Grant and Mike share their successes from the past 30 days and their ambitious goals for 2016. Grant discusses explosive holiday sales, decreased shipping costs, and his goal to eliminate self-packaging. Mike details his shift to private label products on Amazon, hiring a second employee, and plans for third-party fulfillment. Both reveal new ventures, offering a candid look into strategic growth and operational scaling for ecommerce entrepreneurs.
Key takeaways
Increased holiday sales can significantly impact yearly revenue, as seen with CuttingBoard.com's holiday surge.
Shifting from third-party items to private label products can build brand equity and control, as Mike did with his Amazon business.
Leveraging third-party fulfillment (3PL) allows for operational scaling and reduces the need for larger self-managed spaces.
Strategic outsourcing, like Grant’s goal to eliminate self-packaging, can streamline operations and reduce costs.
Diversifying into niche markets, such as Grant’s leatherjacket.com or Mike’s colorIt.com, can open new revenue streams and brand opportunities.
Today we are giving you the Grant and Mike fireside chat as we take a look at how things have been going for us for the past 30 days and talk about some of our goals for 2016. For both of us sales have been going really well and we have some exciting things to look forward to as we head into the new year. Grant explains that sales have exploded over the holiday buying period at CuttingBoard.com. Things are also going well at sister site ChoppingBlocks.com. He talks about other Amazon projects he has going on too. Grant notes that container pricing has dropped and talks about the impact of decreased shipping costs. His long-term goal is not to have to package anything himself ever again. Mike has seen substantial growth in sales as well. He has taken a major step in his business by eliminating dealing with third-party items from Amazon. Mike has replaced those third-party items with items that have his brand name. He has also hired his second full time employee and moved operations to a larger space which allows for a better office environment. Mike’s long-term goal is to not have to ever move again. He explains his plans to use third-party fulfillment going forward. We also take the wraps off some new things we’ve been working on: Grant has a supplier lined up his leatherjacket.com domain and believes he will be able to carve out a great small niche in the business. Mike has launched colorIt.com, which offers high-end premium coloring books for adults. He will round out the brand with journals, sketchbooks and other items. We also
