Have you ever hired a Filipino VA and was so pleased with them that you felt like you hit the jackpot? They're incredibly talented, they get things done the way you want, they're just downright fantastic. With them helping you out, you get more time to focus on business direction and you couldn't be happier. But then, and seemingly for no reason, your incredible VA suddenly disappears. What just happened?
Rob Hampton, our guest for today's Under the Hood episode, experienced just that. This, along with many other problems such as declining work quality and failing to communicate regularly, is not an uncommon problem in the outsourcing world. But building a team of loyal Filipino VAs is not impossible. It boils down to one thing: understanding their culture.
We've managed to put together a team of awesome Filipino VAs who've been with us for a while now. They've done tremendous things for our business and we would not have grown so much in recent years if not for their help. Rob and I discuss how to build such a team, and how to manage VAs in a way that fosters a long-term relationship.
In more detail, we discuss:
Hiring people is challenging, but when you hire someone with a different culture from the other side of the globe, things get a lot more difficult. Filipinos in particular are known to be loyal and have a knack for making people happy, and it's not in their nature to knowingly do things that will disappoint you. If you put in the effort to understand their culture, traits, and customs, they will stick with you and do wonders for your business.
Resources mentioned:
EcomCrew courses
Under the Hood
Episode 96: Our Philippines Team – Hiring and Maintaining a Team of Rockstar VAs
If you want to be featured on your own episode and get free business advice from us, sign up to be an Under the Hood guest here.
This is just Part 1 of my conversation with Rob. In Part 2, we discuss how to effectively scale his company and reach his goal of $1 million revenue this year. Stay tuned for that on Thursday! Until then, happy selling.
Our months of hard work have finally paid off! We are happy to announce that the following courses are open for registration:
Build a 7-Figure Product Brand
Import From China Like a Pro
And to kick things off, we have Dave Bryant from literally the other side of the world on the podcast to talk about the course and the carefully curated content that's waiting for you on the other side.
And if that's not a treat in itself (you guys know how hard it is to get Dave on the podcast), we're offering the two courses for the price of just one, for a limited time only.
I don't want to sound any more salesy than I already do, so here are some conversation points for today's episode:
This episode is kind of a preview, so many of the things we talk about here are discussed in more depth in our courses. If you've bought one of our courses previously, just send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com so we can upgrade your access for FREE.
Also, we have a lot going on for you in the next couple of months. First off is our webinar on March 6th, which you can sign up for here, if you haven't already. Dave and I are also speaking at Global Sources in Hong Kong in April, and since we'd love nothing more than meeting new people and discussing all things ecommerce, we are hosting EcomCrew's very first mastermind on April 21st in Hong Kong. So if you are going to Global Sources and have some free time, we'd love to meet up with you then. Register here!
Resources mentioned:
EcomCrew.com/course
EcomCrew's 2nd Webinar
MyEcomCrew.com
Hong Kong Mastermind
Global Sources
Thank you so much for listening to the EcomCrew Podcast. Until next week, happy selling!
"If you think about the money as the fuel that drives the car, if the money is getting stopped up before it gets to the vehicle--meaning it's not being organized properly--then you never get the vehicle to move forward." - Ezra Firestone
Ezra Firestone is in the house!
That's right, Ezra Firestone of Smart Marketer is our guest for today's episode. Labeled as the first and leading ecommerce influencer in the world, Ezra runs multiple seven- and eight-figure businesses and has been working in the industry for over a decade. He is a very busy man and I'm definitely stoked to finally be able to talk to him on the podcast!
Today's topic goes to the very core of any business--money. When you run a business, it's only natural to try to lower your expenses as much as possible in order to maximize profits. That means trying to get the lowest cost of goods, lowering advertising spend, and crimping on employee salary. But if you're trying to grow your business and want it to last for more than a couple of years, is that really the right thing to do?
Ezra shares his exact formula on how much he spends on all areas of his businesses. His goal is to grow his businesses aggressively, and that means he tends to spend a lot more on areas where most entrepreneurs tend to cut corners. For example, other people go ballistic when he mentions he spends 10-20% of his top-line on employees alone.
In a little bit more detail, here's what we discussed:
This episode is longer than what we usually do, but I didn't even notice it because I enjoyed talking to Ezra so much. I even compared my numbers to his and will apply many of his principles on my business. He's a very busy guy, but he was kind enough to spend more time on the podcast than most guests usually do!
If you want to learn more about Ezra and check out what he's up to, just go to smartmarketer.com.
Resources mentioned:
EcomCrew Webinar
BOOM! by Cindy Joseph
Zipify Pages
One Click Upsell
Thanks for listening to this episode! Until the next one, happy selling.
"The reality is that one day you wake up and you realize that you're the bottleneck in your own business, and it's time to be fired." - Mike Jackness on handing over the reins of the company to someone else
Have you ever had that feeling when you just know you're about to get fired from your job? In 41 years I have never been fired--I worked hard enough to not be in that situation--and it's certainly uncomfortable dealing with this issue with a company I started.
You might remember me doing an episode about my goals for 2018, and surprisingly, those were the very goals that led me to feeling I might get fired from my own company. One of my goals is to double in revenue again this year, and at this point in our business, doubling will require a lot more effort than it did last year. That means I, as the CEO, will have to hand off tasks I enjoy and focus more on high-level (and sometimes less exciting) business development efforts.
The thing is, I enjoy doing the lower-level stuff. I like the dopamine hit of a successful Facebook ad or PPC campaign. But when I hired Jacqueline, our Director of Ecommerce, she knew that I needed to give them up in favor of the high-level stuff, so in order to get me to do them, she is essentially firing me from the informal marketing position I always loved.
Here are some points I talked about in this episode:
It feels weird, to say the least, to no longer be doing what I love in order to do the less sexy but necessary functions of a CEO. But in business there will always be trade-offs, and if giving up dopamine hits is what I need to do to achieve my goals, then I'd gladly do it.
Resources mentioned:
MyEcomCrew
My 2018 Goals
Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business
As always, thanks for listening to this episode. Until the next one, happy selling!
In Part 1, Cory and I talked about his business, Woodies, and the SAAS subscriptions he has racked up in running his business. We went through his SAAS subscriptions and evaluated whether or not he should hold on to some of them and let go of the others. Since he has quite a long list, we continue to talk about the rest of the services he uses in the first part of this episode.
Cory then talks about an impending threat to this business: Chinese sellers. This is a problem we've seen more and more of and talked about extensively last year. The good thing is that there are many things Chinese sellers still can't do to get ahead, but we believe that it's only a matter of time before they swamp Amazon and the platform will be too small for everyone to thrive in. With that in mind, Cory and I discuss a topic that might actually be difficult to talk about--selling his business.
Here's an overview of everything that we discuss:
This has been a very interesting conversation with Cory. He definitely has his head on the right track, being quite young, and running a million-dollar business while traveling the world. He might have to consider an exit strategy for his business, but with his proven track record, finding success on a new business is something he can absolutely do.
Resources mentioned:
MyEcomCrew
Under the Hood
E88: Exiting Your Business With Joe Valley of Quiet Light Brokerage
Thanks for listening to this episode and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did recording it. Until next week, happy selling!
We've released 4 Under the Hood episodes so far and we've been getting a lot of good comments about the segment. It seems to resonate with a large listener base, and since we've been really happy about your feedback, we're bumping things up and releasing more of these episodes.
For today's episode, we have Cory Stout of Woodies.com on the spotlight. Cory is living a nomadic lifestyle while running Woodies, and since automation is a big part of his business, he has been racking up a long list of SAAS (Software as a Service) subscriptions. Today he and I talk about his subscriptions and evaluate whether or not they're worth keeping.
Some conversation points:
In Part 2 of our conversation, Cory and I continue to evaluate and talk about his SAAS subscriptions. Stay tuned for Part 2 on Thursday!
Resources mentioned:
As always, thanks for listening to this episode. Until the next one, happy selling!
“Even when you find business models that are pretty well fleshed-out, there’s gonna be a million ways to connect the dots that you just kind of have to take your best swings and learn as hard as you can and work as hard as you can. That’s going to be everybody’s experience in entrepreneurship. There’s really no way around that.” - Dan Faggella
Our guest for today's episode is a Class A badass guy. Those who have been listening to the podcast for a while now know that I vet every single guest to make sure that they don't pitch a product or service that's not useful to our listeners. Hence I have a rule to never interview anyone I haven't met personally.
This guy just broke that rule.
Our guest, Dan Faggella, is an awesome, I-wish-I-had-more-time-to-talk-to-him impressive guy. I've been in ecommerce for over 15 years and it's hard to impress me with anything these days. But Dan just blew me away. I talked to him for about 40 minutes and had me thinking about implementing his ideas on my business after the interview.
Dan Faggella is the founder of Tech Emergence, a company focusing on artificial intelligence. But before he founded Tech Emergence, he built and ran Science of Skill, an eLearning ecommerce company geared towards self-defense. What started as a way to fund his dream of building an AI company became a multi-million dollar venture, achieved by selling digital products.
In this episode Dan and I talk about his early days in ecommerce, how he came about the idea of creating Science of Skill, tips on selling digital products, and tons more tips on ecommerce and entrepreneurship in general.
As a sneak peek, here are some conversation points:
This is an unusually long episode and I apologize for that. I just loved talking to Dan and wish I could have more time with him. It was such an insightful and information-packed conversation and I hope you find it extremely useful as well!
Resources mentioned:
MyEcomCrew
Epic video of Dan beating big guys
Coloring Club
If you want to know more about Dan or reach out to him, you can go to his website, or shoot him an email at dan@techemergence.com. You can also find him on Twitter (@danfaggella).
Thanks for listening, as always. Until next week, happy selling!