Shownotes
So, good lede? Yes Mendy does not sell on Amazon any longer. (He might come back someday) But he honed some pretty strong skills and took advantage of them to find (create) an opportunity after Amazon. Great episode if you want to find out with people who you know longer see posting in the Facebook groups. If this is a phase in your entrepreneurial career then make the most of it. Learn everything you can. Learn what you like and more importantly what you don't.
Mentioned:
Mendy's previous episode
Mendy's contact info:
Phone : (786) 571-8855
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Transcript:
Mendy (00:00:00):
The other side is to flip their algorithm and almost overnight, you know, our CEO started dropping.
Coll voice guy (00:00:06):
Welcome to the e-commerce momentum podcast where we focus on the people, the products, and the process of eCommerce selling. Today. Here's your host, Steven Peterson.
Anna Hill (00:00:20):
Are you looking forward to 2020 are you looking forward to finally having better control of your business and knowing your numbers? Hi everyone. I'm Anna Hill, CPA e-commerce seller and founder of the popular accounting. We will go Facebook group and my podcast, Amazon accounting podcast. I repeat the phrase, know your numbers so often because I believe that is the key the top sellers have that makes the difference to their success. They can see what is working and more importantly what isn't working. They make adjustments on the fly and they get to do it every month because they have good, strong monthly financial statements. Now, I know it sounds intimidating to figure out how to get from where you are now to that place of having monthly financial statements like these top sellers have. But that's why we created the course Amazon accounting simplified, which will help you understand what it takes to set up, maintain and really manage your business.
Anna Hill (00:01:09):
With QuickBooks online in the course we break down step-by-step all that is necessary to know your Amazon specific business. Learn how to handle cost of goods, sold, inventory operating expenses in so much more. We even teach you how to reconcile your Amazon statements so that you know how much you've earned from Amazon. We will help you understand what it takes to systematically get accurate monthly financial statements so you can be better prepared for success in 2020 finally, Oh, we'll even help you get ready for the tax returns when it's tax time. So this is the year you're finally ready to take action and this is the year that you want to get control of and work on your business and not in your business. We are here to help. The course can be started at any time and we'll allow you to pause, understand, and implement what we have learned and what we've taught you from real life e-commerce examples before moving on to the next stage. Each section builds on each other with easy to understand and even easier to implement solutions for your business. Access is for lifetime. And you also have access to the free private Facebook group for all other students in the course. So if you're ready to take on that journey, then get the course. Please go to accounting. We will go.com forward slash momentum and get the course Amazon accounting simplified. Thanks so much guys. Once again, this is Anna Hill, CPA e-commerce seller and founder of the popular accounting. We will go Facebook group.
Stephen (00:02:34):
Welcome back to the e-commerce momentum podcast. This is episode 426 mentee Lipschitz. Mandy, uh, when you hear the date, how long ago? Since him and I talk it blow your mind, blew my mind hitting his two. We were really shocked and when he reached out to me and I knew that he's not selling on Amazon anymore, and I thought to myself, huh, that'd be interesting to talk to somebody. Um, his perspective is great. He took advantage of his time selling and applied it and now he's that much better at what he does. And in the after call, I, I we didn't, it didn't come out in the conversation. His time selling made his life so much better. It gave him perspective and man, wouldn't you like to have perspective? 20 years ago I would, I wish I got perspective 20 years ago or 19 years ago or 18 years ago. I might have it now, but I didn't have it then. And man, just think of how much further you would be. Well, he's a good example of it. Let's get into the podcast. Very interesting. And we'll come back to the e-commerce woman in podcasts. I, I'm going to take it back. I'm going to take us all the way back. Way, way back to my first year of podcasting. Mandy Lipschitz number 17, August of 2015. Welcome back. Mendi
Mendy (00:03:49):
thank you, Stephen. Great to be on.
Stephen (00:03:51):
I can't believe, I mean we were chatting. I mean it's four and a half years. Is that crazy?
Mendy (00:03:57):
It's kinda crazy how lives change things move on. Yeah.
Stephen (00:04:01):
Well, and, and this is going to be a story of life after Amazon. And so I'm going to jump to the conclusion, which is Mendi no longer sells on Amazon, but he still has an online presence and we're gonna talk about all that. But life has evolved for Mandy and his family and that's kind of the reason you reached out to me. Correct,
Mendy (00:04:22):
exactly. You know, uh, we've spoken before, you know, I always enjoy your podcast and you know, I feel, I felt that as I continue this journey of life, things just change and you know, you take lessons from what happened prior and apply it to your future successes as well.
Stephen (00:04:39):
I think that is just so smart. I mean, um, I think it's Dan Wentworth who says this a lot. You know that this is a vending machine business. You know, you want to make your money as much as you can and jump out, you know, and now jump out his relative. He doesn't plan on jumping out. He's been jumping out for 20 plus years. So I don't mean it that way, but meaning that knowing that there is a life cycle, more than likely in a lot of this business, and if you're creating a brand, for example, you might sell that brand. I know a lot of people that have sold their brands or I know a lot of people who developed a brand and then the brain got consumed by competitors and they're no longer in that brand. Right? You, you know, a lot of those same people. So I think your approach, uh, the evolution of your business is an interesting story. Okay, so take us back. You were selling and six figures on Amazon, right? You've really figured it out. You really, you were, you were making some big buys at that point, correct?
Mendy (00:05:33):
Yeah. You know, we started off, as you know, back in the day and retail arbitrage and we built on our business, didn't add it. Our online arbitrage. And then at a certain point we found our niche and you know, you kind of develop, you always want to change what you're doing, et cetera. We found a niche that was working well for us and then we were doing a bet, $150,000 a month in sales at our best.
Stephen (00:05:59):
Well let me ask you, how did you find your niche? Because I think that's, that's interesting cause you, I mean you had an unusual niche, but how did you, how did that light bulb go on that? This seems to be a natural for us.
Mendy (00:06:11):
So my niche, my niche per se was actually a lingerie and it was unusual sizes. Lingerie. Now, something most people don't realize is most women are wearing the size broth they go through their life, not realizing that they don't need to be uncomfortable. Um, my wife luckily had been educated about wearing the right size bar. Um, and unfortunately for her, the closest place to purchase it was about a two hour drive away from us. Okay. And you've got to get fitted every, you know, year, because your bra size changes constantly. And so every year she would make a drive to the keys, two hours each way. You know, it was a full day trip. And she called me from there one day during our, uh, during our early days in the business. And she said, you know, this bar is $150. You know, does that make sense? What's it going for on Amazon?
Mendy (00:07:04):
And I pulled it up on Amazon. I said, Hey, there aren't many sellers. There's no, uh, Amazon fulfilled sellers and it's $150 is what it sells for on Amazon. We should reach out to the wholesaler. Um, at that point in time, I was already doing a call seal in the clothing line. I had a number of shoe, all sale accounts, um, as well as some other clothing. And so I reached out to them and I knew that the profit margins on clothing, you know, should be pretty decent on $150 bra. So I reached out to that company and that was our first Val lingerie vendor,
Stephen (00:07:41):
you know, so if you think about this, right, those listening. Okay. So pay attention to what he's saying. So he did RA learned, paid his dues, figured it out, watched and found a particular items. And I'm, I'm assuming that before that particular bra, you sold other bras, right? Uh, just as part of your RA, is that fair?
Mendy (00:08:01):
The good old days of Marshall's buying guy. What was at Warner vanity fair? Um,
Stephen (00:08:07):
yeah. Okay. So you, you had learned that you'd learned that there's a market for it, so it's not a big deal to sell them, but then you realize that this specialty issue is, like you're saying, is that if people really pay attention to their body, that these things are important and, and so therefore people will pay a premium because that two hours of your wife's life that she could get back now is huge. Right? I mean, that's huge amount of time. And so the fact that you had already made the jump to wholesale or partial wholesale, getting past asking to be a wholesale vendor, right? You did trade shows or could, I've seen you at trade shows. She should shoot ones especially. So you've gotten past that. So again, these are skills that he's been building. All right. So when you go back and listen to Monday's original, you know, he was in sales so you could tell by his voice, he's very good at sales, but then he takes and applies it to all these different things and you come along and I don't want to lose this though. I think this is really important. Many you, you weren't able to just jump as soon as you joined an Amazon to go have that comfortable discussion with that wholesale vendor and get that unique bra you built all along, paid attention and learned, and then you were able to do that. I don't think you would have had success in the beginning. Is that fair?
Mendy (00:09:20):
It's definitely a fear thing. You know, you've got to know it. I don't call it sales. I call it relationship building. Okay. Okay. Ultimately, whether you're on the buyer end or the seller end, you're creating a relationship of trust. Okay. And if someone trusts you, you can do business. If they don't trust you, I'm like a really bad experience. I had tried to buy used cars today. You're not going to do the business. Um, actually let me jump back in time a little bit. I don't know if I've previously mentioned as about one of my early jobs being with New York life as a life sales insurance agent. Have we ever mentioned, discussed that the fire
Stephen (00:09:54):
we might've,