Ever wonder what it takes to be an entrepreneur?
Truth is, everyone has the entrepreneurial spirit. We’re all entrepreneurs at heart; the execution of that drive usually just comes down to scale. How far do you take it? Do you run a weekend garage sale for extra cash? Sell some things on eBay? Invent a cool new tool and take it to market? Work like mad on a new business idea, ala Jeff Bezos, and found a new Amazon?
Somewhere in between?
Whether a large or a small enterprise, we’re all engaged in some form of entrepreneurial activity. The best are those driven by purpose, usually to provide a better way to do something, save time, etcetera.
We shine the brightest when we’re helping others.
And so it is with our example in this week’s blog. Our very own founder, Philip Jepsen, founder of multiple Amazon businesses, as well as the founder of ManageByStats, began with a purpose to help.
We have two ways to get the story. One, a podcast, where Philip is interviewed about both MBS and his Amazon businesses (listen here). And two, this short blog, where we trace the same story.
We hope you find both motivational. May the message speaks to your inner entrepreneur.
The Best Of Times, The Worst Of Times
Philip had been an entrepreneur before. Like all of us, he had that spirit, and like some of us, he’d acted on it in the past. When he began his current journey, he had no active enterprise, and was looking for the next adventure.
He was inspired by a friend.
The friend had been selling on Amazon, and she’d been doing so quite successfully, using a blueprint laid down by the coaching team at the Amazing Selling Machine. Philip decided to give it a try, followed the ASM blueprint exactly, worked like a maniac for 6 months (as he describes in the podcast), and in that short amount of time got up to $100K/mo in revenue.
His life had changed.
A New Adventure
With success came new problems. Good problems. You’ve heard the saying, “It’s a good problem to have”?
Well, Philip had good problems. He was making profits across multiple brands (yes, he launched additional brands in partnership with others), and it was becoming a nightmare to calculate sales, splits, profit shares — pretty much everything.
So, in true entrepreneurial form, he thought up a solution.
It was there, from those humble beginnings, ManageByStats was born. A way to see profits, a way to do all the things he’d been doing manually, quickly, easily, automatically.
When he saw how much this was helping him, Philip decided to use the tool to help others. At first he shared that early version of MBS with fellow Amazon sellers, groups he was part of, where Sellers gathered to exchange tips and successful actions. The tool was well received, and everyone loved it.
ManageByStats was a hit.
More Solutions, More Enterprises
And so yet another enterprise was born. Users were having trouble installing the small program Philip coded, they wanted more, more potential was seen by Philip himself, more needs to be filled, and so he took it to the next level.
Contacting an actual programmer, Philip expanded that core tool and ManageByStats went into overdrive. It’s now a global enterprise, with thousands of users around the world, providing help to Amazon sellers as they navigate the challenging world of selling on Amazon.
Philip continued to launch Amazon businesses and brands, all while building MBS to the leading software suite is is today. More to come on that, but suffice it to say Philip’s entrepreneurial life is solidly in place and growing every day.
As is true with many enterprises, once you light the fire and begin the push, the spiral spins upward, not downward, each positive action adding to the overall spin, creating a revenue-generating machine.
Something that becomes the success you were always looking for.
Firing Up Your Inner Entrepreneur
We’ve all got it. The urge to create. Be it a small operation from your kitchen table, or a thirst for much more, each of us has an entrepreneur inside. Some of you are already feeding that creation machine. Others have ideas, but have yet to get started.
In Philip’s example, he started with a group that already had a successful action. If you can find a mentor or group to help with what you’re about to do, use it. Coaching, learning — we can’t say enough about the value of imparted knowledge.
Lastly, think about this. The world is a wide-open playing field. Lots of rules, yes, lots of barriers, things to get in your way. There are many reasons an enterprise can fail. Many reasons not to try.
But — and you know what we’re going to say — there are an infinite number of ways for it to succeed.
Fact is, you’re filled with ideas.
Go on. Admit it.
How do you bring them to life?
Sometimes all it takes it the decision to get started.
To your success.
Your ManageByStats Team
