From Bootstrapped Beginnings to eCommerce Mastery: The Inspiring Journey of Alex Fedotoff
1. Please provide a brief introduction of yourself and your professional background.
I’m from Ukraine and started off as freelancer without speaking English or having any skills. I decided to focus on digital marketing as I saw some companies hiring for roles there on platforms like Elance and later Upwork. As I was self-learning skills of digital marketing I also was learning English. After few years of being a freelancer I discovered ecommerce and realized all of my skills of digital marketing are applicable to this business model. In the next 12 months after that, my e-commerce business has generated $4+ million in sales. I sold that business for 7 figures after that. We started opening more e-commerce projects and consulting other companies on growing their e-commerce sales.
2. Please tell us a bit more about your startup – what does it offer, what problem does it solve, and who is your target audience?
One of our companies is E-commerce Scaling Secrets. We provide training/ coaching and tools for aspiring e-commerce entrepreneurs. It solves a problem of a lot of wrong information on starting ecommerce business. We bring all of these resources together to create a perfect launchpad environment for eCommerce entrepreneurs. We help businesses to grow their sales from $0 to 6-7 figures and beyond.
3. What inspired you to start your own business? What was the “aha” moment?
The fact that I saw businesses from the inside and saw how they operate. That’s why I believe working for a company and learning behind the scenes how specific business operates is perfect before launching your own business.
4. What were some of the biggest initial challenges you faced in getting your business off the ground? How did you overcome them?
No capital. No skills. No English. Low self esteem (coming from Eastern European Post Soviet environment. All of those took years to work on and overcome and I’m still working on those until today.
5. How did you identify a gap in the market or need that your business fulfills?
I just asked people in the Facebook group if they would be interested in X. They responded and paid me. This way my idea was validated. Business idea can’t ever be validated until someone pays you money for it.
6. What has been your approach to funding your startup? Did you use your own savings, seek investors, crowdfund?
Own savings, working for other companies and gradually reinvesting back into the business. At some point business has become self-sustainable and started to fund itself. This is just one of the ways but I believe anyone can save money and invest it into their business idea.
7. How did you go about building your team and attracting talent in the early days?
On platforms like Freelancer.com, Fiverr and elance there is a lot of talent you can work with. I wasn’t very good leader in initial period. I didn’t know how to hire properly or what to look for. All of these skills come with practice and making lots of mistakes in my experience. We would simply go for the cheapest freelancer and those aren’t always the best. Overtime we learned how to pay more for quality / skills/ expertise.
8. What have been some of the toughest decisions you’ve had to make as a founder? Any stand out as pivotal?
Shutting down one of our stores because of lack of demand. We spent months developing a product, paying for inventory and when we started advertising no one wasted to buy it. Since then we are using a dropshipping model (selling products directly from the supplier ) without risking our capital. We only pay for a product after we sold it. This way we are validating demand without extensive risk. Once we validated demand, we brand products, improve the quality and buy inventory.
9. What have been your key strategies for growth and gaining traction/users?
We have mastered direct-response paid advertising. This means we are spending let’s say $1 on paid advertising and getting $2,3+ back from it. This allows us to predictably reinest into the business growth and has allowed us to grow the business the way we did.
10. How do you stand out from the competition in your space? What sets your product/service apart?
Our service business is full of practitioners and people who actively run eCommerce businesses. Most of the alternative training programs are run by people without practical experience and they aren’t fully aware of the newest strategies, what works currently etc. We are also constantly reinvesting into building better training/support systems to help our clients succeed.
11. What have been some mistakes or failures you’ve made along the way as an entrepreneur? How did you recover and learn from them?
There have been so many! The biggest ones are working with clients that didn’t pay their invoices after work was completed. Many hiring mistakes where we would keep people on a team that weren’t engaged or didn’t want to do what we hired them to do. It took us too long to realize this. I also spent tens of thousands of dollarson advertising and afterward realized I made my calculation wrong and instead of profit on paper I lost money. One of our websites had a server not working so it was offline. At the same time, we spent money on advertising which turned out to be a loss.
12. What do you know now that you wish you knew when you were first starting out?
I wish I knew better how to hire/motivate team members properly. This is by far the biggest skill in business and allows businesses to grow. Most likely you aren’t good at everything and delegating your weaknesses allows you to grow beyond your limitations. Let’s say you are good at marketing but bad at business operations. Then you need to find a good operator to complement your skillset for a business to grow.
13. What are the most important skills someone needs to be a successful founder, in your opinion?
I believe in empathy and self-awareness. Knowing what you are good at, bad at, and what motivates other people to do things you are bad at. Once you know it, you can incentivize them to do what you need for your business to grow. All while you focus on what you are good at.
14. What does a typical day or week look like for you? How do you manage work-life balance?
My work is life and my life is work. I work with my wife and she compliments my weaknesses. We take vacations 8-10 times a year as our business allows time and location freedom. I spend most of my days in meetings, business development, and maintaining relationships with my team and outside vendors/partners. I workout mid of the day in my office (we have a gym) and take 1-2 days off. Usually working on Saturdays because I love what I do.
15. What do you find most rewarding and most challenging about being an entrepreneur?
Time and location freedom. We can have vacation with my family many times a year and work from laptop/phone. Working with amazing people who are all phenomenal in their own skills. These are my favorite 🙂
16. What are some future goals or plans you have for your business in the next few years?
Getting our business to $100 mil. in annual revenue has been my goal for few years now and I believe 2024 -2025 we will be able to achieve it.
17. What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start their own company?
If you have a feeling inside of you to do your own business, go for it. Worst case scenario you can always get a job. But as go for it, understand that success most likely won’t be fast or instant. Build on small wins and enjoy the journey. There are many people on Instagram etc glamourize running a business but it takes few years of focused work and grind to enjoy the lifestyle you might see there. So set your expectations correctly and I’ll see you on the other side!
Alex Fedotoff’s journey is a testament to the transformative power of perseverance, grit, and a willingness to learn. His story serves as an inspiration to aspiring entrepreneurs everywhere, showing that with the right mindset and approach, anyone can turn their passions into successful businesses.
