587: More Efficiency, Less Waste: How To Streamline Your Business In 2025

Summary

Episode Summary: "More Efficiency, Less Waste: How To Streamline Your Business In 2025"

In Episode 587 of The My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast With Steve Chou, host Steve Chou and guest Tony delve deep into strategies for enhancing business efficiency by eliminating wasteful practices and optimizing workflows. Released on April 16, 2025, this episode offers invaluable insights for e-commerce entrepreneurs aiming to streamline their operations and maximize profitability in an increasingly competitive landscape.

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1. Identifying Hidden Costs and Inefficiencies

Steve opens the discussion by emphasizing the importance of auditing business expenses to uncover hidden costs that may be undermining profitability. He shares a personal experience with his business, Bumblebee Linens, highlighting how outdated software led to operational vulnerabilities.

Steve Chou [02:12]: "There’s always junk behind the scenes that nobody knows about."

He recounts how Bumblebee Linens relied on software from 2012, which was no longer supported. This created a single point of failure; if a critical PC malfunctioned, the entire business could collapse.

2. The Subscription Trap

A significant portion of the conversation centers around the pitfalls of subscription-based services. Both Steve and Tony express their disdain for subscriptions, citing how they can accumulate unnoticed expenses over time.

Steve Chou [02:55]: "You forget about them."

Tony adds to this by explaining how subscriptions, even seemingly minor ones, can collectively drain resources:

Tony [05:52]: "Like this one precious computer... might not always just be about cutting something. It could be about improving something."

3. Streamlining Workflows Through Automation

Steve discusses the challenges of inefficient workflows and the necessity of automating repetitive tasks. He provides a concrete example of how a manual process in his business was streamlined through automation, only to discover its fragility due to reliance on outdated software.

Steve Chou [04:49]: "What I didn't realize was that one machine, if it goes down, we're dead."

By automating the conversion of orders into machine-readable files, Steve initially improved efficiency but later identified vulnerabilities that required manual intervention half the time.

4. Evaluating and Cutting Subscriptions

The conversation shifts to practical strategies for managing and reducing subscription costs. Tony shares his experience with Beaver Builder, a once-essential tool that became redundant as new, integrated page builders emerged in platforms like WordPress.

Tony [09:37]: "I canceled it like two weeks ago. It felt so good because I felt like I was hostage to it."

Both hosts advocate for a disciplined approach to subscriptions, suggesting regular reviews to determine their continued value:

Steve Chou [32:34]: "Label each one as whether it's mission critical... versus what I'm paying."

5. Leveraging Open Source Solutions

Steve champions the use of open source software as a cost-effective alternative to costly subscriptions. He cites WooCommerce as a free and robust shopping cart solution compared to expensive platforms like Shopify Plus.

Steve Chou [30:12]: "There's almost always an open source solution out there that you should search for first."

6. Automating Without Paying for SaaS

The duo discusses the feasibility of replacing expensive Software as a Service (SaaS) applications with custom-coded solutions. Steve highlights how coding simple functionalities can eliminate the need for pricey subscriptions.

Steve Chou [23:31]: "You could just hire a developer to make that part of your store and just call it a day."

Tony concurs, emphasizing the long-term financial benefits of one-time investments over recurring payments:

Tony [36:00]: "You've paid less paying the lifetime than you have pain monthly."

7. Best Practices for Cost Cutting

To systematically reduce expenses, Steve and Tony recommend:

• Regular Audits: Periodically review all subscriptions and software to assess their necessity.

• Categorization: Rank tools based on their criticality to operations.

• Automation: Continuously seek opportunities to automate tasks to reduce manual labor and errors.

• Open Source First: Prioritize open source solutions before considering paid alternatives.

Tony [34:01]: "If you haven't used it in three months and it's not because it's seasonal, it might be time to put it on the chopping block."

8. Future Predictions: The Role of AI in Efficiency

Steve predicts a significant shift towards AI-driven automation, making it easier for businesses to develop customized solutions without extensive technical expertise.

Steve Chou [22:07]: "I'm predicting, like, in two years, everyone will be able to code these, like, stupid things to automate stuff the way you want."

This foresight underscores the importance of staying adaptable and embracing technological advancements to maintain competitive edge.

9. Concluding Insights and Key Takeaways

As the episode wraps up, Steve and Tony reiterate the necessity of rigorous cost management and the ongoing quest for efficiency. They emphasize that in times of economic uncertainty, businesses must become leaner to survive and thrive.

Steve Chou [39:42]: "Hope you enjoyed this episode. We're likely headed to leaner times so it's time to buckle down and do some cost cutting."

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Key Takeaways:

• Audit Regularly: Continuously evaluate all business expenses to identify and eliminate unnecessary costs.

• Manage Subscriptions: Track and assess the value of all subscription services, cutting those that do not provide tangible benefits.

• Embrace Automation: Automate repetitive tasks to enhance efficiency and reduce dependency on single points of failure.

• Opt for Open Source: Leverage open source software to replace costly proprietary solutions where feasible.

• Stay Adaptable: Keep abreast of technological advancements, especially in AI, to further streamline operations and maintain competitiveness.

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By meticulously dissecting their own business practices, Steve Chou and Tony provide a roadmap for e-commerce entrepreneurs to optimize their operations, reduce waste, and build more resilient businesses poised for future challenges.

Transcript

[Steve Chou]

Welcome back to the podcast, the show where I cover all of the latest strategies and current events related to E commerce and online business. In this episode, Tony and I dive into how to make your business run leaner by auditing your expenses and cutting out the fat. From hidden subscriptions to inefficient workflows, we'll show you what we're doing to plug the leaks. But before we begin, I wanted to let you know that tickets are now on sale for Seller Summit 2025 over@sellers summit.com and the prices are now going to go up every two weeks until the event starts. The Seller Summit is the conference that I hold every year that specifically targets e commerce entrepreneurs selling physical products online. Unlike other events that focus on inspirational stories and high level advice, mine is a curriculum based conference where you will leave with practical and actionable strategies specifically for an e commerce business. Every speaker I invite is deep in the trenches of their e commerce business. Entrepreneurs who are importing large quantities of physical goods and not some high level guys who are overseeing their companies at 50,000ft. I personally hate large events, so the Seller's Summit is always small and intimate. Every year we cut off ticket sales at around 200 people, so tickets sell out fast and we've sold out every single year for the past eight years. If you are an e commerce entrepreneur making more than $250,000 or $1 million per year, we also offer an exclusive mastermind experience with other top sellers. The Seller Summit is going to be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from May 6th to May 8th. Right now this is the cheapest the tickets will ever be. So head on over to sellersummit.com and grab your ticket. Now onto the show. Welcome to the My Wife Quitter Job podcast. Today's episode has been inspired. Inspired by. By Doge. Not, not in the political aspect but like doging the stuff that I work on right now like cutting off the fat and really becoming a more efficient business.

[Tony]

I. I feel like you are one of the most efficient businesses I know, so I can't even imagine what you could cut.

[Steve Chou]

You know what's funny is there's always junk behind the scenes that nobody knows about. Yeah, right. I think I mentioned this to you last week. Bumblebee Linens has been running on software that is dated 2012 or 13 or something like that and that software is not supported anymore and the tools that allow me to run it aren't support anymore. So if this one PC dies in the office then we had. We. We can't create Our monogram designs, the.

[Tony]

Whole business will collapse.

[Steve Chou]

That. I guess that's not considered doge. But there's all these subscriptions also that I had been signed up for. And you know how much I hate subscriptions. It's because of this. It gets out of hand, right? You forget about them.

[Tony]

Well, here's. Here's the thing. Like this, this one precious computer, I feel like we should steal the Declaration of Independence. This computer is like the holy grail of your entire business. I think that anything where. When you think about, like, how to doze your business, just say anything where it's like, we have to fix this. We have to get rid of it. We have to change something about it so that we can continue on. You know, it might not always just be about cutting something. It could be about improving something so that you aren't at like single point of failure kind of thing.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah, I mean, I guess. What's that?

[Tony]

Which would be you right now.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah. You know what's funny is when you're like, I'm not in Bumblebee linens day to day. I pretty much manage the marketing gens in their day to day. But. But lately, you know, ever since we launched our. Our print side of our business, I've been going in a lot more. Yeah, I would say at least. At least twice a week, minimum. And every time I go in, there's things that I notice like, hey, you know, why are we doing it this way? Or not to say that it's wrong. You know, it's the way we've always done it and whatnot. But even stuff that I've written that are being implemented. So, for example, what I've been working on this past week is when an order comes in, it needs to be a monogram order or a personalized order. It needs to be converted into this file that a machine can understand. And so I wrote this code that literally just takes it from the website, runs all the tools automatically, and then outputs this file. What I didn't realize, and, and hence that that one machine, if it goes down, we're dead. Because it's using that software that's obsolete now anyway.

[Tony]

Right.

[Steve Chou]

So I discover as I'm trying to make this up to date so that it's future proof and we can put on any machine and whatnot. I discovered that maybe 20% of the time it dies. And then someone has to just manually enter in the personalization.

[Tony]

Okay, but you didn't know this.

[Steve Chou]

No, I didn't know this because I'm not running it. Day to day.

[Tony]

Right, right.

[Steve Chou]

Our VAs are running it or sometimes our employees are running it.

[Tony]

Right.

[Steve Chou]

And then the other thing that I, I discovered that is that we have to rename each file manually before it goes to the machine because the machine can only display so many characters of the name. And you know what the personalization is on the machine because you can't read the file name.

[Tony]

Gotcha.

[Steve Chou]

So it needs to be manually renamed to something so that you can recognize what it is once it gets on the machine. Stupid stuff like that takes hours every day.

[Tony]

So how did you doge it? What'd you do?

[Steve Chou]

Oh, well, no, now, now I've automated all the code with, okay. Source stuff. Right. So that's, I literally have been spending probably five hours a day redoing all this stuff using free software. Okay. Thank God for open source software because that, that one tool that we were using to automate everything before they started charging some insane amount of money, like 300amonth or something like that for it.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

Which is ridiculous for what it does.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

And then there's this free solution out there.

[Tony]

So I think that's why you don't like monthly programs, monthly subscriptions, because you start and I'll talk. This is my biggest doge of the year. Very proud of this one. Actually. You start like we'll say like 12 years ago, right. Because we'll use myself as an example. And you find this tool that does exactly what you want, right. And you're like, oh, it's just a yearly subscription, right. I pay once a year. Seems like a good deal, Right? Because especially if you don't have your ability to spend five hours a day coding using open source software, you know, you're like, okay, this solves my problem for 100 bucks a year, 200 bucks a year, whatever. Right. But then as time goes on, it's like, well now it's $149 a year. Well, now it's 199 a year. Or well, this doesn't really do everything you need to do anymore. You need to get this additional add on. Right. And that's only $47. Right. But then at the end of the day you're like, I'm spending 50 bucks a month. Right. When you start looking at everything adding together. And so one of the tools that I, and I still like, this tool is Beaver Builder. And it was a page builder back in the day. Before it was like back in the day it was really hard to build good looking pages on WordPress. If you did not code. And so Beaver Builder, I don't want to say made it easy because I actually thought Beaver Builder was pretty tough to learn. However, once you learned it, you could make really great Pages. But then 15 years go by, right? And WordPress rolls out all sorts of integrated page builders that are free or very low cost, one time fee, right? You buy a theme, something like that. And I was under the impression that I. In order to keep all those pages, I mean, I have hundreds of pages on my site built with Beaver Builder, right? And I was under the impression that in order to keep all those pages, and some of them are like decent traffic pages, I had to keep renewing my subscription to Beaver Builder. So every year I was paying, like the 147 bucks or whatever it was. Well, then we were on office hours this, you know, the last couple months, and I made a comment about it. We were talking about the subscriptions and how they really add up. And Kevin said he looked it up as we were talking. He's like, you'll still keep all your pages. You just don't get any of the updates. And I was like, oh, so I don't. Because I wasn't. I hadn't been using it for probably five years, right? Building pages with it. So I canceled it like two weeks ago. Like, it was my renewal time. And I, like, removed the auto renewal and all that stuff. And it felt. It's like, you know, a hundred bucks, right? It's not a lot of money, but it felt so good because I felt like I was hostage to it because I wasn't gonna pay someone to build 100 pages on my site. I don't have time to redo a hundred pages. You know what I mean? Like, that was just too big. It was easier just to pay the yearly ransom and keep moving. And I don't think Beaver Builder is a bad company. They're a good company, but didn't need them anymore. So that felt so good because every year I dreaded that renewal because I'm like, I don't even use this anymore, but I have to keep paying it. Um, so, yeah, that was my big one from a couple weeks ago.

[Steve Chou]

Here's the problem with tools like Beaver Builder. Like, if you ever want to even make the slightest edit to the page, the builder's code is so ugly. Like, you need the tool to do it. Right?

[Tony]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So that. That felt really good. And I want to add a caveat because we'll probably talk about some other stuff that we cut. Sometimes it Truly is just worth paying for a subscription. And I will give an example of this one tool that I think, you know, until something better comes out, you cannot beat. This is Canva. Like Canva has revolutionized graphic design and digital product creation and it's like 12 bucks a month, something like that, you know. Yes, all of your assets can be stored in Canva, but you can also export everything in Canva and put them in Google Drive or Dropbox or on your own machine, whatever. But that's what like, I think it's okay at times to pay for things because they add such a value to what you're doing. And like the time versus money thing is just you can't put a comparison on it. Like, and I know you used Photoshop for a really long time with like a one time fee, but I still do.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tony]

But once again you can't update your Photoshop because you're using the 2009 version or whatever.

[Steve Chou]

I don't remember what version I have, but it's the last one before they. Yeah.

[Tony]

So I think that like, like I don't want people to listen to this and get all cut happy and be like, I'm not paying for Canva anymore. I'm going to go back to Microsoft Paint. You know, like sometimes it's worth it to spend a little money because you can't. The technology of the software is better than like hiring someone.

[Steve Chou]

I mean, I pay for lots of stuff still, just to be clear. Yeah, it was just a matter of going through. Here's the saddest part. There's this one software that we're using for Bumblebee that they discontinued. However, it is like the most complicated copy protection ever. Like you can't just install on a machine. It's got to get activated on a server which no longer exists. Right.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

So I was thinking to myself, man, like normally I would just pay for this, but this is like driving me towards piracy. Right.

[Tony]

Okay.

[Steve Chou]

Because we rely on the software to generate the designs. And so I, I took a little miniature hacking class. It's actually not that complicated, but just all these little things that companies do. I don't know it, it's just all these costs can add up. I, I was using this other subscription that I didn't even know was active on one of my social media accounts.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

And I don't, I don't actually check. Maybe I should do a better job of this. But I don't check my credit card statements that often.

[Tony]

No, no.

[Steve Chou]

And then before you know it, I'M paying for a whole bunch of subscriptions that I'm not even using.

[Tony]

So I did this a couple months ago. Same thing. Like, I don't. We. Should we now. Let me just say this is not a good practice. We should be checking our credit card statements every month. Like a cursory, like, look over, you know, does everything look right? Did anyone steal my identity kind of thing? Now, I don't do it because I get notifications of charges, like, over 25 bucks on my phone. It's mainly to keep my kids from going nutso at Target. But I get the notification. So as long as I see a notification come through and I'm like, oh, yeah, you know, that's mine. I don't really. You know, when the bill comes, it's like, if it's reasonable bill, I'm like, okay, that looks good. It's probably about right. It's what I pay every month kind of thing. You know what I mean? Like, but then when you take a look. And I always end up doing this at the end of the year when I'm working on my taxes, right? And I'm looking for things. And then I was like, are you kidding me? Like, last year I found that I had been paying for, like, a Google workspace for, like, a business and account. I didn't own any. Like, I wasn't doing anymore, right? So I had paid 20 or $19 a month or something. Like, it was like 20 bucks a month, right? For an entire, like, year and a half since I was like, I'm not gonna use that, but I forgot to turn it off, you know, cancel it. So that's like 400 bucks just sitting there. Same thing with, you know, I used online jobs ph to hire.

[Steve Chou]

Oh, yeah, I forgot to cancel that. Actually.

[Tony]

That's. That's 70 bucks. So I went like an extra four months when. And that one hurt, like, because that one was just complete brain fog, right? When I saw that, like, I saw the charge, and I was like, oh, I'm still paying for this. And I have not even logged onto the site in, like, four months. Yeah, but that was like four months of paying for that. So what I've. What I try to do. And if you are, here's the other thing is when you sign up for, like, a free trial and it's like one that puts your credit card in and then you forget to cancel. You know, like, that's the same thing which I usually like the free trials where you don't have to put a credit card in because Then when I forget to cancel, doesn't, you know, cost me money, is I just set Google Calendar snow now for everything. So, like, I have a domain that I'm probably gonna let expire. So I have a Google calendar for, like, July 17th to, like, remind me to, like, go in there and, like, make the final decision of, like, okay, I'm not keeping this anymore. But that's.

[Steve Chou]

That was one of the things I was gonna say. I have tons of domains that I never will use, probably that I'm just paying for every day.

[Tony]

So why are domains the hardest thing to get rid of?

[Steve Chou]

Because it's like, real estate.

[Tony]

It is. But, like, I don't know anybody personally who's making money off of domains. I know people do, but, like, I know a lot of people personally who make a lot of money off real estate.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Yeah, domains are tough. Although I've been the past. Ever since, you know, ever since 2020, I've gotten a lot stricter. Like, I've let a lot more things, like, okay, I'm not going to keep this. I've let a ton of domains go. You know, I just have been more harsh, I guess, with the. The cutting. Whereas before, I'm like, it's like 10 bucks a month. I don't care. I've gotten a lot tighter with the. With the purse strings.

[Steve Chou]

Here's the other thing I started doing, and I think every company should do this to a certain point. Every piece of software that you use that needs to be installed on a PC, for example, I now archive that exact version.

[Tony]

Okay, what does that mean?

[Steve Chou]

So, for example, if I'm using Camtasia version or Adobe Photoshop cs, whatever.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

I archive the installer for that specific version. Because, like, I. There's this. This. Is this. Recently just happened with Bumblebee. I updated the version of software. All of a sudden, all of my automation stopped working. Okay, right. Or just the way we started doing things changed and just stopped working. And there was no way to revert that version back to the old one.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

Unless you had it. And I mean, one could argue, yeah, you should be upgrading anyway. But half the time, more than half the time, I would even say, like, 90% of the time, for me at least, upgrading is almost never a good idea.

[Tony]

So I feel like there's a pain threshold with upgrading. And I'll use Camtasia because I was just in it, like, right before we started recording the podcast. And when I opened it up on my computer, I realized that I was like, oh, I have Camtasia 2024 on this computer. Like I thought I only had Camtasia 18 or whatever, you know, but the problem was, and I don't remember if you remember this, it was probably about a year ago when we were doing office hours and every time I would try to open Camtasia would crash on me. Like every single time. And it got to the point where I had to re record like probably three different office hours, like alone because it crashed and didn't record the live version of it. And so at that point I had spent, you know, probably two hours of my time re recording and every single time I went to use Camtasia, it would crash on me. I lost editing. Like I lost editing work. So it was not, wasn't just the office hour stuff, but it was starting to be a problem. And I did all the troubleshooting and everything and it just wasn't working right anymore. And at that point I was like, you know what, I have to upgrade to 2024 like, because this is causing me too much pain to, you know, continue to deal with it and just be like, well, I don't have to pay any money.

[Steve Chou]

I just wanted to take a moment to tell you about a free resource that I offer on my website that you may not be aware of. If you are interested in starting your own online store. I put together a comprehensive six day mini course on how to get started in E commerce that you should all check out. It contains both video and text based tutorials that go over the entire process of finding products to sell all the way to getting your first sales online. Now this course is free and can be [e-mail] free. Just sign up right there on the front page via email and I'll send you the course right away. Once again, that's mywifequitterjob.com free. Now back to the show. I've never ever had that problem. And it's probably because you have 10,000 tabs open on your browser leading to memory loss. And then Camtasia didn't have enough memory and then it crashed.

[Tony]

Okay, that's what you said when it was happening, happening. But I did like I did all the things and this is. And I actually have it on a computer that I don't use for very. I usually only use it for recording stuff. So it was, I had even done all of the like remove stuff from the computer, pulled everything off into hard drives. Like I had done all the troubleshooting. And then I think there comes a point where when You've done all the troubleshooting and you're still having issues. And it's a really old piece of software. Like sometimes you do have to upgrade. Here's another one that might get dose.

[Steve Chou]

Like typical Mac mentality, by the way. They break it on purpose. That never happens to me actually. If I have something that's working rock solid, it never just stops working on my machine. Right.

[Tony]

I. Well, when I went in all the forums, I was not alone, let's just say. So it probably is a Mac thing. So here's something that I'm debating doging and maybe you can help me. Okay. So I still pay for Jungle Scout.

[Steve Chou]

Oh, okay.

[Tony]

And it's, it's like 500 bucks a year, which. That's a lot of money. Yeah, yeah, it's 500 bucks a year. I don't know what, what plan I have or anything like that. Like, I mean I can, I can access everything, right? But I don't really, like, I'm not gonna sell on Amazon anytime in the next, you know, couple of years. Do I use it for like Amazon influencer stuff? Occasionally, but I really just use Fluencer Fruit. Right? Like Fluencer Fruits. Pretty robust. I don't really need, you know, Jungle Scout. I find myself using Jungle Scout the most when I get come across a random product on like Amazon or Tick Tock and I just want to see if it's actually like I use it for my own personal gossip. Right. Like I don't use it in any way for business right now. So it's like, do I ax?

[Steve Chou]

Seems like an easy no brainer ax to me, really.

[Tony]

But it just feels, I don't know.

[Steve Chou]

You know, I guess worst case, you could use mine.

[Tony]

No, because it's like, it's like computer specific. It's a browser.

[Steve Chou]

No, it's not.

[Tony]

Mine's in my browser.

[Steve Chou]

It's in your browser, but you got to log in.

[Tony]

Oh, I'd have to log in. Can I log into your browser account?

[Steve Chou]

I suppose you could, I don't know.

[Tony]

Mess up your search history. Mess up your algorithm. Yeah, that one's probably going to get the doge.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah, I, I think you should ask that one. Here's the other thing that, that I've been kind of doging. I. And this is probably really annoying to people like who, who work for me, but I, I try to figure out exactly what they're doing and then I'll walk in, I'll just say, hey, just let me just follow you for a day and see what you're doing.

[Tony]

I bet they love that.

[Steve Chou]

I usually do this while Jen's gone. And then I'm like, okay, why. Why the heck are we doing it this way? Like, why are you using paper?

[Tony]

Why is your desk covered in post it?

[Steve Chou]

Why are we doing this all manually like that? And then oftentimes you could. Here's. Here's what my prediction is. Because of AI and everything, I'm predicting, like, in two years, everyone will be able to code these, like, stupid things to automate stuff the way you want. And arguably you should start doing it now. And this is just like an exercise. There's a lot of waste. There's a lot of wasted movements.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

In any business. And a lot of times automating it actually isn't that big of a deal.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

And it might take you a little bit. So just. So the perfect example is one I already just gave. Right. With the automatic monograms, like with the typing and everything.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

Like when. When an order comes in, no human should ever have to touch.

[Tony]

Right.

[Steve Chou]

That file before it gets to the machine.

[Tony]

Right.

[Steve Chou]

Stupid stuff like that. And I wouldn't even Pay for any SaaS apps. I. Here's another prediction that I have. You know all those apps in the Shopify app store? I was just looking at it the other day because some student asked me about some silly functionality. I. I can't remember what it was. Some very basic functionality. Something to do with, like, sales and. And promotions and whatnot. And she's like, I'm thinking about paying for this app. It's $50 a month. So I can do this, like, one specific sale. And I'm thinking to myself, $50 a month to be able to.

[Tony]

600 a year.

[Steve Chou]

It's a lot to be able to run one specific type of sale. And. And she wasn't equipped to do this, but literally you could just go to Claude and say, I want to write a Shopify app that allows me to do this one specific type of sale. And it would give you the liquid code that you could just cut and paste into your theme.

[Tony]

Yeah. Speaking of Shopify apps, my client's getting ready to doge something, which is. This is a big one, actually. So we've talked about rewards programs in the past. You built your own.

[Steve Chou]

Yes.

[Tony]

And when we talk about axing things, it's not because we don't recommend them. I also want to put that out there. Like, I like Jungle Scout. I like the company, I like the work they do. It's just a matter of is it right for my business right now. And the answer is probably no. So we've been using the Smile IO loyalty program. It's very expensive.

[Steve Chou]

How much is it actually?

[Tony]

So I was about to look it up because the problem with a lot of these apps is not just that they are monthly, it's like, well, it's monthly and you can sign up for, you know, add ons 999, $19. So the starter plan in Smile is 49amonth. Okay. It does up to 500 monthly orders. So, like, that's not a lot. Your store is not very big if you're in, you know, starter mode. So growth is $200 a month, which is 2500 monthly orders, which is still like, I mean, that's a lot, but it's not really that much. It's not as much as you think it, you know.

[Steve Chou]

Right.

[Tony]

With twenty dollars per additional hundred orders. Right. And it's got, you know, more tiers, whatever, or more, you know, things you can integrate with. The plus program is $1,000 a month. Right. So I mean, that's. You better be making a lot of money from your loyalty program. So we just are. Well, we're gonna switch to. It's like appstool A, P, P, S, T, L, E, which is like their top tier, I think is like under 200amonth. That does everything that the, the thousand dollar a month plan does on Smile. And so that's the other thing to think about is it might be that you have to use some sort of subscription to do what you need to do. But, you know, you might have signed up for one. Here's the other thing. A lot of these people increase their prices over time, which, honestly, I get it. Like they're trying to earn a living, but like new people come on the market and you're right. With the ability to like, code stuff, like, people are developing things a lot quicker. There's a lot more competition. Use that to your advantage to find a better deal on a product that usually, I mean, usually you can find something that does more for less money.

[Steve Chou]

I'm not trying to smash Smile IO. I think it's a great company.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

But the software they have is so easy to code.

[Tony]

Yeah. Seriously, that's what you told me.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah. I mean, it's so basic. Yeah, so basic. It was, I can't remember, it was less than a week project for me.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

To do. And I didn't even code most of it. Like, I had Chachi. That was back, back when I was using Chat GPT to do it.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

For my own website.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

There's something else I was going to say. Oh, yeah. Almost all these companies, they start out cheap or free.

[Tony]

Yes.

[Steve Chou]

And then something happens where they decide to triple their prices. Like Stamp IO was the. The perfect example. It was free. It was a review program. Everyone loved it. I was promoting it, what whatnot. And then they started gouging people with pricing and they held the reviews hostage.

[Tony]

Oh.

[Steve Chou]

If you tried to switch. So that's why I have no problems trashing that company publicly. Actually, they. They wouldn't. They wouldn't release the reviews. And this, this is just a trend, I think, with any service.

[Tony]

Yeah, right.

[Steve Chou]

I bet Smile wasn't that expensive when you guys first joined, right?

[Tony]

I think it was pretty. I mean, I remember, like back when I was in E Commerce, like, thinking that that was a pretty affordable program, you know, not anymore. Not anymore. And you think like, oh, that's, you know, thousand dollars, that's 7,500 orders. Yes. That's a lot of orders every month. But every single thing eats into your margins, right? Every single thing. And if you can't show that you're. And here's the other thing. If you're not, this is the other reason why you need to do something. You have something that you're paying for, but you're not using it to its fullest potential. So this is where I see people making a mistake a lot in ecommerce. They're paying for an affiliate program, like a Shopify Affiliate integration, like Affiliate Ly. Affiliately is a good program. Right. If this is not a trash on them at all. But if you don't have someone emailing your affiliate, like, if you don't have either someone's job or some part of someone's job is to manage that and to be putting creatives in there to be putting the copy, like reevaluate. Like, maybe you just pause it for now. Right. Like, you don't have, like, until you're ready to like, make the fact that. And I. Affiliately is not expensive. It's like 10, 15, $19 a month, whatever. It's in that, like, sort of doesn't matter price range. But it does matter if you're not making any money from your affiliates. Right. If you're not actively using that tool, it's like Jungle Scout. I'm not using it right now. I need to let it go. But it's sort of that, like, oh, when we get to the affiliate program. Well, okay, when you get to it. But you're not to it. So quit paying for it until you can dedicate the resources to say, hey, we need to spend five hours a week on our affiliate program.

[Steve Chou]

I'm considered Dojing. My email marketing for my wife quit. Not for Bumblebee Linens, but my wife quit because at a base level I have three or four autoresponders, maybe a little more than that, but one main big one. And I broadcast for the most part. So why am I paying all this money for something that's really basic when there's actually free solutions out there that are a little. I actually haven't experimented recently, but remember when we were going to do you built Brand Win? I didn't build it, it was free and I just tailored it to our thing and it wasn't bad. It worked.

[Tony]

It did work. Yes.

[Steve Chou]

And it was a dollar to send 10,000 emails.

[Tony]

Yes, I remember that. It was very cheap.

[Steve Chou]

Yeah. So here's the moral of the story. I think there's almost always an open source solution out there that you should search for first.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

Take Bumblebee Linens. It's built on an open source shopping cart. And today there's still a bunch of really good open source shopping carts. Woocommerce is probably the most popular one that's, that's free. And just think how many people are on Shopify plus right now paying $2,000 a month. And mine probably has much more functionality than Shopify Plus I, I would guess at this point.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

And so that's, that's a lot of money.

[Tony]

Here's the other thing to think about because I know when people listen to this because they, they tell me they get frustrated with you, right? Because you're like, well, I just coded this up. I just did xyz. Right. Which I understand because I, I am not someone who can just go code something up and make it work. However, what I have found, and this is a good example with Shopify and I love Shopify. So I mean I've paid for Shopify for a very long time. But if, if you can do something where you, you don't know how to do all these things, right, but you can pay someone a thousand dollars, let's just say to set it up for you using software or tools that are free. And then, you know, you have to, you know, have maintenance every once in a while. I mean, what are most, even the small stores, what are they paying per month on Shopify? I mean, I think when I was selling, I was paying 100, 200 bucks a month. When you added everything in oh, when.

[Steve Chou]

You add in the plugins, you mean. Yeah, yeah.

[Tony]

Like a base plan at Shopify is like $39 a month now. So you realize that after a year or two you've basically paid for the investment that you made in the beginning. And that's something that I think people should think about. It's like, well, is it worth it to just pay monthly forever and ever and I can never leave, or should I pay a one time fee, have someone set something up for me and then basically just worry about maintenance every once in a while?

[Steve Chou]

I mean, that's always the dilemma. Yeah, I think that most people have because I fall into this trap too. Like I have apps where I'm paying monthly, where I could save 20% if I paid up front for a year. But I'm always like, I still want the option to cancel, but then I end up using that same software for years. Exactly.

[Tony]

Yeah. The monthly, yearly, that one always gets me because like I want to do the yearly. But then there's that little bit of me that's like, what, what if I hate it? And I'm like, what if I hate it? I've literally been talking about it for two years. I don't hate it.

[Steve Chou]

I think the point here is you have to go through all the things you're paying for and which ones are. Label each one as whether it's mission critical, like you can't live without. Like usually I'll go through and I'll sign a number from one to ten. Like how badly do I need this? Yeah, versus what I'm paying. Like if it's super cheap, usually I'll let it slide. Like I'm paying for some stupid stuff that's like five bucks a month. But yeah, I'm willing to let that slide. But if it's something really stupid that. And here's the problem, I guess it's hard for someone to tell who's less technical to, to understand what's stupid or not. You know, in terms of how, how hard it is to, to actually implement it yourself. But take like that discount example that I gave you earlier. Like I want to run like a buy one, get one free or something like that. That wasn't the exact thing, but it was something a little more complicated like buy something, you know, you get something else cheaper, whatever. That is a very stupid feature to implement. Yeah, that's a very simple feature to implement and you shouldn't be paying any tool 50 bucks a month to do that.

[Tony]

Right.

[Steve Chou]

Just get it over with. Hire a developer to make that part of your store and just call it a day.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

And here's the other thing I've just noticed after teaching my class, a lot of people think should short term, right? They're like, oh, you know, I'm just going to try this for a year, so I don't want to invest in all that stuff. But that's not the right attitude. Like, you have to go into this thinking that you're going to run it for like three or five years.

[Tony]

Yeah, yeah.

[Steve Chou]

Right.

[Tony]

Yeah, I think. I think it's good. Rather than doing it yearly, like I tend to do is to actually probably go through every quarter. And because if you haven't used something in three months and it's not because it's seasonal, right? Like, you just haven't used it in three months, it might be time to put it on the chopping block. And then, you know, maybe. Maybe you think, okay, three months. Now add it to sick now. Now make it six months, right? And like, tell yourself, in six months, if I haven't used it, like, it's gone, right? Like, no questions asked. But then, you know, if you find. If it motivates you to start using it, then obviously you can keep it. But I think the amount of money people waste on tools that they don't. It's almost always tools you don't end up using versus tools that you can, you know, that are like, well, it's just easier not to have this. No, usually the tools that you're using are pretty good. Like Canva. Like, if you use it every day, it's a great deal. But if you're like, you know what? I've never made a graphic in Canva. Then why are you still paying $11 a month? You know, not worth it.

[Steve Chou]

Did you know that Jungle Scott has a lifetime plan? Now? I forgot to tell you about this since we're talking about it.

[Tony]

Great.

[Steve Chou]

It's like 800 bucks and you never have to pay again. So that might be worth it for you since you're already paying.

[Tony]

It's helpful to know I would always.

[Steve Chou]

Rather own something outright than pay a subscription. Even if it's like a little subscription. I'm like, subscription phobic, because I don't check. I think maybe that's my problem. I don't. I don't check my credit card statements enough.

[Tony]

Well, and here's the thing, like with Lifetime, I think sometimes people get nervous, like, oh, lifetime. Well, what if they're not in business in five years? Well, if they're not in business in five years, I guarantee you still paid less paying the lifetime than you have pain monthly.

[Steve Chou]

Right.

[Tony]

You know, you've gotten your money's worth after five years for sure. Yeah. So my last, My last one where I can't put it on the chopping block is my Google Drive storage that I get.

[Steve Chou]

That's really hard to do.

[Tony]

It's. It. But this is one where it's like, it's the time over money thing. Right? Like, I'm. I'm at 80 right now on my current plan, so I'm gonna have to upgrade right. To the next tier.

[Steve Chou]

But if you don't, I have a way for you to.

[Tony]

What?

[Steve Chou]

Because I went through this whole exercise.

[Tony]

Okay.

[Steve Chou]

Most of the time your drive is filled up because of images in your emails. Like, everyone, like, if they attach an image or whatever, that's all stored in there and it just all adds up. Sometimes there's like short movies in there.

[Tony]

Yes.

[Steve Chou]

You can write a. You can just go up to Chat, GPT or Claude and say, hey, write me a Google script. Google Drive script that goes through, finds all of the photos or anything over like a megabyte.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

List the file names and then deletes them if you want. Like, gives you a list and then asks you if you want to delete it.

[Tony]

My problem is I don't want to delete everything. Like, my Google Drive is filled up because of photos and videos. Right.

[Steve Chou]

In your emails or just in the drive general. Okay, well then that. Yeah, then that's. Yeah, yeah.

[Tony]

But I also have four hard drives behind me. Right. That I could move everything to that have already been paid for and are just sitting there living their best life, dusty on my desk. But that's one of those things where it's like the, the process of like, doing that is just so overwhelming to me that I'm like, I know that I'll just pay for more storage.

[Steve Chou]

I'm like that too. I mean, for storage. Yeah. It's like unlimited. Just like when my VA just told me, like, her. Her storage had filled up with her with all my videos. Not the videos themselves, but like the edits. You know what I'm saying? Like the edit file with the videos. And she's like, should I start deleting them? Because chances are we're not going to revisit them. Right? Especially the edited parts. It's one thing to store the final version, it's the other to store like the raw footage. I was like, no, let's just keep all of it. And so I just bought her a new drive. Even though I'm probably never ever gonna look at that raw footage ever again.

[Tony]

Yeah, yeah. It's just I think this is a good exercise for people because there's probably so much in. Honestly, like this says this extends past business. Right. Like how many subscriptions are you? There's. I always see these ads on like TikTok where it's like, I bet we can tell you how much you're wasting on your subscriptions. And it's like. Yeah, I'm sure you can. Like I'm sure I'm wasting a ton of money on subscriptions. But I think, you know, start with your business because I think there's, I think in business too you get a little like swipe happy with the credit card because you're like, oh, this is going to transform my business. Oh, this is going to. We're going to have affiliates and we're going to have rewards programs and we're going to do. I'm going to find 15 more products on Amazon to sell with my Jungle Scout. Like you have all these big ideas and the reality is most people are like grinding away on one thing day after day and so there's no point in keeping those expenses when you don't need them. Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

And I think we're bringing up this topic in this episode because I feel like we're heading towards a downturn if we're not in one already.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

Lots of companies, especially in the Amazon space are hurting big time.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

Like the companies. I can tell because we run an event. Yeah. And so you know, it pays to buckle down and doge a little bit.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Steve Chou]

Hope you enjoyed this episode. We're likely headed to leaner times so it's time to buckle down and do some cost cutting. For more information and resources go to My wife quit her job.com Episode587 Once again, tickets to the Seller Summit 2025 are now on sale over at sellers summit.com if you want to hang out in person in a small intimate setting, develop real relationships with like minded entrepreneurs and learn a ton, then come to my event. Go to sellersummit.com and if you're interested in starting your own e commerce store, head on over to my wife, quitherjob.com and sign up for my free six day mini course. Just type in your email and I'll send the course right away via email.