Why?

2020 has been challenging on all fronts. On a personal front I've been both overwhelmed and excited growing ShipHero.

So it begs the question, why start a new venture as an ecommerce business owner?

Well, it starts with a book I read a couple of years ago titled “Marketing Rebellion: The most human company wins”.

The premise is simple, and probably very familiar to you if you’re focused on marketing your own business or as a consumer. Marketing, at least in the traditional sense is dead. The companies and brands we care about, that we’ll actually spend our money with, for the most part are those that we can believe in, identify with and trust.

Starting with ShipHero

I’ve been working on ShipHero since 2013. We have always focused on both the product and customer service. We’ve yet to raise any outside capital from the investor crowd, instead choosing to build a profitable business.

Of course, this meant that while we’ve been working hard to get the product right, with a few stumbles along the way, we did zero “marketing”. Fortunately, we didn’t need to in the beginning.

However, all things change, and now as we grow with more employees, more features, more integrations and the launch of our own fulfillment service in 2019, the opportunity is there for us to be the solution to help many ecommerce businesses grow.

Marketing is really about how you helping others

Instead of outsourcing to an agency, or over spending on slick ads, marketing assets and the likes, we’ve kept it simple. Keep ourselves accessible, in all of our awkwardness and sincerity through original youtube videos, our own podcast and as much insight and content we can create with a small in-house team.

Which leads to me becoming an ecommerce business owner.

For me, the opportunity as a “marketer” (whatever that is) builds largely on the craft of creating great stories with the goal of inspiration or at least insight.

What better way to walk the walk, and along the way, detail what I’m learning, where I messed up and of course, any successes.

It starts this week, hopefully

In the next update, I’m going to share the business, what it is, how I started and what I’ve learned. I’ve been actively shopping for a business for sale on the Shopify Marketplace and found what seems to be a promising brand which I feel confident I can build on.

Future updates may possible include video as well, just to keep with my awkwardness.

Feel free to ask questions or leave comments (there are 39 other people following along with you at the time of this writing). Hopefully we can build an interesting community around this of fellow minded people looking to learn, share and make a living.

Cheers

-nicholas