Artwork

Вміст надано Amazon FBA Seller Round Table and Amazon FBA Seller Round Table - Selling On Amazon. Весь вміст подкастів, включаючи епізоди, графіку та описи подкастів, завантажується та надається безпосередньо компанією Amazon FBA Seller Round Table and Amazon FBA Seller Round Table - Selling On Amazon або його партнером по платформі подкастів. Якщо ви вважаєте, що хтось використовує ваш захищений авторським правом твір без вашого дозволу, ви можете виконати процедуру, описану тут https://uk.player.fm/legal.
Player FM - додаток Podcast
Переходьте в офлайн за допомогою програми Player FM !

Scale Your E-Com Business Quickly - Amazon Seller Tips with DAVAN Group - Part 2

32:09
 
Поширити
 

Manage episode 316495363 series 2492296
Вміст надано Amazon FBA Seller Round Table and Amazon FBA Seller Round Table - Selling On Amazon. Весь вміст подкастів, включаючи епізоди, графіку та описи подкастів, завантажується та надається безпосередньо компанією Amazon FBA Seller Round Table and Amazon FBA Seller Round Table - Selling On Amazon або його партнером по платформі подкастів. Якщо ви вважаєте, що хтось використовує ваш захищений авторським правом твір без вашого дозволу, ви можете виконати процедуру, описану тут https://uk.player.fm/legal.
Things we discussed in this session:

A. Part 1

Things we mention in this session of Seller Round Table:


Join us every Tuesday at 1:00 PM PST for Live Q&A and Bonus Content at https://sellerroundtable.com

Try the greatest Amazon seller tools on the planet free for 30 days at https://sellerseo.com/
Transcription in this episode:
[00:00:01] spk_0: Welcome to the seller roundtable e commerce coaching and business strategies with and er not and amy Wiis, [00:00:08] spk_2: right? And I think it's so important to look at your placement too. What I like about your launch strategy is that you're focused on very relevant keywords. I think a lot of people spend a lot of money on so many irrelevant keywords or they'll put way too many keywords in a campaign and they're relevant. Keywords aren't getting impressions because one you know, broad match is running away with the entire budget and you know, they just don't have the ability to really look at that at a at a really great level right, where you guys are taking just a few super relevant keywords, you're really focused in your checking your placement you're looking where you are organically amazon is definitely making it tougher because there are more sponsored ad placements now on the page, you gotta get like three quarters of the way down the page now before you even start seeing organic listings and the other day we can see that they're testing more sponsored ad placements at the top because they've been testing that they've had eight spots for ads, they've been turning that on and off lately. So I think it's going to be harder and harder. But the one thing that we can learn from this ninja trick that you just gave us is that it's important to also check where your ads are compared to your organic placement. It's great, make sure you're at the top of page one for that super relevant keyword that you're going to convert all day on but then also take a look on those lesser important keywords where you're still on page one have that sponsored at below it right? Where it's not so much to adjust your bids accordingly. I love it. That's a great, great trick. And yeah, [00:01:56] spk_1: I was just going to say one of the biggest things I've spent, I looked at my account the other day just because I was like how much, how much PBC haven't done just in my own account. It was like $2.1 million dollars since I started what I've been doing this for a long time. But one of the things that I had to learn the hard way which you guys won't have to spend that much to learn. A lot of these things is one of the most basic things which I mean so many people are, you know, when, when, when we got hired to go look at some PBC accounts And we go in there, it's trimming the fat right there. They're just they're not looking at the data and going oh these you know 30 keywords since the beginning, haven't given me any sales and I hate turning keywords off but I love uh you know turning them off by bid in in other words, you know, reducing bid to the point where it's not gonna show unless a major uh competitor drops off, You know, something happens. The chances are pretty slim. But I I hate turning keywords off but just trimming the fat and, and you know, once again going 80, 20, right? Looking at the 10-20 keywords that are performing over and over again and you know, putting pushing that budget towards those keywords that you know, are are working. Um especially if you're budgeting out right, If you, if every day you log into your account and by noon you're, you're, you're, you're out of budget and you can't scale that budget or it's not performing well enough or something like that. The easiest way to then optimize those does you know that PPC is to turn off? What's not working and concentrate on what is working. So um more to uh, you know, that's kind of staying focused that David Ryan seemed to do in terms of PBC. [00:03:29] spk_0: Yeah, I know, I think you see a beast and exactly like you said Andy like we've all been there where you see a campaign that converts, you know, one out of 11 clicks and you're like, oh I got a sale and you don't want to turn it off, but you kind of want to turn off but you don't and uh what what Dave and I saw was, you know, look are are organic listing like our unit session percentage. If you look at the business report, you know, our conversion was maybe, You know, 30, on this one listing and then we were looking at keywords that were only converting, you know, one out of Of 10. Normally I think 10% would be good. But for this product we're actually that's hurting our unit session percentage. So you know, tone that down or even pause it. So look at your unit session percentage and kind of use that as a benchmark. Your PPC shouldn't be bringing far too far. [00:04:18] spk_2: Yeah, I love looking at organic versus PPC sales and placement and just you got to look at all the pieces of the puzzle and make sure your understanding your metrics because you know, you got to be able to measure things right? So speaking of measuring success, let's talk about scaling how did you guys scale? [00:04:38] spk_0: Yeah. So uh it came from. So the first step is that whole mentality thing. Always thinking bigger than you currently are right because right now you're small when you start your small but always think next. So any time that we would right even a purchase order I would discuss with Ryan look, we've got to build this so that if you know next time we place an order, if it's bigger that it supports a bigger order and we do everything on excel because we love itself. So we even did a purchase order on excel where we just have to type in the units, it would totally auto populate all the specs to all those units for all the color variations and everything is done and every purchase order we would say okay we got to edit this because we're changing it a bit, we're getting bigger, next purchase order will be easier. And now we're, we've been saying that for a while but now we're actually at the point finally it's finally at a place where we literally, so then we have this order forecast where we have this sheet where we look at the excuse that we want to order and we just copy and paste that forecast number into the purchase order first page and it's fully done. So we ordered $250,000 worth of goods in China and it takes four minutes to do it. So having those systems in place allows us to kind of scale bigger because the business is, it goes when it once it gets momentum, those purchase orders come fast and you feel like, oh man we just had when we just did the inspection. Oh yeah we need an inspection checklist. So like we don't want to restart our work every time you go sit down. So we say as we build the business, we've got to build everything to be like a procedure that we can just you know, modify a bit but then we used every time it comes up and that's that's a nice sweet spot where we're at now where we feel like if we have to have another inspection or mid inspection or shipment that everything is a much, much faster now and it's, it's a steep learning curve. But I mean once you figure it out, you can make these processes. Yeah. And and so now for the scaling part, I mean obviously we needed some financial support too. So once we saw, okay, we understand our system, we know we can work well together. We, we think we figured out amazon we're gonna need some funding because we knew we needed to leverage what we had already built to scale bigger. Um, so Dave called his mom please. Uh uh No. And so we are lucky and that's where networking came into effect. Right? So luckily were part of all these different facebook groups and we saw that, you know, someone posted in a facebook group. Hey, I'm working together with this startup, they're starting to fund these sellers and you know, if anyone ever needs some funding, right, contact us and I remember this was I mean are are good product. Our first good product had just launched. We literally had a couple of weeks of sales data, but we had this epic forecasting system where we knew that we were on track and we knew we were going to hit the numbers, it was for us, math. Um, and we convinced this startup to actually fund us for $300,000. Um, so that was our first round of funding and then the second round of funding, they give us a million. So we've just with that money and we've been able to pay them back. It's great, we have great margins. So that allowed us to grow that fast and it was just because we had the systems in place, the forecasting in place, um that they believed in us and I think it's been pretty good so far. [00:07:52] spk_2: That's amazing. I love that you built, you started with the end in mind, you're building processes along the way, you're thinking, how can I make it so that I don't have to manually do this ever again. That's so, so important. It's something most of us start with that kind of technician mindset and we're self employed first before we actually um you know, move on to starting to build out those processes and grow our team. So I love that you guys did that in that, you looked at your forecast and you've got that money ahead of time because that also stops people, you know, it trips people up. So it's really awesome. And [00:08:31] spk_0: 11 trick to give on that on the whole thinking of the endgame. So I mean, Ryan, he similar as a scientist, he works on stuff daily and he did it and I'm like, we gotta, I told Ryan when we're working and sell, I want you to every time you open an Excel sheet, I want you to make it as if we're going to be able to sell it to someone else that has never they have nothing to do with our business. That's how we got to think of it. Let's build it. And we got to sell it. I started making them pretty putting in, make it pretty, putting borders [00:08:59] spk_2: very pretty. I can attest that you're [00:09:02] spk_0: very pretty significant here. And I'm like, look, we're working together. So I got to be able to open your sheet. You gotta open mind. No, they're good. They're good. But I wanted it to be pretty because then there's two things happen. One you get excited to use your own tools to their built. So good that they're good for multiple use cases down the line. So you don't, it's not just a one off, you can use it, you know, in 23 months when you do another product use the same sheet. And then three, now we were actually able to start selling these Excel sheets and we're actually doing a side hustle to a side hustle. So it's it's just been a it's a little trick build your systems as if you're going to sell that system to someone else. [00:09:36] spk_2: I love that. I do the same thing. I learned everything so that I can teach it and at the same time I learned it at a really great level. And I also have created something that I can give to someone else and charge money for. So it's a great process and I know that you guys give great value with your with your sheets and they did the same thing. He built tools, software tools, you built seller S. E. O. In response to him running his amazon business and you know it's just it's really great to have the tools that you need to be able to scale your business, especially if you build them yourself and you can get other people to you can give other people help at the same time. So awesome. Where else do you guys sell? Do you just sell on amazon? You mentioned you started selling on walmart? Do you sell another channels besides amazon and walmart? [00:10:25] spk_0: Uh So no we're just on amazon walmart and uh we have our own Shopify store as well. So those three channels and uh I mean amazon is still the bulk of the sales, but it's you know, walmart is we just we just got approved for walmart fulfillment service. So WFS so we're excited about that so that, you know, we can because I you know, we were still learning the walmart algorithm but I did that. Maybe being WFS the two day shipping is huge for ranking. [00:10:51] spk_2: Yes, everything else on walmart's algorithm is totally jet but you could do the if you do a shipping, it's pretty good. I've been playing around the guys that [00:11:02] spk_0: let us know let us know because [00:11:04] spk_2: yeah, no I've been I've been connected with the guys that data spark who created this walmart data tool and they're playing around with stuff to trying to figure out, especially for private label products, how you get those to the top of search because on walmart everything's about like sales and um you know if you search for something like dog toy, you also get kids choice and walmart, [00:11:28] spk_0: it's totally [00:11:29] spk_2: jacked up. So [00:11:30] spk_0: some search terms, they actually pull up just like a category thing where you can [00:11:34] spk_1: like categories, [00:11:35] spk_0: you don't even see products. I'm like I just search I want the products but they make you go into these nodes so we still haven't figured it out but [00:11:42] spk_2: well we know to keep in touch well as we figure out walmart, you know, Well I think it's and eastern. Yeah, [00:11:53] spk_1: I should've cleared my throat first. Right? So guys, what I'm curious about is you know, with all the stuff going on in the world, um you know, what are you guys gonna do to hedge against things like supply chain issues, labor issues and just like the general turmoil that's going on in the world right now. [00:12:10] spk_0: Yeah, I know really good questions. So that was actually a strategy that we kind of had before. So when we're about to place our third order in the year. So that's like our Q3 order um Ryan and I, we looked at our numbers and we looked at the financing that we had God we just had a really good cute too. And we said, look how about we just take half a virtue for order and ordered prematurely on purpose because what we saw was a trend an increase of shipping costs. And we said, and then we did a cross calculation would the inventory placement at our three pl the cost associate to that be offset by increase of shipping. And it was almost break even. We said look the containers are going up so much. We're sending six containers now at a time. So let's just send three of those containers that we're going to do for Q four early. We'll store them, it will be 10,000 month, let's say storage fees but it'll be break even and we'll be sure to have the goods stateside for Q four guaranteed. So now we have a lot less pressure with the delays because we're always like 34 months ahead of an inventory stateside. We're able to do that obviously because of a very solid sales period in Q two. And the financing that we had but we have now tried to use that to also implement it in our business to say at any given point we've got to have at least three months at in the States which is good news because yesterday our supplier wrote us that they got the power shortage notification in china but they're going to be shut down there only going to be on like half production speed. So we're able to now say it's okay we know we have goods and that alas is till March but we're placing the order now already just to try to advance or lead time. [00:13:49] spk_1: Yeah, [00:13:50] spk_0: I think kind of the other side of that story is like yeah getting in ahead of Q. For but going out of stock on amazon sucks. I think you guys going to test that, you know when you pump money and time and effort into ranking a product and then you go out of stock and you're out of stock for two months and then just you got to start the train going again and just pump so much more money and effort into it. So we're like, we just don't want to go out of stock. So let's make sure we have enough stock on american soil to essentially make sure we don't do that again. Yeah. [00:14:22] spk_1: Yeah it's awesome. One of the things that I was lucky about is you know, years ago I did a lot. It started as merchant fulfilled right? So before I even did FBI was merchant fulfilling and so um I was lucky enough to have enough property to where I would just literally have, I think Amy I think at one point I sent Amy pictures of this but I had like containers in my backyard Um and that was my my three pl so I didn't have to pay anyone but I had stock and I would you know order extra every Q. four. And you know as the uh one of our main products that cell's amazing. Every cue forward as it scaled up every year, I'd have that extra stock and everybody else would run out. And that's you know where I'd make my money. So it's awesome that you guys are pre planning the people who don't pre plan, we say this every year. It's like the people who don't pre plan and and run out of stock. Well you don't realize is as you as more and more sellers as you get close to the holidays, more and more sellers stock out, right? So all of a sudden now if you saw a stock and you're in the best position possible because then you can start scaling back Your ads, you can start uh increasing your pricing like you you're in the spot now where it's like you know now instead of making you know $30 a unit or whatever it is, you're you're now making 50 or you know just because now you're able to scale not only your your ads back but also increase your price at the same time. [00:15:36] spk_0: Oh definitely. And you know what's a very good comparison to that. There's something with DPC is budgets so the way that everyone sets up their budgets right? Is that it starts at the beginning of the sales day and if you set a budget for $50 it's gonna run out let's say I don't know by six p.m. And then there's a lot of you know then you're not running at at the evening time. So what we actually learned is that if you actually bid less your budget stretches out and the cost per clicks at the end of they are so much cheaper because there's less competition. Most people are not running as in the evening because they're out of budget for the big keywords. [00:16:07] spk_1: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I have an episode if you guys go back through the podcast go look for day parting. And that was one of the strategies that especially like uh in the weeks leading up to um you know like black friday cyber monday things like that. People are going crazy on bids right? And usually it's a losing battle. But what I would do is I would day part in the beginning of the day so until like noon no ads and then turn them on at noon and then for the rest of the day it would run now all of a sudden I'm blowing through that budget but my clicks are way cheaper because so many other sellers have now budgeted out already throughout the day because those you know cost per click has gone up so much so yeah I love [00:16:44] spk_0: that manually. Uh [00:16:47] spk_1: No so in seller S. C. O. There's a you can literally just kind of like drag hours on like when you want your ads to. And I also did a ton of testing where I'd have campaigns that would just come on like super early in the morning like 123 A. M. Like I was doing all kinds of time testing. Uh There's some interesting stuff that comes out of that um You know it's a [00:17:05] spk_0: software dude though, does it actually pause it or does it [00:17:07] spk_1: just, yep it pauses it positive [00:17:11] spk_0: because we just heard in the community, some people saying never turn off you [00:17:15] spk_1: know I've heard that but I think it's if it's in the same day so in other words if you don't turn it off for multiple days um I don't think I don't think it has an adverse effect. I mean you you can of course test it right so just spit up a campaign with like one keyword and test it. Um But yeah there's especially during the holidays, you know everybody talks trash about day parting but I definitely saw some really interesting um effects by using day parting. [00:17:40] spk_0: Because what we did we were using a software what they were doing is they were just actually just incrementally increasing your budget. So you would say like look I want to spend $600 or whatever a day and they would say okay well a lot then you know $100 in the first three hours and the next $100 in the next few hours or whatever and [00:17:56] spk_1: they would incrementally increase it, [00:17:57] spk_0: but we didn't actually like that method. So yeah, [00:18:00] spk_1: yeah, yeah. There's a lot of other interesting things you can do to is you can spin up, you know, two of the same campaigns with different bids and you can have one that runs at one part of the day, stop it and then start the other one. Like there's a lot of fun things you can do there. Um, at some point I would love to be able to automate all of that. Um, but yeah, there's some, there's some fun stuff with PBC that you can start every creative to write. Like [00:18:22] spk_0: we'll do waterfall campaigns right? Like, well yeah, just bug the competitors at the beginning of the day. Yeah, yeah, [00:18:30] spk_1: yeah, yeah. There's, there's, yeah, I mean PBC is an art, people don't realize that, you know, they think it's all cut dry and you know, even even the PBC experts out there, if you ask, you know, they're going to have 10 different ways to do things. But what's cool is to look at, I always tell people like, you know, don't take my word for it, take what I say, go research it, see what other people are doing and then test it all and see what works or take some of the, you know, some of the stuff people are doing here and combine it with this and I mean there's, there's so much fun to meet PBC is one of the most fun parts of amazon. Um, but I, I love marketing and adds, so to me that's, it's, it's always a blast to go in and in turn dials. So guys, one of the other things I would love for you to share as you know, everybody always shares, you know, especially with guys were like, you were being successful is, you know, they think it's like so easy to get to where you are. I would love for you guys to kind of talk about like some of the struggles that you guys went through and you know, like I like, I've told people on the podcast before, there were, you know, holes in my wall. You know, I started selling on amazon in 2012. There were holes in my wall on occasion because of some of the just absolute like beyond frustrating things that you run into on amazon any big hurdles that you guys ran into and, and kind of how, how'd you plow through them. [00:19:42] spk_0: Yeah, so many. Right. So I got scars. Yeah, we got started. It's so tricky. And I think the hardest thing is just to tell yourself, hey, it's temporary. I think the more hurdles that you have, the more you realize, hey, we just passed those 10 and we thought that was gonna be the end of it, You know, where there was a failed inspection with a really [00:20:03] spk_1: bad product, we're [00:20:03] spk_0: like, well and oh no, we didn't catch it or the first one star review. Um, so what we had, our biggest, biggest one, I think to date was when we were at it, we had a massive, massive march april may and then we're fully out of stock and it took us till july to get it ready and they had the restart limit. So we said, okay, that's fine. We sent in 20,000 units, the amazon L. T. L. Pick up and we'll be back in stock in no time. And it went into like a middle warehouse somewhere. Narnia, Narnia and amazon just said, yeah, no. And they didn't give you a tracking number because if it's an amazon partnered carrier, the amazon ground logistic KGl, they said it'll be dropped off with them 24 hours of pickup. So you don't need a tracking number. So we didn't have a tracking numbers were trying to go and no one knew where it was and it took two months. So now and the problem is in the system, it says there's 20,000 units inbound, we weren't able to send in more so, and we have this financing and we have to pay back all his financing money. And so like we're like, I'm luckily we had some profit. We haven't paid ourselves out every yet. You know, we had Katie and cheese, like we haven't eaten. So, um, that was a big stressor just because you felt so helpless, it wasn't in your control. We didn't make a mistake, right? And I think that's the hardest thing. And that's also the one thing where we just take a step back and say, look, this isn't our fault. It happened. Um we keep, we stay on top of it. We talked to them, the people that finance us, we said we gotta really just the payment schedule, there's no way we can do it. It's not our fault. Uh they're super understanding. So that was good and that was the lesson to realize like if it's, if it's not our control, there's no real point of stressing about it. [00:21:42] spk_1: We just have to do. Yeah, that's such a great point. That was one of the things that, you know, I finally learned after doing this for years is you know, you have to be the squeaky wheel, right? You have to be on amazon's back, but after you do that, like sitting around stressing pulling your hair out does absolutely nothing for you. So you know, take a step back like, okay, so I have this inventory issue, I can't do anything about that. Like you said. Um so rather than stress about that, why don't I go back and like maybe work on my images, like in other words, you know divert that attention, that stress that, you know, I need that feeling of, I need to do something, I need to get something done and channel that into something else To put that energy into because otherwise, like you said, you just sit around and stew like, you know, like I said, I, I literally punched a hole in my wall once. Uh this was way back in the day, you know, during Q4 when there was literally no way to get rid of hijackers and we had a Chinese hijacker come in and um pretty much Hijack Our entire catalog like 400 skews For almost the entire, you know, you're talking about net probably 300 grand worth of profit. Um you know, I think it was back in like 2013, 14 somewhere around then And there's nothing I could do. I mean, I was on the phone every day to like 10 different people and they're just like, yeah, sorry. You know, like you have to do the test order, you know, this is back, when do you remember the whole test order thing? And you know, it would take like from china like two months and they would send you like a key chain instead of the product. Like it [00:23:05] spk_0: was, they were, [00:23:07] spk_1: I mean back then it was like the Wild west and it was so, so hard uh to, you know, to get anything done. But you know, like you said, those were back then it was like, there were so many hard knocks that it was just like by the end of steel, there's not very much on amazon now that people can be like, hey, I, you know, ran into this, how can I fix it? I'm like, oh you do this, this and this. I've done this like 10 times by now, you know? So um, yeah, I think that the most successful people in e commerce, not only on amazon but in general are the ones who are just willing to Take that stress push through it, get to the next spot because 80% of the people are like, oh this sucks and throw up their hand and they're done right? So [00:23:45] spk_0: It's kind of a motivating thing, isn't it? It's like just knowing that if you persevere and you stick through, you're going to be like, you know, one of those two out of 10 people who actually makes it. And so that kind of drives you like, see the bumps in the road is like toughening you up and getting you ready for the long journey. And I think in flying we do it all the time, [00:24:01] spk_1: right? Like if our engine [00:24:02] spk_0: is on fire, we'll notice the engine is on fire. So we notice the issue, but then our energies spent on fixing the issue and not on the problem. Like we forget that there's an engine fire because we're just working our checklist and I think we try to apply that now to the amazon business. That's a metaphor. I the only one that's [00:24:24] spk_1: actually an excellent analogy. Uh, you know, the whole checklist in an aircraft, what was it? Bc gump. Is that the acronym? I think I still remember it, but that was what they taught us in school. But anyway, um, uh, yeah, it's uh, that was another thing, You know, I was trying to share my failures so other people don't have to, is systems and processes and knowing your numbers. I mean those are some of the basic things that I didn't have when I started and if I would have known that back then, I mean I could have scaled probably too, you know, an 89, you know, who knows? I mean, I could have just scaled to infinity if I knew some of those things back then, but you know, back then I was a computer guy and an aviation guy and you know, e commerce was just like, hey, I can put stuff on amazon, it sells like crazy, you know, and that was kind of the basics, right? So those are, are some of the things that I would really implore people to know your numbers build systems, even if it's just in a google doc and you're sitting down one day and you're doing like merchant fulfilled, just write down your process because then when you do scale, you can hand that off, not only that, but just inconsistency, right? If anybody hasn't seen the Mcdonald's um, documentary on youtube, I forget the name of it. Um, as systems go, it's fascinating to see that, you know, a guy came in pretty much just took the business over, saw the systems in place and just doubled down and just kept making the systems better and better. Mcdonald's hamburger is crap. I don't eat fast food, but I used to, but I still am uh floored at that those systems in place, right? The consistency, the, you do it this time every time and then the customer knows what to expect. I think it, it can translate easily into this. So I love that. All right guys. So one of the things that we love to do and in this business you have to do is always, you know, continue to learn anything that you guys are into right now in terms of, you know, personal personal development was late for me. But to me that's one of the first things you can start on, you should start on any, any kind of motivational things. You're doing, any podcast, books, anything that's really kind of changed your perspective or made a big impact in your life or in your business. [00:26:31] spk_0: Oh, that's a good question. Yeah, I'm just starting to get back into it. But you know, doing mindfulness practice and you know, some meditation the evening using, you know, there's several apps available now. Um I use one called mindspace and it's, you know, because you know, my lab, I'm in the lab all day, my brain is going, it's analytical and then when I get home it's just amazon amazon amazon, so it never stops. And I just to remind yourself to take even just five or 10 minutes out of the day, um and just, you know, just take some time to turn your brain off and just calm down, calm the storm. Um I think that's been really helpful. Um and then the second thing that I that I like to do is, you know, there's so kind of in the same thing, there's a lot of voices, not only in your heads, but in the amazon world too. And I love to just, I guess we love to find the, you know, just the five or six voices that we like to listen to, that we really trust. And just, you know, when they put out new content, you know, listen to it, to take the learnings. Um but just kind of tune out all the other noise because you just find the people you trust. And uh for me, on a personal level, I mean I love reading. So there's a couple of books that I always like to pick up. A really good one is atomic habits. Atomic habits. Um and that's just one is talking about habits and you know, what's the basis behind it make something that you hate doing associated with, Something that you love. So for example, if you love going on facebook in the morning and checking the news feeds and tell yourself you gotta do 10 pushups before you're allowed to do that and all the 10 pushups becomes so much easier because there's an instant reward after um, stuff like that. I think I've done so much like readings about, you know, self development and all that stuff, but what this last year and a half has a year and a half has allowed me to do was actually to implement it and to really see how much work is required on yourself. Right? So we can all read about staying calm and not having fights and then you know, Ryan, I will burst at each other have a massive flying like, hey, I thought we're both supposed to be calm and mindful. Right? So the business has allowed us to put all the theory into practice a bit, which has been fun and then what we like to do is we like to reflect on it, give brief it a bit, talked it out and try to learn from it and always celebrate the winds no matter how small, you know, like we fire up the barbecue. Sorry Dave fires up his massive barbecue, we cook some burgers and put on some music and just celebrate, you know, every little wind, every little launch, every victory. [00:28:55] spk_1: I love it. Fantastic. All right. So the other thing that's the most important question of the podcast is how do you say take off hoser in german [00:29:05] spk_0: take off. I [00:29:09] spk_1: didn't realize you guys were Canadians. Sorry, I had to throw that out there. You know, I went to college in North Dakota so we'd always cross over into Winnipeg's. [00:29:16] spk_0: All right guys, thank you so [00:29:21] spk_1: much for being on. How can people get a hold of you guys? Anything you guys want to plug? Please let people know uh, you know what you guys are up to next. [00:29:30] spk_0: Yeah. So I mean we're always trying to figure out what's the next thing that we're doing right now, what we like to do is connect with people that are also selling and we actually share all of the excel sheets that we use for our business. Like we said, we built all our excel sheets with the intent of maybe selling them one day. We did that just to make sure that they're better. Um, and we're actually selling them. You guys can find us on facebook. We have a group called the van dog group and it's super small. I think Amy was the second person in it. Uh, celebrate. [00:29:57] spk_1: We celebrated. That was awesome. I love it. [00:30:00] spk_0: It's fun. It's a small group right? And our main goal now is we're going to scale the business, We're going to exit it next year and then we're gonna focus more on, you know, maybe doing another brand or just focusing maybe on helping other people do the same thing that we did and I'm going to buy an airport. [00:30:15] spk_1: I love it. Absolutely love it. An airport or just one of those houses where you can like, it's like a community airstrip that you can like lay in and pull into your garage [00:30:23] spk_0: right now. I'm actually gonna buy the airport. So actually like everyone's laughing, but I tell them, but I'm actually [00:30:28] spk_1: doing it. I can't wait. [00:30:29] spk_0: I love it. It's awesome. It's near my hometown in Montreal and I want to take a look at it in august and it's awesome. I just need the business to keep working the way it's working. I got to get the right timing for the sale and then I'm gonna buy that airport. So already put in a little offer and I'm super excited. My wife gets to move home and I get to, that would be a dream come true with a little like by his airport. [00:30:51] spk_1: I absolutely love it. You know, it's, it's like uh Gary v saying, you know, he's going to buy the jets. I love it. If you don't have that audacious goal, you'll never get to it right. So absolutely [00:31:01] spk_0: gotta dream big because it's such a rough road to get there. But that airport keeps him so motivated. [00:31:06] spk_1: That's awesome. I love that so much. Hey guys, it was really nice meeting you. Thank you so much for being on. Really appreciate it. We'll see you guys again. Hopefully sometime soon in the near future. So we can get some updates on what you guys are up to. Thank you so much for being on. [00:31:18] spk_0: All right, thanks [00:31:19] spk_1: and the thanks so much guys. Yeah. All right guys. And if you have not done so yet, please rate review. Subscriber really appreciate when you guys do that, share it with friends. If you think they're gonna get some value out of this guys. And as usual we do this live Tuesday one PM pacific time. So a round table dot com forward slash live join us. You can be in the zoom meeting. Um, so you can ask David Ryan, like we're going to stop the recording, stop the broadcast and you guys get some behind the scenes if you join us live. So we'll see you guys next time on the seller roundtable. Thanks so much. [00:31:50] spk_0: Thanks for tuning in, join us every Tuesday at one PM pacific standard time for live Q and A. And bonus content after the recording at cellar round table dot com, sponsored by the ultimate software tool for amazon sales and growth seller. S C O dot com and amazing at home dot com.
  continue reading

395 епізодів

Artwork
iconПоширити
 
Manage episode 316495363 series 2492296
Вміст надано Amazon FBA Seller Round Table and Amazon FBA Seller Round Table - Selling On Amazon. Весь вміст подкастів, включаючи епізоди, графіку та описи подкастів, завантажується та надається безпосередньо компанією Amazon FBA Seller Round Table and Amazon FBA Seller Round Table - Selling On Amazon або його партнером по платформі подкастів. Якщо ви вважаєте, що хтось використовує ваш захищений авторським правом твір без вашого дозволу, ви можете виконати процедуру, описану тут https://uk.player.fm/legal.
Things we discussed in this session:

A. Part 1

Things we mention in this session of Seller Round Table:


Join us every Tuesday at 1:00 PM PST for Live Q&A and Bonus Content at https://sellerroundtable.com

Try the greatest Amazon seller tools on the planet free for 30 days at https://sellerseo.com/
Transcription in this episode:
[00:00:01] spk_0: Welcome to the seller roundtable e commerce coaching and business strategies with and er not and amy Wiis, [00:00:08] spk_2: right? And I think it's so important to look at your placement too. What I like about your launch strategy is that you're focused on very relevant keywords. I think a lot of people spend a lot of money on so many irrelevant keywords or they'll put way too many keywords in a campaign and they're relevant. Keywords aren't getting impressions because one you know, broad match is running away with the entire budget and you know, they just don't have the ability to really look at that at a at a really great level right, where you guys are taking just a few super relevant keywords, you're really focused in your checking your placement you're looking where you are organically amazon is definitely making it tougher because there are more sponsored ad placements now on the page, you gotta get like three quarters of the way down the page now before you even start seeing organic listings and the other day we can see that they're testing more sponsored ad placements at the top because they've been testing that they've had eight spots for ads, they've been turning that on and off lately. So I think it's going to be harder and harder. But the one thing that we can learn from this ninja trick that you just gave us is that it's important to also check where your ads are compared to your organic placement. It's great, make sure you're at the top of page one for that super relevant keyword that you're going to convert all day on but then also take a look on those lesser important keywords where you're still on page one have that sponsored at below it right? Where it's not so much to adjust your bids accordingly. I love it. That's a great, great trick. And yeah, [00:01:56] spk_1: I was just going to say one of the biggest things I've spent, I looked at my account the other day just because I was like how much, how much PBC haven't done just in my own account. It was like $2.1 million dollars since I started what I've been doing this for a long time. But one of the things that I had to learn the hard way which you guys won't have to spend that much to learn. A lot of these things is one of the most basic things which I mean so many people are, you know, when, when, when we got hired to go look at some PBC accounts And we go in there, it's trimming the fat right there. They're just they're not looking at the data and going oh these you know 30 keywords since the beginning, haven't given me any sales and I hate turning keywords off but I love uh you know turning them off by bid in in other words, you know, reducing bid to the point where it's not gonna show unless a major uh competitor drops off, You know, something happens. The chances are pretty slim. But I I hate turning keywords off but just trimming the fat and, and you know, once again going 80, 20, right? Looking at the 10-20 keywords that are performing over and over again and you know, putting pushing that budget towards those keywords that you know, are are working. Um especially if you're budgeting out right, If you, if every day you log into your account and by noon you're, you're, you're, you're out of budget and you can't scale that budget or it's not performing well enough or something like that. The easiest way to then optimize those does you know that PPC is to turn off? What's not working and concentrate on what is working. So um more to uh, you know, that's kind of staying focused that David Ryan seemed to do in terms of PBC. [00:03:29] spk_0: Yeah, I know, I think you see a beast and exactly like you said Andy like we've all been there where you see a campaign that converts, you know, one out of 11 clicks and you're like, oh I got a sale and you don't want to turn it off, but you kind of want to turn off but you don't and uh what what Dave and I saw was, you know, look are are organic listing like our unit session percentage. If you look at the business report, you know, our conversion was maybe, You know, 30, on this one listing and then we were looking at keywords that were only converting, you know, one out of Of 10. Normally I think 10% would be good. But for this product we're actually that's hurting our unit session percentage. So you know, tone that down or even pause it. So look at your unit session percentage and kind of use that as a benchmark. Your PPC shouldn't be bringing far too far. [00:04:18] spk_2: Yeah, I love looking at organic versus PPC sales and placement and just you got to look at all the pieces of the puzzle and make sure your understanding your metrics because you know, you got to be able to measure things right? So speaking of measuring success, let's talk about scaling how did you guys scale? [00:04:38] spk_0: Yeah. So uh it came from. So the first step is that whole mentality thing. Always thinking bigger than you currently are right because right now you're small when you start your small but always think next. So any time that we would right even a purchase order I would discuss with Ryan look, we've got to build this so that if you know next time we place an order, if it's bigger that it supports a bigger order and we do everything on excel because we love itself. So we even did a purchase order on excel where we just have to type in the units, it would totally auto populate all the specs to all those units for all the color variations and everything is done and every purchase order we would say okay we got to edit this because we're changing it a bit, we're getting bigger, next purchase order will be easier. And now we're, we've been saying that for a while but now we're actually at the point finally it's finally at a place where we literally, so then we have this order forecast where we have this sheet where we look at the excuse that we want to order and we just copy and paste that forecast number into the purchase order first page and it's fully done. So we ordered $250,000 worth of goods in China and it takes four minutes to do it. So having those systems in place allows us to kind of scale bigger because the business is, it goes when it once it gets momentum, those purchase orders come fast and you feel like, oh man we just had when we just did the inspection. Oh yeah we need an inspection checklist. So like we don't want to restart our work every time you go sit down. So we say as we build the business, we've got to build everything to be like a procedure that we can just you know, modify a bit but then we used every time it comes up and that's that's a nice sweet spot where we're at now where we feel like if we have to have another inspection or mid inspection or shipment that everything is a much, much faster now and it's, it's a steep learning curve. But I mean once you figure it out, you can make these processes. Yeah. And and so now for the scaling part, I mean obviously we needed some financial support too. So once we saw, okay, we understand our system, we know we can work well together. We, we think we figured out amazon we're gonna need some funding because we knew we needed to leverage what we had already built to scale bigger. Um, so Dave called his mom please. Uh uh No. And so we are lucky and that's where networking came into effect. Right? So luckily were part of all these different facebook groups and we saw that, you know, someone posted in a facebook group. Hey, I'm working together with this startup, they're starting to fund these sellers and you know, if anyone ever needs some funding, right, contact us and I remember this was I mean are are good product. Our first good product had just launched. We literally had a couple of weeks of sales data, but we had this epic forecasting system where we knew that we were on track and we knew we were going to hit the numbers, it was for us, math. Um, and we convinced this startup to actually fund us for $300,000. Um, so that was our first round of funding and then the second round of funding, they give us a million. So we've just with that money and we've been able to pay them back. It's great, we have great margins. So that allowed us to grow that fast and it was just because we had the systems in place, the forecasting in place, um that they believed in us and I think it's been pretty good so far. [00:07:52] spk_2: That's amazing. I love that you built, you started with the end in mind, you're building processes along the way, you're thinking, how can I make it so that I don't have to manually do this ever again. That's so, so important. It's something most of us start with that kind of technician mindset and we're self employed first before we actually um you know, move on to starting to build out those processes and grow our team. So I love that you guys did that in that, you looked at your forecast and you've got that money ahead of time because that also stops people, you know, it trips people up. So it's really awesome. And [00:08:31] spk_0: 11 trick to give on that on the whole thinking of the endgame. So I mean, Ryan, he similar as a scientist, he works on stuff daily and he did it and I'm like, we gotta, I told Ryan when we're working and sell, I want you to every time you open an Excel sheet, I want you to make it as if we're going to be able to sell it to someone else that has never they have nothing to do with our business. That's how we got to think of it. Let's build it. And we got to sell it. I started making them pretty putting in, make it pretty, putting borders [00:08:59] spk_2: very pretty. I can attest that you're [00:09:02] spk_0: very pretty significant here. And I'm like, look, we're working together. So I got to be able to open your sheet. You gotta open mind. No, they're good. They're good. But I wanted it to be pretty because then there's two things happen. One you get excited to use your own tools to their built. So good that they're good for multiple use cases down the line. So you don't, it's not just a one off, you can use it, you know, in 23 months when you do another product use the same sheet. And then three, now we were actually able to start selling these Excel sheets and we're actually doing a side hustle to a side hustle. So it's it's just been a it's a little trick build your systems as if you're going to sell that system to someone else. [00:09:36] spk_2: I love that. I do the same thing. I learned everything so that I can teach it and at the same time I learned it at a really great level. And I also have created something that I can give to someone else and charge money for. So it's a great process and I know that you guys give great value with your with your sheets and they did the same thing. He built tools, software tools, you built seller S. E. O. In response to him running his amazon business and you know it's just it's really great to have the tools that you need to be able to scale your business, especially if you build them yourself and you can get other people to you can give other people help at the same time. So awesome. Where else do you guys sell? Do you just sell on amazon? You mentioned you started selling on walmart? Do you sell another channels besides amazon and walmart? [00:10:25] spk_0: Uh So no we're just on amazon walmart and uh we have our own Shopify store as well. So those three channels and uh I mean amazon is still the bulk of the sales, but it's you know, walmart is we just we just got approved for walmart fulfillment service. So WFS so we're excited about that so that, you know, we can because I you know, we were still learning the walmart algorithm but I did that. Maybe being WFS the two day shipping is huge for ranking. [00:10:51] spk_2: Yes, everything else on walmart's algorithm is totally jet but you could do the if you do a shipping, it's pretty good. I've been playing around the guys that [00:11:02] spk_0: let us know let us know because [00:11:04] spk_2: yeah, no I've been I've been connected with the guys that data spark who created this walmart data tool and they're playing around with stuff to trying to figure out, especially for private label products, how you get those to the top of search because on walmart everything's about like sales and um you know if you search for something like dog toy, you also get kids choice and walmart, [00:11:28] spk_0: it's totally [00:11:29] spk_2: jacked up. So [00:11:30] spk_0: some search terms, they actually pull up just like a category thing where you can [00:11:34] spk_1: like categories, [00:11:35] spk_0: you don't even see products. I'm like I just search I want the products but they make you go into these nodes so we still haven't figured it out but [00:11:42] spk_2: well we know to keep in touch well as we figure out walmart, you know, Well I think it's and eastern. Yeah, [00:11:53] spk_1: I should've cleared my throat first. Right? So guys, what I'm curious about is you know, with all the stuff going on in the world, um you know, what are you guys gonna do to hedge against things like supply chain issues, labor issues and just like the general turmoil that's going on in the world right now. [00:12:10] spk_0: Yeah, I know really good questions. So that was actually a strategy that we kind of had before. So when we're about to place our third order in the year. So that's like our Q3 order um Ryan and I, we looked at our numbers and we looked at the financing that we had God we just had a really good cute too. And we said, look how about we just take half a virtue for order and ordered prematurely on purpose because what we saw was a trend an increase of shipping costs. And we said, and then we did a cross calculation would the inventory placement at our three pl the cost associate to that be offset by increase of shipping. And it was almost break even. We said look the containers are going up so much. We're sending six containers now at a time. So let's just send three of those containers that we're going to do for Q four early. We'll store them, it will be 10,000 month, let's say storage fees but it'll be break even and we'll be sure to have the goods stateside for Q four guaranteed. So now we have a lot less pressure with the delays because we're always like 34 months ahead of an inventory stateside. We're able to do that obviously because of a very solid sales period in Q two. And the financing that we had but we have now tried to use that to also implement it in our business to say at any given point we've got to have at least three months at in the States which is good news because yesterday our supplier wrote us that they got the power shortage notification in china but they're going to be shut down there only going to be on like half production speed. So we're able to now say it's okay we know we have goods and that alas is till March but we're placing the order now already just to try to advance or lead time. [00:13:49] spk_1: Yeah, [00:13:50] spk_0: I think kind of the other side of that story is like yeah getting in ahead of Q. For but going out of stock on amazon sucks. I think you guys going to test that, you know when you pump money and time and effort into ranking a product and then you go out of stock and you're out of stock for two months and then just you got to start the train going again and just pump so much more money and effort into it. So we're like, we just don't want to go out of stock. So let's make sure we have enough stock on american soil to essentially make sure we don't do that again. Yeah. [00:14:22] spk_1: Yeah it's awesome. One of the things that I was lucky about is you know, years ago I did a lot. It started as merchant fulfilled right? So before I even did FBI was merchant fulfilling and so um I was lucky enough to have enough property to where I would just literally have, I think Amy I think at one point I sent Amy pictures of this but I had like containers in my backyard Um and that was my my three pl so I didn't have to pay anyone but I had stock and I would you know order extra every Q. four. And you know as the uh one of our main products that cell's amazing. Every cue forward as it scaled up every year, I'd have that extra stock and everybody else would run out. And that's you know where I'd make my money. So it's awesome that you guys are pre planning the people who don't pre plan, we say this every year. It's like the people who don't pre plan and and run out of stock. Well you don't realize is as you as more and more sellers as you get close to the holidays, more and more sellers stock out, right? So all of a sudden now if you saw a stock and you're in the best position possible because then you can start scaling back Your ads, you can start uh increasing your pricing like you you're in the spot now where it's like you know now instead of making you know $30 a unit or whatever it is, you're you're now making 50 or you know just because now you're able to scale not only your your ads back but also increase your price at the same time. [00:15:36] spk_0: Oh definitely. And you know what's a very good comparison to that. There's something with DPC is budgets so the way that everyone sets up their budgets right? Is that it starts at the beginning of the sales day and if you set a budget for $50 it's gonna run out let's say I don't know by six p.m. And then there's a lot of you know then you're not running at at the evening time. So what we actually learned is that if you actually bid less your budget stretches out and the cost per clicks at the end of they are so much cheaper because there's less competition. Most people are not running as in the evening because they're out of budget for the big keywords. [00:16:07] spk_1: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I have an episode if you guys go back through the podcast go look for day parting. And that was one of the strategies that especially like uh in the weeks leading up to um you know like black friday cyber monday things like that. People are going crazy on bids right? And usually it's a losing battle. But what I would do is I would day part in the beginning of the day so until like noon no ads and then turn them on at noon and then for the rest of the day it would run now all of a sudden I'm blowing through that budget but my clicks are way cheaper because so many other sellers have now budgeted out already throughout the day because those you know cost per click has gone up so much so yeah I love [00:16:44] spk_0: that manually. Uh [00:16:47] spk_1: No so in seller S. C. O. There's a you can literally just kind of like drag hours on like when you want your ads to. And I also did a ton of testing where I'd have campaigns that would just come on like super early in the morning like 123 A. M. Like I was doing all kinds of time testing. Uh There's some interesting stuff that comes out of that um You know it's a [00:17:05] spk_0: software dude though, does it actually pause it or does it [00:17:07] spk_1: just, yep it pauses it positive [00:17:11] spk_0: because we just heard in the community, some people saying never turn off you [00:17:15] spk_1: know I've heard that but I think it's if it's in the same day so in other words if you don't turn it off for multiple days um I don't think I don't think it has an adverse effect. I mean you you can of course test it right so just spit up a campaign with like one keyword and test it. Um But yeah there's especially during the holidays, you know everybody talks trash about day parting but I definitely saw some really interesting um effects by using day parting. [00:17:40] spk_0: Because what we did we were using a software what they were doing is they were just actually just incrementally increasing your budget. So you would say like look I want to spend $600 or whatever a day and they would say okay well a lot then you know $100 in the first three hours and the next $100 in the next few hours or whatever and [00:17:56] spk_1: they would incrementally increase it, [00:17:57] spk_0: but we didn't actually like that method. So yeah, [00:18:00] spk_1: yeah, yeah. There's a lot of other interesting things you can do to is you can spin up, you know, two of the same campaigns with different bids and you can have one that runs at one part of the day, stop it and then start the other one. Like there's a lot of fun things you can do there. Um, at some point I would love to be able to automate all of that. Um, but yeah, there's some, there's some fun stuff with PBC that you can start every creative to write. Like [00:18:22] spk_0: we'll do waterfall campaigns right? Like, well yeah, just bug the competitors at the beginning of the day. Yeah, yeah, [00:18:30] spk_1: yeah, yeah. There's, there's, yeah, I mean PBC is an art, people don't realize that, you know, they think it's all cut dry and you know, even even the PBC experts out there, if you ask, you know, they're going to have 10 different ways to do things. But what's cool is to look at, I always tell people like, you know, don't take my word for it, take what I say, go research it, see what other people are doing and then test it all and see what works or take some of the, you know, some of the stuff people are doing here and combine it with this and I mean there's, there's so much fun to meet PBC is one of the most fun parts of amazon. Um, but I, I love marketing and adds, so to me that's, it's, it's always a blast to go in and in turn dials. So guys, one of the other things I would love for you to share as you know, everybody always shares, you know, especially with guys were like, you were being successful is, you know, they think it's like so easy to get to where you are. I would love for you guys to kind of talk about like some of the struggles that you guys went through and you know, like I like, I've told people on the podcast before, there were, you know, holes in my wall. You know, I started selling on amazon in 2012. There were holes in my wall on occasion because of some of the just absolute like beyond frustrating things that you run into on amazon any big hurdles that you guys ran into and, and kind of how, how'd you plow through them. [00:19:42] spk_0: Yeah, so many. Right. So I got scars. Yeah, we got started. It's so tricky. And I think the hardest thing is just to tell yourself, hey, it's temporary. I think the more hurdles that you have, the more you realize, hey, we just passed those 10 and we thought that was gonna be the end of it, You know, where there was a failed inspection with a really [00:20:03] spk_1: bad product, we're [00:20:03] spk_0: like, well and oh no, we didn't catch it or the first one star review. Um, so what we had, our biggest, biggest one, I think to date was when we were at it, we had a massive, massive march april may and then we're fully out of stock and it took us till july to get it ready and they had the restart limit. So we said, okay, that's fine. We sent in 20,000 units, the amazon L. T. L. Pick up and we'll be back in stock in no time. And it went into like a middle warehouse somewhere. Narnia, Narnia and amazon just said, yeah, no. And they didn't give you a tracking number because if it's an amazon partnered carrier, the amazon ground logistic KGl, they said it'll be dropped off with them 24 hours of pickup. So you don't need a tracking number. So we didn't have a tracking numbers were trying to go and no one knew where it was and it took two months. So now and the problem is in the system, it says there's 20,000 units inbound, we weren't able to send in more so, and we have this financing and we have to pay back all his financing money. And so like we're like, I'm luckily we had some profit. We haven't paid ourselves out every yet. You know, we had Katie and cheese, like we haven't eaten. So, um, that was a big stressor just because you felt so helpless, it wasn't in your control. We didn't make a mistake, right? And I think that's the hardest thing. And that's also the one thing where we just take a step back and say, look, this isn't our fault. It happened. Um we keep, we stay on top of it. We talked to them, the people that finance us, we said we gotta really just the payment schedule, there's no way we can do it. It's not our fault. Uh they're super understanding. So that was good and that was the lesson to realize like if it's, if it's not our control, there's no real point of stressing about it. [00:21:42] spk_1: We just have to do. Yeah, that's such a great point. That was one of the things that, you know, I finally learned after doing this for years is you know, you have to be the squeaky wheel, right? You have to be on amazon's back, but after you do that, like sitting around stressing pulling your hair out does absolutely nothing for you. So you know, take a step back like, okay, so I have this inventory issue, I can't do anything about that. Like you said. Um so rather than stress about that, why don't I go back and like maybe work on my images, like in other words, you know divert that attention, that stress that, you know, I need that feeling of, I need to do something, I need to get something done and channel that into something else To put that energy into because otherwise, like you said, you just sit around and stew like, you know, like I said, I, I literally punched a hole in my wall once. Uh this was way back in the day, you know, during Q4 when there was literally no way to get rid of hijackers and we had a Chinese hijacker come in and um pretty much Hijack Our entire catalog like 400 skews For almost the entire, you know, you're talking about net probably 300 grand worth of profit. Um you know, I think it was back in like 2013, 14 somewhere around then And there's nothing I could do. I mean, I was on the phone every day to like 10 different people and they're just like, yeah, sorry. You know, like you have to do the test order, you know, this is back, when do you remember the whole test order thing? And you know, it would take like from china like two months and they would send you like a key chain instead of the product. Like it [00:23:05] spk_0: was, they were, [00:23:07] spk_1: I mean back then it was like the Wild west and it was so, so hard uh to, you know, to get anything done. But you know, like you said, those were back then it was like, there were so many hard knocks that it was just like by the end of steel, there's not very much on amazon now that people can be like, hey, I, you know, ran into this, how can I fix it? I'm like, oh you do this, this and this. I've done this like 10 times by now, you know? So um, yeah, I think that the most successful people in e commerce, not only on amazon but in general are the ones who are just willing to Take that stress push through it, get to the next spot because 80% of the people are like, oh this sucks and throw up their hand and they're done right? So [00:23:45] spk_0: It's kind of a motivating thing, isn't it? It's like just knowing that if you persevere and you stick through, you're going to be like, you know, one of those two out of 10 people who actually makes it. And so that kind of drives you like, see the bumps in the road is like toughening you up and getting you ready for the long journey. And I think in flying we do it all the time, [00:24:01] spk_1: right? Like if our engine [00:24:02] spk_0: is on fire, we'll notice the engine is on fire. So we notice the issue, but then our energies spent on fixing the issue and not on the problem. Like we forget that there's an engine fire because we're just working our checklist and I think we try to apply that now to the amazon business. That's a metaphor. I the only one that's [00:24:24] spk_1: actually an excellent analogy. Uh, you know, the whole checklist in an aircraft, what was it? Bc gump. Is that the acronym? I think I still remember it, but that was what they taught us in school. But anyway, um, uh, yeah, it's uh, that was another thing, You know, I was trying to share my failures so other people don't have to, is systems and processes and knowing your numbers. I mean those are some of the basic things that I didn't have when I started and if I would have known that back then, I mean I could have scaled probably too, you know, an 89, you know, who knows? I mean, I could have just scaled to infinity if I knew some of those things back then, but you know, back then I was a computer guy and an aviation guy and you know, e commerce was just like, hey, I can put stuff on amazon, it sells like crazy, you know, and that was kind of the basics, right? So those are, are some of the things that I would really implore people to know your numbers build systems, even if it's just in a google doc and you're sitting down one day and you're doing like merchant fulfilled, just write down your process because then when you do scale, you can hand that off, not only that, but just inconsistency, right? If anybody hasn't seen the Mcdonald's um, documentary on youtube, I forget the name of it. Um, as systems go, it's fascinating to see that, you know, a guy came in pretty much just took the business over, saw the systems in place and just doubled down and just kept making the systems better and better. Mcdonald's hamburger is crap. I don't eat fast food, but I used to, but I still am uh floored at that those systems in place, right? The consistency, the, you do it this time every time and then the customer knows what to expect. I think it, it can translate easily into this. So I love that. All right guys. So one of the things that we love to do and in this business you have to do is always, you know, continue to learn anything that you guys are into right now in terms of, you know, personal personal development was late for me. But to me that's one of the first things you can start on, you should start on any, any kind of motivational things. You're doing, any podcast, books, anything that's really kind of changed your perspective or made a big impact in your life or in your business. [00:26:31] spk_0: Oh, that's a good question. Yeah, I'm just starting to get back into it. But you know, doing mindfulness practice and you know, some meditation the evening using, you know, there's several apps available now. Um I use one called mindspace and it's, you know, because you know, my lab, I'm in the lab all day, my brain is going, it's analytical and then when I get home it's just amazon amazon amazon, so it never stops. And I just to remind yourself to take even just five or 10 minutes out of the day, um and just, you know, just take some time to turn your brain off and just calm down, calm the storm. Um I think that's been really helpful. Um and then the second thing that I that I like to do is, you know, there's so kind of in the same thing, there's a lot of voices, not only in your heads, but in the amazon world too. And I love to just, I guess we love to find the, you know, just the five or six voices that we like to listen to, that we really trust. And just, you know, when they put out new content, you know, listen to it, to take the learnings. Um but just kind of tune out all the other noise because you just find the people you trust. And uh for me, on a personal level, I mean I love reading. So there's a couple of books that I always like to pick up. A really good one is atomic habits. Atomic habits. Um and that's just one is talking about habits and you know, what's the basis behind it make something that you hate doing associated with, Something that you love. So for example, if you love going on facebook in the morning and checking the news feeds and tell yourself you gotta do 10 pushups before you're allowed to do that and all the 10 pushups becomes so much easier because there's an instant reward after um, stuff like that. I think I've done so much like readings about, you know, self development and all that stuff, but what this last year and a half has a year and a half has allowed me to do was actually to implement it and to really see how much work is required on yourself. Right? So we can all read about staying calm and not having fights and then you know, Ryan, I will burst at each other have a massive flying like, hey, I thought we're both supposed to be calm and mindful. Right? So the business has allowed us to put all the theory into practice a bit, which has been fun and then what we like to do is we like to reflect on it, give brief it a bit, talked it out and try to learn from it and always celebrate the winds no matter how small, you know, like we fire up the barbecue. Sorry Dave fires up his massive barbecue, we cook some burgers and put on some music and just celebrate, you know, every little wind, every little launch, every victory. [00:28:55] spk_1: I love it. Fantastic. All right. So the other thing that's the most important question of the podcast is how do you say take off hoser in german [00:29:05] spk_0: take off. I [00:29:09] spk_1: didn't realize you guys were Canadians. Sorry, I had to throw that out there. You know, I went to college in North Dakota so we'd always cross over into Winnipeg's. [00:29:16] spk_0: All right guys, thank you so [00:29:21] spk_1: much for being on. How can people get a hold of you guys? Anything you guys want to plug? Please let people know uh, you know what you guys are up to next. [00:29:30] spk_0: Yeah. So I mean we're always trying to figure out what's the next thing that we're doing right now, what we like to do is connect with people that are also selling and we actually share all of the excel sheets that we use for our business. Like we said, we built all our excel sheets with the intent of maybe selling them one day. We did that just to make sure that they're better. Um, and we're actually selling them. You guys can find us on facebook. We have a group called the van dog group and it's super small. I think Amy was the second person in it. Uh, celebrate. [00:29:57] spk_1: We celebrated. That was awesome. I love it. [00:30:00] spk_0: It's fun. It's a small group right? And our main goal now is we're going to scale the business, We're going to exit it next year and then we're gonna focus more on, you know, maybe doing another brand or just focusing maybe on helping other people do the same thing that we did and I'm going to buy an airport. [00:30:15] spk_1: I love it. Absolutely love it. An airport or just one of those houses where you can like, it's like a community airstrip that you can like lay in and pull into your garage [00:30:23] spk_0: right now. I'm actually gonna buy the airport. So actually like everyone's laughing, but I tell them, but I'm actually [00:30:28] spk_1: doing it. I can't wait. [00:30:29] spk_0: I love it. It's awesome. It's near my hometown in Montreal and I want to take a look at it in august and it's awesome. I just need the business to keep working the way it's working. I got to get the right timing for the sale and then I'm gonna buy that airport. So already put in a little offer and I'm super excited. My wife gets to move home and I get to, that would be a dream come true with a little like by his airport. [00:30:51] spk_1: I absolutely love it. You know, it's, it's like uh Gary v saying, you know, he's going to buy the jets. I love it. If you don't have that audacious goal, you'll never get to it right. So absolutely [00:31:01] spk_0: gotta dream big because it's such a rough road to get there. But that airport keeps him so motivated. [00:31:06] spk_1: That's awesome. I love that so much. Hey guys, it was really nice meeting you. Thank you so much for being on. Really appreciate it. We'll see you guys again. Hopefully sometime soon in the near future. So we can get some updates on what you guys are up to. Thank you so much for being on. [00:31:18] spk_0: All right, thanks [00:31:19] spk_1: and the thanks so much guys. Yeah. All right guys. And if you have not done so yet, please rate review. Subscriber really appreciate when you guys do that, share it with friends. If you think they're gonna get some value out of this guys. And as usual we do this live Tuesday one PM pacific time. So a round table dot com forward slash live join us. You can be in the zoom meeting. Um, so you can ask David Ryan, like we're going to stop the recording, stop the broadcast and you guys get some behind the scenes if you join us live. So we'll see you guys next time on the seller roundtable. Thanks so much. [00:31:50] spk_0: Thanks for tuning in, join us every Tuesday at one PM pacific standard time for live Q and A. And bonus content after the recording at cellar round table dot com, sponsored by the ultimate software tool for amazon sales and growth seller. S C O dot com and amazing at home dot com.
  continue reading

395 епізодів

सभी एपिसोड

×
 
Loading …

Ласкаво просимо до Player FM!

Player FM сканує Інтернет для отримання високоякісних подкастів, щоб ви могли насолоджуватися ними зараз. Це найкращий додаток для подкастів, який працює на Android, iPhone і веб-сторінці. Реєстрація для синхронізації підписок між пристроями.

 

Короткий довідник