7 Figures and Time Rich: How I do it

One of my students in our inner circle posted this yesterday. Wanted to share it as there are business lessons here and more specifically ecommerce/amazon seller lessons.

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yesterday i crossed 1MM in sales revenue YTD on amazon.com - a nice milestone for me and a good time to reflect. i know my business isn't the biggest on the block, and i don't usually like to flex my revenue, but there's something else to this number that i want to address: TIME.

when i started selling online in 2016, i knew that i wanted this to be a business that was pretty much hands-off. i left a lot of money on the table and passed up opportunities whenever they didn't fit with my imagined business model. if a stream of income required me to physically be somewhere, i passed it up. if something required large chunks of my time, i let it slide. i invested money that could have gone into inventory in people and processes instead.

i knew even back then (although probably more intuitively than intellectually) that you can always make more money, but never more time.

as a result, my business grew slower than others. it's tough to see people you started out with post astronomical sales snapshots while you're still doing product research. knowing people flip xmas toys for triple-digit margins when you just launched a product that broke even in the first months.

these things helped me keep my mind on track, and not get distracted: 

patience.gratitude. and a little quote that ties the two together, that i picked up in 12 rules for life: "compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today". or maybe not yesterday, but last week, last month, last year?

to bring it all back: today, i'm TIME-RICH. i work about an hour a day most days, maybe 2-3 when i'm "busy". 

sure, i have to check in with the business every day, but i can do so from anywhere in the world. do i have a few minutes to check in with my assistant before i spend the day exploring mexico city? small price to pay. 

the guys with the crazy revenue posts are working 12 hr days, launching products, writing copy, peeling off labels for their walmart flips, calling wholesale suppliers.

my friend was in town from overseas this weekend and sent me a short notice request to hang out. do i have time? you bet. because i've outsourced nearly everything. here are some things i don't do anymore:

1 - product sourcing: my assistant knows how to do this and will come to me with ideas from time to time. if they're good and i have the capital, i give it a shot.

2 - supplier communication: again, my assistant handles most of the details for ordering and re-ordering. he is in the philippines and in the same time zone as shenzhen. why should i be doing this? sure, big-picture stuff like product changes or production problems are handled by me via wechat.

3 - photography: this is a no-brainer. if you're not a professional and you take your own product shots, you're doing it wrong.

4 - keyword research and listing copy: again, let a professional handle this. am i a professional copywriter? no. english isn't even my first language. why would i write my own listings?

5 - PPC: i'm just not good at this. sure, i could spend hours staying up to date on the latest changes, adjusting bids and split testing campaigns. but i think my time is better spent charting the course for my brand's future. (big shoutout to Liran here for absolutely killing it in this department)

and this is what i still do:

brand building & expanding the business. most of my time goes here. i am selling in US,CA,EU,UK,JP, on ebay and shopify. where will my products perform well? how do i make sure my brand is the first thing people think about when thinking about our niche? these are the really big questions. and because my head isn't buried in a spreadsheet or flustered from answering emails all day, i can read, exercise, meditate, and ponder the answers at my leisure.

okay, this post ended up being pretty long, and i think i wrote it as much for me as for anyone else. but if someone here stuck with it all the way - i'd be more than happy to answer anyone's questions about outsourcing, productivity, streamlining...