The Ecomcrew Ecommerce Podcast

To recap for those of you who missed Episode 222, 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. The premise is 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 grow your business. This episode is a preview of my sessions with first-ever Roadshow participant, Lance Robinson of Wall Charmers. It's a fun sneak peek of what the EcomCrew Roadshow is all about. If you ever want to become a participant, just fill out the form here to let us know. See you on the road!

When we made the move from affiliate marketing to selling our own physical products years ago, we realized in a kind of baptism-by-fire way how starkly different the two business models are. Mike Higman, owner of HuntingGearDeals.com, is trying to make the same shift. In this episode, he and I talk about the 3 things he needs to carefully consider to make sure he is prepared to take his business to the next level: cash flow, products to sell, and content strategy. You'll learn: Why cash flow is the enemy of a physical products business How to find the perfect product to sell by leveraging information from your affiliate marketing website The best way to rank your website on Google How to gather content from true fans of your product Why you need to be careful about spending tons of money on web development Mike and I met when he signed up for 5 Minute Pitch. Check out his story and pitch. Resources mentioned: E184: Dealing with Cash Flow 5 Minute Pitch Thanks for listening! Until the next one, happy selling.

Meghla Bhardwaj is the Head of Content Marketing at Global Sources and organizer of the Global Sources Summit. The summit is one that I really love, and for this year Dave and I will both be speaking at the event. Meghla has been on the podcast a couple of times talking about sourcing from China specifically through Global Sources, but this time our topic is different. Sourcing from India With the ongoing China trade war and the uncertainty of the future of tariffs for Chinese products, alternative sourcing countries have become more and more popular. One country that's been getting more attention is India. Compared with sourcing from China though, there is a void of information about sourcing from India. In this episode Meghla discusses the ins and outs of sourcing from India, more specifically: Advantages for Amazon sellers Products and categories India excels in Quality of the products compared to those made in China Payment terms and lead times Logistics India trade shows Navigating India with/without a guide If you want to know more about sourcing from India or Global Sources, you can reach out to Meghla at www.facebook.com/meghla.bhardwaj. Buy product samples instantly Meghla also introduces a new feature that lets buyers get product samples right on the Global Sources website. Skip the long email back-and-forth and low MOQ negotiation--buy your product samples instantly (price includes shipping) and test them before making a bulk order. Check out this new feature. Global Sources Summit discount This year's summit will be on April 27th to 29th in Hong Kong and Dave and I will be speaking there. Meghla was kind enough to hook us up with a  sweet discount for EcomCrew listeners. Just use the code ECC100 when you purchase your ticket to get $100 off. EcomCrew Mastermind We're organizing our 2nd annual mastermind right before the Global Sources summit so if you'll be in Hong Kong on April 26th, this will be the perfect opportunity to come hang out. Whether you're making a trip to the Canton Fair or Global Sources for the first time ever or you're a frequent visitor to China this mastermind will be of incredible value to you. We've designed this mastermind to be an intimate meeting of less than 30 people, so check it out before seats run out.   Thanks for listening to this episode! Until the next one, happy selling.

This Under the Hood episode is unique and perhaps unexpected. I’m joined by Speck Hansen of earthMonkeys, a brand that sells plush stuffed animals. The company’s underlying mission is “for moms that wanna get their kids using less screen time and getting out and doing more physical activities through adventure.” You might say that his products are in direct competition with those sold under one of our brands. However, I’m a firm believer that there’s enough business for everyone out there. And by having the opportunity to talk to him about his business and answer his questions, we would be providing greater value to those who are interested in entering the baby niche with these products or those who want to expand their existing product line to include plush toys. Here are some of the salient points from the interview. Word of mouth is an important marketing strategy when selling plush toys. New parents will often befriend other new parents. New moms, in particular, may get advice on baby products from other news moms in their circle. In some cases, you can earn a much better profit by having quantities of products for one SKU and selling them at higher prices. Having a promotional strategy that can tie into plush toys and help kids develop an affinity for them is always a plus. Include 1-2 images on your listing that functions like an infographic. It should go into detail about the features that the toy has. Under the Hood is a segment where we do an hour-long coaching call with one of our listeners. We 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! EcomCrew Premium is Open We’re reopening Premium until March 18th! Get access to full-length courses, twice monthly private webinars, and unlimited 1 on 1 email coaching with Mike and Dave. Register here! New Episodes of 5 Minute Pitch A pre-tea company seeking seed money and a passionate mom and designer who wants to spread joy to kids. Tune in to the 5 Minute Pitch. New episodes published weekly until the final round in May at the Sellers Summit 2019. Sign up for The EcomCrew Roadshow 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!

The first time Joe Cochran came on the podcast, we were set on talking about free plus shipping offers. However, Joe's background proved to be too interesting to cut short, so we talked more about it instead. You can listen to that episode and the lessons he learned before before founding ComfortTac, his current company. We discussed the ups and downs of running an ecommerce business, and whether or not passion really does play a part in creating a successful company. We're having Joe back on the podcast today to finally talk about free plus shipping offers. From our conversation you'll learn that: Every business is different. There's no one size fits all strategy and that every advice should be adapted for your particular business. This principle applies to creating free plus shipping offers. You might need to diversify your product offering to increase average order value if you don't have a consumable product. Free plus shipping offers have a better rate of success if you do a lead magnet offer first. Your lead magnet could be an information product built around your physical product. For more information about building information products, you can listen to this episode: E117: How an MMA Fighter Built a Multi-Million Dollar Company Selling Digital Products EcomCrew Premium is Open We're reopening Premium for a limited time! Get access to full-length courses, twice monthly private webinars, and unlimited 1 on 1 email coaching with Mike and Dave. Sign up here!

Hiring is not the easiest thing to do in the entrepreneur world, but it's also the most important task an entrepreneur eventually must do if they want their business to grow. Nathan Hirsch knows this all too well. At first he wasn't sold on the idea of hiring someone but when his first busy season came and led him to work 10-12 hour workdays all by himself, he knew he had to find someone and help him run his business. After learning from multiple bad hiring decisions, FreeeUp was born. FreeeUp is a service that provides entrepreneurs access to vetted freelancers from around the world. They do the screening and pre-interviewing, and claims to let only the "top 1%" into the FreeeUp platform. Entrepreneurs can just submit a request and FreeeUp matches them with a vetted freelancer/VA/agency within a business day. Some conversation points: How Nathan's remote worker quit on him during his first day of vacation The importance of hiring people around your strengths and weaknesses The pitfall of interviewing based on skill and the importance of personality and work ethic Setting expectations and establishing a feedback loop The dangers low-balling freelancers The different levels of freelancers and how FreeeUp vets them Don't make the mistake of waiting too long before making your first hire. If you're looking to hire now, Nathan was kind enough to provide EcomCrew listeners with a $50 credit on the platform. Just use the code ECOMCREW when signing up. Resources mentioned: 5 Minute Pitch EcomCrew Premium Our Philippines team Thanks for listening! Until the next one, happy selling.

Around mid-2017 Dave embarked on a journey to build another million dollar brand after he sold his first one in 2016. He originally planned to reach a $1 million revenue run rate in 12 months, but certain things happening in 2018--including a legal dispute, among others--contributed to a slow growth throughout the year. 21 months later, Dave finally hit his $1 million revenue goal. In this podcast episode he discusses the things that lengthened the process so that you can avoid it in your own business. He also shares tips and hints for increasing the profitability of your brand, along with growth strategies you can employ. Some conversation points: Why he is directing almost all sales to Amazon How he brings cold outside traffic to Amazon The benefits of creating a content-only website that is completely separate from an ecommerce site Why hiring one VA to handle both customer support and article writing is not a good idea How Google Shopping and Facebook is contributing to our growth Growth plans for 2019, including creating a secondary "stealth" Amazon account Thanks for listening to this episode! If you have any questions feel free to leave them below. Until the next one, happy selling.

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!

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!

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.