#131: Lunch With Norm Case Study - Steps to Set up Hurdles and Milestones

Norman Ferrar  0:01  

Hey everyone is Norman Farrar aka the beard guy here and welcome to another lunch with Norm, the rise of the micro brands. And this is when the music is supposed to start. And this is when Kelsey puts me on the spot. And this is why Kelsey gets paid nothing, or very little to nothing.

Kelsey 0:25  

So my computer’s glitching out right now. And..

Norman Ferrar

 As we can see.

Kelsey

Yep. So, say it one more time. Let’s do it.

Norman Ferrar  0:34  

Hey everybody. It’s Norman Farrar. Welcome to another episode of lunch with Norm

Norman Ferrar  0:53  

No stress. Anyways, between our guests, and Kelsey, we’re having technical difficulties. So yes, you’ve all wanted to see me go into the fetal position. You’re about to see it. I’m just about to go there. Kelsey is probably going too.

Kelsey  1:12  

Relax, Oh my gosh, you’re such a child sometimes. Welcome everyone. Welcome to the show. So Simon is here. Simon is here. We’re going to be bringing him up shortly. We did have some technical issues, but everything’s good now. Cool issue. We’re, we’re good to go. Hashtag no stress. That’s right, Marsha.

Norman Ferrar 1:36  

That’s right. So okay, so Kelsey, we got a few things going on today, which is kind of fun. We’re going to be towards the end of the episode, we’re going to be talking about our contest winner. And the two contest winners, which is really cool. Three, Oh, my gosh, there we go. All right. Yeah, I didn’t even know we had another one. But okay, so today is going to be a really special episode with Simon booth. And I can’t wait to talk to him about what he’s been able to do. You are just using some of the strategies that we’ve talked about on the podcast. But before we get into it, I don’t know what Kelsey is going to say today. But I’m gonna just say, smash those buttons, I’m going to tell you that today, you’re going to learn a lot in just about some of the strategies if you implement these strategies, what you can do, and this would probably be the perfect episode. If you know somebody who’s in Amazon FBA, or online selling, get them to tune in and just see what you know about what’s happening today. What are the current techniques and the results that you can get now? I am saying that, not knowing what Simon’s going to say, I’m hoping it is going to be positive. But anyways, Kelsey, over to you. Anything, you

Kelsey  2:52  

have to do it. Alright, so we did hit hit over 800 subscribers on YouTube. So that’s awesome. We really appreciate it is good to see. And if you haven’t yet, please subscribe to it. That’s the Norman Farrar YouTube channel. So that’s awesome. Thank you guys, as well as like and share this episode. You know, get it out to your friends and family. We’ll be talking about the three winners of the two contest that we’re running at the end of the show, so stick around for that. And yeah, welcome everyone. petite. Marcia, Tony, Olga. is gonna be your cause. Okay, can everybody welcome today? So yeah, this is a little bit different. This episode is going to be kind of like a case study saying, we’re going to be following along Simon on his journey. So it’s going to be cool. I’m really excited for it. Now, there’s an awkward pause. Is that it? Did you do your thing? Yeah, that’s a Okay, back to me. All right. So guys,

Norman Ferrar  3:53  

if you like what you hear if you have any questions, if you have any comments, throw it over into the comment section. And now sit back, relax, grab a cup of coffee, or take a shot, whatever you want to do, but enjoy the episode. Simon. Hang on. You’re there. Oh my god. You had me nervous. Kelsey had me nervous. So hey, I want to know a little bit about your background. Like I understand that. You You were actually on Dragon’s Den, which is the UK version of sharks. Shark Tank. How was that?

Simon Booth  4:31  

That’s right. Um, it was it was interesting. I was kind of I applied and within about two weeks prior and I was is in the den, so I didn’t really have any time to prepare or think about it. I was just kind of thrown in, in front of the dragons. So it was kind of it’s a little bit like this. It was all a little bit. Let’s just go and it worked out pretty well actually. Um, It was is quite nerve wracking, but it kind of you have to think on your feet. But it turned out really quite good. You’re in there for about an hour and a half and they edit it down to like 15 minutes. So, but it was without the the best PR activity I’ve done in the 18 years of my business life, it was phenomenal. I mean is it’s primetime BBC TV, it gets repeated twice in that week. And then it’s, it’s, you know, it’s repeated over and over again. And they distributed globally. So it’s had 10s of millions of viewers. And it’s got hundreds of hundreds of 1000s of views on YouTube. So it kind of it’s worked as a phenomenal piece of PR Really? Did you walk away with a deal. We walked up well, we had a deal in the den, but then afterwards, kind of decided it wasn’t the way to go forward. They you know, they agreed we all we all sat down and agreed that the business didn’t need them as much as I thought they did. And it certainly didn’t need to give away as much equity as they wanted in the first place. So we all we all shook hands and agreed to walk away and that was it. And but the next day, I had Toys R Us and all of the major big box retailers knocking on the door and asking how much shelf space I wanted. So it was it was a phenomenal exercise.

Norman Ferrar 6:48  

Wow. Talk about Yeah, getting mass exposure. I’m kind of curious. When you we always see like if you’re watching Shark Tank or Dragons Den is in Canada, that’s what it’s called here to what it’s like afterwards like are they I see some horrible deals that are completely one sided. And you know, the equity is just crazy. You know, the person is giving up way too much. You were just talking about you know, you came to a mutual decision. I was always wondering if these guys just took advantage of the entrepreneur or do they walk through and they they they allow you to understand that this is a good deal this is a bad deal do they do their due diligence and come back week to you and say look, I’m gonna change this around how does that work? Yeah, there’s

Simon Booth  7:37  

there’s quite a lot I get all of their financial team, the lawyers and there’s a there’s a lot of due diligence that goes on afterwards. But you and that process in itself, the due diligence is very thorough, and itself is is quite a good exercise, it’s quite it pulls your business apart. So it allows you to see you know, under the hood from their perspective and it you know, so they advise you on a good way of organizing it and having better processes in place and how to you know, set the business so that it will continue to be successful. So that aim itself is a is a is an excellent part of the follow up and I still I still have contact with those two, two out of the five dragons offered me investment and I’m still in contact with them so they still follow up and the BBC do follow up programs as well. So it’s, it’s a long it’s a long term. You know, once you’re in the den, you’re part of a part of the den family if you like you become part

Norman Ferrar  8:51  

of the fraternity. Okay, Simon, just a just a quick who you are and just you know you’re listening to electric norm Why? Well

Simon Booth  9:08  

kitty moto is my main business I’ve been running that this is now my 18th year and you know, been fully involved at the helm for all of that time. And then Brexit came along in 2016. And it had a significant impact because I I import a lot of stuff and I sell a lot stuff in Europe but the exchange rates and uncertainty around it has had a massive detrimental effect. I was traditionally sold into wholesale and retail. I mentioned Toys R Us. That was one of our big customers. And retail has really struggled. It has done for a long time. But you know Toys R Us they went so that was a big part of business. And retail in itself started to kind of struggle, especially after Brexit, export into Europe was a huge part of the business that started to struggle. So a number of areas that struggled, has a combined impact that was not great. So I had to layoff three quarters of my team, I had to downsize the business. It was, you know, it was a tough time, between sort of 20 1617 to 20 1819, not a couple of years, and, you know, had a significant impact on me personally, you know, when you let people go in your business you’ve built for years, has has it kind of, you know, you take it personally. So I struggled a lot. And then during, we went into COVID, and into lockdown, and that was a, you know, that sort of changed things again. But I had started to move into direct consumer and e commerce during that period. Moving because because a lot of wholesale and our retail business was kind of shrinking, I had to look at different ways and see what was growing and ecommerce was one of those, one of those areas. And then I was locked down, kind of came in for Cote COVID lockdown in March last year, I was pretty much locked down. And I was used to traveling a lot, I go to China to see my suppliers I’ve go to I do a lot of trade exhibitions. And you know, I was traveling probably about 20 weeks of the year. And that all came to a hole. And networking is a big part of what I would do as a business owner. And podcasts quickly came sort of a replacement for my kind of my knowledge, thirst for knowledge. And for kind of live podcasts are great as well, because you can get there’s a bit of interaction there. I mean, you guys know how much I kind of throw in comments and questions and curb loss, aka, with with with a live podcast. And I, you know, I was I saw you on our podcast on cellar sessions with Danny. And it was I think it was a deep dive and you went into your background. And it really resonated. And I was at that time I was, you know, I was in a pretty dark place having scale, but the business and all of the things that like kind of take it take a toll on you, as a as an individual and as a as a as a business owner. And what you were saying kind of resume fight. This guy knows what he’s talking and I understand that and you’ve been through some pretty tough times and bounced back. And that kind of just inspired me to just just knuckle down and crack on with it. And then lunch we normally start it. And then so I do cellar sessions. And then lunch with norm, which start at exactly the same time cellar sessions would finish. So I go from one podcast to the next. And I’ve I don’t think I’ve missed one lunch with norm since it started. Fantastic. And, you know,

Simon Booth  13:47  

just the engagement, just the people that you have on the guests, the knowledge, the expertise, it’s been very helpful. And I’ve learned an awful lot, especially moving from retail and wholesale into e commerce mean that they’re different animals. So did you know that running a business is running a business but we’re going to certain channels is a very different way of of, of dealing with dealing with business. You know, I would sell containers of stuff and pallets of stuff and truckloads of stuff. Now I’m selling one that one reason is Do Not Disturb but what the heck, I don’t know what’s happening. But I’ll throw you a curveball. Yeah. Well, no, no, just go ahead. But yeah, it says, you know, retail you have you know, you have your set customers that you’re dealing with, over and over again repeat business, whereas e commerce is sort of, it’s always one offs and you’re dealing with 1000s of customers instead of hundreds of customers that you deal with day in, day out. And you get to meet those retail customers, we don’t really get to meet your e commerce consumers, per se, but so obviously, I’ve learned so much from your podcasts and from your, from your experts in your guests. And, you know, I’ve engaged with a good few of them. And I’ve been lucky enough to win some of the swag that they’ve been offering as well. So, you know, I’ve had, I’ve had some, you know, some consulting and some advice and all sorts of different sort of good things have, I’ve been able to kind of use. And what I’ve also managed to do is, because there’s an awful lot of people talk about exits in in this space, particularly now there’s a lot more talk about it. And I had much more time available, because, you know, I was I was traveling an awful lot. Before pre COVID I was traveling so much I was away, I was out of the country I was in, and I probably got an extra 20 weeks a year. So that we use it I’m using that time to to develop new skills, but I’m also using that time to build a new business that was part of this. You know, the the exit all of this talk about six because I have no intention of exit in my long term business that’s going on forever. That’s a succession plan. I’ll keep building that and growing that that’s, that’s my, that is an absolutely. That’s That’s me through it through. I’ve got no intention of exit in that. But I have developed a new business that is an exit strategy. So taking on all of the lessons and the learnings I’ve got from from you, and your guess it’s like, well, let’s, let’s create an exit strategy. That’s kind of built a business. I’ve got using all the suppliers that I’ve got, and I’m more and creating whole new brand, a whole new product range and go into e commerce purely ecommerce. But starting with the exit plan, and working backwards, where do I want to get to how long is it going to be a when’s that gonna be?

Simon Booth 17:45  

And so that kind of has, that’s something that over the last sort of six months of kind of, I’ve created a created a new business. So it’s, it’s in its infancy, it’s in its startup stage. You know, I’ve started I’ve opened all the accounts. So got the Amazon accounts, got a new Shopify website, Eb Etsy, kind of go start or create a Walmart account. So all of these platforms are now open. And I’ve designed the product and develop the product I’ve had, I’ve gone through all of the samplings where we’ve we’ve done some mass production, got inventory in, done a trademark registration, and gone through Brand Registry on Amazon. I I’ve gone and engaged with accountants and bookkeepers, and done all of the VAT registration, which you have to do across all of Europe, which is another pain that Brexit is created. Again, one of your you know, on all of the things that I’ve done, I’ve engaged with guests that have been on the podcast, or lunch with nor. And each and every one of these stages. You’ve had an expert that I’ve then engaged with that stance, either has supported me at that point, and are still supporting me now. And we’ll go on and we can’t have that all they’re in line to help help out. So join me to give you some examples of who I’m engaged with.

Norman Ferrar  19:31  

Yeah, sure. You know, and this is, this is really great. The reason why we had you on here, because, you know, we were just talking and you know, I guess it was you started the conversation with Kelsey and it was about you know, how you’ve worked with our clients and built out a case study applied it and it’s really interesting that you know, our listeners that are, you know, either going to be listening live, which can ask questions, by the way or have they have any comments But if you’re listening to them afterwards, too, it can show you that just listening to the podcast, go back, if you’re looking for an accountant search for it, if you’re looking for somebody for Google My Business search for it, but all of these things that we’re bringing, it’s not just Amazon, the purpose of this was to help Amazon sellers become better online sellers. So build your business, build your Amazon, exit at an optimized valuation, and it’s all there, we’re trying to bring all those in. And, you know, we try to, if there is any somewhat conflict, we let you know, you know, because we don’t want this to if I have a friend, or if I have a business partner, I want to let you know, because I want to make sure that you know, it’s straight, you know, and there’s no, I’m not benefiting from this. This is not to you, I’m sharing content. That’s my goal, share content to build your business and exit, you know, happily. So Simon, I’m really glad that, you know, you brought this to our attention. Yes, let’s go to who you who you’ve been working with.

Simon Booth  21:13  

I just wanted to say on that point, though, it’s like, you know, you bring you bring all of this, this knowledge, but it’s kind of it is to share is to help the listeners and the viewers. And it’s not, you’re not pitching. Because this is some This is what I see so often in life. And all, you know, I’ve said, I’ve watched a million hours of YouTube videos on how to do PPC and all this sort of stuff. And and they’re all at the end of it, it’s like get a bonus. And you’ll get by and all of this, it’s it is basically pitch in a course or something. And this is the this is the big difference here we had lunch with norm is not pitching a course it’s not, you know is is is it’s allowing people to present their wares. But it’s just this authenticity, I know that you use these or you partner with these, or you trust these and there’s so much value in in all of these guys that you bring on. So it there’s the trust is already there. So it’s kind of a recommendation from a friend. Really, that’s part of what it is. It’s

Norman Ferrar  22:25  

Thanks, Andy. I mean, you mentioned Danny as well. So cellar sessions, I find that he delivers that type of content as well. He’s not interested in pitching. He’s, he’s actually delivering content. So Danny actually got me going on the podcast. So you know, I always reach out and thank them. But anyways, who have you dealt with?

Simon Booth 22:45  

So first up, first of all, I think one of the first people I ended up contacting was Joe Valley. Ha, quiet light. Yeah, quite late brokerage. He’s a great guy. So I mean, just what he was talking about on that podcast, he was talking about exits and how to build your business. And it was, and I think that was one of the first swags that were one This was pre we’ll have Kelsey. He had a like a conversation with him about how to set up an a startup with an exit in mind. And yeah, so he walked me through the sort of that start from the end and work that night sort of reverse engineer business. So he’s he was, and we still have contact and what a great guy for a minute give his book. I haven’t I haven’t said I haven’t come out yet. I think it was it was sort of dude, it was coming out or something. But I haven’t I haven’t read his book. But I think on their website, I think has a whole lot of processes and procedures on how to exit but absolutely fantastic.

Norman Ferrar  24:06  

Kelsey, make sure you put a link to quiet light brokerage with Mark Dallas and Joe Valley.

Simon Booth  24:13  

But yeah, so that was the first first first one I had contact with. And then I think the next one was Tom Meeks from a vasque with a, an accountancy but they deal with all of the VAT and VAT registrations. And again, one, I want a load of free VAT registrations across the EU so that

Norman Ferrar  24:42  

by the way, when they give that away, that’s saved. You save you a ton of money, I bet Oh, yes.

Simon Booth  24:48  

It’s about two and a half 1000 pounds or something like that was saving. We’re now engaged them as my VAT filing. counties across Europe. And I mean the service is second to none really is. But yet, so they’re there. So there’s straight away. I’ve got great value from to just to have your guests. Then I had a Ruby Mendez who had snow. Yeah, I was another 30 minute consultancy. I’ve watched a lot of a lot of sweat from over the last year.

Norman Ferrar  25:34  

I think Andrew Smith says the wheel is rigged. And it might be Simon.

Simon Booth  25:41  

I think now the wheel, can I just buy anyway? Brenda, oh my god, she’s just so smart. And so she within, it was like a 30 minute conversation. And she gave me something to go away with. It was like talking about YouTube influencers. And she understood my business within 30 seconds of me explaining it. And just when you need to go and talk to like these family influences like that, just that the only family YouTubers, they love, they love, they’ve got cameras all over their house, and they like just telling everybody in the world, what they do and what they have for breakfast and all that like, but they put a cot 10s of 1000s, hundreds of 1000s of followers. And so that and it was it was just like a penny dropping. Course why not, of course. And these guys love being involved. They love promoting or having stuff and helping or just being influences of other brands. So straightaway, that was the perfect bit of very, very good advice. And then just keeps going on. I mean, Craig Darling, I mean, he, he has a good he gave everybody, everybody 30 minutes. So I was like straight on and I was onto into his calendar, and Google My Business by straightaway, within 30 minutes, I just, I’ve just changed my Google My Business from just having a Google account, populating it with all of the information that I know it took 20 minutes to do. And all of a sudden, Google now sees me, even like it ranks me even higher than I was. So just by filling in some details.

Norman Ferrar  27:44  

That that is still is crazy. And you know, if you haven’t heard Craig that podcast, go back and listen to it, because he tells you a free way of how to get better ranking on Google. We’ve changed it like all of the companies that we have are all change. And I had no Google My Business zero. How much? How much does it cost? Zero. If you can do it yourself, Craig has training and you can lay he’s not pushing the service. He has a service have done for you service. But you it’s one of those things that if you want to take the time, you can go and do it yourself. You can add the content, you can ask for reviews you can and the difference between this and and trying to hire an SEO company. So he gives an example of a car dealership. I think it’s in Seattle, where he was he was there. So SEO company before this. And they were being charged $50,000 a month. He got them down to $1,000 a month by using Google My Business. And so anyways, check, check it out. And I know for a fact if you’re new if you haven’t heard Craig contact them. I think it’s Craig at darling digital Comm. And he’ll give you the 30 minutes consult. If you want to join, you know, join up fine. If you don’t want to join up, just let him know that you heard from lunch with norm. And I’m sure you’ll get a heck of a deal. I know he gave everybody that did sign up. Really great deal. But if you want to do it on your own, it’s up to you. And it’s Oh my gosh. Yeah. That is the nugget that Oh

Simon Booth  29:41  

yeah, totally. He has a course and he has he has he does a Dunphy service yet but doesn’t push you into it at all. It’s not there’s no, it’s not a pressure cell at all. It’s just an ad and that’s it. And I just had to 30 minutes and it completely out. And finally, and that was it. And then the next one, Amy weeks, she was on. And I reached out to her. And we did some listing optimization. And so this was like this was an hour conversation. Let’s do that a went through one of my short of sort of parent listings. And so look at changing, optimizing it just changing a little bit in the title in the bullets, just a bit of improvement. And we looked at where it was, where it was and where it was ranked. And a week later, we were on the top of page one for every child and every variant, it was just it transformed. How this listing was been with behaving and the sales just almost doubled in a week. I mean, it was, yeah, and it was doing okay. It was he was, you know, it’s a it’s a not a bad, it’s not bad revenue stream, that particular product. But

Norman Ferrar  31:08  

I’m curious with, with the changes that you made? Did you change your title? Do you change bullets? Did you change the search terms? What did you change that? Pop?

Simon Booth  31:18  

Sorry. So we Yeah, we looked at the keywords. And we found that I was ranking top of page one for a search term that had a search volume of three. And it had had an Amazon badge as well. And I was really pleased with that. But amosite yet, but all three of those people that are searching that they and they find it or they actually clicking on your thing, let’s find some search terms that have got a little bit more than three, let’s go for a few 1000. So we didn’t realize that we weren’t ranking for those keywords. So we just just tweaked the title to include proper keywords, and then rewrote the the bullet points to be more reader friendly to be buyer friendly to write plain what the product was, and the benefits and all of that. And then we then we put the keywords into that. So we just wrote some nice content, five bullet points that talk about the benefit, talk about why it should be why it works for you the different sizes that are available, how to choose and all of the service that you get, and all of the, you know, all of the benefits. And then you start weaving in the keywords into that text rather than go keyword, keyword keyword, yes, we just kind of try and squeeze benefits into it and try to make it relevant to your listing and your product, write about your product, and then put the keywords in. And that’s what we did. And uploaded those. I mean, all the keywords on search terms are already in the backend. They just weren’t in the front end.

Norman Ferrar 33:09  

What kind of what kind of by that one thing. So Amy is great at what she does. But by changing that. So let’s say that you didn’t win anything. You you engaged her right?

Simon Booth  33:23  

Yeah, no, she was on the podcast, and I. And what she was saying was like, just made so much sense. I just went and looked at our website, and then I just engaged her and yeah, and that was a paid service.

Norman Ferrar 33:37  

Yeah. So I don’t even I don’t know if it’s 100 bucks. I don’t know if it’s 1000 bucks. But the difference that you had in your website, and your sales probably covered that off the first week. Oh 10 times over. Yeah, I’m curious. What were the difference? What were your average sales per day prior to just just changing your titles or changing your listing?

Simon Booth 34:06  

Yeah, so we went from about 15 units a day to probably about 3540 units a day. Now. Now I’m doing about 100 units a day. Nice.

Norman Ferrar  34:19  

Nice. So this is another thing that once the algorithm picks up and you get that momentum if you starting to pick up and you’re getting those higher end higher converting keywords, now you’re getting that momentum the the algorithm will see it, they’re gonna see that your your conversion rate is higher, and you’re gonna get promoted more and it’s it’s really that simple.

Simon Booth  34:41  

It really is. It really is that simple. It was just tweaking the title and the bullets it was it was that simple. I mean, we had everything I mean we’ve got the products pretty good. I mean it’s got good reviews, hundreds of reviews because this is this products been selling for you Is it sort of, it just hasn’t, it just wasn’t. It just wasn’t optimized. The listing was an optimized. So I got

Norman Ferrar 35:08  

a question about kind of off topic, but Okay, you’ve got this optimized listing. You’re getting some great sales. Have you ever thought about? Or do you have Amazon recommended? tutorials?

Simon Booth  35:25  

No, that was some that’s the net. That’s, that’s, that’s, that’s kind of the next step if you like, because I got that from, from me last week. And I thought that, yeah, so that’s something

Norman Ferrar 35:42  

that we haven’t done. That can increase your sales easily by 10. To 30%.

Simon Booth  35:48  

Yeah, so that’s, that’s a that’s a PR reach job. That was Yeah, Shane. Shane. Does that, yeah, you and Shane. Were talking about that last week. And it was like, Okay, well look into that. That’s, that’s kind of Next, I submit one of the next steps if you’d like us to do this. And yeah, PR reach is on my list. I hope so one a press release distribution. So I wrote, I wrote quite a long press release. And you distributed it. So that was that was another So that was another thing I who else are very engaged with? I mean, this just, I mean, mass mass here, who was on who’s been on money or podcast, he was on me previously. And she’s, she’s one of the one of the regular listeners. Now. Yeah, we were we engaged and I mean, what a font and knowledge she is, she’s like, just just inspirational. And yeah, just just genuinely kind and great human being. So I’ve engaged with her a few times. And we’ve we’ve we’ve had some contact. And there’s, there’s a lot of other others that are in the, in the chat and in the Facebook group that, you know, we just kind of engage, and it says, that says this the community side of things, which is, you know, when when you’re traveling, and you go to a lot of trade fairs, and you’re you’re seeing factories, you’re doing a lot of networking, you’re seeing a lot of people when when all of that is taken away, you just don’t get any network.

Simon Booth  37:47  

Oh, she I mean, she’s great. But But yeah, the networking opportunities, which I’ve had, from being part of the the Latino community, and this holy Khan community, it, it’s kind of it’s filled that gap, if you like, and which is, which is invaluable. Because running a business, certainly running a small business is a very, very lonely place. It’s, it’s, you know, it’s hard when you’re thinking about it constantly. If you’re not 100%, Surely you’re making the right decision. And how in a community that you can go to real and trust and be part of, and bounce those ideas or those questions. Or, you know, when you get feedback pretty quickly. It’s invaluable. You just, it’s, you can’t, you really can’t put a number on how valuable it is. To be part of that it’s you know, it’s like having a friends and family that know what you’re talking about, you know, because, you know, friends and family most people, my friends and my family really aren’t that bothered about me, they you know, they’re bored of me talking about business and this interested in is going on again. So how we’re in a place where you can happily talk to people and I say he’s lonely, he can be a lonely place. So you’ve got to have this network. And this is what you guys provide. And you know, and going back a year ago, like I said, I was in that really dark place. And that the podcasts have definitely given me hope and inspiration and drive and motivation and got a you know, I’m totally, I’m back in the light. And so that’s one thing, I think, is a lot and this is this is a nod to Danny with with mindset Mondays would be a lot of this. Nothing to do with e commerce. It was all about making sure that you’re looking after yourself and your, your, your well being and you know, and those sort of things that that stepped out really did step me out of that darkness and into the back into the light. And it it just definitely, definitely is a much better place to be now. But there’s always this, you know, and I think you might have kind of alluded to it as well, when you were talking to Danny, in your podcast about how there is there’s there’s always light after dark, you know, that the sun always rises in the morning, you know, is the darkness isn’t always there forever. And that’s sometimes is, it’s not always when you’re in it, it’s not easy to appreciate that. And, you know, something that not everybody talks about all the time, and they don’t like to talk dwell on it. But you know, an awful lot of people do struggle, and, you know, I’m sure everybody at some point, has, you know, has to deal with, with with hardship, whatever is where, you know, with some traumas in life itself, you know, life

Norman Ferrar  41:19  

business, I always look, and I don’t know, if I do this myself, if it’s psychological, but I find that there’s always something comes up usually every three months. So there’s a challenge that comes up, I don’t know what the heck it’s going to be. But something’s going to come is am I going to receive an email from Amazon? Am I going to get something from my bank? Am I going to get whatever it is, I got to deal with. And as long as I know, like we were, you were just saying that, you know, in my younger days, I’d go to bed completely stressed, wouldn’t get sleep bleeding also, like, I was like, it was bad. And you know, worried about this worried about that worried about making payroll worried about, you know, whatever it would be. And it never ended up being as bad as it would be? Never, ever. You know, that’s now you know, when something happens, I don’t know what you know. And then the next three months, I don’t know what’s going to be, but guess what? I’m going to brush it off my shoulders. I’m going to get to sleep. I’m going to wake up the next morning, and I’m gonna go to work. No,

Simon Booth  42:27  

the words that you said, I remember it now. You said, it’s never as bad as what you think it is. And it’s so true. It’s and that they were the words that pulled me out of that place in it. Yeah. And it’s. And I, I’m, I’m grateful. Thank you for that. No, no, you’re

Norman Ferrar 42:49  

welcome. Somebody somebody actually listened that said, My son Kelsey, never does. But But anyways, I’m glad. I’m glad if those words helped. I’m glad it did. Yeah, now, I’m really interested. So we’ve talked a little bit about, you know, you’ve talked to some people. Some of our guests have helped you out. Let’s talk about where your product was, where it is. Now. Have you hit your milestones? What’s going on?

Simon Booth 43:23  

Okay, so the new the new brand is, oh, we only launched were launched in November is is sports and outdoor products. And pretty much immediately hit as nonsense. The Brand Registry was was was incorrectly in the backends that they put the wrong brand name or the matter time the contacted seller support and it just be like, yeah, just go into service Seller Central, and change the brand name and it will be edited within 15 minutes, blah, blah, blah. Oh my god, three months later, and probably 1000s of these contacts with seller support getting nowhere. It was like, right, that’s just been all a sins and start again. So yeah, so this was probably February. So about eight weeks ago decided justice, just a scratch everything. I mean, we’ve made some sales, got a few reviews. But the velocity and the thought it was just it was it was more, there was more value in starting over and getting in right than trying to because I need because we needed Brand Registry to work properly to be able to upload the EBC because we weren’t able to do that and it was just causing all sorts of issues. So, right Let’s start over again and recreate these. These aces. They’ve got let’s just start over. So kicked between the legs. Yeah, I mean, it was a it was a it was a three month you know, sort of bent double getting kicked in. And I was like to if your time they’d like to kick you even harder. Yeah. So that you know that they’re sort of their support their seller support I’m not sure I’m not quite sure that’s the the appropriate name for it, but I’ll be

Norman Ferrar 45:37  

calling it the dartboard seller support dartboard where wherever the Dart lands, they give you an answer. Seller selling multiple unsupportive, whatever. And so kind of got launched, launched. So I’ve got,

Simon Booth   45:58  

you got an update, I’ve got about 350 A since this, I’ve got about I’ve got 10 parents, and they’ve all got, they’ve all got variant colors, sizes. So that’s why there’s so many. So I’ve got about 10 skews that have all got different circuits. So there’s 10 parents, if you like, and they’ve all got their child’s and different in different colors and sizes. I’ve looked with properly launched three of them about eight weeks ago, because we took we start decided to start from scratch, and then sort of step phase, the launches, just to see how see what was working and what wasn’t working, trying to take into into consideration all the live listing optimization I’d learned from Amy, and you put having some influencer programs go in and get all of those sort of things in place. So we’re probably I think, last week was the last launch. We did. And it’s it’s going okay, it’s stepping up. I mean, if I think what I would do with the next launches is probably do some more pre launch work, I probably do more of Amazon, I wouldn’t just load the list in send him a tree in and do PPC and launch it that way. That’s that is that works. But I think I probably tried to do a bit more engagement, or create a bit more of a social media frenzy if you’d like and do a bit more pre launch noise to kind of generate a bit of a bit of interest and create those email lists and then drive that external traffic on the launch that which would then probably help with driving momentum and like and turning the flywheel a little bit quicker. So yeah, it’s it’s a it’s an immense learning curve. But yeah, so far it’s it’s, it’s not going too bad. This is only in the UK. I’ve only launched in the UK. So the next step is to launch because I’m still waiting for my VAT registration to come through from a VAT they’ve done all the I’ve done all the applications with with COVID and Brexit and all sorts of other stuff and no application time is about eight weeks. This is probably extended to 1215 weeks. We’re in week 12 now so we should be able to launch into the rest of Europe in the next few weeks. Then once we’ve got a bit more momentum there it’s then start into the US and expand expand into the US. But I really got to start putting a bit of effort into the Shopify site as well as with with kitty moto Shopify does very well and I know how to use Google we know how to do all we know we know how to make social media drive traffic and google drive traffic and how to get Shopify working well and eBay works pretty well. I you know, I’m something I’ve also learned from e commerce is do not put all your eggs into the Amazon basket. You are absolutely at the mercy of that beast if they decide to suppress your listings turn you off. Givi limits on your inventory. Your inventory gets lost, a ship gets stuck in a serious canal and you can’t get your stock in and get can’t get it into Amazon. You’re in a spot of you just you risk is too high for me. I know, I know, I’ve heard a lot of a lot of your guests have 100% Amazon and they abide by that and they love that. And it minimises their efforts. And their focus is 100% on that channel. And that works and it works for them. And I have no doubt they’ve got backup plans for if I if if things do go wrong, but do you know what? I don’t want to take that risk. So spread it spread your risk is

Norman Ferrar  50:54  

like that. My risk tolerance, there have been guests that have come on and said, focus 100% on Amazon. And, you know, for and this is just my opinion, is that. And because I’ve been there, and I’ve lost a company because I was a one legged stool. So I don’t want to be that one legged stool. So if I’ve got it on Amazon, and eBay has been very, I’ve tried to get people from eBay on Not, not a single person has ever returned an email a call nothing. Yeah, great. He was fantastic. And a year ago, or a year and a half ago, we had two guys that we had connections in eBay, and they were awesome. They were the business development director who could help anybody, like if anybody were to call them like Craig garlin, or Amy, if you call them up, they give you a hand, right. And they both at the same week ended up leaving eBay. And now I cannot get eBay. And eBay is a great platform. It’s not the eBay of you know, 10 years ago, which really sucked. It is a brand centric platform. Now, the brand is pretty nice, really cool stuff. Like even one of the things that I love if Okay, so let’s say I’m going into a purse store to buy something for my wife for Mother’s Day, boom, I can take a picture and go up to eBay, it’ll show me anybody who’s selling that purse. It’s really it’s quite cool. And they’ll protect your brand. And they’ve got all these other things that are happening. Plus their their actual customer service, if you are a business. If you’re in as a business, yeah, they’re, they actually try to help

Simon Booth  52:45  

that they they, they’re very supportive. I mean, the great thing about eBay being kind of the sort of second place to, to Amazon is they are working hard to build their platform, build that and generate traffic, both from sellers and from buyers. And they have got they’ve got great marketing strategy, they do a lot of advertising their auto and it’s easy to use, it’s easy to use as a, as a buyer, if you want to buy stuff is easy to use, you can find the stuff you want. And as a seller, it’s really easy to use. And it’s easy to to rank. I mean, you don’t have all of the tools I do like with helium 10 and Jungle Scout. And all of the Chrome extensions that you’ve got, you don’t have all of those, particularly with eBay. But you don’t, and they don’t have FBA, you don’t have you’ve got us you’ve got to be you’ve got to have your own stock, and you’ve got to have your own logistics, and you’ve got to be able to manage that. But they

Norman Ferrar  53:56  

sell internationally and they take care of that for you. You know, somebody buys, if anybody buys your product, they I mean, it’s it’s not like in Amazon, but they’ve got a distribution network, a fulfillment center, I believe it’s in Kentucky. And it’ll they just send off the product to anywhere in the world. No charge. Yep. Yeah, it was kind of cool. Well, I am trying my best to get them on, I’m actually going to be spending a lot more time talking about Walmart and trying to get some guys from Shopify to come on. So that’s kind of where we’re, we’re going. We’re not going to get away from Amazon. But we are trying to bring on some more guests that are a bit more diversified in the e commerce space. But before we go there, Kelsey, do we have any questions that have come in for Simon? I know it’s at the top of the hour.

Kelsey  54:48  

Yes. So we have a couple of questions. Guy. Simon, how are you dealing with the sea transport delays and managing your inventory

Simon Booth  55:03  

Exercising patience. And just, yes, it’s a nightmare. Yeah, see trouble is in an absolute mess. We all know that. You know, there’s there is a massive shortage of empty containers returning to China. The the the shipping companies are capitalizing on that and they’ve increased their prices by tenfold. Managing inventory is one of those really tough things. I saw this coming last year. I, you know that I think I might have frame comments whenever you’ve had logistics people in say, this is not going to be over by Chinese New Year. I, you know, I think one of the few that comment I put I am a pessimist on this. I am generally optimistic. But on shipping, I am very pessimistic. I was because I was good. Yeah, Chinese New Year, it’ll all be over. This was in q4 last year. And I was like, No, you want to be thinking q4, next year, Chinese New Year 2022. That’s when it might start to ease up. So fortunately, my crystal ball at the time was quite clear, and show me up. So I, I really upped the ante on production and getting stock in I’ve got, I mean, I’ve still got a lot of stock ready in China, and I’m struggling to get it over. I’m our air freight stuff over times. And it’s, it’s, it’s a tough one for you. You’ve really kind of got to suck it up now. And I think you’ve now really got to start planning forecasting for q4 Now get your production stuck, because lead times have extended as well, because there’s there’s difficulty getting materials in into factories, factories are absolutely stuffed full of finished product, they literally can’t move in the factories because they can’t ship it out. So there’s no warehouse space in Ningbo and Shenzhen and, and in Shanghai, so they can’t really empty their factories, their warehouses. So that’s causing issues with on the assembly lines, which has a knock on effect. So lead times are extending from normal 30 4030 to 45 days to 60 8090 100 days for production times. And they’ve got an I’ve just, I just had a discussion with a forwarder about putting a container on a ship, you guys. It’s gotta be stopping. It’s got two stops on the way I think it’s getting a career in Singapore, or do you want to wait for a direct shipment? Well, it could be enough. And that’s, that’s going to take 50 days from China to the UK, instead of the normal 28 days. It’s like, well, it could be another two weeks, three weeks, four weeks before we find the direct ship. So just get it on board and when it gets here, okay. But yeah, it’s just he just have to suck it up. And but plan ahead now get planning for q4. That is you can’t be doing it. Okay, any other questions? Yes.

Kelsey  58:33  

So this is kind of about Google My Business. Tom Hartley was saying that he got rejected by Google, that they needed a physical location, and they don’t support online businesses. So how do you get that?

Norman Ferrar  58:46  

Hey, Tom, your physical location, you can give a home address, you don’t have to give like what we did is we gave my home address. And you don’t have to show it you there’s, you could let them know not to show it. There’s a box you can check not to show your address. But they need to have an address, just to just to verify that you’re real. But again, they’re not showing the address is not a bricks and mortar. We’re a podcast, or virtual. All I did was just register under my, my Canadian address. And one of the things is that they can geo target or geo fence they call it. So if if I want to go and pick specific countries, or not pick specific country or not allow countries to rank ranking, then I can pick them as well. So it’s really cool. I’m in Canada, but my main target could be in the US, UK, UK, Australia wherever I want to target. So anyways, I don’t know if you have anything to add to that Simon.

Simon Booth  59:56  

I no idea. I would just say yeah, just use your phone. The home address, you might even be getting like a Pio box or sort of, just don’t use a peel box, don’t use pmla,

Norman Ferrar  1:00:08  

they’ll they will reject a peel box. Or if you go to a UPS store, you know, and you just get one of their, you know, it is a, you know, it is a box, they know. So just use a real address. And again, it’s not being published anywhere.

Simon Booth  1:00:28  

And if you’re online, if you’re an online business, you should, if you’ve got a website, you should really have your address on there anyway. And I’ve contact numbers. I mean, it gives you visibility and transparency. And you know, you, you should be letting your customers know who you are and that you are real.

Norman Ferrar  1:00:47  

And if you do add, like let’s say you, let’s say some freight forwarders will allow you to use their address, but there are places in the states that you can get a US address. But again, I don’t know why. Just use your own if you do have a location. That what if you’re using your address, and you’re using your address for Google My Business, if you’re using your address for like, let’s say if you’re doing press release, which asks for contact information, well guess what? You’re going to Google Maps is going to pick you up and start ranking you as well. So that’s also a bonus.

Kelsey  1:01:26  

Okay, and my last question is from Darwin is kind of a broad question. I’ve never traveled to meet manufacturers, how do you guys feel not going to meet them? How will it affect us as far as looking like a real or more legitimate company? Not including COVID? So I guess, how do you get seen as a real legitimate company as a seller sales?

Simon Booth  1:01:53  

Yeah, place orders. And But yeah, I mean, I totally you, I think it’s to build a relationship, you’ve got to meet these people face to face. Yeah, even if it’s just once, and I like I like going to factories, because you can, you can see the condition of the factories, you can meet the workers and the people that are making your stuff. And you also see your competitors and all of the other stuff that they’re making. And it gives you gives you some ideas on other other products. And I mean, doing all this ace in reverse stuff, and all of that kind of trying to work out how to make a product from helium 10. It’s all well and good, but can go to exhibitions, meet, meet them, meet them in exhibitions and trade shows. I know it’s difficult, it’s always difficult now, but you know, everyone’s zooming and skipping. So get on, get on a video call with them. Just,

Norman Ferrar  1:03:03  

you know, if you’re, if you’re legit, that’s all they really want is to see that you’re a legit seller. I know in the like, 2025 years ago, when we went over to Taiwan, it’s just a different culture, they wanted to know, if you never talk business. It was family first. They got to know you. And then it was business like the first day we would go in and we meet a bunch of suppliers. It was really not about business. Now this this is completely changed. But the second time we would meet we would you know, we would we actually we’d go out we’d break bread. And I’m telling you, man, you know, you’d have some feasts, like, you know, they would wine and dine and they still do. They, they if they feel that you’re legit, if you’re taking the effort to come over and to talk to them now. Not only are they going to help you with product innovation, they want you to succeed, you know, if you’re going to make money for them, they’re going to want you to succeed. And it’s it’s never a bad idea to become like you can I have very good relationships with my suppliers. And I can talk to them I can say that we’re friends with some of these suppliers that we deal with. It’s just it’s great if you’re able to break bread with a supplier and your your the other guys not or the other ladies not. And also, the other thing is if you’re treating them properly on price, there is a price point level where you can like which is a point of resistance anywhere below that. You’re going to have problems the quality is going to be bad. They’re not going to be happy with you. I like the wind when I don’t mind my supplier making money, if I can take that product and create perceived value, and you know, and I don’t care what I do with it afterwards, I might make 234 or five, six times, you know the cost of goods. But if I can pay a few extra cents, and they’re happy, I’m good with that. I know when I call, they’ll give me better service.

Simon Booth  1:05:21  

I think Darwin, I think there’s a, I mean, like any relationship, it takes time, because it’s, whether it’s virtual, or like on email or face to face. You know, there’s, there’s no Quick, quick weights. It’s all about building that trust. And it’s a two way street, you’ve got to, you’ve got to kind of learn to trust them as much as they learn to trust you. So, right, it is all about and the tone that eventually comes through on on the emails. But yeah, getting on video calls works quite well. Phone the phone these guys up. So you know, I spend most of their time doing email. So getting a phone call is there quite a lot, but it’s, it’s it, it just takes time. You just got to just got to work on it. And however, whether you decide not to go though, you know, I’m definitely most definitely not going to be going to China as regular. I mean, I was I was going 678 times a year, and spending 10 days at a time that you know, my my kids, they they were turned into teenagers while I was building the businesses. They were like when I turn up when I’ve arrived only right, mom, there’s a strange man in the house. What’s been the last year you know, with lockdown as well, and they’ve been home from school. I’ve got to know my kids again. There’s no way I’m gonna go traveling around the world and not seeing these guys. And you know, so yeah, it’s just and, you know, there’s the environmental issue, you know, jumping on a plane and fly around the world and burning all that fossil fuel this this unnecessary, really? So, yeah, I think. Yeah, just spend time. trust him get to know him land trust you as well, but it takes time.

Norman Ferrar  1:07:16  

Great answer. Okay. I think that’s about it. We’re gonna wind up Simon. Oh, thank you so much. I got a giveaway. Oh, we’ve got the contest winners that Kelsey is going to get to right now. So that’s a that’s the giveaway. How’s that? Your giveaway was your insights and your info today. Thank you so much. You’re very welcome. Thank No, thank you. Thank you to all your guests. Thanks, Kelsey as well, I mean, trustees an absolute superstar. So but yeah, no, thank you guys. Absolutely. Brilliant. Thank you, Simon. Carry on with the great work. Absolutely. Brilliant. You guys are amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Now what time is it goes?

Kelsey  1:08:02  

All right. Sorry. We don’t have the wheel of Kelsey today because the pick. The winners have already been decided. Okay. All right. Yeah, we Yeah. So what you’re gonna do there? Alright. So we do have the contest winners? Yes. So we have three contest winners. Okay, take it away.

Norman Ferrar  1:08:22  

You froze? My frozen. No, you were back at your mouth open your eyes closed. It was pretty funny. Okay, so let’s go

Kelsey 1:08:32  

number one for our air pod pros. All we have is an email. So I just want to say that the email that starts with an LED, I send the email already. We don’t have a name or anything. So check your spam box. Maybe like just make sure I don’t believe I have the main back yet or they haven’t replied back yet. So we never hear from them. We could redraw. Yeah. Well, that email is no redrum. Monday. How about that? Yeah, we don’t hear back. Okay. And for the qlc consultation, social media, our winner was fatigue. All right, fatigue. Yeah, they’re so and she’s listening. So she got it. Perfect. So we can decide on a time and date for that. And then for our big winner. We have even you so stick. Yes. So Steven, you I know he’s he just launched a product too. So I think he’d really appreciate that. But he is the winner. So that’s an hour giveaway or hour consultation with you. So yeah, there we go.

Norman Ferrar  1:09:40  

Well, that’s great. So yes, just get me Stephens. information. We’ll book a time and we’ll have an hour concert and hopefully I can help him out with his product product launch. Kelsey, I think yafa T is going to love it. I know that she’s got a few things happening right now. So this will help enhance her brand. So All right, everybody. Yeah, again, I gotta rethink. Yep, go ahead.

Kelsey  1:10:07  

I’m just gonna say thank you everyone that did our contest. It was awesome to see everyone’s spirits that they put on. We really did see the beard nation come through and it was Yeah, really great. We love building out our community and like connecting with everyone. And yeah, and Simon, if you’re watching, if we’re going to end the show, and then just stick around, don’t leave the broadcast. And we’ll talk to you afterwards,

Norman Ferrar  1:10:34  

too. All right, fantastic. Okay, so if Kelsey doesn’t interrupt me, I’ll just end up the podcast just by thanking everybody, I’m gonna do his job a little bit too. Please, if you like what you heard today, smash those like buttons, subscribe. And if you’re in YouTube, maybe ring that bell. And you’ll get notifications of when we’re going live. Or if we, if we’re adding any new content to the YouTube site. And by the way, we’re going to be doing some really cool new things in social media. We’re going to be adding a few new playlists in, in our YouTube channel, we’re gonna be trying to stretch out and providing a few bits and pieces of different content in different platforms. Kelsey, and I were talking about that a little earlier today. And so there’s a few surprises that’ll be coming up over the next couple of weeks. And you look like you’re gonna say something.

Kelsey  1:11:28  

I was just gonna say, we may be playing around with our Patreon again, really upping it and giving more value to it. There’ll be extra tears. So we’re going to nothing’s going to change here. We’re going to still do the launch with normal podcasts every three days, giving you everything. We don’t want to put you guys behind the paywall, but we are thinking about upping it a little bit, making it a little more enticing and yeah, so very good, little Alright.

Norman Ferrar  1:11:56  

So once again, thank you for joining the podcast today. We’re broadcasting live every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at noon, Eastern central or Eastern central Eastern Standard Time. And thank you for being part of the community helps spread the word. If you know anybody who we can help, please let them know that we’ve got this free community that they can join. Alright everybody, thanks for your time, and we’ll see you later. On mantra

Transcribed by https://otter.ai