BRAND SECRETS AND STRATEGIES

PODCAST #28

Hello and thank you for joining us today. This is the Brand Secrets and Strategies Podcast #28

Welcome to the Brand Secrets and Strategies podcast where the focus is on empowering brands and raising the bar.

I’m your host Dan Lohman. This weekly show is dedicated to getting your brand on the shelf and keeping it there.

Get ready to learn actionable insights and strategic solutions to grow your brand and save you valuable time and money.

LETS ROLL UP OUR SLEEVES AND GET STARTED!

Dan: Welcome. Today I want to talk to you about something that stifles literally every brand out there, not having enough hours in the day. Seriously, who wouldn't appreciate having more time to do the things that we want to do? The things that we're passionate about, or the things that really help drive our business forward? That's what today's stories are about. This affects everyone, including me. I've noticed that with help, I'm able to get a lot more accomplished. I'm able to serve you, my community, much better as a result. I see this with brands that I work with as well. This includes those young entrepreneurs that are doing everything possible to pinch pennies, while growing their business.

Now, certainly I'm not advocating spending money that you don't have. But the simple reality is this, if you can find a way to hire someone to take some of the mundane, routine tasks off your plate, that's going to give you more freedom to do the things that grow your business. Then the next step is to hire people that can take away or take over some of those projects that distract you from running your business, from being successful. At the end of the day, consumers buy your brand because they love what it stands for, what you stand for. Shoppers want what they want, I say that all the time. Shoppers want to know that they can go into the store and find your product.

If you have something distracting you from getting your product into the hands of more consumers, well, that hurts both you and the consumers really trying to help support you. Think about it. In today's story, Connor reached out to me and shared with me some of the growing pains he had when he was starting a business. In his effort to solve those problems, he created a side business, which actually now is his full time business. But the point is this, he found a way to uncork that bottleneck. He found a way to help him drive sales, and make time for what was important, supporting his customers. Here's Connor.

Hi Connor, I really appreciate you coming on today. and am happy that you reached out to me. I was really impressed to learn about your story, about what you do. First, I'm looking forward to discussing the fact that you saw a problem and you found a creative way to solve that bottleneck. And second, you developed a unique business that I think is going to be tremendously beneficial to these young brands that I work with, that are looking for that extra help in terms of head count, and support, et cetera. But you found a really creative way to solve that problem. So, can we start first with your story?

Connor: Yes, of course. And thanks again for having me on the podcast. I'm excited to share my story and share some insights-

Dan: You're welcome.

Connor: ... Into the topics that you mentioned, and hopefully it helps some of these other business owners make more time for themselves, and then give them the ability to grow their business faster. So, that should be exciting.

Dan: I like that part of it too.

Connor: Yeah.

Dan: But that's key, and I want to come back to that, so hold onto that note. Make more time for themselves to be able to do the things that they're impassioned to do, the things that they're best. Please share your story with us.

Connor: Yes, of course. So my story starts back in about 2009, about eight or nine years ago. I was still in college and looking for an opportunity to start my own business, and I met my current business partner. His name is Nathan. And, he was starting to sell products on the Amazon Marketplace. He was purchasing text books back from students on campus, and then selling them on the Amazon Marketplace to other people that were looking to purchase them. And, he was looking for someone to help him run this business. It was a great opportunity for me, I was able to do it while I was still in school, and also get some experience building a business.

And so, I joined him, and we really just fell in love with selling products on Amazon, and the whole world of eCommerce. So, over the course of about four years, we slowly built up the business, we started working with more suppliers, and selling different types of products like baby products, and toys, and home goods, and outdoor goods. And, after about four years, we ended up selling over 25 million dollars worth of products.

Dan: Wow.

Connor: And, building a team of about 60 freelancers. Some people within the United States, and then some people from overseas. A lot of them actually being located in the Philippines. And, the way that we were able to find those freelancers, was through other freelancer websites like Upwork, and used to be Odesk, and Elance, and Fiverr.Com. And, what we did is we would post jobs, we'd get 10 to 25 applications. We'd sit down and we'd interview the people that looks like the best candidates. We'd ask a lot of questions, we'd hire the ones that looked great. But what we found was that, at the end of the day if you made a good hire, they may work out for a certain period of time, but then they disappear. And then, if you made a bad hire, you're just back to stage one in trying to find the right people for your business again.

And so, after doing this hiring process for about three years, we really came up with an idea to try to make it better. We wanted to create a solution that would make it easier for business owners to hire freelancers, so that they could stay focused on what they did best within the business, and they could hire help to kind of compliment their skills, and allow them to stay focused on the growth.

And so, that was when we came up with the idea of Freeeup. This was just about two and a half years ago in late 2015. And, over the past two years we've been focused on growing the business. We work with a lot of eCommerce business owners, we work with people who own their own brands. I know that's a lot of what your audience is, and we help them to grow their business, and take tasks off their plate that they necessarily shouldn't be focused on. As a business owner you really need to be able to value your time, and when you can't do that you find yourself in ruts, and you run into dead ends. So, that's our main thing. We help people hire reliable freelancers, so that they can stay focused on what they do best.

Dan: Love that. One of the biggest challenges that I have, and any small entrepreneur has, is finding enough time to do stuff, and then valuing the time you've got. And, as you said, taking the tasks off your plate that are more routine, more mundane, that take you away from what you need to do, what you like to do. And, those things that allow you to better serve your community.

Dan: So, thank you for talking about that. You talked about Amazon, and selling books back to them. So can you dig a little deeper into your relationship with that platform? And then, what I'm really getting at is, if I were a small brand and I needed to know what do I do, where do I go, how do I get started?

Dan: How could you help me with that journey? And then, what can you do to help me accelerate my sales on that? Because that's such a huge piece of the business for most of these small brands, but so relevant.

Connor: Yeah, absolutely. And, Amazon has just been growing and changing a lot since I first got involved back in 2009. But, it's a lot to look at when you're first getting started, and thinking about starting to sell on Amazon, or selling on a different eCommerce marketplace. But, you've got to take it step by step. So, for some of these brands who are looking into it, you first want to of course create a seller account. So, you can go to Amazon, you can create what's called a seller account. And then this opens up an account where you can start to list your products. And listing your products is going to be a very important step in actually starting to sell your product on Amazon, and that is an area where Freeeup can help these businesses.

We have experienced freelancers who have been listing products on Amazon for years, and who know how to optimize the content on those listings to appear higher in Amazon's search results, to make sure that all the images comply with Amazon's policies and their requirements. And so, that's one area where Freeeup can help. Once you have your product listed on Amazon, then it's up to you to get customers to it. Make sure that once you get some sales, ask those people for reviews so that your product gets well ranked, and that more and more people see it, and they're more attracted to it.

And then of course, Amazon is all about customer service. So, you as the business owner, need to not just list your product there and forget about it. You need to make sure that you're following up with customers, providing them tracking information, and really giving them a good customer experience so that Amazon is happy with how you're performing as well.

Dan: I really appreciate you sharing that. Here we are talking on my podcast, and it kind of brought back to my mind, some of the struggles that I've had. This podcast would have existed several years earlier if I had received the right guidance. And what I'm getting at, and this is kind of where I want to draw this correlation. There were ... I tried to figure this out on my own, which was nearly impossible. I wasted a lot of time, I spent a lot of effort and a lot of energy, time away from other things.

Dan: And then I bought a class that I thought would be decent, and really it was. She took my money, and that was it, and never heard anymore. And then I bought a class just recently from Smart Passive Income, Pat Flynn, I'm going to give him a shout out because he did such an amazing job of going through the class. And my point being, is that when you have expert guidance like that, it really helps accelerate your process.

Dan: I've had a lot of compliments about this podcast, and obviously this show is not about that. But my point is, that your ability to take someone from not knowing what they know, to being successful, is key. And where I really want to dig into this even more, Connor, is that story. That journey, and how you're able to help someone become successful and relevant within the marketplace almost immediately, almost seamlessly. And so, with that said, could you share little bit more into some of the things that you've learned that you might be able to help your various clients with? New clients, prospective clients, et cetera?

Connor: Yeah, of course. And are you referring to still to selling on the Amazon Marketplace?

Dan: Yes, I am. Well, any of the things you do. The freelancing, and the selling on Amazon. Again, the point is, as you so brilliantly mentioned, taking time away from doing what's relevant for making your product, working with your community as a small brand. That distracts you from being successful.

Dan: It takes away from your ability to really grow and get traction in your brand, one. And then two, to be able to have a seamless, step by step expert holding your-hand through the process gives you the opportunity to accelerate your growth. So, I think that, that's the key that I'd like to focus on. IfI were a small brand, what could you do for me, and what could I look forward to in terms of gaining traction and accelerating my brand?

Connor: Absolutely. So, to kind of start this unpacking I just want to present a framework that is very useful for when you're starting to think about taking tasks off your plate, and growing your business by hiring freelancers. It's been a process and a framework that we have been using for five plus years now, and I think people can really relate to it.

So, the way that we really like to structure this is, you first want to choose a task. So, let's use an example. With some of these brands, these companies that are building brands, your first thing may be researching, and trying to find a supplier that's actually going to be able to create your product. So, the way that I would want to do that is, I first build the process and I perform it myself. So I'm going to go out, and I'm going to research different suppliers that could potentially build my product, and I'm going to perfect the process myself first. I want to be able to know how it works, and what's going on myself before I pass it off to someone else.

Dan: I like that.

Connor: So, once I perfect that process, I then want to document it. So, you want to get very specific. I like to use Google Documents. Open up a Google Doc, and list out the steps that you take, or that you took to find those suppliers that you could potentially work with. Go ahead and list that all out, maybe even create a spreadsheet where you input the information for those suppliers so that you can refer to it later. And then once you have that process, you can hire the right person, you can find someone through Freeeup, or through other channels that has past experience in doing research, and contacting for suppliers.

You onboard them, set very clear expectations around the task that you want to be completed. And then you also set up really good communication methods. Because, one of the biggest things with hiring freelancers that aren't sitting in the same room as you, is that you need to be able to communicate with them at a high level so that things don't get confused, and that you don't start to worry about what they're actually doing on a day to day basis. So, that's kind of my framework for how you can go about outsourcing something, or hiring a freelancer to take something off your plate.

Dan: Do you have any tools or resources that I could use as a small brand, or someone new to this industry what you're doing, that could help guide me through those processes?

Connor: Yes. So we produce a lot of content, and I can share some with you that you can then put in the show notes.

Dan: Great.

Connor: So that it's helpful for everyone who's listening as well, they can refer to that as they're trying to figure it out themselves as well.

Dan: Fantastic. So, okay. We've talked a little bit about Amazon, now we're talking about Freeeup. We're talking about how to bring people on.

Connor: Yep.

Dan: One of the things I asked you about during the pre-show, was what if I found someone that I really like. I took someone out for a test drive, if you will, and I decided that this is someone I want to bring in. How would that work, what would that look like, and what would be the opportunity? I guess the key point here, Connor, is that, if I have an opportunity to kick the tires and test drive someone, that makes them more valuable to me.

Connor: Yeah, of course. So with Freeeup, the process is very simple. So as you're saying, you may request someone to help with a certain task within your business, and you may give them a test trial, and hire them for 10 hours per week, having them perform a certain task within your business. But if you eventually reach a point where you're very happy with the performance, you've communicated with them very well, and you'd like to bring them on to your team full time, there is an option to buy that freelancer out from the Freeeup marketplace, and then bring them fully into your business, where they're working with you full time, and you're able to just have them for your business.

Dan: Love that. And let me go one step further. One of the challenges we've had, and I used to be in a position where I used to hire people is, you would interview people, and there are skilled people that know what to say, and know how to answer questions. And, you get a really good vibe for them, and then after a couple months they're not showing up on time, they're not doing what you've asked them to do, they don't go the extra mile, et cetera. So the ability to, again, test drive someone before you bring them on I think is key. And, I think my opinion is, there's a tremendous cost savings in this. And as I have pointed out pre-show, to hire someone to go out and do a search for you, would probably cost a lot more money. So the opportunity to bring them in, and acclimate them to your culture, and then see how they perform within the four walls of your business so to speak I think is key. What recommendations or suggestions would you have for a business to, as far as how do they look for someone, and what kind of talent do you offer?

Connor: Yes, of course. So, we have a pretty large number of skillsets that we offer. The way that we kind of break it down is into different industries or categories. So we have people that can help just within a lot of business operations. So whether it's some data entry, or research as I was talking about before. Or bookkeeping, or helping with your financials. We have a lot of people that can help within those types of business operations. We then have a lot of people that specialize within retail, and online commerce. So, people that can help you sell on Amazon, help you sell on Ebay, help you build and run your own Shopify store, or help you with tasks that's going to help get your brand into brick and mortar stores.

We then also have digital marketers, so people that could run your social media channels, people that can run Facebook advertising, or Google advertising for you, or create your logo with graphic design, or edit videos, edit podcasts, anything along those lines that fall into your marketing realm.

And then finally, we have web developers and web designers with a little bit higher level of expertise that could build a website for you from scratch, or use a website building engine like WordPress, or BigCommerce, or Wix to help you build your own website. So, we have a pretty large variety of freelancers that you could hire to help your business.

Dan: How would I go about selecting the ideal candidate? And again, back to the resources. Do you have resources that would help guide me to answer some of these key questions? And, what I wanted to get at during this part of this conversation, is that as a small business, the attention to the day to day details of running your business. The accounting, the books, those things that you've talked about are so critically important. And yet, unfortunately get overlooked by a lot of these small brands, 'cause entrepreneurs are inventors-

Connor: Right.

Dan: Their focus is elsewhere. So again, helping fill that void. And then, so back to the question. What resources would you have, or how would I go about selecting someone that would fill that need?

Connor: Of course. So, the strategy that we like to share with people who are first getting into hiring freelancers, is to sit down, and create a list of all the tasks that you perform within your business on a day to day or weekly basis. And then order them from the least difficult to the most difficult. And, we like to encourage people to start with the least difficult task that they have on their plate on a daily or weekly basis. Something that's very simple, you know how to do it, you could teach someone to do it very easily, or you could find someone that already has experience doing it, that could easily take it over for you.

When you know what that task is, hiring through Freeeup is very simple. So, I don't think I mentioned it earlier in the interview, but we actually have a team that recruits and interviews, and vets all freelance applicants before anyone is allowed into the network.

Dan: That's what I was looking for, could you go into that a little bit more?

Connor: Yeah, of course. So this team goes out and it recruits for freelancers with all of the skillsets that I've mentioned before. And those freelancers then go through first an application process, where they provide their online portfolio, their resume, they take an internet speed test, they do a typing test. And, only a certain percentage of people making it through that application process.

We then have a one on one interview where we ask them more questions about how they've worked with clients in the past, and what skillsets they have, and how extensive of knowledge they have in those skillsets. And then we also have communication guidelines that are a part of our terms of use, that freelancers have to pass a test on in order to get into the network. So at the end of the day, only one percent of freelancers that apply get into the network. And so, for business owners hiring through Freeeup, you have a high level of trust that the person you're getting introduced to is someone that's already been highly vetted, and that will have the experience that you're looking for.

Dan: Fantastic. And again, I didn't want this episode to sound like a commercial, if you will. But, the reason I thought this was so important, small brands need help in a lot of areas. And the reason I wanted to bring you on was to talk about how can you fill that void, and you've done an excellent job of not only alleviating some of the concerns and the questions that I would have in terms of how do I know that I'm getting the right person, how do I know that I'm getting someone who's vetted, who has the skills they say they do, et cetera. So, thank you for unpacking that. This is really valuable.

So, what other things can you think about, perhaps that I haven't asked you about, that you can add to this conversation to really help take it to the next level?

Connor: One of the biggest things that, I even struggled with this when I was a younger entrepreneur. And, I think a lot of business owners run into this as they're starting and building their company, let's say within the first 12 to 18 months is, everyone reaches a point where they just run out of time, right? You have so many tasks piling up on your plate, and you eventually just run out of time to do all of them. And, I think there's kind of this misconception that you then have to hire someone full time. So, my advice to people listening is that, you can start hiring slowly. And that's really what I encourage people to do. Find something that's just taking you an hour per day, and hire someone that can take that hour off of your plate. If it works out well and you're happy with how that's going, maybe find another hour that you could take off your plate and hire someone else for that.

So, I think there's this misconception out there that once you're building a business, you hire full time employees when it gets to a certain point. But that doesn't always make sense for your budget. So, be conscious of your budget, be conscious of your own time, and make sure that you start slowly, and make sure that you're comfortable with it before you go crazy with spending a lot of money on people.

Dan: I'm so glad you mentioned that. I work with and mentor a lot of young brands, even pre-revenue, pre-launch, et cetera. And one of the things that I find is that the owner of the company, the Founder, the entrepreneur if you will, is going out and looking at store sets, and making sure their products on the shelf, and that it's signed correctly. Just the little basic blocking and tackling things that you need to do that are so critically important to your business, but yet when you figure the time to get in the car, drive to the store, et cetera, that's difficult. And that really has a negative impact on your ability to be able to do things that are important to you.

So let me ask you this. If I'm in Colorado and I have a need to have someone go check a store in another state, do you have the ability to help me solve that problem?

Connor: It's possible. We do have some people that hire freelancers for location specific tasks. It's not something that happens on an overly common basis. But, it is something that we're always willing to look for the right person for you. So, that is something that we can help with. If that is something that's eating up a lot of that person's time, it's definitely smart to try to find someone who can handle that for them. So, like we've been saying, they can stay focused on other aspects of growing the business.

Dan: Absolutely, and another thing that I want to kind of go back on is, you're talking about filling in that void. Expo West is coming up the first week in March. Many brands are compiling their sales collateral, getting the samples together, getting all that stuff organized and ready to go. Even if those people aren't going to go to the show, that's a huge time commitment. So the ability to hire someone temporarily to help them out, I think would take a lot of pressure off the brands. So, that is something, again, I want to reinforce what you said. Where, hiring someone temporarily just to fill a need, and then help you get past that hurdle, or that bottleneck is so key.

Let's go back to the Amazon question. If I wanted to get my product online, what can you do to help me, and what should I be looking for? Now, you framed it generically, but specifically, what can you do to help guide me through that process?

Connor: Absolutely. So, the biggest way that Freeeup can help listeners get their product on Amazon, and start to sell it there, and create a real revenue channel through the Amazon marketplace, is first, to hire an Amazon expert through the Freeeup marketplace, to help them create a strategy for actually tackling selling on Amazon. Selling on Amazon is a very intricate and involved process, and we have experts that have been selling on Amazon for even longer than I have, that you can hire for an hourly rate, talk with them about your business, tell them the goals that you're looking to achieve, and they can help you set up a strategy for how you can tackle it. And, they can even then help you hire cheaper, or lower level freelancers that have specific skillsets that you'll need to get up and running on Amazon.

Dan: I know someone who does a lot of work, or used to do a lot of work helping small brands in this area. And one of the things that they shared with me is that, some of the owners of these small brands, the maintenance work, the constant going back into Amazon, are you relevant, are you priced right, et cetera. That busy work, if you will, how do you help someone address and solve that problem?

Connor: Of course. So, we have freelancers that have experience within all of that busy work. So, it really shouldn't be on the business owner to be doing those tasks once they understand what they are. Like I said earlier in the show, I personally think it's smart for them to do it for a week, or a couple of weeks so that they understand what the process is. But then they can come to Freeeup, and hire someone that has years of experience within those tasks. They can bring them into their business, and they can handle that for them, while providing them with really good reports, and updates and communication so that the business owner is updated on what's going on, but knows that it's being handled at the right level.

Dan: Couldn't agree with you more, and it's something I talk about a lot, how the entrepreneur, the business owner needs to be involved or knowledgeable in all the different areas of the business. But, they should not necessarily be doing the day to day grunt work, if you will, because again, it takes away from what they're doing. And that's one of the things that I've learned is that, it's such a struggle to get everything done. And, now that I have help, I'm able to do a lot more, and I'm able to provide better service to my community. So, great, I really appreciate you going through that.

Anything else that you want to mention? And by the way, I am going to include a link to your website, and the information that you mentioned earlier on the show, and thank you for that, in the show notes and on my website as a downloadable.

Connor: Awesome. The last piece that I want to share with the community is, when you're hiring freelancers, take communication very seriously. The way that I like to set it up with any freelancer is, once I hire them, I make it very clear how I prefer to be communicated with. So myself, I use Skype a lot to communicate. And so, any time that the freelancer is working, I ask that they check in with me, let me know that they're starting their work for the day. And then when they finish, Skype me again and let me know a summary of what they were able to achieve. Those small interactions with the freelancer on a day to day basis allows you to stay in the loop with what they're achieving, and also allows you to give them feedback and answer any questions that they have. So, communication is absolutely key when hiring people that aren't in the same office as you.

Dan: Love that. In fact, I've been actually working from home or my home office, if you will, almost my entire career, which is interesting. The company we used to work for, Unilever's, one of the first pioneers, I guess if you will, in that area. But the point is, if I'm hiring someone I really don't know yet, I don't have a good feel for, knowing what they're doing and feeling good about the fact that they're accomplishing the goals, using the direction that I've given them, that's key to my success as well. And, as kind of a side note, we didn't really talk about this. You don't have a time clock.

Connor: Right.

Dan: But yet, to have someone check in on Skype, and kind of review and do that regular coordination, that communication, I think is key to really helping you get a successful product at the end of the day. And again, you can probably outsource this a lot cheaper than you would if you were to hire maybe a broker or a distributor, someone ... And granted, I'm not saying that you shouldn't hire those people too. But remember, if you can take a lot of those costs off the plate, it might be more efficient for you in the long run. Get a dedicated resource to really help drive your sales, help grow your business, et cetera. So again Connor, thank you so much for coming on today. Thank you again for reaching out to me. And thank you for sharing your story, I really appreciate it.

Connor: Thanks for having me on today Dan, and if anyone who's listening, or if anyone reaches out to you afterwards, I'm happy to speak with anyone personally as well. I'm just a phone call away, so I'll give you a link where people can set up a meeting with me too, if they want to do that.

Dan: Fantastic, that's very helpful. I really appreciate you taking the time to think through that as well, so thank you. I look forward to our next conversation.

Connor: Yeah, thanks Dan.

Dan: I want to thank you for listening, and I especially want to thank Connor for coming on today. Not only has he provided a link to his website, but he's also provided the information we talked about, including skills that you can hire, 10 most common mistakes of outsourcing, and how to hire freelance, a video course. I'll include all of those links in the show notes, which you can find on this podcast webpage. It's BrandSecretsandStrategies.com/Session28.

• FreeeUp website: https://freeeup.com/

• Skills you can hire from FreeeUp: https://freeeup.com/freeeup-worker-skill-sets-infographic/

• 10 Most Common Mistakes of Outsourcing ebook: https://freeeup.com/10-common-mistakes-of-outsourcing/

• How to Hire a Freelancer video course: https://youtu.be/4NXHaJza0Nk

Today's freebie is, the top 10 strategies you can use to grow your business. You can text “10strategies” to 44222, or download it in today's show notes.

I want to thank you for listening. Next week I have a big surprise for you, something I've been working on really hard. It's about helping you develop a strong foundation to build your business on. It's about your retail selling story. Stay tuned, I look forward to sharing this with you.

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