How to get funding for your growing E-commerce Business?

Brief summary of the episode: 

Do you ever wonder how small businesses can thrive in the shadow of e-commerce giants like Amazon? Sit back and join our conversation with Sam Bell, Partnership Manager at 8fig, where we tackle this pressing question and explore how small e-commerce businesses can get financing solutions for their business.

Dive into the real-world challenges of inventory management and discover how to effectively prep for Q4 sales as Sam generously shares his insights. We also explore different financing options for e-commerce entrepreneurs. From SBA loans to merchant cash advances, Sam's extensive experience shines through as he discusses this critical aspect of entrepreneurial success. 

The conversation takes an interesting turn as we discuss Amazon's impact on small businesses. Sam shares his candid views on how the e-commerce giant's dominance is reshaping the retail landscape. Don't miss out on this insightful and equally entertaining chat with Sam Bell!

Chapter:

13:40 Inventory Management Challenges for Amazon Sellers
28:20 Financing Options for E-Commerce Businesses
34:43 Amazon's Impact on Small Businesses

List of resources, suggested materials, and social media handles:
Free eBook - From Operator to Business Owner - https://sellercandy.com/7steps

Ben Smith's Social Media
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipwithben 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipwithben/ 

Business Social Media Links
Website: https://www.sellercandy.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/SellerCandyPro
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sellercandyamz
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sellercandy/
Website: https://sellercandy.com/

Guest Website & Socials
Website -  https://www.8fig.co/
Email - sam@8fig.co
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-bell-0a91b7b5/
Instagram - https://bit.ly/4831TmT

Call to action, episode link & contact info
Shareable episode link  - https://www.buzzsprout.com/2022132/13552055
For content collaborations, please email us at: grei@sellercandy.com 

Never Talk to Seller Support Again.

Seller Candy is the expert operations arm of your Amazon business. We provide outcome-driven support for time-consuming and challenging Seller Central issues so you Never Have to Talk to Seller Support Again! With Agency-Level security practices and an experienced team who’s been through the thick of it, we give sellers bandwidth on demand without the hassle of hiring, training, or managing.

#amazonseller #amazonbusiness #ecommerce #amazonpodcast

Never Talk to Seller Support Again.

Seller Candy is the expert operations arm of your Amazon business. We provide outcome-driven support for time-consuming and challenging Seller Central issues so you Never Have to Talk to Seller Support Again! With Agency-Level security practices and an experienced team who’s been through the thick of it, we give sellers bandwidth on demand without the hassle of hiring, training, or managing.

#amazonsellercentral #amazonsupport #ecommerce #amazonbusiness

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

with Amazon's dominance and its rise to corner the market in terms of online retail, that's done more harm than good for small businesses and small retailers in the US.

Speaker 2: 0:18

Hello, I am your host, ben, and welcome to season two of the Amazon strategy show. The show that is all strategy. No hacks, no silver bullets, no magic pills, just real, practical strategy for serious Amazon sellers. I just wrapped up an awesome talk with Sam Bell from 8fig. We talked about a wide ranging variety of topics, everything from financing and getting ready for Q4, inventory management so some of the e-commerce stuff. We also talked about a lot of his hobbies, of trying to find out how he has time to do everything from Brazilian jiu-jitsu art, everything in between on the side of his job and his e-commerce business that he has. So make sure you listen, watch this entire episode all the way through. Let us know, by either leaving us a review, what you thought of this or a comment if you're watching this on YouTube. With love to hear from you and without further ado, I hope you guys enjoy and get some valuable insights and lessons from today's episode with Sam Bell from 8fig. So today we have the pleasure of being joined by one of my buddies and the incredible Sam Bell. He's got a lot of wisdom and hands-on experience in the industry, so really excited to have him here on the show today.

Speaker 2: 1:22

Sam, I've got a good lengthy bio for you. You've done a ton of stuff so I'm going to get into that. Give me a second. I need to catch my breath here. But Sam is the partnership manager at 8fig, which is a continuous capital solution for e-commerce entrepreneurs. He's also got a rich background in entrepreneurship, sales, marketing, business development and much more than throw art in there, but also art. We'll get into that a little bit.

Speaker 2: 1:43

Having started his career in sales and trading working for a electronic trading platform, sam forged his own path, advancing from sales associates to product management, helping to shape the future of the firm's cutting-edge automated trading tool. Soon thereafter he started up a marketing agency with his brother specializing in affiliate marketing for B2C brands, which opened the doors to launch his own art project. There we go and partake in other creative opportunities such as Web3, community Concepts, and nowadays Sam is the proud partnership manager for 8fig. So he's got obviously a ton of different experiences, of wealth of wisdom. Really excited to have him. And just a couple more comments here. Nowadays, as I mentioned, sam is at 8fig and we've connected a couple times with awesome people together in the e-commerce space. Outside of the office he also likes to fish, play golf, brazilian jujitsu, creating awesome art, chess, barbecuing, hiking and just being outside in general. My gosh, my guy. Thanks so much for being here. That was amazing. Love that. So what outdoor activity are you starting?

Speaker 1: 2:47

with today, I guess. Thanks for having me, ben. I'm really excited to be on. It's always great to connect the team If Seller Candy's awesome, and it's always fun to just have a conversation. So really excited to be on today. Yeah, I have a lot of hobbies and that's something that my wife's always telling me. She's like I have one. How do you have so many hobbies? That's so weird. But I try to give them equal amount of attention on a weekly, daily basis. But the big one that I'm into right now is Brazilian jujitsu. I've been doing it about a year or so and it's changed my life. It's been just such a wonderful thing to get into Good for self-defense, good for mental and physical toughness and just perseverance and fortitude overall. So I highly recommend that one.

Speaker 1: 3:31

But, yeah, other than that, like you mentioned, I love to barbecue fish, play chess, the art business, do art on the side and create cool designs when I have some free time. So there's a lot going on over here and I think you're kind of in the same boat, right? You have a lot of activities that you also heard partake in as well, right?

Speaker 2: 3:51

Yeah, but I can't list them out like you do. So, sam and I for anyone watching this have talked a little bit off of the podcast, about BJJ, brazilian jujitsu, and all that stuff, and, yeah, I want to get into it. And so, sam, I was going to ask you a year deep now, are you still going in every day and just getting destroyed, or are you actually like now, like, oh, I think, two simple things I could defend myself. I'm glad you're my first podcast ever?

Speaker 1: 4:18

No, no, it's, it's. It's now that I'm a year in. I'm starting to develop my own skill set. In a way I'm still a white belt, like.

Speaker 1: 4:29

For those who aren't familiar with Brazilian jujitsu, they do have like a belt system, right, unless you're, you know, training just MMA or something like that. But in pure Brazilian jujitsu they have a belt system that goes white. Typically it goes white, blue, purple, brown, black. Each of those are require a lot of discipline and attention and training and it's not very easy to get a belt necessarily, right. So I think, to get the black belt you know, to advance the black belt, demonstrate that you have those skills. It's like a 10 to 15 year process depending on how much you're trained.

Speaker 1: 5:04

I'm at white belt right now. I've been doing it a year or so. It'll probably be another year or two before I earn the next rank. But all that to say, like I have started to develop my own skills. I'm not getting crushed every every class now, which is, which is nice the first, the first three to four months. You want to even want you know, going three to four times a week. That's kind of the schedule I'm on three to four times a week, trained for an hour or two. The first three to four months are really difficult. You know I'm not going to sugarcoat it, they're very, very difficult.

Speaker 1: 5:34

And it will it will test your ability to not quit and to persevere. It's just that you're new to it. You don't really understand the movements there is. It's a very technical sport and a very technical martial art, in that you need to know proper technique. Strength doesn't necessarily matter a ton, Unless you're at like equal playing fields, like a purple belt versus a purple belt. Who one who is 120 pounds versus 180 pounds? Yeah, size and strength is going to matter there, but for someone who doesn't know any technique, your size and strength does not matter Like at all. It's actually alarming Like you can go in there and be oh I'm in great shape, I'm really strong, I'll do fine, it doesn't matter. So in order to build those technical skills, it's important to go like three to three-ish times a week and then, once you get to that four month mark, you'll start to see yourself improving. You might be able to.

Speaker 1: 6:26

A new guy might come in who thinks he's all that, but you'll be able to sweep them and dominate them pretty easily. Do you remember that first?

Speaker 2: 6:34

sweep. Yeah, I do. It's like every e-commerce seller remembers their first sale online, so you've also got to remember probably your first sweep in BJJ. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1: 6:45

And the sweep again. For those who aren't necessarily privy to the sport, a sweep is reversing a position, so taking someone who's advancing on you, taking them to their back in a quick manner so being able to do that gives you an advantage over them, so that you are now in what's called a dominant position and can apply a submission from there. And once you're able to get to that point after you've been crushed for three months, and then somebody new walks in and then you're able to try your skills and somebody new it gives you a boost of confidence.

Speaker 1: 7:19

And then from there you're able to deal with the losses a little bit better and then develop your game plan from there and keep honing in on your skills. But again, it's I really want to get the point across. If anyone who's interested, like Ben, if you're interested in trying it, I'd say give it a try and stick with it, because it's really built this mental edge and physical edge for me. It's made me stronger as a person, somebody who's able to deal with challenges and adversaries in a different way. And it's hard to describe, but I'm not the same person I was a year ago and I'm just a little bit more calm or a little bit more collected in the face of adversity. So it does a lot for you on and off the map.

Speaker 2: 8:02

Cool. I bet you didn't know you were coming on a podcast today to talk about BJJ, but that was all awesome. Yeah, you've sold me on it personally. So I feel like all this strategy, everything you just said, it could be applied to the Amazon space or any business as well. So, yeah, thanks for telling us a little bit more about that Anyone who's watching. I'd love to know if you're actually into BJJ as well, because I am trying to get into that before I want to in a few seconds. Sam, I'm curious, can you rewind a little bit? So we're going to change and actually talk a little bit about Amazon today. But how did you get into kind of the whole Amazon world? Because I've only known you for maybe what? The last year and a half, two years and you've already been in the Amazon big space. So let's take it a step back. How'd you actually get into kind of this Amazon ecosystem in general?

Speaker 1: 8:48

Yeah, sure, more than happy to dive in there. So if we were to rewind a little bit, like you had mentioned in my bio, I started for another fintech company right when I was working on trading solutions and helping clients with trading their fixed income securities and things like that. I had always felt, you know, I was a hard worker, right, somebody who wanted to really build something and get involved and get their hands dirty and whatever that might be right, and that job was fantastic and starting my career Doing that was something that I really enjoyed. But I'd always felt this tug to try something on my own. You know, maybe that's in the entrepreneurial space. You know, maybe that's in e-commerce what have you? I had been fully immersed in all that content on like Instagram and other social media platforms, so it was hey, you could start your own business by doing X, y and Z online. I'm sure you see all that, you know, and Amazon was a big part of that. Yeah, exactly, exactly. You see it all the time, and so does everyone. You know who's involved in this space, and Amazon and e-commerce was a big part of that.

Speaker 1: 9:51

And you know, fast forward a couple of years. I'm working on a marketing agency with my brother. We're trying to do something on our own and that's going really well getting more into affiliate marketing and partnership marketing and really diving into that skill set. And on the side, I was launching my own art business right, which it's a fledgling art business. It's not a big operation by any means, but it got me involved in e-commerce space through Shopify. So it wasn't necessarily Amazon, but I was involved in launching my own Shopify store to sell art prints of some of my designs, specifically those of New York landmarks, as well as you know, of my old university. I went to Wake Forest University go dig, shout out Wake so I had some prints in there and started to develop relationships with my old friends, some new people online who wanted commission requests. So I was doing a little bit of the services, a little bit of the products selling through Shopify Didn't necessarily dive headfirst into Amazon until 8-fig into the picture and fast forward.

Speaker 1: 10:53

After, you know, after the agency, after doing my own art concepts, I was looking for other opportunities out in the market. 8-fig seemed like a really wonderful opportunity. They're doing, you know, a lot in terms of funding and growth on Amazon. So, having the experience that I did in sales and business development, partnerships and affiliate marketing made for an easy end e-commerce, you know. To add onto that, made for an easier transition into 8-fig, which, you know. I've joined a wonderful team and I really enjoy what they're doing. And for those who might this might be their first time being introduced to 8-fig or, you know, want to learn a little bit more about it, we are a funding and growth platform for e-commerce sellers. So I think for anyone selling on a D2C platform or on Amazon or a combination of the two, can log onto our platform set up, you know their inventory needs and things like that.

Speaker 1: 11:51

tell us a little bit more about their manufacturers and suppliers and who they need to, you know, get involved with, and we can set up a funding plan. Essentially Very simple, right. You tell us about your needs, we take a look at your sales and we can develop a growth plan for you where we would be able to fund some of those needs along the way, and it's been a wonderful experience. I love working in the Amazon space. I get to interact with guys like you. It's been awesome. Every time we go to a trade show, I meet someone else new and get to learn about their story, which you do the same, and it's a lot of fun. And we love helping the Amazon community and watching a lot of ourselves grow.

Speaker 2: 12:28

That's great. I was gonna say it's anyone who's watching this. Two things. One I actually have met the 8 big team, or at least several members of your team, when I was in Austin for cellar con, and Everyone on the team is genuinely the nicest human being ever, including Sam. I don't know if that's just because of the BJJ, because I didn't meet you probably till after you started that so maybe before. You were a much angrier guy or something. But no, I'm all jokes aside I hate big teams.

Speaker 2: 12:52

All been just super nice, super genuine, and this is also kind of a timely video and we're gonna talk a little bit more about this in her time. I'm a podcast, rather, but we'll talk a little bit more about this and kind of the Q&A section. But we have Q4 on the prize and that's, I think, kind of a really big place where you know a company like eight things and the solutions that you guys offer Really comes into play, especially when we're talking about inventory making sure you have enough to actually sell your products during Q4. So I'm gonna pause. Let's actually go into the questions right now.

Speaker 2: 13:23

So for everyone watching, this is kind of our much awaited Q&A segment. We normally hold the audience or just, you know, ask for questions from our guests or, selfishly, I will ask questions that I'm interested in. So these are all kind of the burning questions that we want to ask or we have kind of frequently asked to us Hosting this podcast. So I guess you know, transitioning off what we were just talking about, let's talk inventory management for a second. Is that kind of the main issue that you guys are kind of facilitating and supporting sellers on, or is it more than that? What talk? Talk to me a little bit about that.

Speaker 1: 13:53

Sure, yeah, happy to. So, yeah, I think you know the impetus for the creation of 8vig was what we saw happen in 2020, where the supply chain pretty much collapsed all around the globe, right, because of the pandemic, right? So when that took place, what we found was you know, there's a little bit before my time, but from what I understand, what we found was, you know, a lot of sellers struggled to get back on their feet and kind of navigate what was this global catastrophe that was taking place in shipping and logistics, right, and what we found is a lot of sellers struggled to manage their inventory through that. And then thereafter, right, it's not necessarily Something that you can just fix very quickly. It's something that you know could plague your business over time if not addressed immediately. So, you know, one of the reasons 8vig was started was to help those sellers better manage their inventory from a funding perspective, because you know you might have, like, a wonderful product, but if something happens where far out of your control and you're not able to navigate those issues, you might have to order more inventory etc. To bridge the gap between.

Speaker 1: 15:00

Whatever case may be, that's where 8vig really shines. So, for example, if we have a seller who has a really wonderful product. Right, they might be selling out at a faster pace than they had originally expected, which is a really good problem. To have what we call A champion problem right, and you know, if they're selling out their product at a real dad, a really Impressive rate, what that could do in the long term is actually hurt the business, which is a funny thing to think about.

Speaker 1: 15:25

You think selling out stock is probably a good thing it's in high demand but when it comes to the Amazon platform, that's actually not very good for your store in the long term, because what will happen is Amazon could kill your rank, they could shadow you and things like that right, which is which which is a problem. If you want sustained growth, which I think Most of the goals of Amazon sellers is to say sustained growth may be moved towards an exit someday. So what our platform does is help them map out their inventory purchases, make sure that they can stay in stock compared to how they're selling velocity right now, because we also connect to their store to evaluate what their sales look like. So we'll compare what their needs are to their selling velocity and help them develop a plan so that they can Make timely purchases. Use cash that might not already be available to them from us to make their purchases so that they can get their stock in a timely manner when they need it, you know, and continue to stay in stock and continue to realize their growth.

Speaker 2: 16:23

Yeah, that's awesome, I think you know I've so. I've been, I've worked with or for or my own Amazon business, but just in the Amazon ecosystem for like five or six years now and you know what just like we're talking about, really, with all the courses that saw you and you can make money easily. I got, I definitely got into that world. But you know, you kind of think that people, you start your brand and you launch your first few products, you don't have, maybe, the business experience, like I didn't. When I first kind of got into it, I thought that, oh, once I'm up and running and have a couple successful products that are actually, you know, starting to really do Super well, now I have cash flow and I won't have the. You know the problems, necessarily, but the reality is, I think, for many sellers is that actually, if you have a winning product or multiple, now cash flow becomes an even bigger issue, right, because now you have to one order, your POs get bigger to your supplier, you know. So you need the cash flow for that. It's just a constant kind of game, right, and that's something I didn't fully realize, I think, when I was first getting into the Amazon world and even still like when I see some sellers. You know I've talked to our winner, who's our chief delivery officer, about the inventory management thing, cuz he and I used to create all these fancy excel sheets and everything which you know. I'm very basic with that stuff. I can get the job done, but I know it is a it is a huge challenge. And it's a huge challenge without having a pandemic or anything else going on. You know, just factoring in seasonality in these other pieces. But then if you add things like that or you know, these unexpected changes and trends, that to me a really big challenge for Smaller, growing businesses, right. So I think there's like an amazing place where what you guys offer definitely makes sense.

Speaker 2: 17:57

And the second thing that I kind of wanted to pull out there is you mentioned that so kind of the stock out piece and you know, when I've worked kind of in the agency consulting side of the Amazon world, we would always talk to people that you know we're like well, I have my FBA inventory in. Should I create it in FBM skew? Like I also have like some inventory here in house, and at least that the common advice back then was yeah, you should create an FBM skew, because one of the worst things that could possibly happen is if your FBA Ventura goes out of stock and you're out of stock, you're literally undoing all of the work, or quite a bit of the work that you've just done Building up your brand on Amazon, right, because your rank starts to go back. You spend all this money on advertising, so stockouts are a big issue and I know that. You know we see that with sellers quite a bit.

Speaker 2: 18:42

I kind of be curious your take because I and I'm wondering do people come to you guys normally when it's too late, when they're like I should have probably? You know common guts and financing or lending or you know Something for my inventory sooner. Are they coming to you at that point or is it people that are actually kind of playing head or everything in between?

Speaker 1: 19:00

That's a great question and it's it's pretty much everything in between, right, some of the more Sophisticate we see a good mix of, you know I don't want to say like inexperienced or sophisticated sellers, right, if you, if you watch the business, you're doing really well. But you know, we see a good mix of those who are able to plan ahead and might have a little bit more business experience and have dealt with this before. Come to us with hey, I am selling at a faster clip, I know. And about you know, I'm looking at my burn rate and about two, two or so months if I, if all else equal, I'll be out of stock. I'm. We created a growth plan now to proactively address those issues so that I can stay in stock for the foreseeable future. Right those are.

Speaker 1: 19:43

That is the perfect scenario, because we can pretty much glide right into their business and help them to Continue to buy, inventory and use money that's not theirs and you know, and really help them Procure their growth. And unfortunately, on the flip side of that, we also have the businesses that have a really solid product and are selling at a rate that might be even faster to some of their bigger competitors. But they come to us a little bit too late, which is also an issue for us evaluating their store. So they connect to us and say I've been out of stock for a month and I need cash to really get back on track. It's like, okay, we're happy to help you, but also because in your store you haven't had sales for a good amount of time, that's going to prolong the process for us to evaluate your store from a risk perspective, because that's the biggest thing that we're looking at in order to evaluate eligibility.

Speaker 1: 20:37

If there is their sales in their store, if they're selling at a good clip and we can verify those sales, great, they're doing well and are more than eligible for a growth plan it's not to say that they wouldn't be we won't be able to help them. They'll just take a little bit more from a risk process for us to get them set up, if that makes sense. But we see everything in between and for those scenarios, while it does happen, we can still help. But it's always a good practice for anyone listening to stay on top of your inventory To think about how quickly am I selling, how much do I have in?

Speaker 1: 21:13

a 3PL or how much can I get back into my store, back into FBA, to be ready to sell? It's always a good idea to manage that. There are multiple tools online that you can do it in a self-spread. You can use our inventory management tool or you can use something like So-Stop or another tool online. There are ample opportunities for you to take advantage of this and I would highly recommend it from a business management standpoint to stay on top of your inventory and do not let it get to a point where you have to approach multiple solutions to say I'm out of stock and I need to reverse this right now, because that's not a point you want to be. You want to keep some in reserve. Yeah, it's just not ideal. You want to keep some in reserve and think ahead to three, six months to see where you might be in the future, so that you can attack these challenges head on when they come.

Speaker 2: 22:06

So yeah, that's all. That was a great advice, I think. Again going back to that point about Q4, kind of being on the horizon even if you're watching this service a year from now, q4 is always on the horizon somewhere. But what are some tips, or just general kind of? Do you have any tips or general kind of best practices to get ready for this time? We all know that exiting summer has kind of been the slow selling season generally, and now we're going into what's going to be one of the craziest selling seasons. So are there any tips or anything that you see work really well for some of the clients that you guys work with?

Speaker 1: 22:38

Yeah, totally, and I'm glad you brought it up, because Q4, as you mentioned, is probably the highest volume in terms of sales that you'll see as an Amazon seller. I mean you also have events like Valentine's Day, mother's Day, fourth of July. If your products are aligned with those dates, they're going to be spikes throughout the year. But Q4 generally, when everyone's doing their holiday shopping, it makes sense that that's going to be the heightened sales period of the year, with Black Friday, saturday, monday and all types of different sales events. What we see really work well.

Speaker 1: 23:13

As some sellers, it's a good idea to maybe update some images, update your listings and branding to have that more holiday type of messaging.

Speaker 1: 23:24

So for those who are doing their shopping, maybe their anticipating event like Black Friday or something like that, to get their shopping done, having some promos, having some discounts here and there and just updating your messaging in general is a good marketing and branding tactic.

Speaker 1: 23:39

But from an inventory perspective, it's a good idea to maybe step back, hit the pause button and assess where you're at from an inventory perspective assuming you're not launching a new product or anything like that but for your current product, assessing where you're at in terms of the units you have available to sell and making sure that you're in tune with your supplier.

Speaker 1: 24:00

If you have a good relationship with your supplier, make sure that they're aware that you're thinking about Q4 and that you might need to make some more orders in the near future to get ready for that event. It's always a good idea to just take a step back and say okay, in the next few months we are definitely going to have heightened sales, we're going to have more eyeballs on our product in general. Why don't we just get more in tune with where we're at in our supply chain what we have in reserves inventory. Let's talk to our supplier, see how much we can get, and take a look at your sales as well. You might have just started. You might have a few years of sales history. It's a good idea to maybe do a little bit of projections in the Excel spreadsheet or something like that to make an assumption about your year over year growth or use one of our tools.

Speaker 1: 24:46

Whatever, make an assumption about your year over year growth to see how much should we do in Q4 last year, in 2022 or in 2021, to see what we can do to improve, and make an assumption. You're never going to have an exact number of how much you're going to sell. That's just the reality of this business. The better you can get in terms of an estimation and the better you can relay that estimation to some of your suppliers and some of your partners, or maybe your vendors, you'll be in a better spot. You're at least doing better than the next guy. That's the advice I would give.

Speaker 1: 25:19

Also, check out some tools online, like that I mentioned. Our tool is free to use. You don't necessarily have to sign up with a growth plan for us. We encourage you just to check it out and see if it's useful to you to map out your inventory, because you can map out your needs over time. You can map out your needs over time and put an emphasis on Q4 to say, if I want to pay my supply on an x date when we'll get my inventory in by the time I need to do Cyber Monday, black Friday stuff. It's just a good idea to visualize and get more in tune with your supply chain ahead of these big events.

Speaker 2: 25:55

That's great advice. I think sales wonderful. I'm not going to knock Excel, but for me I'm very visual and it's very challenging for me to just like try to think about all these different factors. And you know, I know, like you mentioned, there's a lot of great tools, including.

Speaker 2: 26:10

I haven't personally used your guys, but I would nowadays probably lean towards using some of those, especially if you're kind of a newer seller. Maybe it might be easy to do Excel when you're just getting started, but the second you're also adding more products to it gets a lot more complex. And I, you know, in the past I've only been dealing with Amazon, but I know a lot of people that are going to be watching this and a lot of people just out there that have their own brands. They also have other platforms that they have to kind of factor in or maybe they're selling through, and so I think that's kind of where you guys at the tool, like what you have, might come in handy, because you guys connect correct me if I'm wrong but to Shopify, to Amazon, to I don't know if there's other platforms as well. There they're pulling all that info, so you kind of get a clear picture of what your true sales velocity is, and all that jazz.

Speaker 1: 26:55

Exactly. We connect to the vast majority of major platforms. So we have Amazon on the marketplace side and then on the DTC side, we have Shopify, woocommerce, bigcommerce, ebay as well, right, etsy. We do not support Walmart at this moment in time, but we're working on that. We hope to change that in your future. But all the major platforms more often have representation with 8Big, so if you're selling on one of those, you can connect to your store and we can help you devise a path forward for your inventory and for your cash flow purposes. But yeah, it's a lot of the same advice. You know Q4 is coming up, even if you're selling DTC. A lot of the same advice can be applied to that. Think about promos, think about your inventory that you have. If you need to get on the same page with your supplier, do it now. Do it now. I know where it's at the end of summer, but it's always a good idea to plan a couple or three months ahead of these big events, because it's going to be here before you know it.

Speaker 2: 27:51

Absolutely so one more kind of set of questions before we dive into the controversial take section, which I love but is you know, for someone like me who's never I've never personally done you know how to go as far as getting any financing or any of these kind of different solutions. So I guess, what are the actual options out there for people you know my the extent of my knowledge is I get emails still to the state from Amazon telling me that I've been pre qualified for a loan from Goldman Sachs through, you know, amazon's platform. That's about all I know. So, like, what are the actual options that you have as your, if your name is on seller, growing your business really quickly, and this is something that maybe you're thinking about or kind of considering? What are some of the options out there?

Speaker 1: 28:30

Yeah, yeah, no worries. So there, there are a good amount of options, right, and I think, to break it down, we'll start in, like what, where you should look first, you know, if you want like short term financing through inventory, right, I think an SBA loan, a small business loan from a bank, is probably a good way to go. You'll probably get a really good rate. The only the only caveat there is they're not necessarily experts when it comes to e-commerce.

Speaker 1: 28:58

It doesn't make a ton of sense to them, right. It's not a solution that they dealt with before. So that's why you know we exist and a few others exist to kind of help with that, because a lot of the founders have come from the Amazon space. They know the business really well and have created a product like 8fig that can help you get more in tune with your supply chain through the continuous capital model that we, that we offer. So that's the one caveat is, you might get a fantastic rate, assuming you have good credit, right, but you know it's not necessarily a business that might be willing to lend to you, because they don't understand e-commerce that well and that could prolong the process. What's the?

Speaker 2: 29:36

what's the cycle normally like length of time for like an SBA loan or one of these more traditional kind of financing options? How long is that more process Like, how long does that normally take? Because if you're running out of inventory right now, like, is it a month, is it three months, is it six months? You need money today or in this next, the next month. That can kind of be an issue.

Speaker 1: 29:55

Yeah, it's a good question and I'm not I'm not 100% sure how long it could take. But you know, if you think about a loan application process that you've, you've entered for, like a mortgage or a car, it's probably going to be a lot similar to that. Right, they're going to do a credit check, they're going to require additional documentation and that could prolong the process by you know, a couple weeks or a couple months, which, on the flip side of that yeah, on the flip side of that, with a process like ours, you connect your store and we give you a thumbs up or thumbs down pretty much right there, and then and you know, I've seen, I've seen with other solutions like us online I've seen it take 48 hours, up to five business days, it depends. You know there are. We also look for red black within your business account.

Speaker 1: 30:37

If there are, you know if you're not sending all your disbursements to one spot, that's also an indication to us that, okay, maybe they're paying off other things, it might not be a good fit, so on and so forth.

Speaker 1: 30:48

So our process took a little bit of a long time as well, depending on how much is happening, but usually it's a pretty quick thumbs up, thumbs down, you submit an application, we connect to your store. If everything looks good from there on out, we'll push you through to further down the process, and that's what it's like for a lot of other lenders online or a lot of other financing solutions online, you know. For example, others in the space might offer revenue based financing, which is another option, and this is also a good, a good, you know opportunity for sellers as well, because what they do is they'll take a percentage of your daily or weekly sales as a form of repayment for the loan, so it's like a fixed percentage. The only downside to that is if you start selling, you know, exponentially higher than where you are right now and they charge 10% of sales like that's going to be a big number over time, you know depending on how much it would be a great deal for them and not as good of a deal for you.

Speaker 1: 31:43

Exactly exactly. And that's the downside to that. You might be able to get financing quickly from them, but the downside is you know they do have ownership of your daily sales thereafter for a certain amount of time, and I think that varies, I'm not exactly sure. That's just, it's another option that's flexible, right, and you can get financing quickly, but also the more margin you give up in your sales and eventually your bottom line. That's kind of what comes out of it.

Speaker 1: 32:09

And then you know, for an opportunity like ours where we're a merchant cash advance, you know we charge a fixed cost of capital.

Speaker 1: 32:15

It's $6,000 to $10,000 for everyone, $100,000 that's borrowed and that's fixed regardless of the amount of time. So we're not charging a percentage of sales or anything like that. That's a fixed cost of capital and principal. You know, over the length of the term of however long your growth plan is, which ours is, we require like a minimum of six months, but regardless, you know, six, 12 months, 24 months, 36 months, whatever it is, whatever the case may be, that fixed fee is going to remain the same. And then you also you know some other financing options you have available to use. You can take out, you know, credit cards or revolving credit right, you might have a credit facility with another lender online that does e-commerce really well and that's something that you can draw on at any point in time, kind of like a credit card, to make your payments. But the flip side of that is you will have a significantly higher interest rate on those payments if you're not making them on a timely basis.

Speaker 2: 33:11

So another thing to consider, as you know, for your financing options, as you kind of look through those yeah, and I think anybody who's listening to this or watching this can tell there are a ton of options out there, and so that's you know.

Speaker 2: 33:22

I talk a lot about this, but knowing where you're at in your business is also super crucial, because one of the options might fit better for you at a certain time than another advice person. I think knowing what's out there and then knowing kind of where you're at is a big part of this whole process too. So, no, it's great, sam, I appreciate you sharing that idea of one final question which is going to take us into our next section, and that's does pineapple blowing up pizza.

Speaker 1: 33:49

Oh man, that's a tough one, you know. Oh, come on, you're gonna have a snap reaction. That's the thing. Is this divides?

Speaker 2: 33:58

people. So yes or no, does it belong?

Speaker 1: 34:00

It's true.

Speaker 2: 34:01

It's true.

Speaker 1: 34:02

I think there's a spot for it on pizza, I do.

Speaker 2: 34:04

There we go.

Speaker 1: 34:08

I used to be a hater of it. I really did, and I didn't understand it. I'm like that's gross. Why would you put fruit on something that's so savory and cheesy? It just doesn't seem like a good combination. But then I had a Hawaiian slice a few years ago and I'm like all right, now I kind of get it.

Speaker 2: 34:24

This is not that bad you got converted.

Speaker 1: 34:26

This is actually pretty good, yeah, and I would say I would have it again and it's got a spot on it.

Speaker 2: 34:33

So the reason I'm asking is this is now gonna lead us into our kind of controversial take section. I call it, of course, the. Does pineapple belong on pizza section? So I like to ask our guests what is one of kind of your controversial takes that maybe you have that is not held by other people's industry, or something that's debatable that you have that you kind of feel strongly or set my strongly about in terms of the e-commerce or Amazon space?

Speaker 1: 34:59

Yeah, sure, so I think one that I think about often is, you know and at the risk of sounding hypocritical, because I do use Amazon quite a lot for my own consumption purposes but one thing that you know weighs heavy on me is that, with Amazon's dominance and its rise to corner the market in terms of online retail, that's done more harm than good for small businesses and small retailers in the US, which I am a strong proponent for small businesses. I do like to buy from small businesses as much as I possibly can because I think, I think in the long run, that does a lot for US economy, right, and for any economy worldwide. It's small businesses, small retailers in like those communities, can be a big part of the lifeblood, of beating heart of a good economy. But you know it's, I think, with Amazon's dominance and their ability to corner the online market, that's put a lot of retailers out of business because of the convenience factor of being able to order anything online at any point in time. I mean, I do enjoy that, I'm not going to lie but it's also it's hurt those businesses, I think, and done more harm than good. I think I read a stat you know, in the last 10 years prior to 2020, 65,000 upwards of 65,000 small retailers were put out of business by Amazon, which you can make the argument that we live in a capitalist society. Right, that's great economic model and Amazon was able to build a platform to control that market, which is great. But also it's so much harder for those small businesses to compete right, maybe they can make their own Amazon store online, but that just continues to perpetuate the power that Amazon has.

Speaker 1: 36:41

So that's kind of how I feel about it. I know any others feel the same way. Maybe they don't, I'm not exactly sure. I think it's a dilemma that I've encountered quite a bit when either I'm shopping on Amazon or looking at like, for example, when I was living in New York City, going back into the city to move out during the pandemic because I just want to get the heck out of there. To be honest no offense to anyone who's in New York City I'm looking around in my old neighborhood. I'd see all these old shops that I used to love going into, just boarded it up and shut down. It was kind of sad. And then that whole pandemic really transferred the power from smaller businesses to Amazon, because everyone was forced to order online, nobody could go out. So seeing that kind of gave me the idea it's like, oh man, how good is this for the economy in the long run? And just kind of planted that seed in my mind.

Speaker 2: 37:30

Yeah, I think a lot of people echo the same feelings. Like I, grew up in a fairly small town and used to have his awesome shopping center area that now has a lot fewer businesses.

Speaker 2: 37:40

The businesses just changed a ton. I used to have all these great shops and stores. I never went in, but anyway, I totally get the point and I think kind of on the flip side, that's why things like Etsy and these other platforms I feel like have done quite well, because they try to cater a little bit more towards that. We've seen Amazon try to do that with some of the small business kind of promotional things that they've done and things like that. But yeah, it's challenging.

Speaker 2: 38:04

There's a local toy store that we had kind of in my college town that they were selling stuff that they didn't know how to sell on the internet. Honestly, that's what killed their business because people stopped going in there as much. They're starting to buy online, next email, knocking the traffic to kind of cover the basics and yeah. So I feel like that is the flip side, is like, yeah, if you're a small business that can also learn how to get online, great or minimum, there's people out there, a lot of people probably watching this or there's so many different solutions that serve that industry, but still, it's challenging right. So it's an interesting world.

Speaker 1: 38:38

Totally yeah, and I think the argument could be made. Well, they should adapt and they should get online, and it is a good one If you can sell on Amazon or you can sell online, maybe through another platform or DTC. It's important to adapt and be able to equip your business to do so, for just longevity, right, Because look at the how far the internet's come and how many users it has. That's where things are moving. So I totally see that point as well.

Speaker 2: 39:05

Absolutely. I think they said what COVID accelerated, I want to say internet or e-commerce shopping growth by like 10 years or something like that. And it was like, very true, my mom never bought anything online. And then now she's like, oh, I can get this in two days. Oh my gosh, Now she's got the Amazon app now and she's buying stuff left and right.

Speaker 2: 39:24

So I don't think that would have happened for another couple of years had the pandemic and some of these things happened, so definitely got accelerated there. I hope there's always a place for small businesses. I think there is. So thank you for sharing that take. You're welcome. You're welcome. Okay, sam, we're kind of here at the end of the show.

Speaker 2: 39:41

So for all those watching, we've had an awesome discussion. I think everyone watching can agree that Sam has too many hobbies to count. You should probably also teach a time management class or something, because you also have a wife and a dog, I think, and you do our, and you have a full time job. You have so many things. But, man, it's been great. Having you Really appreciate it Definitely have me thinking a little bit more about all the things I need to be doing in my life. So I hope for listeners watching this you feel the same. Let us know down below in the comments or wherever you're watching this, if there's a new hobby that you're trying or you also have 50 hobbies like Sam. Love to know about it. Sam, I want to give you a moment. Give the stage back to you for a moment here. Where can people find you? Or just kind of do shameless plug for yourself, or 8th big for whatever you want to talk about. But where can people find you or learn more about 8th big, your art business, any of that stuff?

Speaker 1: 40:35

Sure, yeah, I mean, we'll start with 8th big. If you guys want to check out 8th big and see how we might be able to help your business or help with funding solutions, feel free to check us out 8th bigco, or you can email me, sam at 8th bigco, I'd be more than happy to help out. If you want to find me online, I'm on LinkedIn, samuel Bell. You can search 8th big and just find me under the employees as well. However you want to find it and we can connect and happy to connect and chat about all things e-commerce. If you want to check out some of my artwork, I would greatly appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 41:12

My Instagram handle is sandbell underscore art. You can also check my website, sandbellartcom. I do commissions and things like that. If you're interested in having a watercolor and oil painting, I'd be happy to help you out, and that's pretty much it. Feel free to get connected. We'd love to chat with you about anything as well as Brazilian jiu-jitsu chess barbecue. Whatever you want to talk about and, please, if you have hobbies, like I do, like a multitude amount it would be great to know that there are others out there like me with too many hobbies and maybe we could start a support group or something like that.

Speaker 2: 41:46

A renaissance man over here. I love that, sam. You do it all, man. I want to thank you again for coming on the show. Thanks for having me, by the way, several months back as well. So finally get to read your favorite. Everyone watching, listening, whatever you're doing. That brings us to the end of this episode. So thanks again, sam, for joining us today.

Speaker 2: 42:06

If you found value in today's discussion, we kindly request that you leave us a review or rating on your favorite podcast player, whether that's Apple podcasts or Spotify, google podcasts. You can't do that, but listen to it. Love us there as well. Your feedback means the world to us and it definitely helps us reach more e-commerce enthusiasts just like you. So don't forget to do that and follow us on all of our social media pages for updates behind the scenes, funny blooper content and much more. You can find the links to everything we talked about and those social links down below in the description or the show notes for this episode. So that is it for today's episode. Be sure to mark your calendars and join us again next week for another captivating discussion. We'll be bringing you lots more expert insights and game changing tips, but until then, I'm Ben Smith, your host signing off and happy selling.