Shownotes
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...