E517: How Mike Is Squeezing Out As Much Profitability As Possible Before Selling

In today's episode, Dave and I discuss why there are so many sellers on Amazon losing money on each product? Because the lower prices do not make any sense at all. 

 

Today's topic is something that I've been thinking about for awhile: how many people are losing money selling on Amazon? 

 

You're probably thinking that this question sounds ridiculous, but if you think about the increasing amount of competition and the higher platform fees, there does seem to be some basis for the question. 

 

Which begs the question: how many people are losing money selling on Amazon? Are they selling old inventory that isn't profitable anymore? Is the competition everywhere at this point? 

 

I thought this would be a topic that my partner Dave could chime in on from his perspective as a Canadian Seller, and also as someone who frequently visits China. 

 

Timestamps: 

• Intro - 0:00 
• Catching up with Dave - 0:30 
• How Many People are Losing Money Selling on Amazon? - 1:55
• The Types of Sellers Losing Money & Competition on Amazon - 3:57
• Sacrificing Margins for Brand Equity - 6:04 
• Fishy Practices to Avoid Paying Duties - 8:00 
• The Chinese Government is Providing Subsidies for Exporters?? - 8:51
• The Numbers Don't Make Sense - 11:02 
• Every Seller Has an Unprofitable SKU - 16:26
• The Problem with Product Research Tools - 19:53
• Bad Business People - 20:52 
• What Amazon's Q4 Earnings Report Tells Us - 23:09 
• Legacy Sellers Who've Suffered Through Events - 26:01
• Shortened Product Life Cycles - 30:47 
• What should happen to old products? - 32:27
• Prices are 20% lower than they should be - 33:37 

 

If any listeners would like to have a discussion about this, let me know by emailing us directly at support@ecomcrew.com. 

 

Also, if you have any questions or any topics you’d like us to discuss on the podcast, you can email us directly as well!

 

Also, we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes. 

 

Thanks for listening!

In this episode, Dave and I go through our list of business goals for 2024 for Ecomcrew, our personal business brands, and more! 

 

Its been awhile since we've done an episode like this, but Dave and I thought of bringing it now since it was one of our more popular episodes from 2019.

 

Some of these goals were aimed for ourselves personally and for the company. In this episode, we'll go through each goal and our plan for achieving each one. 

 

If you have any questions or any topics you’d like us to discuss on the podcast, you can now email us directly at support@ecomcrew.com! Also, we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes. 

 

Thanks for listening!

Leslie Pierson, Shark Tank Winner and founder of GoodHangUps, joins Mike on the podcast to talk about how she got started in eCommerce, how one unexpected night eventually lead her to appear on Shark Tank, and how she is technically her son's employee. 

 

Shark Tank is one of the biggest reality TV shows that almost every business owner knows about. It's not everyday that we get to interview a winner on the podcast. 

 

But Leslie Pierson isn't just a typical business owner: she's an Ecomcrew Premium member. 

 

In this episode, we get to talk about the multiple things that led to how she built a Shark Tank Winning Business. From starting with selling laptop skins, to building a business out of a 7 year old's idea, Leslie covers her ecommerce journey from start to present. 

 

Leslie, thank you for the absolutely delightful conversation, it's been my favourite episode to record out of all 500 or so episodes. I hope to see you more in person, and I wish you and your family all the best with Tacos vs. Burritos. 

 

If you have any questions or any topics you’d like us to discuss on the podcast, you can now email us directly at support@ecomcrew.com! Also, we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes. 

 

Thanks for listening!

Mike Beckham, a 9 Figure Business Owner, is on the podcast with Mike today to talk about what he'd do differently if he were to start building a 9 figure business all over again. We dive into how and why brand story is so important, and the uncommon mindset Mike Bekham uses to perpetuate business growth.

 

Its hard enough trying to start an ecommerce business.

 

Being a solopreneur means you'll have to be on top of your inventory levels, your PPC Campaigns, while also writing blog articles, making Youtube videos about your product and not to mention getting UGC from influencers. 

 

But what does a 100+ person company look like? Better yet, what did it take to get to be able to sustain that level of overhead? 

 

We've invited Mike Bekham, the co-founder of Simple Modern and 9 Figure Business Owner, to the podcast to ask him the golden question. If he had to do it all over again, what would he do differently? 

 

We talk about how being part of a community and choosing the right niche can open up more growth opportunities than you realize, and how building a brand starts internally. 

 

Here's some timestamps to help you along: 

• 0:00 - Introduction 
• 0:31 - Podcast Start 
• 1:39 - Being a Part of an Amazon Community 
• 6:55 - "What Would You Do Differently?"
• 7:44 - Playing to your strengths 
• 8:34 - Choosing a product niche 
• 14:53 - Product Differentiation
• 17:07 - Differentiation without millions in capital 
• 24:13 - How Mike makes sure everyone's winning 
• 30:42 - What Mike's learned over the years 

 

Mike, thank you for coming on the podcast and sharing all of the things you'd consider heavily when starting over. I hope that everyone who listens enjoyed the episode as much as I had recording it with you, and wish you well for the rest of the year.  

 

 If you want to get in touch with Mike, you can find him at Linkedin or you can check out his Twitter. 

 

If you have any questions or any topics you’d like us to discuss on the podcast, you can now email us directly at support@ecomcrew.com! Also, we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes. 

Thanks for listening!

John Terry joins Mike in today's episode as a follow up from his Under the Hood Episode 417 where he talks about how COVID & the political climate affected his business, and how going into retail ultimately killed his consumer packaged goods (CPG) business.

 

Today's episode is one that left me absolutely speechless during recording. 

 

It's a hard topic to talk about when listing down a bunch of mistakes, but it's infinitely more difficult to talk about when the list of mistakes eventually lead to the death of your business. 

 

Nevertheless, I commend John for coming on today to talk about how his business ended up this way, the "trap" of going into retail, and advice for those looking to expand into selling in any big box retailer. 

 

Here's some timestamps to help you along: 

• 0:00 - Introduction 
• 2:47 - Podcast Start 
• 3:03 - Under the Hood Overview
• 4:31 - Meeting with Walmart
• 7:16 - The Second Mistake 
• 7:48 - Kroger Reaching Out 
• 9:13 - Ordering Inventory for Retail 
• 11:34 - Kroger Privacy Around Logistics
• 12:35 - Kroger's Costs 
• 13:41 - Backing out from Kroger
• 14:42 - First Warning 
• 15:10 - Skyrocketing costs
• 18:27 - Poor performance in Walmart
• 20:24 - The goal moving forward
• 21:36 - Buying back inventory from Walmart 
• 22:25 - Why the product failed in retail
• 25:39 - Where to go from here
• 28:00 - Mike's advice
• 32:02 - John's advice to entrepreneurs 
• 37:21 - John's public adjusting business 

 

John, I can't thank you enough for coming on the podcast and sharing all of the painful things you went through. I hope that someone listens to the episode and knows not to get into retail for the prestige of it. 

 

We hope today’s episode was useful to you. If you want to get in touch with John, you can find him at Linkedin or you can check out his company, Crossroads Insurance Recovery. If you want to check out John's previous episode, click here.

 

If you have any questions or any topics you’d like us to discuss on the podcast, you can now email us directly at support@ecomcrew.com! Also, we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes. 

 

Thanks for listening!

Chris Duty is back on the podcast as a special guest to talk about all the types of add backs you need to know when selling your ecommerce business. The inspiration for today came from a listener submitted question, which asked "what type of add backs can I negotiate when selling my ecommerce business?"

 

When selling an ecommerce business, its important for owners to be compensated for the stressful one-time events that was experienced in the last 12 months when going to sell. 

 

These are called "Add Backs", but what are they exactly? 

 

I've invited Chris Duty, an advisor from Quiet Light Brokerage, to talk about the various types of Add Backs that you need to know about, why they matter, and how it can significantly impact the valuation of a business to potential buyers. 

 

Here's some timestamps for your convenience: 

• 0:00 - Introduction 
• 0:31 - Ad Spot 
• 2:46 - Background of Today's Subject
• 4:50 - What is an Add Back? 
• 7:16 - Accrual Accounting
• 11:04 - Owner Salaries 
• 13:20 - Value of Working Less 
• 16:13 - Payroll Taxes / Income Taxes 
• 17:53 - Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents and Other Legal Fees
• 19:44 - Change in Service Provider Costs 
• 20:26 - Employee Removal Costs  
• 22:21 - How Mike Views Add Backs 
• 27:33 - Cash Back / Points Credit Cards 
• 30:26 - What if you use a regular credit card?
• 31:51 - Masterminds & Ecommerce Courses 
• 32:27 - Lowered COGS 
• 37:46 - Negative Add Backs 
• 39:51 - Price Changes 
• 43:33 - Conclusion 

We hope today’s episode was useful to you. If you want to get in touch with Chris you can find him at Linkedin or you can check out the company at QuietLight.com. If you want to check out Chris' previous episode, click here.

 

If you have any questions or any topics you’d like us to discuss on the podcast, you can now email us directly at support@ecomcrew.com! Also, we would really appreciate it if you would leave us a review on iTunes. 

 

Thanks for listening!

Mike discusses some hard hitting points of e-commerce with long-time friend John Canetta, including whether e-commerce will ever get easier, the hidden stresses of running an ecommerce business, and how John was able to recover from losing 80% of his business during quarantine. 

 

With a new year coming around, it looks like the ecommerce landscape only gets more and more difficult. Amazon introduces more changes to storage fees, the number of competitors increase day by day, along with all the other stresses of a growing e-commerce business. In fact, the last time I've experienced an "easy" ecommerce year was back in 2019. 

 

That's why I've invited John over to the podcast to discuss today's topic. John is a 7-figure business owner, with almost as much (if not more) years in experience selling on Amazon and Google than I do.  

 

Here's some timestamps to help you skip to your favorite parts:

• 0:00 - Introduction
• 0:30 - Ad Spot
• 2:46 - Podcast Starts 
• 4:49 - Background on John
• 6:22 - The Hidden Stresses of an E-Commerce Business
• 9:15 - Difficulty of E-commerce
• 11:43 - Why Cash is King
• 13:10 - Ecommerce Struggles 
• 14:36 - Evaluating the Financial Model 
• 16:09 - The EOS Model 
• 17:33 - Tracking Return on Working Capital 
• 19:04 - 1 SKU Brand vs 100 SKU Brand 
• 22:51 - Machinery Manufacturing Issues 

 

As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested. 

 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

 

Until next time, happy selling!

It’s that time of the year again!

In this episode, Dave and I will be revealing the winners (a couple of which you might not have expected) of last year’s survey to find out the Best Amazon Seller Software across five categories:

• Product and Keyword Research
• PPC Management
• Reimbursement Services
• Repricing Tool
• Product Launches and Giveaways

On top of that, we’ll be talking about the software that we use in our day to day basis, and whether it's something Dave and I can't live without, the significant shifts in software usage among sellers, and the future of the SaaS ecosystem. 

To check out the full breakdown of our results, head over to our blog post of the Best Amazon Software of 2023. 

Don’t forget to leave us a review over on iTunes if you enjoy content like this. Happy selling and we’ll talk to you soon!

Mike and Dave review their biggest accomplishments and their deepest pitfalls in the past year. 

 

In this episode, Mike and Dave are back to discuss the year in review, and the eventful things that happened in the past year, like traveling to China again after 3 years, visiting Hong Kong and India and the stark differences between the two, and how Mike's experiences of loss and burnout affected him. 

 

I want to thank everyone for supporting the EcomCrew Podcast. Whether you’ve been with us from the start or are just tuning in, I appreciate your time and feedback. I’m sure 2024 will be another year of insightful podcast episodes, and I can’t wait to unpack which ones top the charts next time around.

 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can.

 

Happy selling!

Mike and Dave reflect on 2023 and discuss the various wins and fails that Dave experienced this year, including traveling to China, Hong Kong, and India, the impact of COVID on business growth 3 years in, and how Dave lobbied to change policies around government taxation on digital advertising.

 

The Ecomcrew Podcast is back after the holidays! 

 

In this episode, Mike and Dave are back to discuss the year in review, and the eventful things that happened in the past year, like traveling to China again after 3 years, visiting Hong Kong and India and the stark differences between the two, and how the Government has knocked on Dave's door for the money that was given during COVID. 

 

Here's some chapters to get you to the most interesting parts: 

• 0:00 - Introduction and Reflection on COVID
• 2:01 - Traveling to China and Hong Kong
• 7:13 - Government Financing and Repayment
• 11:28 - Impact of COVID on Business Growth
• 18:28 - Government Taxation on Digital Advertising
• 37:27 - Impact of Sales Tax Laws on Small Businesses
• 39:28 - The Slow Progress of Bureaucratic Institutions
• 40:02 - Go and vote!
• 41:28 - Year in Review and Rating
• 42:14 - Adapting to Change in Ecommerce
• 45:12 - The Changing Dynamics of Business

 

I want to thank everyone for supporting the EcomCrew Podcast. Whether you’ve been with us from the start or are just tuning in, I appreciate your time and feedback. I’m sure 2024 will be another year of insightful podcast episodes, and I can’t wait to unpack which ones top the charts next time around. 

 

As always, if you have any questions or anything that you need help with, reach out to us at support@ecomcrew.com if you're interested. 

 

Don’t forget to leave us a review on iTunes if you enjoy our content. If you have any questions, send us an email at support@ecomcrew.com. We'd love to help you in any way we can. 

 

Happy selling!