History Can Be Fun

A number of years ago I founded and operated an e-commerce enterprise that did reasonably well. We found a moderate level of success after a several years of toil and constantly following a FAIL FAST philosophy. The company earned public accolades like being on the Inc. 500 list 3 years consecutively, being noted in the Internet Retailer Top 500 list for several years, as well as a number of other points of recognition.

To hear the podcast that retells this story with more details go here: https://www.awesomers.com/109

And for those keeping score at home, this was selling directly on our own e-commerce platform - not through the Amazon marketplace, or eBay or anywhere else. All of these sales were on our own PARSIMONY software for our own branded website with our iPUPs in different parts of the USA.

A day that I remember vividly was the first time we set a goal to break a million dollars in sales on a single day.

I share this story to remind readers about the power of scale and systems that you are indeed in the right place at the right time if you are considering e-commerce as a business model.

Flash back a few years ago: My team and I had achieved between $3-4 million dollars per month in sales for the preceding 9-10 months and we had seen some peak sale spikes that were in the 500K-600K in revenue on single days. We were growing and it was fun.

But I had dreamed and even promised that year in company meetings that we would have a million dollar day in sales. In fact my promise was made as a proclamation during the all hands meeting at the start of the year. I declared that this year we would have a single day we generated a million dollars of sales! And then I forgot about that and went back to running the business day to day.

The Clock is Ticking

In late September we had not yet passed the $700,000 mark and it seemed like the year was slipping away. This particular product line is NOT holiday friendly so after Thanksgiving the business goes into our dead time. For that particular type of business time was running out rapidly.

I gathered my team together and after looking at the calendar I proclaimed that November 17th would be our first million dollar day and asked that each leader marshal their troops and resources to make it so.

Basically I drew a line in the sand and said it’s happening one way or the other. We drew up some promotional ideas and set things in motion. Over the course of the next two weeks the entire company prepared ourselves for this big goal.

I restated the goal and reaffirmed that it was happening.

You Don't Believe in Santa Claus? I Do.

But I could sense there was an undercurrent of uncertainly. Or to put more plainly there were some folks within the company who simply didn’t believe we would achieve our goal. Worse still some of my top executives were the guys who didn’t have full faith. Perhaps this was an indictment that my leadership skills were not honed well enough to motivate and inspire my team.

However, I decided to let everyone have his or her say and do it in a public way. We all gathered around a large 4 foot x 8 foot whiteboard and I challenged each team member to write their sales prediction for the day by their name. We, of course, went by the standard Bob Barker showcase showdown rules.

For those that are out of the loop on this common rule inspired by the TV show The Price is Right it basically says this: The one who was closest to the right number without going over would win the prize. To be honest I don’t recall what the prize was, but it was something worth winning. Even if it was just the ability to say I told you so.

Each person wrote their predictions up on the board. As I recall the predictions ranged from $300,000 for the day up to an optimistic $1,200,000 forecast for that single day. The median guess was around $700,000.

The team’s aggregated opinion was that we may indeed have a superlative day that matched, or even slightly edged out our prior all time record, but we were NOT going to hit a million dollars that day. Ouch. That hurt.

I was admittedly perplexed, but I pressed forward insisting that all measures be taken to prepare for this event. I demanded all hands on deck to prepare for our final stand to make this goal happen.

Flashback in a Flashback

Now to add some context to this story it is important to know that in the first days the business began several years earlier we ran a promotion that over the course of two weeks sold around $15,000 worth of orders. Take note - 2 weeks of sales only came to $15,000USD.

By February 14th we were so overwhelmed by the orders we took the phone number off our website and basically stopped taking orders. The chaos caused by our $15,000 in sales over 14 days was more than our system could handle.

We broke everything. Our suppliers were out of inventory. We lost shipments. We created lots of angry customers. We were out of our depth for sure. It was a nightmare, but at the same time it was exciting because we knew we could do more.

Now as we prepared for a million dollars in a single day the systems we put in place would be the final judge of whether or not we would succeed. Even if we did everything right in marketing and we created the right customer demand if our sales systems and just as importantly if our fulfillment systems failed we would have a major problem on our hands. The sale is only completed when the customer has received the item(s) and is delighted by the experience.

Fight or Flight?

So I did the most logical thing possible. I went on vacation. Technically I had already scheduled a trip to Mexico with my family before setting the million dollar day, but I had done what all good leaders do: I forgot. So several days prior to the promotion day I left the country and with that choice I gave up the illusion I may have had about controlling the outcome.

Finally the day arrived and I was on the beach and checking the sales statistics first thing in the morning on my phone. And it was interesting. By early morning in the Central time zone we had already booked around $200,000 in sales. If I looked at the remaining day parts it seemed feasible that we could potentially hit the million dollars. By Noon we passed $500,000 in sales. By 5pm we passed a million in sales. By the time the day ended we had racked up over $1,700,000 in sales on a single day. It was a rush!

That sales record was FAR above any figure that the team had dared to write on the board, including myself. It showed us all that we could do more than we thought possible if we all worked together to make it happen.

That is if everyone worked hard - except me. I should go on vacation more often! Best of all, those actually working that day reported the pace felt “busy”, but it was not chaotic. The systems handled the surge and the people managed the systems. Everything worked as we expected it to.

On the eve of the next major promotion when I asked people to write their predications on the white board like before the median prediction was closer to 2 million dollars. The team now shared the vision that any goal was possible.

You Can Do It Too!

The reason I share this story is that today new entrepreneurs have a unique advantage. You already have resources that are nearly infinitely scalable who work for you. That is Amazon FBA and the Amazon web sales channel. You are not going to break those systems.

By using proven e-commerce business models you can chart a new path to success.

You can achieve unbelievable heights using these world-class tools and systems, but it requires a commitment to follow a system, learn, and get smarter and repeat.

Part of the moral to my story is that even if those around you are not yet ready to believe in your vision, as long as you believe in it and prepare to achieve it you can experience unimaginable success.

My company invested millions to scale to the levels required and you don’t have to! In todays’ world of advanced tech you can have amazing resources without investing more than dozens of dollars. Not millions of dollars. Dozens of dollars. (e.g. www.shopify.com, or https://woocommerce.com, etc...)

Pay it Forward

My New Year’s Resolution was to try and live up to Zig Ziglar’s famous quote this year more than in the past. He said: “You can have everything in life you want, if you help enough other people get what they want.” I hope to declare my resolution a success at the end of this year. This message is to help you know that you can accomplish anything!

Good luck to each of you on your own amazing journey. Remember: The world needs more entrepreneurs! You can do it.

p.s. – the picture is me on that actual day calling in from Mexico and keeping a close eye on the sales stats. The refresh button couldn’t work fast enough that day!

To get FREE tips and tricks on how to reach your goals feel free to opt in at awesomers.com We share FREE tangible ways entrepreneurs can improve their business. If you want to know more about me you can check out www.stevensimonson.com.