Ep26: How Peter Keller Built A Crossfit E-Commerce Business That Continues To Grow Explosively Today

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Grab some kettleballs and climbing ropes and kickoff your entrepreneurial work-out with FringeSport founder Peter Keller. With an obsession for fitness and sports and a background in e-commerce as a VP at Living Direct, Peter launched FringeSport from the cozy confines of his garage.

The company designs, manufactures and sells sports equipment catering to the CrossFit market. FringeSport raked in over $1 million in revenue in its second year, with a current projected earnings of $10 million for 2014. Peter also runs “The Mistake” podcast with Peter Shankman and blogs about getting sourcing physical products at ProductSimple.net.

Key Takeaways:

• Discusses how getting easily bored at work and bouncing around as an employee at Living Direct provided an arsenal of e-commerce knowledge.
• Why “starting your damn business” is the best advice you can take as an entrepreneur.
• Shares how his handful of failed businesses faltered from excuses and fear of failure. 
• Insights on why a carefully selected mastermind group with 7 to 9 other  entrepreneurs can dramatically benefit your professional and personal life, including calling bullshit on each other.
• Discloses little shared secrets of  the personal struggles of entrepreneurs.
• Talks about the revenue number FringeSport hit that gave Peter his “oh shit, this is a real business” moment.
• Warns what happens when you don’t look at what explosive growth means at an e-commerce company and the hurdles ahead.
• Advice on how taking a good look at margins and cash cycles is crucial to understanding how money moves through your company and how to plan before crisis hits.
• Shares how FringeSport handles rapid growth and cash flow issues with simple online tools anyone can use.
• How the company loans free equipment to sporting events only to turn around and sell it at a discount, all while generating buzz and attracting new customers.
• Where rapidly growing companies and budding entrepreneurs can find bridge loans and how to use them with caution.
• How Peter leverages financing from suppliers by showing the irresistible benefits involved.
• Despite professional success with adwords, Peter compares it to playing roulette at a Vegas casino. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll “piss away money really fast.”
• Thoughts on harvesting email addresses from a wildly popular e-commerce site.
• Explains how he taps bloggers for reviews to ensure quality backlinks and anchor text.
• Insights on how to reduce e-commerce costs by 25%, and transit time by 40% by opening warehouses in local areas.
• Discusses the challenges of finding people to open up sales offices, and how FringeSport looked to loyal customers to step up to the challenge.
• How a ticking tomato holds Peter accountable to staying productive.
• Encourages entrepreneurs to be “politely ruthless” with their time and surround yourselves with like-minded people.
• How committing to a mastermind group forced Peter to up his game, and what you absolutely have to bring to the table to earn your keep and give back.

Peter’s E-Commerce Tips

• Recovering from a BIG mistake: the first time I bought $50,000 of defective refrigerators
• How to cold email Chinese factories – includes template script
• How do I keep factories from stealing my ideas? 12 ways make sure your designs stay yours
• Quality fade and how to prevent it. Plus- why I have 240 speed ropes that I can’t sell