Episode 32
On today’s episode David and Ken had the privilege to interview Radu Oboroc, a successful full-time e-commerce entrepreneur. Radu manages multiple e-commerce brands while selling on several diverse sales channels to include: Shopify, Amazon, Ebay and 6 international marketplaces. Radu shares a glimpse of his journey with us; what a typical day in the life of a full-time entrepreneur looks like before quitting his job as a Software Engineer and after going full time as an entrepreneur.
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Radu 0:01
Until you make a decision, things don’t happen, right? So it’s almost like there’s so many paths we can go on. And if we’re stuck in just trying to figure out which way to go and overanalyze everything, you’re always like, you know, we’re basically stuck in this quantum field of like, you know, it hasn’t happened until you decide, okay, well, this is the way I’m going to go. And you actually go for it.
And take action. Right? Exactly. Take action.
Intro 0:28
Welcome, everyone to the Firing The Man podcast show for anyone who wants to be their own boss. If you sit in a cubicle every day and know you were capable of more than join us, this show will help you build a business and grow your passive income streams in just a few short hours per day. And now your host serial entrepreneurs David Schomer, and Ken Wilson.
David 0:52
Welcome everyone to the firing demand podcast. Today’s episode we are joined by red do a borage Can we just got finished recording that episode. And it was a good one.
Ken 1:04
Yeah, it was, it was phenomenal. You know, I always, we always talk about, hey, when we want to achieve something, we find something that’s done it and then we asked them how they got there and how they did it. And that’s exactly what we did on this episode. So Radu is a, you know, a full time successful ecommerce seller. And he shared with us, you know, before after how he did it in a lot of gems in there. It’s a really, really good episode.
David 1:33
Absolutely. A couple things that we went deep on. One was financing a quickly growing business. So you’re going to want to stay tuned for that because if you are growing an e commerce business, you’re going to run into a cash crunch. And we really go deep here I do talks about how he funded some of his growth. Ken and I talked about how we funded our growth and some really good conversation there. And another thing that really stood out to me was how much red you talked about mindset. how important that is. And so that is sprinkled in throughout the episode. But it is an excellent interview, in a case study in somebody that fired the man recently and is doing e commerce full time. So this is an episode you’re definitely not going to want to miss.
Radu 2:16
You know, I’m currently a full time entrepreneur I basically funded or started two e commerce brands. First one I started about two and a half years ago, I was still working full time at the time for a software company I was a software support engineer, was more like a side gig, just something that was you know, wanting to do on the side after we moved from New Jersey to Florida. It was kind of a slow start, because that wasn’t necessarily spending too much time on effort on it was just slowly wanting to kind of see you know where it may go. But at some point it kind of gained critical mass and it just kind of took off and it got to a point where it’s just becoming too much for me to handle just you know between a full time job and you know family with two kids. And you know this this fast growing ecommerce business so I took the Canada plunge and I finally fired the man as you guys say, full time and this was this was April of 2019. So about 15 months ago, about the same time I started a second brand with a friend of mine that has been doing great as well. We kind of have the same issues with it now that we have with the added brand we’re like we just running out of stock, we can’t keep stock and the other brand is seasonal. So it’s more you know, like the warmer months so right that was just the peak and it’s the sales are like we’re actually baffled by how how well it sounds like we’ve turned down PPC you know and everything because just we have so much so little stock lab and it’s just like it keeps going on which is kind of insane, which is good, but we need to prepare I guess for the next season. Make sure we were ready when it hits. But you know, those are obviously good things. So to kind of get off the tangent to be I mean, I’m doing full time, ecommerce right now, with the primary brand. We are now in multiple marketplaces. So we’re in the US, Canada, five marketplaces in Europe and recently went into Australia to try to diversify or to try and to kind of get away from Amazon. I mean, not away away, but essentially diversify off Amazon and use out the channels that we have more more control over Shopify and eBay and looking into going into wholesale. So there’s a lot of kind of moving parts. Very nice.
David 4:41
I’d like to dive into the very beginning when you decided to start your first e commerce brand. What prompted that,
Radu 4:49
So I’m sure it was like a like a, like a single event was just more like a chain of things that kind of led to it back in the day. Like I would say, maybe 15 20 years ago, I kind of dabbled in it. ecommerce when eBay was just kept coming up, so I would get some like, arbitrage and like I would find deals and stuff and I would buy them at that resell them on eBay, I made some minor cash, nothing major, I kind of always wanted to see if I can take it further, but for whatever reason, you know, I didn’t maybe I kept looking for things that may not work or finding excuses, you know, or just being too busy or not wanting to commit to it. At the same time, you know, Amazon was starting to come on, on the, you know, the market as far as like the marketplace and being able to sell on it. So I thought about it, like it’s kind of a cool idea, right? To be able to sell there and maybe was like hands off that type of approach where they handle everything for you. It seemed like it’s a lot more scalable than what I was trying to do for eBay because you know, it’s a lot of work with setting up each listings and and you know, shipping all those waters, it’s just like he wasn’t. It wasn’t scalable. for my liking, it required a lot of my time, you know, and then the return, I guess, was linear. And it was based on how much time and effort I put in to her Amazon kind of like look like, Well, you know, if you can get a ride, right, then you can set up things initially, then it then kind of takes off and with a lot less effort, you can get some great results. I really never. I mean, I’ve tried something, maybe like five, six years ago, where I was looking at some products that I can sell. My wife gave me an idea of what if we could try to sell some kids back home? She was I guess I should say she was not to class but like, you know, she was the chewed bird hobbyist. Some people actually do that. So I found a factory overseas kind of got the first small order you’ve never really went anywhere. I mean, we sold someone eBay, but it was it didn’t go As well as we plan it, but at least I tried to plant the seed. So, you know, in a way it was a gradual transition. And then in 2016 I decided to we decided to move to Florida I was lucky to keep my job so I was working remote at the time and then my wife could not keep her so basically she was stay at home mom and I was looking into ways to add additional income just to kind of compensate for for her not having her job anymore. Me and a friend of mine looked at different options. We stumbled upon some videos on YouTube about selling an Amazon instead of sharing those those videos and and I discovered one of Greg Mercer’s case studies, I think, like the first one the jungle sticks. So it was actually cool because he went through the whole process and made it look fairly simple and doable. So okay, well, you know, This looks like a good idea doesn’t require a lot of investment, I can probably do it while I’m still working full time. So I followed those those steps, research products, found the product is almost ready to pull the plug. Then we took a trip time like went back to New Jersey to see family. And then kind of took me I guess off track, I came back and started like doubting well, looking for things that you know why this would not work. There’s a few other players that came on market, there’s you know, pricing and this and that and wife vase. And so I almost I think at that point gave up on this product. I was kind of looking at new ideas. And at that time I went to a Amazon meetup locally. And we all share those are stories basically. And then everybody kind of pitched in and offered advice. So I showed mine I told him like where I’d stand that. I’m about to pull the blog on the blog, but I’m not sure about it anymore. And I probably got some of the best advice from the organizer is like, just just just do it. Don’t overthinking. Just start, even if you fail, you’ll learn something you’ll adjust. But the point is to not get caught up in your head, essentially. So I did that man Oh, my basically placed the order. And, you know, a lot happened since then. But obviously, if you’re looking back, it’s, you know, in the three years that change has been, like, just basically complete. You know, 180 or like, just, you know, a brand new life or different world essentially.
Ken 9:36
Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s a really inspiring there. And you’re glad you took that first step, that first step, right. Absolutely, man.
Radu 9:46
That’s that’s what what typically holds us back. And you know, like, even looking back now, like, you know, being my friend, that we kind of started on this together. He never really took that. I mean, he kind of dabbled in it. But I don’t think he ever committed fully to it. And maybe he waited a bit too long. And, you know, he actually tried he did have a couple products he brought to market but I think he he brought him kind of too late and, you know, things issues came up that he never really, like, I guess took him off track as well. So he kind of gave up. He’s still thinking about maybe going back in, but it’s it’s, I think it’s always a battle, you know, as with any change, especially, and this is, you know, this is obviously a big change. Because we all use to kind of things to be the way they are, you know, we’re in a conflict zone and it’s harder to get out of it. Your brain will do anything to kind of put you back into, into what’s you know, known and what’s basically what’s safe.
Ken 10:52
Yeah, absolutely. So, Radu. That’s perfect. So taking you back to April 2019. You said you, you went from full time employment to switch to full time working on your business. If you go back, if you can go back to that time, what was your biggest fear? That was kind of holding you back from going full time?
Radu 11:14
Um, I mean, obviously doubt, right? You always have doubts. I’m just kind of like what I mentioned. Just before that it’s, you know, like your brain kind of doesn’t like you to, to venture out into the unknown. It’s just the mechanism that nature built to keep us safe, right. But it also it hinders a lot of a lot of potential in us. And so how does the Dallas word like them, you know, the main issue that hold me back and it’s like, I wanted to make sure obviously, that I don’t just kind of do it recklessly. Dad, you know, this, this, this step is calculated and, and then I also needed to know that, you know, I have a safety net right? Obviously, I have my skill set that I’ve built up until up until I went full time, ecommerce work for a software company. And, you know, I had a great position there. And I knew that, you know, even if something drastic happens, and I have to go back, there is a safety net for me. So that helped me kind of take that leap. Also, you know, by talking with some friends and colleagues in the space that took that leap before me and kind of getting their advice and kind of, you know, they kind of pushed me to Okay, well, it’s time to do it. So I probably waited maybe a year, six months, too long. I could have done it a bit earlier. I wanted to do it. You know, it’s like, you got to find a balance, right? Like you don’t want to do it too early because I’ve heard all stories that people just kind of, you know, jump into it before they’re actually ready and then they realize there isn’t just Not enough to you know, sustain their lifestyle, whatever it is, so they have to kind of go back. But also the other, you know, the other side of the coin that people just kind of waiting for too long. And it’s just getting you know, overworked, overwhelmed. And at that point, they’re neither focusing all their attention on the business to grow, nor I guess the full time job. So then I was kind of like, in this space, probably the last six months of, you know, before I went full time. But, you know, the numbers were there. There was enough revenue, profit coming in that, you know, I can actually take some money. I guess another reason that I waited longer is that business was growing so fast and we kind of always had cashflow issues, which I’m sure you guys know. It’s really hard to sustain.
You know, an e commerce business at the But it could grow through Amazon and other channels just on the returns that you get from from previous orders, right. So you know that that trajectory is just too sharp, you know, for you to be able to find it organically. So I had to kind of go in and take some some loans, glad that I did, because that helped us connect the business at some point. But also, I needed to know that there is enough cash flow returns coming in that I can actually take a part of it just to kind of sustain. You know, basically my livelihood likes and be able to pay for what we have and cover the last salary from me quitting my job while still having bonds in the business to sustain the growth. So those are kind of like the key things that are thinking about it. And at some point, I guess when I felt that there is a good balance between All those factors. And with some, obviously some some help from some friends finally said, Okay, I got to do it. And I did.
David 15:10
Read Do you mentioned something that I want to dive into, and that was, you had a safety net. And that was the skill set that you had built up. And the reason that I want to dive into that is, a lot of times when people talk about a safety net, they are thinking of, say, six month, months of expenses in a bank account. And I think that’s a really good point. And can you go into that a little more in how your skill sets helped you feel more comfortable with firing the man?
Radu 15:39
Yeah, I mean, it’s, it kind of goes back to probably just working on on mindset, which was a big part of this journey for me. A lot of the fears and the doubts are maybe not as realistic as we think they are. Right. But as far as safety, like yes, it’s just again, In your head being able to rationalize any change and the safety net, obviously. So why don’t you try and see rationalized like, what your fears at the same time you have to realize that if something is, you know, happen, which could you can always have a plan B, right. And for me that plan B that kind of allowed me to take that leap, like have to know that I have this maybe this parachute, you know, jump off that cliff. For me that parachute was my skill set. I mean, you know, I had a pretty good job I had, you know, been there for a while. And I knew that worse comes to worse, right? If this doesn’t work out, I could always, you know, use my skill set and go back and, you know, get my job or at least something in the industry or something in the same field and survive right and still be able to provide for my family. That was one of the big fears that what’s holding you back from taking this leap of faith? So
Ken 17:05
right do So you mentioned that your biggest fear was providing for your family, right? So of course, and then some of the ways that you overcame that fear were mindset, you, you surrounded yourself with like minded people that were supportive. And you leveraged your previous skillset of your job to know that, hey, that’s my safety net. If I needed it’s there, but you just took out all the other barriers and plowed forward. Is that a kind of a good sum?
Radu 17:36
Yes, yes. So essentially, once I kind of felt comfortable enough, right, or I, you know, I learned to push through some of the resistance that helped me move forward in explaining so it but yes,
Ken 17:53
excellent. Now, you mentioned earlier that, you know, you said you probably wait In six months to Lux, you know, you could you could have went full time six months earlier. Now, if you could go back to that point in time, is there any advice that you would have you would give yourself back then now what you know now.
Radu 18:13
So at that point, I mean, I would say, just decide to choose a path. And this was one of the issues that I was struggling with, or things that I was fighting you know, in my own headspace is just kind of making the decision and choosing a path because we tend to like overthink or what if this What if that instead of just kind of almost almost like trusting them, you know, the path to trusting yourself and just taking those those steps. So, you know, if I would go back and talk to myself at that time, I would just say, be more decisive right, just choose the path to start. Just go for it. He doesn’t guarantee you success all the time. But as long as you have the right attitude, the right mindset, you will get out of any issues, and it’s always a learning experience. And, and I think it’s kind of like this, almost like going into, you know, like the quantum realm, right? But unless and until you make a decision, things don’t happen, right? So it’s almost like, there’s so many paths we can go on. And if we’re stuck in just trying to figure out which way to go and overanalyze everything, you’re almost like, you know, we’re basically stacking this quantum field of like, you know, hasn’t happened and until you decide, okay, well, this is the way I’m going to go. And you actually go for it.
Ken 19:43
And take action. Right,
Radu 19:45
exactly take action.
David 19:47
I do. Another thing I want to dive into is you had talked about growing your business before taking money out of it. And I think that’s a really good point. that a lot of people getting into this may not understand And, and I just got done reading Ryan, Daniel Moran’s book zero to a million in 12 months. Great book, by the way, the number that he says is, you know, get your revenue to a million dollars before you start taking money out. And I think I’ve heard that target be different, according to who you talk about, but what would be your general advice there? And kind of the second piece of this is you had mentioned that you were glad that you took on debt. Can you go into that a little more?
Radu 20:32
Yes. So the numbers suggest a million dollars. Yes, I would say it’s a good number to have. I mean, it’s kind of a kind of a milestone, right. But it It depends on your comfort level, and it also depends on your profit. But essentially, yes, I would say a million would be a good a good number to shoot for And this is kind of where we were at the time when I went full time around that $1 million mark. It also, obviously, you could probably have to look more at the profitability of the business and how much actual profit you’re making, because that can vary greatly depending on a lot of different factors. And also depends on your lifestyle and maybe like your pre commerce, you know, revenue or salary, whatever you’re living on.
And, you know, see how that compares to how much money you’re getting, or you could be getting from the business without fingering, you’d scroll too much. So there’s obviously aspects to this that are different for you know, each, each person like somebody that single maybe, you know, young and they can actually leave in a lot less than maybe somebody that has a family, kids mortgage, you know, tuitions, whatever else comes with it. And those things are very important. So you don’t want to risk or have you know, you like your your risk adversity is different depending on where you are in your journey. So you have to beat those things individually based on your situation. But I would say, you know, shooting for the for the million mark would be a good, a good channel target. And then once you they’re looking at your finances and figure out, you know, how much you can actually survive on I would say, because you probably don’t need as much as you were making at your full time job to at least keep you afloat for 6-12 months. You can cut some some costs and still, you know, fairly comfortably without, let’s say the full time job with being able to take maybe a smaller paycheck from your business. So you keep fueling the rope with the money that’s left into business and get into the second part of your career question is getting some Some financing really helped us kind of take us over that, you know, like to change the trajectory drastically. So, to give you a bit of a story in 20 it was 2018 I went to my first e commerce event. He was cellar summit 2018. And it was a great event for me, you know, like I made I get to meet a lot of people that are better, like kind of in my shoes, right, a lot of like minded individuals, great conversations, a lot of feedback, a lot of advice from, you know, from those attendees, based on, you know, my story and like my struggles. So up until then, the main problem for me was keeping him stuck. Because what when I first started I wasn’t initially committed or didn’t go too big on it. It was more like a Just a trial basis, like put, you know, I put a small investment in, and I was trying to grow the business just by selling whatever we have in stock making, you know, more money and then buying, buy more stuff. But it just wasn’t sustainable in Amazon world, like, between the time it took to you know, make the products and ship them here because they’re coming from overseas it took like, at least a month to get up to Amazon. And I wants an Amazon by the time you know, took yourself through, it would be easily, you know, four or five, six months before you get everything back. And then you know, you you’ve had to make at least a few more orders in that time span and each one had to be like double the previous quarter, right? So it’s just there was no way I could sustain it organically but I found out I realized it’s kind of late in the game. So it was like a year just over a year since I started and I clicked on investment. This is going great and obviously the product sales this potential but like we keep running out of out of Stop. And then once we get back like a month or two later, stuff to kind of start fresh, like it was all the momentum, you have to push hard and PPC, push harder rebates and like sales, try to get it back where you were. So in the process, you lose a lot of your cash flow that you made the previous one because you were trying to market it again or trying to like pump that flywheel right, prime to prime the pump. So at the at the solar standard based on all the advice I got, and like, you know, from the speakers, and at least I hate to make a mistake, but you know what, I have to figure out what I really need to be ready for the fourth quarter. So I ran the numbers, roughly. I gotta figure out how much I actually need to order. It was like at that time was a crazy amount like it was like $80,000 I think I had to basically order worth of goods, to make sure that we’re we can basically survive to survive through the fourth quarter. So like, you know, October November, December. So, you know, I got the number, okay, well, it’s it was a huge number is scary, I’m like, well I’m going to get that much money and then I started looking into options. Luckily, at the event, there was a company called sellers funding, I think, and they do like short term kind of loans for Amazon sellers. And it was it was expensive compared to other financing options, but it was easy to get so all they had to do is just they basically plug into your Amazon account, look at the data and they tell you Okay, we can give you so much money, right? So didn’t require a lot of paperwork or you know, lengthy process of approval to make two, three days once I allow them into the, into the Amazon account. He came back gave us the first proposal and got the money placed, you know, those big orders. And then over time, you know, like either Options become available to Amazon at some point reached out and said, okay, you can now use Amazon funding. So initially I was going between those two, and then later on through through our freight forwarder, we got another inventory financing option. So flexport is what we use, and they open up a new division. So basically, they would finance your inventory. Once it gets on board based on the commercial invoice and Guild, they’ll give you let’s say, 50% of the commercial invoice as alone, they’ll pay directly to the factory and then you have like two months to pay back at a pretty reasonable rate better than what Amazon was offering. So essentially, for us, it was almost like a, like a net 90 term, because we had 90 days to pay the money back. So that also helped helped us with the, you know, with the growth, but we’ve always had cashflow issues, because it’s just even with you know with financing. It’s just like it was growing too fast for us to be able to To effectively fuel it, and it was a constant struggle to figure out, Okay, well, where to get the money Next, you know, to pay this supplier or like to pay this loan payment or whatever. So it’s like juggling between credit cards and like, you know, Amazon lending and this and that and, and we we did survive. At some point I had to kind of slow the growth a little bit discovered just just there’s this balance between having cash flow and being able to keep paying for the new orders and keeping in stock. I had to curb the growth by limiting the number of new skews we’re bringing to market because that’s also was one of the thing that helped us grow fast was just we kept adding more and more products. But just finding this, this balance is one of the challenges for us and you know, We’re still trying to find the best balance between the two.
David 29:05
That story sounds so familiar. I know Ken and I have run into that where where you have a rapidly growing business and and your number one problems cash flow from an outsider looking in that may not make sense. But you know, one thing that Ken and I’ve talked about recently I want to share with our listeners is when you are looking for access to capital, there’s a lot of different options and in revenue, you’ve mentioned several different options. You may ask yourself, what’s the best option? And one way to make an apples to apples comparison is find the APR annual percentage rate and put them side by side. And that is something that must be disclosed in any lending agreement. And there are a lot of kind of sketchy ways to present a lending opportunity where they’ll talk about it’s only 2% Sent compounded monthly, there are items where it’s compounded daily. And, and so that that is something that if you’re wondering what’s best, or if something sounds too good to be true, find the APR. And that’s, that’s the best way to go about it. And I’ll personally say, I’m using a business line of credit through Bank of Montreal. So read do, I’ve got no affiliation with them. But that has been, I think APR is like, right around six or 7%. And so if you’re making a 25% margin, I will borrow all day long at that rate. And so that may be something to look into. But I, I couldn’t, I couldn’t we couldn’t talk about this topic without me mentioning that because I was I’ve been in that spot where I just, I didn’t know what the best option was. That’s a great point. I actually read that you mentioned that because yes, a lot of like, short term lending options, we’ll try to mask the higher APR that that really is behind me by Same Okay, well, you know, you pay an upfront discount fee or whatever it is a weight percentage.
Radu 31:05
But if you actually run the numbers, then it comes. So like, even the, you know, the first option that I’ve used. So it’s funding, I think the first loan had like a 8% 8% discount, which which you pay at the front. And it was like you paid back I think in six months or something. So I just need a simple calculator. For you know, APR loan, I just put in the numbers and it came to about 30% APR, which was high, obviously, but at the time, there was no really good options for me. So we basically took what we could to be able to still sell and be able to still be being starved. But as as the business grows and evolves and becomes more successful, new opportunities and options will open to you. So my point is, yes, definitely know your numbers right. Even when you when you compare different options. They may not have the same structure. So if you just basically look at it as an APR payment, you can say, Okay, well, this one is costing me 15%. This one is 25. This one is 8%. And right, you know, right there, you can figure out which one is the best option for you. But my point is like don’t be, don’t hinder your growth just because you think something is too expensive. So yes, the first one was expensive for us, we still made money on it. And it helped us grow the business as a whole. And then over time, we just kind of find new financing options, refinance, higher cost ones. So you can do a quick math like let’s see, you know, whatever your margins are, and whatever you’re spending to get the capital for that, Enter, Enter. And I would say, initially, when you’re short for cash, only use loans to finance inventory. Don’t Use loans for like marketing and other, you know, ads, those should be coming from your revenue profits. But inventory is is your basically main Lifeline, right? That’s what basically keeps your business running. So and you know that you’re going to sell it, you’re gonna get your money back. So, you know, for those it’s okay to start with higher or more expensive financing options, as long as the numbers make sense as long as whatever you spending on that inventory, it’s still well below your your margin and you still gonna have profit.
Ken 33:37
Yeah, absolutely. So be before we move on to this next question that I’m excited eska I wanted to kind of recap everything we just discussed here because I think it’s really important. So right, do you you mentioned you weren’t, you weren’t able to successfully scale by bootstrapping, you know, taking you’re taking the money you get back in your profits, buying more inventory. So the the growth was so explosive that bootstrapping was not an option. Or if it was, you’re leaving money on the table, you’re, you’re you’re missing out on opportunities. So you took on loans, you know, you went out and got capital. And that gave you that 10 x growth. Now, for personal experience, I’ve used some of the some of the lenders that you were talking about and, and I’ve experienced other lenders that have kind of i would i, what I would say is dishonest business practices. And, you know, David and I have discussed this in our own businesses and, and David showed me, you know, hey, this is how you calculate the APR and find out what the actual number is. And through that process, I’ve learned to go out and find cheaper capital. So you know, my advice would to the listeners would be as you’re growing and scaling, make sure you’re really drilling into whatever is the cheapest capital you can get at that time because if you’re a young business, you might not be able to go to a Bank, get a loan until you have that you know that whatever is 12 months, 24 months of, of history in business, you might not get that loan, but keep trying and find the cheapest capital you can get to fund the growth in your business because the cheaper capital you have access to, that’s more money for inventory, which is the way to scale anyway. Now that you’re a full time entrepreneur, can you describe like a typical day in the life and march of 2019 versus a typical day in the life of March 2020? for you what like, What’s changed? Where are you going before? What are you doing now? Is it better or worse?
Radu 35:40
So, there’s a few things I want to patch in that but yes, initially, like the last six months leading to me making the decision to go full time. Were very stressful. It was just like, there was too much of juggling too many things and stress was getting To me, you know, the business kept growing it just like, there was so many things that I was being, you know, somebody directly was being pulled towards, and it just like mentally, like, I felt exhausting and like almost at the brink of burnout. So, it’s funny because like, once they made the decision, which was like a few weeks ago, just before actually quit the job, so before I gave my notice, I felt such a sense of relief. So I went, I was on a call with, you know, one of my friends that kind of guided me helping me through the process. And it’s gonna say that, you know, I want to, I want to quit, but I’m have this doubt and he actually went full time a few months before that. So he really convinced me, okay, just do it. And at that point, I made a decision. Okay, I’m going to go full time. I haven’t called my boss yet, but I’m like, Okay, you know what? This is done. I’m going home. I’m writing the CMA And I’m giving the two weeks notice. And at the point when I made that decision, it’s just I felt such a relief. Before I even quit job just just just like by deciding, okay, this is, you know, I’m going to go do it. And then afterwards, so, you know, I get my notice, obviously, and two weeks, I quit my job, I started full time. It took a while to kind of get into the groove to figure out okay, what do I do now because obviously, your whole process changes now. So you don’t have to sort of go back and forth between doing your job and trying to release things and then finding time in between to, to work on the business now we kind of almost like felt like there’s too much time, but it was very shortly. So I would say within maybe a month that that time got filled in very quickly. And it’s fine, how it worked, I guess we find things to fill our time with. So it’s not one thing, it’s something else. It wasn’t necessarily like where I was thinking like Well, I’m gonna have a lot of extra time. Now that you Know that I’m full time. Like, I found things to do, I got busy kind of quickly after that, as well. I do try now to limit my time that I spend on it just just to basically keep my sanity and to be able to spend time with my family and do things that I enjoy doing. And this was one of the main reasons that I kind of went this direction that I decided to to basically become an entrepreneur. So I would say I work less hours now, but a lot more intense. So like, really focusing on the time that I’m working. And I also have to put set boundaries for myself. Just to avoid being overstressed and burnout. So, as an example, I would not look at my phone or do any work before 9am. And I would also not do anything after 10pm sometimes they you know, things come up and I slipped through But I try to kind of keep those goals. And also, usually I try to devote at least three hours a day to my families like between 5pm to 8pm, or six to nine. It’s like family time I put my phone away and I just don’t even look at anything. Any notifications, I just try to be present, you know, with my family, my kids, and also taking time to take you know, vacations or time off when I can, even though it’s hard because you’re always gonna feel like you have to be involved in everything. But the I mean, the difference between March 31 and April 31, let me know if people totally for whatever the date is, was mostly the feeling of kind of freedom and being your own boss. And not necessarily having to rely on somebody else. For you know, for your livelihood or for the success of for your success, I should say, but the time did feel quickly. So, in the end, it’s just just the feeling that you get by being your own boss. I’m sure you guys know how that feels. And it’s awesome. It’s, it’s like a month after that. I couldn’t imagine how you could go back anymore, even though it was just a month, right? Like, once you once you tasted like, wow, I can actually make my own schedule can decide, or if I have a date and I’m just not feeling well, I can say no, I’m gonna take the day off today and just recharge, but you have to talk to your boss or dread the conversation? Well, we’re calling in saying that you’re sick or whatever. Other excuses. You may you may or you had to do in the past when when you were working for the man?
David 40:37
Yeah, let’s get into the lightning round. So these are the same questions we ask every guest. Our first question is, what is your favorite book?
Radu 40:45
Well, a lot of books that I like and I read. I’ve been reading a lot more in the last probably two years then my previous life I guess I should say. It’s that’s one way. I kind of keep You know, fueling my, my drive and my mindset and my you know, my my skill set in a way. I think it’s mostly mindset that it helps me just kind of keep focused. But a lot of great books that I read, I typically listen to them like audiobooks but one that’s probably helped me the most with my business and my journey as book called clockwork by Mike. mccalla wits. It’s the same person that that wrote profit first. And it really, it helped me understand how to build a business to give me freedom that I actually wanted out of it, right. So it teaches you how to make things more efficient, how to delegate how to figure out what’s important, what’s not just figured out figured out, like, the important stuff and kind of and what’s what’s fluff or what’s basically tasks that you do maybe just to feel that you’re working than not being productive, like almost getting your, your 8020 or figured out what’s your 20 and focusing on that. So, for me, that was a, you know, kind of a big eye opener. And I followed up about the advice in that book. And at that time, I made some big, I guess, personal leaps, like, you know, I hired my first VA and then a few months later, I quit my job. And then a few months later, I took a four week vacation to see how the business will do without me it’s just like, you know, those things that before I just I was just too scared to even think about it or just keep pushing them back. Well, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, I’ll do it right. So for you know, ecommerce, if you’re struggling with, you know, like if you’re a solopreneur and you feel overwhelmed, and you kind of don’t know how to how to structure your business to almost like run, Excel for run a lot more efficiently and in a way, get away from it from being involved in a 24 seven, I would recommend reading that book. It’s an awesome book. And then maybe another mention on the kind of like, just the book that it may be not ecommerce related, but I love it. I love to kind of like the messaging and it’s the book called, can’t hurt me by David Goggins. he’s a he’s an ex seal. And he, he like, basically smacked like a whole bunch of different world records. And, you know, he was a seal. He was some special forces, I think in Air Force. And, you know, he he basically ran the Ironman marathons and did a whole bunch of like world records. And what I love about that book is basically it shows you how powerful your mind is. Like, this is a guy that basically came from like, things were like so against him like he was basically and he was on this kind of path of destruction and like a lot of
People can relate to those those struggles, but through sheer willpower, he was able to achieve those like almost. I’m human, you know, achievements. And, you know, I love the book just because it shows you how much potential human mind has.
David 44:24
I was introduced to David Goggins from the Joe Rogan podcast, and he is an incredibly inspirational person. And the thing that I really liked about him is that he has been so yes, the world pull up record, or did at one point in runs these ultra marathons. And some people may look at that and say, well, you’re just you’re naturally athletic. However, David has been over 300 pounds twice in his life, and in his, and he’s just a normal guy. I remember in that book, he tells a story about spraying for cockroaches, and just and he just said Hell with this I’m changing my life. And from that day forward, lost weight enlisted in the military had issues just such a such a good book. I’m glad that you mentioned that one.
Radu 45:12
Yeah, it’s an amazing book for sure.
David 45:15
Awesome. So our last question from the lightning round is what do you think sets apart successful e commerce entrepreneurs from those who give up, fail or never get started?
Radu 45:29
So simple answer is mindset. And, you know, it came it came out a lot to this conversation. I really feel that that that’s what separates people that you know, are able to kind of take that, you know, stab or overcome those obstacles. And I was actually kind of the same way like I mean, probably before, actually four years ago, I never thought of myself as As an entrepreneur, like a businessman, I kind of thought that I’m not, I wouldn’t be a good, you know, like, business person. Because I had all these, you know, this limiting beliefs as they call them, like, you know, I’m not good at this, I’m not good at that, you know. And, you know, I had a pretty good career and I kind of thought that this is going to be my path, right? And then at some point, I started kind of like reading some books and mindset and self development and that’s lit the fire and kind of opened up my eyes to you know, how to look at things differently, like change my perspective on on life. So kind of to go back to your question is, I believe that it’s mainly mindset and basically work on on on yourself and pushing against the resistance that we all feel right. pushing against those fears and facing them and still making those those steps and moving forward. In spite of, you know, the doubts and the fear and the resistance.
That’s the key. I think
David 47:06
that’s an awesome answer. That’s an awesome answer. Well read you. Thank you so much for joining us on firing the main podcast. It was a pleasure talking to you. And hope to have you on the show again.
Radu 47:19
You guys is a real pleasure. I look forward to speaking to chatting someone in the future,
David 47:24
for sure. Thank you everyone for tuning in to today’s firingtheman.com Podcast. If you liked this episode, head on over to firingtheman.com and check out our resource library for exclusive firing the man discounts on popular e-commerce subscription services that is www.firingtheman.com/resource. You can also find a comprehensive library of over 50 books that Ken and I have read in the last few years that have made a meaningful impact on our business or that head on over to www.firingtheman.com/library lastly, check us out on social media at Firing The Man on YouTube at Firing The Man for exclusive content. This is David Schomer and Ken Wilson. We’re out
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