Nathan interviews Tanner Larsson, co-founder of 80/20 Media, CEO of e-commerce brand incubator BuildGrowsSale.com. He’s also the founder and facilitator of an exclusive e-commerce syndicate called Black Label – composed of the best and brightest marketers, CEOs, and entrepreneurs in the e-commerce space. He recently published his first book called Ecommerce Evolved which offers readers a box view of how successful e-commerce brands build, grow, and scale.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Rocket Fuel
• What CEO do you follow? –  Ed O’Keefe

• Favorite online tool? —FastStone Capture
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Not even close
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “You don’t have to fund everything out of your own pocket, there are other options available”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:27 – Nathan introduces Tanner to the show
• 02:15 – Tanner’s ecommerce world started in 2001
• • 02:20 – Started in eBay and Tanner became a powerseller
  • • 02:31 – Tanner was doing $ 50,000 - $ 100,000 a month in eBay
• 03:00 – “There’s no reason not to sell a physical product”
• 03:25 – Tanner and his team have a number of e-commerce brands
• • 03:36 – 2 main brands have done $6.5 million in a year
• 03:48 – They had a problem in production
• • 04:06 – “We’ve had different bottlenecks that prevented us from growing at the rate we could have grown”
• 04:30 – The flashlight market
• • 04:38 – Tanner doesn’t want to sell what everybody is selling
  • 04:47 – The gap they saw is between the lower price entry level flashlight and high-end flashlight
  • 05:03 – Tanner and his team develop their own flashlight and a kit
  • 05:17 – Truegunner.com
  • 05:25 – The flashlight is in a sales funnel
  • • 05:34 – The funnel path
• 06:02 – The bestseller flashlight is the M600 tactical utility flashlight
• • 06:07 - $22 manufactured price from China
  • 06:32 – They had a much higher per unit cost and much lower profit margin on the first order
  • • 06:43  - First order was at a minimum which is a thousand
    • 07:03 – Total is $30,000 tied up which equals to $3 per unit price
  • 07:52 – It took 7 months before the first order started production
  • 07:58 – The back and forth from the manufacturing county took time
  • • 08:05 – Shipping takes a week which includes the revises that needed on the product
  • 08:30 – “If you’re building your product from the ground, there’s a whole back and forth with the manufacturer”
  • 09:00 – Started selling on November 2015
  • • 09:05 – Sold about 4400 units for 12 months
    • 09:21 – Total money in from this product is around $ 150,000 - $ 160, 000
  • 09:50 – 99% of the funds came from Tanner
  • 10:12 – The downside is some raw materials are specialized
  • • 10:27 – They have to buy raw materials in advance to prevent going out of stock
• 11:28 – Most of their sales are funnel driven
• 11:43 – They were using ultracart but shifted back to infusionsoft
• 12:09 – They are also using Hotjar records visitor interaction. Like heat mapping
• 12:43 – They spend $13 per user acquisition on the front end
• • 13:03 – They breakeven in the funnel
• 13:30 – They also have subscription plans
• 14:01 – They have 7000 paying user
• 14:36 – They also have drop-off rates
• 16:00 – Connect with Tanner through his website
• 18:30 – The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

• Look for alternative funding. Don’t shoulder everything.
• If you don’t know something, that doesn’t mean you can’t explore.
• Sourcing from manufacturers abroad takes patience and a lot of research.

 

Resources Mentioned:

• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal  for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal  developers.
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• Assistant.to – The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel.
• BuildGrowScale.com – Tanner’s website
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives