a Product’s Sales Cost to Manufacture 06:25 How to Tell the Difference Between Factories and Trading Companies 09:48 When Should a Seller Use a Trading Company Instead of a Factory for Product Sourcing? 11:00 How Can Sellers Keep Costs Low When They First Begin Talking with a Manufacturer? 14:42 How Do You Prevent Suppliers from Using Cheap Parts After Negotiating a Good Deal? 15:55 Who Do You Recommend for Performing Quality Checks on Products? 17:30 What Other Countries Would You Source Private Label Products from Besides China? 19:38 What Do You Look for When Producing a Product? 22:13 What Has Been Your Biggest Mistake When Selling on Amazon? 26:03 Performing Amazon Product Research with Black Box 28:35 What is Your Valuable Ninja Tip for Selling on Amazon? To watch the video version of this episode of the AM/PM Podcast, check out our YouTube channel below: Enjoy This Episode? If you found this episode helpful, be sure to check out our previous episodes for more insight into being a successful Amazon FBA Seller! Don’t forget to “Like” our Facebook page and join the conversation with over 22,000 prominent other sellers! And don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast! Be sure to check out our latest content on our Instagram! Ready to get serious about your Amazon FBA game? The Illuminati Mastermind offers monthly training for intermediate to advanced level sellers (not recommended for those new to Amazon) for advanced tips and tricks to help your sales climb higher. This program is designed for six, seven, and eight-figure sellers, so only serious sellers should apply! Reserve your seat today so you don’t miss out on this helpful webinar! CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT HOW TO JOIN New to selling on Amazon? We have the perfect training for you! Freedom Ticket offers the best tips, tricks, and strategies for beginners just starting out! CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR FREEDOM TICKET Spend less & make more with the ultimate software tool suite for Amazon Sellers! Helium 10 offers 10+ tools that help you to optimize your listings better and increase sales with an easy-to-use system for one monthly membership price. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP TODAY

Hey guys, In this episode I had the pleasure of interviewing Nathan Resnick who is the CEO of Sourcify, a company that takes the pain out of sourcing and automates the entire process for you! Nathan talks through some of the most important factors you need to be aware of when you source from China as well talking a bit of Mandarin - yes he's fluent in Mandarin so you know that he's not getting fooled by any suppliers! If you'd like to try out his platform, just go to trysourcify.com and use code TAZ and get $100 off to get you started!  

Nathan Resnick is someone who I met at The Hustle conference in San Francisco. He is the founder of Sourcify which is a company that helps you find manufacturers to produce your products. Prior to that, he owned 2 ecommerce companies, Yes Man Watches and Cork Supply Co. And recently, he was on the Hustle blog where he made 23k selling Conor McGregor F You Suits. Nathan is my go to guy when it comes to sourcing from China so enjoy this episode! What You’ll Learn Common mistakes when sourcing from China The best way to find good suppliers The […] The post 199: The Best Way To Source Private Label Products From China With Nathan Resnick Of Sourcify appeared first on MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.

If you've ever had a brilliant million dollar idea for a product, you've wondered, "How do I get it manufactured?" To do that, you'll need to find a manufacturer who will work with you. And that's where the nightmare starts for many entrepreneurs. That's when you discover that for most people it's a web of miscommunications, middlemen, and missed deadlines. So how do you do it right? How do you avoid the pitfalls that have befallen so many crowdfunded products? Our guest today has brought dozens of products to market, run three ecommerce companies (sold one), and been a part of projects on Kickstarter raising over seven figures. Nathan Resnick joins us today from his new company, Sourcify, a platform that makes manufacturing easy. Having helped hundreds of companies manufacture products around the world, Nathan is going to discuss with us how to find, vet, and build a relationship with a factory so that you can turn your idea into a real product. Learn: How to vet a factory Nathan's approach to dropshipping How to build relationships with factories And why you may be in competition with factories in the near future Tune in for more details! Links Mentioned: Sourcify Share your thoughts Ask a question in The Unofficial Shopify Podcast Facebook Group Share this show on Twitter or Facebook. Never miss an episode Subscribe on iTunes Join Kurt's newsletter Help the show Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings & reviews help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes What's Kurt up to? See our recent work at Ethercycle Take a ride with Kurt on YouTube Read a free sample chapter of Kurt's book Ecommerce Bootcamp, absolutely free. Tell me where to send your sample at ecommerce-bootcamp.com

Get ready to listen to what Nathan has accomplished and then listen again to what his age is. Yes he is one of those guys: an Outlier, an adventurer. Great story of stepping out and how that can lead you to a business with amazing growth and an even better future. Would you be willing to head to where the entrepreneurs are to launch a business? Not sure I would but that’s why Sourcify is doing so well.   Mentioned: https://trysourcify.com/ (Sourcify) http://nathanresnick.com/ (Nathan’s personal website) https://twitter.com/naterez94?lang=en (Nathan’s Twitter contact) Sponsors http://www.amazingfreedom.com/momentum-arbitrage (Gaye's Million Dollar Arbitrage List) http://ecommercemomentum.karenlocker.zaxaa.com/o/7525960235600/1 (Solutions4ecommerce) http://sellerlabs.com/momentum (Scope from Sellerlabs) http://trygodaddy.com/click.track?CID=344983&AFID=419630&godaddy.com=momentum (GoDaddy) http://trygrasshopper.com/click.track?CID=336231&AFID=419630&grasshopper.com=momentum (Grasshopper) Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better) Stephen:                             [00:00:00]               Wanted to take a second and recognize my sponsors this week. You know Gaye Lisby million dollar arbitrage as Edge and list. That’s a mouthful. It is. But guess what. It’s a great opportunity. You know you can build a big Amazon business. You don’t need a lot of capital when you start. I mean we all started you know most of us started selling books and then move into retail arbitrage. That is the place that you can turn your money. The vastness and online arbitrage. And so by having that skill set by learning those skill sets you can get the best bang for your buck. And so Gase group will help you learn online arbitrage. It’s more than just a list service they’re going to give you a whole bunch of actionable inventory every single day. Right. Monday through Friday. Stephen:                             [00:00:50]               However there’s also a mentor ship that goes on and that mentor ship is so important because sometimes it’s great to know what to buy but it’s more important to understand why to buy it. And it’s that you know learning to fish or just getting fed. You know you really want to learn because ultimately you want to strike it on your own. And this is a great way to do it. So how about seven days free trial how about a free trial. Right. Very very cool. So it’s amazing freedom to come forward slashes a mouthful the word momentum carries a hyphen. And you put in the word arbitrage. So it’s amazing freedom does come forward slash momentum dash arbitrage and you’re going to get a free trial in Gase group. You got to tell her I sent you right. I also have the link in the episode. But it’s such a great opportunity. Stephen:                             [00:01:40]               She is amazing amazing I’m in that group. So you’ll see me there an amazing amazing person who’s there to answer your questions who’s there to help lead you and help guide you and that’s what Kay does. She does it every single day. The testimonials are real. Go take a look. You Stephen:                             [00:01:55]               will be blown away. And again it’s a free trial. I have the link on this episode. Reachin you know Sellar labs Jeff Cohen and the team they have blown me away with this scope project. We use this all the time for our business. We do a lot of private label we also do a lot of wholesale and wholesale bundles you know or multi packs that kind of thing which a lot of people do but we use scope to help us figure out what are the key words. And so it’s really simple. You basically figure out where you’re going to sell what you’re going to sell what category find...

In this fourth episode of the Voices of Importing podcast, InTouch Client Manager Matthew Milasius and product sourcing wizard Nathan Resnick discuss ways to foster positive relationships with suppliers, factors that contribute to sourcing costs and more! Here are the questions Nathan and I discussed during the podcast: What’s the biggest misunderstanding importers have when it comes to starting their relationship with a new supplier? What about misconceptions about maintaining the relationship? What do you think are the pillars of a good supplier relationship? What are some absolute “no-nos” when it comes to your relationship with your supplier? Is there anything that you highly advise against that can “sink the ship”? Can you generalize and describe three tiers of suppliers – the good, the medium, and the bad, and how relationships will differ with each of these types of suppliers? Aside from the revenue your orders bring in, what do you think suppliers value most in a relationship? Unrelated to supplier relationships, but important questions nonetheless Why does finding the right suppliers take a lot of time for some importers? What factors contribute to sourcing costs for importers?   If you enjoyed Nathan's insights into manufacturing and would like to contact him, you can visit the website of Sourcify. Link below: https://www.trysourcify.com/

ST62 : Stephen Interviews Nathan Resnick   Nathan Resnick is the CEO of Sourcify, a platform that makes manufacturing easy. In the past, Nathan has brought dozens of products to market, ran three ecommerce companies (sold one), and been a part of projects on Kickstarter raising over seven figures. He writes for media outlets like Entrepreneur, The Next Web, Business.com, and more. Nathan also used to live in China and speaks Mandarin.   www.trysourcify.com www.nathanresnick.com https://twitter.com/naterez94

[Live] LIVE episode from SoCal Marketing Club: How to Scale Your E-Commerce Business Like a Badass With John Bertino, Alan Bush, Steven Picanza, and Melissa Rautenberg! We're having a blast!   [00:30] What's up Creative Hustlers! [01:00] Biggie isn't overrated… [01:13] Live at the Loading Dock in Little Italy, in SoCal. [01:30] This is John's first event on his own! [02:35] Got to chat with Josh Fechter! [02:40] You need to join Josh's Facebook group! [03:30] Here's the Interview with Josh Fechter! [04:00] So what is Growth Hacking and BAMF Media? [05:00] BAMF Media was built to handle clients. [05:21] What clients for BAMF Media look like… [06:10] Josh growth hacked his way to Mark Zuckerberg. [06:50] Facebook's Developer Conference in Chicago! [07:20] Facebook is actually running a Facebook Test Group for admins of Big Facebook Groups! [07:58] What's in store for Live SoCal Marketing event! [08:05] Some of the interviews of the night: Caden from CPC Strategy,and Nathan from Sourcify. [08:50] Where you can find Josh on the internet! [09:30] Look for Josh on a future episode, hopefully! [10:15] Steven was serious about if Josh could take down Zuckerberg. [10:54] The next interview we had was Brian Lischer! [11:17] Brian is great at Business to Business branding. [11:50] It's almost like Barbalicious! [12:15] Brian is really cerebral, and very into psychology, mythology and culture. [12:27] Brian is a really unique interview from the crowd at the event. [12:50] It's all about the internal brand! [13:05] It's the interview with Brian Lischer! [13:30] Brian works at Ignyte, and Alan works with Ignite Visibility. [14:08] What Brian does, and why Ignyte is different! [14:50] It's getting to the essence of the brand, and rebuilding around that. [15:26] Branding is expensive but a LOT goes into it. [16:03] It's going to cost more to do a REBRAND wrong! [16:33] Why Ignyte is different from others. [16:55] The external brand is only ONE SIDE of the coin! [17:40] For some companies, it's about experience in store, and when calling support! [18:49] Educating people on TRUE branding. [19:05] What BRANDING is NOT! [19:20] The craziest thing about branding… [19:59] Branding is just chemicals in the brain. [20:25] Brian just did a workshop in New York figuring out their Brand Archetype. [20:57] Where you can find Brian and Ignyte on the internet! [21:33] Tons of value at the SoCal Marketing event. [22:12] Well done to John Bertino for the event! [22:40] Some of the great speakers on the panel. [23:27] Moderating a panel is hard work. [24:40] Open mixer with SoCal Marketing Club for Entrepreneurs in San Diego.Stay Tuned for details! [25:50] Where John and the So Cal Marketing Club live on the internet! [26:28] John Bertino is always on the show. [26:57] Peace Out, Creative Hustlers [27:02] Melissa's Moment of Hustle Contact Info for Interviewees:   Josh Fechter Co-Founder BAMF Media     Website: http://www.bamf.media/ Private FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/growthmarketers LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuafechter   Brian Lischer - CEO Ignyte Brands   Website: http://www.ignytebrands.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lischer/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ignytebrands/   John Bertino Website: Theagencyguy.com Twitter: @theagencyguyinc Linked In: John Bertino Email: john@theagencyguy.com SoCalMarketing Club: @SCMarketingClub / www.socalmarketingclub.com