Last week, Megan and I talked about cash flow and early-stage financing for her ecommerce business. We continue to talk a little bit more about financing in this episode, specifically Amazon loans, then move on to the next big issue: Facebook ads.
Any ecommerce entrepreneur knows how important Facebook ads are in any ecommerce business. However for a business like Megan's which is still at its early stages--and an Amazon-only business at that--focusing on Facebook ads might not be the best idea. Doing Facebook ads at this point might push her to get her own Shopify/BigCommerce store so that she can fully utilize the power of Facebook ads, and that could mean a lot of work, taking her focus off the more important things like Amazon listing optimization and PPC. It boils down to prioritization and not biting off more than what one can chew.
To break things down, here are our conversation points:
We'd like to thank Megan for this information-packed episode. She runs an ecommerce site called The Bootstrap Boutique and a YouTube channel for ecommerce entrepreneurs. Check them out!
Resources mentioned:
My EcomCrew
Under The Hood Signup
Kabbage
Sellers Summit
My 2018 Goals
If you're interested in becoming an Under The Hood guest yourself, just sign up here. Thanks for listening and happy selling!
We have another Under the Hood episode for you! Under the Hood is a new segment we are doing on the EcomCrew Podcast where we give our listeners the opportunity to be on the podcast and ask us any advice about their business. They get free coaching from us and our listeners get amazing content, too--it's a win-win!
For today's episode we have Megan Loftin of The Bootstrap Boutique on the spotlight. Megan is currently doing her business as a side hustle, and like many entrepreneurs still at the early stages of the ecommerce journey, she has been having problems about cash flow and keeping inventory. As is very common with an inventory-based business (especially if the inventory is coming from China), money can get tied up for months on end. In this episode Megan and I talk about the best ways to finance her business and solve this problem.
More specifically we talk about the following:
This episode is just Part 1 of our entire coaching session and on Part 2, we continue to talk a little bit about financing, and then move on to Facebook ads. It is a very interesting conversation and if you are just starting on your ecommerce journey, then these two episodes will definitely be helpful to you.
Resources mentioned:
My EcomCrew
Under The Hood Signup
Steve Chou
Scott Voelker
As always, thank you for listening. If you want to become an Under the Hood guest, just sign up here. Until next week, happy selling!
"The most finite resource you have is your time and your team's time. So if we were to spin our wheels chasing this huge big box business, that would prevent us from spending our time to stuff that is hugely profitable and is continuing to work. So why take your eye off the ball?" - Bill D'Alessandro on abandoning the big box retail route
"My products are in 5,000 Target stores."
Admit it, at some point in your ecommerce entrepreneur life, you wished you could say those words. Or let's say you didn't, but imagine for a minute that you're at a party back home for Christmas and high school friends are asking what you're up to, and then you say those words. Yeah, we've all been there.
But with all the allure of big box retail distribution comes headaches that you probably are not aware of. As an example, one big chain approached us about selling our coloring books on their shelves and we were psyched. But after running the numbers we realized that it's not even worth it.
Today's guest, Bill D'Alessandro, has gone through the big box retail route when he acquired a business that already had a retail presence. He tells us in this interview the woes he encountered and why he ultimately decided to no longer pursue that route.
Bill is the founder of Elements Brands, a company that acquires and scales consumer products brands. He has been buying businesses for 7 years now and currently owns 9 brands with over 130 products. He is not a stranger to this podcast and you can listen to a previous episode he has done with us about buying businesses vs. starting one from scratch.
Some conversation points:
Bill is currently on the lookout for good businesses to buy and add to his portfolio. If you are planning on selling, you can contact Bill at bill@rebelceo.com or hit him up on twitter at @billda
Resources mentioned:
Thanks for listening to our 114th episode. Until the next one, happy selling!
"What's the next thing we have to do to keep going? Is that contacting Amazon, or fixing a listing? Where in some places we probably should take a step back and think about where are we going with this brand and how do we picture it in the next 6 months or a year." - Jacquelyn on focusing on the bigger picture and not getting distracted by the day-to-day activities of the business
When you run a small ecommerce company, it's fine to wear many hats--you can be your own CEO, product development specialist, even your own janitor. But if you want your company to grow, you'll realize that being a one-man band hugely limits the scalability of your business.
While I'm not a one-man band, I realized I needed somebody to help with high-level business development when our company began growing aggressively. If you've been following the EcomCrew podcast for a while now, you'll probably remember a few episodes early last year where I mentioned I was looking to hire a C-level employee. Six months later, we hired Jacqueline as our Director of Ecommerce. It was a long and meticulous process, considering that this is a role that will have a direct impact on the direction of our business.
Jacquelyn has been with us for 3 months now and she has already made huge improvements in our business, streamlining many of what used to be "brute-force" processes. I invited her to be a guest on this episode to talk about the hiring process and what it's like to be on the front seat running our ecommerce company.
Some conversation points:
We plan to grow double this year and I'm confident we will achieve it with Jacquelyn's help. I had fun recording this episode and I will have her on the podcast again in a couple of months with updates on our growth.
Resources mentioned:
Stamped.io
AsiaInspection
Episode 96: Our Philippines Team--Hiring and Maintaining a Team of Rockstar VAs
Thanks for listening! Until next week, happy selling!
This is Part 2 of last Monday's Under the Hood pilot episode. We'd like to thank Brad for bravely coming on the podcast to talk about his business, essentially becoming a guinea pig for our new segment.
If you're interested in getting at least an hour of free coaching too (and getting featured in a podcast episode), sign up to be an Under the Hood guest here.
During Part 1 Brad and I discussed his business in detail, painting a clear picture of where his business stands right now and where he wants the business to go in the future. I had an insight on the strengths and weaknesses of his business and then developed a customized and specific strategy for him to achieve his desired growth.
We get down into the meat and potatoes in this episode. I explain to him in detail the strategy I developed and how to execute it properly. As a sneak peak, the strategy encompasses the following:
Brad's business has the potential for explosive growth. Our conversation is chock-full of information and we hope the strategy and recommendations we talked about can help set his business, and yours too, on the right path.
Resources mentioned:
Stamped.io
AsiaInspection
E110: Under the Hood with Brad Bernhart Part 1
Under the Hood
As always, thanks for listening to the EcomCrew Podcast. Until next episode, happy selling!
This is an episode I wish we didn't have to record.
Competition on Amazon is getting stiffer and stiffer and some sellers, in order to succeed, use the short cut and employ black-hat tactics--killing the business of other sellers mercilessly, if need be.
In this episode we discuss in detail how these black-hat tactics work. I invited three Amazon sellers who actually went through the grueling experience of being victims to competitors who have no moral compass. We are doing this in the hopes that we spread awareness of what is happening, especially since Amazon doesn't seem to care much.
Below is an overview what we discussed:
Lately we noticed that these black hat practices are getting more and more prevalent. What's sad is Amazon mostly only cares about buyers and much less about sellers. It seems that they are okay with letting honest sellers lose, as long as they get their commissions.
We want to spread as much awareness as possible about what's happening, and if we band together, we can make a big difference.
Resources mentioned:
Stamped.io
AsiaInspection
Million Dollar Private Label Pros
My PPC Pal
Want to get an hour of free coaching from Mike and Dave? Sign up at ecomcrew.com/underthehood.
Thanks for listening!
We're excited to do something new at the EcomCrew Podcast! We want to make EcomCrew a better and more awesome resource for ecommerce business owners like you and today marks the start of that endeavor. Today we are releasing a brand-new podcast segment which we believe will tremendously help you wherever you are in your ecommerce journey.
The segment is called Under the Hood, where we call one of our listeners and talk about their businesses for at least one hour. It is essentially a free coaching call--we will take a look at their businesses, provide honest feedback, offer our best business advice, and answer whatever questions they have. In exchange for the free coaching, we will turn the call into a podcast episode so that our community can benefit as well. It's a win-win!
If you're interested in becoming an Under the Hood guest, just sign up at ecomcrew.com/underthehood.
For our pilot Under the Hood episode, we interview and coach Brad Bernhart, owner of an online business sellling hardwood kitchen utensils. Below are the details of his business:
2016 revenue: $405k
Net margins: 40%
Channels: 98% on Shopify website, just recently re-started on Amazon
Biggest challenge: Scaling a plateauing business and keeping up with production if the business grows (he manufactures his own products)
The first part of the coaching call consists of me getting a better idea of Brad's business and understanding his current pain points. After that we discussed the following:
In part 2 I elaborated on why I would do what I told him I'd do if I were in his shoes. I even asked him to get a pen and paper because we talked about pretty high level stuff (I hope we did not make Brad's head explode with all that information). Stay tuned for that next Monday.
Resources mentioned:
Stamped.io
AsiaInspection
EcomCrew.com/UnderTheHood
Brad's interview with Andrew Youderian
If you want to be on the podcast too and receive an hour or more of free coaching, just head over to ecomcrew.com/underthehood to sign up. Abby, our VA, will reach out to you for the next step.
If you don't want to reveal your niche/products to the audience, that is totally fine. We asked Brad if he could reveal to us some details of his business, and he was happy to oblige.
Thanks for listening to this episode, and until the next one, happy selling!
"Never lose sight of the bigger picture--life is short, so make great products that customers truly enjoy and enjoy coming to work." - Mike on one of his most important 2018 goals
2018 just rolled in and there's no better time to set goals for the fresh year than today. I think everyone should be doing something like this, as having clear and sharp goals keeps you from getting distracted by seemingly important but meaningless things. It helps you focus your time and resources on the things that truly matter.
I put together 18 goals (yes, I did 18 to be cheesy) that I'm going to work towards achieving this year. It's a collection of goals for Terran (our holding company for ColorIt, IceWraps, Tactical, and WildBaby), for EcomCrew, and for my personal life as well.
Below are my 2018 goals (in no particular order) which I will explain in detail in today's podcast:
That's a pretty long list; some of the items are harder than the others, but they're all clear goals that will guide our efforts this year. What are your goals? Feel free to share them in the comments below.
Resources mentioned:
Stamped.io
AsiaInspection
Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business
Under the Hood
ECF Live
Global Sources
Sellers Summit