The Ecomcrew Ecommerce Podcast

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E227: 19 Goals for 2019 Feb 28, 2019

Show notes

It's the end of February and I'm behind on sharing my goals for the year.

But here they are. My 19 goals for 2019. I made it a little bit different this year by coming up with three themes - less is more, doubling down on ecomCrew, and focusing more on "me". As you read through my list, you'll find that each goal fits a theme or two.

1. Sell a brand. I feel that it's time to de-risk and take some money off the table so this year we will be actively working towards selling one of our brands. I will also be creating a series on this with Joe valley from Quiet Light Brokerage.

2. Position another brand for sale in late 2020. We'll start thinking about this now in anticipation that we will be in a better spot with whatever brand we'll be letting go of next year.

3. Getting back to location independence. We were digital nomads before that was even a thing but we've been grounded in San Diego for 5 years but I miss being location independent so we'll be working on that this year.

4. Reducing debt to zero dollars. My aim is to have zero debt in the business and in our personal lives.

5. Hike the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island. Supposedly one of the most beautiful trails in the world. Dave and I will be doing this 5-day hike along with some other guys

6. Take at least 10 weeks of personal travel. There will be a significant amount of personal travel. I'll be incorporating it the trips that we'll be doing for the EcomCrew Roadshow. I'd like to visit Iowa and North Dakota - the last two out of the 50 states that I haven't been to. I'd also like to visit some new countries this year get past the number 50 mark of countries visited.

7. Record 6 or more episodes of the EcomCrew Roadshow.

8. Invest in at least 1 ecommerce business. Leveraging our resources to be able to help other people and businesses grow.

9. Lose 10 more pounds. The plan is to lose about a pound a month.

10. Visit the Philippines office in 2019.

11. Start selling our services for EcomCrew. We'll start small, offering services to Premium members initially.

12. Significantly improve the quality of the podcast. We want the podcast to be really noticeable so we'll be hiring a professional audio and video editor and refining our process of getting people to be interviewed on the podcast.

13. Film season 2 of 5 Minute Pitch.

14. Break each of our brands out into different companies.

15. Start hosting personal events for EcomCrew. Not full-fledged conferences but small gatherings of ecommerce entrepreneurs with a mastermind-like setup.

16. Speak at 6 industry events.

17. Shift to doing things that only bring me immense personal fulfillment.

18. Do intermittent fasting for all of 2019.

19. Not to drink the rest of 2019.

Tune in to the 5 Minute Pitch. New episodes published weekly until the final round in May at the Sellers Summit 2019.

Join this month's giveaway and get the chance to win an annual Premium subscription for free.

Need onsite and personalized advice for your struggling ecommerce business? Sign up for the EcomCrew Roadshow. Read more about it 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!

E226: Convenient Financing Solutions for Ecommerce Sellers Feb 25, 2019

Show notes

Hey there!

We've had 5 Minute Pitch videos available online for a few weeks now. The entire process has been tiring yet fulfilling and we couldn't have done it without the help of great companies. One of which is Payability, a financing company exclusive for ecommerce sellers.

On today's show, we have Vicky Sullivan to talk more about their products - Instant Access and Instant Advance.

Here are some specifics that we covered in this interview.

The high cost of a missed opportunity in ecommerce
Why banks don't understand the needs of ecommerce sellers
The difference between business financing and personal debt
What is Payability and how is it different?
Payability success stories

Cash flow is key to growing that ecommerce business. But when it takes Amazon two weeks to pay, this can be quite difficult. This is where Payability's services can be of assistance.

Get discounts ($200 sign-on Bonus + 1.5% Instant Access fee!) when you sign up using this link.

Tune in to the 5 Minute Pitch. New episodes published weekly until the final round in May at the Sellers Summit 2019.

Registration to EcomCrew Premium is now closed. But, you can join this month's giveaway and get the chance to win an annual Premium subscription for free.

Need onsite and personalized advice for your struggling ecommerce business? Sign up for the EcomCrew Roadshow. Read more about it 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!

E225: Do You Have to be Passionate About What You Sell? The Ups and Downs of Running an Ecommerce Business Feb 21, 2019

Show notes

I used to say that passion is not that big a deal when it comes to choosing a niche for an ecommerce business.

Over the years as our business evolved and we faced the inevitable challenges that came with growth, I'm starting to think that passion might not be overrated after all.

My good friend and our guest today, Joe Cochran of ComfortTac, certainly agrees.

Joe dipped his toes in ecommerce when he began helping his father run Northline Express, an ecommerce business that specializes in fireplaces and chimneys.

The company was eventually sold and Joe built his second company, ComfortTac, selling concealed carry holsters. Joe was passionate about this product and while he avoided the mistakes he and his father used to make, being lean in his finances--even renting out the bedrooms of his house to funnel cash into his new business--he was was not immune to the difficulties that came with it.

But he knew his product well, and with this knowledge he was able to minimize the impact of a major manufacturer error that threatened to put him out of business. His passion for the product was one of the major reasons that kept him from throwing in the towel.

In this episode, you'll learn

How ego-fueled mistakes led to the decline of his father's business
Why hiring consultants is almost always a very risky and costly mistake
What Joe would have done differently with his father's business
The value of being frugal and keeping your personal finances in order
Manufacturer mistakes will almost always happen at some point and you need to be prepared for it

Thanks for listening! Until the next one, happy selling.

E224: Using Sellics for PPC Management and More with Franz Jordan, Sellics Founder Feb 18, 2019

Show notes

Sellics is one of the tools that has made a huge impact on my business. Today's podcast guest is Franz Jordan, the founder of Sellics, and we discuss how the software started, how it evolved into the all-in-one Amazon tool it is today, and the features that so many Amazon sellers now can't live without.

Born out of a need

Back in late 2013, there were no tools that helped sellers with their rankings on Amazon. Sellics was created out of that need, and it began its early life primarily as an Amazon SEO tool.

Sellics expanded its feature set as the needs of Amazon sellers grew. Today, it has become an all-in-one tool for Amazon sellers: it has a profit dashboard, it shows you sales and revenue numbers, and it has the most comprehensive PPC tool in the world today.

Session problem or conversion problem?

One of the most useful features of Sellics is the ability to see sales and revenue numbers. As Franz explained it, sales is just traffic multiplied by conversion rate.

If your sales dropped suddenly, you can pinpoint the source of the problem based on the formula above.

If the problem is dropped traffic, your listing is suffering from low visibility. You can remedy this by actions such as being more aggressive with your ad spend.

If you have a conversion rate problem, you can look into things such as your reviews, or if someone may have changed your listing without you knowing it, or if you have a competitor who has suddenly become more aggressive with their campaigns.

Superb PPC manager

The feature that has improved our business significantly is Sellics' PPC manager. It has automations that still keep you in control, using it is not as cumbersome as using Seller Central, it has visualizations that keep track of the changes you make, and it shows you the profitability of your campaigns.

It has literally shaved hundreds of man-hours for our PPC person. Before this tool, she used to spend almost her entire workday on PPC, now, she uses only a couple of hours per month--with no changes to our sales.

I made an episode about our step-by-step PPC strategy which helped us save thousands of dollars a month. You can listen to it here.

5 minute pitch is live!

Watch new episodes of 5 minute pitch and win thousands of dollars in perks! Click here to check it out.

Thanks for listening! Until the next one, happy selling.

E223: An SEO Teardown of Icewraps.com with Jeff Oxford Feb 14, 2019

Show notes

I consider myself an SEO nerd. I've optimized my company's online assets to rank better on search engines, particularly Google. Although I should say that the techniques I've used have not always been sophisticated nor white hat.

As I learned more about SEO (and got slapped by Panda and Penguin updates), my approach to search optimization has become much more aligned with Google's standards. Had I done this at the start, it would have been a lot better for my business overall.

But there's definitely room for improvement in how we get these things done. Which brings us to today's episode. My guest is Jeff Oxford, the founder and SEO Director of 180 Marketing.

Jeff did what's called an 'SEO teardown' at this year's ECF Live. And he'll be doing the same to one of our brand sites, Icewraps.com.

Here are some takeaways that you can apply to your own website in order to take it to the next level.

Solid content and clean navigation are musts.
Shopify has one of the most SEO-friendly platforms for ecommerce sites. If you're on Shopify and have a small product catalog of products, it becomes easier to rank your website.
If you're doing a site migration, make sure to 301 redirect old pages to the new ones or to another appropriate page.
Add your 'most searched for' keywords as part of the title tags.

Tune in to the 5 Minute Pitch. New episodes published weekly until the final round in May at the Sellers Summit 2019.

Registration to EcomCrew Premium is now closed. But, you can join this month's giveaway and get the chance to win an annual Premium subscription for free.

Need onsite and personalized advice for your struggling ecommerce business? Sign up for the EcomCrew Roadshow. Re more about it 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!

E222: Introducing EcomCrew Roadshow - Free Next-Level Ecommerce Business Coaching Feb 11, 2019

Show notes

Need help getting your business off the ground?

We're launching a brand-new segment called EcomCrew Roadshow where we help ecommerce entrepreneurs come up with a plan to take their businesses to the next level.

You don't go to the coaches, the coaches come to you.

If you have an ecommerce business with an already existing product, but are struggling to get things off the ground, we're looking for you.

An hour of discussion over Skype is not enough for the kind of coaching we have in mind because we know from experience how long it takes to build an ecommerce business, and we want to go out of our way to help you out as much as we can.

We will come to your city, spend a couple of days with you at your office, go over your business, review things, and come up with a plan to get your business to the next level.

All this absolutely for FREE.

Yup, that's right. The coaching will be of no cost to you. We'll be covering all of our expenses, including travel to your city and accomodations.

What's the catch?

The EcomCrew community has been one of the most fulfilling pursuits of our lives and the EcomCrew Roadshow will serve as a way for us to give back to the community that has allowed us to grow so much in the last couple of years.

The only thing we ask you in exchange is to allow us to come to your facility or office, record the coaching, and let us turn it into a podcast episode or YouTube video.

Sounds good? Here's how it's gonna go:

Just sign up here, tell us a little bit about you and your business, and why we should choose you.

We'll pick the most interesting submissions, and if you're chosen, we'll reach out to you via email for the next steps.

Until the next episode, happy selling.

E221: Lessons, Stories, and a Personal Vow - Takeaways from ECF Live 2019 Feb 07, 2019

Show notes

I've said it before and I'll say it again: EcommerceFuel Live is my absolute favorite ecommerce event in the world.

From power-packed presentations and interesting entrepreneur stories, to a personal vow to abstain from alcohol, this year's ECF Live did not disappoint.

A roster of brilliant speakers

ECF Live boasted a strong list of speakers this year and the following are my top 3:

The Epic Battle Between Amazon, Walmart, and Brands - Jason Goldberg of retailgeek.com

I consider this to be the star of the conference because this topic is very timely with Amazon quickly rising and Walmart falling behind. Jason talked about how Walmart is scared of following the footsteps of Sears and what they're doing to avoid that.

My Company, Myself: Identity and the Entrepreneurship Journey - Dr. Sherry Walling of Zen Founder

Dr. Sherry has been a guest on here before, and the episode I did with her is probably one of the best in the EcomCrew Podcast.

Her ECF Live presentation discussed an issue that's not unique but highly pronounced--and destructive--in entrepreneurs, and that is tying one's identity with one's business.

Shipping - Craig Gentry

I found this talk interesting not mainly because of the topic, but because of the speaker.

Craig was the type of reserved guy who I had to force to talk during the speakers' dinner, but when he got on stage the next day for his presentation, he was this totally different person. He was able to captivate the audience while showing them graphs and tips on how to not lose money on shipping.

Stories, takeaways and my personal vow

While ECF Live has brilliant speakers to learn from, that's not the reason why this event is a personal favorite of mine.

You'll read this on ECF Live's landing page: "What makes eCommerceFuel Live different than other events? That's easy - it's the people."

And it's true. The people who join the event make it all the more special. Below are a couple of highlights and takeaways for me and Dave (and no, I did not get pranked this year):

What venture capitalists want is not always what people want. One ECF member just bought a company that once received a $750 million VC funding for an amount ridiculously lower than that.
More and more people are buying rosters of FBA businesses. While this is good news for people who want to exit by selling one day, we think this could be a precursor to an FBA bust.
Dr. Sherry Walling's talk hit hard, and we realize we need to extricate ourselves from our businesses a little bit and maintain a healthy personal life.

One of the biggest highlights for me personally is that I took a vow to never drink alcohol for an entire year.

ECF Live has an after party (and then an after after party) and a lot of us, to put it eloquently, end up getting wasted.

But then I realized some members still have fun without having a bit of alcohol in them, and this, coupled with the fact that my hangovers are getting more and more brutal, made me decide to go on the entire year without a single alcoholic drink.

Understandably, my friends are not too happy about it, but I can say that it has been a good decision so far.

EcomCrew February Giveaway

Show your business some love this February with us as your personal business coaches. Get all the benefits of EcomCrew Premium, including unlimited one-on-one email coaching, in-depth courses, twice monthly private webinars, and access to a private Facebook group--all without spending a cent.

Click here to join the giveaway.

Until the next one, happy selling!

E220: Making the Transition from Creating Demand to Supplying Demand with Jon Larkin Feb 06, 2019

Show notes

With the Canton Fair starting in two months, many ecommerce sellers are making plans to go to China. We'll be heading there ourselves in April to go to the fair and meet-up with members of the EcomCrew community.

Coincidentally, today's episode was recorded while we were at last year's Canton Fair. My guest Jon Larkin is an Irishman with an interesting start in the world of ecommerce. Five years ago, he was with a company developing software for ecommerce entrepreneurs. This piqued his interest in the industry and led to him joining Moocall, an ecommerce brand that develops and sells their own calving sensors.

Jon was poised to make another transition when I caught up with him. He was striking out on his own and was in China looking for products that he could improve on and sell under his own brand.

Not many people in the industry are able to transition from creating product demand to purely supplying it. In this light, Jon's ecommerce experience is something we can all learn from.

Registration to EcomCrew Premium is now closed. But, you can still learn from us through our suite of free courses. You'll find a total of 20 videos covering ecommerce topics like Importing from China and Building a 7-Figure Business.

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!

E219: 2018 Recap - Highs and Lows of Running an Ecommerce Business Jan 31, 2019

Show notes

EcomCrew Premium is open for a limited time

EcomCrew Premium is now accepting new members from January 28 - February 3.

We only open registrations a few times a year with the next reopening probably in April, so if you're ready to take your business to the next level, join us and get the following benefits:

1-on-1 unlimited email coaching
Access to 4 full length courses (Importing from China, Launch an Amazon New Best Seller, Build a 7-Figure Product Brand, Facebook Messenger)
Access to future courses
Private monthly Q&A webinar
Private Secret Sauce webinar where we bring in an ecommerce expert once a month
Access to our exclusive members-only Facebook group

Click here to explore Premium.

With that out of the way, let's get down to what this episode is about.

2018 Recap: The Numbers

Dave and I first discussed the detail that seems to be the most important for most people: end of year revenue.

For us at Terran, we ended the year at $5,944,667. This is 27.22% higher than 2017, which was about $4.6 million.

We initially had a goal to earn $9.7 million dollars in revenue this year, but due to unforeseen circumstances we were forced to cut back product development which ultimately affected our revenue. I talked about this in more detail in this episode.

Dave's new company, which he started from scratch, ended the year at $556,000. His 2019 goal is to achieve a run rate of just under $2 million.

Money in the bank, Shanghai winters, and Amazon creating their own IceWraps brand

While last year was overshadowed by such things as additional tariffs and Amazon creating their own brand that's exactly like IceWraps, not everything was bleak in 2018.

We decided to prioritize profits over revenue last year, which led to us having substantial money on the bank for the first time since we started this business.

Our product launches have also been successful, largely due to the launch process we've been teaching at EcomCrew. This launch process was so successful that all of our newly launched products got the "New Best Seller" badge on Amazon.

Dave also ended the year with a third of his sales coming from Amazon Canada. Not only that, he's been successful directing traffic from Shopify to Amazon, effectively solidifying his ranking.

Dave had his fair share of lows though. One of these is a literal low (as in temperature) when he went to Shanghai during its worst winter in 20 years, without a jacket.

That said, one of our highest highs last year was the success of EcomCrew Premium.

Years ago, EcomCrew was nothing more than just a blog and podcast revolving around a hobby. Last year marked EcomCrew becoming a real and profitable business, and we have you to thank.

Thanks for listening to this episode! Until the next one, happy selling.

E218: 10 Current Risk Factors in Ecommerce - How The Variables Have Changed and Their Effects on My Business Jan 28, 2019

Show notes

I just came back from ECF Live in New Orleans, and one of the topics people kept bringing up to me was the changes I've been making in my business for the past year.

For a bit of a backstory, we started 2018 with a list of goals, one of which is to hit a revenue of $9.7 million. At that point, that number was perfectly reasonable and achievable and we started the first few months confident and on a strong footing.

But then, some things happened in mid 2018 that changed that. These things and other factors led us to deliberately stop developing new products, which is another one of our goals. This, in turn, affected our revenue numbers, and we ultimately did not reach $9.7 million.

What these things are--factors which, in a way, made us intentionally drop our revenue goal--is what people is wondering about.

This episode addresses that.

EcomCrew Premium is open for a limited time!

Now that Dave and I are back from ECF Live, we can focus our undivided attention on Premium.

We are only opening enrolment a couple of times a year and the next reopening might not be until April. Join Premium and get one-on-one email coaching with me and Dave, twice monthly private webinars, access to our Facebook group, and a chance to be on the podcast.

Check out other EcomCrew Premium benefits here.

Thanks for listening to this episode! Until the next one, happy selling.

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