Manufacturing eCommerce Success – with Adam Baker

Curt Anderson  00:01

A Damon What’s up, dude? Happy Monday. Happy Monday, Curt. How are you? Man?

Damon Pistulka  00:07

I’m good. It doesn’t look like you’re in the typical broadcast studio

Curt Anderson  00:13

doesn’t look like I’m in my boring. Basement background does it looks a little different. Got a little glare? Right. So how’s how? Dude, I’m excited today. Can you tell?

Damon Pistulka  00:23

Awesome, awesome. Well, you’re sitting here with one of our friends. It’s awesome to be able to, you know to meet with people in person. Oh, watch out for the seagulls. We might get attacked by the sea. So,

Curt Anderson  00:35

happy Monday. How was your weekend?

Damon Pistulka  00:37

Good was awesome. Awesome. Great weekend.

Curt Anderson  00:39

Great weekend. Great weekend here. So hey, I am with my dear friend. I’m he’s right here. He’s in person. He’s here. He’s right next to me. Look at that. He won the only Adam Baker’s here today, dude. Happy Monday.

Adam Baker  00:53

I’m much better now. I had a nice meal to hang out with you guys. Oh, gosh.

Curt Anderson  00:58

Dude, this is like just so good. So Adam offered to come on the program. You know, he needs need to be a better judge of character, Damon, you know, but he joined us on the program today. And I just in all seriousness, Adam is just such a dear friend, war hero, veteran Air Force captain and in the service to served our country proudly thank you for your service. Just a fierce advocate for entrepreneurs. We just have so much to unpack today. So, Adam, let’s let’s kick things off. Damon. Should we just kick it off? Like just let’s just get going. You know what? It’s a beautiful day. So I’m here. I’m on Chautauqua Lake. In New York. It just absolutely breathtaking view. It’s a perfect day today. And I’m just here with you. I’m here with Adam Smith. And I’m your little boy growing up. Who was your hero? Who was your hero? When you’re a little guy growing up? He’s a Pittsburgher by the way, so he’s a Pittsburgh, man. So who was your hero?

Adam Baker  01:55

I don’t know if I ever remember having a hero as a kid. I think as I got older, it became my mom. Oh, wow. Yeah, I love to tell you some cool like story of some hero like some firemen that saved my life. But my mom was a mucker and a grinder it just like she had to balance a whole bunch of stuff and and I was just like, as I got older as a man she is.

02:20

She’s your hero. Hey, did

Damon Pistulka  02:22

1. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  02:23

what a great answer, man. So hey, mom. You know, Damon, I know our moms are heroes. You know? Hey, hey, how about this man? We got a follow up. Pittsburgher here is in house today. So hey, you know, maybe maybe think about maybe one of the oh, there’s right maybe. So but what’s mom’s name? Becky, Becky. So alright, big shout out. We’re dedicated the program to Becky. And we’ve got a ton on Pat today. So, guys, Adam Baker, we have so much to uncover. So let’s go here. So mom’s a hero. And dude, you go off into the service talk. Talk to us like, Yeah, let’s go through that journey going into the service. I know. You’re a pit grad? Right. Duquesne and master’s degree Correct. Yeah. And goes into the services hear that story.

Adam Baker  03:06

So So I went to service right out of high school Nice. All of us did all my mom’s kids we all went to the service that was we kind of figured the way she she rolled the house, it was easier to go to boot camp than it was to live with her anymore. So we all want

Curt Anderson  03:21

a piece of cake. Right? Yeah, she prepared

Adam Baker  03:25

but left for the service and installation in Oklahoma working out in the airfield in Oklahoma and have some really really good leaders invested in me nice had an opportunity to get out and go back to Pitt and get my degree and get my commission. So did that went back in? try my hand at flying, I suck at flying. So if you ever see me the airport, hope I’ve got luggage and not on a flight suit. So I wasn’t very good at that. But I had an opportunity then to transition to a leadership role leading about 50 Young airmen to a security forces in nuclear security. Ate that up. I loved it because I could then pour into them what others had poured into me. Yeah. And so we did that and and then had a chance to deploy to Iraq and work work. A special project in Iraq. Did that in about a minute and a half encapsulate two years?

Damon Pistulka  04:22

So did you say nuclear security?

Adam Baker  04:24

Yes, nuclear security. They didn’t know me. I wouldn’t trust it.

Damon Pistulka  04:30

Because hey, that’s pretty serious stuff.

Adam Baker  04:33

Yeah, yeah. It was. It was such a cool. It was so different because I really liked getting into the gray areas and the creativity and nuclear security is no gray whatsoever. Yeah, yeah. And and everything is really well defined. So it was just an interesting experiences. I probably wouldn’t have sought after. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  04:52

okay, man. All right. And we can’t go Pat. Let’s, let’s take that another step further. Does that have like any particular stories like anything? Do you want to share your experience for Iraq? Again, thank you for your service. Guys. We’re here with Adam Baker. drop us a note. Let us know that you’re out there and you absolutely want to connect. Hey, Diane Byers. Diane. Happy Monday, my friend. Yeah. I mean, Diane next month, so I can’t wait for you know, that’d be bad. Just trying to meet everybody in person, demon. Road, man. So

Damon Pistulka  05:20

there you go. Yeah, cuz I was thinking back to the nuclear security. I mean, you wouldn’t want somebody to, you know, be in a groggy state waking up and hit the wrong button. That’s not the right thing.

Curt Anderson  05:30

Damon that that would not that would not that. So alright, young guy. You know, what was your first impression you land in Iraq? Like, let’s go there. Like what? Yeah, what was your experience? Honest?

Adam Baker  05:41

Yeah, I had

Damon Pistulka  05:45

a long trip.

Curt Anderson  05:46

It’s a long trip. It’s a long trip, right?

Adam Baker  05:49

So you get out there, though. It’s very different. It’s just it’s, it’s highways, nothing really there. But everything we saw on the news was very different from the interactions we have with the people. Okay, so we were at a Ford operating base, that there was, there was a community just south of us. But they were, they were hit pretty hard by insurgents. And so what would happen is, we had a medical facility, there were no real other medical facilities there. So these children that you know, they were driving, they maybe get hit by a roadside bomb, they’re charred their parents are bringing them to our facility. So so the way the civilians appreciate this was very different than the way it was portrayed on the news, you know, so. So it was just it was different. It wasn’t what I was expecting, right off the bat. What was really interesting, that was the reason I went over there. We were doing a, it was cost reduction, we want to see how do we reduce the cost of the warfighting effort without reducing our ability to fight the war? And so I got to be part of a team that that’s what we looked at. We said, everything was on the board, like, what can we do? And so my part was, we ended up hiring Ugandans who were kidnapped as children and learn how to fight. But then as adults, they didn’t know what to do with that, that knowledge. So we hired them as contractors, that way we could release some of the military personnel, they took over security. And we would they’d sign a three year contract, they’d make about $2,000, a year, after those three years that they could go home and retire as kings. You know, they’ve never had to work another day. Right? So benefit everyone. So when you’re talking about like, well, I learned that was the moment I realized, like there’s a way to reduce costs without impacting efficiencies, and where everyone can win. Right. And that was just right,

Curt Anderson  07:37

right, man. Are you curious to read into your career because we’re gonna dig into cost reduction here in a little bit? Yeah. But alright, so great. What inspired you to go to Pitt Duquesne. Let’s get into a little education piece here.

Adam Baker  07:48

So I went to Pitt because it was close to home. Like, you know, I was leaving Oklahoma. I was homesick. I just want to get back home. Pitt was 20 miles away from home. And I was like Pitts an easy decision. Duquesne, shout out to Duquesne. They have what’s called the Yellow Ribbon Program. Okay. And what they say Duquesne is a pretty expensive school. What they say is, if you are a veteran and you use your GI Bill, we will cover the rest of your tuition. So So is it cool. Yeah. So I was able to use my GI Bill, they covered the rest of it. It was it was great. I was working in area at the time, so I’d have to drive down on Saturdays do all my schooling, so it took a little longer, but, but we got it done. And it didn’t cost me any money. Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah, man.

Damon Pistulka  08:32

That is really cool.

Curt Anderson  08:34

What an inspiration. So Alright, great stuff here. So all right. Pitt, Duquesne, Captain in the Air Force. What does that what made you decide like, how about what was your exit strategy from the Air Force? What did that look like?

Adam Baker  08:45

I didn’t really have one to be honest. Yeah. So I had a couple job offers. So I targeted moving back to Western pa just because that’s, that’s what I enjoy. So I had a couple job offers some in Pittsburgh, London, Erie. And I’d never lived in Erie before. And so I told my wife Hey, that’s, let’s give it a shot. If we don’t like it, we’ll leave. You know, we. And we moved to Erie and we fell in love with the community. We will. Yeah, yes. So. So that’s what brought us to the community.

Curt Anderson  09:16

Oh, that’s awesome. Married a fine young lady from Montana. And so your I know your mother in law is visiting you right now. Right. And so

Damon Pistulka  09:23

that’s awesome.

Adam Baker  09:24

Yeah. Judy, may be the best mother in law in the world. You know, she’s, she’s terrific. So she was married to a Greenbrae officer in Vietnam. So like she you know, so she wrote me letters all the time when I was in Iraq. Yeah, it was just, she’s just she’s really, really thoughtful. So shout out to Judy.

Curt Anderson  09:43

All right, man. Damon, so it’s just a great chat. Here are what man so yeah,

Damon Pistulka  09:49

so where this has gone on the site? Yeah, please, where we’re at in Montana. So here’s your way so Damon,

Adam Baker  09:56

I think you’d be familiar. So I always tell her if she has any more e she’d be in North Dakota girl. She’s right there and Sydney.

Damon Pistulka  10:03

Oh, yes. I’ve been in Sydney. We’ve talked about this before

Adam Baker  10:07

population 30 530.

Damon Pistulka  10:11

Day there.

Curt Anderson  10:12

That’s awesome. Hey, we got a couple of comments here say, Hey, here’s all Pittsburgh Adams. You need it. Let’s make it happen. We’ve got Diane, thank you for your service, Air Force, straighten up and fly. Right. My dad, I love Hey, big shout out to your dad there, Diane. So Alright, so let’s dive right in. So you get out of the service, you land, you start working for a utility company. So let’s, let’s go there.

Adam Baker  10:34

Yeah, I started working for a utility. My first job was really leading crews remotely, because when I was doing nuclear security, all my all my men were spread out over, you know, 400 miles, so I couldn’t see him. So we had to leave remotely. So I had that opportunity did well, I have an analytical background. So I got picked up to work for the president of companies as well. And so you know, I’ve got all these fun projects. Then I moved on, I led the line shops on the line and fell under me. And then ultimately, I moved over to leading the metrics and performance improvement teams. So we looked at, you know, how do we reduce the cost? How do we improve our efficiencies? Yeah. So which is right,

Curt Anderson  11:16

right, right, in your DNA. So talk a little bit about like the leadership that like, did you have mentors, leaders that you really looked up to admired from the service and Iraq, that you brought into your job as a leader at the utility company? Yeah.

Adam Baker  11:29

So every, it’s funny, you know, I had a friend in college, he said, you can take something away from every person you meet, you know, good or bad. So I had some bad leaders in the service and some good ones. And each one, I pull it a little bit from Can I kind of define my leadership style. But when we talk about mentors, and like people I reach out to and ask questions. I had a roommate in the Air Force. I actually just saw him last week he was in Niagara Falls. He was a guy that I could always reach out to and say, Hey, this is what’s going on. What would you do? What do you think he was always a straight arrow? And it could just shoot me straight? Right. Right. You know, but but we were cut from the same cloth. So it wasn’t a big jump for me to follow his guide.

Curt Anderson  12:10

Right. Awesome. Okay. All right. So utility company, you’re doing phenomenal work under the CEO. You end up transitioning, what do what, let’s, let’s go

Adam Baker  12:19

there. Yeah. So you know, there were a lot of things that happen, you know, the, maybe the final straw said, hey, you know, this, is we do all this work, and we find a lot of savings. And when we implement it, we don’t achieve the results. We were disappointed. And it happened time and time again, no matter who we worked with, we would hire outside consultants. And the big reason was, is because we would define we would define these plans, but it was up to somebody else to implement. And I said this is going to be frustrating my entire career if this is the way it shakes out. So for other opportunities. I come across Schooley Mitchell, where it says, Hey, we develop the plan, but we implement it and we monitor it, and that’s how we ensure success. Right? So it’s like, okay, that’s not in my wheelhouse. Right, like, right, so. So I started walking down the path of does this make sense for us? Right. All right. So

Curt Anderson  13:13

let’s go there. So Schooley Mitchell, I’m actually familiar with Schooley Mitchell, I’m the founder, Dennis school, he actually had a conversation with him on 100 years ago. So that was a great bond and in my head, so if you’re not familiar with it, it’s a cost savings opportunity. It’s a franchise model. And so you know, you go from military, you go into like, big Corp, like the utilities, like how many employees have 15,000 15,000 employees, and then you decide, you know, three young kids, right, you’re married, you’ve obligations, that type of thing. But you decide, like, like, you have the wherewithal and like the means of like, hey, this isn’t a good fit for me. What was like, what was that leap of faith and entrepreneurship, like?

Adam Baker  13:54

So? So I, when I pushed back, say, it wasn’t even entrepreneurship. It was, I would say owning a franchise is intrapreneur. Okay, yeah. Like, because I can’t, I can’t make up my own rules. Right. Right. Right. But I, I know, being in the service, I did really well being in utilities that do really well. I operate pretty well inside of a framework. So yeah, I’m not smart enough to create. So join the Club. But I do have enough cough disable if someone has something I think I can do it probably pretty well. Right. Right, looked at that.

Curt Anderson  14:30

Right. So jump is so still entrepreneurship, right? Like, like, like, you know, your your, you know, that paycheck goes away, right? Like, yeah, here’s money what is, right. So what walk us through that transition of like, you know, you come home or like, have a conversation with your spouse, family, mentors, kids. What was that transition, like?

Adam Baker  14:52

The big conversation was with my wife. So my wife and I are two opposite ends of the spectrum. Like, I will take a leap of faith If it works out, it works out. Yeah. My wife is very risk averse, right? And so when you’re in the utilities, no one’s ever gonna say, Hey, I don’t need utilities anymore. Right? So yeah, always very stable. So, it was the challenge was really convincing her. And she and I had lived a very, very frugal lifestyle to begin with. So we had money that we said, Okay, listen, if this doesn’t shake out, yeah, we’ve got this in worst case scenario. And if this doesn’t work out, we’ll move back into Montana with your mom. Yeah. And she said, Let’s do it. So if I go back to Montana, we’ll do it

Damon Pistulka  15:38

moved back to Montana.

Adam Baker  15:39

And that really wasn’t he said, You know, when we laid out what the worst case scenario right me right, it was like Well, that’s not that.

Curt Anderson  15:45

I think that is that’s a Frank Zappa song isn’t Damon, Montana, and but you know, for us older guys out there. So alright, so Alright, Plan B, is this okay? How did you when you when you go to work, and you’re like, Hey, I’m putting in my notice where people like, Dude, what are you crazy, or?

Adam Baker  16:01

Yeah, yeah. So it took a lot of people by surprise. Yes. And you know, pretty shocked that you would be dealing with it. Yeah. But but they also got it. Yeah. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  16:13

I’m bored. Right. So the entrepreneur itches, just calling and you just see you take that leap of faith. You’ve got me behind you supporting you, 100%. All in her. Her worst case scenario is I get the move back home to Montana. Right. So that sounds pretty good. So unfortunately for her, you’re very successful. So you’re not going back to Montana. You’re staying where you are. So let’s dig into what is Schooley Mitchell, how did it come on your radar? And how did you decide to make that plunge into franchise entrepreneurship?

Adam Baker  16:39

Yeah, so I, I got in contact with a franchise broker. And he did some analysis on me, Hey, do these personality tests send me your resume in school and Mitchell was one of the franchises that he brought to them, you know, so So as we look through it, yep, that makes sense. So, so that was really it was between frame Schooley Mitchell, and another franchise that does something very similar. But I went with Schooley, Mitchell because we aren’t limited by geography, the other franchise, you know, you can have Erie Pittsburgh in like Harrisburg, and said, Well, I’m closer to Buffalo than Harrisburg. No, that’s what you get. I’m not interested. Right. Eventually says North America as you always are. Wherever you wherever you go. Right. So let’s, let’s go with that. Right. There’s there’s also a different feel for Schooley Mitchell. And that is, you know, I, you talked about talking right at a school. You taught you pick up the phone, you call the founder, he’s still involved. So it feels like a family run business. You know, versus corporate conglomerate. Yep.

Curt Anderson  17:43

Yep. I love it. Okay, so let’s dig into Damon, you have a good time, or why I told you this is

Damon Pistulka  17:48

yeah, this is it’s it’s very interesting what you guys are doing, I mean, in how you help help companies, you know, reduce these costs a lot. Oftentimes, business owners don’t think about because they’re like, Hey, I gotta get I gotta make sure that this customer gets what they want, or this supplier didn’t deliver. And now we got to figure out what’s going on, but you’re like helping them go. Okay. Let us handle this. We’re gonna we’re gonna go through your costs. We’re gonna see where we can help you. Right.

Curt Anderson  18:17

I gotta go back. Hey, I got this comment from Dan bigger. I just noticed this one. Thanks, Dan. I feel like a movie star. I feel that hey, talk about movie star man. I’m hanging out with a movie star right here. Yeah, well, and hey, when’s it gonna be Schooley? Mitchell and Baker? That’s it? Hey,

Damon Pistulka  18:32

oh, there you go.

Curt Anderson  18:34

I tell you, you know, I love and dance shows up in the show because it makes my job so much easier because he, you know, he fires off on the questions. But let’s, let’s what is Schooley? Mitchell, let’s say what how do you make the world a better place that’s going to like what you guys do.

Adam Baker  18:47

So what we do, and I don’t want to say we’re auditors, because that’s probably not the right word. We’re more vendor Watchdogs. We’ll go in, and we’ll make sure that our clients are only paying for the things they need, right? And there’s a lot of times where you’ll buy something, and you don’t know if you need it, but you just have it and then you get you forget about it, you just pay for it over and over again. So what we’ll do is we’ll look to say, okay, what are you paying for? What are you using? Let’s get those things the lineup first, get rid of everything else. I was telling Curt earlier. A great example is for some of my clients on trash pickup days, I’ll go take a picture of their dumpster, because I want to see how full is that dumpster? Is it? Was it barely full, because if it’s barely full, then there’s an opportunity, maybe we’ll get a dumpster, we will use frequencies. So those are the things that they don’t get thought about, you know, so So we’ll look at those. So that’s the first part of it. Then the second part of it is okay, now let’s go back and let’s negotiate the rates. Now that we’ve got only the stuff you need. Let’s go back and renegotiate the rates. We’ll do that with your current vendor. And then we’ll go out we’ll talk to some other vendors and we bring you back three options. You know, we will we’ll narrow it down. So you only have three options that you have to choose from. You make the decision on what you want to do. And that’s that’s basically it after, after they can agree or disagree. They say, hey, no, we’re not interested in any of them. That’s no harm, no foul, they might pass anything, right? If they do like one of our recommendations, then we will implement it at whatever level they want. Meaning some of my clients say, Hey, thank you for bringing this to me. I’ll pay you but I’ve got to handle this from here on out. Yeah. And other say, Okay, I’m, this is your baby, we want you to, you know, if we’re doing a phone system swap, we want you guys being the ones that lead that right. Then after that, during the time that we’re in a paying relationship, we become their point of contact for their vendor. So when they have issues with a phone, you know, they’re not calling Verizon, they’re calling me Yeah, and then we get taken care of for him, so they don’t have to,

Damon Pistulka  20:47

that helps in two ways there. Yes, they have the money, then you got the support?

Curt Anderson  20:52

That’s it, right? Yeah, it’s in in salutes and pay, like, you know, and I’m gonna be respectful. Like you’ve shared some really powerful examples. So again, you’re an entrepreneur out there, and Daymond, like we talked about all the time, you know, running 100 different directions, you know, it’s just, it’s absolutely impossible to cover every blind spot, you just can’t, every blind spot, and so which is so powerful, it’s just like hearing his examples, where I’m like, you know, man, just having a watchdog that, like, his whole incentive and motivation is to like, save the company money. That’s how he, you know, and he doesn’t make money, unless he saves you money. And so, you know, you shared a couple of examples of like, you know, maybe it’s a small nonprofit organization, but also you get underneath the hood. And there’s like, a whole huge savings opportunity you can like with with cell phones, and chicken, can you share a couple of those examples? Yeah.

Adam Baker  21:39

So so one of my I was telling her earlier, is I had a VP of a bank, you know, reach out to me sits on a board for a nonprofit. And he said, you know, they’ve got six people, is there anything you can do? Is it? Well, it’s probably a little small, but I’ll talk to him that way. At least I can give him some point or something and walk away with? Well, they have six employees, but they have 40, some 1099. So they pay for laptops, air cards, and cell phones. And so we’re looking and we’re saying, and so now we’re objecting like a $3,500 a month savings forum, because they were just, they’re all over the board and nonprofit, nonprofits and government we tend to find a lot of help for because they’re wearing so many hats. Yeah, then that is one of the last things to really get into the same right works. Leave it we’ve gotten a million other things to do, right. That’s a story we have. So it sounds like I’m doggone Verizon, Verizon. And that’s not the case. But Verizon is out to make money. So why calls me he says, he’s the president company says My phone battery will not last longer than 24 hours. I said, Okay, you know, tell me about what’s going on. And he said, Well, Verizon wants me to replace my phone. Well, of course they do. Because they’re gonna get you to sign on a contract by phone from. I said, Well, let me take a look at it. So they said, you know, and so we went through a couple of things. And they said, Okay, so I would replace the battery. try that first. So he replaces the battery, it doesn’t work. So like, okay, so Well, I’m gonna go replacement. So hold on. So I go out, I said, Give me your phone for two hours. I said, I did a couple things on it. You know, I showed off the Find My Phone, because I’ll tell you why we did that. But they didn’t show up, find my phone. And I drove around for two hours. And I compared his battery level to my battery level. And they were the same, like they dropped at the same amount. And what happened was, I don’t know if you know how air tags work. But like luggage, air tags, they ping Verizon phones that have find my phone on someone next to his building had air tags, and they were constantly pinging his phone draining his battery. And so Verizon wants to Verizon wants to sell my phone, which isn’t solving. Right, right. Yeah. So those are the things that like we try to dig into, because we want to save you money. We want to save your time. Right? So that’s yeah, those are the fun things.

Curt Anderson  23:53

Right? Right. Those are fine. Hey,

Damon Pistulka  23:56

Dan’s got it. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  23:58

what’s the most common area where a company can save, you know, and this is an let’s, let’s unpack this. And so you know, say solopreneurs, you’re 10. And under 20. And under 50. And over, you know, there’s probably different, you know, capacities for, you know, not one size fits all by any stretch. But what are some, let’s get into some of the common culprits that you see.

Adam Baker  24:17

So, I would say it depends on the industry. Give me an example. So, car dealerships, credit card processing, is the big one for car dealerships, just if they’ve got a service center with them, people are paying with credit cards, they get, they get beat up pretty bad on those. So that’s one manufacturers, phones, phones, because it works. It you don’t want to be the guy in the manufacturing firm that makes a recommendation to save some money, and it doesn’t work. So everyone’s a little alone. You say hey, if it’s not broken, leave it alone. Yeah, so So 100% Yeah, on the manufacturing side, you know, I always say phones for you From the E commerce side, it shipping, you know, especially if you’re doing B to C, you know, b2c shipping, you really want to negotiate that. Every box you send to a home. You get a surcharge. Yeah. Residential surcharge. Yeah. So you want to put as many items in one box as possible? Because even if you send, if it’s two boxes, and they’re shipped together, that’s two different search boxes. Yeah, yep. So put them all together. But also try to negotiate down that surcharge. That’s one of the big ones we hit. And we’re able to cut that surcharge in half by about 50%. Right. So you want to try to hit on that. Also, the weight of the packaging, like Amazon, I know Amazon has too much money based on the amount of packaging they put in a box, because you want to fill that box as much as possible, because you are going to pay, you’re going to pay either the size of the box or the weight, right. And when they sent me, you know, iPod Mini, and a box that can fit a refrigerator i Yeah, they paint. So it really depends. But what I would say is more instead of looking at something specific, it’s just really turn on that mindset to start questioning. Can this be done cheaper without reducing my service? Yeah. And that that a great example is me last week with QuickBooks. I’ve been paying way too much for QuickBooks for two and a half years, only because I didn’t know enough about it. And I didn’t have the time to question it. Last week, I dug into it because I got another notification it was going up. I dug into it. And I talked to somebody that was knowledgeable about it. And I reduced it. I’m paying 25% of what I was paying before without losing any of my service, right? Yeah, no, it’s just it’s it’s having that mindset of okay. Do I need all this? Right? Can I reduce this call? Right?

Curt Anderson  26:50

All right, man. Tons unpack, right. Yeah.

Damon Pistulka  26:53

Yeah. I mean, everything from the simple stuff, like you said, cell phones, cell phone packages, but you look at a small manufacturer, you can easily have 1015 phones that you’re paying for every month, right? Yeah. And it can Yeah, just I will say that,

Adam Baker  27:08

I will say this for manufacturers, manufacturers, if you have an elevator, check to make sure that phone line does not have call waiting, you would be surprised how many times we find elevator phone lines with call waiting. They don’t need it. They don’t need it, but it’s on there. So they’re paying it. And like it’s a small amount, but it’s those little pieces that just they

Curt Anderson  27:31

just eat away at you. And you know, you think like, and you know, so many software and SaaS products that, you know, like, yeah, 10 bucks here, 20 bucks there, $30 there, and then all sudden, you’re like, you know, as a solopreneur those things add up. But when you’re 1020 100, you know, 1000 person entity, like, you know, you multiply that these numbers add up pretty quick, you know, and so, you know, just having an eagle eyes again, to cover these. You know, I want to I want to dig in a little bit on a couple of things there under shipping, let’s talk about for folks that are shipping, you know, name of the show manufacturing ecommerce success, you know, so folks that are shipping, let’s dig into, like, how can you negotiate with UPS, FedEx, let’s dig into some of those shipping opportunities.

Adam Baker  28:12

So what you want to do, so FedEx and UPS aren’t going to call you and say, Hey, move to another one. Yeah. And in one of the things that I try to convince my clients is you have a rep, but that rep doesn’t work for you. Right? That rep works for that company. So he’s not, I know you have a good relationship with them, but he’s not looking out for your best interest, he may take care of you. But at the end of the day, he’s his job is to make money for his company. So don’t wait on your rep. To call you to say, Hey, your volume has increased x amount, you’ve now moved into this level of discounts, right? That’s, that’s really on the business to go after that and say, okay, you know what, judging by what we did six months ago, to what we did a year ago, I think we’ve got more volume. And let’s go ahead, and that’s that’s trying to negotiate this. Yep. That would be a big one. Access Oriole fees are something that those those you can negotiate those are completely up in the air for negotiation. So you could go through line by line to try and try and negotiate. But what’s interesting about shipping curtain in Damon, when you reduce the cost of that package, you reduced the cost of some of those x or SS Oriole fees, like the fuel costs, right? So so you don’t even have to negotiate the fuel costs just by negotiating the price of that package being shipped, right you’ve you’ve reduced that fuel costs, so it builds on itself. So just being knowledgeable, and then this is where your your rapper, your broker, this is where they can be your friend. If you’re finding that you get a lot of address correction fees. You can talk to them and say hey, let’s sit down. I want you to figure out how this is if you’re if your box size and if you’re getting audits and your box sizes are wrong and there recharging for that. They will sit down with you and they’ll help you correct it if you ask. Yep. But they aren’t, they aren’t going to call you and say, Hey, I noticed this, let’s fix

Damon Pistulka  30:08

it for you. No, because that’s easy money.

Adam Baker  30:10

That’s exactly right. That’s exactly. They want to keep you. So they’ll help you.

Damon Pistulka  30:15

Yeah. And when you’re you know, because there are a lot of ecommerce shippers are different 1000s of orders every week. If you’re doing DSD, right, you’re gonna easily 1000s. And, you know, auditing every single shipment to see that every single shipment was a build, build correctly, first of all, just build correctly. And then to that all the associated charges were, were negotiated down as low as they can. It’s huge.

Adam Baker  30:45

So Damon, this will blow your mind. But our team used to do that line by line manually. Every one of our so now we’ve built software that way, every Monday morning, now we just download our clients files, put it in there, and it flags each one that hey, this is wrong, this is wrong. But we yeah, we did that manually. And it’s not something that anybody wants to do. There’s no one in your organization is gonna volunteer.

Curt Anderson  31:10

Yeah. Oh, my God, dude. So 100 years ago, when I had my E commerce business, I like that was one of my tasks like I would ever, you know, in like, we, you know, our volume started, you know, we were shipping some decent volume. And I’d sit there and that was like, when when DIM weight if you guys aren’t shipping, you know, your Yeah, that came into play, like the oversize back then and in Empire for way, like, you know, like, I would eke out like every credit, but like, how much time did I spend on that were like, I wasn’t working on my business. I’m working in my business trying to save $100 on my on my weekly UPS bill. So this is at what a great service that you’re providing to to help folks. Let’s slide into credit card processing again, you know, so for folks that are, you know, Dan, you know, you and your wife are absolutely killing it with your business, and I love what you’re sharing on LinkedIn. But you know, those credit card fees can just really nickel and not even nickel and dime, and they add up per transaction? How can any tips and advice on how people can really attack that that credit card opportunity? Yeah,

Adam Baker  32:12

so So let me start with a disclaimer is that you’ve got to be very, very careful. And that a lot of businesses are doing surcharges, right or cash discounting, you’ll see the little sign by the register that says, you know, if you use a credit card, we’re going to charge you X amount. Visa just released that if they’ve got criteria that you’ve got to you’ve got to abide by. And if you don’t abide by it, they can do a few things, either they can say we will no longer allow you to accept Visa credit cards, or will find you $25,000. So a lot of people are trying to find a way to absorb to offset those fees, because they are getting so high. Yeah, I would be very, very careful when someone says, Hey, we can implement, you know, a cash discount or surcharge fee. So that’s the one I would say, That’s a great tip. The other is you can negotiate on the processing fee. So what typically happens when when people are accepting credit cards, they’ll say, Oh, my effective rate is 2.17. Don’t worry about the effective rate, you want to know what are you paying for each transaction, because that’s, that’s what really matters. The credit card processing, there’s a few things that go into it. But the big the big important pieces are the credit card company wants a piece of it. And the processor wants a piece of it. The credit card companies you’re not doing anything about they set their fees in April and October. And they are what they are. The processors however, you can negotiate those, the struggle is finding out exactly how much your processor charges you. And so you know, there, there’s ways to do it, depending on how you’re set up. But what you want to find out what is your processor charging you because that’s what you want to negotiate. If you’re a if you’re a company manufacturer, that great example, you do high dollar amounts, but few transactions, that’s where you want to go to a lower percentage, but a higher per transaction costs like a flat rate for your transaction, I’ll pay 15 cents per transaction, if this gets me down a couple of percentage points, because that makes a big difference when you’ve got a purchase. Those would be those are kind of the levers that you pull on just the opposite for restaurants. That doesn’t make as much sense you’d rather go the percentage and take the per per swipe down, right. Okay,

Damon Pistulka  34:36

man, and it’s it is it’s amazing too, because I have helped some clients do this in the past. The complexity again, just like shipping, credit cards. Ah, yeah. Yeah, it

Curt Anderson  34:48

adds up dramatically, man. Hey, Whitney Houston, here is here today. So hey, Whitney. Awesome. Here she is up here. Whitney Houston. Happy Monday to you my friend and Couple of comments saying customer and supplier relationships are two ways when companies get busy and don’t have time to follow up the best way bottom line to do exactly this love it was Dan say here, there are also other payment methods like Venmo and others that do not charge fees. Dot dot dot. Yes. Yeah, very correct my error, right? Yeah. So, yeah, a lot of other apps or opportunities. But again, on E commerce, you know those variables, you know, you’re stuck with your fixed expenses. But if you can attack those variables, and just get those down and dirty, just you know, and it’s, it’s really just doing some due diligence, and, and trying to determine, Okay, what do I have time to do? You know, I always get accused of stepping over dollars to pick up dimes, Damon, you know that, but when you can align with an expert, you know, like Adam and his team at Schooley Mitchell, and they can pull that off your plate, they have your back and just cover those blind spots. Let’s come, let’s go here, what are others, we’re talking shipping, credit card, cell phones, any other things that you want to throw out there, waste

Adam Baker  35:57

is a big one. So So waste is a big one, because nobody pays attention to it. But if you so let me give you some rules of thumb, if your lid doesn’t close, you’ve got too small of a button, they’re gonna charge you for it, you’re laying your lid has to shut or they’re going to charge you an overage and they’re happy to do if there’s a bag outside, they’re going to charge you an overage. So it makes sure everything fits inside of there. But also make sure when they pick it up that that bin is full, you don’t want them to come in because waste is similar to shipping waste has a lot of excess Oriole fees, if we can get that dumpster cost down, it reduces all those extra access Oriole fees as well. So and the other thing to try to negotiate up front is waste is if let me if you can get into the waste business getting the waste, yeah, near impossible to fail, because every fee that you incur as a as a company, you can pass on to your credit. So see, what you want to do is when you’re looking at your contract, you want to try to negotiate what they have is they have inflationary rates that they can increase every year, they leave it in there, you want to put a cap on that. Alright, because what happens is their cap is like 25%, you want to cap it at like eight 10%? What does that do? It Dornier guarantees, they’re gonna raise your rates to 10%. But what it also does, it protects you from going all the way up to 25%. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  37:26

yeah. Yeah. Dan, what a bunch of garbage. Yes, that’s true. So one of the things that we were able to do in some of the past companies I manage is, you know, you really have to look at what you can recycle. And that changes to I mean, what you can recycle changes, because depending on demand, but, you know, we were in some of the places where we were doing, like wood, wood products, there’s a ton of a ton of waste. But there’s also a ton of recycling, if you find the right places. And man you can be you can be throwing big, big big dumpsters out, roll off kind of things a couple times a week, if you’re not careful. And taking that from a cost and turning it into just a break even is is a wonderful thing,

Adam Baker  38:17

if you can, so if you can find someone to buy those or take those, that’s the best because here’s what happens with recycling is recycling has what’s called at RMO. Or its recycling material offset fee. So because Waste Management’s all over, we use waste management. When you recycle, waste management has to pay someone to take that typically China, well China says, well, it’s costing us more to break this down. So we’re going to charge you Well, every good waste company says not to me, you’re going to charge them. So they’ll hit you with a recycling material offset. And that charges all the time based on what they sow. It’s almost to the point where you say, like, how can I get rid of this where someone will pay me where they will take it for free. That way to recycling, I have to go to the dumpster. Those are those are the best case scenarios that you can run. Right? But if you’re gonna damage your right if you can’t, if you can’t get rid of it free or for some money, try to recycle as much as you can. Because it’ll be it’ll be cheaper than your dumpster.

Damon Pistulka  39:17

Right? Yeah. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  39:20

All right. So let’s let’s go here. So Adam, it’s like it’s in your blood and your DNA, you know, saving folks might you know, like, how rewarding is it? Like, just share some of the success stories just like when people are like, Oh my God, dude, thank you. And like, what are you hearing clients like with a savings what, you know, other opportunities that they can slide into?

Adam Baker  39:37

You know, it’s funny, so the way I know they appreciate no one really ever is as excited about the savings as about the time and effort that we saved them like, like he if you read the testimonials that folks write me, they always talk about like the time and the time and energy and the knowledge that we give them. That’s what they’re most excited about. I know they like the money savings because they open up other categories say well, you look at this Yeah, yeah, yeah. But But that’s really I think, I think the money piece is nice. It’s like, okay, that was not what made us do it. But I think they really appreciate the fact that we take care of them after the

Curt Anderson  40:13

Educate they they know you care. Yeah. You know, it’s, you’re educating them, you’re taking care of them. And you know, I was at when I talked to my accountant, I’m always like, you know what, I don’t have a problem paying taxes. I have a huge, huge problem paying unnecessary taxes. Yes, like, everything we’re talking about, are these, you know, hey, I’m gonna pay my you know, like, you know, my, my, my account, you say, you know, like, hey, I want to pay tons, you know, pay your UPS driver 1000s. Because that means you’re shipping 10s of 1000s. But I just want to ship any, I don’t want to pay any unnecessary 1000s. Yes. So you know, I just love those success stories. And you know, that showing that you care, and so on. And so, talk about the future. And then last question I’m going to slide into is, he just got his veteran business owned, certified. Oh, awesome. So again, guys, if you’re just joining us, drop us a note, let us know you’re there. Most importantly, connect with Adam Baker. He can he can help any entrepreneur nationwide. He has free rein, he helps you with dramatic cost savings. But let’s What do you excited about for the future moving forward? At Schooley, Mitchell, what’s on the horizon?

Adam Baker  41:16

You know, so we’ve just partnered with a couple different organizations, you know that they focus on things that are a little different than we weren’t? We’ve We’ve partnered with one that they work with manufacturers to flag all of the government subsidies that they qualify for.

Damon Pistulka  41:32

Oh, oh, yeah. I’ll close out. Tons of those. Yeah.

Adam Baker  41:36

So So we partner with them, because they can help them get the subsidies, we can help reduce costs. So they’re getting money from a few places. Partner with another one they do. They work with the government to help them get money from their delinquent taxes. So So that’s, that’s a shame because it opens up some different possibilities for us. You know, but you talked about my veteran owned business certification. Yeah, that that took a long time to get and I’m really proud of that, because now it opens up the opportunity to work with the state and the federal government. When we go back, and we look at specific industries of who do we save the most money, government, we find the most savings? We do? We find the most savings for government. You know, now, here’s the thing that we have also found is that our government entities will not will not talk very highly of us in one of my school districts. And then I got he told me, he sent out and he said, Because I said, Hey, if I do well for your referral for me, and I said, why he said, because every voting person in this municipality is going to come after us saying that we weren’t, we were mismanaging. Yeah. Everyone else’s. So so our government, our government, clients, we do really well for they don’t want anybody to Yeah.

Curt Anderson  42:55

Not a district in the Northeast. Yeah. Give it really, very.

Adam Baker  43:02

It’s funny, because one school district I have they said, No, give our name out and tell us because we saved them, like a couple $100 a month, but they call us all the time to handle the Verizon issues. Yeah, they’re working out. Yeah. I mean, they definitely want they want that

Curt Anderson  43:14

one. Yeah. I mean, that in itself is just I think, God, let me I think Dana had a nice comment here. Adam handles what your accounting department cannot handle as they are handling those issues that have been more significant priorities. Howard these hidden expenses, man, isn’t that the truth? Like they’re, like, just like little prizes, you know, like could nipping at your toes. greatness in action. Diane, thank you for the wonderful comments. Dan says I’m sure the government is we, Dan, come on the governor up a box. We won’t. This is a goldmine for you. Yeah, that’s, that’s awesome. So again, congratulations on your veteran status. And this is just so so if there’s, there’s a company out there, there’s a contractor, there’s a manufacturer and like you know, say they have an opportunity to bid on a nice, exciting project, especially that falls on Adams wheelhouse. They can align and partner with Adam. And he can be you know, forefront contractor subcontractor, you know, so there’s multiple ways that you can partner with people. So this is really just you know, so well deserved for serving our country and you know, what you went through in Iraq and what have you would have would have just wonderful benefit for entrepreneurs to take their business to the next level. So congratulations to you on that. Thank you. Yeah, very, very exciting. So alright guys feel the love time’s up here man and what a beautiful so guys if you came in like man, we’re hanging out. We’ve got a beautiful look at the view and and as Damon has view. It’s yeah, we’re just it’s a beautiful day. Beautiful. Last day, July. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  44:48

that’s happened. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  44:49

I don’t Yeah. I don’t know. Let’s see, can we get without without messing up everything. Let me see if I can show. Can I show everybody this is the view that we have here. So how’s that look? Just a wonderful view. We had a nice little lunch here. Just thought we would share it with everybody. So let’s start winding down here, Damon. I know Hey, I just want to give a shout out to everybody here hanging out with us today again, share this man and family. Yeah. Any any veterans, any friends of yours that are veterans entrepreneurs share this. If you have entrepreneurs, manufacturers that are looking for cost savings opportunities, boy, get them in touch with Adam. So dude, you’re Pittsburgh, right? Is that what you said? Steelers? Are you pirates? Are you pirates? Oh God, I am It hurts. It hurts. Because it hurts. Damon, I don’t know. Are you baseball fan? Damon just a little bit right I’ve watched a couple of games you watch a game or two so Damon? Uh, he’s very fact when demon I met I’ll never forget you had you were coaching Connor your son baseball. And that was like one of our big connections. You know, we’re diehard baseball fans. So I’ve been a few pirates games, you know? And oh my gosh, I was very I was there. Barry Bonds. I was there for a playoff game with like back with Bobby Bonilla and all those guys. Like so I was back in like the late 80s, early 90s. But let me throw a hypothetical at you guys. It’s just purely I’m asking for a friend Damon. Right. Just pure hypothetical. Say. Let’s say we’re hanging out the pirates game. Yep. And I don’t know there’s like there’s a guy on second base. And it’s bottom of the ninth. And it’s the it’s tie score. Like the pirate is tied score bottom of the ninth. There’s a guy on second. And the manager standing there like, like, I got like, he’s got like a dinner appointment. Like he’s got to get we got to win this game. Right? So he turns on the bench and he looks and he sees Adam Baker and he’s like Adam Baker. Get up to the plate. Can you hit in this winning run so I can get out of here? As you’re walking up to the plate? What’s your walk up song what’s your what’s your walk up song when you gotta hit in the game winning run for the Pittsburgh Pirates. What?

Adam Baker  46:55

So the song that gets me pumped up. It’s so funny. I don’t even know the name of the song. If the kid rocks on the ball with a ball, whatever. I don’t even know what the name of is what you put that’s what it’s called actually. Yeah, hear the bass and just like, Oh, I’m ready to go. We

Curt Anderson  47:13

Dane bigger is gonna Google that for us. So let’s go so so Kid Rock Daymond that’s the first time we’ve had Kid Rock on the program. So first time it’s on the record Adam Baker’s walk up song is Kid Rock. That’s gonna put that’s so now from now on every sales call. We might Kid Rock in the car right on your on your walking. When you walk into that sales call, right? We’re gonna get going.

Damon Pistulka  47:34

Yep, that’s all that’s how you can use. All right,

Curt Anderson  47:37

man. All right, so we’re gonna wind down So dude, thank you. Thank you, man. This was just what I tell you. It’s just you know, when you pre COVID This was like, What’s the big deal? We’re just going for lunch. But you know, when you come out at COVID It’s just like, it’s just such a blessing. Getting together with folks in person and you know, Dan bigger baby,

Damon Pistulka  47:58

the baby Hillsong eminence

Curt Anderson  48:01

you know what that I that’s for us older guys. That’s the WHO right there. So that’s I love that song. That’s a great walk up song. So hey, we want to give a big shout out everybody out there. Please connect with our dear friend Adam Baker. He is here to save you money make you money. Make your life look so much better. So wonderful dad, veteran war hero. It’s just such an honor and blessing to be in his circle. Such a pleasure having you on the program. So, Damon, we’re gonna enjoy the rest of this beautiful afternoon dude. So have fun, man. Hey, look, we got a great gig on Friday. Nicole Donnelly is going to be back on her vacation. We’ve got a wonderful guest from UB Tessa. So hey, Whitney Houston. I definitely got to come to Houston hang out with you. I got to come see what Slean so the winter happened in the wintertime. Not uncommon in wintertime. Yeah, we might wait for it’s a little bit cooler. So anyway, maybe October November, so I guess we’re gonna close out the program. wish everybody just an amazing, incredible week. God bless you. We’ll see you Friday, Damon. Thank you, brother. We’ll see us have

Damon Pistulka  49:00

a great week everyone. Thank

Adam Baker  49:01

you guys.