Get to know more on how to achieve becoming an 8 Figure Amazon seller.
Tomer [00:00:00] In this video, I have a very special guest, Fernando Campos, Fernando Campos is a eight-figure seller right now is Focus is more on agency for Big Brands, is sold more than 80 million in sales since 2014 and is someone that we could all learn so much from now in this video.
This video is very special because we are covering a very, very advanced topics and topics that usually people don’t talk about. And the nice thing is that all of these topics are back in one video.
Usually each topic will be like an hour long. So make sure that you watch the entire video so you can get the most value out of it. Now, before we’re getting into the video, make sure that you subscribe to the channel and click the bell.
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Tomer [00:01:07] OK, so I’m very excited to welcome Fernando, this is our guest for today video. And you know, when I started to set on Amazon, I told you this before the call.
Tomer [00:01:18] I was part of your, like, Traidcraft, the Facebook group. And I remember, like, watching the screenshots and the posts and all of that, I was like one day, like, I want to be like you and, you know, like two years after I’m talking with you.
And it’s really a pleasure that you’re here on the channel as a guest. And I’m sure like we myself and the audience that he’s going to watch this video to and a lot of things. Why would you introduce yourself to those that don’t really know you or hear them on you?
Fernando Campos [00:01:55] Yeah, I mean, I appreciate it. Yeah. My name is Fernando Campos. I’ve been selling on the Amazon since late 2014. Early 2015.
You know, we started as sellers doing a lot of, you know, the normal home and kitchen OEM products sourced from China. And we’ve done well. We’ve scaled it to 30 million a year.
We’ve done a lot of side projects and things along the way, which has been fun, like pixel fire and other things. And we’ve we’ve also sold businesses now as well. And and so I got way too many, actually.
But now will we will we’re really focusing on in this next chapter of our business is Marketplace, which is one of the leading brand management agencies. We work like in a turnkey fashion.
I think where we set us apart really is like kind of strategy and technology to work with a lot of fast growing CPG companies that want like real experts working on their on their Amazon presence, not maybe just like a Joe Schmo or forams unemploy whoever that might be.
But yeah, I mean, all in we’ve sold about 80 million dollars in those years, the majority actually coming from our own brands.
Tomer [00:03:11] That’s that’s very cool.
Tomer [00:03:14] I mean, the need for what you just explained, like services for big brands. I think it’s something that came right on time because I hear a lot of big brands and companies and you look at their PPC management or in the listings they have and it’s like a joke.
You know, they have all these budgets, but like they’re not like really utilizing all their potential or even half of it. So that’s really cool. So you you guys sell on Amazon currently or you only focusing on, like, the agency.
Fernando Campos [00:03:48] Yes, I would say it’s kind of like an 80 20 thing, like the majority of our time is really spent on the agency and in really setting up the infrastructure.
It’s it’s very different. We realized in the beginning it was, oh, the same thing. We just do it for our clients. And I think there’s obviously like other aspects of running an agency that you don’t necessarily, like, get into until you’re kind of knee deep, I guess you would say.
But yes, the majority of our time right now is truly spent on the agency and then we do have some of our own supplement products and stuff like that. But yeah, it’s definitely the 80 20 thing towards the agency.
Tomer [00:04:28] Yeah, nice. Nice.
Tomer [00:04:29] OK, so I to start with a couple of questions that I have for you. If you took enough time for all of them, I did prepare a lot of questions.
Tomer [00:04:39] Let’s start with you know, I’ll start maybe asking you at the beginning when you started your Amazon business and when you were like a big seller, because the question is more related to that to people that are interested to sell on Amazon.
But what was your why why did you started this and why you got into Amazon and not some some other opportunities, you would say?
How did he become 8 Figure Amazon Seller
Fernando Campos [00:05:04] Yeah, it’s a good question. So at the time, we knew that we wanted to do e-commerce and it was we wanted to start a business, we knew that I wanted to be in e-commerce because a lot of our friends were doing e-commerce.
And my business partner, Nick and I had come from tech and we weren’t technical, so we didn’t know how to develop software. And so, like e-commerce was a good intersection of, like still being in like a tech related industry, but the business guys could do.
And so e-commerce was kind of the route that we chose. And I mean, we tried building our own website and stuff like similar to Shopify early on, we we were on a bootstrapped budget, so we didn’t want to invest a ton into advertising and we’d already quit our jobs.
So we kind of had this, like, theoretical clock ticking against us in terms of when we would run out of money and how to go live with our moms. And so, yeah, I mean, we tried building the website for like a few months. We realized, like, oh, you’re doing content and growing organically. It is going to take a lot longer than we have.
And then so it was just like, OK, well, how can we make money quickly? And then we have all these people doing really successful eBay businesses, which is kind of funny now in retrospect. But yeah, so we started looking at like cherrypick and thinking about like, OK, what are we going to do? And we’re like, OK, Cross is getting pretty big.
Maybe we should do it for CROSSFIRE. And and yeah, one day we just received an Amazon package. We were working at my business partners apartment and then it was just like, hey, like why are we going to sell on eBay if we can sell on Amazon?
And then it was at the time it wasn’t even like well known that you can sell on Amazon. And then just basically one thing led to another. And it’s just like, OK, like screw eBay, like whatever. Like we want to do Amazon, like it’s still like really early.
And we know that momentum is shifting that way. And why was honestly like we just wanted to start a company like I mean, it was I truthfully like, you know, part of it is a desire to be your own boss, like I truthfully partially driven by ego.
But a lot of it was honestly like reading the four hour work week, which is just like so inspiring to so many people, like my twenties and thirties that, like, really changed my view of like work and and work life balance.
Tomer [00:07:33] I would say, yeah, that’s true.
Tomer [00:07:35] I agree with you said like that for hours. I mean, this business totally can be managed with if you are smart, like if you have like good systems like four hours, it’s something that’s achievable a week from as a business.
I mean, once you start to see success, obviously you, you want to do more. So you get into new areas and new things and new projects. But I’m still every day when I compare my life now to the life that they had with my previous business where like its physical location with employees and you have to be their presence.
I’m like so grateful that they can do what I do. And, you know, I cannot really change the way that I see life. No, I will never go back to something that required to be there.
Like, for example, if I’m not going to work for a week like the VA that they have and everyone will still run it, you know, maybe the project, the progress will not be as know, as good as I want with some new things, but operating it like. Yeah, definitely.
So this is so amazing from from your experience, I know that, you know, this is a question related to like move to a mindset about like being around, like successful Amazon sellers. What what you saw are good traits of successful sellers like what they do differently.
I see a lot of people that started same time as I started and they either quit or their progress is slow. Of course, at the other end, you have people start at the same time as me and they’re like ten times bigger than me. So I’m curious to hear from you. What is your take about it?
Because you have many people saying, oh, I want to make it on Amazon, I want to be successful, but it just doesn’t work for them. So what is the traits of successful Amazon sellers that you saw?
Fernando Campos [00:09:28] Yeah, it’s a good question.
Fernando Campos [00:09:34] Yeah, I would say there’s like there’s kind of like I guess like three groups, I would say, you know, there’s like the biggest group, which is everybody that starts learning and is interested and.
Right. And then, like, you know, those are people that join Facebook groups. They ask all the questions. They’re typically the people that never order a product. And they don’t really get really passed like the research phase.
I think what separates that group probably from the next group, which is actually the people end up making money issues that they they had the guts, I guess, and maybe the financial wherewithal or whatever to place the first order, whether it goes spectacularly well or poorly.
It’s like they just had the guts to do it. And I think from there, like, most likely you’re going to either end up with, like a failure or cheesily like it depending on when you started.
It could be like a six, seven figure business is really that like that, you know. Yeah. I guess initiative, I guess you would say, to actually really like pull the trigger, because I think no matter what, like as long as you didn’t, like, choose the most ridiculous category, you’ll probably sell some units and you could lose maybe a few grand.
But like we did like truthfully, but like we learned like, OK, like we need to differentiate our products more.
Fernando Campos [00:10:59] We need like we need to like really focus on margins more. And so because we did that, like in the next round we got better and then we just got better.
And then like that was where I think, you know, separating that from like the last group, which is the people are probably scale to the higher seven figures, eight figures. Eighty nine years is really probably like networking and team.
I would say like, you know, I think there’s obviously room for tactics and experimentation and everything. But if I think about like especially if you got scales like eight, nine figures, like, no question it’s like it’s about like, how do you scale yourself?
Because there’s only like a certain amount of hours in a week. I don’t think I’ve ever met like a figure like I mean a handful of you for yourself that don’t have like at least a small team. And so I think that’s probably where you kind of just start like the people weeding people out.
Yeah. Think the networking is obviously a big thing. Like there’s there’s a ton of like groups out there that are more high level that are kind of sharing tactics and and talking about doing is broader than other invest in, you know, how they’re building teams, how they’re implementing us all the kind of stuff.
And so I think that transition of like running like you’re that middle phase, I guess, is kind of like your small business and you’re like really working in the business. And then I think transitioning into that larger sellers when you’re like really starting to think about, like, how do I manage people how to, like, set a vision and how do I implement all that kind of stuff that kind of helps you transition?
Tomer [00:12:38] Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you. I think I will add one more thing.
Tomer [00:12:44] I think the desire also it’s something that is super, super important, like DESIERTO to to be successful, because if you don’t want it bad enough and some obstacles will come, you will just like, you know, just let it go or say it doesn’t work or it doesn’t work.
But you see those people that are just keep pushing and they have this burning desire to be successful or to meet their goals. I see it with people that I talk with or try to help. And they they fail because they don’t really have enough, like, strong desire.
They don’t really it doesn’t really push them what motivate them to really wake up and take action, because you need to take a massive action to really start this thing and scale it, then it’s not easy. Yeah. Thank you for the answer. So you you mentioned something about networking.
It’s a big part. So how how you will use networking more like a tool that can help you grow and then like build your business, then sometimes it can suck you up, like to be like a social socializing thing, you know, just talking about things that are not related.
And, you know, to be honest, I like this part. You know, I have my my friends and all of that, and that’s fine. But at the same time, I don’t want to be like, you know, not really. But, you know, like the purpose here is the network about the animals.
And sometimes it’s slides into becoming like a different thing. How you approach this, I know you’re a very busy person.
Fernando Campos [00:14:15] Yeah, so, OK, I can totally relate. I can understand sometimes, you know, people talking about sports or drinking a ton, you know, guilty of that. But, you know, it can be it can be easily just become like a time waster.
I guess I think about. Two things like one is like, are you in the right room, right, like typically the biggest seller in a room, you’re probably in the wrong room, right?
Like you want to be in a room surrounded by people that can push you in challenges that are in similar places in terms of like see excuse me, in terms of revenue, in terms of team size, so that you guys can, like, actually bounce ideas off of each other.
And the second piece is really like, I guess, digging deep in terms of like why why is the socializing part bad? Because I think what’s unique about Amazon, right, is like there’s like it’s a big enough space where, like, all these kind of like mastermind’s are starting that are super focused on one industry.
But if you look at it like, let’s say like YPO or EOH, those are all like cross industry mastermind’s. Right. And what, you know, so they can’t talk about the technical side of Amazon as well because like everyone is in different industries.
Yeah. They can talk about managing people and stuff like those kind of challenges.
Fernando Campos [00:15:50] But like, if someone’s like, hey, my launches aren’t going well, like no one in the rooms would be able to answer you. Right.
And so I think the socializing part is important because it creates like a community of people that you can relate to. Sounds like a lot of time the majority of this industry is like our space is like solo entrepreneurs.
Right. So they don’t have like in theory, like colleagues of like of real peers. But I think the second piece is like the socializing aspect creates a level of trust that I think is really important that allows you to to reach out to that person and look at them.
So like, you know, we get drunk, let’s say, in Mexico and we have a bunch of shots and stuff like, I have a better connection to you, even if we didn’t talk about work in the beginning.
Fernando Campos [00:16:44] But like afterwards, like, we’ll get connected on Facebook and then like, let’s say I want you to teach me this new influencer strategy that you’re working on, like you’re way more likely to do that because we had that shared experience versus if I did it, like, randomly message you on Facebook.
And so I would say that’s like where probably I would, I guess, maybe differ a little bit where I would think that part is really important.
Tomer [00:17:06] Actually, I’m still like thinking about this and really like asking opinions from many people about this. But I do agree with actually what you said about this personal connection.
But it just limits the amount of people you can create connections because you cannot get to a deeper level, like you said, with many, many people.
What I’m thinking is just like just like the maximum of like five people that you like, that you know, that they are also connected to other people. And then you create yourself like kind of a big.
Do you spend, like, time and money, like for on mastermind’s or like coaches’, like improving areas that you you know, your your weekend? I constantly, like, pay for courses and I really like improving myself.
Tomer [00:17:58] I think that’s the best investment that I do in my business, investing in myself.
Fernando Campos [00:18:04] Totally.
Fernando Campos [00:18:04] Yeah, I mean I mean, it’s I think it’s great, I think we invest a lot like we we just hired an annual planning coach. We’ve had CEO coaches or business coaches or in some of the high level masterminds of like eight, nine figure salaries, like really small ones where NDIS.
Yeah, we’re in other ones that are just like kind of like all our entrepreneurs. I’m in YPO as well. Yeah. I mean, I would say we were definitely really big in terms of investment, investing in ourselves.
I think one of the most important things that you can do once you have like the profit to be able to justify it. I think that’s like truthfully how you make less mistakes is that you learn from people that are a little bit further along. And, yeah, I mean, it’s great.
I think I’m one of the youngest people in my white chapter and my forum for sure. And yeah, I mean, I learned so much about, like, you know, raising families and like marriage and, you know, business partnerships, investments and things like that that I that I get, you know, benefit from the years of experience of of people that are a little bit further along.
Tomer [00:19:20] Yeah. I wonder if I may ask. Under-report, thirty four. What are you. I’m 30 to.
Tomer [00:19:32] So, yeah, I mean, like people sometimes, you know, even if they make profits, they it’s hard for them to spend like five or ten K on something.
But I realize that you spend this 10k, but it gives you like a hundred K, so the return on those like investments, it’s like super high. So like definitely the people like spend money on things. So this question I think that they ask about like what is your focus.
The next question is about cash flow. I know that you said you saw like four eighty million dollars. I know that you’ve been with with your partner, with the nick and how you were able to to really use cash flow. Before I quit, I told you that I might get to be a partner with a big company.
And what did you bring to the table is cash flow and capital, and that will help me grow faster. So did you have any investors? Did you how at the beginning was when you scaled to eight figures like how you manage capital and cash for.
Fernando Campos [00:20:33] Yeah, we are just making sure that we didn’t sell the business for eight days, we’ve sold 80 billion in revenue. Yeah, yeah. What did we do? So, I mean, I think it depends on the stage. Like, our progression was zero from the beginning.
Fernando Campos [00:20:57] We came in with like 30 K and then we placed like we played a lot of inventories and we we probably spent like fifteen, I would guess, in the first few products, like right out the gate once we start getting traction.
Then we went to friends and family and raised another like sixty k maybe like within like I would say four or five months. And then it was kind of like, almost like, you know, in those video games where you’re getting to each checkpoint and then you get more time. It’s like very similar to that, but like getting more money.
And then so it was like we get to the next revenue threshold and proper threshold and then we’d ask for like one hundred or one hundred and fifty K. I think for the first year and a half we were just doing like really like friends and family that would give us incredible rates or paying like really expensive, like almost like predatory lending just because I’m like 17, 18 percent.
I think that was a deal struck maybe like eight months in. But again, just like really just trying to get to each milestone and reinvesting everything. I think about a year, a year and a half in, we were able to get an SBA loan, you know, as an American company.
I mean, that was huge when we got three hundred fifty K at like, I don’t know, five percent interest over ten years. So it came out to like four month is nothing. So that was incredible. That got us to like the next stage. And then I think we started just like leveling up our, like, fundraising ability.
So I was just spending more time fundraising actually. And then so we probably raise, I don’t know, like one and a half million all in give or take in debt over the years, just like paying back, like getting a promissory note, paying about getting a promissory note to pay it back.
And then so that I think really, really helped us, obviously doesn’t leave the company since it’s just debt without warrants. And then yeah, I did what we started too late.
We probably started doing maybe two and a half years in. We was really getting like good credit terms from our suppliers. And so I think I wish we would have done that earlier.
But yeah, I mean, I think learning about like cash conversion cycles, which, you know, for those that aren’t like is just like the difference in time from when you pay your supplier to when you receive cash and receiving that cash is coming from Amazon is like you’re basically in a simplified way, your cash conversion cycle.
And there’s a great article in the Harvard Business Review about like, how fast can your company afford to grow? And it just talks about, like your margin profile versus like your customers cycle. And based on that, without external cash, you have a basically a projected growth rate.
And then so basically we use credit terms to basically help shorten our cash conversion cycles. And just like over time, like just like a progression, like negotiating a little bit more, a little bit more and then a little bit more with our suppliers. And then that allowed us to continue to scale. And those like further years.
Tomer [00:24:07] Yeah, I think it’s a big part like you sometimes people focus on getting all these loans and then the SBA loans and credit card, the but simple like little trick or hack by getting your suppliers, giving you payment terms like next next 60 or 90 could really be a game changer.
Any tips like did you have to travel to China to have meetings with them or like what was the process in getting them? I know you said you kept negotiating more and more.
So that’s the process for me, too. At the beginning with the my biggest supplier, it gave me like the ability to place back in order for ten thousand units and I will ship only two thousand and pay. What I’m shipping now is more flexible. But here’s to you all.
Fernando Campos [00:24:52] You’ve got the payment terms. Yeah, I mean, so I think about him.
Fernando Campos [00:25:02] Yeah, I would think about your investor as a true business partner, you know, like if you feel like rebooted vision or like, you know, like your supplier is one of the most important relationships.
Right. I think a lot of people have kind of adversarial relationships with their suppliers that, you know, they’re constantly like nickel and diming them or being rude to them or whatever it may be.
I think it starts off with just having a great relationship where there’s a lot of trust.
Fernando Campos [00:25:32] I would say it’s also just preparing like you’re basically if you’re getting like what you study, if you’re getting a loan through credit terms, don’t think about it. It’s just like, hey, I’m having another call with my supplier.
But think about it like as if you’re asking me for an investor, like if you were going. And I think a lot of people will go into a supplier meeting like, Hey, Joe, how’s it going, blah, blah, versus if you like, kind of come in almost as if you were an investor, you would you would think about it like, ah, I would think about it very differently.
And so I would think about like, OK, here’s a plan. Here’s what we’ve done before. Like this is what if we get these credit terms? Here’s the product roadmap. Here’s how we’re going to scale.
This is how it benefits you. This is how it benefits me. Like we’re in this together. And then you have like some like kind of basic forecast projections.
They like see like. Oh, wow. Like in terms of Coggs, like this is my number. Like this is where it’s going to go from ten thousand a month to fifty thousand dollars a month.
If I just give him this guy at 60, like do I think this guy can do it? And and then it’s kind of thinking about it from that approach.
Fernando Campos [00:26:39] And yeah, I think one other thing that we did I think was helpful is not sure it’s scary. Right, for you’re a manufacturer, you’re you’re trusting somebody in the beginning. Really. Sure. You may have been working that long together.
Fernando Campos [00:26:51] Like, I think one of the things we did was like using the telex release as a kind of a good milestone in the beginning.
And then so basically the tellies releases like basically when the product like the shipment is about to arrive at the port or wherever it’s going, like the manufacturer needs to provide a telex release to the freight for this.
But like it’s basically a good check point where, like, the manufacturer still has the upper hand. And so if you haven’t paid by that point, they can not give you the telex release and you can’t bring the products into the US or whichever your market is.
And so we were like, hey, how about at the telex release then? Like, we’ll pay you the loss, the balance payment so it gives us another fifteen days. It’s not like Major, but it’s it’s basically giving them like a history of trust. And then it’s like, look, we do this, it can extend out further and then that’s kind of the way we would go about it.
Tomer [00:27:45] Yeah. Yeah. Great, great. I think that like what you said, that if you come prepared with forecasting, with planning and you come to this school or this conversation prepared, they take you more seriously.
There’s no like shortcuts if you just come as some some side thing, OK, and get them in terms most likely they will say. So if you plan if you’re going to get payment terms, make sure you do research. You come prepared when you ask this.
Fernando Campos [00:28:13] Oh, yeah. And talk to the owner. Would they talk to the owner, like if you’re working with us. Yeah. Talk to the owner if you can, because I mean, who’s it like approve it, you know, I mean, it’s not the salesperson.
It would either be like the finance person depending on the size of the business, or it’s going to be the owner. And so I think the earlier you have a relationship with the owner and like the better that relationship is, then the more likely you’re going to get the terms that you want.
Tomer [00:28:40] And that’s more that you talk directly. I mean, I have a very good connection with the salesperson, so but that’s a good point. You know, it looks different when you speak with the owner rather than the salesperson.
Plus, you have like more through it the decision maker. So what do you think about we talked about this a little bit before the this call, but what do you think about exiting versus keeping an Amazon business?
You know, I think that what you said before makes sense, but they want that people to hear it from you.
Tomer [00:29:14] Yeah.
Fernando Campos [00:29:18] Yeah, ask tough questions like the million dollars, sometimes many millions of dollars question. I think so much of it depends on where you’re financially, whether your family age or circumstance me like how you feel about the business.
Like I met many business, like business owners. Maybe they’re both doing five million, but one person is incredibly stressed because there’s like fires constantly being put out, whether like listings are going down or hydrocrackers or blackout tactics.
And then another five million, five million a year salary that’s doing amazing. Like they’re they don’t have a care in the world. They have a great business partner.
They have like a team, but they don’t deal with a lot of the support issues. They don’t even know if they get bad reviews like. And so I think.
Fernando Campos [00:30:11] If you feel like the business is kind of copped out with where you can take it and you’re really stressed and you want to take money off the table, I don’t think that’s a bad idea.
I think my advice to anybody is take money off the table when you can somewhere, whether it’s through distributions or profit or with a plan like, hey, I’m going to sell and at the end of twenty, twenty two or whatever.
And here’s like my milestone that I’m shooting for and it’s gonna get me to this exit. I mean, it’s more I think no matter what, you should be probably building the company as if it could be sold, even if you decide not to.
But I think thinking about how you create infrastructure and create an asset is really important that is transferable instead of instead of like thinking like short term and not thinking about like systems and soapies and infrastructure operations.
As much as I hate those areas of running a business, I think they’re incredibly important. And so I would be thinking about those things like earlier than most people want to.
Tomer [00:31:19] Really well said, I can add one more thing, because I’m right now in the process of my telling part of it, and I suggest that you guys, if you’re planning to sell, just get as many people to give their idea or their opinion about the specific deal that you have. But don’t really listen to each person and then, like, get all the opinions and then decide based on your situation.
Like Fernando said, it really depends on a million things. It could be really you what you really the confidence level in your brand, in the product, the stress level, the Kickapoo that you have, it really depends on many, many questions.
So it’s really individual question, I think. But yeah. Thank you for sharing this. You know, I know that we don’t really have a lot of more time, but how you mentioned also before about growing, taking your business to the next level, creating a theme.
It’s something that is super important, in my opinion. And I know I hear the one of your talks in New York like two years ago about building a team. You mentioned that you like back then it was 80 people.
Now, you said you have like more around 50, but it’s still like but for the small sellers just starting, what would be the tip, how to look on outracing? Because I think once you change the way that you look on outsourcing and giving people like do that because you cannot grow it, you cannot do everything.
But once you change the mindset, the way you look at it, that’s when you start to really like, you know, like hire and then, of course, outsource more things. But what are the tips for smaller centers not jumping from like two employees to like 20, like someone just starting and, you know, any tips about hiring and outsourcing?
Fernando Campos [00:33:13] Oh, man, yeah, yeah, there’s a lot there’s like, yeah, I guess, yeah, we could do a whole conversation on this separately. Yeah.
I mean I would say like the big ideas, I guess for someone like earlier stage is like thinking about how you’re spending your time, like try to categorize it and figure out like what is the value of responsibility that I’m covering. Right.
Like of development is something that’s hard. So this is probably one of the last things that you outsports like. Launching products is probably one of the last things that you outsource everything else pretty much besides creating a vision when you’re larger.
But like in the early stages, besides those two things, pretty much everything can get outsourced. And so I think it’s about figuring out, like, OK, maybe you have a product that requires no customer service. So then don’t don’t worry about that in the beginning.
And maybe the operations takes longer, like the supply chain“, kind of like inventory planning and logistics and stuff like that.
Fernando Campos [00:34:20] All of that stuff can be done like overseas. You don’t need someone who actually might be better and have somebody in the Philippines because they’re in the same time zone as China.
And so I would say it’s like thinking about like if I were to replace this type of work, how much is it going to cost me to get someone that’s really, really good, ideally better than me to build this responsibility to the inventory planner or supply chain operation admin role like all of that can be done like relatively cheap, cheaply compared to like, I guess, Western wages.
Fernando Campos [00:34:51] And so I think those would be the first things that I think about, like graphic design. If you’re not a graphic designer, I think that should be outsourced copywriting.
I mean, honestly, in the beginning, you’re not launching not many products. So I think it’s something that you should learn anyways. But those are like one time tosspot support again, like should be outsourced like all of those things.
And then just really trying to get your responsibilities to be like the really high value, like, part development launching and should be like managing finances as soon as you can.
I would be like letting go of that. And then I think, like some of the other big things is like I think often because, you know, wages maybe in Asia or other places are a lot cheaper than Western countries, then people would just have like a low expectations.
I wouldn’t go in with that mindset. I would expect, like, this person needs to be better than and I need to be, like, excited to be giving these, like, responsibilities to this person because otherwise you’re not going to do a great job. Delegating is going to do the work yourself and which kind of feeds sole purpose.
So I would just say, like, hi, I have a higher level of standard. In the beginning, you generally hire generalists instead of specialists, and so you want people that can kind of wear many hats. And so typically I’ll just hire someone with broad experience ideally, or someone that has like the hardest level of experience that I’m looking at and I can teach them the rest.
So, like an example might be, OK, I’m going to have them manage all of my launches. Right. For instance. And I think that advertising is the hardest piece of leg launches.
So then it’s OK. I’m going to find someone specifically with advertising experience, but then I’m going to teach them Meningie or reading many times harder than you like.
OK, I’m going to find someone with many and Facebook guys experience and I’m a teacher or something to that effect. But I didn’t. Those like off the top of my head are probably the things with the earlier stages that I would be thinking about.
Tomer [00:37:01] Yeah, yeah. You’re right.
Tomer [00:37:04] Rigi also very passionate about hiring, about outsourcing. Before I went into Amazon, I had like experience of ten years of working with Filipino workers and I the beginning software a lot.
One thing I went through and set the right expectations because if you never hired from the Philippines, you will be shocked at the beginning because most likely will hire not the abler team at your first and you will waste a lot of time training and then you realize it’s the wrong about hiring.
So definitely, definitely the recruiting process. I think it’s the most important thing.
So make sure that you anyone that desiring make sure that you put on this stage the recruiting process enough time or even like the most focus should be there, because if you hire someone that is good and you can follow instructions, that’s everything, because you’re not going to waste time training and then getting frustrated and people sometimes getting frustrated and thinking that this doesn’t work, it doesn’t work hiring people from the Philippines or from other countries.
And it’s a very important path. So let me ask you one more thing before we wrap it up. I do have more and more questions, but I feel this is an important question as well. How do you recommend to Amazon sellers to go off Amazon to retail like Wal-Mart to Walgreens? What is your take about this?
Tomer [00:38:34] And does it seem like a good idea to everyone who is good for.
Fernando Campos [00:38:41] Oh, great question.
Fernando Campos [00:38:45] I think it depends. Yeah, I hate that answer because I don’t think it’s that clear cut. I think if you have an innovative product that has broad mass appeal and maybe retail could work, I would say I would not consider retail.
Fernando Campos [00:39:12] Even like Wal-Mart and Shop of Fire until I met like probably a three million run rate, why three million? Kind of an arbitrary number, to be honest, building at that stage.
You know, kind of like you’ve hit enough like monthly profit and everything. You kind of figured certain things out that allow you to start like building a team and start investing and stuff into new channels and stuff. Like a lot of the biggest sellers that I’ve met are the guys that only focus on Amazon and they just diversified across accounts instead of diversifying the other channels.
I think there’s no really like a wrong way about it, I think. But like retail, for instance, you just need a different set of skill sets. Like you need like a more of a business to business like B2B sales experience.
You need to ideally have connections with buyers or work with a broker. You need to have like like a really good like three deals in place that have like you, that have the lability experience and the operations is a lot more challenging.
And then also, like the payment terms can also be like they’re almost always worse because you have like 60, 90. The best is in that 30 where Amazon pays every two weeks. And so I think that it’s it’s almost I mean, it is a completely different business.
And so it’s like a retail Wal-Mart, easier to transition. But I think like the the best people that I know at Walmart, if they’re not focused on Walmart, like if you’re comparing, like, their Amazon to their Walmart, it’s like, you know, probably five to 10 percent of revenue.
And so I think that if you’re looking at the five times a five percent, then you’re looking at like it’s 20 times the effort to to get the same results. And so I think while it can be like really easy, I think about like the flywheel and like, will Walmart support your flywheel rams on before three million in revenue a year or like is that time better spent launching another product that can help you get closer to that three million?
Shalabi like, I mean, from our experience is again, a completely different business. You have like different skill sets. And so I again, I wouldn’t prioritize it until you have the ability to, like, really dedicate like a learning, learning model as well.
Tomer [00:41:52] Do you think that it’s better to learn it yourself or just give like it looks like brokers or people?
That’s where they do like the job. I mean, any you’ll have to be involved in then. So, yeah, I mean, it doesn’t really matter. I hear it from a good colleague of mine that you also need to be prepared.
One risk is that let’s say you start working with retailers like Wal-Mart and the product is selling. Will they want like or there is soon. You need to be prepared enough stock because you don’t want to burn the relationship with them. They will. Don’t look at you in a good light.
Fernando Campos [00:42:27] So, yeah, yeah. I mean, that’s one aspect. And you also need to sell the product.
So like most Amazon sellers don’t have enough brand awareness to do really well in retail. And I drive people to the stores because we don’t have the right to sell through them.
They’ll cut your product and it’s hard to get that. I mean, again, it’s not like you can just go like, hey, I know I didn’t sell that much the first time.
Fernando Campos [00:42:48] Like, can we try it again? Like a year later, six months later, it’s like you’re you’re kind of you get one shot and then, you know, and then I had to wait till the buyer changes or some good amount of time changes.
And so at least for the majority of Ms. Sellers, I would assume they haven’t invested enough in their brand to really like do well in retail unless you’re going into like like a go off market, like off price one like to your Max Marshall’s.
I think you can do that. But you have to like again, be really. Yeah. I don’t want to make it generic, but like I think you have to like really have a hard look of like what is the channel do what value my bringing in do I have like what it takes to compete there.
Because I like to do Max like you don’t need a strong brand, but you need like really sharp price points and pretty good infrastructure and and they’re not going to write poems. So you need to have enough of a balance strong enough balance sheet to to basically be able to sell slower, sometimes sell faster and then reorder more to hit their expectations.
Yeah, Wal-Mart is completely different. Like you need to have something kind of differentiated that’s going to bring people into their stores or like and really sell through against everything else they have. And so, yeah, they’re just different problem solving within just like the retail bucket, if you will.
Tomer [00:44:18] Yes. Yeah, amazing, amazing tips.
Tomer [00:44:21] Sure. Many people will learn and learn a lot of things with this video. Now, to those that are interested to learn, maybe the audience here is just like many of them beginners.
Tomer [00:44:33] It might not be right now the right audience for your services, but, you know, just giving exposure to what you do.
Tomer [00:44:41] Where we can find you, what is the website name?
Fernando Campos [00:44:44] Yeah, so yeah, yeah, you can learn more at Marketplaceops.com. Yeah. If you have any questions or anything, I want to get in touch. Just feel free to reach the email. This is [email protected] have to answer any questions or at least point you in the right direction if you guys have any questions?
Tomer [00:45:03] Yeah, you’re amazing. Your inspiration for myself and I’m sure for many, many other people. So really thank you. I appreciate you coming as a guest here. And, you know, sometime in the future, I’ll be glad to continue with the rest of the questions that they have. I know it’s very busy, but. Yeah, thank you again, Fernando.
Fernando Campos [00:45:23] Yeah, any time. Thanks so much for having me. Tomer.