“I Sell Designer Bags on Whatnot. How Do I Get to $38M?”

0:00I sell designer bags and sunglasses and we do about 6 million a month and no I'm so sorry a year sorry 6 million a year. >> Still cool. >> Um and I would like to do 38 million. >> Precise. >> Yeah, 38 million. >> Okay. >> Um and what's stopping me is recruiting >> Why 38? >> Um just because I figured you know 100,000 a day something like that round up down something like that.

0:26>> Okay. >> It's just a roundabout um and um I mean obviously more. >> Yeah, yeah, okay. >> I was thinking 38 would be fair. >> Yeah, that works. >> Um >> [laughter] >> and it is just recruiting um >> Recruiting is the bottom line as you're saying. >> Yeah. >> Okay, got it. >> Um my house cleaner was my first employee and she just and because I consumed yours and Leila's content so much that I was like I'm going to be these two people in one. That's me. I'm going to be these two people.

0:56>> Tough. >> And as a result I have um a great team. >> Okay. >> great team and it's just a matter of being militant in the um the recruiting process. >> Okay. >> Um The we do sell on Whatnot quite a bit. >> do you have what's stopping you? So you make money $6 million a year selling handbags. >> And sunglasses. >> And sunglasses. For you to sell more handbags and sunglasses you need more people to do that?

1:24>> Yes, because we we only go live for about 5 hours a day because we get tired. It's just me and my partner. >> Okay. >> Well me and um I have three sales people but um it's just we get tired. We could if we were live more often we could create more. >> You're going live on like your Instagram page or your what? >> On Whatnot. >> Okay, got it. And do you have like a big following there? >> 110,000 110,000

1:50>> just selling to that same base and if you just sold for longer you would make more. >> A a more. I could do 100 grand in the show. >> Okay. So, you just need like two more sales people who are going on camera? >> Mhm. But, yeah. Mhm. And then, the recruiting as well. >> Recruiting for what? >> Uh packing, cuz we we do a lot of um >> You do your own 3PL or not third-party, but like you do your own logistics? >> Mhm. >> Hm. Why?

2:15>> Why do we do it ourselves? >> Hm? >> I didn't know I didn't know you could have other people do it. >> Boy, oh boy. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Step inside. Uh yes. >> [laughter] >> So, so functionally like because of the nature of the business that you're in, um we have to think like cuz we have to we have to consolidate resources. I'm not normally somebody who's like, uh let's let's cut, you know, parts of the business out, but unless your shipping is some key differentiator that you have, uh like Amazon shipping became a competitive advantage, right? Um but unless that's like some differentiator, then shipping for the most part is pretty commoditized, and there are people who all day long they think about like saving 15 cents on cardboard boxes and tape and packing peanuts and all that [ __ ] Um and I think that that you having to like think about that and run a functionally a warehouse at the same time as running a marketing and sales and talent business {slash} media, that's not where the value is. The value's in the distribution and the sales.

3:20And so, I would say like, can we outsource this so that Can we outsource this the the logistics part so that you can just go all the cuz if all we had to do is you get two more sales people and you get to 100,000 a day, we should do that. >> So, um we have to physically show the product. Like literally.

3:45>> you don't have like some product on hand. You just don't need a warehouse. >> No, we do need it cuz it's like go go go go. >> Okay. >> We run probably about >> So you're like we sold this item to this person is how you do it. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> So >> Um got it. >> of like a warehouse. It's yeah. >> Okay. That's fine. Um all right, so you just need to hire more people. So what's stopping you from hiring more people?

4:11>> The talent um >> The talent to hire more people? >> Well, I'm I'm learning now. That's why I'm here. >> No, you're good. You're good. So I'm saying like you have two sets of roles. You've got warehouse folks and you've got people who can get on camera. Right? So what are you currently doing to get each of those people? >> Well, we had ads on indeed. >> Okay. >> really realize how militant I had to be until I came here. It's it makes a lot of sense, right? I didn't know that there was that many interviews that were required. Um

4:42>> And that's more for the warehouse side, correct? >> Both because sales is >> I think that you'd be able to find sales people like I would probably look at Amazon affiliates. >> How much would you pay them? >> Percentage. >> Well, that's the thing. Now it's so okay, so it takes skill to do what we do. It takes skill. Like like like >> Like [laughter] um for example, my girl is better than me.

5:10>> Great. >> than me and it's like not only is it motor skills, it's um presentation and entertainment. >> I I get it. >> [laughter] >> I understand. I did a live for 3 days. I got it. >> Uh-huh. Um so finding and training that um that's definitely a process and takes time. >> Yeah. The question is whether you want to buy or build.

5:38Do you want to buy the talent or build the talent? Building the talent is cheaper, takes longer, harder. Buying the talent is faster, more expensive. Which one do you Which one feels right for you? >> So, when it comes to the So, we have um We're not always So, we are profitable per show. Yes. >> Okay. >> Profitable per show.

6:03>> Uh-huh. >> But, sometimes what ends up happening is like let's just say it's a a Wednesday, >> Are you on cash base accounting or accrual? Probably cash. >> Yeah. >> So, you might like if Basically, if you run a physical products business, which you do, here, >> Mhm. >> you're like, "Okay, we made money. Now, let's take all of that profit, gross profit that we had, and go buy more [ __ ] so we can sell more [ __ ] right?"

6:30Right. So, this is where like you probably have What's your Like, what's your financial the financial side of the business the financial ops look like? >> My accountant [snorts] handles it. >> Your who? >> My accountant. >> accountant does it. Okay. >> Yeah. >> You will need to have soon a relatively strong finance person >> Mhm. >> uh who can give you better forecasting so that you can It's not just like, "How much cash we have in the bank account? Let's go buy more shit." It's like, "We can only afford to buy this much given this growth rate that we want to have."

6:58>> Mhm. >> Um otherwise, you will get into these probably cash crunches that you're feeling right now. It's not that the business isn't profitable cuz I'm guessing the head count's not super high. >> So, so our sh- So, our shows will make anywhere from like 5 to 7,000 profit depending on like the volume that we did that day. So, we know the profit like per show. However, um that's the where the skill comes into play. Like, if a show's not going well, we need to have that person trained to be able to do the do the thing and And so, that's why not knowing how much to pay them is the

7:28>> Well, I mean, I think doing a percentage would make sense. >> Percentage of profit? >> Yeah. Like a salesperson. >> Okay. >> And so, you can buy or build that, right? So, you buy it as I would just go to mi- mini micro-influencers who are already like on Amazon hawking stuff. And be like, well, they already do live streams and they already do sell [ __ ] And I bet I could teach them to do this for me. That is a buy version cuz you already know it's already proven. You're just saying, "Hey, do it under my umbrella."

7:54The build version is that you have to kiss a lot more toads and try and look for who has already built in a bunch of soft skills. >> Mhm. >> And then you can hire for the small skill deficiency that you know how to train. >> Okay, so Amazon affiliates. >> Well, you could do either, but like yeah, I mean obviously this is going to be a lower risk thing and then you just have to have some agreement that they're going to only sell for you for X period of time. >> Mhm. Like a contract. Yeah. >> Like a contract. >> Thank you.

8:22>> Yes. >> Thank you. >> But I would but big picture cuz I want to make sure that you're good. Um the Indeed warehouse stuff that's just like commoditized. I mean you have a warehouse, maybe you have to have it for your business, but like I don't see that as like that's not a core differentiator. You might You're not different because you have a warehouse behind you. >> Mhm. >> That's not special. So, the roles that you have there, it's like they need to be like have a pulse, have a good leader there, let them just deal with it.

8:46Your your star factor is going to be your ability to train people to sell. >> Mhm. >> And so that's like where is your What is like What is the true pinpoint of where the most value gets created for you as the founder, the entrepreneur? Is that you need to be able to take somebody and teach them to sell. >> I Yeah, um my >> And you have to break it down in in terms of the most concrete language you possibly can. And so think of everything purely in terms of behavior and do new do not use any amorphous words.

9:17So, it's like, "I need you to have higher energy." That means nothing. "I need you to raise your voice. I need you to talk faster. I need you to have your shoulders back." You have to describe things that people can see and then other people would describe them as having high energy, having charisma, having confidence. And so if you want to teach someone to present, you have to tell them what to do with their body and their voice, and it will be far faster for you. And what you'll find is the training lab The reason it takes so long for people to train where they can where they can't train sales people or presentation people is because they literally do not use words that other people understand.

9:51Like this is the problem. This is why most companies cannot teach people to do [ __ ] Because they say, "Have more charisma." And then the person listens and it's like, "I'll translate that into what I think charisma means." Which who [ __ ] knows what they think it means, right? And then we're just playing this telephone game where no one agreed on what are the behaviors I want you to do. That will compress the amount of time that will take you to get someone up to speed, and two, long-term, if you can develop the sales training, then you can have a stable of stallions that are on 24/7 for you working in your in your barn.

10:22>> So that >> know why it's animals now, but let's go with it. >> So that that's actually that brings up the a good point. So [laughter] I >> Okay. >> I I have um so my girl uh like I said, she's my house cleaner, shows up at my my door one day, she's she's like, "Hey, I want to be you." >> Yeah. >> And she's like, "I'm a copy and paste of you." And she became me. >> Yeah. >> Now there's a little bit like a little bit of a how can I cuz obviously I had to learn the care part like from Layla.

10:50>> Uh-huh. >> Um so I learned the care part. Um >> [laughter] >> And um now I have it, but then I've seen her I mean I've seen situations kind of like not go the way they should because she's too she's a copy and paste of me from yesterday. >> Uh-huh. >> So um I'm starting to see those kind of >> problem? >> Uh Um human

11:15>> Put her in front of the camera, have her sell, and get her out of the building. If like if she can sell. >> Yeah. >> So let her sell. Don't have her manage people. Have her sell. >> Got it. Understood. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> Got it. >> This is good talk. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> If you are a business owner and you are not growing as fast as you'd like, I'd like to give you a free gift. So, my team and I put together the $100 million scaling road map, which is basically 200 hours of us looking over all the portfolio companies we've had and what stages of growth they went through and more importantly where they got stuck and how they got past it. And so we broke it in these 10 stages and we made this little kind of quiz thing where if you put in your business information, it'll tell you where you're at and the most important part for you, what to do for each of functions of the business across product, marketing, sales, customer success, recruiting, IT, human resources and finance. And so, no matter what you're struggling with, someone else has already struggled with it and solved it. And so I'd like to give you this thing absolutely free. You can go to acquisition.com/roadmap, plug in your business information and if you want us to actually help you deconstruct your business and you're trying to scale, we'd love to help you out. On the thank you page, you just book a call with my team and we will look at the business, see if we can help and if we can, we'll invite you out to Vegas and we'll do this in person live.