Kenji ROI

Our Amazon Listing Optimization Business Grew To 105K/Month

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Danny Carlson

Founder, Kenji ROI

$105K

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Kenji ROI

kenjiroi.com

from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

started November 2016

$105,000

revenue/mo

Founders

Employees

Discover what tools recommends to grow your business!

Discover what books Danny recommends to grow your business!

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join ... Timothy Ferriss

The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life's Perfection Michael A. Singer

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Want more updates on Kenji ROI? Check out these stories:

1. How I Started A $40K/Month Amazon FBA Seller Services Agency (2020) ➜

2. How We Grew Our Team To 20+ Full Time Employees And Doubled Revenue (2021) ➜

This is a follow up story for Kenji ROI. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published almost 5 years ago, check it out here.

Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.

My name is Danny Carlson, founder of Kenji ROI, a 7-figure Amazon Ecommerce focused agency. We provide listing optimization, product photography, video, and ads management for brands selling their product on Amazon marketplaces.

We do around $100k per month in revenue with around 25 employees. Myself and the photo/ video team are based in Bali, Indonesia while other team members are in Canada, the US, Singapore, and the Philippines.

Tell us about what you’ve been up to! Has the business been growing?

The past 6-9 months have been focused less on growth, and more on dialing things in. We went through a rapid growth at the beginning of COVID due to the dramatic rise in Amazon shoppers, and we had to hire quickly.

The growth was great, but it left us with mostly inexperienced team members, systems that we outgrew, and new problems to solve.

We were replacing old software systems we outgrew at the same time we were onboarding new employees, which lead to a lot of chaos internally. All the manager-level employees were bombarded with little issues like inviting people to Google Drive folders or updating outdated SOPs.

Rather than keep the foot on the gas, we decided to take some time to dial things in, train the team, and rebuild some systems.

We switched our task management onto a more robust system called Accelo, which allows us to track hours, project budgets, client communication, and more in one place.

It’s overkilled unless you have 20+ team members but is a lifesaver compared to Monday.com which we were on before. The sheer volume of rows became too much to handle and we had to Frankenstein together too many disparate systems.

We exhibited at a few expos for the first time and up til now, all marketing has been online. We went to White Label Expo Las Vegas, and the same in London. We noticed that the volume of leads we got was low compared to online tactics, but the conversion rate was much higher, and the lead quality was better.

Yes, it’s a pain to get an expo booth together and travel across the world, and not cheap either, but we certainly got an ROI on the investment so will continue to do a few of these each year.

Maybe the biggest change is that I as the founder am no longer the driving force of the business I used to be. There are a handful of key team members who’ve been with us for multiple years that have taken on more responsibility and are the biggest drivers keeping things moving.

This has allowed me to focus the vast majority of my time on what I enjoy best, sales, marketing, and vision.

What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?

The biggest lesson I learned this year is to not put growth as the highest priority in the business. We were doing that for about 6 months and by the end, the entire team was stressed out, and overworked, and we were having trouble keeping up with everything.

It took us some time to get back on track and everyone happy again, so if I were to do it again, I would grow more slowly and intentionally. At the time I was working with a sales consultant to help us scale our sales team, and it worked just as well as promised. Be careful what you wish for!

My philosophy has also changed. In my twenties, I was much more motivated to make more money, grow to higher revenue levels, etc. But now it feels shallow and empty, and I can tell it was mostly driven by my ego and how I wanted others to see me.

I still work hard, but I don’t put work above everything else anymore. I would rather keep my business the same size and enjoy life more than put another monthly revenue milestone notch on my belt.

What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?

We just want to stay in our lane and not worry too much about expanding our offering. Rather than expanding, we are focused more on refining. We are already one of the best, higher-end offerings in our space and I don’t want to dilute that. There are many cheaper options and to justify our higher prices, we need to maintain a high-quality standard.

The only constant is there will always be a new challenge that forces you to learn and grow, and the best way to be ready for them is to keep your mental and physical health in top shape and seek the advice of mentors at the right times.

While I’m in no rush, selling the business in the next 5 years would be a bonus. I have never sold a business before and as an entrepreneur, starting something new is always exciting. But I will wait for the right opportunity to arise.

Have you read any good books in the last year?

As I recently turned 30, I’ve been pondering a lot of questions about purpose and fulfillment. Instead of business books, I’ve been reading books like:

And listening to podcasts by successful entrepreneurs with strong spiritual foundations like Aubrey Marcusand Gerard Adams.

All of the above resources have great insight into spirituality and fulfillment without diving into the deep end of “woo woo” as all the authors have successful business backgrounds unrelated to spirituality.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?

The struggle will be different at every stage of your business growth. In the beginning, you will likely struggle to get clients/ customers.

Then you will struggle to keep up with fulfillment.

Then you will struggle to hire and train good talent within your budget.

Then you will struggle with cash flow management and strategic investments.

The only constant is there will always be a new challenge that forces you to learn and grow, and the best way to be ready for them is to keep your mental and physical health in top shape and seek the advice of mentors at the right times.