#421 – Secrets of Scaling: Jennifer Young’s Journey of Leading a $20 Million Toy Empire
Can you imagine sustaining a $20 million Amazon business where 70% of sales happen in just one season? Join us as we explore the toy industry with Jennifer Young, who shares her unmatched expertise in orchestrating this financial ballet. From tackling the fourth-quarter rush with precise forecasting to leveraging her Chinese connections for strategic sourcing, Jennifer reveals how she keeps her business thriving amidst varying challenges. She discusses the role of strategic partnerships and the financial acumen required to turn seasonal spikes into sustained success.
In this episode, we navigate the world of global product development and marketing, dissecting the art of juggling quality issues, inventory management, and brand differentiation. Jennifer sheds light on the multi-channel sales strategy involving Amazon, Walmart, and D2C channels, highlighting the importance of maintaining target margins and adapting to rising costs. With a mixed team based in China and the U.S., she illustrates the cultural nuances of marketing to a Western audience and the strategic advantages of having a U.S.-based category manager to enhance product presentation and conversion rates.
Leadership and team growth are at the heart of scaling any successful business, and Jennifer’s journey is no exception. Discover her insights on finding trustworthy leaders, fostering a secure work environment, and the essential mindset shifts needed for expansion. She emphasizes the significance of mentorship and continuous learning, drawing from personal experiences and shared knowledge within the Amazon seller community. As we wrap up, Jennifer’s story underscores her commitment to exploration, helping others succeed, and the joy derived from seeing team members, especially those from underprivileged backgrounds, grow and flourish in the corporate world.
In episode 421 of the AM/PM Podcast, Kevin and Jennifer discuss:
- 00:00 – Managing Seasonal Sales and Cash Flow
- 07:16 – Forecasting Sales Using BSR Rankings
- 11:28 – Global Product Development and Marketing Challenges
- 17:21 – Scaling a Business and Team Development
- 18:33 – Scaling Amazon Business for Growth
- 24:30 – Team Growth and Cultural Advantages
- 26:20 – Chinese Sellers and Brand Strategy
- 31:00 – Navigating the Amazon Seller Journey
- 35:33 – Best Conference Meal Experience
- 39:18 – Kevin King’s Words Of Wisdom and Tribute to Zoe
Transcript
Kevin King:
Welcome to episode 421 of the AM/PM podcast. In this episode, I’m speaking with Jennifer Young. Jennifer has helped build a company that’s going to do about $20 million in sales this year. We talk about how a lot of those sales are coming in seasonality and how they balance that. We talk about how being Chinese actually helps her with relationships and with sourcing from Asia, and we talk about the pain points of growing a business that big, plus a whole lot more in this episode. Enjoy this episode with Jennifer.
Kevin King:
Jennifer Young, how are you doing? Welcome to the AM|PM podcast. It’s good to see you again.
Jennifer:
Yeah, I’m good, and hello, Kevin, it’s good to see you again too.
Kevin King:
I think I’ve been seeing you like a lot this fall. I’d like all these different conferences where we see each other at Unboxed and I think at what DealCon, and came out to the Market Master’s Think Tank and I don’t know, probably something before that I’m forgetting. It’s like I think between me and you and a couple other people were like the conference people or like it seems like we’re almost every conference.
Jennifer:
Correct, because usually I’m not that social, but I really like your event because I feel it’s very close. And then, you know, and every time we met and we become closer relationship and I like that.
Kevin King:
So, for those of you that don’t know, Jennifer runs a company with her husband that does what. What are you guys going to do? Like 25 or $30 million this year?
Jennifer:
Yeah, it’s about 20, 20 million Around 20 million.
Kevin King:
About 20 million, around 20 million, about 20 million on Amazon mostly private label right?
Jennifer:
Yes, all private label.
Kevin King:
And a lot of. I think you guys publicly say there’s a lot of toy stuff in the toy category, if I’m not mistaken.
Jennifer:
Yeah, it’s like 85% toys and 15% travel accessories, and we’re planning to expand to other category as well.
Kevin King:
So does that mean like right now, when people are listening to this in November? Right now is like when you’re doing most of your sales for the year, like these three months, since it’s toys, right that’s. I would think this is like massive season for you guys.
Jennifer:
Yeah, so our sales like doubled in this month compared with like last month because of Halloween, and then I think the same for November and December and the Q4 are gonna contribute about like 70% our total sales of the whole year, based on the previous number.
Kevin King:
So if you’re doing 70% in the fourth quarter, that’s roughly 14 million or so, if I’m just doing the math in my head, right of your 20 million, that takes a massive investment in inventory and, I would think, a big risk, because it could be a risk of you over-order and get stuck with something, or you under-order and, like man, I wish we could sell three times this if we didn’t mess this up. So how do you balance that A from the forecasting? I know you got some cool tools that you use, but how do you balance that then from a financial point of view, that’s a large investment in inventory. Is that from cash flow, or do you guys have resources or special terms or how do you? Can you walk us through how you manage that, because a lot of people are always curious about that?
Jennifer:
Yeah, sure. So for the first question, as for the cash flow, and we do have like a cash flow issue. When we are like growing dramatically, I think in 2019, 2020, and 2021, and our sales form like 3 million and next year 6 million, 12 million, it’s like every year doubled, and then that is the most difficult time for us to think about oh, we don’t have a cash to buy the inventory, right? I think by that time we’re using some financial service which is very high interest rates, because that is only our option. I think it is helpful because, firstly, it’s a short time and also including Amazon lending. But they are not doing that now, right, but back then. I think Amazon lending is also a very good financial source for us because you can pay it back and just after two months. So, even if the annual rate is very high, but you’re thinking about the total cost of the capital, it’s really worth to take it.
Kevin King:
Have you worked out any special deals with the companies you buy from to give you like 50-50 or give you let you pay 30% 60 days after it’s delivered?
Jennifer:
Yeah, there’s another way we’re doing. It is we have a strategic partner that we’re working for seven years and they are in this industry for a long time as well, and then they understand this industry. They understand like the for toys, and then we need like a lot of cash flow, we need like the terms in order to helping us with the cash flow, and then they can negotiate a better term with the factory as well. I think in China, you know, there’s an area they’re specializing in toys and they all understand the seasoning, and so they are more likely to partner with their clients to figure that out, because if they say, hey, if you cannot pay us, you cannot ship the product out, and then they are missing out as well. Yeah, usually we have about like a 30 days terms with the supplier, but during the peak time of day we only need to give us like 60 days.
Kevin King:
That helps a lot that helps a lot.
Jennifer:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which means once we start to receive money towards the end of December and January, we just pay them back and for them it’s just maybe 30 days more, because we have a 30-day standard for the regular orders as well.
Kevin King:
Now, do you think that’s? Is that something that you’ve worked hard to negotiate, or does it help? I know you’re Chinese and from China. Does it help that you speak the language and that you know you’re kind of like from that culture? Does that help with the factories trusting you more than they might someone?
Jennifer:
Actually not, because most of the factories in China, especially they are specialized in selling product overseas and they prefer to deal with foreigners. They’re going to give foreigners better terms because they know there will be a long-term relationship. Other than the Chinese people, they can shop around.
Kevin King:
On the forecasting side of things, how do you actually do you look at trends? I know you use some tools and different tools out there and your husband has a tool that’s really good that you guys use. But how do you judge? I know you can look at the tools and maybe you can do you look at the past year and see how this toy did last year, or do you look at like, oh, this is gonna be the hot new toy for 2024’s Christmas? How do you decide what to what to carry and then how much to actually order, to not screw this up? Um, because I sell calendars, so I sell seasonal stuff too. So wall calendars are one of my products, and I know that it’s a guessing game, because depending on what the cover of the calendar looks like depends on how much it sells. And so I think, oh, last year I sold 10,000 of this on Amazon, so this year I think my sales are going to go up 20%, so I’m going to order 12,000. But then something happens or the way the algorithm works, I only sell 8,000, I got 4,000 I gotta get rid of, or the vice, the opposite happened. I think I’m gonna sell 12,000 and by the first week of December. I’ve already sold 11,000. Like wait, I only have a thousand left for the rest of the year. I could sell so many more. So how do you, how do you, how do you balance that or how do you forecast that?
Jennifer:
Yeah, that’s a good question. Actually we’re not using the data of the last year because the sales volume has been changed a lot. So what we see is our current BSR. So, for example, we have an estimate sales of a BSR, for example, top 1,000, and then we estimate X amount right, and then 2,000, then we estimate X amount right and, and then all the way to, like you know, ten thousand and twenty thousand. So that is the uh, the BSR range that our portfolio adds, and then, based on the current BSR ranking of our product, and we estimate and what that BSR sales volume will be for the peak season. So that is methodology that we are using and we feel like it’s very effective.
Kevin King:
I know that a lot of times you go to China quite a bit and you guys go sometimes for the Canton Fair and stuff. I know you guys go and you visit your factories and, like you said, with toys especially. Isn’t there like a city outside of Guangzhou that’s known for toys and I think you and your husband and some of your team sometimes go over there and you just I’ve heard stories that you sit down for like three days in the showroom and they’re just bringing you all kinds of toys and you’re playing with them and going oh, this one looks cool or no, I don’t like this one. Can you tell me about that?
Jennifer:
Yeah, that is like an early phase, I think in start from 2018, 2019, and then COVID hit. We just don’t have a chance to go there, because that is a faster way to launch a lot of SKUs. That’s why, right now, we have 900 SKUs and most of them just–
Kevin King:
900?
Jennifer:
Yeah, SKU, and most of them is just from the first two or three years, and we’ve just been there for a whole week and we’re launching 20 30 ASINs and then most of them were doing pretty good because we have our own system of launch and maintain the product and then, once we see the market is big enough, and then we’re just adding more variants and then all like launching new parents. I think that is most effective way to expand your business, but I don’t think it still works nowadays, because right now, everything’s become very competitive and we prefer to working more deeply in one niche instead of going wide. But back to 2018 and 2019 is about like how many, as many as SKUs you can launch, and then that is how much money you can make. But the strategy has been changed now and we need to change accordingly.
Kevin King:
So how often, out of those 900 you said, a lot of them are from the past how often are you launching a new product that’s totally new, not just a new variation, but like I don’t know, maybe you’re selling a little toy car and now you’re selling a robot, for example. I mean, how many totally new SKUs to the catalog do you introduce, like each month or each year?
Jennifer:
You know timing it by the season. We have summer and spring season and we also have Q3 and Q4 season. I think each season we’re going to launch about maybe 20. Oh, wow, yeah, 20 new parent ASINs. So annually we’ll probably have 40 to 50.
Kevin King:
How many of those typically make it? I mean, I know a lot of people say like an 80% ratio to 20%, failure is good. Do you see something similar? So if you launch 20, one year later, 15 or 16 of them are still good and the other is like okay, that didn’t work out and you discontinued them. Or what kind of success ratio do you typically have?
Jennifer:
Yeah, for the one that is doing really good, I would say maybe 20% that become our top product for the next year and around 50% that is doing okay, but we decided to continue, you know, doing that product and I will say maybe 30 to yeah, around 30% is the one that is just doing okay. But we feel it’s not worth for us to spend resources on that and then we just sell out of inventory by not losing that much money, right and then. But when this continued, and then like 10 to 20 percent and we do lose money because of, uh, majority is the quality issue. Uh, if the quality is no good, and then you just cannot do anything about it, and then we have to liquidate and or, uh, destroy it.
Kevin King:
So do you have a team of people that are like, constantly looking for ideas, or these coming from you, your ideas, or how are you finding new ideas of what to launch? Are they going to visiting the factories or you have the factories sending? You should look at this. You should look at this.
Jennifer:
Yeah, before we’re just like in the spending a whole week, visit factories and then they have a whole showroom and then we’re just getting ideas and and also I doing online research and look at our competitors, look at the trending and send out ideas to our team to do the further investigation. Yeah, that’s how we get our idea, but that is before, like nowadays, and we are very familiar about our category, so we just stick to the category that we’re familiar with and for the completely new category, I think we’re probably going to do like one or two per month, so it’s not a big workload for us.
Kevin King:
So are you selling just on Amazon? Are you on Walmart or TikTok or any other places too?
Jennifer:
We’re on Walmart. We have a full-time employees that are in charge of that platform and we realized the product is selling well. They are not selling well on Amazon and vice versa. So it’s definitely worth to explore other channels and it’s also helping us to manage our inventory as well, because some of the products are overstocked and then we can send to other channels. It’s definitely helpful. Uh, other channels like a TikTok and Temu. We used to do a team a little bit, but uh, it’s just a um very you know we, you cannot make money from there, right, honestly, all you do is uh trying to, uh using that as a liquidation channel and then the price they give it to you are very low. So I just feel it’s not worth to spend the resource on that for the, for the channel that cannot make you too much money, and then you’re not grow that channel strategically. So right now we have Amazon, Walmart and D2C, we tried a little bit, but it’s not very successful. The reason why is the category our product is. Yeah, it’s not a repeatable, there’s no repeat customer, there’s no um, it’s not a high dollar value um. So I think during that time we are running Facebook ads we get $10 per per order and it’s way above the profit that we make from that product, so we decided to discontinue it. Um, so, for the current category, we’re not planning to grow into like D2C or social commerce strategy, but we do feel like if you really want to build a true brand and that is where we should go and if we’re going to do that, then I will probably going to plan for another category and other products that fit that type of marketing strategy.
Kevin King:
So is there certain margins that you look for? Do you have to like when you’re sourcing products, do you need to make at least a 20% bottom line or 30% bottom line, or is there some target that you that you look for and maybe some products you don’t do? They look like they’re a good opportunity, but just can’t make the margin on them, and so you pass.
Jennifer:
Yeah absolutely, and before our standard is at 30% and now we increased that to like 35% because all the cost has been increased. We have to increase our margin in order to make profit. But another important thing is we are not only looking at margin when we do the product development. We’re looking at ROI Because at the end of the day, it’s about how much you invest and how much you make. That matters Because the margin is more like a salespeople or the PPC person look at the margin, but for the product development we’re using ROI as the main metrics. So we’re looking for at least 100% ROI of the product that we’re planning to launch.
Kevin King:
Is most of your team in the US, or do you have a lot of team overseas, or where is most of your team based?
Jennifer:
Before I would say before 2022,100% of our team are in China because I feel it’s just easier that everyone’s working in the same office and I can talk to them and then they can move things very fast. They’re working very diligently and nowadays I feel it’s very important that we have to improve look and feel of how our product display in our website. So we hire more Western designers in our team as well and we see a huge improvement for our conversion and also our traffic, and I think that is things we’re going to continue doing. We’re planning to hire a new category manager in the US as well that will oversee the whole category solutions. That’s how we can win in this marketplace, right.
Kevin King:
So your team is mixed between the two. Do you find that there’s any issues like with a China-based team? Like you said, they’re very hardworking and very diligent and they can deal with the factories and their language and everything over there. But when it comes to actually the marketing side, understanding the Western culture is that kind of difficult. How do you advertise to them? How do you speak to them? Do you find that that’s a little challenging sometimes, because you’ve seen both. I mean, you were born in China, now you live in Florida. You kind of understand both. But most of the people working for you have probably never been to the United States, so they only know what they saw on TV or something like that. So how do you overcome that? What kind of challenge is that and how do you overcome that?
Jennifer:
Yeah, I’m still thinking that now. I don’t think like I saw that problem already and I think from my experience in the past 12 months, it is very important that we find a very good leader, like outside China they feel they can trust and rely on, and you have to let them feel that the company is doing that is to help them grow as well, because otherwise then they will fail and they will get fired right um so, and which is which is very important and then, firstly, as the owner of the company and you have to tell them why we’re doing this, we’re not abandoning you, we’re helping you. And then the company doing good and you’re doing good as well, and also the, the manager that you find to coaching them, to manage them, is very important as well, and we are very lucky that we have a very senior and seasoned head of designer that helping us to helping us to go through this transform and now like in our branding and look in the field when it’s much better than what we are like two or three years ago, and the team is really appreciate that as well so.
Kevin King:
Didn’t you do something with like a CEO coach or something, didn’t you? You guys go through something with like because, growing from, there’s a big difference between selling a million dollars a year on Amazon and 25 million dollars a year. And you guys, like you said, we’re growing fast, doubling every year. What? What’s the challenge there? It takes a different mindset right and a different kind of team. Once you go from 1 million, a lot that you can do yourself or maybe with your partner or one or two employees, but then when you get to 20 million, it takes a lot more effort and a lot more people. Can you tell me about that process and what you guys did to to learn and help you with that?
Jennifer:
Yeah, absolutely. Um, I would say, firstly, you need to have the determination right and you, you, you, you need to want, you need to like the thinking about, you want to scale, because I know, like a lot of you know, companies or business owners and they don’t want to scale, they just want to like making 1 million or $2 or $3 million and do everything by themselves and has a very good margin, and this is what they want. So if that is the mindset, you don’t have to scale. But if you decided that you had to scale and then, firstly, you had to think about you might have some challenges. The things will not go smooth as you’re thinking. Are you willing to take those challenges? So that is the demands that we have to have at the very beginning. And for me and my husband, we feel like we are still at the very early age of our career and we definitely want to learn more and not just know how to start a business, but also how to scale and manage the business. So we invest on ourselves with a lot of trainings and coaches, and it is very helpful because most of the coaches they are from the enterprise company and they know how a big company looks like and they can tell the problem that we have at a very early stage.
Jennifer:
I think the most value for us is not just to learn the process and the system, because all those things you can get in by reading books or you hire some junior operators and they can hand it over the system to you. I think the most valuable things for us is you have someone like a mentor you know, to coach you how to become a CEO, because they used to be a CEO before and then you can adapt to their mindset and working styles very naturally by being in a session with them and then you naturally adapt this type of management styles or mindset to your team. So that’s how I feel it is very helpful to grow, grow the team as well, but I feel like we’re still a long way to become a true like a safe CEO for a corporate. Uh, but at least, uh, we started, you know, and uh, our next goal is to pass like a 50 million and maybe like nine figures in the next five, seven years. I think it’s very exciting. Yeah.
Kevin King:
Do you have a goal to scale, to sell the company, or you just want to keep growing it for the time, for right now.
Jennifer:
We’re not against to sell, but we’re not making this as our ultimate goal for the business, because our ultimate goal is to just always explore new things and helping people, and I know, like a lot of people when they start a business and always thinking about how to exit and this is also like investors looking for. But I feel like being entrepreneur or doing a business is definitely more than that, because at the end of the day, you have to feel like, hey, what really fulfills you is not just the money, right, and it’s something else.
Kevin King:
That’s true, that’s true. So what keeps you getting up every morning to do this? What is that fulfillment for you? Is it you like the challenge? Is it you like the money? Is it you like dealing with the people? You like taking care of the customers? What is it that motivates you every morning? Okay, today is going to be a good day. I’m looking forward to doing something in my business. What is it that keeps you going and keeps you from being burned out?
Jennifer:
I think for me it’s to see our team members grow, especially at a very early stage. All the people that we hire, they are very fresh. They either just graduated from college or are working for only two or three years I’m not suggesting that everyone doing that and end up from a business growth point of view, this may be a mistake. You hire two junior people and you have to replace them after a couple of years. But I really feel like fulfilled that someone comes to a company and in our company most of them they are from different provinces and states, which is less developed, and then they go to a big city and want to explore opportunity and then they happen to be finding us and then I feel like it’s very fulfilling to tell them you know how to be in a corporate, how to like make a living right, and teach them how work looks like, and then after one year, two years and they can manage their products and they can, you know, they know how to like be independent and doesn’t have to rely on their parents, you know. So I think this is the most fulfilling for me and nowadays I’m trying to bring more resources to the company that are helping those senior associates become a junior manager or even like a more seasoned manager in the future, and then I can see their growth right, because every month I ask them to write a report and it’s not just about the work and it’s all about like what they learn, what they feel, those type of like deep feeling stuff. And I can see, you know, most of people become more and more mature. You know we have still a lot of people working in our company and they start from just a single person and then get engaged, get married and now have kids and I can see the life has been changed for them. This is how I’ve been fulfilled.
Kevin King:
That’s cool. How big is the team now? How many people?
Jennifer:
Yeah, we have uh. It’s between like in the 20 to 30 and right now is uh around like 20, because we uh have a like a major uh reorganization uh happening currently and right now about 20 and we’ll grow into 25 and our goal is to, you know, to reach like about 40 or 50 and by the end of the next year.
Kevin King:
So do you find it? Since you’re Chinese living in America, is there an advantage do you think you have over some of the sellers here in America that are just they’re from here, all they speak is English. They don’t understand the culture over there, they don’t speak the language. Is there an advantage as a seller by being here and being of Chinese heritage?
Jennifer:
I think for me I can see both sides and I feel for me it’s definitely an advantage, but I don’t know whether I fully use that advantage or not, because on the main side I feel like maybe I get this disadvantage for both as well. Because I feel the advantage for the Chinese seller is they’re very close with the factory and manufacturing and then they can really working with the factory to make the cost down. And I realized a lot of big sellers in China they have their own engineer, like a product engineer, in-house in their company as well. So they’re just doing all the product development in-house and then also to the factory to manufacture it. So I think the cost is definitely lower than most of the American seller, but they’re not very good at marketing and branding those type of thing and it’s very competitive because Chinese people is not very, you know, innovative. You can think about that way.
Jennifer:
So when someone like figure out something, and there’s tons of you know sellers doing that same thing, so even though the cost is lower but the margin is not that high versus the American seller, they are trying to do something different, right? They don’t want to do the same thing as other seller and then the consumer cannot realize it. So me as a buyer, and when I shop in Amazon and I think you feel the same right you can tell immediately hey, this is American brand, and then the other one is a Chinese brand. And when you realize it’s a Chinese brand, then you just compare the price and then when it’s American brand, you’re willing to pay more. So, yeah, this is the direction that we are trying to do is kind of getting the advantage of both sides. That’s why we hire our whole marketing team in the United States and trying to make sure we can sell at a higher price for the similar products, and then at the China side we’re hiring an in-house QC engineer and then next time we’ll be like a product engineer as well, and to optimize our cost.
Kevin King:
What’s a big misconception a lot of people have about Chinese sellers. There’s something that like you’re watching a webinar, you’re at an event and someone says, oh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Chinese sellers. And you’re like, ah, it just makes the hair on your neck go up. What is something like that that you hear? That’s a big misconception. That’s just wrong that a lot of people may be out there.
Jennifer:
I think a lot of people feel like the Chinese sellers being successful because they cheat, right and the, which is true in the past. But I think besides that, and then they are like a very strong on the uh online marketplace, and you know the reason why is uh the online market? They have like a Timor and Taobao in China before those big retailers and all brands are doing well D2C. So they adapt how to market their product on online marketplace first, and then they’re thinking about how to do a brand, and this is exactly what Amazon’s goal is. So at the beginning you’re just getting as many sales as possible on the platform, then using Amazon’s customer to help your sales, and then you’re thinking about how to build a brand from there. So I think they are very strong about online market sales and I will say they are probably like five years ahead of Amazon, because that’s kind of the same timeframe. About Timo and Taobao, they start to recruit third party sellers and, versus Amazon, they start from 1P and then they open up to 3P. So I think they are like very they just being good because they are doing this for longer than most American seller.
Kevin King:
So what did you do before selling on Amazon? What was what’s your background? You went to university. You got like a, some advanced degrees or something, or what were you doing? What were you working for?
Jennifer:
My previous career plan is to become a researcher and a professor. And yeah, yeah, because this is what my family, my family background is because most of my families they are college professors and I even grew up in a college campus and I feel like this is just my career and I really enjoyed it and I did my PhD. I was in a PhD program in China already and get my paper published the first year in my graduate school and I really, like you know, thinking and doing research and discussing some, some, some problems that no one cares, with the professors and my peers, but I really enjoyed that. And then I want to, you know, come to the other country, United States, to further explore my career, and that’s why I applied a PhD program in Computer Science here as well and then, like I feel there’s more opportunities you know, other than research, and we can actually apply what we learned and then, using the same you know tactics or like a thinking process, to making money. So that’s why, yeah.
Kevin King:
You have the research and everything, the analytical side of it, it all applies here. What year did you start selling on Amazon? When was your first sale?
Jennifer:
We started to do retail arbitrage and wholesales in 2015 and 2016. And then private label, maybe 17 or 18.
Kevin King:
Cool and it’s just US right. Are you doing it in Canada or Europe or anything, or Latin America?
Jennifer:
Yeah, right now we are just doing US.
Kevin King:
So not even Canada. That was just the easy one.
Jennifer:
Canada we did, but we’re not sending the shipment directly to there.
Kevin King:
So you’re just doing the cross border where they can order it in the US and ship it to Canada at a higher price. I forgot what the Amazon calls that program. So you’ve seen Amazon change. So 2015, 2016. You started doing the arbitrage, then the private label. A year or so after that. You’ve been here for the ride. There’s a lot of people listening to this that have only been doing this for a couple of years, but you’ve seen it go from the wild wild west of all kinds of crazy ways to get reviews and launch products to now how it’s super competitive and a lot of things on price. Where do you see this going? Do you think a lot of people say, oh, selling on Amazon, that’s you can’t make any money, you shouldn’t do that. That’s over with. What do you think the opportunities are right now for maybe someone listening to this that’s just kind of chugging along and they haven’t really hit that million dollars yet, or they’re just thinking about starting. Would you recommend someone actually start a private label brand now and try to sell on Amazon? Or would you recommend, and so should they have a lot of money? Or what would your advice be to somebody to like your neighbor if they were saying, oh, tell me about this Amazon thing, what’s the opportunity?
Jennifer:
Yeah, I feel like the opportunity is always there, right? Because from our experience and then we have so many skills and then we always keep an eye on about our competitor and every year they have new sellers. They are ranking number one, number two in the category, and then the previous number one, number two and then just falling off, so which means there’s always opportunity for the new sellers. I think the key here is that you have to really keep in evolving. You cannot just think about oh, this is a passive income business, as most of the gluers advertised in a few years ago. It’s not a passive business. It’s a very active business and I think if you really have a great product idea and you can execute it, that is the biggest advantage right now in Amazon. But, comparing with the past few years and you want to make easy money, I don’t think that is a mindset that will be successful. Back to your question it’s still a good opportunity, but you have to be more realistic. It’s not the business that you become rich in one day. It’s a passive income of your life. It’s not that type of business.
Kevin King:
What’s your favorite part of the business? What do you enjoy doing? Do you enjoy the keyword research? Do you enjoy the management? Do you enjoy what if you had to pick one thing? If someone waved their wand, said, Jennifer, you can’t interview the people anymore. You can’t talk to the people in China. You can’t do this. You can only do one thing in the business. What would it be? When you’re working on that for your business? The time just goes by. You look at the clock and like, oh my god, I’ve been doing this for five hours. It seems like 20 minutes. What is something like that?
Jennifer:
I think I I really like the, the process and building up the process, and also I like the, the change um, you know, should always uh, change the mindset and the process and based on what Amazon wants, and I think that’s very interesting. And also I see how the big companies, how they run their own business right, how they set up their strategy, because every year we went to their big conference and I really learned a lot and you know how those big companies set up their goal and you realize, you know they announced something in a conference and the next year, next two years, they implement that. Some of the projects actually implement very well and some of the projects just they have to relaunch um, because I just want to be in this industry and see um, see the change and really enjoying the community like you know, like you and other community leaders and you know, building up a very long term and in-depth relationship.
Kevin King:
And also make sure that you sign up for my newsletter, billiondollarsellers.com. It’s free every Monday and Thursday. A lot of people say that’s what’s really given them the advantage and the secrets in this business. And be sure to check out Helium 10 Elite too, if you’re not a Helium 10 Elite member. Every single month I lead a talk on there, a open mastermind talk, where you can talk with me for a couple hours, as well as a training. So that’s at Helium 10 Elite. You can find that inside Helium 10 or go to h10.me/elite.
Kevin King:
So you’ve been to a lot of conferences and I saw a post that you and your husband put online a couple of weeks ago about a meal that you had in Chicago and like this amazing restaurant. So of all the conferences you’ve been, all the places you’ve been around the world you went to Europe for the first time this year, all over China, all over the US and different places Where’s the best meal you’ve had when you’ve been in a conference? Is it the one in Chicago or where is it? What’s like still on the top of your mind? I want to go back to that place.
Jennifer:
Yeah, I think it’s the meal that you bring us to. Oh, really, yeah, exactly the Chinese boutique, restaurant oh at the.
Kevin King:
Market Master’s Think Tank in Austin.
Jennifer:
Yeah, exactly because I feel like I have an Asian bond with the owner, because I feel like most of the Chinese restaurants in my head is just they have a menu and everyone’s doing the same thing and then they’re just doing it for their living. But I think the owners really inspired me.
Kevin King:
So can you describe that experience for people listening that don’t know? Can you tell them kind of what it was? It was a special place, only 20 people in the restaurant sitting in the kitchen, and the way the food came out. Can you explain it a little bit?
Jennifer:
Yeah, I think that is firstly, it’s like a very boutique, uh restaurant, right, and then you only go there by appointment and there’s only like 20 seats, and then how many? There’s like, uh, seven or eight courses, um, and every course is kind of like an art, right, it’s not just the food but also the presentation. Uh, I think this is things I impressed the most, and I think all the dishes is the owner designed by herself, and it’s mixed with the Chinese culture and the flavor and with the western um, yeah, and I, I, I really like it, I like the um, the creativity, and I like the way that she presented and also I really like remind me the gift that she sent, you know, at the end of the dinner and it is not about the other chopstick. And then there’s also there’s like a poem in Chinese and the which, which is very touching. I cannot remember the whole whole thing, but it’s it’s about like it’s not just the food but it’s also enjoying life. So I feel it’s like very touching.
Kevin King:
That’s awesome. So you see, there it’s more reasons. Those of you listening need to come to a BDSS or a Market Master. I had no idea she’s going to say that that wasn’t a setup or anything. I had no idea she was going to say that, but that’s what we try to do is? You know, we all work hard out there, but we need to have good experiences and have fun times too. So we work hard and we play hard, and that’s what we like to do. Well, Jennifer, I know you got to run to another meeting, but I really appreciate you coming on and sharing today. This has been fun.
Jennifer:
Okay, thank you. Thank you for having me.
Kevin King:
If people want to know more about you or to find you, or do you want to just remain a secret? Or do you want to share away Instagram or email or Facebook or something where people want to reach out to you, or do you just want to stay the secret magician behind the scenes?
Jennifer:
That’s a good question. I feel like I need to have some public profiles. People can reach out to me. I’m building my LinkedIn profile now. I think right now I’m still building it. By the time you listen to this podcast, the page is already up. You can find me through LinkedIn. Just search for Jennifer Young, set assistance and Amazon. I will be there.
Kevin King:
Awesome. Thanks again, Jennifer. I appreciate you coming on, we’ll see you soon at probably another event.
Jennifer:
Okay, thank you!
Kevin King:
Awesome stuff with Jennifer there. We’ll be back again next week with another awesome episode. But before I leave today, I just got to sorry, I gotta get a little emotional here. Give some parting words. I recently lost my dog to a liver disease. She’s been fighting for about a year. So my words of wisdom this week are, a dog will teach you unconditional love, and with unconditional love there can be nothing else wrong. Dogs are our ticket to paradise. God bless you, Zoe. May you rest in peace across the Rainbow Bridge. See you again next week.
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