Bound to be Rich

How A 22 Year Old College Dropout Sells Tens Of Millions Of Dollars Worth Of Products Online - Roman Cresto

August 12, 2021 Ismail Episode 16
How A 22 Year Old College Dropout Sells Tens Of Millions Of Dollars Worth Of Products Online - Roman Cresto
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Bound to be Rich
How A 22 Year Old College Dropout Sells Tens Of Millions Of Dollars Worth Of Products Online - Roman Cresto
Aug 12, 2021 Episode 16
Ismail

If you're interested in learning about e-commerce and selling products online on Amazon & Walmart... you're in for a real treat!

Roman Cresto dropped out of college to found Empire Ecommerce. They have now helped hundreds of clients generate tens of millions in revenue selling products online.

We dig into what Empire Ecommerce does and what sets Roman apart. Why has he been able to accomplish so much at such a young age?

All show notes & resources available here -> https://boundtoberich.com/roman-cresto

You can also watch the video version of this interview on YouTube -> https://youtu.be/TqFrk25Gbkw

Stay tuned for the end of the interview where I offer a $1,000 check to anyone who starts an e-commerce business with Roman.

Join my email newsletter! → https://bit.ly/BTBRnewsletter

Sign up for the Fold debit card to earn Bitcoin back on all your purchases! Get $25 free with my link -> https://use.foldapp.com/r/BTBR. (Here is a video where I explain how it works and show how I was earning up to 10% Bitcoin back on purchases -> https://bit.ly/3lGAdyd)

Sign up for Celsius to earn 6.2% interest on your Bitcoin and 8.88% interest on your cash! Get $50 in free Bitcoin for signing up via my link -> https://celsiusnetwork.app.link/11858075cb

Sign up for a RobinHood account if you're interested in investing in stocks. If you sign up via my link, you and I both receive a free stock (no deposit required!) -> https://join.robinhood.com/ismailh14

Coinbase is how I buy my Bitcoin. Sign up via my link and get $10 in free Bitcoin! → https://www.coinbase.com/join/humet_q

Sign up for the BlockFi credit card to earn Bitcoin back on all your purchases! Get a free bonus with my link -> https://blockfi.com/?ref=549e837d

Check here for links to other cool resources -> https://boundtoberich.com/my-links/

Enjoyed this episode and want to treat me to a cup of coffee? Thanks, you’re awesome! → https://www.buymeacoffee.com/boundtoberich

Support the Show.

Submit an audio question and I’ll answer it in-depth on the podcast! → https://boundtoberich.com/ask/

Follow me:

TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@mrhumet
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/mrhumet/
Twitter → https://twitter.com/mrhumet

Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

If you're interested in learning about e-commerce and selling products online on Amazon & Walmart... you're in for a real treat!

Roman Cresto dropped out of college to found Empire Ecommerce. They have now helped hundreds of clients generate tens of millions in revenue selling products online.

We dig into what Empire Ecommerce does and what sets Roman apart. Why has he been able to accomplish so much at such a young age?

All show notes & resources available here -> https://boundtoberich.com/roman-cresto

You can also watch the video version of this interview on YouTube -> https://youtu.be/TqFrk25Gbkw

Stay tuned for the end of the interview where I offer a $1,000 check to anyone who starts an e-commerce business with Roman.

Join my email newsletter! → https://bit.ly/BTBRnewsletter

Sign up for the Fold debit card to earn Bitcoin back on all your purchases! Get $25 free with my link -> https://use.foldapp.com/r/BTBR. (Here is a video where I explain how it works and show how I was earning up to 10% Bitcoin back on purchases -> https://bit.ly/3lGAdyd)

Sign up for Celsius to earn 6.2% interest on your Bitcoin and 8.88% interest on your cash! Get $50 in free Bitcoin for signing up via my link -> https://celsiusnetwork.app.link/11858075cb

Sign up for a RobinHood account if you're interested in investing in stocks. If you sign up via my link, you and I both receive a free stock (no deposit required!) -> https://join.robinhood.com/ismailh14

Coinbase is how I buy my Bitcoin. Sign up via my link and get $10 in free Bitcoin! → https://www.coinbase.com/join/humet_q

Sign up for the BlockFi credit card to earn Bitcoin back on all your purchases! Get a free bonus with my link -> https://blockfi.com/?ref=549e837d

Check here for links to other cool resources -> https://boundtoberich.com/my-links/

Enjoyed this episode and want to treat me to a cup of coffee? Thanks, you’re awesome! → https://www.buymeacoffee.com/boundtoberich

Support the Show.

Submit an audio question and I’ll answer it in-depth on the podcast! → https://boundtoberich.com/ask/

Follow me:

TikTok → https://www.tiktok.com/@mrhumet
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/mrhumet/
Twitter → https://twitter.com/mrhumet

This transcript was automatically generated using Descript.

Ismail Humet: Welcome to The Bound to Be Rich Podcast, where I attempt to reverse engineer people who seem to be successful, no matter the circumstances, so that you can apply those lessons to your own life. I'm your host, is Mel met In this episode, we are joined by Roman Cresto, founder of Empire e-Commerce. Roman is a college dropout that just turned 22 years old, but he's already built a massive.

Empire E-Commerce is an eight figure business with a team of 620 people around the world and is now the first venture capital backed e-commerce automation company in the world. They help people create online stores on Walmart or Amazon and grow them for you, pretty much handle everything from finding the products to sell, to shipping them, collecting the payments, dealing with the customers, et cetera.

It's a definition of a turnkey automated business that gives you passive. By the way, if you have money, you wanna invest into a business, but don't know what to start and don't have time to run a business, this might be something that you wanna look at. Of course, as a listener of mine, I made sure you'd get a very special offer, so stay tuned to the very end for more information.

If you're interested, Roman and the Empire e-commerce team have helped hundreds of clients sell tens of millions of dollars worth of products online at 22 with no college. What makes him so different? How did he do it? Let's dive in.

Roman, thanks so much for coming on that show, man. I really appreciate you making the time. 

Roman Cresto: Yeah, thanks this mill for having me. I know we haven't been able to get on, uh, for a week or so, but I'm, I'm definitely glad to finally sit down and, you know, take the time and, and, uh, get down to it with you. Yeah, 

Ismail Humet: I'm really excited.

I've been wanting to chat with you with for a while because it's not common to have someone. Uh, at your age have so much success. Right. Uh, so I have a couple things that I'd like to touch off, off the bat. Um, I'm curious, you dropped outta college h 

[00:02:11] Decision to drop out off college.

Ismail Humet: how do you think about making a big decision like that and for like younger people listening that are considering the same thing or maybe even parents listening, uh, what advice would you give 

Roman Cresto: them?

That. Yeah, it's a very loaded question. There's a lot that goes into that decision for every single person because of course it's, it's going to be case by case. You know, you're gonna have a lot of pushback possibly from your family or you might have a very supportive family. Uh, for me, luckily I was blessed to, uh, have two, uh, very loving parents and they, you know, I, I, I kind of did it.

I was kind of a little devious in how I did it. Uh, I was going to Cal Poly Slow St. Louis Obispo, uh, studying to be an engineer. Because I wanted to build cool things, but I kind of realized when I was going there, um, I just didn't really have a lot of fun because we weren't really learning how to build cool things, and it was very, uh, monotonous in the way that we learned wasn't really what I expected.

Um, so I, I kind of. I don't know. It was, I felt a little bit like I was scammed and, uh, I kind of just decided to le leave after I completed my first year. Um, I started to take a few business classes at the end of that year, and I did very well. And those ones, um, and I thought business was very interesting and I, I wanted to, you know, go into that.

Uh, and that's when I started to get into e-commerce. But with my, my parents, I told them that, you know, I would, you know, transfer to a community college. I had a. High school credits, uh, from taking like AP classes and stuff like that. So I was already very ahead, uh, for being a first year college student.

Uh, so I was, I was very close to being. Done with two years of credits after finishing the first year. So I told 'em I would go to a community college, take a couple classes, and then transfer to another college that would be better for business. But really what I was doing during that time was, uh, taking a couple college or community college classes and not really showing up to those.

But what I would do is I would go to like Starbucks and, you know, work on some of my e-commerce stores and, uh, just, you know, engulf myself in how entrepreneurs thought, uh, and. Learning from, uh, Napoleon Hill, Gary V and, and stuff that they put out content wise in their books and, and YouTube videos. But I think with the decision to drop out, um, you just really kind of have to, to plan it out and, and, and see what your certain situation is.

Uh, and it really matters like how all in you're gonna go on yourself, because I mean, there's a lot of people that drop out and they don't end up being successful because you have to know yourself at a certain point to know that you can motivate yourself even. You might have a period of, you know, 12 months where things might be slow.

You might not see a lot of, uh, results, or it might be a dark time in your life, but you have to be mentally prepared for that. And you have to be prepared to mentally prepare yourself every single day. Uh, in, in terms of, you know, working on self-improvement and growing yourself and even if your family and your friends might not, um, support you.

You have to be able to know and kind of see the per the future that you, uh, are preferring for yourself and, and be able to rely. , uh, you, cuz in the end that's, that's who you're always gonna have. 

Ismail Humet: So you touched on a couple things at the end there that were great segues. Cause I have for them as next points, but quickly before 

[00:05:17] Obstacles faced

Ismail Humet: we lose everybody because what I'm afraid of is people listen to someone.

I think you're 22 years old now. Yep. I just turned 22. 22. Very successful. Um, and they're like, Oh, this kid's just a rock star. He's a unicorn. I can't relate. And you lose them. So what I like to ask people, if you don't mind getting into something, uh, any obstacles or failures or tough times, you over. Uh, to get to where you are so people can relate to you a little bit 

Roman Cresto: more.

Um, yeah, I think that, um, you know, growing up I played a lot of sports, so I was able to, you know, have that mindset going into entrepreneurship and business where I knew how to get over. Um, Certain obstacles and, and um, you know, downsize to certain events that would come up and, you know, kind of be able to bounce back very quickly from those.

Um, so I do think mindset is very important. Um, but in terms of like obstacles that I did face, I did face a lot of them in the beginning in terms of, in the first few months of me, you know, kind of leaving college, uh, in, into that summer, I believe it was in, uh, about 2018. Um, that was when, you know, I, I, I found quick success in some of my e-commerce.

Um, I had a lot of sales and, and, and healthy profit margins on some of those stores very early on. But, uh, I ran into something called an Amazon store suspension where Amazon will shut your store down, hold your funds in the account. Uh, and that being my only source of income that can be very demotivating for people.

Uh, I basically had my whole operation shut down that I'd been working on for the. Three months, a hundred days or so, and, and really getting good at and starting to pick up momentum. My Amazon just said, Hey, you can't sell anymore. We're holding your funds for at least 90 days. And I was just kinda like, What should I do now?

I don't, I mean, I just dropped outta college and, uh, my. Business that was growing is gone now. Um, so I, I kind of pivoted to, you know, trying to do wholesale real estate and cold calling hundreds of people a day. And, uh, for me being, uh, a little introverted back then that, that actually, you know, I didn't really make a lot of money doing wholesale real estate.

And I kind of moved on from that back to e-commerce. Once I got my store on suspended months later. Um, there was a lot of failures, first of all in the Amazon suspension, making me pivot somewhere. Um, and then being introverted, I didn't really like what I was doing with talking to random strangers, trying to pitch them on buying their house and then going and flipping that contract, if you're familiar with real estate and whole school.

Um, but why'd you get, why'd you get suspended from Amazon ? Um, there was a lot of like, uh, early on issues that I didn't really understand how to, uh, combat, but there's, there's always gonna be issues in, in business and you just kinda have to be able to adapt to those. But, uh, I think it. Uh, IP complaints. I just listed products that shouldn't have been listening, um, based on what I know now.

But, um, yeah, 

Ismail Humet: I, I asked because I've had a similar experience and I, I'll get into the e-commerce later and I'll maybe share my experience. Um, but you,

[00:08:07] Physical & Mental fitness

Ismail Humet: I know you're also big on self-development and you kind of mentioned it in your answer and I've seen you post about, or I, I think I've heard about these things elsewhere where you do ice baths, you're big into meditation.

I even saw, I think ias. You did an iowaska retreat. So can you talk a little bit about that to people? Like why do you focus so much on self development and what do you get out of those things? And like the iowaska thing is a little more unique, so like what do you get outta that stuff? 

Roman Cresto: Um, so for me, uh, I believe that entrepreneurship is really just a, a journey of self discovery and improvement.

Um, and I think the more that you can improve yourself and get out of your comfort, so you can handle more stressors or, or just new environments and, and, uh, different mental states that's really gonna push you in business to do, uh, well and exceed. Uh, for me, I do a lot of, um, things related to optimizing my health, my mind, my body.

Um, I have, uh, some really good friends that are my personal trainers, uh, out in Austin, Texas. Shout out to Jane Max that, you know, have helped me. , I hone in on a lot of the, the health and fitness stuff that allows me to handle a lot more stress in business. Um, but yeah, I do a lot of ice bath, um, you know, helps me prepare the mind for a lot of discomfort and, and uncomfortability and, and stress.

I do a lot of, you know, sauna, um, of course weight training, working out red light therapy. Uh, taking a lot of new tropics and, and, and supplements there. And then the plant medicine, that's also something that, um, I was kind of introduced to early on, um, where, you know, it, it's just, it's a way to, that's it's not very traditional, uh, that, you know, it kind of allows you to see the world or see your world at least in a different way.

And I'm always looking. Uh, different things that I can do that's always gonna translate to business because I think all, all of the outside things that I do in health and fitness and, uh, experimenting with these planned medicines, they're all related in a way to helping me, uh, solve problems in business and, and be able to solve things a lot faster or handle things faster, or be a better leader and improve my people skills and, and all that stuff.

And for 

Ismail Humet: people who are not familiar with it, I don't know, you know? No Kagan the. ? No, I'm not human. He's like a famous entrepreneur that talked about iowaska too in his experience. And I think, correct me if I'm wrong, it's where there's like a shaman that guides everybody and everyone's on this plant, uh, or acid or something like that, like a psychedelic effect.

Um, and he talked about like something that he took away, like a, it was like a life changing takeaway that he had from it. 

[00:10:36] Psychedelic effects.

Ismail Humet: Was there anything like that that you got that affected you or did you take anything specific away from. 

Roman Cresto: Um, yeah, so I've been on, I've done it about four times now. Uh, I went to Costa Rica back in February, this year of 2021.

And yeah, it just kind of opens your eyes to, to a lot more than, than that surface level, uh, in, in the world. Um, you can go pretty deep with this conversation, but, um, yeah, and it's definitely, it just definitely allows me to, to see. My, my world and myself, uh, in a different route or in a different way. And it just kind of provides me with a different perspective.

Um, but I mean, these are, these are very serious. Plant medicines, even, even uh, uh, psilocybin mushrooms as well, uh, which I've done in the past, uh, quite a bit. I mean, they're all, a lot of people might take these as, as recreational or, or party drugs, but these are very, um, serious plant medicines and you have to prepare yourself mentally for these.

You have to be in the right setting with, you know, very responsible, um, spiritual leaders, shamans and whatnot. And you have to have a very good group, uh, with you. Uh, if people are interested in these, I'm, I'm in, by no way an expert, but you do want to take these plant medicines very seriously as they can be.

Very beneficial. 

Ismail Humet: Yeah. I'm, I'm glad that we touched on the self development because I know, and people probably listening also relate, I get so busy, like I had a crazy week and I was, you just get to a point where your brain can only go so far, you need to take a break. Um, so having these things periodically where like you do the ice baths or you, you regularly go outside or whatever it is for you, um, help.

Have that like, uh, elasticity in your mind to kind of go through the day, go through the week and not crash. Um, a couple other things I was really curious about. 

[00:12:21] Building a right TEAM.

Ismail Humet: Just two more things before we get into the e-commerce is, uh, you've obviously had to grow a large team for this company. And I, by the way, I think you just got, uh, you were partnered with a venture capital firm, like the first e-com automation company, so congratulations on that.

Um, but you must grow a team to be able to do all that and train them and whatnot. And from the entrepreneurs that I talk to, even like your regular. Small mom and pop businesses. The biggest struggle people have is the team building, the team, recruiting the team, training the team, finding the right people.

Um, do you have any advice there or what's your experience been like, especially as a young person, um, hiring people older than you, managing people older than you and motivating and 

Roman Cresto: training them. . Um, I think it has to do so. Your team is very important. I think it's, it's the number one reason that I've been able to be successful with, uh, my main company, Empire eCommerce.

Uh, and really anything I do is just to have, you know, a trusted set of advisors or, or, or just, um, associates and peers that you can rely on that. Uh, really it just depends on, on their values, on a personal level. To be able to tell if they'll translate over to, uh, being efficient in that team setting. And, and I've been very blessed to find a lot of my, uh, team members that are, are very, uh, selfless and they, they like to, you know, outperform and, and over deliver on what they're producing.

And they're always, you know, putting the, the company and the mission and the customers first. Uh, so I've been very blessed to, to be able to attract those type of people. Uh, I still don't, I don't know exactly how I've been able to do it very. Uh, but, um, I really just think it's, it's honing in on those personal traits.

And we have about, uh, 20 in house in the US employees and, uh, over 600 virtual employees in Asia and India, uh, worldwide, uh, that work on some of our stores. And we'll get into that, uh, in a sec, I'm sure. But yeah, I think for the, for the team, uh, aspect of everything, it's, it's, it's crucial to, you know, getting anywhere in.

[00:14:21] Message from Sponsors.

Ismail Humet: And now a quick message from our sponsors.

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Let me know how you.

All right, let's get back to the show. So let's talk about empire e-com. 

[00:17:10] More about Empire E-com.

Ismail Humet: What do you guys exactly? 

Roman Cresto: So we are an e-commerce automation service provider. Uh, sounds pretty fancy, but essentially what we do is we manage e-commerce stores for our clients. Uh, we do everything for them from the OR for each store, uh, with our employees in terms of, uh, helping them open up the store, helping them open up the LSC entities, uh, correlated with the store, the credit cards they need for working capital, finding the products to sell on the store.

You know, using all of the data and analytics based on, uh, the marketplace, uh, products that are available, all that good stuff. Then we do the order fulfillment for them. Um, we handle all of the customer service with the, um, customers on each store that are buying from the store, and then we handle all of the returns as well.

So we're basically a full service. Manager of these e-commerce businesses that we help our clients open up. And then we do, uh, a profit split at the end of every month, uh, with our clients on these stores to incentivize us to continue to grow the store, of course, in sales revenue on a monthly basis. 

Ismail Humet: So it's a pretty turnkey operation if someone wanted to start an e-commerce business.

Um, basically they just invest with you and you take care of. , 

Roman Cresto: right? The whole point is essentially to, to create an additional source of income for, uh, you know, the busy individual that might be a business owner. They might have other, uh, ventures that they have to attend to and, and they don't wanna trade their time for money.

And that's the whole point of us. We're essentially essentially selling on these e-commerce platforms like Walmart and opening a store or a seller account, you are acquiring a piece of digital real estate by taking over that market share and offering products for sale. Uh, and what we are in a sense is a property management.

for your digital piece of real estate. Um, and yeah, our, our goal is to provide a turnkey solution where we handle everything as long as you have the startup capital and the working capital. And you don't have to know anything about e-commerce, you don't have to have products already set up that you're having trouble selling or anything.

We'll do all of that for, you'll handle all the heavy lifting and operations on a daily basis, and you can have an additional source of income that, uh, we're essentially managing and creating. 

Ismail Humet: So people that listen know that I've had this experience years ago. Um, My wife and I were flipping stuff on Amazon with theba program, and it was like a little rinky dink thing that we were doing, just buying stuff.

We were finding products on Alibaba or our local stores and just sending 'em to Amazon and selling them. But in the first year, I think we made like 65,000 and we had no idea what we're doing. I think the difference with you guys is that. Um, it's mostly drop shipping or like we were packaging boxes at our house and like the post office made our address like a fulfillment center they had to scan.

So it was really a lot, and that's part of the reason why we stopped. Uh, so this is really appealing because you just don't deal with any of that. You don't really have to ship it, package it, or identify the products. I think the biggest selling point to me is that you identify the products.

[00:20:04] Finding the RIGHT product .

Ismail Humet: The biggest question people seem to have is, where do I find them now?

I don't know if you can share that, if that's a secret. Is there any kind of advice you can give there or, or insight into what you guys do to find the products that are profitable? 

Roman Cresto: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's awesome to hear that you guys had that going. It's, it kind of shows to the point, like, even me, uh, after leaving college, I, I didn't know anything about business or e-commerce really.

And I started a simple drop shipping store on Amazon. Uh, it's really not too hard to, to get set up. Uh, and you don't really need too much knowledge. But, but with what we do, uh, we've kind of elevated it to a certain level in the beginning stages. Uh, since we started in 2018, we did a lot of the product research manually.

Uh, we had some simple softwares and tools, uh, you know, that we would use to, to help us eliminate some of the, the certain aspects of a product we weren't looking for, which would help us find the ones that we were looking for a lot easier. But what we've done with, um, as recently in 2021 with, uh, the VC backing the venture capital firm coming in and, and, uh, helping us with strategic.

We've basically been developing out a product research, uh, software to basically scrape all of the different online suppliers, retail suppliers that we are drop shipping from onto the Walmart marketplace, uh, to help us find those hot products that are, are, uh, you know, very hot sellers in certain categories that are doing well.

Uh, and, and basically that's allowed us to move away from a lot of the manual work for product research and, and be able to find. Uh, the, the higher profit margin, hot selling products a lot faster. 

[00:21:36] Amazon vs Walmart.

Ismail Humet: What's the diff, Cause I see that you guys do both Amazon and Walmart. I think it seems like you're focusing more on the Walmart side as a customer.

Personally, I don't like the Walmart, uh, store as much as Amazon just shopping on it. So what, what's the benefit? I assume it's less competitive on Walmart, but how do you think about the two or how you advise your customers which way to go? 

Roman Cresto: So, so to your points, I. Do a majority of my shopping on Amazon.

It's like a ten second click, uh, into prime Orders. But the thing on Amazon is there's, there's third party sellers and then there's, uh, well, there. , there's a, there's non FBA sellers and then there's FBA sellers, uh, and there's a ton of third party sellers like you and I that can just hop on that platform and sell.

Uh, so it's very saturated in terms of, there's so many sellers now, uh, that the margins are very small. Um, I personally do a lot of shopping on Amazon, but I only order from, uh, FBA products and how you can tell that. If they're prime fulfilled and they'll come in one to two days. Those are the only ones I buy because I'm not ordering, uh, from these drop shippers that might come onto Amazon.

And, and what's happened on the Amazon platform is there's been a lot of, um, Foreign or, or even uh, Chinese sellers that come on and are looking to make a quick buck and scam a lot of the Amazon customers. So what Amazon did this year early on, um, you know, as they kind of transitioned Bezos out as their CEO and they have had their new guy come in, is they made it very strict for third party sellers to kind of operate on the platform using the drop shipping model.

Where, you know, there's a lot of suspensions. There's, there's a very high volume of, uh, account issues, account health issues that, you know, they'll hold the sellers money and their funds in the account before it gets paid out. They'll, they'll suspend the accounts a lot more frequently, uh, due to them trying to clean up those, uh, those sellers that are, are not helping the customers cause all they care about is their customers in the end.

So what we've done is we've taken a majority of our, our automation clients that we're managing their stores. Uh, that we're on Amazon's platform and we've moved them over trans, transitioned them over to Walmart's platform because first of all, there's about a, a 10th of the amount of sellers on that marketplace.

Even though, uh, you and I might not buy a ton of, of Walmart products directly, uh, they've actually improved a lot in terms of. With Covid in 2020, they, they turned a lot of their retail space. Uh, I believe they're number one in retail space in the us um, certainly more than Amazon, but they turned a lot of that retail space in their physical stores into fulfillment, uh, centers for e-commerce.

And they've really been honing in on developing out their e-commerce platform for third party sellers. Uh, really opening up that up in 2020 to allow us to come. and, and do things like drop shipping on their, their platform. Um, so there's a lot higher margins and less competition. That's why we've been focusing on the Walmart side of things.

So 

Ismail Humet: you mentioned the margins. I, from what I was researching, I feel like I saw that you guys had above average margins on, uh, these products that you guys selling for your clients. For someone who's listening was like, This sounds great. I've always wanted to do this. I don't know how to do, I don't have time.

Uh, like you said, I have a job or a business, but I'd like to invest. Um, can you talk a little bit about. 

[00:24:41] Capital Structure & Opportunity.

Ismail Humet: What it's, it's not a small investment, what the investment looks like. What do margins look like? Like how much do people make typically? Obviously there's wide ranges. Um, and I'm gonna link to people in the show notes.

Uh, that was a great video. You guys did explain the whole opportunity with your team and, uh, a lot of customers that you guys have. I actually know some of them personally that you guys show the results of. So I'm just, for people who are curious about the opportunity, uh, what does it look. 

Roman Cresto: Yeah, so, so essentially it's, it's, we're basically creating a business for you on Walmart.

We're helping you throughout the whole process, and once you do some of the onboarding steps, like creating your llc, getting your business card set up, which we walk you through personally, then you're just handing the store off to us. We're getting it approved to sell, and then we're beginning that journey of finding those products or fulfilling all the orders and managing the store and growing it in monthly sales.

The financial structure that we do for each store is, it's a $45,000 startup cost as the essentially management startup cost for each store. Uh, some of our clients are, are getting anywhere from three to five to 10 to even 20 stores all at once, uh, to kind of take over that market share a lot faster. Uh, since it is very early on in Walmart's, uh, development of their e-commerce platform.

Um, but yeah, essentially after you're, you're onboarded and, and it takes about four to five weeks to, you know, fill out all of the information that we need to get you approved to sell in the marketplace. Uh, biggest the biggest difference right now with, compared to Amazon, it's, it's a lot harder to get approved on Walmart.

Uh, we've dialed it in, so our approval rate's about 97% on the first attempt, and then a hundred percent's on the second or third. Uh, using the messages that we have. But yeah, and essentially once the onboarding is done, we basically start listing out the products and, and our goal anywhere from, uh, month six to eight, once the, the store is live and it's been selling for a good amount of time, is to be doing anywhere from 40 to 80,000 in monthly sales.

Uh, anywhere from that 15 to 30% net profit margin. So a lot of our clients are, uh, making anywhere from five to 15,000 in net profit per. Um, basically by us just managing the store for them and they're not doing any of the physical work. And then of course we do a profit split, uh, where our clients keep 55% of that net profit every month, and then we, uh, invoice them for that 45% net profit.

Ismail Humet: Um, I'm curious from your guy, Well, before I say that, I think it's the perfect time to start, based on my limited knowledge, is that you said there's a startup period. The fourth quarter is the busiest time of year on these platforms. So if people listening start now, uh, they'd be onboarded and have everything ready to go and selling right in time for that holiday season.

So I think maybe, maybe now is when you get the most influx of people, uh, signing up for your service. But

[00:27:18] Reason for working in Partnership.

Ismail Humet: I'm curious from your perspective as the entrepreneur, um, why partner with all these other people and help them set up their stores and, and do this model where you get a share of their business as opposed to just creating a giant store for yourself.

Is that not so? can be done as easily on these platforms. 

Roman Cresto: Yeah. So on Amazon it was a lot harder. Uh, what they did is, is they made a restriction where you can only have one account per name in per household, and you could basically open up, you know, steal accounts is what they call them. Where, um, It doesn't show your name.

It's a different entity, different, uh, virtual address. Uh, but with Walmarts, they were a little bit more lenient in the beginning where, you know, I personally have two stores myself, and you can have multiple stores under one name. Uh, they've started to implement some of those restrictions where it gets harder.

But while we partner up with, uh, our clients and we have over 410 clients so far, uh, you know, since we started in 2018, Uh, on the automation side is basically because for us to open up, you know, 400 plus stores, we would have to have, we do it where we do two LLCs per store, uh, to it to. For multiple different reasons, but, uh, we would have to have, you know, over 800 LLCs.

If it was just me, it would be all under my name. I'd be a ton of paperwork, be a ton of, uh, sort of accounting on, on my, for my bookkeeper. I'm sure he would hate me for that. Um, and then, and then, uh, on the, um, on the working capital side, you do need a ton of, you know, credit card capital in terms of, we have our clients open up the, uh, the Amex business Gold card or the Plum Card, Uh, some of these charge cards that help.

Uh, fulfill the orders and, and grow at their store in monthly sales. Uh, we would actually have to have access to those credit lines personally if it was just, for example, just me having 400 stores of my own. So essentially we're, we're both benefiting from our, our client's partnership, and that's why we have.

Uh, this model set in place where we can work with clients. Right. 

Ismail Humet: I'm, I'm glad you had a great answer to that because I think people are skeptical, like, why is this guy gonna help me out? Uh, it sounds too good to be true, but I think what you just said makes a lot of sense. I know we're coming up at the end of our time, so some very quick rapid

[00:29:21] Best book for reading.

Ismail Humet: fire questions if you don't mind.

Um, I like to end each show with a couple questions. I see you're a big reader. Are there any books recently that you have really, that you'd recommend off the bat? 

Roman Cresto: Um, yeah, so I, I, it's been a while since I found a really good book that, you know, that's kind of blown me away. Uh, last year I found a lot of good ones in terms of, I'm really into, uh, reading a lot of spiritual books that, you know, kind of go into, uh, a.

Quantum physics, uh, anywhere from like the Power of Now by Eckard, Toley, uh, becoming Supernatural, Joe Dispenza Thinking Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill, Uh, all of those ones I think are very important because, you know, if you just read about business all the time, it's, it's, uh, it's, it's one dimensional in a sense where, Uh, if you're doing business all the time and then you read about business, it's, it, I don't think, for me, it hasn't helped me as much as, uh, since I'm working all the time on my businesses and then reading about, you know, the, the, the laws of the universe and the, the spiritual laws of our world.

Um, those help me, you know, become a lot more centered. And, uh, and balanced and, and it gives me a different perspective for when I translate that over to business. So those are the ones that I, I really like right now I'm reading, um, uh, what's it called? I believe it's, it's Infinite Potential, but ne Godard.

And that, that's pretty interesting. He's kind of diving into, you know, Christianity and the religious side of things in terms of manifestation. So it's very interesting, you know, a lot of these different, uh, topics. But that's, those are the type of books that I 

Ismail Humet: like. 

[00:30:46] Any hint of future successful entrepreneur as a young kid.

Ismail Humet: If I talk to people in high school, your friends, your teachers, whatever, would they be surprised at your success or would they say like, Yeah, I knew he was gonna make it.

Roman Cresto: Um, I'm not sure. I mean, I was, I was kind of quieter in high school. Um, you know, I did what I needed to do. Uh, my, my high school was very, um, you know, education focused and everyone was trying to get to the best college. And, uh, yeah, I think, yeah, just because not a lot of people, What I've, I've, this path that I've gone down.

It's very, uh, unique, I would say. But, um, yeah, I, I, I don't know. I don't know what they'd say 

Ismail Humet: exactly. The last question is

[00:31:20] What is a rich life to you?

Ismail Humet: , what is a rich life to you? We talk about a lot of different things. Uh, it's not just about money, is what I like to say, but what does it mean to you having a rich life? 

Roman Cresto: Yeah, I love that question.

Um, for me, uh, you know, it's really just enriching your life with a lot of different experiences. Uh, you know, having an environment that you love to wake up to every day. Uh, having a team in the, that those people around you, that family that you know, supports you in your, your personal growth and your business growth and, and, uh, encourages you to always be a better.

Uh, I think that's, uh, really more important in, in ways more than, you know, just having a ton of money in the bank. It's, it's really the, the people that you surround yourself with and if they're, uh, allowing you to, you know, be inspired to, to continue to evolve and get to that next level. That's, that's, uh, that's what Rich Life is with me.

Ismail Humet: Awesome. Perfect place to end it. Roman,

[00:32:08] Thank You & Wrap up!

Ismail Humet: thank you so much. I'll put a link to everything we talked about, uh, the books he mentioned, the, uh, opportunity to work with you guys. Everything will be in the show notes, and I thank you again for taking the time to come on here and speak to. 

Roman Cresto: Yeah. Yeah. This is really fun.

I appreciate you having me. Thank 

Ismail Humet: you.

If you're listening to this show, I know you're probably looking for things to invest into or businesses to start. In my opinion, this is something that's worthy of serious consideration. As we mention on the show, it's also probably the best time of the year to start an e-commerce store so that you'd be set up and ready to go to take advantage of the fourth.

and to be honest with you, I'm most likely gonna jump on this opportunity as well. Personally, as you heard in our conversation, it requires a significant investment to start. But I spoke with Roman and he was generous enough to offer very special pricing exclusively to bound to be Rich listeners. On top of that, if you actually take action and start an eCommerce business with Roman, I will personally write you a $1,000 check to help you get.

you could put that towards buying inventory, buying a new laptop, whatever you want. But, and this is very important. You must tell them that I referred you, whether it's on your first call with them or in the form that they send you. Otherwise they won't know to give you a special rate. And I won't know whether to give you the thousand dollars check.

As far as I know, there's no other deal like this anywhere. Um, so why would we do this? You may be wondering. People like Roman and companies like Empire E-Commerce or, or any other company, pay a lot of money to people to send them referrals. So I spoke to Roman and I thought it made a lot more sense to just, uh, instead of giving me all that money, give you much better rate, give you the discount, and give you some money to get you going.

I think that makes a lot more sense. And honestly, uh, nothing would make me happier than if people listening to the show started a business because of the show. Became successful and then came back on the show as a guest for me to interview. I think that's a great full circle thing to experience and I can't wait for that to happen.

I'll include in the show notes a great presentation where Roman and his leadership team explained the opportunity in a lot of detail. I actually watched just myself, There's also a bunch of other interviews with their clients that you can watch. I know some of them personally, and that's how I first came across Roman.

Of course, do your own research to make sure it's something that's a fit for. I hope to be writing many checks. Good luck, and there you have it. If you enjoy this episode, please remember to leave a review. I may even give you a shout out and read yours out on the show for any and all resources that we discussed.

Check out the show notes or head on over to bound to be rich.com. Until next time.

Decision to drop out off college.
Obstacles faced
Physical & Mental fitness
Psychedelic effects.
Building a right TEAM.
Message from Sponsors.
More about Empire E-com.
Finding the RIGHT product
Amazon vs Walmart
Capital Structure & Opportunity.
Reason for working in Partnership.
Best book for reading.
Any hint of future successful entrepreneur as a young kid.
What is a rich life to you?
Thank You & Wrap up!