Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur

💡 Founder of @ScorchMarker | World-class USA craft supplies
🔍 Building in public—sharing mistakes & real numbers
🎥 1.6M+ friends | Watch on YouTube

[Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur @vanadergrowth]

Because once you have good organic content you just have to amplify the best ones with paid ads.
That's how we do. and its working spectaular.

So fix the fundamentals first. Then scale.

[Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur @vanadergrowth]

Lesson 4: Get Your Business's Fundamentals Right.

That means understanding your finances. having clean books. getting your shipping systems in order, etc.
Because if you scale on a weak foundation, the business will eventually come to collect that debt.

[Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur @vanadergrowth]

Bonus point: Make sure customers are spending more than $50 per order and figure out how to get attention.

Nobody is going to stumble onto your Shopify store randomly. So make good short form videos.
It takes time to get good at it, but learn that skill early!

[Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur @vanadergrowth]

Most founders price too low in the beginning and wonder why nothing is working. This is usually why!

[Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur @vanadergrowth]

Lesson 3 - Your product needs enough margin to survive!

If there isn't enough profit per sale, you can't cover the rent, the overhead, the R&D, the shipping, or any of the other costs that quietly eat into your business.

[Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur @vanadergrowth]

Here's the simplest way to figure out if your margin is right-
Take whatever it costs to make your product and multiply it by 5. That gives you an 80% margin automatically.

If it costs you $5 to make, you need to be selling it for $25.
Not $15. Not $18.
Sell it for $25

[Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur @vanadergrowth]

Once you know your numbers, start spending based on your profit and not your revenue.
It will save you a ton of headaches as you start growing.

[Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur @vanadergrowth]

Day 2 of e-commerce lessons most founders only learn after losing money.

[Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur @vanadergrowth]

By the time you subtract everything out, you're left with a much smaller number at the bottom - and that's your actual profit.

The only way to know your profit is by tracking it.
You need to know where every dollar is going so you can see what you're actually keeping.

[Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur @vanadergrowth]

So if you are trying to launch a product online, try to price it above the $40 mark or combine products that increase the average order value.

[Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur @vanadergrowth]

Day 1 of teaching harsh e-commerce lessons that most product founders only learn after losing money.

Lesson 1 - Never try to sell anything online for less than $40!

[Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur @vanadergrowth]

The fix was building a bundle, three packs of Scorch Paint and launching complementary products like sanding kits, pre-treatment, etc., to push the average order value above the $40 mark.

That's what made the numbers work.

[Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur @vanadergrowth]

Beginner vs Expert Business Operator
#ecommerce

[Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur @vanadergrowth]

The brands that win aren't doing anything flashy.
They know their numbers, they manage their inventory, they price correctly, and they stay focused on the fundamentals.

Most of it is just plain unsexy. That's exactly why most people skip it.

[Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur @vanadergrowth]

The difference between brands that are winning and brands that are struggling isn't some secret strategy.
It's painfully unsexy!

[Evan Van Auken | Entrepreneur @vanadergrowth]

One of the biggest lessons was understanding margin.
I learned the hard way that I needed to be above 80% to have any chance at real profit.

I was pricing too low and wondering why nothing was working.