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The company designs, manufactures and sells sports equipment catering to the CrossFit market. FringeSport raked in over $1 million in revenue in its second year, with a current projected earnings of $10 million for 2014. Peter also runs “The Mistake” podcast with Peter Shankman and blogs about getting sourcing physical products at ProductSimple.net.
Key Takeaways:
- Discusses how getting easily bored at work and bouncing around as an employee at Living Direct provided an arsenal of e-commerce knowledge.
- Why “starting your damn business” is the best advice you can take as an entrepreneur.
- Shares how his handful of failed businesses faltered from excuses and fear of failure.
- Insights on why a carefully selected mastermind group with 7 to 9 other entrepreneurs can dramatically benefit your professional and personal life, including calling bullshit on each other.
- Discloses little shared secrets of the personal struggles of entrepreneurs.
- Talks about the revenue number FringeSport hit that gave Peter his “oh shit, this is a real business” moment.
- Warns what happens when you don’t look at what explosive growth means at an e-commerce company and the hurdles ahead.
- Advice on how taking a good look at margins and cash cycles is crucial to understanding how money moves through your company and how to plan before crisis hits.
- Shares how FringeSport handles rapid growth and cash flow issues with simple online tools anyone can use.
- How the company loans free equipment to sporting events only to turn around and sell it at a discount, all while generating buzz and attracting new customers.
- Where rapidly growing companies and budding entrepreneurs can find bridge loans and how to use them with caution.
- How Peter leverages financing from suppliers by showing the irresistible benefits involved.
- Despite professional success with adwords, Peter compares it to playing roulette at a Vegas casino. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll “piss away money really fast.”
- Thoughts on harvesting email addresses from a wildly popular e-commerce site.
- Explains how he taps bloggers for reviews to ensure quality backlinks and anchor text.
- Insights on how to reduce e-commerce costs by 25%, and transit time by 40% by opening warehouses in local areas.
- Discusses the challenges of finding people to open up sales offices, and how FringeSport looked to loyal customers to step up to the challenge.
- How a ticking tomato holds Peter accountable to staying productive.
- Encourages entrepreneurs to be “politely ruthless” with their time and surround yourselves with like-minded people.
- How committing to a mastermind group forced Peter to up his game, and what you absolutely have to bring to the table to earn your keep and give back.
Peter’s E-Commerce Tips
- Recovering from a BIG mistake: the first time I bought $50,000 of defective refrigerators
- How to cold email Chinese factories – includes template script
- How do I keep factories from stealing my ideas? 12 ways make sure your designs stay yours
- Quality fade and how to prevent it. Plus- why I have 240 speed ropes that I can’t sell