The AppsJack Way

My first real business project was in 1996 when I built a marketing website for my dad's business, Anacortes Brass Works.  ABW sells large runs of belt buckles to businesses, primarily, and the website was a real boon.  It was a fun project.

Through the nineties, friends and I built a lot of websites to learn the new medium. 

From 2000 to present, I work by day in the Fortune 10 as a business advisor.  My skills are technology and transformation.  I work with some of the largest brands in the world to figure out how to use more data and education to transform and mature their businesses efficiently.

On the side, I love helping local entrepreneurs advance their causes.  There is Chris, Pete, Lee, Ted and many other friends who I've been lucky to help  move the needle on their ideas and their careers.

I'm not a coach, exactly, but I think I am motivational; at least I've been told so.  I have master's degrees in Information Systems (business + the internet) and Business Administration.  I am a certified Project Management Professional.  I have been doing business consulting professionally since 2005 when Siemens Corporation made me an internal consultant.  And realistically I have been helping businesses grow and advance since high school when I first started to understand my parents' businesses and their associated challenges.

Last year, on the side, we helped a local businessman named Ted Clark reinvent his data service business.  Ted was  providing a variety of services to people but with no real direction or theme and found it hard to build up a pipeline of clients.  He wanted to figure out how to better market himself.  With a partner, Steve, who was good at marketing technology, we worked with Ted to devise ways for Ted to target clients.  We selected users of the popular Shopify online store and refined the market even further from there.  With that project, we helped Ted identify his target audience, hone is products and services and provide a unique service that scaled.  Ted's sales increased greatly and he's been able to grow his business much more easily from that point forward.

AppsJack's latest project is working with a Woodinville-based friend, Lee, to scale his new business called Shape My Grip.  SMG has a patented grip for bicycles that will hopefully eventually move into other sports and healthcare applications.  A partner, Sebastian, and I are coming in as business consultants to sell more of his products faster, using Amazon and Fulfillment by Amazon.

AppsJack is best at providing product management services to its customers.  We help them understand their market and defined products and product releases aimed at capturing A) money and B) knowledge about what people want.  We drive hard to advance product development and innovation. 

We partner with business owners to accelerate their sales and advance their careers, all in the name of fun, partnership and profitability.

Many people are not very confident marketing themselves or their products.  It can be nerve-racking and stressful.  We partner very closely to support our clients, make them feel good, make them feel confident and help them make the right decisions to mature their products and move their businesses ahead.

AppsJack works with a very high sense of urgency and the latest technologies to define and advance the agendas of our clients while skillfully mitigating key risks.

The requirements for pulling off this kind of services business at scale are:

• A great team.  We have a network that includes some of the most amazing talent around in all fields of business development from hard to soft skills in all industries.
• The best from technology.  None of this would be possible without technology.  We stay abreast of the latest technologies and implement where and when we can with out clients.
• Clients who inspire us.  Our clients come from a variety of walks but are generally seasoned business people who are ready to go out on their own or advance a product or service they have already started.  We work with them to help set the vision, understand the impediments and give a huge boost toward their goals.
• Flexible compensation arrangements.  We are willing to work for profit-sharing, for example.  So that clients don't have to stomach huge up-front costs as we get going accelerating their business or project, we help align on incentives for everyone to win.
• Unusual focus on community.  AppsJack organizes regular meetings and spends a lot of time out in public, including volunteer work with great causes.  

Contact us today if you'd like to hear more about our project and what we're building here in Seattle and the Eastside.

~ Eric

The Latest in e-Commerce Tools, Tech and Techniques from Pros in Seattle

We showed up at an e-Commerce Meetup in Seattle last night and learned a lot.  The group is called Seattle Profit Pirates Mastermind Group - Ecommerce & Amazon Entrepreneurs and was meeting at a coffee shop on Capitol Hill.  We got a lot of tool and tech recommendations and met some thought leaders in the field.  Here are some details for all you e-Commerce and digital marketing people out there.

Terapeak shows you what to sell online.  MerchantWords helps you find more buyers.  Google Adwords is a classic and key tool.  Many people use Facebook to create ads and funnels.  Text / SMS is another technique for capturing emails.  Shopify was considered to be the best e-Commerce tool.  James who runs Wooly Clothing and was telling us about Amazon's practice of  Brand and Category Gating.  Benjamin, who runs the group, was asking about Liquidation services.  He said he's tried FoxBox.  I mentioned Alternativeto.net as a method of finding technologies in a category to support a business process or function. 

We didn't talk about but I was reminded of Mautic, HubSpot and my buddy with Conversion Wizards.  Benjamin says it's important to consider Cost Per Email as a metric.  He also mentioned that MailChimp has an advanced, for pay, feature that provides additional metadata for email addresses to extend marketing.

James was asking about managing multiple channels and Benjamin swore by Skubana, a multi-channel inventory management system, which is $1,000/mo.  He says it's well worth it if you have the volume. 

Flexport, a freight forwarding method, and Keepa, an Amazon price tracker, were also mentioned as useful tools. 

Thanks to all attendees.  Great event and lots to learn.  A whole new domain and area to explore.