In today’s episode, we have Isaac Smith as a guest, and together we discuss helpful tools to manage your business.

Isaac is the CEO and co-founder of Summit eCommerce Advisors, which he co-founded after selling his business in 2019. He has been building eCommerce businesses for over six years. 

In addition, he hosts a podcast called Next Level eCommerce, where he interviews successful eCommerce entrepreneurs. 

What brought you to where you are today? (01:22)
Isaac used to be an architect who designed buildings in Washington DC. He says he loved what he was doing, but lost interest along the way. 
He says as, with most entrepreneurs, he didn’t start out this way. There was a lot of experimentation and trial and error, but he eventually found his way to eCommerce and has been on that path ever since. 
He did high ticket drop shipping for several years until he sold the company. He describes his journey as an adventure and is still excited about the unknown. 
Since then, he has started this bookkeeping company (Summit eCommerce Advisors). The motivation behind starting the business is that he discovered that a lot of people struggle with the bookkeeping part of a business, and while he still had his own company, he thought he was the problem, but later realized that this was a common issue for business owners.
He adds that the podcast is just a fun way to interact with other successful individuals. 

What processes are we going to look at today? (06:10)
Isaac thinks a great topic would be providing context to an overall business process. He used Trello to organize his business in eCommerce and had a handful of processes run through Trello. 
However, now that he is running a service-based business, which requires different processes and types of activities, they considered whether Trello would still be sufficient. 
They were looking for a tool that could organize the whole company; all the tasks and projects should be in one place so that they don’t have to search for things on different platforms. They started using Wrike, which is a relatively expensive tool, but it gets the job done. 
He says this is not a single process discussion, because there are many different tools for many different tasks. And if you decide to plan ahead, what would be the best tool to use? 

What would the inside of your company look like if you weren’t using a tool like Trello or Wrike? (08:37)
Isaac says he has been using all these tools for so long, that going without them is foreign territory for him. 
There would probably be a lot of email communication, but they mainly use Slack to minimize the use of emails. 
Spreadsheets would largely come into play because they’d have to know the status of each client. 
Before he became aware of Trello, he built a content management team that would research, write, edit, publish, and advertise the blog posts twice a month. Everything was run from a spreadsheet, where they would mark the tasks they’ve completed. Trello and Wrike have simplified that process significantly. 

Were there any sticking points for you, between Trello and Wrike? (24:44)
Isaac says his biggest concern with Trello was the notification management. Although they rebuilt their notification system about two years ago, it’s still not up to par. 
They were tracking orders through various Trello boards, and as the process moved from one point to another, there would be a lot of comments or notes between him and the staff. 
Throughout the say, a lot of notifications arise. The problem came in when the notifications disappeared after being opened. So if there are 30 notifications, and you can’t tend to them immediately, you can’t go back to see what it was, because it won’t be there anymore. 
Summing it up, there’s a lot of notifications that require action or feedback, but there’s no place to find your notifications. This means a lot of communication is lost. 

Are there any services or special you want to share with us? (37:44)
Isaac says if you want to find out what he’s doing, the best way would be to tune into his podcast called Next Level eCommerce. 
You can also search for him on Facebook, or send him an email to isaac@summitecommerce.co. 
Seeing that they have a bookkeeping company, they assist in implementing cash management systems. They offer a 30-minute no-cost cash strategy session that will help people understand and manage their cash flow. 
This 30-minute session will provide you with three actions to survive, and three actions to thrive. They will help you get through this financial crunch, as well as see the opportunities available to thrive. 

 

In today&rsquo;s episode, we have Isaac Smith as a guest, and together we discuss helpful tools to manage your business.
Isaac is the CEO and co-founder of Summit eCommerce Advisors, which he co-founded after selling his business in 2019. He has been building eCommerce businesses for over six years.&nbsp;
In addition, he hosts a podcast called Next Level eCommerce, where he interviews successful eCommerce entrepreneurs.&nbsp;
What brought you to where you are today? (01:22)
<ul>
<li>Isaac used to be an architect who designed buildings in Washington DC. He says he loved what he was doing, but lost interest along the way.&nbsp;</li>
<li>He says as, with most entrepreneurs, he didn&rsquo;t start out this way. There was a lot of experimentation and trial and error, but he eventually found his way to eCommerce and has been on that path ever since.&nbsp;</li>
<li>He did high ticket drop shipping for several years until he sold the company. He describes his journey as an adventure and is still excited about the unknown.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Since then, he has started this bookkeeping company (Summit eCommerce Advisors). The motivation behind starting the business is that he discovered that a lot of people struggle with the bookkeeping part of a business, and while he still had his own company, he thought he was the problem, but later realized that this was a common issue for business owners.</li>
<li>He adds that the podcast is just a fun way to interact with other successful individuals.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
What processes are we going to look at today? (06:10)
<ul>
<li>Isaac thinks a great topic would be providing context to an overall business process. He used Trello to organize his business in eCommerce and had a handful of processes run through Trello.&nbsp;</li>
<li>However, now that he is running a service-based business, which requires different processes and types of activities, they considered whether Trello would still be sufficient.&nbsp;</li>
<li>They were looking for a tool that could organize the whole company; all the tasks and projects should be in one place so that they don&rsquo;t have to search for things on different platforms. They started using Wrike, which is a relatively expensive tool, but it gets the job done.&nbsp;</li>
<li>He says this is not a single process discussion, because there are many different tools for many different tasks. And if you decide to plan ahead, what would be the best tool to use?&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
What would the inside of your company look like if you weren&rsquo;t using a tool like Trello or Wrike? (08:37)
<ul>
<li>Isaac says he has been using all these tools for so long, that going without them is foreign territory for him.&nbsp;</li>
<li>There would probably be a lot of email communication, but they mainly use Slack to minimize the use of emails.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Spreadsheets would largely come into play because they&rsquo;d have to know the status of each client.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Before he became aware of Trello, he built a content management team that would research, write, edit, publish, and advertise the blog posts twice a month. Everything was run from a spreadsheet, where they would mark the tasks they&rsquo;ve completed. Trello and Wrike have simplified that process significantly.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
Were there any sticking points for you, between Trello and Wrike? (24:44)
<ul>
<li>Isaac says his biggest concern with Trello was the notification management. Although they rebuilt their notification system about two years ago, it&rsquo;s still not up to par.&nbsp;</li>
<li>They were tracking orders through various Trello boards, and as the process moved from one point to another, there would be a lot of comments or notes between him and the staff.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Throughout the say, a lot of notifications arise. The problem came in when the notifications disappeared after being opened. So if there are 30 notifications, and you can&rsquo;t tend to them immediately, you can&rsquo;t go back to see what it was, because it won&rsquo;t be there anymore.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Summing it up, there&rsquo;s a lot of notifications that require action or feedback, but there&rsquo;s no place to find your notifications. This means a lot of communication is lost.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
Are there any services or special you want to share with us? (37:44)
<ul>
<li>Isaac says if you want to find out what he&rsquo;s doing, the best way would be to tune into his podcast called Next Level eCommerce.&nbsp;</li>
<li>You can also search for him on Facebook, or send him an email to <a href="mailto:isaac@summitecommerce.co">isaac@summitecommerce.co</a>.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Seeing that they have a bookkeeping company, they assist in implementing cash management systems. They offer a 30-minute no-cost cash strategy session that will help people understand and manage their cash flow.&nbsp;</li>
<li>This 30-minute session will provide you with three actions to survive, and three actions to thrive. They will help you get through this financial crunch, as well as see the opportunities available to thrive.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;

Automate, Delegate, Eliminate is a weekly podcast where we seek to educate entrepreneurs on the best ways to take back the time that can then be used for the things that can make a real impact in their businesses.

Host Will Christensen and his guests will pick apart the processes they use to decide whether a process needs to be automated, delegated, or simply eliminated from the business process altogether. Which of those processes worked, which needed some serious tweaking and which the guests are still working on today. 

Learn how some of the greatest minds in e-commerce are dealing with business issues, how they got to where they are today and some of the software they love to use.

Automate, Delegate, Eliminate is a weekly podcast where we seek to educate entrepreneurs on the best ways to take back the time that can then be used for the things that can make a real impact in their businesses.
Host Will Christensen and his guests will pick apart the processes they use to decide whether a process needs to be automated, delegated, or simply eliminated from the business process altogether. Which of those processes worked, which needed some serious tweaking and which the guests are still working on today.&nbsp;
Learn how some of the greatest minds in e-commerce are dealing with business issues, how they got to where they are today and some of the software they love to use.

Automate, Delegate, Eliminate

Automate, Delegate, Eliminate is a weekly podcast where we seek to educate entrepreneurs on the best ways to take back time that can then be used for the things that can make a real impact in their businesses.

Host Will Christensen and his guests will pick apart the processes they use to decide whether a process needs to be automated, delegated or simply eliminated from the business process altogether. Which of those processes worked, which needed some serious tweaking and which the guests are still working on today. 

Learn how some of the greatest minds in ecommerce are dealing with business issues, how they got to where they are today and some of the software they love to use.

Automate, Delegate, Eliminate is a weekly podcast where we seek to educate entrepreneurs on the best ways to take back time that can then be used for the things that can make a real impact in their businesses.
Host Will Christensen and his guests will pick apart the processes they use to decide whether a process needs to be automated, delegated or simply eliminated from the business process altogether. Which of those processes worked, which needed some serious tweaking and which the guests are still working on today.&nbsp;
Learn how some of the greatest minds in ecommerce are dealing with business issues, how they got to where they are today and some of the software they love to use.

Advertisement