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Nathan interviews Tanner Larsson, co-founder of 80/20 Media, CEO of e-commerce brand incubator BuildGrowsSale.com. He\\u2019s also the founder and facilitator of an exclusive e-commerce syndicate called Black Label \\u2013 composed of the best and brightest marketers, CEOs, and entrepreneurs in the e-commerce space. He recently published his first book called Ecommerce Evolved which offers readers a box view of how successful e-commerce brands build, grow, and scale.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \\u2013 Rocket Fuel
• What CEO do you follow? \\u2013\\xa0 Ed O\\u2019Keefe

• Favorite online tool? \\u2014FastStone Capture
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\\u2014 Not even close
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? \\u2013 \\u201cYou don\\u2019t have to fund everything out of your own pocket, there are other options available\\u201d

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:27 \\u2013 Nathan introduces Tanner to the show
• 02:15 \\u2013 Tanner\\u2019s ecommerce world started in 2001
• • 02:20 \\u2013 Started in eBay and Tanner became a powerseller
  • • 02:31 \\u2013 Tanner was doing $ 50,000 - $ 100,000 a month in eBay
• 03:00 \\u2013 \\u201cThere\\u2019s no reason not to sell a physical product\\u201d
• 03:25 \\u2013 Tanner and his team have a number of e-commerce brands
• • 03:36 \\u2013 2 main brands have done $6.5 million in a year
• 03:48 \\u2013 They had a problem in production
• • 04:06 \\u2013 \\u201cWe\\u2019ve had different bottlenecks that prevented us from growing at the rate we could have grown\\u201d
• 04:30 \\u2013 The flashlight market
• • 04:38 \\u2013 Tanner doesn\\u2019t want to sell what everybody is selling
  • 04:47 \\u2013 The gap they saw is between the lower price entry level flashlight and high-end flashlight
  • 05:03 \\u2013 Tanner and his team develop their own flashlight and a kit
  • 05:17 \\u2013 Truegunner.com
  • 05:25 \\u2013 The flashlight is in a sales funnel
  • • 05:34 \\u2013 The funnel path
• 06:02 \\u2013 The bestseller flashlight is the M600 tactical utility flashlight
• • 06:07 - $22 manufactured price from China
  • 06:32 \\u2013 They had a much higher per unit cost and much lower profit margin on the first order
  • • 06:43\\xa0 - First order was at a minimum which is a thousand
    • 07:03 \\u2013 Total is $30,000 tied up which equals to $3 per unit price
  • 07:52 \\u2013 It took 7 months before the first order started production
  • 07:58 \\u2013 The back and forth from the manufacturing county took time
  • • 08:05 \\u2013 Shipping takes a week which includes the revises that needed on the product
  • 08:30 \\u2013 \\u201cIf you\\u2019re building your product from the ground, there\\u2019s a whole back and forth with the manufacturer\\u201d
  • 09:00 \\u2013 Started selling on November 2015
  • • 09:05 \\u2013 Sold about 4400 units for 12 months
    • 09:21 \\u2013 Total money in from this product is around $ 150,000 - $ 160, 000
  • 09:50 \\u2013 99% of the funds came from Tanner
  • 10:12 \\u2013 The downside is some raw materials are specialized
  • • 10:27 \\u2013 They have to buy raw materials in advance to prevent going out of stock
• 11:28 \\u2013 Most of their sales are funnel driven
• 11:43 \\u2013 They were using ultracart but shifted back to infusionsoft
• 12:09 \\u2013 They are also using Hotjar records visitor interaction. Like heat mapping
• 12:43 \\u2013 They spend $13 per user acquisition on the front end
• • 13:03 \\u2013 They breakeven in the funnel
• 13:30 \\u2013 They also have subscription plans
• 14:01 \\u2013 They have 7000 paying user
• 14:36 \\u2013 They also have drop-off rates
• 16:00 \\u2013 Connect with Tanner through his website
• 18:30 \\u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

• Look for alternative funding. Don\\u2019t shoulder everything.
• If you don\\u2019t know something, that doesn\\u2019t mean you can\\u2019t explore.
• Sourcing from manufacturers abroad takes patience and a lot of research.

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Resources Mentioned:

• Toptal\\xa0\\u2013 Nathan found his development team using Toptal\\xa0 for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn\\u2019t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal\\xa0 developers.
• Host Gator\\xa0\\u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks\\xa0\\u2013 The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages\\xa0 \\u2013 The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible\\xa0\\u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he\\u2019s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• Assistant.to \\u2013 The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
• Acuity Scheduling \\u2013 Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip \\u2013 Nathan uses Drip\\u2019s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel.
• BuildGrowScale.com \\u2013 Tanner\\u2019s website
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives