Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kerrie Fitzgerald. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kerrie, appreciate you joining us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today

1. Find a mentor who has already done what you want to achieve and figure out a way to learn from them. Mentors will help you get from A-B, B-C so much faster than trying to piece together bits of information you get from free trainings.

2.Always think BIG, strive for bigger and scary goals. Thinking small will keep you small

3.Outsource time wasters and tasks that drain the life out of you.Focus on your zone of genius and things that light you the hell up.

4.Waking up at 5 am or having some crazy rigid morning routine is not the holy grail of becoming a successful CEO. Do whatever routines help you achieve goals, that might mean you work from 8pm-2 am, you do what works for you and your energy levels.

5.Your mental health & mindset are the most important things to work on. If your mindset is in the gutter, your business will suffer.

Kerrie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My Name is Kerrie Fitzgerald and I’m the founder of Kerrie Fitzgerald LLC- an ecommerce and product business consulting & educational agency, and host of top 100 marketing podcast- The 6 Figure Product Business Podcast.

As a digital marketing expert, I help e-commerce businesses create “wildly in demand” brands that their customers are obsessed with. After starting my first high-end pet e-commerce business, The Dapper Dog Box in 2016, I grew the business to multi 6 figures of revenue in two years without funding, staff or support and successfully sold the business in 2019. Today I work with mainly aspiring and savvy female entrepreneurs that want to either start their first online store/ecommerce business or scale their business. I love love helping people come up with profitable business ideas that they can create from the ground up to build a legacy brand.

We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.

I sold my first ecommerce business called The Dapper Dog Box in 2019, three years after starting the business from the ground up. My best advice if you ever want to sell your business ( especially a product-based) is to FOCUS ON PROFIT! Profit is what buyers actually care about more than anything else. Double down on creating the most profit in your business for a 12 month period.

When I decided I wanted to sell my business, I spoke with a business broker and she gave me some advice, including the best piece of advice which was ” get as much profit as possible.” So i put my head down, got creative and scrappy and figured out a ton of ways to increase my business’s profit over the course of 6 months, then I listed the business with the help of a business broker and 3 months later I sold my business.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

Shopify is my go-to for selling physical products on your own website, You have full control over everything and if you have your own website, you can always have a way to sell to customers.

But, when it comes to a 3rd party marketplace platform like Amazon, Cratejoy or Etsy, they are all amazing in their own ways but my best advice is to ALWAYS have your own website in addition to selling on the supplemental platforms.

Etsy is great because it has a built in audience of people ready to buy which is the #1 biggest struggle people face when they launch tier online store with Shopify ( for example) they have no audience and none to sell to and driving traffic overnight without an audience is hard. That is where Etsy comes in, They have the audience so its your job to optimize your store and product listings to make it easy for customers on the platform to find your products. You can use Etsy SEO tools like Marmalade to understand etsy product keywords etc.
The “cons” with Etsy are that you lack control. The customers that buy from you arent not YOUR customers, they are Etsy’s customers. Etsy can shit down your store in the blink of an eye and if you do not have your own website, your business is flushed down the toilet. So in conclusion I think having an Etsy store as a supplemental/ additional revenue stream is super smart but always retain control in your ecommerce business by having your own website too.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kerriefitzgerald.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/kerrie.a.fitzgerald
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerrie-fitzgerald/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KerrieFitzgerald1/
• Other: podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-6-figure-product-business-podcast/id1539990265

Image Credits
Cristy Cross Photography Hushed Revelry