Retailers like me execute hundreds of small tasks every day. These tasks are often repetitive and take more than 5 minutes to complete. However, when executed together, they can consume an enormous amount of time. For example, a single task might involve scanning a barcode, entering product information into a database, printing a receipt, and then manually placing the item in a bag. If you were to add up all of the time spent on each of those steps, you’d realize that the total time could easily exceed 30 minutes.
Today I’ll share an automation app for Shopify I use to save time and money.
What can you do with an automation App on Shopify?
You can find apps that help automate a lot of repetitive tasks, communications tasks, notification sending and product managing tasks.
In all my consulting experiences, I come across either over structured workflows or no process or systems used for operations within the company.
As a business grows, the demands, complexity and repetition increase. As a result, systems that used to work start breaking down. Companies then turn to time consuming workarounds – time that could be spent on the important stuff is sacrificed for time spent doing the urgent, even when that’s just pushing buttons.
Ecommerce Automation is software that helps you automate tasks, processes, or even entire campaigns within your business. It’s a way to get more done with less effort.
Ecommerce Automations can take many different forms. Some examples include tagging customers for segmentation, standardizing visual merchanding, streamlining tracking and reports, and halting high risk orders. Each workflow aims at simplifying tasks.
Here are some examples of reduced manual tasks:
Fulfillment: When an item is ready to ship, send an email or text message to the customer
Inventory levels: Unpublish out-of stock products and send a Slack or email to your marketing teams so they can pause advertising.
Best sellers: Re-add out-of stock products to the online store once they’re back into stock
Automatically tag high-value clients for segmentation and notify them when they receive special offers or discounts.
Shopify Automation App Pricing Options
Starter Account – $97 Per Month :
Unlimited Store Account – $297 Per Month :
Ive been using GHL for automation, marketing and sales since 2019 and have no complaints. Im able to reduce the time Im required to manually do things and the number of people I need working in y business by using smarter workflows.
Not only does GHL help you with Shopify automation you can also use it to help your Local SEO, Facebook & Instagram Ads, Google Ads, Funnel Building, and more!
Small businesses do not have the time, energy, or resources to filter through all of these marketing automation software options. GoHighLevel has seen the evolution of software adoption over the years and sees that the inevitable next step is the integration of software and marketing agencies into a unified and seamless solution.
In a matter of minutes and without a single line of code, Zapier allows you to automatically send info between HighLevel and Shopify.
This post is for people searching who are curious about learning how stablecoins work in crypto and what stable coins mean.
What on earth is a stablecoin, and what makes it stable? Stablecoins are supposed to be stable, they tie themselves to a stable Traditional finance benchmark like the USD making $1 crypto = $1 USD. But recent volatility in the crypto market has shown they might not be as reliable as we first thought and that they can be manipulated.
🤑🤑🤑
I’ve been working in the crypto web 3 space for just on 12 months as of May 2022 and have seen the rise and fall of the market. Just this week funnily enough Friday 13th the crypto market crashed hard.
Today I want to break down the stability and explain how stable coins get stable and just how they fall apart when they become unstable. This is not a panic article its a explainer and as always do your own research before investing in anything.
The world of crypto is no stranger to volatility, since its inception its been plagued by skepticals, likeness to a ponzi scheme and many other negative detractors of people who will pick up any micro downward trend and blow it up into a massive event.
This current downward spiral is the gravy train for those such people who want crypto to fail. The fat old white guy comes to mind, the banks, the financial advisors who are TradFi to they die and others are licking their lips during this short lived downward trend.
The market will bounce back and have a pogo stick up and down for months until its launches back to record highs. Thats my prediction you can quote me on that.
The staples BTC, ETH, Sol, Matic all experienced wild swings that make them hard to use as a stable means of exchange.
Then we had stablecoins — cryptocurrencies that peg their value to an existing asset, and offer crypto holders a way to enjoy the benefits of digital currency (e.g., transaction speed and low fees), without the volatility. Stable in every sense.
For stablecoins to stay stable…
Stable coins must have a stable benchmark to tie themselves to creating that stability measurement.
This is called collateral, and there are generally three types:
Fiat-backed: Coins backed by a national currency (e.g., USD) that match the fiat currency in reserve to the number of coins in circulation.
Cryptocurrency-backed: Coins backed by another cryptocurrency (e.g., BTC, ETH), that typically keep the cryptocurrency in reserve higher than the coins in circulation to account for crypto’s volatility.
Algorithm-backed: Coins that use an algorithm or “smart contract” to peg the stablecoin to another crypto token that helps ensure the stablecoin remains, well, stable.
As you can probably imagine, algorithmic stablecoins are a bit controversial — technically, they aren’t backed by anything. But stablecoins have been the easy choice for beginners to fell safe when trading crypto because its less volatile and I know I started trading with stablecoins because I was sick of Googling the comparative rates between Matic vs USD for example.
TerraUSD (UST), which is pegged to another crypto token called Luna and a very well known token. The smart contract rules that connect the two tokens has a rule that UST holders can always trade one UST for $1 worth of Luna tokens. This sounds like its sound and we are getting a stable reliable deal here.
but! while the connected rules helps keep this relationship price of UST stable at $1 through a pair of financial arbitrage trade hustles that can happen if UST moves above or below $1:
If UST trades above $1, people can buy $1 worth of Luna and exchange them for one UST, and instantly profit
If UST trades below $1, people can buy one UST for under a dollar and exchange it for $1 worth of Luna, and instantly profit
This little loophole has just now been exploited and really taken advantage of and especially when the crypto market started heading south hard.
This handshake agreement between the two tokens has been abided by traders for the most part until this horrible week of panic in the market where its started to go bananas. The value of one Luna token has dropped from ~$81 to one cent in the last week. Predictably, traders are avoiding these tokens like the plague.
As a result…
the stablecoin thats supposed to tied to $1 has plummeted to $0.30 cents and thats concerning because its tied to the $1 mark unless all hell breaks loose like it has.
Tether one of the traditional currency backed stable coins has also been smacked in the face with hard realties and dropped to $0.95 cents.
Hows this for a complete backflip earlier this week’s (week of 13th May 2022) earnings call, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said, “Ironically… I’ve never been more bullish on where we are as a company.”
In reaction to just how scary Friday the 13th was big CEXs (centralised exchanges) like CoinBase have announced that should they go belly up they will be holding users crypto as their own.
This popular phrase rings so true “Not your keys, Not your coins.”
While their announcement is what we call a dog act and will hurt so many millions of people they are actually entitled to do so. In exchange for allowing users to access their simple dashboard and exchange they keep all access keys and maintain custodial ownership of the currency stored on their exchange.
That said are WAGMI really? that means “we’re all going to make it” and Im 100% saying yes we will. Im backing crypto to disrupt TradFi in the coming years.
So what’s the deal?
Generally, the crypto markets are feeling an extra icy-hot burn amid a broader market sell-off.
Monthly transacting on Coinbase has fallen 51%to 6.1m quarter-over-quarter.
They havent really made an impact in standing out as the CEX leader
The NFT play they tried early April was laughed off by many OGs and to be honest it was garbage.
Im still using the Coinbase app for a portion of my assets, but ill never store NFTs or bulk assets in my Coinbase app because I don’t own my keys, and I think they are the entry wallet for beginners and wont really evolve much further.
Study your coins and tokens and always do your own research. Stable coins are meant to be stable and not drop from the $1 pegged value and thats when you know things are getting crazy. Keep safe and don’t ever over extend yourself, Invest what you can and be prepared for a cold winter before the fruits of holding on take shape.
The last 6 months has been an insane journey and change in pace of work and life at home. My company was acquired and our entire go to market strategy changed back in August 2021. We went from digital agency and ecommerce holding co to a Blockchain gaming and development studio.
The change was coming for months before hand but with acquisition deals you need to be silent while the legal teams sort the fine details so Ive had to be in the shadows a bit waiting for the green light to go.
I will say this learning and application has really been a challenge with the change, so many new areas of development and unexplored areas in Blockchain it can be overwhelming to absorb the information.
But Ive found the anchor points that allow me to run a global company, manage multiple teams, be a great leader and be an amazing partner to my girlfriend at home. This takes balance and it takes communication.
I wanted to help share some thoughts on what I did that helped when I was going through the mad dash of setting all that craziness up.
Follow this to make everything in life run a little smoother for you, your home and your office.
They are the ones that you need to do in order to optimise for that kind of level of success.
1. Saying NO to Distractions
A change in what I focus on has forced me to say NO more often than YES. This is to protect my time and allow me to have time to think and time to stay focused.
When you wear a lot of hats and manage a lot of people it gets careless to keep taking on new things. Its hard to take on management of new staff without expanding your supporting management roles.
I now carefully consider what I commit to and invest time and energy in. Saying NO has been a very powerful action. Consider everything before you say YES.
2. Strict Calendar Hygiene
I run everything on calendars. I need to allocate time for my support roles to provide guide and validation on their activities and performance, I need to actually “Do” some work and I need time to think and absorb my day.
I will schedule everything and make it clear to everyone who depends on me when Im free and when Im in deep dive mode.
At home we run a really well oiled calendar of bills, appointments, birthdays and even down to when the garbage bins go out each week.
Im building a new house on top of all this and its really overwhelming how much goes into that but I am also very lucky that my girl is taking point on the contractor management.
Without my calendar Id be in a tornado every day spinning out of control.
3. My House Runs Like A Business
In my house we run it like a mini business, theres finance meetings, task WIPs and schedules with calendars and a very streamlined weekly to do list. Being busy professionals we need to be organised or little things slip through the cracks.
There is a lot of love and normal people activities as well haha but we keep the utilities, chores and expenses all operating like a lean agile business. My girlfriend is a wizard at running the finances and any contractors we have attending the house as we are building a new house at the moment.
We both have roles and we both support each other the best we can with what ever our role is, and these roles switch sometimes Im the money man and sometimes she is the money man in the house.
Our household share calendar is pretty organised we know what needs to happen the coming week and who we need to meet and when. We have a lot of contractors around, friends and family and we are both very busy so we use the power of calendars to keep an organised week.
Our communication is very clear on everything operationally for the house to function. It might sound very cold business business talk but its really like 3% of our time together making it run so in the long run we enjoy more time together and have less surprises and issues as a family unit.
4. Build strong systems and processes
I document everything and design for what If I get hit by a bus tomorrow who will do this task. This design of making a task repeatable is powerful, I can hire a new person and give them a process and have them do that process with very little input and guide form a team member because the process is so clearly documented.
I build as many systems as makes sense. Not to over compensate but to increase efficiency.
This works if you build it into your teams onboarding that systems thinking is how you work.
5. Art of Delegation
I often feel like I am doing everything. While there is a bigger team at play it just feels like I do everything. But the reality is I cant do everything and I shouldnt do everything.
Over the last 2 years Ive been improving my art of delegation. This has been wildly successful and allowed me to do more at scale. I used to be scared to pass things over to others because I thought I was the only one who could do it but the truth is anyone can do anything.
Learn to delegate early on and be a master project manager to really achieve scale. Do things yourself if learning what it is and then you can delegate far better by having done it first hand.
Keep clear expectations, deadlines, and deliverables and delegation will be your new super power.
6. Hire Operators
Personally I want a team of operators who do not need constant compliments for doing their job. I gel with those who listen, take notes, do the work and then communicate clearly. I really struggle with people who need to be hand held all the way through the job, no one did that for me and I don’t accept it.
If team members are proactive, clear when they need help and try before they call for help Ill back them 100%. But I wont suffer fools.
Now hiring is as simple as we need x and we are hiring for x with these desirables. In the interviews if the desirables are visible we hire and give them enough room to make the role theirs.
There is something to be said about independence and self starters in todays workforce its a rare trait. I look for those who can excel at being autonomous but they are also team players. They use initiative and are problem solvers.
7. Choose a great partner
I have a regret with one of my previous business. It was a business I spent a lot of time and energy on building it into something special. I wasnt the best partner I could be.
Looking back I wasnt giving it 100% every single day and I know it was a real drain on energy todo it at that level every single day but I should of. Ive had time to look back and I realise I wasnt doing everything that I could of even though we had divided up the roles and resposnibilities so we had clear ownership of specific parts of the business.
Its sad for me now onto business number 8 and thinking back. I was thinking about if I had been more active with this and I handed over this things would be different. In reality everything happened as it did and we cant change that.
We were really flying high we had so much success I just took the foot of the peddle and took my eye off the prize before we go to the peak of the mountain. The dynamic between the two business partners was perfect, we had an operator and a strategist or as the Defiant Ones Netflix special say an Innovator and a Levitator.
You need to have a partnership where you’re supporting each other and sharing the same values. Radical transparency in your communication and that delivers on honesty. And a shared vision of your goals in the future.
8. I have a small friend circle
I used to have so many friends that my free time was consumed by meeting people, catching up, birthdays, weddings and all the extra things they were doing that I never had time for me.
This changed when I took a good look at who I was really having meaningful interactions with. I used to be a in a prized position with access to celebrities and trending events festivals and the like. It’s interesting to see who shows up for you and who’s nowhere to be seen when you need things.
After distancing myself from people and just investing in 5 or 6 people I valued, life became a lot easier to manage socially. I know if I call someone they will take the call and give me something meaningful when I need it and I’ll do the same for them.
Trust is there built by years of friendship and support back and forwards. I might be in this amazing position in life doing extremely well in business but I can count on being held accountable if am a shit friend or not doing things that I said I would. Without that responsibility I might turn into someone Im not and I respect being held to a standard.
Surround yourself only with positive people that add to your life. They challenge you, they hold you accountable to your own personal goals. Avoid yes men and takers. I would encourage you to thin out your friends circle and see how much more you can help your close friends.
9. Complete Easy Win Tasks
One of my quick win tips is to do 3 small things each day that you can do to give yourself some sense of achievement. I usually do this in the early morning,
Ill walk the dogs, task complete 15 mins (1)
Ill sweep the back patio of nuts leaves and other scrap complete 5 mins (2)
Ill also do the dishes or take out the trash to big bins complete 5 mins (3)
And there you have 3 wins already in less than 30 mins.
Starting the day with 3 wins already sets me up for a great day. In a role where I get hammered all day the easy wins help balance the day. You don’t win everything all the time so taking those easy wins is a big plus.
This is one tip I give to everyone who struggles to organise themselves and feels a little out of their depth at the role. You win with little effort and you change your mindset by actually doing something.
Sometimes I like to just aim for little wins. Little wins drive motivation, and they build momentum. And that’s what will help your teams to stay on course. But one of the challenges is being comfortable with that rather than just focusing on the big goals.
10. Breathing for Focus
The key to clear thought is in breathing. I dont go full blown yoga guru weird noise breathing or anywhere close to that. I find a moment to set myself in a calm relaxed state, I start breathing through my nose taking in deep breathes and exhaling over and over again, keeping a nice stable pace for about 60 seconds.
Then I sit back gather my thoughts while breathing normally and recalibrate. This puts me back in a creative space and helps me focus.
Try it.
11. Change Your Networks
I feel bad saying this but there was a time I looked back at my closest friends circle and realised they had not changed in 10 years and were still doing the exact same thing that they were doing way back then.
While I had evolved and had move forward. Im not a god or an amazing example I just am driven and have goals to hit. But it became clear I had to find people who shared the hunger and the drive to do more and be better.
If I didnt search for that change in network I might not of grown as fast and as far as I have. I crave challenge and activity for my mind. Im not comfortable being comfortable but im more comfortable being uncomfortable if that makes sense. I crave challenge.
When I found that network of similar minds everything went into overdrive, my hunger for excellence grew, my focus improved, my knowledge and capability increased and I felt as if I levelled up big time.
Really savvy people are often very successful and they drive you to compete on a higher level. They unlock ideas for you and you start to mimic their modalities of life and how they operate as well.
Look around and see if you need to have a social circle and a professional circle of friends. It will change your life.
12. Social Media Diet
The more I use Facebook the more I shake my head in either disgust or confusion. The internet is wild but why havent we found a better way to protect users and prevent all the negatives that social media is pushing onto young people.
Im so against Facebook for how they treat businesses and their hammer first banning process with no recall is a joke. They harvest our data and make millions on it but provide nothing in return, where is the incentive for a user to be on facebook outside of easy to connect with friends.
I limit my social media intake and try to avoid useless scrolling. Now I make much more use of the search bars for finding what I need.
If anyone wants a billion doller business its going to be dismantling facebook. Create the social network the people want with toggles for ads, news articles, friends, family, sports etc and reward users for loyalty to the platform.
I use these platforms weekly:
Instagram – a good blend of social and work for me. Its still got a lot of issues but its a very seemless user experience
Snapchat – great for family and friends plus the AR filters are bananas
LinkedIn – my #1 business information sharing and learning platform.
Medium – excellent for business communications and getting breakdowns on businesses
Discord – groups announcements and moderating my communities
Facebook – just for friends msgs and some of the memories that appear. The only good features.
You don’t need social media but its good to be there when you want to and make it work for you. Facebook is one I rarley use it as it was built for and more for how I want to use it.
13. Sobriety
Im one of those weirdos who doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t gamble, no to drugs and Ive been this way since 1998. I don’t find any logical reason to partake in this and get nothing from it.
But I cringe thinking what would be life be like if I was drinking, smoking and taking drugs. I can feel the body ever so slightly getting older. I don’t think I could even if I was tempted to. This I feel has helped me stay on point and be as active as I am.
14. Regular Fitness Weekly
I often wonder if its just me that feels this way but if I go a week without doing exercise, lifting weights or just jogging on the spot I feel like Ive decreased in strength and size. Its the weirdest feeling and I cant shake it.
The benefit is that I will move heaven and earth to get in at least 2 sessions a week, if I can get more Ill go for it but I need that feeling of exhausting excess energy to feel like Ive earned my weekend.
I used to have a large shed around 200sqm and filled with all the exercise machines and weight stations a man could want for his home gym. Since moving from that house Ive been crammed in a very small 4m x 2.5m patio space outside my house. This is a real challenge.
But I make do with what I have, I get into the workout and have a little soft music on in the background just to keep the background noise.
But the beauty of exercise is the quiet time in my mind to think, plan, review and file everything thats on my mind.
Through the 30-60 mins I get to workout Ill run through the day the week and whats on my mind. I really find it therapeutic.
I also highly recommend fitness profile @BullyJuice for home workout tutorials and workout inspiration. Absolute legend thanks to him for what he does.
15. Taking The Open Road
My mind is always busy with a million things, and the odd occasion I get stuck with a technical challenge and cant get passed it. When this happens I’ll take a drive usually around sunset, I get in the car and put the windows down and just drive.
There is no destination in mind, I just get on a highway or freeway and drive. If I can Ill drive towards the sunset. The wind on my face helps change mindset and switch gears. Most times this works when i get back Ive got a new angle to look at the problem and can make it work but I need that open road driving with the wind in my face change.
During summer months this is one of my fave things to do. In Perth we have wild sunsets all purple, orange and golden. #perthwa
16. Music Lifts All Moods
The final thing that has helped me is music for moods. If I have a need to change my mood i go to one of 2 methods for the music I listen to.
Im also a headphones guy, my days of blasting tunes as loud as I can with the boombox are long gone haha.
Music use case 1 – When I have sometime difficult and with a hard deadline I need music thats loud, fast paced and usually heavy like rock, metal or some fast beat to keep my tempo up and force me to do just this thing until its at a point I know its good to ship.
I used to be distracted by the music but have earned to use it as a barrier to everything else and just focus in on the task at hand.
My girlfriend thinks Im crazy when Im in this focus mode having wild music blasting while working on intense attention to detail tasks.
Music Use Case 2 – I need to reign my mind back in sometimes because its so active and the cogs are spinning non stop. Some really good calm vibes and chill tunes help me come back to a relaxed state. Some faves are Fat Freddys Drop, Groove Armada, Flume, Reggae, Funk, House , Low Fi tunes.
End of tips.
Takeaway
Ive done a lot in a short space and have been somewhat successful by doing it my way and leading by example. Please take these tips as my experience in managing fast growth and high stakes deliverables. I like to deliver quality work and manage with respect going up and down.
If I can give you the key from my learnings its in communication and organisation. The rest will fall in place if you have clearly communicated to teams and partners and set yourself up for success by organising your week.
I hope this helps and you take away something helpful. Thank you for reading.
My Predictions for Entreprenuers and Businesses 2022
One of the most fulfilling things I do each year is to look back at my year that was in 1 year view and a 2-3 year view. This helps me see the journey and just how much crap I battled and sorted out. But a lot of people spend their time looking back and not enough time in the new year looking ahead to whats in store for them in the next 12 months.
With that said Ive had a good long look at the world, my market, my team, my partners, network and just took time to look and listen. What I present to you is my own view of the world as it stands and whats coming up on the horizon his year.
For me a lot has changed and Ive had to really step up another level.
Lets Dig In:
Social Media & Commerce Platforms
1 Social Platform Supremacy
Knowing whats coming I think the social giants are fighting for the scraps of attention instead of focusing on the shift in audience and innovating instead of copying.
Everyones been privacy woke and “my data, my life” with regards to how they see social platforms. Its interesting I was talking about data and privacy back in 2018 and now everyones just catching on.
These platforms responded to social outcry about privacy by updating their privacy posts and changing privacy policies to be even more technical and wordy than they were so we the people get lost. Facebook truly is the worst, they are the Amazon of social media, a absolute disgrace.
LinkedIn: I like this platform (at the moment) they really are trying to break the mould and do something more. They should really pick up steam in the coming year and standout as the leader in professional networking. I love how they have added training and services to their fold. They are paying attention to what their users want.
TikTok will become the platform where you call out big name brands or your workplace for doing wrong by your standards. People will back you based on the huge reach organic videos get and TikTok will grow more and more.
I would love one of these Web 3.0 companies to attack Facebook and steal its user base . I can not stand FB and how it operates but like millions of others I need the network and connections as thats where the eyeballs are right now.
Ive found Instagram to be so user friendly. I like the layout the UI and UX.
For me just casually scrolling my feed, I pick up a lot of new interests and my feed doesnt become a never ending stream of the same shit. The scroll its actually still a great experience showing me new things and interesting sub niches of my topics. On FB I find I get pigeon holed as a type of user and feed, and shown the same garbage.
Instagram Posting ROI is very difficult to measure and the influencer game is very hit and miss. Theres no real science behind the winning posts and losing posts. Hashtag to your hearts content and live video and UGC away theres just some that do and some that dont work. I have seen huge success and then nothing with various influencers of different sizes.
3 Facebook Groups Visibility
These free Facebook “Groups” will continue to die and create divides within communities. I see similar issues within LinkedIn and other channels where one bad argument causes a sad individual with a loud voice to splinter off and start picking off group members for their new thing. LinkedIn etc.
I saw several of my groups on FB & LI have weeks of 100’s and 1,000’s of new members to weeks of 30-50 new members, the cause I can not tell you, we analyzed everything and still not sure why.
I personally gifted several groups of various sizes to valued members of my group as rewards so I can offload assets and focus more on my big goals for this year. That in itself was so rewarding for me just gifting someone who is so passionate about the topic their own spotlight to shine in.
4 Podcasts on Entrepreneurial Topics
Entrepreneurial podcasts will increase people see advising training and counselling as the new money maker. This means podcasts that cover this topic will grow while the listeners will decrease as people become exhausted by people promoting the exact same message.
Entrepreneurial content has become exhausting. The difference maker is those that try new things without being weird. I am all for people trying new things and I will support the trailblazers.
Gary Vee – He is way too intense for me, but I will say this he is making 100% clear sense on NFTs. I cant stand him usually but what he is saying about NFT’s is spot on.
Tim Ferris – I like in waves, its hard to carve out 2-3 hours for a podcast.
Patt Flynn – He used to be great. Now does he even do his podcast anymore???
One underrated business brain I really enjoy hearing is Noah Kagan of OkDork, AppSumo, SendFox and his live office hours streams. Thats one dude to watch! he goes behind the scenes shows you real life applications of what he’s teaching people. A true operator.
Most of the guru wizards are saying the same stuff in different ways.
This year I want to hear from the operators, the creators, the doers who make it happen. If someone writes the scripts for these people hit me up. You are the real superstar.
5 Lifetime Deal Software
As a confirmed recovering FOMO addict to SaaS discounts. I know this one may not sit with everyone. But I do think people are becoming frustrated with the sheer volume of no code apps, and SaaS coming out of the AppSumo and its 20+ clones.
I think of it like this, why cant AppSumo connect two or 3 founders of similar softwares or complimentary softwares. Connect them and have them create something truly unique not just a stripped back version of an existing software. Lets really challenge the innovation of what we can do in the space. What they create could be a true game changer and if they did this I would open my wallet with no hesitation. I want software that has multi purpose.
Why
I hate logging into multiple apps
I hate multiple email onboardings then promo emails from a name I dont know
I bought a $49 software I dont care about upgrades
I find tools clunky AF or not ready to deliver the core function yet (in some cases) but they have a beta working
The it would be nice to have another function or connectivity to other tools so that this one if more well rounded and complete
Just a couple off the top of my head, but if AppSumo can be the match maker for SaaS growth as well as a deal site and hub of affordable SaaS Im in!!!! All day I am in. I hate thinking of something Noah Kagan built as the Wish of software.
AppSumo PLUS: Ive never been tempted to even try it because things are so cheap as it is. But I see that this conversation about its worth and place in the market have a heated audience on both sides of the fence. Maybe the AS guys need to do some market research on why theres problems and what is missing.
6 The Success Screenshot
You see it all the time, some punk kid who started a Facebook profile 2 weeks ago posting mad flexes with their Shopify store and crushing it hard. Trillionaire gang bruh.
It starts with them making bold claims and then posting screenshots about “their results”. This will become exhausting and repetitive. What they should do is engage with the readers help answer some questions and really be part of the group. Then once they have some cred and have reached out to the admins and mods of these groups for approval then drop their results. This method has been done to death and I see it as a pure cash grab usually they link to a training course or affiliate offer. This is old news now.
Now my comment to these people is basically for them to man up and show that it is their actual store and not a client or someone they work for. Refresh the earnings tab live on screen and not hide the name of the store so everything is transparent. If they can not do this then its a fake ass post and no one should pay attention. Thats my stance.
The ones truly crushing it… will be posting less about “what they are working on” and banking more $ and this will continue as the blockchain helps people validate proof of work concepts theres no longer a need to showcase Shopify dashboard results or blah blah.
You buy a Bored Ape NFT and thats the new flex. Bye bye Lambos and Hello BAYC NFTS. This is the new level of success for true ballers is buying a Bored Ape Yacht Club Ape NFT joining the likes of Steph Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Yat Sui, Justin Beiber and so on.
7 Storytelling & Your Message
Storytelling will be more powerful than Search Engine Optimisation. The great creators and copywriters will become very sought after talent.
Those who can make something out of nothing will shine. The new internet is coming and it needs new creators and people who are not tarnished by Google Facebook and the old tech giants it needs creators who can help tell the new story.
Copywriters will forever hold a job in everything we do it just may shift from text words to script dialogue and video scripts.
8 The Office & Remote Work
Im all for work from home, having hot desk offices where teams can go in and they choose when and what office they attend. But the traditional office should take a good hard look at itself and try to become V2.0
Less time in the office or no return to the office. Offices will become a “nice thing to have” for corporate clients but not linked in anyway to productivity. Theres so much distractions in big offices that taking a side pod room or putting the headphones on to drown out the noise is where the real work gets done.
I would like to see offices establish new rules of attendance and provide the ability to work from home and create varied schedules to suit their workers, the ones providing all the talent.
9 The Conference Wheel
People will go back to conferences to realise that conferences are a thing of the past. The person to person engagement is missed and the after event activities have always been the drawcard.
Im not one to attend conferences and the ones I have usually it was all business get in do your thing and get out. But I see why these are coming back based on lockdowns and isolation its one Id like to see reimagined another V2.0 project
10 Trust In People & Brands
Part 1 Reviews and fake reviews
This ones cray cray right now, people are doing so many bad things with reviews. Destroying a business on one bad experience or going all guns blazing and bombarding businesses review platforms because they didnt get a discount or refund. Its nuts
This also comes from business owners deploying shady tactics to get 200 review listings. When a fake listings goes live people see it and believe it but if that fake listing is fake then what do people expect when the service or product doesnt match the fake review. Its running rampant right now and I expect it to continue to grow into a big problem this year.
Id like to see platforms that allow review to take more of a proactive approach to combatting spam and fake reviews.
Part 2 Brand Trust Building
Trust will be build via micro forms of content. The days of 30k worded articles on how to do the perfect fart are fast becoming outdated. I like to read short sharp summaries of what topic I research, if there is a long form article/
I generally save it to a list of reading material that Ill never touch again and forget about even if its the best darn article on the topic. I dont have time to read endless SEO content unless the graphics that are being used really entice me to read more.
The content must be relevant and unique in an age of AI content generators I want an opinionated author to tell me this product fa#$ing sucks or its the next Bitcoin. Building trust with readers is what we will see this year as millions of online communities start to form headed into web 3.
If you are good at something do it at scale is my thoughts on this. Companies will have to accept that the best talent will have their own side hustle going on. Smart companies will encourage this and allow this talent to develop their skillset by having a side business.
Personally when I am hiring for ecommerce paid media buyers for the agency I run I ask if they have or have had their own ecom store and what their experiences were no judgement just to get a feel for their skills and commitment. I almost expect the people I hire to have had a side business before I hire them.
2 Skilled VA’s
Hiring unqualified virtual assistants will be a thing of the past…We want talent that just gets it and can do it without hand holding.
If I could hire people who just get product research and deliver results I would hire 40 of them right now and assign them market segments. Like right now lets go.
Hiring the VA that needs a 42 page brief to do a 2 step task is dying. No one has time to upskill a contract resource. My stance is you are on a platform presneting as a specialist but then I need to training you get the F outta here.
2022 – Here is my brief and repeat back to me what your goal is and how you will do the work to reach the goal? if they answer correct hired if they don’t I move on.
This sounds harsh but at scale if its not done like this you waste hours on untrained unskilled resources.
*I hire talent that I get along with and can deliver results direct hire and reward based on output. In my world you are only as good as your last job.
3 Agencies Vs Consultants
Consultants will win vs Agencies. Having been in both boats consulting is a lean agile machine where you can provide much higher quality services to clients where agencies are big fat whales with often misinformed specialists.
The agency team is 9-5 commitment with no extended thought to the job. I must get a certificate, I must hit this target, I should template everything so its faster for me to do my tasks.
Bad Bad and Bad. Ive sen so many problems come from other agencies when I onboard a new client, the domain is not indexed, the campaigns are running traffic to 404 pages, the Facebook Pixel is not installed or the Google shopping feed has been broken for 6 months. Like what the F are these people doing. Its sad because they take the money but do not deliver the service.
Enter the consultant. They make recommendations, they do not do the work (some do) but they then recommend a agency that they work with and then the work gets delivered and client sees results.
I honestly think agency model is going to die out or need to have a massive transformation to continue to be viable. Rant over.
4 New Outsourcing Hotspots
We will see less outsourcing to India / Philippines and more outsourcing to Eastern Europe, Africa, South Africa, South America.
Personally I outsource some work to the following
Design & Creative – Ukraine and Serbia
Developers & Programmers – Vietnam, Ukraine.
Advertisers Google Ads – Philippines
Facebook Media Buyers – Australia, New Zealand, Singapore
The shift is happening and Im not saying abandon Philippines but diversify your teams.
I have a teams in PH and I had concerns around them leaving me because if GameFi opportunity earn to play called Axie Infinity where they get the same amount of money playing games as they do from working and the team is good they play after hours so they can earn all day. Smart and Im watching how this plays out.
5 Gary V’s Mantra
Mr Hustle 2022 will be same same but different. Gary Vaynerchuk will tell you to be grateful, to work 90 hours per week, not to bitch and to spend all your time with your family, because family is first + while he reminds you he is the real deal. Until he pushes you into his Vee Friends NFTs.
Take it with a grain of salt. The guy has a hustle army doing 95% of his work for him. Work as much as you find reasonable and then spend time building your side hustle while maintaining a healthy social relationship with your friends and family.
6 RevOps Diversity in $
Im a big believer in this, by having multiple revenue streams keeps me safe in the event of another COVID outbreak or variant.
One source of income will become reckless, more and more entrepreneurs will work on leaner ways to increase their income streams.
Im getting more and more into JV’s, Investing, Training young founders and consulting on due dillligence. Heck I even picked up my old SEO and PPC auditing gig to help some people out last year and have a few new requests based on my findings in those audits.
Just another rev stream. I want to narrow down on crypto staking and yield farming more and to purchase and trade more NFTs this year.
7 Talent Productivity & Hour vs Reward
People being held over a barbell to work 40+ hours or be replaced will be phased out. Right now in the market here in Australia if you can not get a job you must be handicapped because businesses are screaming out for talent.
I anticipate people to move around more and more this year where the money is the people will go regardless of culture. Then towards the end of 2022 I expect workplace culture to get a real spotlight after the jumping of ships that people who went for the money will now be hunting workplace culture.
I hold workplace culture higher than renumeration I really do having worked with some complete tossers I want to work with people who get it, They are on the bus riding towards our goals. Money matters and as long as you get a good enough package culture is my deciding factor
Working more than 40 hours per. week will showcase lack of productivity vs bragging rights. Those forced to work late into teh night to get it done will have teh power to push back. Bad workplace culture and practices will be forced to change in 2022
Ive seen more than enough TikTok videos of company tear downs from employees who have had enough. Right on, if a company is doing bad things they should be called out. Amazon last year forced workers to stay on production line while a tornado hit their factory and it resulted in people dying like WTF how are they still operating?
If businesses are shady they will be called out.
Final Words
The world has been kicked in the nuts for the last 2 years with this COVID problem but it has not stopped us moving forward, Ecommerce has accelerated forward to mainstream more than many anticipated. The same can be said for Crypto and NFTS.
I watch and listen to markets, leaders within communities and trends. Ive always found the best summary of something by entering that market, engaging with the community, poking teh leaders with questions and assumptions for a pulse check and then sitting back and observing it as it functions.
The above are my predictions and observations, I may get this horribly wrong and you can point and laugh at me or I might get it head on and then Ill release a course on trend hunting….jokes I am not releasing a course. But this was my 2022 year ahead trend and market shifts analysis and projections I hope it serves you well.
Ive spent years selling other peoples products most of the time without ever touching those products. Now days I spend more time taking unique content, video and images of the suppliers products just to get the edge over other dropshippers because thats the minimum required now. I love this job 🙂
Lets break this wide open.
How does dropshipping work?
If you’re a retailer, supplier or wholesaler and want to take advantage of dropship selling opportunities, there are two ways that you can get started. First by signing up with a dropshipping marketplace like Amazon and Ebay via their affiliate programs. Or secondly joining the Australia-based drop shipping site FactoryFast which is free to join & has even better offerings than marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay’s.
How can I use Dropship to sell my products?
Dropship means that you will have an onboarding page where your audience can learn about the product and place a pre-order. You then work with a Suppliers to fulfill these orders, often shipping it directly from your warehouse or even using DHL for international deliveries.
Why is Dropshipping a good idea?
I think dropshipping as a business is a great idea because you can start with little capital, need no product and really only need to have a handle on marketing and customer service. Compare this to traditional ecommerce stores who will be required to manage the A to Z of the entire process.
What the heck does dropshipping mean?
It could be best described as a middleman tactic where a store owner holds no product but uses customers purchase money to buy the product from a manufacturer to then be shipped to the paying customer.
Which are the best ecommerce platforms for dropshipping?
Personally I like to use Shopify and WordPress with WooCommerce. Shopify makes the process really easy to connect the dropshipping integrations and has a streamlined backend for managing your dropship business. WooCommerce is a little more cumbersome to setup and configure but its is far more customisable. The most popular platform in my community of dropshipping friends is Shopify, the choice however is completely yours.
How do I start a dropshipping business?
You need to have a niche that you will be focused on promoting products within. The product niche will be what guides your marketing and advertising.
Dropshipping Australia: Pros & Cons
The positives
1. Less capital is required
2. Easy to get started
3. Low overhead
4. Flexible location
5. Wide selection of products to sell
6. Easier to test
7. Easier to scale
The negatives
1. Low margins
2. Inventory issues
3. Shipping complexitiesO
4. Supplier errors
5. Limited customization and branding
How does the dropshipping business model work in Australia?
Really its not much different to any other country dropshipping setup. The differences I would say are using an ABN once you are trading officially, and the sales tax like GST. Apart from that not a lot else is different from setting up a dropship store in United States or United Kingdom.
Ways to find dropshipping suppliers in Australia
I usually start with a Google search for what Im looking for. This means going to google.com.au and using searches like [home security cameras dropshipping agreements] and some variations of that search phrase.
Once Ive got a handful of supplier potentials from there Ill go to competitor pages and hunt down their suppliers.
Thats the simplicity of how I search for suppliers. If they are based in AUS thats better for shipping but they do not need to be based in AUS at all to make this work for you.
Best Dropshipping Suppliers & Wholesalers in Australia
I really dont want to say xyz company is the best because it really depends on the way that they will be used. There are amazing home decor suppliers and some really crappy beauty cosmetics dropship suppliers out there. I say this with the context of straight forward dropship you have a store you sell products the end.
If you have a store, you do research, you have customer service in place and you give a rats arse about the success of your store then I would say that you would have better success with developing relationships with the not so mainstream dropship suppliers. The mainstream names have been hammered by whales, noobies and dreamers who dont do them justice but want everything on a platter. Is this comment a little salty? yes it is.
Im actively trying to move away from the herd of dropshippers who were spawned from the COVID impact as it seems theres been a new training course giving people incorrect information on how to behave and act in the dropship space.
I keep it simple.
Look around at your market, observe your competitors, retain a market competitive price point but do not cause price wars and do not participate in them. Be very respectful to your customers and suppliers. Maintain the technique that this is a middle man business and not ruin the market.
There has been a noticeable shift in the backend of dropshipping businesses and supplier connections because some dropshippers have been operating like rogue mavericks. be smart know your numbers and your customer.
What Kind of Australian Dropshipping Suppliers Are Good for You?
Most suppliers will have an interest in working with you as long as you have a business plan for making your store a success.
How can we know if a drop shipping provider is trustworthy?
Do your homework. Read the reviews, test them out. Also I suggest asking questions, this is a business and if you have concerns ask questions hat help get you answers to what it is that is a concern.
Which payment gateway should I use and why?
I am pretty happy with the following processors
PayPal
Stripe
Fast
GroovePay
I think each of the above has ist strengths and weaknesses. PayPal is the most popular processor by far but does have its imperfections for merchants as they side heavily with the consumer. That is one element that is a worry if you depend on PayPal as your primary processor.
Is it possible to get paid through Dropship without actually selling anything on the platform?
