How I Grew From $17/Hour to Building A $2M Ecommerce Sales Agency
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
Hey everyone. My name is Ronen Lee Wolf, and I am the Founder and CEO of Senditures and Vysn. I founded an eCommerce sales agency utilizing multi-channel selling strategies to maximize brand exposure and revenue globally for large, medium, and small brands, as well as our internal brands, with products we source under the VYSN label.
Our run rate so far for 2024 is $1.8 million, but we are looking to do closer to $2 million this year. Year over year, Senditures has been rapidly growing. We have more than doubled our revenue each year since 2020 and are looking to continue this exponential growth.
Our products have been featured on TV shopping segments: The Talk, The Kelly Clarkson Show, Rachael Ray, Inside Edition, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, and Extra. Our products have been written about with publications in the New York Post, Mashable, TMZ, The Chive, and The Dad.
Senditures is a unique business model and doesn’t follow many of the conventional principles you may find for other businesses. So, I apologize if the info I give about growing Senditures is a bit different than what you may have heard before.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
My story goes back to college. I attended the University of Central Florida, double majoring in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics, poised to graduate within one year with a 4.0 GPA. I worked simultaneously at Lockheed Martin, the biggest defense contractor in the world, as an Associate Systems Engineer in one of their engineering programs. I was on the executive team of my professional fraternity. I was working on some exciting engineering projects.
However, with all these amazing things going for me, I decided to drop out and quit my job. The decision took work. I wasn’t in love with anything I was doing. I felt miserable at Lockheed Martin. I felt miserable at UCF. And I felt miserable at the prospect of doing this for the rest of my life.
I always wanted to start and grow my own business. From the time I was in elementary school, whenever I was asked what I wanted to do when I grew up, my answer was always that I wanted to be a CEO. It seemed only natural that I drop out of college to pursue something greater than the life of an engineer.
My business knowledge was nill. I knew that sales were an important aspect of starting and building a business, but I DID NOT know how to sell a thing. I took it upon myself to apply for the first sales job I could find, door-to-door sales selling AT&T Fiber. It was commission-only. Most of you are saying to yourself, “Wow, I would never do that.”
The reality is that I went from not knowing how to sell anything to being a sales master within 2 to 3 weeks of being there. I quickly leveled up in that company on both the management and sales sides, making money hand over fist for a 19-20-year-old. Though the money flowed and the knowledge to gain was unlimited, I knew it was time for me to move on and forward.
I moved down to Palm Beach to live with my mother, not knowing what I would do next. I tried everything, learned anything, and fundamentally failed at everything I was doing. My failures included trading currencies, starting a social media marketing business, trying to create the next big app for the iPhone, and the list goes on and on.
I got a few decent jobs and was offered a high-paying recruiter position starting at a $45K base salary plus uncapped commission. Not too shabby for a 20 year old. The only problem was that, at that time, I felt extraordinarily guilty and was so tormented by the thought of making more than my mother that I quit after my first day.
My mother was struggling to find a job that paid her a reasonable salary and was constantly worried about money. That guilt of making more money than my parents stayed with me for quite some time and held me back subconsciously. One thought, however, remained in my head: I wanted to travel and explore this beautiful world.
I kicked off this adventure with a gig at a summer program for high school students in UCLA, Los Angeles. It was an amazing experience - all expenses covered, including airfare, meals, and activities, plus a stipend at the end.
Following that, I embarked on a memorable birthright trip to Israel. Changing my return flight to New York, I explored the city with my cousin, sparking a love for NYC. Israel turned out to be an unexpectedly fantastic travel destination.
Upon my return, impulsive as ever, I jetted off to New Zealand for a month. Attempting to start a social media marketing business and become a travel influencer, it didn't pan out. Realizing my lack of passion for the work, I sought clarity in the Smoky Mountains, booked a flight to London, and embarked on a seven-month European journey.
In a nutshell: met incredible people, indulged in the best food, partied hard, spent about $100K, and had the time of my life. Despite trying to be a travel influencer, I prioritized enjoying the moment over building a blog.
Back home, attempts to revive the social media marketing business failed. Instead, I decided to teach English in China. Accepted at a private school, I secured a visa and lived a rollercoaster life with unique experiences, meeting both loved and disliked people. Living in a Tier 4 city meant a stunning 3-bedroom condo atop a 30-story building for only $300/month.
I will always be thankful for the job I took with the beauty company: it truly allowed me to jump a huge learning curve and learn everything I needed to know to start and strategically operate my own business.
When it was time to return home, I still didn’t exactly know what I was going to do or even who I was, but I did know that if I ever wanted to get to where I wanted to be, I needed to relentlessly find the path that was going to lead me there.
Upon returning home from China, I took on the multi-faceted role of legal secretary/paralegal / business strategist / social media marketer for my father’s law practice. This appealed to me because I could take what was essentially a blank canvas and make it into something. My father is a tremendous and very experienced attorney who I still turn to today for every legal inquiry I have and even to do some work for me, but, as he also knows, he is not the greatest businessman in the world.
I saw this as an opportunity to learn more about building a business and to help my father grow his business. I helped him make many imperative changes that enhanced his law practice from a marketing and operational standpoint. I also gave him a strong social media presence that even garnered additional clients, thus increasing revenue. I learned much about the legal field and what being autonomous in a business means.
However, the fact remains that it was time for me to move on again, as I knew that this was not how I was going to build my legacy. I began searching for a job in multiple fields, including social media, eCommerce, and operations. While being offered quite a few positions, which I am very grateful for, they were either not right for me or too far of a drive. Then, I came across this position for a low-level eCommerce Specialist for a growing beauty company, paying $17 an hour. I interviewed for the position and was hired within a few days.
My starting pay was $17 an hour, around $35K annually. This was fine for me at the time because my mindset was that it wouldn’t stay that low for that long once I showed the company what I could do. I didn’t care about the money - it was about how far I could go and how much I could contribute to growing the company.
After a few short months of contributing all that I could, spewing out idea after idea after idea, implementing solutions within what I was able to do, and wrapping my mind around this company, my direct supervisor, who was the eCommerce Director, seemed to have gotten too annoyed with me (or threatened by me) and eventually did not want to work with me. He gave the owner an ultimatum that either he or I go, and since the owner did not accept things like this, my direct supervisor eventually quit.
From that point, it wasn’t simply that I was put into his position. I had to fight to get it and prove why I was the right choice.
I knew my old supervisor was making a $50K/year salary before he quit, so I proposed that my new salary should be $70K/year (naturally). I knew my work ethic was unparalleled by my old supervisor, and I knew I could get much better results than him.
So, during this meeting with the owner, I was countered with what was a “hell no,” and he almost told me to quit. His counter was $20/hour. After explaining everything I would execute to elevate his eCommerce sales and digital marketing infrastructure, I proposed that he give me $20/hour for 3 months. Once I showed him the results of my work in that time, he would then give me a $65K/year salary after the 3rd month and title me as the new eCommerce Director.
During these 3 months, I tripled the company's eCommerce revenue using the multi-channel selling strategy I use today for Senditures. Within four months, I had brought the eCommerce revenue for the business from about $20K per month to over $100K per month.
In my new eCommerce Director position and with my new salary of $65K/year, I showed that I was treating the owner’s company like it was my own, texting him at all hours of the day and night, giving ideas and solutions on how we can grow the eCommerce business and the company as a whole.
Additionally, while learning more and more each day about every aspect of the business (sales, operations, production, etc.), I began to create a more operationally sound infrastructure for the eCommerce side of things, implementing more automation, more processes, and bringing on more people. I began to build out my eCommerce team to create a seamless, cohesive operation that stayed lean and would maximize production output.
Once COVID hit, the beauty company, which had 80% of the business being department store sales, was faced with a big problem: do we shut down the whole business until stores open back up, or do we cut down and keep the eCommerce side open to continue generating revenue? Of course, my vote and huge push was to keep eCommerce going so we could continue growing and maximizing revenue. This indeed turned out to be a life-changing decision for me.
During COVID, with more consumers shifting to online shopping, I was able to set a strategy in place that quickly DOUBLED our monthly revenue. We only had four people working during COVID, and we were all in the warehouse pumping out thousands of shipments daily. I had to set up a new operational plan to accommodate this new way of working and quickly grew into a leadership role for the company.
The owner and I eventually discussed the company's new normal. I requested that he transition me into a managing director / COO role, teaching me what I didn’t know about his company and allowing me to work autonomously on the rest. I requested a salary increase of $80K/year during my transition. He agreed to this, bringing me to a new level and continuing on my path to get to where I need to be.
Upon stepping into my role as acting COO, addressing our overleveraged office/warehouse situation became a top priority. The hefty costs were impacting our bottom line, prompting the need for a strategic shift.
To tackle this challenge, my initial step was to transition from our current warehouse to an office space with a nearby 3PL facility to store our products temporarily. However, the inefficiencies and limited access to information proved unsustainable for our business model.
Recognizing the need for a more tailored solution, we seized a fantastic deal on a smaller 12,000-square-foot warehouse. Despite its size, I developed a comprehensive warehousing infrastructure plan to efficiently accommodate all our products and more, ensuring a seamless transition.
This ultimately saved the company over $1M per year and was the final act that springboarded me into the COO role for the company. It also was my final negotiating bullet to increase my salary to $120K/year based on a healthy bonus package. As the right-hand man to the owner and the Managing Director / COO, I had full autonomy. I continued to treat the business as my own and made decisions only for the company's sole benefit.
Eventually, I knew it was time to move on when the owner and I had some differences of opinion. This allowed me to start thinking about my own business. This was especially true because my business was already doing more than enough revenue for me to start working on it full-time.
The idea for Senditures came about during my time as eCommerce Director for the beauty company, in full swing of implementing my multi-channel selling strategy. As revenue increased exponentially month over month, I had the epiphany that this strategy would work well with any category of products. If I continued cultivating the relationships I had built with the 50+ sales channels I was working with, my business could start producing revenue fairly quickly after launching.
It is important to note that Senditures was already a business at this time: we were primarily sourcing and reselling books on Amazon and eBay. That business model generated five figures monthly in revenue, so it was a reasonable side hustle, but I needed more. I needed to ensure my future meant working for myself and building something I was proud of.
This idea I had for Senditures was much different than any of the other business ideas I had before because I did not have the relevant knowledge or skills for building an eCommerce business. I had no relationships with sales channels or the operational knowledge needed to run a well rounded and scalable business. This is why I will always be thankful for the job I took with the beauty company: it truly allowed me to jump a huge learning curve and learn everything I needed to know to start and strategically operate my own business.
But I kept going. I did not stop. One day, the light bulb went off, and I knew I had the right idea to pursue that would elevate me to the next level and bring me a few steps closer to building my legacy.
When validating the new Senditures business model and strategy, the options were endless, and it came about unexpectedly. I was sourcing new brands to onboard with exciting and unique products and came across a unique EMS neck massaging device.
At the time, we were not familiar or comfortable with working outside of the beauty category (this was what I knew best at that time). Still, I decided to give additional categories a try. When I saw the product, I realized that this would make a fantastic item for a TV shopping segment. I leveraged one of my relationships with a Buyer from MorningSave to secure a TV slot.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t get the item approved for placement, but she did help me get it approved to be listed on their market. Right away, the item started selling like gangbusters. Around the start of Q4, customers were actively searching for new, exciting, and giftable items. We got this up right in front of the right audience.
Without any promotion on the product, within 3 weeks of going live, we had sold about 5,000 units, and the product became the number one bestseller on their site, even above items running on TV. This was the first sign that we were on the right track and to keep moving forward with the strategy. This was a prime example of the power that this strategy could bring to large, medium, and small brands across all categories. I knew it was only up from here.
Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.
Senditures started as a company that sold new and used books on Amazon and eBay. We would source the books in many ways - including going to garage and estate sales, looking for free books on OfferUp, word of mouth, online arbitrage, etc.
There were plenty of times when we hit jackpots for this business model, including getting pallets of brand new books from Barnes and Noble store closures, finding people who were giving away their books for free that used to be in the book business but did not like it anymore, making deals with some book distributors, and finding people selling thousands of books at a super discount to make each book cost a few cents.
These sourcing strategies combined gave us a great run and allowed us to reach five figures per month, giving a six-figure revenue annually. The unfortunate part about this business model was that it was dirty and highly time-consuming. The time expense of sourcing and listing the books and the ROI that came out of that was not the greatest.
For one brand new book, we could make $6-$8 profit on average. But most of the books were used, which only allowed for a really $2-$3 profit average per book. So, while this business was super fun for me (I love books), it was unsustainable and not scalable.
Before coming up with the multi-channel selling strategy we use today for Senditures, we tried to go down many different avenues for revenue. We knew books were the main part of the business, so we looked into how to scale that. We began going into textbook arbitrage, where the big profits were.
We used a software here called ZenArbitrage, which helped us source textbooks faster. It also helped that I had financial capital at the time to work with because I could purchase a lot of textbook inventory and get ahead of the competition. However, textbooks sold much slower than regular books, which was not scalable for what I was looking for.
In addition to textbooks, we attempted to create a daily deal site under a subsidiary of Senditures. I also tried to start an FBA business and focus solely on Amazon, but this did not work for me either, whether it was because I didn’t have a lot of interest in it or because I just did not learn enough about it.
The great part about those early days for Senditures, though, was that the work ethic and the drive to create a full-fledged million-dollar business that I was excited about was there. The pursuit of this was relentless and tireless.
There were times when I would sit there and cry because I felt so defeated and unworthy and that I would never fulfill any of my dreams. There were times when I would bang my head against the table. There were times when I would just be so down in the dumps. Sometimes, I just wanted to quit and stay with my comfortable six-figure-a-year salary at my job working for someone else. There were times when it just was so hard for me.
But I kept going. I did not stop. One day, the light bulb went off, and I knew I had the right idea to pursue that would elevate me to the next level and bring me a few steps closer to building my legacy.
Describe the process of launching the business.
From the time I initially came up with the new multi-channel selling strategy for Senditures to the time it would take to go live, I knew it would take some time. I had a lot of work to do when creating the contracts for our vendors or an operational infrastructure. I did not have anything down pat.
I only knew that I wanted to pursue this business model where Senditures sells on behalf of small, medium, and large brands on all the different online sales channels I was already working with. Other than that, I was lost.
Unsurprisingly, I completely procrastinated on a lot of the boring business stuff that NEEDED to be done. There was even some of it that I didn’t even do before officially launching.
The thing was that Q4 for that year was rapidly approaching and the one thing I knew was that I wanted to have products to sell and have Senditures onboarded with the sales channels before that time came so that we could get a boost of revenue right away. So, I put together some concept of a vendor agreement (so many errors and legal issues) and started to try to get vendors as fast as possible and increase the product count in the catalog as quickly as possible.
Thankfully, I was able to get products approved with some of the bigger sales channels I was working with at the time and live before Q4 started, and I was able to get that EMS neck massager on MorningSave right when Q4 hit. With all of this in place, the sales came in rapidly. We didn’t even have accounts with FedEx setup and we didn’t even have shipping software. I had a sad excuse for a product database set up on Google Sheets, no inventory tracking software, no project management software, NOTHING. The good news here is that with just Q4 selling, we had done over $100K right away, which gave me some much needed comfort going into the next year.
I had told myself, “Hey man you will get all of this set up when the new year begins and when things calm down a little.” Boy, I was wrong. Yes, things calmed down a bit, but I was more focused on getting more sales and increasing revenue rather than putting operational systems in place and getting the back end stuff properly set up.
Officially launching Senditures was an exciting s*** show, and this clusterf*** led right into the new year. It wasn’t until we started getting exponentially more vendors onboarded and when we started getting more and more sales that I realized that I needed to get things in place to keep the business organized so that we could scale up.
I learned a lot of lessons from the initial launch of Senditures. Mainly, starting a business is very exciting, and driving revenue is very important, but equally important is having systems in place and things organized on the backend so that you can just focus on scaling the business further.
When the boring stuff is not set up, when you have weak contracts, when you don’t have an accounting organization, when you don’t have inventory tracking, and when you don’t have a proper and organized CRM, things will get very messy and many problems will arise as the revenue grows. And man did the problems keep coming because of this.
So, to sum this up, do yourself a favor and have your backend organization and systems prepared before launching anything. You will thank me for this. Another lesson I learned and one that I continue to learn is that I don’t know everything. I know very little compared to everything that is out there to learn. Keep adapting, keep growing, keep learning, and keep moving forward.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
Since the launch of Senditures as it is now, what has worked for us to attract customers and increase our revenue exponentially YoY is a few things.
First, constantly adding newness to our product catalog. Keeping our catalog fresh and exciting with compelling products at compelling products for our customers is very important and allows us to position ourselves as a company that can offer trendy, unique items at very competitive prices. For our business model, the more products we add to our assortment, the more categories and subcategories we can hit, and the more we can increase and maximize the potential to increase revenue across our sales channels.
Think of this like Amazon starting out with just selling books online. One of the reasons why Jeff Bezos wanted to do books was because there is no other category out there, even to this day, that offers a broader assortment than books. So, if we take that concept but apply it to an eCommerce sales agency like Senditures, it is imperative that we continue to add more and more products to our catalog, to keep offering a broad range of product categories across 50+ online sales channels.
Second, giving our customers deep discounts off of MSRP has been a staple for us and will continue to be for our customers. We want our customers to know that they are getting a great deal for the products they are purchasing, which improves customer satisfaction and allows customers to keep searching for and purchasing the products we offer.
Third, we offer very fast shipping. We can get our products to customers on average in 2-3 days, and at most 6 days. We have very strict guidelines and SLAs when it comes to our vendors shipping products to customers. All orders must be shipped out within 48 hours regardless of the vendor. Keeping strict expectations like this allows us to pass on fast shipping times to customers and keep them coming back for our products to purchase and keep them satisfied.
The fourth thing that allows us to keep our customers, especially with the third party sales channels we work with, is our response times to inquiries, either from buyers, event coordinators, or customer service teams. We are rapid when it comes to providing additional product information or updated pricing for our buyers to pass onto customers, and we are quick when it comes to responding to customer inquiries from these sales channels, whether it is to help them with using the product or to provide them a seamless return or refund experience. This keeps everyone satisfied through the pipeline and allows us to solidify ourselves as an exceptional company to work with on both the buyer's side and the end customers' side.
To touch on Amazon as a sales channel, we have had an on and off relationship with them. I think Amazon is a fantastic channel to start an eCommerce business with and to have as a sales channel. They have created so many amazing opportunities for businesses across the globe.
For Senditures, however, it hasn’t always worked out. I think this is mainly due to how our business model is. We are not set up for Amazon when it comes to our vendor agreements, our product catalog, our pricing, etc. It is not to say that we don’t do business with Amazon. Amazon brings in anywhere from $5K to $10K for us per month in revenue, but it is not our focus as a business. We prefer to pursue sales channels that may not be as well known but still have millions of shoppers who are very active.
We also focus on more exclusive sales channels that may not accept many sellers comparatively speaking to Amazon or Walmart. This is where we thrive the most and where the majority of our revenue comes from.
We strive to offer best in class products and deals for our customers, which is why we have had our deals published on huge sites like New York Post, Mashable, Boing Boing, and TMZ and on TV segments like Access Hollywood. You can see some of our PR links below for reference:
New York Post - 148 million readers per month
Mashable - 18 million readers per month
TMZ - 54 million readers per month
Boing Boing - 4 million readers per month
Do not rely on luck, though. Work intensely hard, learn incessantly and vigorously, look at the numbers deeply, and create your own luck.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
Today, Senditures is doing phenomenal on all fronts. Over the past few years since launch, we have taken big steps to correct our backend operations from accounting to inventory tracking to vendor and customer management. This has truly helped us in huge ways has passed on to our overall bottom line, and has allowed us to primarily focus on increasing revenue and scaling the business as a whole.
I am very proud to say that Senditures is profitable. We project that we will continue to be profitable each year going forward due to our healthy margins, lean staff, and minimal overhead. Our gross margin today hangs around 55%, whereas in our first full year in 2021, we were around 30-40%. Our COGS today is around 45%.
For customer acquisition, we spend virtually nothing, along with having minimal to no advertising costs. Due to our expansive multi-channel selling strategy, we have been able to acquire a significant email list of over 100K subscribers, which we will soon begin utilizing for our marketplace growth efforts for Vysn.com.
Our year-over-year growth is another metric I am super proud of as an owner. In 2021, we had completed that year at around $100K in revenue. In 2022, we ended the year with about $450K in revenue. This shows 350% growth from 2021 to 2022. We ended 2023 with a revenue of $950K. This shows 111% growth from 2022 to 2023. In 2024, we are projecting revenue to be about $2 million. This will show a 111% growth from 2023 to 2024. We expect to continue this level of growth for the next 3-5 years minimum.
Senditures is a multi-channel eCommerce sales agency. Our sales distribution is spread out across all the sales channels we work with. But our sales are 100% online. Operationally, we have made significant strides since we first started. We have cleaned up our accounting systems and put in a payment cadence to vendors that is cash flow friendly, only paying vendors when we are paid by our sales channels. This allows us to keep payments as accurate as possible while simultaneously accounting for returns/refunds.
Currently, AR/AP is organized within a robust and customized version of Google Sheets (with a lot of automation and advanced scripts and formulas).
Airtable is used primarily for our CRM, product catalog management, inventory tracking, vendor management, and project management.
Shipstation is used for our high-volume shipping needs.
Google Workspace is used for mostly everything else when it comes to file management, emails, calendars, meetings, etc.
Senditures are becoming more and more operationally sound each day.
We have ambitious plans ahead for Senditures, as well as Vysn.com. Vysn is the online marketplace we are building. We are rapidly growing the product assortment on Vysn and plan to be at over one million products by the end of 2024. In addition to product assortment, we plan to roll out more personalization when it comes to product selection, more robust customer service systems, and a more user friendly and seamless shopping experience.
For Senditures, things are looking bright. We plan to increase our warehouse space this year while bringing in a more expansive product selection that we fulfill from our warehouse, potentially making the move to purchase all products in bulk and move away from the dropshipping/wholesale model. This is still in the works but the numbers look promising.
We also will expand our brand portfolio and will bring on more brands in categories that are underserved. We will also be adding on more sales channels so we can offer our vast product assortment with competitive pricing.
Operationally, we are looking into building a fully customized system as our ERP that fits our complex business model. These are just some of the plans we have as 2024 progresses. As the eCommerce industry continues to expand grow and change, Senditures is committed to adapting alongside it.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
Through my journey of building Senditures into the million dollar business it is today from scratch, I have learned more than any MBA or business class could teach me.
The mistakes that have been made are tremendous. As I mentioned previously, launching a business without processes or systems in place or any organization is not the greatest idea, especially when the revenue starts pouring in as it did for me. Have your organization down and your processes in place before anything. This is imperative so that you can focus on scaling when your business launches rather than scrambling to keep everything organized. Yes, processes and systems will change over time, but have something to start with; it’s better than nothing.
Another huge mistake I made was not doing my due diligence when importing certain products from China. I was trying to move too quickly and brought in thousands of units of a product that could have been construed as a knockoff of a big brand’s product.
Long story short, the brand sent me a cease and desist letter and a demand letter along with customs getting involved. Eventually, I received a penalty from Customs for $380K for this mistake I made. Yes, I am still handling this today.
Thankfully, my business has been profitable enough that I was able to get arguably the best customs lawyer in the country to handle it. I do expect this to go away, but it is a scary thing when you have US Customs saying you owe them $380K.
Always do your due diligence with products if you plan to import them from China. All in all, the mistakes and poor decisions are endless as a business owner. The trick is to have your good decisions and your good work outweigh the mistakes and the bad decisions.
I will admit: I was blindsided by the accounting nightmare I had to endure when Senditures was already making a respectable revenue and was increasingly getting more volume. For some reason, as operationally sound as I am, having proper accounting processes went right over my head during this time, and it was like a punch in the face when I realized the accounting mess I had in my hand.
So, I urge any of you who are starting a business to make sure you have your accounting processes in place before getting off the ground. It will save you so many headaches and keep you focused on the most important part - making money and building something bigger than yourself.
There are always forces out of our control that end up helping us whether in business or personal. I prefer to believe that we make our own luck. This idea of “luck” can also be seen as intense data analysis, continually learning the industry, and continuously adapting to the ever-changing business environment.
Sure, there are a few times during the life of Senditures where it could be seen as luck, and I certainly feel lucky as a whole to be able to have a growing and thriving business and to be able to live comfortably and provide for my family without stressing about where the next paycheck is coming from. But at the same time, I work harder than most, I am always learning new things, I am always studying the data, and I am always adapting to new methods and technologies, so it is also no surprise that I get luckier than others.
Do not rely on luck, though. Work intensely hard, learn incessantly and vigorously, look at the numbers deeply, and create your own luck. As for trends changing constantly in the market, Senditures takes pride in always staying on top of trends and even sometimes being ahead of the curve. Again, we attribute this to deep data analysis, non-stop product research, overall market research, and competitive analysis.
I was fortunate enough to be able to start a successful business with knowledge and skills that I knew very well and was able to leverage. Because I had such a wide range of responsibilities and oversight when I was COO of the beauty company I mentioned before, I was able to gain incredible knowledge of multiple industries and business operations as a whole.
Going into starting Senditures, I was very operations-minded. I was and still am insanely efficient and preach about efficiency in everything. I am constantly looking for more efficient ways of doing things, and this is something that can be seen through and through with Senditures. When it comes to seeing how a company can increase revenue while cutting overhead in a practical way and thus increasing bottom line is something I will admit I am very adept in, and something I use and will continue to always use in Senditures and any other business I go into or start.
Another important skill I possessed when starting Senditures was the ability to sell both vendors and customers what the company is and how they can benefit. Being able to sell your vision and what your business is is super important if you plan to continually grow your business. You need to be the foremost expert on your company and all the solutions it can provide.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
We use a wide range of tools and software for our business, both for Senditures and for Vysn.com. This is mainly due to the amount of sales channels we work with, and all of them have their own SLAs and procedures that we need to adhere to.
- Airtable
- Shipstation
- Shopify
- Google Workspace (mostly Gmail, Google Sheets, Google Docs, Google Drive, Looker Studio, Google Meet, Google Calendar, Google Contacts, Google Tasks, and Google Gemini)
- Dropbox
- Mirakl
- Microsoft Office (Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint)
- ChatGPT
- Monday
- Zoom
- Wordpress (GoDaddy CPanel Hosting)
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
In my quest for transparency, my business journey stands out because it's not fueled by influential books or podcasts, but by an inner spark that's been with me since I was young. I'm a self-starter at heart, driven and hardworking, motivated without needing outside help. What propels me forward isn't just personal success, but a deep desire to create a lasting legacy for my family. No one in my family has achieved this kind of success, and I'm on a mission to change that, leaving behind a business that future generations can carry on with pride.
While books and podcasts have their place, I've found many self-help resources to be vague and not very helpful. There's a lot of motivational content out there that essentially says the same things without giving clear guidance. Instead of relying solely on these generic sources, I believe in a more thoughtful approach to personal and business development.
I recommend books like Cloe Madanes' "Relationship Breakthrough" and classics like the Bhagavad Gita and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" for deeper insights. It's crucial to look beyond the surface and consider voices of wisdom from figures like Cloe Madanes, the Dalai Lama, Warren Buffett, and even Tony Robbins.
Their diverse expertise in psychology, finance, and personal development offers practical advice if you take the time to understand what they're saying. In a world flooded with generic motivational content, my journey highlights the power of inner drive and a thoughtful approach to inspiration, guiding me toward building a legacy that will last for generations.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
For those of you who want to start a business, one of the best pieces of advice I can give to you is to just start. Get going. Start something. Move forward. It sounds counterintuitive because you wouldn’t want to “waste any time” or anything, but it isn’t. Starting is very important because it gives you momentum, and momentum propels you into so many other things. But you need to get that momentum initially. And, honestly, if you look at some of the biggest businesses in the world, there’s a large number of them that didn’t start out doing what they do now.
So get started on something, build that momentum, and adapt as you move forward to something bigger. If you sit there and contemplate what to do, you will put yourself in a horrible cycle that takes way too long to get out of. Sitting there figuring out what you are going to start is a real waste of time. Start with something, even if it’s small. Get your momentum going.
Another important tip for those entrepreneurs who want to start or are even just starting out is DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE BUSINESS FINANCES. This is probably one of the MOST underestimated things in business, especially with entrepreneurs today and small businesses. If you can, learn business finance. It is so important, and I cannot stress it enough.
People say that sales are the most important skill to have when starting a business, and they may be right, but there is no doubt in my mind that understanding business from a numbers side is equally important. If I had known this from the get-go, I would have saved myself probably hundreds of hours of work and screw-ups and bad decisions.
Have good accounting processes and systems in place from the start. Do not wait. I promise you, it will be an absolute mess if you decide to wait to get your accounting in order. Have the process from the start. This will help in so many ways, and at the end of the day will give you the most peace of mind.
As someone who did not have good accounting systems for a good portion of my business, I was sitting here going crazy and anxious because I was unsure of where the money was going. I can tell you that when I resolved this, my head became so much more clear and I was able to focus on actually scaling the business.
More on business finances, I am going to give you the ultimate tip that most “entrepreneurs” don’t mention or know to mention - get yourself a TAX STRATEGY. Either you do it yourself or hire an accountant (you can outsource - 1800Accountant is a good place to start).
There is no sense in paying 30-40% taxes to the IRS when there are legal ways to bring this percentage way down. Move your company structure to an S corporation instead of an LLC, open yourself a solo 401K and contribute as both the employer AND the employee (max contribution here is $68K per year total), write off any expense you can that can be seen as a business expense, etc.
There are so many ways to do this. Do not take the lazy way out and dismiss this. You will save yourself hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long run if you can get a strategy like this in place. I implore you to take this advice seriously. This is one of the least spoken-about topics when it comes to business and finance. Get your tax strategy figured out ASAP.
Although I can go on for much longer about all the tips and mistakes there are when starting a business, I need to try to keep it short. But I will leave you with one more piece of advice - give yourself a break. I do not know where this whole “work 20 hours a day if you want to be successful in business” thing came from, but it is patently and blatantly false. It is absolute BS.
If you are hearing that from someone, walk away and stop listening to them. There are people with families and huge responsibilities who are out there getting discouraged because they think they don’t have “what it takes” to be entrepreneurial just because they can’t dedicate all day and night to building a business. It is false and do not fall for this. It is not possible to do that while doing true intentional work.
There is a difference between just “working” and doing actual purposeful work that is intentional and that is productive. Do not worry about the hours you work. The main worry should be what you are getting done and how productive you are being.
For example, I could get more done in 4 hours of intentional work than someone who is “working” for 48 hours straight without any clarity. You do not need to destroy your body, your mind, your life, your health, or anything to become a successful business owner. You do, however, need to ensure that you are working productively and getting stuff done that is moving you and your business forward.
At the end of the day, truly trying to build a business of any size is not for the faint of heart. And the reality is that, yes, it does take some money, some sort of skill, and some ability to think in a direction that is bigger than everyone else and more productive than everyone else. However, I do believe that anyone can build a business.
During this journey, you will feel discouraged, down, sad, depressed, angry, melancholy, upset, frustrated, and as though you want to quit, and I am here to tell you that it is perfectly normal in this bracket. You will also have so many times when you feel happy, uplifted, inspired, on top of the world, king of everything, motivated, powerful, fierce, unstoppable, relentless, and the best of the best. This is because you are entering into the ultimate rollercoaster.
Doing this will bring you up and knock you down, make you feel great, and then punch you in the face and kick you while you’re down. But the secret to that is to not stop. Keep moving forward. Do something to keep yourself moving forward.
Go for a wandering walk. Go to the gym. Do jumping jacks. Slap yourself in the face. Whatever you can do to stop yourself from letting the negative thoughts control your life, do it. Because greatness is only awarded to those who do not give up even when the chips are down.
You are allowed to sit in your negativity, but only for a short time. At some point, you need to get up and do something and then do something else and then something else after that, and then eventually you will have built something that you can be proud of and call yours. Start, gain that momentum, and never stop.
Where can we go to learn more?
- Website
- Vysn - the marketplace we are building rapidly
- [email protected] - feel free to email me any questions or contact me to talk more about my journey or for any business advice you may need! I am here for all entrepreneurs.
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.
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