My Amazon Guy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Send us Fan MailYou’re building a business. But why? Is it to flip it and sell it later? Or are you building to hold it forever? For some of you - you’re building an Amazon business to become an entrepreneur and not work for “The Man.” Whatever your reason, this will be an authentic reveal of my personal journey on this question as a Founder and sole owner of the My Amazon Guy agency. My name is Steven Pope and this is the My Amazon Guy podcast.I’ve been approached by 3 organizations who were interested in buying my agency. None of these inquiries got serious. But it forced a major transformation in me personally. For starters If I was going to sell My Amazon Guy, how much would I sell it for? How much is my company currently worth? Do I want out or do I want to run my agency for the rest of my life? It turns out most of the organizations looking to buy me just wanted a cheap acquisition. They weren’t interested in what our team had built. They just wanted to acquire more clients, take our knowledge, but offer limited value in exchange for it. In the past month I’ve consumed dozens of hours of Gary Vee. I really respect this man. I love his message. I dislike his delivery - I wish he could stop with the F bombs so I can play his videos in front of my wife and kids without cringing. But he’s authentic. When Gary Vee was first starting his agency he got some advice. That his average tenured employee would work for him for 18-24 months. He was thinking to himself, maybe at YOUR agency they stay 18-24 months. But at MY agency they are going to stay 5 years. 10 years. Maybe even 15 years. This interaction blew me away. In 2 years of owning My Amazon Guy, I had never once considered that anyone was going to work for me this long. I’ll tell you why. No company I’ve ever worked for asked me to do it. No company I’ve ever worked for asked what it would take to get me to stay for 5 years let alone 2.I worked for so many failed startups. 4 jobs in a row I worked for a company and my boss quit within the first 3 months. Like no joke guys, that’s how lucky I was. I turned that split suit 2/7 hand (Texas Hold’em reference) and I found two pair on the flop or by the river. I found my resolution recently. I am building my agency to hold it. And for the first time I’m trying to figure out how to truly invest in my people.I onboarded Wonderlic Won score to test candidates.Gave all employees a DISC profile test. And came up with a semi scientific profile of who I want to hire DISC wise.I took the Culture Index and just this week gave all my staff the same survey.I have started to ask my employees for the first time. What would it take to get you to stay 5, 10, 15 years? They don’t have an answer yet. And nor do I. We don’t know what we don’t know. I can’t tell you how often I feel like I am “faking it until I make it.” I run a wildly successful agency. What we do works. We are literally helping 70+ clients grow sales on Amazon each month. And the feedback we get is overwhelmingly positive. Leads are coming in quickly. And I can honestly look them in the face and say “We grow sales. It works. Here’s how we do it. Here’s some free advice on our first 15 minute call to grow your sales whether you hire me or not. And I have 300 tutorial videos on YouTube explaining how to tackle hundreds of problems nobody else is even speaking about.” Can you find that anywhere else? No you can’t.Fishy Fishy Fishy. My 1 year old daughter's first non parental word made me cry last night.Support the show

Send us Fan MailThe Good Better Best product strategy helps improve conversion rates, traffic, margins, and more. It's a core ecommerce strategy - Steven Pope.How Marcus Lemonis Saved a Dying Business From Its Feuding FoundersHere's how the host of CNBC's The Profit, got failing drums company SJC back in the black" Diversify the product line. Instead of making custom drums that only a certain group of consumers could afford, Lemonis implemented a good-better-best product line with three price points: $895, $1,700 and $6,000. "We know the product you make today is awesome, but we're leaving a segment of the market to fend for themselves," Lemonis said during the episode."https://www.inc.com/graham-winfrey/how-marcus-lemonis-saved-a-dying-business-from-its-feuding-founders.html"Capitalizing on G-B-BG-B-B’s benefits come from three approaches: offensive plays aimed at generating new growth and revenue, defensive plays meant to counter or forestall moves by competitors, and behavioral plays that draw on principles of consumer psychology, whatever the competitive landscape.Going on the offensive.Offensive plays can help brands grow revenue in at least four ways. First, companies can dramatically lift margins by creating a high-end Best version that persuades existing customers to spend more or attracts a new cohort of high spenders. In my work with companies, managers consistently underestimate customers’ willingness to spend and the number of customers who might upgrade to Best, even at prices that were previously unthinkable. Across a range of industries, it’s not unusual to observe up to 40% of sales landing on the Best option."https://hbr.org/2018/09/the-good-better-best-approach-to-pricing#:~:text=A%20multitiered%20offering%20can%20use,by%20customers%20who%20want%20more.Support the show

Send us Fan MailThere’s a battle between Digital native brands and national retailers with brick and mortar presence. And while there’s room for both to sell on the platform, today we will look at how both digital native brands and brick & mortar brands need to compete with each other, and where their weaknesses and strengths lie. I’m now joined by James Thomson, Buy Box Experts & PROSPER Show Founder, as well as author of The Amazon Marketplace Dilemma. It’s a pleasure to have you on the show, thanks for joining me.For my listeners today whether you’re a digital brand or brick and mortar, there’s going to be some good information. James - you have a Ph.D. in Marketing, so I’m excited to tap into your knowledge and skillset on our podcast today. Let’s first define what a digital native brand is vs a brick and mortar, James how you would you define it?Eating your lunch. Market place pressures What do digital native brands need to do today to compete?B2B B2CCostco vs KrogerWhat do brick and mortar brands struggle with?UNFI for retailTight control over branding/distribution/pricingFallout - What do digital native brands struggle with? Don’t setup proper infrastructureBuy a batch of stuff.Lay of the landHow deep is the lake, pollution?No ™, no GS1, patent. Other countries ™. Sell a batch of widgets. Nobody talks in business school about sourcingDistributor could sell product list.Agreement - Incentive to buying discount for larger quantities. How do you track. - Transparency programProduct development™ Resource - International IP attorneyOnline reseller policies MAP policy Unauthorized resellers. Are there areas private labelers have surpassed national retailers?Culture - top downSell sell sell to sell sell protectWho is going to represent the brand?Punish/fire the bad actors - even if known for 20 years. How long does this shift take?6-12 monthsSource root problem solving, no bandaid.First sale doctrine™ violation issues don’t workLevels of chaos.Other than COVID What’s different today than say 12 months ago? States collecting sales tax across country.3% compliance a few years ago. Compliance at a all time high.Protect IP, brand.You made a recent comment about Amazon’s culture and it was quoted in the Washinton Business Journal, quote: “Part of Amazon’s culture is to beg, borrow and steal resources from other teams because you’ve not been allocated those yourself. You’ve got to have meetings to convince others to be involved with your project.” - I’ve personally always felt like Amazon was a silo’d organization running around with its head cut off. Can you weigh in further on Amazon’s culture and future as an organization?Amazon hire Type A personality, responsible very specific things and go fast.Test ideas. Prove they work. Then go the resources to scale.Amazon corporate staff tripled since 2013.Collection billion dollar companies under one company name.Gaps occur. - Necessary evil. Growing so quickly so fast.Get Amazon consulting at www.myamazonguy.comSupport the show