My Amazon Guy

Send us a textWhen you sell an item online, what happens to that package? Today we talk to a package tracking expert. Riche Devine Head of Partner Marketing at Route.Before we talk about the journey of a package, first what is Route and what do you guys do?What’s the journey of a package?Why should sellers care about the last 3rd of a package journey?ConversionLoyaltyMonday announcement IPI score going to 500.Opportunity to win sales where your competition stocks out.2 Day Shipping or SFP is really expensive. Do you see speed as important to the customer and can effective non FBA methods meet the 2 day threshold that is the customer expected bar?The Route App automatically connects to everything you’ve ordered from all your favorite retailers while allowing you to visually track your packages, anytime, anywhere.“One and done” should be a phrase that online retailers avoid like the plague. Unfortunately, far too many online retailers have settled with this approach when it comes to their marketing engine. They dump thousands of dollars in upfront costs to convince prospects to stop by their store, but as soon as shoppers click “buy,” you can hear the aforementioned marketing engine sputter to a halt. Read more at https://route.com/blog/customer-lifetime-value-for-ecommerce-3-ways-to-increase/Support the show

Send us a textHow do you systematize your business and make delegation easy which increases your scalability? We talk to Trent Dyrsmid, Founder of Flowster, host of the Bright Ideas podcast, and founder of a multi million dollar reseller that ranked #254 on the Inc 5000 list in 2019.Get your free Growth Accelerator Pack (Value $299) at https://flowster.app/myamazonguy/Tell me your Amazon story.Started as an Amazon affiliate program about 10 years ago.Then did private label. Didn’t go well.Eventually went well when I automated systems, hired full army of system admins. Sent hundreds of brands an email. Week after week. Delegated everything that preceded replying to onboarding brands. Negotiated pricingWinning an accountThen pushed off to rest of team, PO, sending money etc.Focused all time on closing deals.Account more profitable now than it has ever been.How did processes help your business.Amazon reseller systemHave to source new productsIdentify competitors4% of Amazon resellers do more than 100k a year on Amazon.Ability to hire VAs for low cost.Create a list, large list of competitors.Product extractionWho makes the products, how to get in touch with them?Send them an emailWhy went into reseller model instead of private label?Product investmentsPrivate label - expensive. What should I sell?Source15-20% gross margin target.RisksMAPAmazon 1PEvery brand will tell you we don’t want any more Amazon sellersSalesmanship and research come into play. Listing not optimized. May no ads from incumbents. Product review negative response. Room for improvements. “I agree you don’t need more, you need less, and the reason I’m calling you is because current sellers aren’t doing a good job. They aren’t bothering to run ads, seo, design. When I search the phrase ‘apple slicer’ and your competitors are winning, no one is doing these good things like ads/seo.” How did you win an FBA slot with a brand that has 4-5 resellers already?Flowster400k in first week to sell my process of workflows.Hired a tech guy to make Flowster.Spent year writing code. October 2018 app ready for marketplace.Every business has the problem - highly repetitive set of processes to make the wheels go round.Marketing agency: Prospect/content/hire/social/ad campaigns - same thing over and over again.Amazon sellers: source products, load, optimize, advertise, re-orders.Create work flows - checklist. Cake turns out according to the recipe.Super detailed.Memories not neededTraining time = 35 seconds.ScaleGoogle sheet - static instructions.Interactive works better in Flowster. Specific individual and give it a deadline.Multiple people.VideoRecipient 10 min video - have to rewatch it repeatedly.Changes to processes - editing video sucks.What is life like as a CEO post process setup, relationship building. Processes give you Freedom. Became entrepreneur because freedom is the biggest value.Culture - transparency. People want to be treated like human beings, fulfillment, valued. Process help culture because less chaos, and less frantic, less fire fighting easier.What’s next for you. SSupport the show

Send us a textFor entrepreneurs, being a business owner selling on Amazon is the only path they seek. For others, there's desire to tack the corporate track, being an eCommerce marketing manager of Amazon. Today we talk to an aspiring Amazon eCommerce marketing manager Jacob Privette about his path. Jacob is a former agency employee at My Amazon Guy. And he's seen both sides of this equation.Jacob's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobprivette/Jacob thanks for joining me, as I understand it you just got married a couple weeks ago, how's the married life?Let's talk about your Amazon and eCommerce background to qualify to you our listeners. What have you accomplished in your career?If someone else wanted to start their career on Amazon right now what you advise they do, and why is it go work at My Amazon Guy or another agency?What skills have come in handy that you wouldn't have predicted?Google SheetsExcel SheetsCalculating financials is so important. How profitable is something. How does something affect my bottom line.What's the the difference between growing a corporate Amazon client vs your own hustle.Every bat swing has to be super calculated. If get it wrong $1,000 here could have cascading effects.Quantity of decision makers goes up significantly.Find alignmentExpectations Omni channel MAP PricingDistribution ControlLet's talk culture and working with people. When building an Amazon account with a omni channel corporation, it's not just you and and seller central is it.Number of employees affects cultureMake employees feel valuedGoal settingGrowing Relationships - even harder remote.Crystal Knows - used to see people's personality with LinkedIn app: https://www.crystalknows.com/app/register?profile_id=9ad986c4-2fdb-417c-8337-6ab71cf12bbf&tasks=accept_referral%2Cnotify_inviterRelationshipsEcommerce is a tight nit community.Best class in college that no one should missOrganizational behavior - psychology of business.What do you wish you had learned years ago?Be yourself. Emotional authentic. What's the last book you read and what did you get out of it?Reddit: How to motivate social distancing. Another reference material: "Getting Things Done."Support the show

Send us a textHow do you know when to burn your ships, quit your full time job, and make Amazon full time? We speak to Todd Welch, host of the Entrepreneur Adventure podcast and Amazon Seller.  Todd left his job too early in the process and ended up going back to his 9-5 job. He's still working in fact. He shares his mistakes and advice to know your numbers before you make the leap yourself.Now hire a bookkeeper. After all expenses.Can’t just look at top line sales.Got $60,000 into debt.Now that I know the numbers, back at topline 130k per month. Snowball it ongoing.Took Amazon to purchase more product.How did the business model change after you had the bookkeeping in place?Now all wholesale. 15% profit margin good number in wholesale world.2 week budgetIn the beginning too much money not enough products. Later too much products and not enough money.ROI 60%. 26% margin. Listings collect dustSo how do you know when you should quit your job?Book: Profit First, for ecommerce sellers. https://www.amazon.com/Profit-First-Ecommerce-Sellers-Money-Making/dp/0960028315Take salary out 3 months before you quit, take money out, see if business can run. Debate of debtScale. Risk vs reward.Product failuresDidn’t differentiateToo low price - $15 Seek unique stuffHow did it feel to fail, how did it feel when you went back to work?Plan to go back to full time soon?You may also like “So you married an Amazon Seller” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jmeKKY9r7oFind Todd at https://entrepreneuradventure.com/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeNVgygMlCnOYRf_799fLqgSupport the show

Send us a textHow do you buy or sell an Amazon business? Today we talk to an expert broker who will shed light on this question. Mark Daoust, Founder and CEO of Quiet Light Brokerage sits down with us to talk about strategy.How do you buy an Amazon business?Type of car? Budget? Buy business with weakness where you have strengthWhy buy a business instead of build one?Buy then build - book.Most important thing to avoid or mistake to avoid when buying a business?Product protection, intellectual property is super important. Background of Quiet Light Brokerage.70-mil in transactions average about 1 mil per deal.Maturity phase - sophisticated sellers buying other businesses. When selling business in next 12 months, what is the prep work?4 pillars of valueRiskIP protectionSku diversityMarketplace diversityGrowthHow to go from 1 mil to 5 milReasonable ways to growth.Transfer-abilityEtsy hard to transferVendors may not work with someone else. Licensing issues?DocumentationDocumentation is the largest impact. Financials - Recorded accrual highly valuable. Switches value of business hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mistakes to avoidReasons why you should sellFeather in the cap - I sold a businessIf selling just for financials, don’t do it.Lower end of spectrum - want one payday.Build to holdIf you’re able to sell it, it’s because someone wants to buy it to hold.Get an evaluation - 2.5-3.5 close variation of EBITAWhat will buyers get excited about? Object to?Are buyers excited about niche but too specific into a couple of skus vs diversifiedPrepGet all information that buyers want. Answer buyers questions before they ask them.Sell into the objectionsAverage time on market: 90 days200 inquiries per business. Several conference calls. Offers. 30-60 days of due diligence. Hopefully then close.Broker adds value PrepNavigate transactionStressful.If you have an offer just take it, don’t use a broker.Find out more about Quiet Light Brokerage at https://www.quietlightbrokerage.com/Support the show

Send us a textRecovering Physical Therapist Mike Zagare, who likes to be introduced as the "Creative Guy" from PPC Entourage, talks PPC and Advertising strategy on Amazon. MarginsMargins impact profitability.Scale good campaigns.Why higher ACOS could be good.How do you get a higher conversion rate on ppc?Find keywords that are not converting.6-7% conversion under performingDrags down overall performance of overall account.9-10% is good conversion rate.Click fraudCTR spikes. 10x rate spike. Coupled with low conversion rate.Hurts organic placement. Open a case for investigation.Can give you back money.DataMore data you look at, Top of search converts higher. Search  detail pages.Dynamic up and down or dynamic down or fixed.Top of search bid modifierBreakout campaignWhich keywords do we want at top of search.ASIN Breakout campaignsCompetitive asin targeting, show up on their detail page. Need 10 or more orders.Creative strategyDisplay ads product targeting - under valued.Some categories targeting working well, we didn’t predict this.Placement of ad is amazing!Shows couponHigh clicks - high conversionChanges comingMike wants see more DSP optionsWish list - search term report on brand headline ads. Wealth of knowledge. Sponsored brand video ads are epic.External traffic comingRetargetingHuman Vs robotsHealthy combination of the 2.Strategy and creative - humansRule based software - robotsTrue ACOS 10-12% target.Tying in all advertising types into customer buyers.Fine Mike athttps://ppcentourage.com/https://www.facebook.com/groups/ppcentourage/Get Amazon Consulting at https://myamazonguy.com/#PPC #ads #AMS #amazonsellerSupport the show

Send us a textStarting a business is daunting. I speak with Dan Pope, a meteorologist, who has 40 years of Television weather experience (He's my dad) and we talk about how we started a business in less than 72 hours and soft launched it. Checklist on what to do to get your business up (These are my actual notes that we followed, create a Google sheet and put everything you do in one place.):Registered business federal, write ein tab 2. recommend S Corp or LLC. do not put inc or LLC on official business name. use same name for state and federal filing.  Buy DomainRegister business state, write registration info tab 2Register business bank account.Register for business credit card. Put all expenses here. Recommend capital onePost digital contents of your weather book in return for email address on subscription page. (For you non-weather readers, put up your content that shows your expertise)Create Updated BIO on google docWrite social media post, linked/facebook with your business plan, ask for anyone who needs weather consulting.Review weather consulting competitionSignup for zoom. Signup for calendlySelect 3 business services. Add contact formLoad videos of your cool weather storiesBuild about me page with your TV background and past consultingHomepage should be a video and top services and summarized credentialsRegister PayPalConnect PayPal to calendlyAdd calendly page to 1 hour consulting call page.Integrate calendly to your Gmail calendarPut all logins tab 2Get video testimonials from 3 people who can tout your weather experience. ideal if they hired your consulting.Register your service on a dozen service sites and directoriesRegister Google analytics, add pixel to word pressRegister Google web masterOpen QuickBooks account. do not give to mom. do it yourself. connect credit card and bank. monthly sync expenses. create auto rules to categorize expenses Register DocuSign. use free version to sign stuffCreate one page draft agreement for consulting retainer. write hours expire if not used within 6 months. Sign up for jot form free version. use for your 2 service pages (not the consulting hour(Signup buzzsprout. register podcast with Google apple etc. create daily podcastUpdate your YouTube channel. switch name to business. link to business website. add 3 hashtags to all videos. Post daily videoRegister Google voice number. put on website. forward to your phone during business hours.Update all social media. LinkedIn. Twitter. Facebook. Instagram. pushing business. make daily posts.After you get to $4000 monthly income hire assistant. Their job is to organize youFile Trademark https://myamazonguy.com/trademark-services/Setup gsuite, make emailBuild websiteCreate Google doc and write down a never ending note list of ideas. as they pop into head. Use QuickBooks for invoicing. or HarvestCold email 100 law firms offering your weather expertise for casespersonally call 20 lawyers you know pitch them your legal servicesservice page for in person weather testimony. Review onetReview Ask the PublicMake it easy to understand what Dan Pope does, easy to know when you've done a good job, easy to refer. Simplify it to this level for business model.Read MicrofamousHow many clients do we need? Service page: Train other meteorologist CoachingService page wedding day forecast Support the show

Send us a textHow can you beat the competition through bundling or kitting. Kristin Ostrander, creator of MommyIncome.com and host of the Amazon Files podcast.Why should we bundle?Race to the bottom is avoided. How do you bundle?Frequently bought togetherHow can you beat the competition through bundling?Bundling myth - have to lower priceHangry kitsMommy Income kitting200 skus1 year product life cycleCreated over 1000 bundlesMistakes have you learned from?Just because you think it’s cute, doesn’t meant it will sellResearch is everythingHands off inventory. Use 3PL doing kitting. Prep center.Can’t just duplicate another kit with different logoDoes bundling keep away hijackers?Only if brandedVirtual bundlingDoesn’t have any cost savings.Customer experience - items shipped separately.If you think about your customer and how to serve them, you will succeed.What’s the last book you read. Daily Devotional for Entrepreneurs: Your Season to Grow Big predictionBrand registry requiredLearn more about Kristin Ostarnder at http://mommyincome.com/system Kristin Ostrander is an author as well: Big Dream Step Small Support the show

Send us a textHave you ever wanted to write a book or sell books on Amazon? This is the podcast for you. Today we talk to a visionary who knows how to help you reach the coveted title of "#1 Best Seller on Amazon." Ellen Violette is an award-winning book and business coach, multiple #1 bestselling author, podcast host, CEO of Create A Splash and a Grammy-nominated songwriter. Her first piece of advice: Giving books away for free is NOT a mistake. Especially if you give away E-books. You need to convey to the consumer what makes your book valuable. What does your book have to offer, what makes it unique? Include this somewhere in the title or subtitle.Just getting started? What are the keywords that will bring people to find your book? This is what moves business forward. Do market research with your target market, a minimum of 10 people, to figure out the search terms that would connect them to your book.  An E-book giveaway may work for your business model. People want value before they pay you, this can help you build your brand. E-books can be a low cost-high value proposition. You can give E-books away to reach #1 status. The general public is usually impressed by “#1 best seller." Those in the know may not care much about the title, but it can open the doors to amazing opportunities. Can books make a profit on Amazon? Selling books on Amazon can help you accelerate success. Ellen's books have all reached top #1 best sellers. Books open doors for you and your personal brand. You are never too old to write a book. Things happen when you write books.What mistakes did you learn on your journey? When Ellen first started, people were not exactly telling the truth about passive income; they claimed writers were going to be on the beach making an automated income which was misleading. The money is really in the coaching, teaching what’s in the book.If there's something you don't know how to do, hire people to fill in the gaps. Know whether you are the creative person or the business person and what is going to work for you. If you don't listen to your inner guide, it can be a struggle. Also, sometimes things happen that are outside of your control like the recession of 2008. Book to read: Traffic Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Filling Your Websites and Funnels with Your Dream Customers by Russell Brunson Ellen Violette helps busy creative visionaries, leaders and changemakers, write, publish, launch to #1 bestseller, and market their book to get more clients, make more money, make a bigger impact, and leave a lasting legacy.Contact info: www.booksopendoors.comwww.booksbusinessabundance.com/podcast #BookSelling #Author #amazonselling #amazonseller #amazonfba  Support the show

Send us a textAmazon in person meetings tend to be a lot power points and hot air. After they show you some cool looking charts but meaningless fluff... They will likely put the onus on you to help yourselves and ask for lower prices. Spend more on ads. That kind of thing.If you press them to ask what they will do for you I would be surprised to hear you come out of this meeting with anything substantive. They don't even have power to put you into an email promotion. All the ads we have access to now used to be gated and handed out sections like display. That's what they used to be able to give you for meeting up. These days I've not seen a single benefit. I hope you do come out with something though!Get Amazon Consulting at https://myamazonguy.com/#amazonselling #amazonseller #amazonfbaSupport the show