The Opportunity Podcast

Scaling an e-commerce business often requires large amounts of capital. Many entrepreneurs risk their financial security by bootstrapping their business without fully understanding the different funding options available to them. This is where today’s guest, Leonardo Felisberto, steps in to save the day. Leonardo is the global head of partnerships at SellersFunding, a financial platform designed to help e-commerce sellers grow and scale their businesses through effective financial management. In this episode, Leonardo discusses the obstacles e-commerce sellers have previously faced when applying for growth capital, and how modern seller funding can lower the barriers to entry into e-commerce businesses. Leonardo walks us through the key criteria he looks for when approving sellers for funding and the common mistakes sellers make when trying to raise growth capital. He also explains how to set up a practical cash flow system for your business as well as the industry trends e-commerce entrepreneurs should look out for.  If you’re searching for a reliable way to secure growth capital for your e-commerce business, then you don’t want to miss out on Leonardo’s expert advice! Topics Discussed in this episode: Leonardo’s journey into the world of e-commerce funding (02:20) How the e-commerce industry has evolved since the pandemic (04:53) Why previous funding options presented an obstacle to e-commerce sellers (07:52) How seller funding can lower the barriers to entry into e-commerce businesses (11:42) The criteria Leonardo looks for when approving sellers for funding (17:37) Common traps business owners fall into when raising capital for their business (19:42) The first steps to setting up an effective cash flow system (22:36) Real-world examples of the impact of growth capital on e-commerce businesses (27:10) The key piece of advice that e-com sellers should know when seeking funding (31:07) Trends in the e-commerce space that are exciting business owners (34:13) Sit back, grab a coffee, and learn how to secure the growth capital that will take your e-com business to the next level!

In today’s world, almost everyone uses email. But many entrepreneurs still underestimate the power of email marketing and its ability to establish a meaningful connection with your customers.  This week’s guest is Greg Zakowicz, a veteran email marketer and the Sr. Ecommerce Expert at Omnisend, an ecommerce marketing automation platform. With 15 years of experience under his belt, Greg has witnessed firsthand the transformative power that email marketing can have on eCommerce businesses. According to Greg,  “If you sell something online, you should probably be sending marketing emails. Otherwise, you’re leaving money on the table.” In this episode, Greg discusses how email has evolved over time and how to set up a successful, automated email marketing strategy. He explains how to use email marketing in each step of the buyer journey and how it can plug the holes that social media marketing can’t fill.  He also walks us through how to breathe life back into a dormant email list and some of the common email marketing pitfalls that trip up eCommerce business owners.  If your list of email subscribers is simply gathering dust, you don’t want to miss out on Greg’s valuable insights! Topics Discussed in this episode: How Greg got his start in the world of email marketing (01:16) How email marketing has evolved over time and why it remains relevant (06:49) Why email marketing is an essential tool for e-commerce businesses (14:39) The foundations of setting up a successful email marketing strategy (21:16) How to revitalize a dormant email list and reestablish a meaningful connection with existing subscribers (27:14) The common email marketing pain points that entrepreneurs encounter (34:21) What email marketing success looks like, and who is getting it right (40:58) How SMS can work hand-in-hand with email marketing (45:20) Pro tips for utilizing automations in your email marketing (51:38) Insight into any upcoming email and SMS automation trends (56:52)   Sit back, grab a coffee, and learn how to leverage the power of email marketing!

Many entrepreneurs wish for more hours in the day, but how do you streamline your business to buy back that valuable extra time? Gianmarco Meli believes SOPs are the answer to this crucial question. Gianmarco is the host of The Seller Process, a podcast that focuses on systems and SOPs that help entrepreneurs automate their businesses.  In this episode, Gianmarco provides FBA and ecommerce business owners with a roadmap on how to use SOPs to turn their businesses into well-oiled machines. He discusses how implementing SOPs can help business owners increase their efficiency across the board, from product development to inventory management, to onboarding new employees.  Gianmarco breaks down the different types of SOPs you can use and explains how to create systems and processes that are tailored to suit your business. He also discusses the important role that SOP’s play when scaling your business: “When you scale your business, you also scale its complexity. If you don’t have the necessary systems and processes in place, in the form of SOPs, your whole business could break apart.” As an extra bonus, Gianmarco has given our listeners a free ebook guide to creating SOPs! Get your copy using the link below. If your business is overrun with redundant processes and unnecessary complexities, then you don’t want to miss out on these important tips and tricks!  Topics Discussed in this episode: How Gianmarco got started in the world of ecommerce (02:23) Gianmarco explains what SOPs are (06:02) What are the advantages for Amazon sellers to have clear SOPs in place? (07:16) How SOPs can help FBA sellers scale their businesses (13:17) Gianmarco walks us through how to create an SOP from scratch (15:20) Where do SOPs fit into Amazon brand building? (22:44) The best practices for implementing SOPs across teams (28:01) Gianmarco shares some insights into emerging trends in the FBA industry (32:47) What motivated Gianmarco to start The Seller Process podcast (36:58) Sit back, grab a coffee, and learn how to use SOPs to maximize your business productivity!

The best way to achieve success is by capitalizing on your strengths and mitigating your weaknesses. The question is, how do you identify what those strengths and weaknesses are? This is where your site metrics come into play. Metics reveal a wealth of information that can help you scale your business and maximize your ROI. In this episode, we’re joined by Brian Sierakowski, the Director of Operations at Baremetrics, a software that translates metrics into analytics and insights that help business owners make profitable, data-driven decisions. Brian helps clear up the confusion around metrics by guiding us through which data points to focus on and which ones simply add to the noise. According to Brian: “If you get your metrics just right, you can craft the data to show you something that gets to a level of specificity. Then the answer to the question of, "What should we do next?" becomes obvious.” Brain explains how tracking your site metrics can help you make more informed decisions, and how the data that is revealed can help you create effective scaling strategies for your business.  Topics Discussed in this episode: How Brian got his start in the online business world (09:19) Brian explains what metrics are and why they’re important (28:22) Which metrics give you the best picture of how your business is performing? (35:16) The biggest challenges people face when trying to optimize their metrics (40:55) Segmenting your metrics instead of drinking from the data fire hose (45:38) When your metrics reveal a trend, how long should you wait before acting on it? (51:55) The different metric optimization strategies for new vs established businesses (01:03:18) How metrics can help get your business out of a rut (01:11:22) Brian’s predictions on the future of the SaaS industry (01:19:28) The best hidden growth opportunities within site metrics (01:24:28) What tools or resources can help online business owners optimize their metrics? (01:25:19) Brian recalls his funniest moment working in the online business space (01:26:39) Sit back, grab a coffee, and learn how to access a wealth of untapped growth opportunities through your site metrics!

How do you integrate your business into consumers’ lives and have your products playing on their minds, even when they’re not online? Today’s guest believes Pinterest is the key to deepening customer engagement. In this episode, we talk to Kate Ahl, the founder of Simple Pin Media, a marketing agency that creates personalized Pinterest marketing strategies for online businesses. Kate also created the Simple Pin Podcast, a popular Pinterest-focused podcast that boasts over a million downloads. Kate has a unique take on Pinterest, believing that it doesn't fit in with the likes of Instagram and Facebook. She has often stated: “Pinterest is very much like Google. It is not a social media platform, it is a search and discovery network.” In this interview, Kate elaborates on this concept and explains how patience is a virtue when marketing on this unique platform - but that it can pay off handsomely. We also dig into what makes Pinterest users tick and how entrepreneurs can leverage Pinterest to grow their traffic and boost their brand awareness.  Kate walks us through how the pinning platform has changed over the years and the new trends that are shaping the Pinterest landscape. Taking these factors into account, Kate discusses the biggest challenges businesses face when using Pinterest and how to go about setting up a successful Pinterest marketing strategy for years to come. If you feel like your Pinterest marketing is lacking that extra oomph, you don’t want to miss out on this episode! Topics Discussed in this episode: How Kate got started on Pinterest and the birth of Simple Pin Media (02:04) Why Pinterest is a search and discovery network, not a social media platform (07:52) How Pinterest can supplement your SEO to bring in floods of traffic to your site (09:19) How the Pinterest ecosystem has evolved over the years (14:18) What it takes to be successful and the trends driving Pinterest today (17:27) The Pinterest Verified Merchant Program and buying intent on Pinterest (21:58) Is Pinterest the right platform for Amazon sellers? (29:03) The steps to starting a successful Pinterest marketing strategy (35:46) Kate’s biggest success story growing client’s businesses through Pinterest (44:12) The biggest challenges businesses encounter when using Pinterest (47:03) How Kate built her Simple Pin Media team by training women in her community (51:25) What Kate’s podcast has shown her about the power of the Pinterest community (54:18) Rapid-fire questions (58:03) Sit back, grab a coffee, and learn how to create a Pinterest marketing strategy that will shine a spotlight on your business!

Many entrepreneurs dream of making a seven-figure exit from their online businesses, but few people understand the logistics, high emotion, and intense negotiations that go into a successful sale.  In this episode, we'll have a round table with the buyer and seller from a recent seven-figure deal to give you some unique insights into what it's really like to buy and sell an online business with Empire Flippers.  The seller, Wilson Dos Santos, owned a rapidly growing FBA business and was ready to quit the rat race to enjoy the spoils of his hard work. The buyer, well-known FBA aggregator Thrasio, represented by Acquisitions Manager Kevin Flaherty, saw the business as a prime opportunity for investment.  Wilson walks us through his journey as a seller, explaining what prompted him to sell his business at the height of its success, the ins and outs of the listing and negotiation process, and ultimately, how his life has changed for the better since selling the business.  Kevin gives us an insider’s perspective on what kind of FBA business catches the eyes of aggregators, how Thrasio vets potential acquisitions, and how they structure their offers to stand out from the competition. If you’re considering buying or selling an online business, you don’t want to miss a second of this special behind-the-scenes episode!

The online business world is notoriously fast-paced, so it’s often difficult for digital entrepreneurs to stay up-to-date on industry trends. We hear phrases like “supply chain crisis” and “Amazon product launch changes” mentioned in the news, but how will these industry changes affect you?   Our very own Greg Elfrink, the Empire Flippers’ Director of Marketing, has the answers you’re looking for! After having deeply immersed himself in the online business world for the past 5 years, Greg knows the ins and outs of the online business world.  Greg joins us to discuss the positives and negatives of the current state of the industry and why sellers need to pay attention to the market. He walks us through the impact that the looming supply chain crisis could have on e-commerce businesses and the best ways for buyers and sellers to navigate the tough times ahead.  Greg explains why the market is perfect for exits, and how sellers can get a jump on their competition by cutting the queue and selling their businesses before the new year.

PPC can make or break FBA brands. Sometimes the line between investing in ad spend and wasting money is pretty thin. PPC is crucial to get your brand seen, but how do you do it in a way that helps, not hurts, your business? This is an area that PPC expert Laura McCaul specializes in. Laura is the co-founder of Sponsored Profit, an agency that helps businesses attract the attention of customers through personalized Amazon PPC strategies. In this episode, Laura explains how Amazon advertising can be a “pay to play” environment and how easy it is for sellers to spend a fortune on PPC campaigns that don’t generate sufficient results.  This is why Laura helped create the Misspend Prevention Method, a strategy that helps sellers avoid a money pit by cutting down on wasted ad spend by up to 50%. Laura also explains why PPC is an investment, not a cost, and how Amazon advertising can be a significant driver of revenue when used correctly.  We go through how to start a new PPC campaign and scale it from scratch, as well as how to kick your existing campaigns up a notch to reach a much bigger audience. Laura also discusses some of the common mistakes that FBA sellers make when using PPC and highlights the importance of building a recognizable brand instead of focusing solely on keywords.

Have you dreamed of making it big on YouTube but know the odds are stacked against you to "make it" on the streaming platform? What if we told you there was a sure-fire way to make money as a YouTuber? Two years ago, Youtube entrepreneur Sushee Nzeutem risked it all when she quit her corporate day job to buy and scale a YouTube channel. Becoming a new business owner after decades of working in a corporate office certainly wasn’t easy.  Soon after packing her life up and moving to Thailand to grow the business, the global pandemic hit, and Amazon commission cuts only compounded Sushee’s worries. Luckily, she wasn’t afraid of a little hard work and, despite the obstacles in her way, Sushee grew the business to make 10x more revenue in just two years!  Following this success, Sushee created the Youtube Business Builder Academy, an online educational resource where she teaches entrepreneurs how to replicate her performance as an anonymous Youtuber. In this episode, Sushee walks us through the buying strategies she used when purchasing her Youtube channel and the systems and frameworks she employed to successfully scale the business.  Sushee explains the importance of training up an efficient team and how delegating tasks allowed her to work on the business, not “in” the business.  This helped her create the “content conveyor belt” that turned her channel into an entirely passive business. Sushee shares some unique insights into what it takes to be successful on Youtube, and how buying this business transformed her life.  If you’re looking to break into the Youtube industry or gain traction on your existing channel, this is an episode you definitely don’t want to miss out on!

You can’t build a successful website without an audience, but how do you find those high-converting keywords that will drive traffic to your site? This is a problem that Ben Adler, the creator of Keyword Chef, was determined to solve. Ben spent years building up a portfolio of affiliate niche sites and learned how to conduct highly effective keyword research along the way.  Ben soon noticed a need within the content site community for more intuitive keyword research tools. He used his past experience as a programmer to build Keyword Chef, an easy-to-use SaaS tool that automated his existing keyword formulas and strategies. In this interview, Ben discusses his journey from building content sites to creating a SaaS business from scratch as a solopreneur. We also dive into what makes good and bad keyword research, how to build a community within your niche, and how to create a lucrative keyword strategy.