How We Grew Our E-Commerce Agency To $292K/Month [Update]
This is a follow up story for Prolific Zone. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 2 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
Hello, I am Quin Amorim the founder and CEO of Prolific Zone Inc., which was originally featured on Starter Story in 2021 here.
Prolific Zone is an eCommerce agency that helps brands sell more on Amazon and Walmart.
Over the last 2 years since the interview, we grew Prolific Zone to 3.5 million per year (average $292K per month) and we have a client retention rate of over 83% for a year.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
We had a busy year with lots of changes, including moving my whole family to Europe.
I finally managed to free myself a bit more from running the business, to actually owning it, and letting my team do their work.
So, I passed more responsibility to a manager, had the teams answer to her and I went from working 16 hours per day to a normal 6 to 8 hours daily.
Although we grew the number of clients, our #1 priority was always to keep the ones we already have, by providing them with results, so we had an excellent 83.3% client retention rate for the year.
Although Prolific Zone still has most new clients reach out organically through word of mouth, my podcast, and LinkedIn, we discovered one marketing tool I had never put too much consideration into, this was Quora.
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
The biggest challenge over the last year has been adjusting from managing everything myself to stepping back and trusting my team to handle daily operations.
This transition, while necessary for growth, required letting go of some control, which wasn’t easy.
As someone who has been selling online for over 2 decades, I had a very hard time letting go, to less experienced people, who actually know the newest trends, tips, and tricks.
Another challenge has been hiring experienced people.
Everyone calls themselves an expert, and the reality is that 90% have watched training videos from “gurus” who are not experts themselves!
There’s a new trend for the last couple of years, where advertisers create campaigns with only 1 keyword. I’m not talking about an ad with 1 keyword, but each campaign with 1 ad, and then each ad with 1 KW. To me this is ridiculous and 90% of new hires came trained like that due to a free training available online.
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
One of the most important lessons I learned this year was recognizing the need for better risk management when trying new strategies.
In some cases, I jumped into new tools or partnerships too quickly without fully evaluating the potential outcomes. This led to some missed opportunities, but it taught me the value of thorough research and preparation.
In one case, a client who couldn’t afford our services offered 20% stake in his company in return for our work, but after 2 years of work he went silent and I was left with nothing while I paid around $40K in wages to staff who ran the account.
On a positive note, I also learned to prioritize work-life balance, which has greatly improved my focus and productivity.
Moving forward, I’ll continue applying this balance while maintaining flexibility to adjust to industry trends and changes.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
For Prolific Zone, the upcoming year will focus on expanding into new regions, particularly tapping into European markets, and potentially offering services beyond Amazon and Walmart.
Our Shopify growth has been amazing, so we started building a bigger and better Shopify team, to build and manage client’s own stores
We're excited about launching new products and refining our client services to enhance scalability.
In the next five years, my vision is to continue growing the agency, increasing our annual revenue, and exploring innovative marketing tools.
Personally, for me Quin Amorim, I aim to further reduce my involvement in daily operations, allowing more time for strategic decisions and personal growth, while fostering a balanced lifestyle.
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
I think the best thing I read in the past year was Atomic Habits by James Clear.
It had a profound impact on both my personal life and business. The book breaks down the science of habit formation and shows how small changes can lead to massive improvements over time.
Applying these principles to Prolific Zone has helped me streamline processes, focus on continuous improvement, (the 1% growth rule), and build better habits for success, both for myself and my team.
It's a must-read for anyone looking to have better routines and achieve long-term goals.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
I like to tell people to not give up on their dreams, but if you don’t REALLY work hard on them, they will never be anything but dreams.
Ecommerce gurus that want to sell courses make it sound like a very easy 4-hour work week kind of business, but nothing is stopping you from working 40 hours instead of 4 and growing faster.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
We often look to fill positions for Amazon Sponsored Ads, Google Ads, and content creation.
PPC marketers must know the basics and be willing to learn the right way.
Interested people should contact Ann at ProlificZone and let her know what you are good at or what you are interested in learning more about, to apply.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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