Ep 168 Scott Hutchison, a serial entrepreneur who helped build an e-commerce jewelry brand to 15 million in sales in just three years.  Listen as Nathan and Scott talk about the pros and cons of e-commerce and Ashley Bridget’s immense growth. 

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3 Key Points:

1. If you’re thinking about advertising through Instagram, keep in mind that accounts that list an email address in or below their bio are likely willing to do business.
2. Ashley Bridget ran an immensely successful advertising campaign in which they gave away free bracelets – the average cart value during the campaign was 25$ from other products being purchased alongside the bracelets and the business got about 25K new customers.
3. One of e-commerce’s advantages is not needing many employees. Ashley Bridget later sought professionals to enhance their business and increase the quality of their product.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:00 – Nathan’s introduction to today’s show
• 01:24 – Scott joins the show.
• 01:41 – Scott Hutchison helped build Ashley Bridget which sells women’s jewelry almost exclusively on the website.
• 03:45 – In 2013, Ashley Bridget made 1.5 million in revenue, 4.5 million in 2014, and 8.2 million in 2015.
• 04:37 – To generate its first sales, the business advertised on Instagram. Accounts that list an email address below their bio are likely willing to do business.
• 05:16 – The business had a successful campaign starting out giving out free bracelets that got very popular. The shipping fee covered the cost of making the bracelet and so they broke even on the campaign.
• 05:58 – They got about 25K customers in 1.5 months just from the free bracelet promotion.
• 06:43 – When customers got the bracelet for free, they usually added other things to their cart.
• 06:59 – Ashley Bridget advertises with a combination of Google AdWords, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook.
• 07:09 – The company’s started focusing on retention instead of advertising by increasing product quality.
• 07:54 – 20% of 2015’s revenue went into advertising (roughly 160K.)
• 08:45 – Initially the business relished e-commerce because it didn’t require a lot of employees, but now that they’ve expanded they’re focusing on hiring professionals.
• 09:23 – Scott talks about why the referral system is successful for his business.

10:43 – The business averages about 25K orders per month.

• 11:14 – In 2014, the business bought a warehouse, but it was difficult to manage.
• 12:36 – The business is lucky to have an experienced senior advisor who affords them a good network of Venture capital investors.
• 13:43 – The name Ashley Bridget came from what the founders thought would be an ‘ideal girl.’
• 17:16 – Famous Five

Resources Mentioned:

• Edgar – Nathan uses Edgar instead of other scheduling tools for twitter because Edgar cycles through content over and over (buffer/others you have to re-input content over and over – time consuming). In the last several months, Edgar has driven Nathan over 3728 clicks that he didn’t have to work or pay for. Here isNathan’s Edgar Content Calendar: 

• Ashley Bridget – Scott’s business
• LinkedIn – Scott’s LinkedIn
• Gary Vaynerchuk – CEO Scott follows
• Evernote – Tool Scott uses
• The 4-Hour Workweek – Scott’s favorite business book

 Famous 5

• Favorite Book?— The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris
• What CEO do you follow?— Gary Vaynerchuk
• What is your favorite online tool?— Evernote
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?—To keep doing what he’s doing and to enjoy himself while doing it.

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The Top is FOR YOU if you are:

A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4)

STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7)

An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1)

The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14).

Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.

 

Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop