E219: 2018 Recap - Highs and Lows of Running an Ecommerce Business

EcomCrew Premium is open for a limited time EcomCrew Premium is now accepting new members from January 28 - February 3. We only open registrations a few times a year with the next reopening probably in April, so if you're ready to take your business to the next level, join us and get the following benefits: 1-on-1 unlimited email coaching Access to 4 full length courses (Importing from China, Launch an Amazon New Best Seller, Build a 7-Figure Product Brand, Facebook Messenger) Access to future courses Private monthly Q&A webinar Private Secret Sauce webinar where we bring in an ecommerce expert once a month Access to our exclusive members-only Facebook group Click here to explore Premium. With that out of the way, let's get down to what this episode is about. 2018 Recap: The Numbers Dave and I first discussed the detail that seems to be the most important for most people: end of year revenue. For us at Terran, we ended the year at $5,944,667. This is 27.22% higher than 2017, which was about $4.6 million. We initially had a goal to earn $9.7 million dollars in revenue this year, but due to unforeseen circumstances we were forced to cut back product development which ultimately affected our revenue. I talked about this in more detail in this episode. Dave's new company, which he started from scratch, ended the year at $556,000. His 2019 goal is to achieve a run rate of just under $2 million. Money in the bank, Shanghai winters, and Amazon creating their own IceWraps brand While last year was overshadowed by such things as additional tariffs and Amazon creating their own brand that's exactly like IceWraps, not everything was bleak in 2018. We decided to prioritize profits over revenue last year, which led to us having substantial money on the bank for the first time since we started this business. Our product launches have also been successful, largely due to the launch process we've been teaching at EcomCrew. This launch process was so successful that all of our newly launched products got the "New Best Seller" badge on Amazon. Dave also ended the year with a third of his sales coming from Amazon Canada. Not only that, he's been successful directing traffic from Shopify to Amazon, effectively solidifying his ranking. Dave had his fair share of lows though. One of these is a literal low (as in temperature) when he went to Shanghai during its worst winter in 20 years, without a jacket. That said, one of our highest highs last year was the success of EcomCrew Premium. Years ago, EcomCrew was nothing more than just a blog and podcast revolving around a hobby. Last year marked EcomCrew becoming a real and profitable business, and we have you to thank.   Thanks for listening to this episode! Until the next one, happy selling.