303 : Scott Meers – Get a fresh perspective from someone outside of your business to help you see the growth
As the title suggest sometimes you are too close to your business and can not see the forest through the trees. Scott brought in a consultant to help him narrow down his focus, help him find out what is working and what is not. Sometimes a non-emotional view can get you started or in this case re-started.
Mentioned:
Sponsors
Gaye’s Million Dollar Arbitrage List
Transcript: (note- this is a new tool I am trying out so it is not perfect- it does seem to be getting better)
Stephen: [00:00] I’m excited to talk about my sponsors today, Gaye Lisbey’s million dollar arbitrage group. Amazing, amazing group. This is a teacher. This is Gaye, was a teacher. She is a teacher. Still. You need to learn. This is the type of environment you want to be in because she’s going to help you understand why, and I think that’s the hardest part of this business is understanding why. Why is the red one popular one? The green one isn’t? Well, there’s usually a reason and what gay does is probably parsed that better than anybody and she’ll explain the reasons for those things. I think that’s really powerful. Yes, she puts out a list. You’re going to get a good use of that list if you get in the group. Now here’s the deal. The group isn’t always open, right? So you get on the waiting list and you can join the waiting list through my link.
Stephen: [00:46] Doesn’t cost anything to get on a waiting list and if you like her service, which I find that most people do that, that’s why there’s not so many openings. Um, you’ll be with her for a long time. And so it’s amazing, freedom [inaudible], she’s part of Andy’s slam. It’s group, amazing freedom.com, forward slash momentum. And you’re going to get in to the waiting list. That’s all I can get you on right now. You can use my name and see if that gets anywhere. But what I like about it, what I like about what they teach in that group or the things that are going on, you know the current things. I’ve seen a lot of stuff going on about stores going out of business. While here’s where an opportunity is, here’s why you want to do this. Hey, be cautious about this. You know who at toys r US coming out, you’ve got to think about this and that’s the learning that you need to do and gay is better than anybody else I’ve seen.
Stephen: [01:31] So amazing. Freedom Dot com. Forward slash momentum will get you to the waiting list. Then hopefully they can get you in the group and then you’re going to see me in there and we can chat anytime you’re ready. Karen lockers, group solutions, the number for ecommerce solutions for e-commerce dot com. Forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you 50 bucks. Karen’s our account manager. We recommend her to everyone because she’s done so well for us. I mean, that’s quite frankly the reason we’d been paying her for last few years, but she’s become an important part of our team. Her and her team are so involved in our account. I just see the emails coming back and forth, hey, we did this for you. I just saw two listings today. I’m like, wait a second. Why did they show up? I didn’t put any listings up. They got a.
Stephen: [02:13] They got a set off to the side by Amazon and they reactivate them for me. You know what I mean? That’s the stuff that just happens when you have a strong team and I can’t recommend Karen enough if you use my code momentum. Karen pays me. I don’t want to hide that. Of course we all know that, but you’re going to save $50 and it’s a great opportunity to really, really build out your team with somebody you can trust. That’s why I recommend them. So solutions for ecommerce solutions, the number for e-commerce dot com, forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you $50. Oh, and by the way, she’s going to do an inventory health report. Why is that important? Well, guess what fees are going up. Is your inventory health number declining like ours is? Well, here’s why and what they can do. What I like is I get a spreadsheet from them and it says, Hey, here’s a bunch of inventory, here’s what we recommend.
Stephen: [03:07] And I’m like, Yep, refund. I mean a delete a returned us blah blah blah, whatever it is. And it’s are destroyed and it just happens. That’s what I like. The other thing that I have Karen helped me with a lot is creating new listings. You know, we do, a lot of the researchers solves, we upload our images and then boom, magically the listing goes live and I don’t have to worry about it. Those are the services that Karen offers. Can’t recommend her enough solutions for e-commerce dot com forward slash momentum. Save 50 bucks, use my code. You save $50 a month every single month and it’s a great service. Plus you get that free inventory health report. I think it’s a really powerful way, so I can’t. I’m so excited how many people have been joining here because I see it and I’m excited because the messages I get from people saying, hey, this is great.
Stephen: [03:52] I finally feel like I can focus on something else because Karen and her team are watching this for me and I highly recommend her. Next up is scale. Solar lamps and scope said it wrong. It’s amazing. I mean, it really is amazing when you sit back and think about, hey, I want to get this product up and it’s similar to this product and that product does well. Well, therefore, if that product does well, they have the right keywords, they’ve chosen things correctly, so guess what? You scope and you could see all that stuff and that’s what the most powerful thing in the world is to copy somebody who’s done it right. That’s what you want to. You want to take advantage of that, right? I mean, it’s fair to see and so therefore you can take and apply it to your listing and immediately get that same benefit.
Stephen: [04:39] That’s what scope does for me. Seller labs dot forward slash momentum. It’s going to save you $50 on the service. Oh, by the way, it’s free to try. So sign up, try it and say, oh, this is how it’s done. Boom. And then you’re going to. The lights going to go on and you’re going to be like, man, I can get my products out there. I just can’t wait. Can’t wait. So are labs dot [inaudible] forward slash momentum. The other day I bought another domain. Yes, I bought another domain. It’s almost like A. I’m admitting guilt, but it’s because I had an idea and it was something that was a pretty good idea. I think it’s going to go pretty far and so what do I do? I go to try go daddy.com forward slash momentum and save 30 percent. So domains aren’t very expensive. You get a few services, it adds up a little bit and I usually buy it three years.
Stephen: [05:31] I usually buy privacy by the way, I recommend that to buy that, you know, it’s not that much money, but when you can save 30 percent it makes it that much sweeter and it makes it easier when you’re buying domains and especially if you buy a bunch of domains. I am a domain collector and so I do tend to do that, but that 30 percent makes it a lot easier and I use go daddy because what I like is I can pop in an address I’m thinking and it’ll say nope, nope, could try this version or try this extension and then boom, there it is. Hey, you better hurry before it goes away and the right, you know. And so try go daddy.com forward slash momentum save 30 percent. Also want to mention about grasshopper. Was that just talking to somebody the other day? And they were like, Oh yeah, use this company called [inaudible].
Stephen: [06:13] And I’m like, dude, did you buy through my link and save 30 percent? Hello? Know they missed that. So save 30 percent. It’s try grasshopper.com forward slash momentum. No surprise there, but you’re going to save 30 percent and what the real cool part about that is they’re using it for their private label business and it gives them virtually a second phone on their current phone without having to get another number. They can make up a vanity number. They don’t have to go and do all the grief and sign loan contracts. Pretty easy stuff. So if you’re creating a brand that you want to identify, you want to look professional, you want to look like a real company. Grasshopper is a great tool. It’s an app you put on your existing phone and boom, you now have a customer service to. You. Now have a sales department, didn’t have a manufacturing division. You could forward it to somebody else. You can have it go to different voicemails, different departments. It’s all included. So try grasshopper.com, forward slash momentum. Save 30 percent.
Cool voice guy: [07:13] Welcome to the e-commerce momentum podcast where we focus on the people, the products, and the process of e-commerce selling. Today. Here’s your host, Steven Peterson.
Stephen: [07:27] Welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast. This is episode three and three. Scott Mirrors. Now I love, I love somebody who can figure it out. I don’t have a better way to say it, but somebody who just looks at life and says, yeah, that’s a problem for most, but man, I just know how to solve and if I don’t know how to solve it, I’ll keep trying until I do solvents. Cod is clearly that guy is a process which I love process and I love the fact that you can apply those processes on everything that you do so you know if you’ve been able to. I’m a tinkerer, for example. I can pretty much fix most anything without looking at the instructions and that’s just because you’ve done so many different things. I can apply that. Some people don’t have that skill, so that’s one of my skill sets.
Stephen: [08:14] Scott’s clearly somebody who has figured out a way to approach a problem, a challenge and see it as an opportunity because he realizes once he figures it out, he’s now got a great system or a great process in place and it just wash, rinse, repeat, and he can minimize the effect it has on his life. I call that noise, he can take and reduce the noise and his life, and I think that’s a lesson for all of us. I think it takes practice and it’s clearly not easy. Um, but for Scott, he makes it look easy and I’m here to tell you there’s more to the story. Let’s get into the podcast. All. Welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast. Are excited about today’s guest. Uh, today’s guest is a multitasker in the truest sense. Got a lot of moving pieces. I call it a lot of responsibility. And yet it appears that he manages it well and I’m sure that’s not the case. So he’ll tell you it’s organized chaos, but to the outside it really looks good. Scott Mirrors. Welcome Scott.
Scott: [09:18] Thank you, Stephen. Thanks so much for having me. I’m flattered and honored to be on your podcast. I relied on many of your earlier podcasts when I got into Amazon selling a little over three years ago. So, uh, just can’t, can’t believe I’m here today
Stephen: [09:33] and yet very humbling because I, uh, you know, I understand what you’re saying because I rely on others shoulders, right? That’s what I do is I, I, I’m just building on somebody else’s stuff, but we all start somewhere and um, it’s hard to remember that sometimes we all start somewhere because you’re pretty experienced. Sometimes you look down your nose at the, some of the questions like really come on, but I remember asking those questions. That’s why I’m no holier than now because I remember when I started and it wasn’t easy and back then the software didn’t exist, you know, back when we had to walk uphill both ways. That stuff didn’t exist so we had to really do it harder. So I respected. So anyway. Well you are a part time seller doing a pretty good, doing a pretty good amount. I mean, and when I remember my takeaway from our conversation, what really struck me is the way you have adapted, um, you have no waste in your stream. And I always appreciate that because I have a warehouse full of bad decisions, bad choices and a stream of stuff. You’ve been intentional about making sure that you have a way out. And I think that that’s fascinating. So we are going to get into all that, but let’s first get into why e-commerce for you.
Scott: [10:54] So this started out as, um, an experiment that turned into a hobby that ultimately evolved into a viable business. And I’m sure that’s everybody’s story, right? Um, so we’ve got friends and we were over their house one day and came up with what we thought would be a brilliant idea. So let’s, let’s make this product and we’ll go to Alibaba. And we went back and forth for a couple of months. The product arrived. It was 200 units, put it on a website, put it on Ebay, and after a couple of months we had one sale. That’s just brilliant idea. Wasn’t so brilliant.
Stephen: [11:30] Not that you and your friend, the enthusiasm you, you were shark tank, right? You were like, this is going to be the biggest thing. I don’t care. Whatever it is. I remember one time I invented a rechargeable coffee cup and I went to one of those inventing things, you know, the ones you see on tv and bent a whatever. Hey Steve, we think this is a great idea for $2,000. We’ll help you get it to and then not realize
Scott: [11:54] they say that to every single person. My ideas a crap idea was big. It was pig. And to date we’ve, uh, we’ve only sold one unit. It was a done, but it was, uh, you know, the, the byproduct of that was um, in looking for another way to sell it, I knew that when I bought something myself on Amazon, if you clicked on other sellers, it wasn’t just Amazon and you could find another price for other sellers, which made me realize that there’s third party sellers. My background’s in mortgage banking. I know nothing about e-commerce. And so I decided to, on a slow day at work, do a little research on how do you sell on Amazon, how do you know Ebay is easy and straightforward and that’s been around for years. And you know, everyone knows that Ebay is not. The seller saw the third party sellers.
Scott: [12:42] And um, I stumbled across the podcast of a woman who lost her job and essentially replaced her income by doing retail arbitrage. And I listened to the podcast twice that day before I left, it was an hour long and came home and played it for my wife and I was just fascinated by this. There’s no way that this is possible. You’re going and you’re buying something, you know, rite aid pharmacy for 75 percent off and you’re selling it and you know, doubling your money or tripling your money. So it was towards the early part of November and I decided, let me, let me go ahead and give this a shot. So I went to a local target and Halloween to just pass and all our costumes were 90 percent off. That’s a great deal. Ten cents on the dollar. So filled up a couple of shopping carts with Halloween costumes.
Scott: [13:27] I didn’t know what the Amazon seller APP was, so I didn’t know what the scan and my buying something good as a guide. No idea. I just felt up shopping carts and you know, I ended up buying a $2,000 retail for $200. Came home with a car full of target bags full of costumes, bringing them in the foyer. And a little while later, my wife and my two teenage sons walked in the house and they see all these bags, what’s in the bags that I bought, Halloween costumes and then sell them on Amazon. And they looked at me like I was an absolute raving when it’s, is losing it, he’s gone off the edge. And so to get it to Amazon and create my first shipment took about two weeks. Um, I didn’t know that there was facebook groups. I didn’t know that Steven Peterson at a podcast.
Scott: [14:08] I didn’t know that all these resources of this generous, generous Amazon community were out there. Um, I just have to know what’s a polybag right. You know, how have the costumes had to go in a polybag high poly bag. I’ve got to order some of these. And so anyway, the first shipment goes out and that hit the fulfillment centers by Thanksgiving. And by Christmas, 80 percent of the costumes I bought it sold. No kidding. And I was blown away. You figured it out. You on your own. No help. You just fudge your way through. Do you think that was luck or now looking at what do you think you really knew what you were doing? Was it intuitive for you or had you, it was something earlier in your life that taught you that, what was
Scott: [14:53] Um, I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit and I mean ever since, you know, delivering newspapers, mowing lawns as a teenager always worked. I’m always envisioned myself working for myself. And, and I guess in a way, um, with what I do in my career in the mortgage banking is, is that, um, you know, I set my own hours, my own schedule, which permits for the flexibility to be able to do the Amazon business on the side. Um, and then also it’s sort of a seasonal business. So from early November to probably Valentine’s Day, I could take that time off and nobody would know it just, it’s not busy in the mortgage industry during that time. So, um, yeah, I, yeah, I’ve always, if I see an opportunity that looks like it could be something that would be profitable and a good venture, um, I’m always willing to give it a shot.
Scott: [15:39] And that podcast, like I said, I listened to it a couple of times and I was just, you know, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, but they’re doing it. And um, um, you know, why it’s my slow time of year. I’ve got time to kill, let me be productive. And so, you know, every time I get a payout, every two weeks I would take it. And if it was $300 I’d spend all $300 that day and rush to get home and ship it, you know, our packet, get it to the APP store and then stock it on my phone until it got to the fulfillment center in the inventory became available. And the 300 turned into [inaudible] turn into 600, turned into a thousand. And before I knew it, um, you know, the couple months into this and I guess it was a march of 2015, all right.
Scott: [16:22] And, uh, you know, I was bringing in more from the paths that I could find doing retail arbitrage. And at this point I still wasn’t investing in my infrastructure, my, my wife’s from [inaudible] from France and she still has a scale that she had when she moved over here and it’s in kilos and I was too cheap to buy a $20. So, um, I would stand on the scale, get off the scale, pick up the box today on a scale, subtract out the difference, and then go on my computer and do the conversion from kilos to pounds.
Stephen: [16:50] Love it, love it. But you know what? Your great, great, great, great grandfather would have done the same thing I been told that’s not necessary. That’s an extra cost. That’s something that stands in the corner. 90 nine point nine, nine, nine, nine, nine percent of your day. Nobody ever uses it. Right? But for that second. So they’re smarter or who’s smarter? I don’t know. I, you know, my, my philosophy
Scott: [17:12] at the time was I’m going to use this three times every two weeks, um, and that $20 for the purchase of the scale could be turned into $20.
Stephen: [17:20] Plus you might not like this, this might get older, this might be another, you know, hobby, you know, you know, put in a corner within two weeks. So actually, I, I applaud you because I think that going well, I can tell this, a lot of people that have gone out and bought all the equipment and it, there’s a whole bunch of people shaking their head right now, number eight, where I’m going, they bought all this great equipment and this and that, and they take no action. I was sitting here listening to you and I thought to myself, my God, this is a man of action. That true for you. I mean, is that always been your way?
Scott: [17:52] Yes. Yeah. Um, I look for solutions really are no problems there. They’re just solutions and uh, you know, you find a way to, to get it done. And I mean, if you want to accomplish something, it’s not gonna get done if you don’t take action and if you don’t, you know, take the first step and take the initiative. And I’m a firm believer in that and that’s how I’ve lived my life, my career. I’ve had a successful career in my real job. I made it through several tough years, you know, if you saw that movie, the big short through that, um, you know, I didn’t do sub prime lending. It was, you know, a paper lending. But, um, a lot of colleagues that I worked with in the, uh, you know, the two thousands that led up to that are, you know, working at Red Lobster, I don’t do something else.
Scott: [18:35] But mortgages I just ripple was real. Real. Absolutely. Yeah. That was, that was a tough couple of years. And uh, you know, I’m very happy to see that the market’s recovered and that our industry has, you know, the pendulum swung so far from fast and loose to, you know, you want a DNA sample and a third grade report card to close a mortgage. Whereas, you know, now we’re back to back to common sense and I think underwriting is pretty close to where it should be, you know, where it’s, it’s not easy money, but it’s a, you’re underwriting a file the way you should. So, um, but, you know, I made it through that and it was, you know, I could have left, I could have taken the easy way out. Um, you know, I, I did take a few months off in 2008 to look for another career and just found that anything that was out there, the compensation wasn’t, um, comparable to what I’d grown accustomed to and needed to support my family. And uh, so I ended up going back to mortgages and just persevered and you know, the market improved and then that worked out well because the years that I had put into the business obviously had paid off with relationships and everything else in the market did recover. I’m certainly well. So, um,
Stephen: [19:42] well those people that left, how many of them have come back into it?
Stephen: [19:49] in our market. Is it, is it, uh, is that, is that a lesson here? I mean, that we should just pause on that. All markets will dip. So e-commerce will dip, right? And sometimes somebody, somebody just said this, I just saw this somewhere where there were basically saying, hey, this stuff and they use a different phrase is hard, it’s getting harder and therefore, you know, a whole bunch of people are leaving and we are now in position to take off those of us who stick it out. Then I have andy segments on just a couple of weeks ago and he’s like, Steve, less than 10 percent of all retail sales are online in our world. That seems like everything because that’s what we live and breathe. Right? But it were 10 percent. So, which is it?
Scott: [20:32] I think that, uh,
Scott: [20:36] raising the barrier to enter is, is good for us. It’s uh, it’s not a bad thing and that, that’s the same for my mortgage business. Um, you know, the folks that left the business were the ones where, you know, you’re making a great living because if you have a pulse and a credit score, you can get a mortgage and there was really no work behind it and now you actually have to work for it on, you know, I’m not a loan officer, I’m a problem solver. I spent a lot of my time putting square pegs in round holes and you know, I have to draw on my 17 plus years experience to, you know, to find a way to make something work if it’s, you know, in fact, able to work, um, you know, in this.
Stephen: [21:11] Are you saying that this, uh, I don’t mean to interrupt you, I’m sorry because you’re saying something powerful here. So you’re basically saying you’re a craftsman. Do you have a craft, right? You’ve mastered the craft in the mortgage rolled. Can we parallel that to ecommerce? So the people who are going to be successful are the ones not buying frozen because everybody can buy frozen. That was easy, right? Everybody walks into target and find lego’s for 80 percent off at one point in your life. Right. That happens.
Scott: [21:38] That’s not, that’s not, you know, an art. I mean, that’s just luck, right?
Stephen: [21:43] Craftsmen who builds, as you mentioned, your infrastructure who focused in on all those things and builds that out. They can make.
Scott: [21:52] Correct. And she’d out to the point of Amazon, you know, how many times have you seen on facebook posts or just heard that raise debt debt or it’s not that. I mean it’s, it’s not as easy as it was when I got in. I got engaged in health and personal care with a couple of CBS receipts. You can’t do that now. So sure, it’s a little more effort, but go out and find a wholesaler and buy the product wholesale and submit the invoices from the wholesaler. I mean, there’s still a way to get in there. It’s not as, as easy as it was years ago. You just have to work a little harder for it. Um, my perspective is, you know, Chris Green had a chapter in his book. It’s my favorite one. You’re, you’re lazy competition. That’s not, that’s good for all of us because you know that that’s less competition that you have, you know, those folks that don’t want to take the extra step or put out the extra effort to get ungated to get approved and brands they’re going to miss out. And that’s to our benefit. Um, and I think that’s true with any business, quite frankly, not just, you know, e-commerce or you know, um, my background is in, um, but
Stephen: [22:55] I like what you’re saying, so I’m going to hold you there because I just think what you. No, because I think it’s powerful. I just want people to hear that you’ve mastered the craft in the mortgage world and you were able to handle the ups and the downs and there’s going to be ups and downs. I’m sure there’s been ups and downs since there’s written a mortgage reit when they, uh, whatever the first mortgage, it’s, there’s always ups and downs, ebbs and flows. And when you look at it, you know, I think every business as you’re saying, is the same way. So in e-commerce there are challenges, right? As you said, there’s gating, there’s counterfeits, there’s inauthentic, there’s all these different things, but if you persevere, which means that you have a structure in place, you don’t live a feast or famine you even now, because that’s another thing we were talking in the mortgage business, is sometimes that ebbs and flows, so there’s
Scott: [23:46] slow and, and a good periods and so you have to be the real. The real artists are the ones that take that extra money, put some away for the rainy day, cause they know it’s going to rain and then it can even out. Well, e-commerce is exactly the same way. Fair. Yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree. And you know, I’ve, I’ve adapted from when I started to where I am now. I mean it’s, it’s an evolution where if I was myself three years ago looking at where I am today and where this business is, that I wouldn’t believe it. Um, you know, early on when I had sold for the costumes and talking to my wife and I said, you know, if, if I could do $450 a week in sales, it’s like $6,000 a year in profit for not a whole lot of effort.
Scott: [24:25] That’s, that’s like a vacation, right. That’s, you know, that’s, that’s great. Extra money. And I just kept doing what I was doing and turning the money and reinvesting everything I had into inventory and not infrastructure at that time. Um, and by March of 15, so I was six months into the business, I started looking for places where I could buy in bulk, large quantities and I found a place I’m outside of Philadelphia about an hour and a half away from a where I could just drive there and kind of scan what they had in the warehouse, their samples and then you could order 100 units, 200 units. And so I bought from them for several months, um, and ended up seeing on one of their palates who their supplier was. So I contacted their supplier and just essentially cut them out by December of that year and um, started buying in bulk from that supplier and the following year, 2016 adjuster that supplier, my sales were four times what they weren’t 15 I’m pallets by the lot and good in bed, you know, 70 percent of the product was fantastic.
Scott: [25:22] High margin, but 70 percent of it was either damage, mean 30 percent, 30 percent, sorry. Yeah, 30 percent was damaged and just not scalable on the Amazon channel and Ebay, I really didn’t have the time or the patience to deal with and uh, just accumulated, accumulated. And finally, I mean, cause that before we, before we see what you did, I envisioned because I’m in this world, right? So when you, especially if you’re buying liquidation, right, what you’re describing there. So I’ve done that, bought a whole toy store one year, right? And, and a whole bunch of it’s good, but that means a whole bunch of it. Not good piles. If you don’t do anything with it. The, they call them death piles, right? They just grow and grow. There’s no b plan and I didn’t buy it expecting that there was bad stuff in it. I bought it because I was so excited and so giddy I didn’t see it.
Scott: [26:10] All I saw was the good stuff. And the rest I’ll figure that out. Right. And so how big was your death piles? So I’m pretty organized and maybe borderline OCD. So I had the most organized death pile that you’ve probably ever seen. I’m in banana boxes and so I ended up, I just got to get rid of this. I had so much of it and I knew what I was buying. It was all manifested. So I knew before I wired the money that 30 percent of it was going to be, you know, garbage in the next, I guess challenges, what do I do with it? Um, so I tried liquidation.com and that was a hassle and I was, I was making spot are 40, fifty cents per unit after their fee and my cost for shipping. So I started going to the flea markets once a once a month and I’d go in there with a van full of banana boxes and them out there and sit out there for six, seven hours and walk out with several hundred dollars, you know, just selling everything for a dollar.
Scott: [26:59] I just want to get rid of it. And people would headlines. I mean it was, I, I ended up having to, after a couple of trips there are people got to know who I was and what was selling. And I had regulars and it was just nonstop all day, but it’s cumbersome and it’s just, I’m sitting there on a Saturday and it’s a waste of my time. I’m getting rid of the product. That’s fantastic. But I, I really, you know, that wasn’t what I envisioned myself doing is I was scaling the business. That means more garbage comes in and what do I do with it? So. So when did the light go on for you? I mean, did you see somebody else? Did you read it? Did you hear it somewhere? Whereas this just. You thought, Huh? Why can’t I try this? I there’s a local farmers market, so it’s kind of like an upscale flea market that’s open three days a week and there’s actual retail stores.
Scott: [27:46] They’re the rent’s cheap and you know, the, the traffic, um, you walk in there and one half of it is all food. I mean you’ve got a butcher shop, a bakery, it’s all amish goods and it’s fantastic and they’re super busy. And I said, this is great. You know, the rent is, is not expensive. They’re bringing the traffic ends. I don’t even have to advertise and then I’m going to kill it here. So it was last September when I opened the little retail store and outfitted with Gondola shelving and my motto was, whatever the product is selling for on Amazon, I’ll sell it for half. People are going to get a great deal. I’m going to get rid of my product. I was just, I think what really prompted that decision was twofold. I was sick and tired of moving from my garage to the van, to the flea market, to the van, to the garage, and this big pile on my garage of banana boxes.
Scott: [28:32] And just the fact that I know that I’m giving away product, you know, it’s, I’m getting a dollar for, but it’s a $10 product, so I’ll sell it at the store for five and you know, the rent was the equivalent to, you know, what I would pay if I went for, you know, four weeks out of the month to go to the flea market. So now it’s static. It sits right there. I don’t have to move anything. I opened the store, I closed the store and I’m not moving product around. So did that for a couple of months and that went over like a lead balloon. Um, sales were horrendous and you know, with my mortgage business I can work remotely. So it wasn’t a waste of my time to sit there on a Thursday and Friday that I wear that I was in there because I’d be sitting in my office anyway doing what I do.
Scott: [29:11] But I wasn’t able to do anything with the Amazon product with prepping. And at that time I had a part time employee who did the prep and um, and I made the decision to close the store and I had outgrown my basement so I was going to rent warehouse space and they’re looking into that. The rent was a little bit less than what I was paying at the store for a comparable square footage, but there was issues with temperature. Um, so when it’s extremely cold it gets to be 55, 60 in there when it’s extremely hot, the warehouse would be mid seventies to high seventies. And with health and beauty products, I didn’t want that temperature fluctuations. So you know, I had this Aha moment, wait a second, your outfit of shelving, you’ve already got the space, you still need a retail channel to unload the product. So what I did is I ended up converting the 500 square feet to 75 square feet of retail by taking Gondola shelving that ran down in the middle of the store and essentially making that my front wall of the store. And I dropped the prices of everything down to a dollar back to. Let me just give it away because I don’t have the space for it and I use the remaining 425 square feet as my prep area. Um, which had a couple of benefits. The retail store at a dollar a unit pays for most of the rent.
Stephen: [30:22] Stay there sucking. Each one of these things are like, people are like, wait, what? They’re going to be all like, whoa, Whoa, whoa. Break it down. So I am going to make you pull it apart a little bit because I just think, I think you know, to you it’s no big deal. The adaptability of what you’re describing. I hope other people are hearing this to the way you’ve pivoted, the way you have adjusted. You didn’t give up. You just said, let me try another way. So first off, getting that crap out of your house as a marriage saver. Right? That’s always a big thing. I mean that’s a big, big plus to. You’re fixing the quality of the product by controlling the temperature and that kind of thing. That’s a big plus, especially for what you’re doing. Right. That’s a, that’s a big deal. A three.
Stephen: [31:05] You’re taking existing space, you’re maximizing the utility of space. You know, we were just describing this, think about this, toys r us going into business and I just heard this, that Wegmans has 30 or 40,000 skews in a store where all the, the, the, the reason was I was watching a documentary on all the and they only have 4,000 of which though 90 percent are private label. But that’s a different story. So anyway, so think about how big was the toys r us? I would say it’s comparable to a wegmans or a uh, one of the other big grocery stores. So I’m thinking they have 30,000 skews, right? Thirty or 40,000 skews. Target gives, I don’t know about your target, but maybe they have 12 aisles of toys. Sounds about right. Both sides, you know, back and forth. But it’s only, what do they, 16 feet long.
Stephen: [31:57] I mean they have a couple thousand skews. I think I’m being generous in saying they have two or 3000 skews and I think Walmart’s comparable, maybe a little bit bigger, but my point is this, what are they going to do with that space? Toys, Toysrus, US had 30,000 skews of which target and toy and a Walmart probably carry a 10th of or maybe 15 percent. They’re not going to dedicate a lot more of their store to those other toys because they’re looking at profit per square foot, utility per square foot, and if toys r us couldn’t make it selling toys, what does, why does all of a sudden Walmart think that they’re going to be a better destiny? They’re not, and so the fact that you figured this out, this is my long way of going back to where it was with you, is you realize that the utility of the space, your cost per square foot, your utilities are included, your everything about it is done.
Stephen: [32:54] I’m telling you, that is a big, big moment, especially with Amazon increasing fees. These are the kind of thoughts. This is the kind of thinking you have to do was a lot to say. You get what I’m saying? I don’t want to downplay it because it’s, it’s, uh, I’m telling you as I sit and listen to it, when you were telling me this in person, I was sitting there saying to myself, Oh man, this dude is smart. He is figured out. One of the best opportunities you don’t, you’re not paying. You didn’t sign a long-term lease. Right. That was six months.
Scott: [33:24] Just would have been up in February. And I spoke with the owner and you know, just propose to him the change that I was going to make because I want to make sure he was OK with me taking what they’re expecting to be 500 square feet of retail is 75 and totally fine with it. That’s.
Stephen: [33:38] I’m OK with that flexibility. That nimbleness as [inaudible] would call it that because I was telling him about pivoting. Right? When you’re using that for, he goes, now you gotta be Nimble and it, it’s just the adjustment that you make now. Maybe a year from now you have to adjust again because of, but that’s, that’s the reason that you’re having success, Scott. I don’t, I don’t want to miss that. That is a big moment and a whole bunch of people are going to be like, oh, come on. No big deal. You know what, go rent space, wherever you are. Go rent a warehouse. How big is, uh, how much do they get the square foot? No warehouse for re, uh, like a big location, you know, it’s big money, right?
Scott: [34:14] It is. And I was going to pay, I think it was $100 less per month for the same size space and this is far better and I have the retail offset. So you know, if I sell 500 units of something with a cost basis is zero because it’s my 30 percent,
Stephen: [34:29] you know, garbage right there for what determines that you used for it. The pile of a, what was it? Well the death pile, but spoilage, you know, it’s, it’s what normal people would just throw away. And you’re able to find a way to almost offset your complete cause. I’m telling you dude, very well done. I applaud you. I’m applauding. That’s me clapping. I mean, I just think it’s great. So, so that was point four. Um, and security wise it’s relatively secure.
Scott: [34:56] It is. Well it is secure. Um, you know, I have 24 seven access. Um, so the, the door that was there has glass pane so I had a heavy gauge steel plate cut and put that into the door. Alarm system, security cameras that had alarms trip my phone rings, the Police Department gets a dispatch, gets called so it secure. I’m 10 minutes away from the facility so I can be there at a moment’s notice and I’ve got eight cameras that are recording 24 seven and the dvr keeps the data for 30 days. So um, you know, fully insured across the board. Workman’s comp, liability, um, inventory, you know, premise.
Stephen: [35:38] So you’re legit, legit. I mean that’s a pretty cool place to get to. You don’t have a, you know, as I was describing when we are starting as you have a lot of responsibilities, but let me tell you, you’ve taken away right now in my warehouse, so we had 12,000 square feet. There are contractors here nonstop and I have this, this thing that I learned to me when somebody pulls in, my son this morning was here. He’s like, this thing is driving me crazy, cause non-stop. All these people pulling the contractors nonstop, pulling it. You don’t have that responsibility. I applaud you because you’re putting your. When you, when you have limited time, you’re putting your effort and energy where you want to, which is sourcing products fulfilling or sending them into Amazon, getting things going on. I’m just telling you that’s a, that’s a well oiled machine there.
Scott: [36:23] It has to be. Um, you know, I, I, my focus is on my career and I put as much time as I’m able to add to this business. You know, it got to be where the prep a product. I’d primarily sales prep intensive, you know, shrink wrapped and labels and some of it’s shelf pulls. So it’s dusty and it’s all going to be wiped down. And so that, that’s why I hired, you know, the first part time employees, actually a good friend of mine’s son. And then, um, the last December I hired the son’s best friends. So now I’ve got two part time employees. And so really for me it’s, it’s kind of point and click and research and you know, uh, manage the repricer and inventory and not, you know, I, I buy deep, um, with this product. So in a lot of the cases when I, when I purchased, I’ve got a 12 month supply, so, you know, the, the last shipment I got was 11 plus thousand units and they’re just about through that.
Scott: [37:17] Um, but what they do is they’ll, they’ll prep it by skill and so everything’s labeled and um, it’s boxed up and it’s put on a shelf. And I’ve got a very, very, um, you know, organized systems. So I know when I have inventory that has to be replenished. So I know where it is. The or the, you know, it’s all barcoded by ace, by ace. When I scan that, I know what the quantity is, the data was packed, expiration date or lot number and so now I get an inventory alerts replenished product x, then I put product x and it takes literally a minute and a half to weigh it and put the measurements in seller central after I create the replenishment, print up a label and you know, it’s off to the ups store. So it’s sufficient.
Stephen: [37:56] I have a picture that he sent me that I’m having on the website. So you gotta go look at it because you were blown away how organized it is, but that, so your work, you’re truly the E-myth, right? You’re working on your business so you don’t have to work in it because you have realized that by putting that energy and effort up front, it saves you every single day going forward. And that’s where the time, that’s where you gain time, right?
Scott: [38:22] It is. And it’s taken. I mean, it’s, it’s been an evolution over the course of three years. Um, you know, just what works, what doesn’t work, what’s the most efficient workflow. And I’m constantly adapting and modifying systems. And processes, and that’s, I’m going to continue to happen, um, you know, with, with what we’re doing here. But I love the FBA model. Um, that’s what allows for me to have the kind of inventory I have. Um, you know, without having to keep too much on hand in the warehouse, I send as much as I can to Amazon and, you know, that’s for that reason I don’t need a 12,000 square foot warehouse, you know, I’m able to let them do that work and I’d rather pay the premium so that I don’t have to find a product, pull it. I’ve got items that are on E-bay.
Scott: [39:03] Um, I hate it because it’s just, it’s work, you know, it’s um, you know, I get, get in on Monday and I’ve got multiple orders for the weekend. It’s like, all right, now I’ve got to stop what I’m doing and spend 45 minutes, you know, because that’s the one day that the part-time employees don’t work. So that’s me doing the Ebay prep and sending that out. Um, but it’s money and I’m able to sell the product for not as much as I get for it on Amazon, but if the pet better than a dollar. Exactly, exactly. So, you know, it’s kind of a necessary evil. Um, and uh, you know, the volume is that it’s good, but it’s a, it’s a bit of a, you know, it’s, it’s not as efficient as Fba and I fba for my situation. Um, I don’t think, I know, I know for certain, I never would’ve started with Amazon if it wasn’t for Fba.
Scott: [39:46] Um, that’s the only reason why I was able to scale. That’s the only reason why I’m able to do this. Um, you know, there, there’s weeks where I don’t touch the Amazon business because I’m so busy with my day job. And um, if it wasn’t for FBI, wouldn’t be able to do that. I’m still making money. I’m still generating sales while not letting a finger on the business. And that’s, to me, that’s still fascinates me. Three and a half years later, I, you know, I love doing this and while it is a business, I still love it as if it were still a hobby. Um, I love talking about it. I love doing it. It’s just, it’s, it’s really, it’s amazing. I never would’ve believed exists that if I didn’t do it myself and actually succeeded on it. When you think about like products that you’re getting, have you been able to over time raise your average selling price by being more picky a because you’re in a position where, you know, you have limited space in limited capacity, so you have to be mindful.
Scott: [40:39] Um, has that been, have you been able to work on that? So with my supplier, it’s typically a common for me to find a great product and it’s not replenishable, so I’ll buy 500 units and that’s probably the only 500 units I’ll ever get and it’s onto the next product. Um, which isn’t the best model in the world, but the margins are unbelievably ridiculous. It’s, um, you know, it’s like 200 plus percent. So, you know, that’s why I don’t mind the, the effort that it takes to prep the product. That’s why I don’t mind the fact that it’s not replenishable. Um, but the downside to that is I’ve kind of plateaued and that’s not a model that’s scalable and you plateaued with, with this kind of private, it’s just, is it because you can only get so much through your funnel or is it a cash flow issue or is it just because you’ve bought the, they only end up with [inaudible] lines and you’re buying all 12 lines as much that’ll sell on Amazon.
Scott: [41:36] So therefore you need to expand around that. Do you get what? I’m going to diversify so steep. I don’t have the option to go wide. And so, you know, what that means is some products I buy buy and it’s a two month supply of the products. I’m out 12 plus months. Um, you know, some have an incredible margin of 400 percent, some have a margin of 150 and the average at the end of the day is a little over 200, 250. Um, but what I do need to get into, and actually I did very, very well in 16 and did well in 17, but my sales were down five percent from 16 to 17. Um, so at the end of the year I decided to, um, hire a consulting company to help me just gain a different perspective on the business and, you know, make some decisions on, you know, do I continue with what I’m doing, do I supplement it with um, you know, a whole different category, you know, get out of health and personal care and get into something else.
Scott: [42:30] And, uh, that’s what I’m actually in the process of doing now. I’m now I’m expanding into a whole different category and that does present a pretty big challenge for me because the product will be purchasing now is about 20 times more per unit than the product and caring. And I’ve got two part time employees. My very good friend son, and that sounds best friend working for me. I’m with my current budget. I have to lay off one employee and cut the hours of, you know, that the employee that was, uh, that started with me first, which was a tough decision in one of the reasons why it’s taken me from January until now to make the decision to move into this other category or to expand into, um, so after a lot of consideration and then it just, you know, my business comes first and I have to do what’s best for my business, but I also have a conscience and so, you know, I had another Aha moment like switching the store over to, to, you know, warehouse or prep space.
Scott: [43:26] So I’ve got the space and I’m not going to have the volume of product for these guys to prep, but I still want to give them the hours. And so I’m actually going to expand, um, a very limited basis to offer prep services for third party sellers. You know, so it’s, it’s very, very new and I haven’t worked out the logistics, but that’s where I’m going with it. And you know, the thought behind it was I’ve got the space, I’ve got the manpower. I’ve got the, you know, the tools, the infrastructure, I’m in New Jersey and if you sell shoes and you live in a state that has sales tax, when I’m going to charge you to prep a product, if you’re saving a percent sales tax to have it shipped. To me, there’s a benefit there are um, you know, not a tax guy. And I don’t know how that all works out, but, um, you know, there’s, I think there’s a lot of opportunity there and you know, my goal is to, uh, by the end of this month have, you know, solid business plan in place for this.
Scott: [44:20] And I think our capacity would only be a couple of clients anyway. But yeah, just, just so I can continue to keep these employees who do a great job for me there, they’re thorough, they’re diligent, they come in, they literally just bury themselves in their work for the, the three hours a day that they’re there. And I limited it to three hours because prepping is, you know, is tedious, monotonous. And I think that if you spend more than three hours, you kind of lose the, um, you get sloppy level of quality. And I just, with Amazon, you cannot do that. I can have one product go in that’s not perfect. Um, and so for that reason, that’s set of expanding the hours of one employer brought in the second one and they just, they both work three hours a shift. And, and that’s uh, that’s why I haven’t heard this.
Stephen: [45:02] Are you walking away from the other business or are you adding on to it from the health and beauty businesses? Um, I’m still going to do that, but I’m walking away from it for the next couple of months while I scaled the new category I’m going into. I’m only because I’m thinking I think for six months and I still have sales and just it’ll be good cause you, it sounds to me like you’re building on something that’s working and um, I’m glad to hear that you’re not avoiding that or leaving it unless it was, unless it ran its course and it doesn’t sound like it did. So. Absolutely not
Scott: [45:33] the category. I just don’t see a way to scale the sales. I think that my sales kind of plateaued out and I’ve done as much as I could and leverage as much as I could, but it’s time to move on to, you know, much higher price points. Um, so the margins are going to be a lot lower, but it’s more dollars per sale.
Stephen: [45:50] So if you sell something for $10 and you make $4 to 40 percent, wow, it’s amazing. But it’s four bucks. I sell something for 65 and you make 20. Yeah, it’s 20 bucks. That’s just the same amount of work generally. Generally within reason. So when you think about the skill sets that you have, what I mean cause you describe processes and when you see the pictures you’ll understand that he’s serious about these processes. I mean this is real powerful stuff. What, what skill sets shine out for you, um, that aren’t, that are, that are not inherent meaning that you had to learn and you have to kind of push your way through. Because I think there’s a bunch of people saying, well this would be great, but I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this. What do you have to kind of force yourself to do, um, that’s helped you that you think others might benefit from?
Scott: [46:44] I think an absolute is having a plan and having a system in place. So there’s a specific workflow from, for example, when I get a shipment of five skids, how do I deal with 11,000 units that are not case pack? It’s a mess. You know, you’ve, you’ve got a box with 30 different skews and they’re just kinda thrown in there, you know, to have this, three of that. How do you sort through, how do you receive it, how do you inventory? And that’s been part of the trial and error over the last couple of years to get to the workflow, um, that I have now. But it’s, you have to be super organized and keep records of everything, you know, take the time to inventory, take the time with the kind of product that I purchase. It’s important and critical that you do that. And just have a workflow that’s as efficient as you can possibly get it documented.
Scott: [47:32] Everything’s documented processes. So back to the standard operating procedures and I spoke about that. So that’s a really big deal. Was that a turning point in your business or did you start your business with that from day one? Even when it was just, you know, I was, I was a disaster when I first started. This was the turning point. Then by putting these in place, kind of forcing, if you’re going to hire somebody, you got to have the tools to train them because I’m thinking of how you got, how that the business just turned because it sounds like it was, like you said, ebb and flow and then boom, magically things aligned. It was manageable when I started because I wasn’t doing a lot of volume. And so you, you have to adapt as the volume increases. You have to do things differently and you get to the point where you can’t do everything yourself.
Scott: [48:17] Um, you leverage other people and you know, I can pay someone what I pay them per hour to prep and this way I can focus my energies on going through manifests and making, buying decisions and um, you know, wholesale lists and just bringing in more product and doing the research which is what I’m good at and you know, that’s the most efficient use of my time as opposed to sitting there and you know, scanning and labeling and, and, you know, doing the prep work and who knows where it’ll be a year from now. I mean, I may get to the point where I’m going to have to bring somebody else in to do the analysis or you know, getting into Ra a little bit. So I’ll definitely look to bring someone else once, once I’ve scaled that up. Um, but I think it’s important to your I’m not superman, I can’t do everything and I understand that.
Scott: [49:02] And so I take what I’m best at and that’s what I focused on and you know, just kind of outsource the rest when, when I’m able to do that. You also mentioned about hiring a consulting company, kind of help you, guide you through, um, how were your expectations versus what you received? I mean, when I’m thinking about bringing on a consultant, I think about, you know, well these are the things that are broken in my business and most of the time they say, yeah, you’re right, but those are symptoms of a much bigger problem and you’ve got to fix this lance this boil first, get that dealt with, then we can move on to this next thing because those are, you know, there’s, there’s the real infection. And has that been like that for you? It has been, um, you know, there’s a lot of companies and services that are out there for Amazon sellers that aren’t always what they represent themselves to be.
Scott: [49:54] So with the cost of hiring this company, I was a little little nervous. I mean, I knew they were the real deal, but still wasn’t sure how much value I was gonna get out of it. But at that point, my sales are down five per setup, you know, I need somebody else to take a look at this and you know, somebody that’s got the experience that’s got the wider base of clients that see everything that’s in every situation that sees what works for one client and, you know, based on what I’m doing in my personality and my mindset and my job and my life and everything. Um, you know, so I opened myself up to them and here’s, this is my personal life, this is my business life, this is my, my business and inventory. And um, they basically gave me direction and it was very specific and it was very good direction, but I didn’t follow it.
Scott: [50:39] Um, until now, well again, it was the whole, I’ve got these employees and I know that, but I just had a conscience. I can’t, I can’t go down that road. And I finally decided I just had to have a solution to that problem before I could expand out. And you know, when the, when the Aha moment of our prep for third party sellers, I mean, that’s not my core business. And I don’t want it to be, I just want to have the ability to make sure that I can sustain, um, you know, the, the hours for the folks who. I mean, it sounds to me like even if it, you know, in the long run you might turn that off. You might say, Hey, you know what, let’s ride that, that course is run. I don’t want to do it. Now I have my poc process in place.
Scott: [51:20] In the meantime, you’re, you’re kind of helping smooth, uh, you know, we’re kind of back to the beginning of the conversation where it’s basically you’re finding a way to smooth out the business when it ebbs and flows, right? Because it’s going to ebb and flow. Scott, no matter what, in any year from now, I’m going to be facing a whole different issue. I don’t know what it is, but I’m going to tell you that right now, my business will not be the same a year from now as it is today, in the year after that, the same thing and panic, you know, that’s life, you know, you know, that’s something you just, you, you take situations, you adapt, things change and you, you either adapt with them or where you fail. And you know, that’s just, I mean, for me, that’s always been a way of life. Um, you know, the mortgage business isn’t what it was when I started in 2001, you know, there wasn’t google, you know, so it’s amazing how many people don’t know the address of the company they work for and I need that for the loan application.
Scott: [52:09] Now I just google it, OK, of the company, boom, done seconds. Whereas before it was, uh, it was much more of a process, you know, so that business has changed and for the better, you know, just like e-commerce, Amazon wasn’t what it was. Um, so they’ve adapted and that’s, you know, that’s how they’ve been able to grow in any successful business, has to, has to just go with the flow. I mean, Amazon toward a fulfillment center two years ago. I’m actually one of the ones that most of my product gets shipped hill and I was introduced to the manager of the facility and the person giving the tour said Scott, um, he’s, he’s a third party seller, shakes my hand. He goes, we love third party sellers. You guys are our bread and butter and you know, you hear a lot of our Amazon third-party sellers.
Scott: [52:52] They’re not cutting us out. I mean, based on, you know, the reception I got and um, you know, it’s, I’ve kind of lost my train of thought that you’re needed. You fill in. I mean, think about it. They can’t handle all this stuff. I mean, it’s just overwhelming what we all bring to the market. Uh, you know, was it a think of the millions of sellers bringing their ideas to the market? That’s ideas they don’t have to think of. That’s the beauty of it. It’s this giant think tank, always improving, always trying to outdo each other, always trying to be sharper, not a bad business model that they have going for them. Now. It’s not, it’s not. I, uh, it still amazes me to this day. I mean, I, it’s, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I mean, that’s, that’s more or less what my wife told me when I played at a podcast for the first time about Connie. Let me just give it a try. And here we are and we’d scratch our heads like, really this is.
Stephen: [53:42] But when you think of your friends, it’s. I think you’re good example. When you describe what you do on the side hustle, I mean, do they look at you like deer in the headlights? Like what do you mean? There’s other people selling on Amazon? They have no clue.
Scott: [53:56] That’s the general reaction. Um, you know, with anyone I don’t, I don’t really understand. And it’s, I think from the outside looking in a lot of folks see what I do on Amazon as being, um, you know, like breaking bad when a midlife crisis sold. She sold an item on Ebay and episode and they think that’s what online selling is. You’re selling three units a week out of your garage and it’s, you know, that they don’t realize that it is a big business and it’s, um, you know, it, you do have to run it like a business, um, you know, from, from accounting all the way to, to purchasing. I mean, it’s, but no, they don’t get it.
Stephen: [54:37] You’re now main street USA. You really are. You’re and always describes it this way, that it’s the family farm. That’s really what we’re creating these small family farms all around the United States, around the world. But I mean, in our world, in the United States, all these small family farms and yes, they’re competing each other, right where you just have milk or soy and corn or what have you. Yet we can still coexist because the world needs more much more than we could produce. Um, so let’s, let’s bring it to a close. I was thinking about, um, this pivot, this adjustment this evening out, that you’ve been able to do so many different times. That is absolutely a skill set. I’m the. I wish I could put a word on it, like I always call myself a notice or I’m a noticer. Somebody just called me that this weekend. Yeah, I don’t miss much.
Stephen: [55:25] I notice things. I’m going to take action. I’m just saying I notice things, but you’re clearly a adjuster. I’m going to call it you an adjuster. I’m, that’s a very big skill set. What’s your advice? Because you’ve met a whole bunch of people and when you hear them describe some of their problems, you’re saying to yourself, man, just, you know, in your mind you’re probably more polite. Um, I’m only shy on the inside. Not on the outside. I’d say something but, but you’re more polite, more reserved, and you would just, you know, you think to yourself, why don’t they just do this or why don’t they? What’s your advice to the people that get stuck because you’ve been stuck and you’ve hired a consultant to help you get past that point because you said, hey, I need to take some advice. And he didn’t because you were smarter and then all of a sudden you realize, no, wait, let me go take the advice and now it’s magically working out. Right? Because they’re not as emotionally attached. What’s your advice for getting them past that point of stuck?
Scott: [56:18] I think it’s always good to get a second opinion from someone that’s not close to the business. So if you’re not able to sort through it yourself and figure it out because of, as you just said, the emotional attachment or just tunnel vision, you know, a lot of times you’re, you’re so close to something and you’ve been doing it for so long. It’s nice to have a fresh perspective. And um, that’s one of the benefits I’ve gotten from the consulting company and also just from networking with other third party sellers. You know, it’s incredible how generous people are. Um, there’s so many groups, there’s so many, you know, so you can listen to podcasts like yours, you can go into various facebook groups and there certainly are many of them out there and throughout my career before the consulting company and now they’re a great resource for all my questions, but prior to that, any question I would have and I’m not proud when it comes to that, I, I, I’m OK with going out there and saying, listen, I don’t know the answer to this.
Scott: [57:08] And there’s other sellers that are experienced that have been doing this longer than I have or may have faced the same situation. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel. I’m, if I can’t figure it out, I’ll pose the question. And you know, it’s a very, very generous community. Folks. Generally speaking, have, um, you know, positive solutions or recommendations. You know, there’s a few bad apples out there, but I’d say, you know, 90 percent of the folks that are out in groups, or are they there? There is no ulterior motive. They, they want to see us succeed, which blows my mind because I’m your competition and you want to help me. Um, but it’s, yeah, ask for help.
Stephen: [57:46] I think it’s sound advice and you know, in the mortgage industry, are they this friendly in this giving no chance, not even close, but I think there’s a, there’s a healthy competition. I think they understand that you could, you could sell in the Hilton, but um, I don’t know how many, what’s the, how many hundreds of thousands of skews are there in health and beauty. Right? Right. And so you both can be in there. Now if you’re selling the boats selling crest, toothpaste, well that might be the issue. But then again, how many versions of crest tooth paste it. Right? So, I mean, I think that’s a perspective. I think we’re back to perspective. Oh Scott, you are a perspective, a man of perspective. That’s the way I’m going to describe you. Dude, I really appreciate you taking the time. I know you’re very, very busy. Lord knows we all now know how busy you are.
Stephen: [58:34] I encourage others to go out and look at my website and see this picture because it will blow your mind how organized and I also have Scott’s contact information out on the website and I wish you nothing but success. Thank you so much. Thank you so much Steve. It was great speaking with you and I sincerely appreciate the opportunity and what a great guy. Just a great story. I love the fact that he figured out the way to take and maximize the space in that um, location and these habits. Such a great opportunity. Now he’s maximizing what he can have his staff do by, you know, finding another way to help supplement them. At least for now. Again, you know, this is what it takes. This is your competition and just you can hear he’s just a great guy who’s doing the work and I think that’s the lesson you gotta do the work. Not Easy, but do the work up front and then you get the rewards ongoing and Scotch. Just a great example of somebody who’s not letting the grass grow under his feet. And I think that’s something we can all take away from this conversation. E-Commerce, momentum.com, e-commerce, momentum to take care.
Cool voice guy: [59:40] Thanks for listening to the e-commerce momentum podcast. All the links mentioned today can be found at e commerce. Momentum dot-com. Under this episode number, please remember to subscribe and like us on itunes.
