17 min listen
EP 481: 4400 Flashlights Sold, $79 Price, $23 COGS, 55% Net Margin with TrueGunner CEO Tanner Larsson
EP 481: 4400 Flashlights Sold, $79 Price, $23 COGS, 55% Net Margin with TrueGunner CEO Tanner Larsson
ratings:
Length:
21 minutes
Released:
Nov 17, 2016
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Nathan interviews Tanner Larsson, co-founder of 80/20 Media, CEO of e-commerce brand incubator BuildGrowsSale.com. He’s also the founder and facilitator of an exclusive e-commerce syndicate called Black Label – 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? – Rocket Fuel What CEO do you follow? – Ed O’Keefe Favorite online tool? —FastStone Capture Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Not even close If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “You don’t have to fund everything out of your own pocket, there are other options available” Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:27 – Nathan introduces Tanner to the show 02:15 – Tanner’s ecommerce world started in 2001 02:20 – Started in eBay and Tanner became a powerseller 02:31 – Tanner was doing $ 50,000 - $ 100,000 a month in eBay 03:00 – “There’s no reason not to sell a physical product” 03:25 – Tanner and his team have a number of e-commerce brands 03:36 – 2 main brands have done $6.5 million in a year 03:48 – They had a problem in production 04:06 – “We’ve had different bottlenecks that prevented us from growing at the rate we could have grown” 04:30 – The flashlight market 04:38 – Tanner doesn’t want to sell what everybody is selling 04:47 – The gap they saw is between the lower price entry level flashlight and high-end flashlight 05:03 – Tanner and his team develop their own flashlight and a kit 05:17 – Truegunner.com 05:25 – The flashlight is in a sales funnel 05:34 – The funnel path 06:02 – The bestseller flashlight is the M600 tactical utility flashlight 06:07 - $22 manufactured price from China 06:32 – They had a much higher per unit cost and much lower profit margin on the first order 06:43 - First order was at a minimum which is a thousand 07:03 – Total is $30,000 tied up which equals to $3 per unit price 07:52 – It took 7 months before the first order started production 07:58 – The back and forth from the manufacturing county took time 08:05 – Shipping takes a week which includes the revises that needed on the product 08:30 – “If you’re building your product from the ground, there’s a whole back and forth with the manufacturer” 09:00 – Started selling on November 2015 09:05 – Sold about 4400 units for 12 months 09:21 – Total money in from this product is around $ 150,000 - $ 160, 000 09:50 – 99% of the funds came from Tanner 10:12 – The downside is some raw materials are specialized 10:27 – They have to buy raw materials in advance to prevent going out of stock 11:28 – Most of their sales are funnel driven 11:43 – They were using ultracart but shifted back to infusionsoft 12:09 – They are also using Hotjar records visitor interaction. Like heat mapping 12:43 – They spend $13 per user acquisition on the front end 13:03 – They breakeven in the funnel 13:30 – They also have subscription plans 14:01 – They have 7000 paying user 14:36 – They also have drop-off rates 16:00 – Connect with Tanner through his website 18:30 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Look for alternative funding. Don’t shoulder everything. If you don’t know something, that doesn’t mean you can’t explore. Sourcing from manufacturers abroad takes patience and a lot of research. Resources Mentioned: Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal developers. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible. Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audibl
Released:
Nov 17, 2016
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Hollis Carter: How To Charge $3k For Mastermind: Nathan Latka brings you top entrepreneurs daily inspired by Tim Ferriss, Pat Flynn, John Dumas, Entrepreneur on Fire, Chalene Johnson, NPR, HBR, the StartUp podcast, Art of Charm, Dave Ramsey, Planet Money, APM Marketplace, Mixergy, Seth Godin, #AskGaryVe by SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders