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Podcast (10k-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:37 — 34.4MB)
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Learn how Ashley Pearce implemented the Innovation Room in E-commerce. Find out the strategies that come with it and how you can use it too.
Why do something more than pure eCommerce?
- Ashely and his team had learned a lot about Google SEO and mimicking from the Amazon affiliates.
- While doing Pinterest more scientifically for their own Amazon business.
- All the way through to using SEO to warm up audiences; then using retargeting ads to actually get sales.
Strategy led
- Some of the tactics and strategies they have developed are big picture and have taken a lot of R & D.
- They would at home in an 8- or 9-figure business.
- They are strategically-led and not just tactics/scrappy.
IC/FC – intellectual capital vs. Financial Capital
Ashley’s team had generated all the Intellectual capital and know-how and Ashley is commonly acquainted with how this gets evaluated in a corporate environment.
Then the question became: how do we turn our know-how (IC) – google, Pinterest SEO, high ROI ads – into capital? (Ie how do we monetize our knowledge?)
Why go the agency route rather than the capital raising route?
Ashley has become quite good at using credit cards and loans to get through cash peaks.
It does come down to particular days in fact.
However, to take on higher-risk capital in an organization where you are trying to run quickly – there is an underlying feeling that an Amazon account suspension could trip you up. If they took on a high-interest bank loan with security, they don’t understand the Amazon space – they wouldn’t have a clue how to react eg repayment within 90 days.
Venture capital – Rand Fiskin – founder of Moz
When one of his friends says they just raised capital, he says well done – but your business is finished!
So Ashley is wary of outside capital investors.
Download Worksheet Engine Room/Innovation Room
How did you arrive at Future State Media as an idea? (It’s a change of direction)
MICAS Framework – briefly, IC and FC, hence FSM, Mention 2 Rooms
MICAS means: Monetise Intellectual Capital Assets Systematically
Just because the business model is different, doesn’t mean you’re not using the same skills/knowledge.
FC/IC – Financial Capital/Intellectual Capital
- The whole idea is to be able to unlock FC eg assets and IC and monetize those
- Sometimes you need to do more with what you already have.
- It’s doing a stock-take of both the IC and FC.
The mechanism for unlocking IC:
There’s a mechanism – the 2 rooms: Engine Room and Innovation Room for eCommerce.
The engine room generates cash and moves FC.
The innovation room for eCommerce isn’t necessarily a function that is alive in all businesses.
Financial innovation or product innovation for example for Innovation Room in eCommerce.
This is very applicable to an eCommerce business
Download Worksheet Engine Room/Innovation Room
How would someone apply the 2 rooms in their eCommerce business – and why?
Why does it? Mentality, long term view, stay ahead of the competition who are innovating (newcomers are doing nothing but innovate whilst you’re busy running your business).
In Ashley’s eCommerce business, they had a great innovation room and were deployed back into the Engine room.
Used small cash to develop innovations and short time – in some cases 9-12 months.
In the innovation room, still healthy – doing things that wouldn’t offer to clients yet.
Surely these conflicts and contrasts with simplifying and focus?
Focus and simplifying and shorter-term thinking is a helpful mindset for the Engine Room
However, different rules of physics apply in the innovation room! That’s where the conflict and contrast come in.
Misapplication of the 80/20 in the innovation room is a particularly big danger. If you just focus on what’s performing now, you miss out on what will perform in the future. It doesn’t account for the future – eg Amazon ads, Google Ads, Instagram ads are becoming unprofitable. So you need to devote some resources to deal with the future.
How can we practically implement the innovation room and engine room?
For Solopreneurs
If you’re a solo seller – you get caught up in “one-percenters” ie: things that will only move a needle by 1% either way; for example:
- Fiddling with KWS
- Fiddling with photoshop
- In Facebook groups too much
Time block
You need to time block eg: Tuesday afternoon 2-6 pm is spent on innovation.
Example activities include:
- Research
- Listen to things outside the Amazon Bubble – especially marketing
- It could be products eg product innovation in adjacent sectors
(As opposed to bundling and ebooks!)
Go and find what works elsewhere and then bring that back to your industry.
Download Worksheet Engine Room/Innovation Room
Information gathering system
- You need to capture knowledge
- You need to be creative but also structure the knowledge.
- That’s a way to ignite the innovation room.
Applying the innovation room
Having the desire is key.
Tuesday afternoon could be research time:
- Reach out to the network to get more innovation.
- Treat it like a project with a deliverable by a certain date
Typically the result Amazon sellers look for is sales increase.
But it could be a higher price or reduced cost (so higher profit).
For teams
Ashley’s teams are in the UK and Philippines
Ashley has a virtual workspace “The Lab” – a forum online – for his dispersed team.
Eg: Here’s a link to an article I read, here’s the insight I got, what do you think?
Are there any other benefits of the 2 rooms?
Cultural benefits: “day one” business mentality; resourcefulness; avoiding the “bad habits breed in good times” trap
This is a cultural shift. There are benefits that go way beyond innovation.
SOPs and going over detail can be very boring! For Ashley’s weekly meetings, 25% of it is about “what have we learned this week?”
Have innovation as a deliverable
Ashley has a company objective to develop intellectual capacity through the team
And a company culture where the employees are responsible for innovative thinking.
If you give them budget limits – what can you do for £20?
You breed a culture of resourcefulness.
Weekly team meetings
VAs vs team members! Think of them as real employees/team members. Dedicate 25% of the time to learn from what they didn’t know before. As you go through that, you’ll identify things that might be more practically applicable
Download Worksheet Engine Room/Innovation Room
FSM services
External traffic
Organic SEO
- Google SEO
- Pinterest SEO
Remarketing
Download Worksheet Engine Room/Innovation Room
Watch the full interview with Ashley Pearce:
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