EP 328: She Bought 50% for $17k, Now Does $1M Per Year in iPhone Repairs

Erica Douglass, a techie-turned-marketer who’s started Austin’s top-rated chain of phone repair stores. Erica’s business is entirely bootstrapped and profitable - they’re currently in 7-figure revenue and planning to double their store count in the next year. Listen in to hear how Erica tripled revenue in just one year, why small businesses need to leverage Yelp, and how to tell if your phone repair shop is lying to you. Famous 5: Favorite Book? – The Seth Books What CEO do you follow? — Elon Musk Favourite online tool? — Light Speed Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — That she had even more self-confidence than she did Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:15 – Nathan’s introduction 01:38 – Welcoming Erica to the show 02:02 – Austin’s top independent repair shop 03:05 – 7 employees at 2 locations - currently making 7 figures in revenue 03:55 – Erika’s computer crashed during a conference - her friend repaired it 05:25 – Erica bought into his repair business for $17k in 2014 05:27 – Total revenue in 2014 was $62k 05:36 – Total revenue in 2015 was $380k 05:47 – Erica drove growth by opening a new location targeted at college students 06:05 – On track to make over $1 million in revenue this year 06:31 – Make around 25% gross margin 06:45 – Planning to open two more locations this year 07:16 – Highest margin is on services like data recovery 07:40 – Around 700 jobs per month, at around $100 per job 08:22 – Apple doesn’t sell repair parts - there’s a whole market linked to China that repairs and recycles parts 09:30 – Erica has the highest Yelp reviews of any store in Austin 09:50 – It’s not possible to buy parts from Apple 10:29 – How do you value a business like this? 10:58 – What are the triggers that Erica looks at now she’s trying to buy a business? 11:46 – Yelp tries to monitor reviews to stop people gaming the system 13:18 – How do you differentiate a business somewhere that there’s not much brand loyalty? 14:22 – Yelp is the main tool that differentiates 1Up from their competitors 15:21 – Connect with Erica on Facebook 17:02 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: Yelp is a crucial tool for small businesses. Go the extra mile to make sure you’re getting those 5-star reviews. Have confidence in your skills and your abilities. Start your company sooner. You can drive incredible growth by tapping into the right location and market. 1Up took off after Erica found a location to target college students Resources Mentioned: Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives