Failure, Success, a Business in Your Pocket and New Books! Small Business Show episode 80

The Small business show, episode 80 for Wednesday, August 17, 2016. Greetings, folks, and welcome to the Small Business show. The show where we talk about all kinds of things of interest to, to small business owners and potentially future small business owners here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And in Lafayette, California, I'm Shannon Jean. How are you, Dave?

I'm good, man. You?

Yeah, I'm doing very well.

Yeah, yeah, Very, very well. As is typical, we, we're recording this right after we finished last week's interview with Greg Mercer from Jungle Scout because we always like to, we always are going to debrief about these interviews anyway, so we might as well just do them together.

Yeah, and we've had some, you know, some of our listeners ask, you know, for that and spend a little time talking about it. And so we thought we would do just that. And we've been doing that for a while and it's working out well.

Yeah, it's a good thing. Yeah. So, you know, I'm going to jump all around with, with this, but one of the things that I was really happy about with Greg was how, how eloquently he was able and efficiently he was able to speak about his path as a, you know, transitioning kind of from, from doing nothing on Amazon to doing wholesale to doing white label. And he basically gave us like a, you know, 10,000 foot view masterclass of what you do. And I swear, man, I've asked that question of so many people that have been on this show and no one has like articulated it as simply as he did. I felt like after hearing him, it was like, oh, I get it. I don't want to say that it's simple, but everything takes hard work. But I understand the process now, whereas previously I never did.

Yeah. And, and I think that, you know, Greg is a really good trainer, a very good communicator. And, and if you, if you go to jungle scout.com and you watch any of his webinars and videos, you'll see that and you can tell he's having a great time. And it was interesting that, that he said that that was one of the ways he measures success is being able to, you know, always be teaching and, and that, that feedback that he gets, which is awesome and, you know, you, you know it. So he's able to lay that, that out. And talking about the transition or the escape from employee.

Yeah, I love that.

The escape from being an employee to an employer.

Oh, gosh, I think I lost you, Shannon. So you're back, right?

Okay.

Great. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So the last thing we heard from you is you were talking about the escape from. Yeah, yeah.

And Greg, you know, he really put it into, I think, you know, great, you know, scenario of, you know, escaping from that corporate job that he just saw himself kind of, you know, not doing much and not fulfilling himself that much. And here he's, you know, he's diverged from the path quite a bit with the software. But, you know, he talked about, you know, he started small and doing some wholesaling. I realized that that wasn't the best market for me and it was all price driven. And so then he said, well, I'll learn about private labeling something. Well, you know, who knows how to do that stuff? You just have to teach yourself. And that's kind of what he did.

Yeah.

And then realized that, wow, you know, there are no tools out there to give me this data. And before the show, I talked to Greg a little bit and I mentioned another piece of software called Terapeak, which kind of does what Jungle Scout suite of products do or services on the ebay side. And so you can really draw data out and tease out what you're looking for in a similar way that, you know, Jungle Scout can tell you how things are selling on Amazon, which is very difficult to find otherwise.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Now, you know that that concept of escape really resonated with me. And I think. I think you have to be at that point in order to start your. Especially in order to leave essentially a guaranteed job. There's no guaranteed jobs. Right. But to leave a comfortable job, you have to be at that point where it truly feels like, oh, if I can engineer this escape, you know, then, you know, I'll have what I want. Because it's going to take a ton of work and a ton of effort. Far more than it would take to just keep rolling along with a comfortable job. And there's nothing wrong. I guess what I'm trying to say is there's nothing wrong with that. Unless you think there's something wrong with that. It has to be driven by you. Right. Don't worry. I mean, we talk about it here all the time, but we're talking about it from our perspective. I had to escape working for other people. And I'll be honest, there's been times, and maybe this is a whole other topic here, but. But there's been times running my own businesses where I felt like that same thing. Like, crap, I need to escape this. Like, I get into a routine and that's usually when I Start something else on top of it. And for me, that's enough of an escape to make me feel refreshed about the stuff that I already have going. Well.

And it, you know. Yeah. It kind of energizes you, Right?

Well, that's it. Yeah. I don't like being in a rut, I guess, is what it is. But, you know, it's easy to fall into, especially once you get a little bit of stability and you get comfortable. That's the key. Right. You get comfortable, but then life happens and you have kids and things like that. It's easy to let the business sort of go on autopilot. But it eats at me, and so I need that escape. Don't think that just leaving your corporate job will scratch that itch for good. You might notice it coming up again and again and again.

That's right. I would say that's probably more. More common than, you know, than not, because there's a reason in the first place where you were restless, so to speak, and wanted to go out. And after you get this business going and doing different things and you have some success, you might find yourself being restless again.

Yep.

And that's okay. And hopefully what you do, you know, what I've done is always tried to surround myself with really good people.

Yep.

And we've done it, Dave, with our publishing business and stuff. We're like, hey, you know, we're not going to spend all day on this no more. It's now up and running and you get. Bring someone else in that can manage that. And maybe, you know, maybe you don't take any money out of the deal anymore for a while until you try and reach that another level and you go, great, now I can pull a little bit here, a little bit there, but. But that is a. I think that's something to be embraced instead of be, you know, be. Be worried about or. No, you people on the outside, often, it can often be perceived as flakiness.

Right. Yeah. If you think, hey, don't buy into that now. Yeah.

Don't buy into it and that. Because that's a. That is.

That's dangerous. Yeah.

It's an employee's. It's a habitual employee's way of kind of tearing you down, in my opinion.

Yeah.

And, you know, if you've got some success. Yeah. You can't hop around like crazy and never achieve anything. But if you've had some and then you continue to build on that to do different things, more power to you.

Yep.

You know.

Yeah, I, I would. I That's, that's a great piece of advice. Yeah. Because you're going to have a lot of people in, in various ways communicate to you either, you know, intentionally or not that you're a little flaky.

Yeah.

And, and it's just because you've got a million things going on. So. Yeah, ignore the flaky comments. Now, if somebody tells you you're incompetent, that's different. Well, no, I mean, like, like, listen for that, because you can't be an expert at everything that you need to get done. So you. And sometimes that person telling you you're incompetent is you. Right. Just like, like Greg. Right. He knew he didn't know how to do this stuff. That's actually okay. Right. You know, don't, don't get defensive when you realize you have this weakness. Embrace it either by training yourself, which is what Greg did and what most small business owners have to do at the start, or if you can afford to do it, hire someone that already has that expertise and you know, that you can trust and bring in and, and do that for you. So, you know, there's the flakiness, dismiss incompetence, you know, engage that. Yeah.

Looking how to minimize.

Yeah, look at it. I mean, you know, if you hear somebody telling you you're incompetent and you don't believe them, well, then just tell them, you know, whatever. But sure. Yeah.

Yeah. And another thing I think that is, is worth pointing out is, you know, Greg made a comment when he was leaving his engineering or he wanted to leave. He worked out a deal with his wife that said, hey, I'm going to start this business and once it can replace my income, then we'll launch it, you know, full time.

Yeah.

And, you know, I'm just a huge believer in having that support structure around you and having somebody, you know, in your court that can help you with all these things and back you up when you feel you really need it emotionally, maybe financially. You know, all those things are really powerful to help you, you know, break through that barrier to become, you know, successful in your business. So, you know, I think that's a great path that he got on. It's like, okay, if, if I can't replace this income, then it's not to say he wouldn't still succeed it, but he probably wouldn't need to have changed the way he was doing it.

Yeah, yeah, you've got to have some accountability or a metric. But the problem is if it's just you, it's not impossible. But it is hard to hold yourself to any sort of metrics like that because you can, like I said, you can convince yourself of anything, you know, but having somebody else, just like you said, a support group, and it's, you know, if you're not married or your spouse is not the right person, find a friend, you know, just, you know, someone that you can talk this stuff out with and confide in them, you know, and they're going to need to hear about your failures and all of that. So, you know, pick the right person. But yeah, you've got to have somebody that you can talk it out with. I often find talking things out, I don't necessarily even need to hear what the other person is going to tell me. Just the act of talking it out makes the answer really obvious. You know, something that maybe I'd been, you know, subconsciously avoiding you explain it to somebody else and you're like, oh, wait a minute, I know the answer. Nevermind. Right, right.

Well, yeah, you've kind of worked through it while you've been discussing, while you've.

Been talking it through.

Yeah. And that's a, you know, I really have enjoyed having partners that I've done that with and with our friends or my wife and even like we had Brian o' Connell on the show a few months ago from Maris Engineering, and he talked about, he went, he didn't have anybody like that, so he went and joined a paid group that could really help him get through some hard times that he was going through and hold him accountable.

And it sounded like, I mean, they, they. There were some key successes in his business that would not have happened were he not engaged with that group. But again, you don't need that group necessarily. But it doesn't mean it's a bad thing.

Yeah, yeah. It basically really pushed him to hire a CFO that he felt he could not, could not afford, but it turned out that he couldn't afford not to have somebody like.

Yeah, yeah, his business wasn't going to grow until he had that person. But it's a hard, it's hard when it's just you, you know, it's easier. I mean, think about it, right? If you've got, you know, peer pressure is a, is a real thing. If you're the only one that is involved in this decision, you're going to be the final decision maker. Right. Regardless. But if there's no one else involved, you can spin your wheels forever. Like, should I, shouldn't I, should I, shouldn't I. You talk it out with somebody else. They don't want to spin their wheels forever. And also, they don't necessarily have, you know, a stake in the game. So they, they just tell you, well, if I do that, you know. Oh, really?

Yeah, that's right. And, and so often.

All right, I'll do it, you know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, so often, like, you know, Greg was saying, you know, just in the beginning, he's just out there googling, figuring this stuff out to do, and, you know, you're reinventing it, you know, to suit what you want to do, because somebody else has obviously done this before. But, but people don't share that data or often they don't share what they're going through with your business and the struggles and, you know, even, like, that's why we're here. Yeah, you got it. It's to, to let you know that, you know, you're not alone out there, that we've all been through these things, we've all made these mistakes and worse ones than, you know, you will probably ever make. And, you know, you just have to, you have to power through it and that, you know, I often think, you know, there really is, as a business owner, you've got to find, you know, I keep coming back to this building your success list, but it's true, because it's. You don't get people patting you on the back that much. Your, your, Your job as the owner of the business is to be, you know, patting everybody else on the back, walking around. Nice job. Hey, this looks great. You did a good job with this customer. You, you know, you built this thing. That's great. But at the end of the day, you're often sitting there by yourself and, you know, you, you have to find what it is that helps motivate you. And, you know, like in Greg's case, it was teaching, you know, and sharing that information. And, you know, I commend him for realizing that at a young age that, hey, you know, once I've kind of reached a certain level of financial success where I'm not worried about, you know, where I'm going to live and this kind of thing and how to pay the bills, what is it that drives you? Because it's not money in my opinion either. It really is not no money.

Money gets you. I mean, you need some money to keep things going, but that's about it. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And, you know, that success list, you turned me onto this. I didn't realize how important this was until you mentioned it. It was, you know, Over a year ago. As someone who's going to start a business, you are likely not someone that needs regular pats on the back or validation. Right. I mean, it's just typically not the makeup of someone who goes out and starts a business. And if it is, oftentimes those people fail. So, I mean, and I don't mean to scare anyone, but if you just need someone all day long to tell you how great you're doing, you're the wrong person to start a business, in my opinion. But we all actually do need some level of that. And if you don't intentionally create it for yourself, you're gonna miss out on the benefits of that. That success list. It really can make a huge difference for you, and I highly recommend it. Cause you probably think you hear us, and you're like, yeah, I don't need that. I'm good. You know, and you are good. That's the point. But you're better if you just take a minute and, you know, use that to energize you. You don't want to rest on your laurels. That's bad. Yeah.

Yeah. But you want to be able to look back and see, oh, I got this done. I got this done. Great. Look, these are the building blocks.

I can do things.

Yeah. This is the foundation of what I've done. This has worked, you know, at whatever level that you want it to be at. And maybe it's not even a physical list. Maybe it's just in your. Sure. But you need, you know, it. I mean, it's worked for me for, you know, years and years and years, because I'm constantly questioning myself.

Yeah.

Always, always, always. I mean, it's just, hey, did I screw that up? Oh, what mistake did I make here? You know, and it's kind of guided me, but at the same time, you don't want to question yourself so much that you never move forward, which I think happens a lot.

Yeah.

So you got to be on the flip side, because we all listen to our inner judge.

Right.

It's telling us certain things. So you have to also tell your. Your inner judge, you know, your inner voice, whatever it is. Oh, check this out. Look, I started this, and this happened, and this worked great. And I did this, and. And I. I think it works, you know, really well. We talk a lot about Scott Adams book, and it's kind of along that don't focus on goals, focus on systems.

Yep.

And. And that's a system of. Of telling yourself, you know, hey, I. I'm a success, man. Whether it's you know, you have very small successes that you got out of bed and made one phone call that day or, you know, whatever it is, whatever it is that motivates you and keeps you going. That is a very important thing to do. And, and talking about books, I, I want to mention a book. We'll put a link up on the the show notes today, a book called Boss Life. It's by an author, Paul Downs, who's actually a small business owner, not really an author, but it's Boss Life. Surviving my own small business. And I'm about halfway through it. And I have never read a more transparent. It's kind of like a journal, more than a story of, hey, this is how I made it and this is successful. This guy is day in, day out, and he's just a regular guy like us. And he became the small business blogger for the New York Times and he stumbled on this opportunity and so then he realized, wow, you know, there's a lot of people out there like this. So, you know, it is such. And I've reached out to him and I'm going to try to get him to come on the show and talk about it because I think it's really important. And I read this, I'm like, man, this could be my story here. He's talking about, oh, I can't take a paycheck this time. And oh, I do this and I look at this and I, you know, I don't want to fire anybody. And why, why did. I should have fired that guy six months ago. And all these kinds of things about surviving week to week, how much cash he has in the bank and, you know, doubting himself and all these kinds of things. And it's a, it's not a, A motivational book per se, but after it's, it's.

It's group therapy.

Yes, absolutely.

Misery. It's a Misery Loves Company book.

Totally. After being in business for so long long. Like, I wouldn't read this as your first business book. I mean, I think your first business book should be the E. Myth. We've talked about that before as well, because it, it really talks about the myth of the entrepreneur and how it's not really the way you think about it. From the. An employee who thinks I'm gonna own a business and this is how it's going to work.

Sure.

It's very different. And it helps you set up systems and processes. And, you know, that's where I come up with the org chart. You know, creating an org chart, even if you're the only person working for the company. Just put your name in every single function.

Yeah.

And, and over time, you're, you're, you know, you develop a system to replace your name in each of those areas. It'll help you tremendously.

Yeah.

But anyway, we'll, we'll, I'll keep you posted on this as I finish this book up. We'll see if we can get Paul Downs on the show to talk about.

Great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think it'd be good.

Yeah.

And hey, we, we got a few minutes. I thought I'd do a quick update on the, the social media business. That experiment that I launched, I guess about a month ago maybe.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Five weeks ago. So, you know, it's going pretty well. We've gotten, Let me pull this up and see where we're at today. I think we just went over 6,000 followers last night.

Okay.

And we're definitely making sales every single day. Lots of exposure and different platforms. We've focused on Poshmark to get rolling.

Right.

See how that started. And I say we very liberally because it's me.

No, I get it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I always say we. I don't know why.

Anyway, well, there's, there, there's a lesson right there. Right. I mean, saying we suddenly gives you a bigger presence, perceived presence.

That's true.

That's true. And that's a learned thing. You, you, you know, you do it automatically and you should. But that's a learned thing for sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, it's been great and I've learned a tremendous amount of, you know, how to position ourselves on this platform. There's another platform called Tradez, which we've done really well on as well. That's exactly like a flip side. It's not about followers. It's. It's more about search terms and keywords and the algorithm there. Tradesy's search engine, I think, is much better than Poshmark. And we come up in the Google results now for specific models. I know, I've been researching and see us pop up and rarely will we pop up with a Poshmark link, but often we will pop up with a tradesy.com link. And again, the goal of this experiment was to start a brand new business you mentioned earlier. You know, energize, add some energy to you keep things going. I get bored, you know, sitting around at night, so I do this whole thing. And, and the goal is to run.

It entirely from your phone.

You said entirely from my Phone, and I would say I'm about 90% there. There are some things that are really just still so much easier to do by, you know, jumping on my MacBook Pro. But for the most part, all communication, sales aspect, everything's on the phone. Marketing, you know, works out really well. Our next big push is with Instagram, and we're now got to get out and get our Instagram followers so we can start pushing people. The nice thing about Tradesy is they only take. They take 9%. Actually, they take about 12% when you transfer your money out of their platform.

Okay. But there's less than half of what you're paying on the other one. Right?

Well, it's about. Yeah, well, Poshmark is 20%.

Oh, okay.

All right. So, you know, that's a significant. And I've been running these on spreadsheets, and, you know, what I'm looking for instead of a giant profit margin is I'm really looking at what is my return on investment. And I mentioned earlier, I spent about $15,000 buying some product. And we're focusing on handbags for this business. And it's worked out great. Lot of interest, lots of customer interaction, which I love and motivates me, like Greg was talking about. So we've had a typical ROI of between 25 and 30%.

Okay, great.

I'm very happy. Yeah, I'm really happy with it. That's after the fees. That's net of fees. But I can't help every time I look at that fee column to see that 20% going, wow, man, how do I get that back? You know, And.

And you know how you get it back? You start your own Poshmark.

Yeah, well, that's right. That's right. And. But, you know, it's a tremendous platform, and I have a lot of respect for them.

No, no, no.

You know, that kind. Yeah, yeah. But you're right. You got to drive. You. You drive your traffic to your own site, Right. And, you know, you pay your 3% for a credit card transaction, but, well.

And then you have other people on your site, and now you're making 20% from their sales or maybe only 10% because you don't want to screw them like Poshmark screwed you. You know, there you go.

That's right.

That's right.

But, you know, so having a great time. I'm really enjoying it. We're finding some new suppliers. It's amazing once you get into the market, you know, people always ask me, it's. It's a common, common question. You Know, where do you buy your stuff? Where do you buy your stuff? And of course, I can't tell them that because that's one of our, you know, trade secrets. Of course.

But. But it. I mean, you could. I'm not suggesting that you tell people where you buy your stuff, but I feel like even if you did, these people don't want to buy in bulk, and they also don't have the relationship. I mean, it would. I don't. I. I don't know the relationship there. But my guess is it probably wouldn't hurt you as bad as you think it might.

Yeah, maybe I'm just very paranoid about it.

Well, you want to protect that. Yeah, I get it. I'm just saying I think these people are asking a question, and they want to know the tip of the iceberg of the answer and not the whole thing.

Yeah. And I will tell you, you got to just get into Google and you got to start searching and you got to go on these platforms. And this is where I was going with this. Once you start to have. Let's say you want to sell shoelaces. And I know that sounds funny, but you remember one of the first guys we had on here is a shoelace guy, a ton of money, making a ton of money, you know, selling shoelaces, which I just. I have a ton of respect, you know, for that. So you, you know, you start looking, okay, where do. Where can I acquire this? What do I do? Do I have to, you know, do I source them in Asia? Do I get it here? Do I. For me, you know, I've always tried to buy stuff everybody else ignores, which are maybe problem items or excess items, you know, that kind of stuff. So. But once you find a. Again, it could be a very small connection and you get out on the platform, you'll be amazed at how many people will start approaching you. So these folks will see you up there and say, look, this guy's having success selling whatever. Shoelaces.

He should sell our stuff.

Maybe he can help me sell my shoelaces. We've got some excess here. Or, gee, he's selling shoelaces. But what would he sell? Shoes. So maybe I'll send him an email and say, hey, I know you're not in this market, but would you like to be? Which is what has happened to me over and over and over. You know, there is a. Yeah, there is a set of stepping stones between selling ipods when I, you know, when those were the hottest item all the way to selling handbags. And some, you Know, it starts at one little spot and it just keeps going down the rabbit hole and you meet more and more.

Yeah, of course.

And the key is just start, go find somebody on ebay that's selling that stuff that maybe isn't on, you know, Poshmark or Tradesy or Amazon and go, well, hey, I'd like to sell your product up on this platform or just get your feet wet.

Yeah.

And keep moving forward. So anyway, that's the update. Just thought I'd, you know, give you guys little. Little, you know, updates here and there. And I'm going to keep moving forward. Just bought some more product yesterday, and that's killer Handbag kingpins.

Yeah, that's right.

I'm hoping that what I can do is eventually. Because I know what'll happen. I'll get bored with this, is that then I can pop somebody in to run this business. I'll manage the buying aspect of it, which I really like, and then let somebody else do all the other stuff, and then I will advise them and give them a piece of the profits so I can go on, do something else.

Off you go. Yeah, that's right. That's the way to do it. Yeah.

Awesome.

That's great, man. That's so good. So you're inventorying and shipping this stuff yourself at the moment.

Everything. Because I really like to get my hands around.

Yeah.

How it works. And it's, you know, it's low volume.

I get it. Yeah.

I'm thrilled to make 50 bucks, and I'm thrilled that that still makes me happy after all these years. And, you know, now it's like, great, I'm going to make 50 bucks, but I'm going to make it four times today. So I'm make 200 bucks. Well, that's $36,000 a year.

Right.

If you can net that. Okay. And then. Okay, how now how do I sell, you know, four more a day so I can make another 200 bucks and bring that in. That. That's how it always starts with me. Yep. And so I'm a real nuts and bolts guy. I need. I want to get my hands on. I want to see what, like, now I know a tremendous amount about how. How to. And how not to ship these bags so they don't get damaged and what to look for. And. And now I've met somebody that is a repair guy that can fix some of these blemishes and things on these bags. Because some of these bags are sure, you know, 500 to $2,000 and. And they have little little blemishes here and there. We need to get that stuff fixed. So, you know, we go out and it's just a whole new industry. That's what I really like, learning something brand new, you know, all the time.

Yeah, that's great, man. Very cool.

It's fun. It's fun.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I can tell you're having fun and that's, you know, that's what we're like we were saying before, you know, that embrace your inner escape artist. Right. You're going to be a career escape artist and so, you know, but it doesn't mean that you have to actually leave it behind. And that's the beauty. Oh, yeah, right.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Very cool.

Fun stuff. Feedbackus show. Co you can email us, you can find us on facebook@facebook.com businessshow co you.

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Take care, everybody.