Anshey Bhatia, founder of Verbal+Visual - a platform for optimising e-commerce that’s become one of Shopify’s top partners. Listen as Nathan and Anshey talk about what growth means, where e-commerce is going, and the importance of focus. Famous 5 Favorite Book? – Traction What CEO do you follow? — Myself - I look at everything I’m spending time on during a day What is your favorite online tool? — Slack Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Very close If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? —To focus Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:23 – Nathan’s introduction 01:40 – Welcoming Anshey to the show 01:44 – Verbal+Visual is an agency that works with e-commerce brands to develop their user experience 02:09 – Recently worked with Uproot 02:20 – Anshey likes working with Shopify because it’s simple for both IT and management 03:30 – Worked with Shopify to create the first wine integration on their site 04:30 – Average e-commerce platforms go from an average of $50k to high-end $300k 04:54 – Initial development is on a project fee, after which optimisation services are offered on retainer 06:02 – Founded the business in 2009 06:13 – First-year revenue was around $150k 06:30 – Total revenue in 2015 was in the low 7 figures 06:41 – Team of 7 full-time employees and 5 part-time, based in New York 07:07 – Net margin of around 20% 07:31 – Anshey tries to leave profits in the business 08:28 – Goal is to reach a team of 40 people within 3 years 09:12 - Aim to have 2-3 new clients for each new hire 09:44 - The main area of growth has been partnerships, and building a portfolio 10:50 - Ideal customer is someone making $100k-$1 million; who wants to grow; and who is unsatisfied with their current e-commerce platform 11:20 – Connect with Anshey on Twitter and Linkedin 13:00 – Famous Five 3 Key Points: Determine what growth means to you. Is it topline revenue? Team size? Customer value? Choose a measure that’s meaningful for your business. Improve the quality of every project you do. Your portfolio is your number one tool for finding work. Focus from the beginning on what you’re passionate about. Resources Mentioned: Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives