588: Tariffs, Trade Wars, and Billion-Dollar Consequences

00:00
Welcome back to the podcast, the show where I cover all of the latest strategies and current events related to e-commerce and online business. this episode, Tony and I break down how tariffs and trade wars are quietly reshaping global commerce and what that means for your business and your wallet. From rising costs to supply chain chaos, we unpack the billion dollar consequences no one’s talking about. But before we begin, I wanted to let you know that this is the last call for tickets for Seller Summit 2025 over at sellersummit.com.

00:29
The Seller Summit is the conference that I hold every year that specifically targets e-commerce entrepreneurs selling physical products online. Unlike other events that focus on inspirational stories and high-level advice, mine is a curriculum-based conference where you will leave with practical and actionable strategies specifically for an e-commerce business. Every speaker I invite is deep in the trenches of their e-commerce business, entrepreneurs who are importing large quantities of physical goods, and not some high-level guys who are overseeing their companies at 50,000 feet.

01:00
I personally hate large events, so the Seller’s Summit is always small and intimate. Every year we cut off ticket sales at around 200 people, so tickets sell out fast, and we’ve sold out every single year for the past 8 years. If you are an ecommerce entrepreneur making more than $250,000 or $1 million per year, we also offer an exclusive mastermind experience with other top sellers. The Seller’s Summit is going to be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from May 6th to May 8th.

01:29
Right now, this is the cheapest the tickets will ever be. So head on over to sellersummit.com and grab your ticket. Now onto the show.

01:43
to the My Wife Could Her Job podcast. I go on a week vacation with my daughter to tour colleges and I come back and I feel like the whole world, all hell is broken loose. Yeah, you missed a crazy week. did miss a crazy week and I discovered that my daughter likes the East Coast, which makes me very sad because I want her to stay in California. Listen, you didn’t have to take her on a

02:09
tour of the East Coast, you could have just said, this is the only thing that exists over here in California. That’s where all the Ivies are. Now she just has to get in. That’s right. Which is the hard part. So I figured today we we talk about tariffs, trade war and what’s going on on TikTok with all the Chinese vendors and everything. Is it so is it just me? I feel like I can’t keep up.

02:37
I feel like every time that I try to like check the news or, you know, get into a TikTok algorithm, the information is changing, like the tariffs and then there’s not tariffs and there’s tariffs on this and then there’s like, it’s like to me, there’s not even like a true, like what’s actually happening. That’s actually the topic of one of my next YouTube videos, because you’re right, it changes like every week. And like I was literally gone a week and

03:07
You know, it’s on, it’s off, tariffs are on, off. Oh no, there’s some exclusions and whatnot. It actually already made the script for that. And who knows, it might be obsolete by the time I publish it. But it actually, you got to take some time to compile all the information because it’s changing. Yeah. So here’s my first question. Because I and I also doesn’t help that all of our friends are sellers, not all of our friends, but a good amount of our friends have e-commerce stores. And so they’re all posting on Facebook. They’re frustrated, understandably so.

03:36
fully can empathize with them. But so if you have a container on the sea currently, right? So your container was shipped, let’s just say last month. Are you paying the new tariffs or are you under the old like, is there a grandfathering period? How is that working? There was a clause where if your if your goods were already on the water before the reciprocal tariffs, they didn’t apply.

04:01
That was an old statement that was made. I’m not sure about the new reciprocal ones like the 125 % one or the 140 % one. The first set, there was an exemption. I’m not 100 % sure about the latter ones because I couldn’t find any written documents on that one. Yeah. And then my next… So I’m in full on tariff TikTok right now.

04:26
OK, with all the Chinese suppliers, which is it’s kind of interesting since I’ve actually been to China, which is like I’m seeing them walk through stuff and I was like, oh, this is legit. Like they’re really in China. Like this isn’t a this isn’t an AI generated scene. This is legitimate, like factories and stuff like that. But I saw this one guy on TikTok, which to me sort of embodied what I’ve been thinking about everything is, you know, because we’re doing reciprocal tariffs, right, which means we pay, they pay.

04:56
kind of thing. this guy is in he’s in China and he’s like, let me show you everything that I have in my home that was made in America. And he opens up both of his hands and they’re empty. Right. And then he’s like, what in your house is from China? And I was like, I don’t know everything, everything except for the people. So it seems to me that like. Are we exporting a lot of stuff to China? I I heard about the whole Boeing thing that just got China just canceled the Boeing order.

05:26
But I mean, it’s mainly like soybeans and some other stuff from from what I understand. Yeah, I do know this and I can only speak for the textiles, the textile factories. I think they’re hurting big time because right now we actually have an outstanding order where we put 30 percent down and we’re just going to delay it. Right. Yeah. And I know other people who are actually people in the class.

05:55
they’re not placing their orders right now. And, and there’s all these like leaked tick tocks from Chinese factories. saying everything’s empty. You know, um, you know, the, the, the workers have no work. Uh, they, or there was this another tick tock and these get taken down instantly, right? I guess by the Chinese government, there’s this one factory full of down jackets, cause the person who ordered them just canceled the order altogether. Yeah. And we have a mutual friend.

06:24
Brandon who ordered a container of shoes and I think his margins are only like 50 % or something like that. With 125 % tariff, what’s he going to do? Is he going to take it and lose money or break even or lose money? Or is he going to just refuse the shipment altogether and just lose all the money he invested into it? Yes, it feels like there’s no winning in that situation. Right.

06:54
But the factories are hurting. I’m almost positive. And even the messages from our vendors have sounded a little more urgent. Like place your order now. I’m like, I’m not gonna place order now. Right. So they’re hurting. And I’m pretty sure that the other countries like we, didn’t realize this, but I think we consume like a third of the world’s goods or something crazy like that. I’m sure we do. That feels low. So you cut that out.

07:21
Yeah, drastically reduce it. And then all these factories who’ve invested all this money in machinery, like the machinery has got to run. Right, right. There’s lots of issues when you shut the machinery down. And you know, they’re probably still paying bills on that. And so it’s got to keep going. Yeah. And so it’s a big game of chicken right now. Yeah. Yeah. I personally think we’re in a better position because the last time Trump came into office, we already kind of found

07:49
vendors in India and even the US and Europe, different parts of Europe. it costs more, but we’re shifting production and our stuff’s easy. Like we’re probably like a special case because we’re basically selling pieces of fabric, right? Right. But I imagine for someone where, you know, only China can make their product, it’s tough. You can’t just shift production really quickly either. Well, that’s the thing that I think is so fascinating is that

08:18
It’s not like if, well, all of a sudden it becomes unaffordable or not, it’s cost prohibitive to import from Asia, right, because of the tariffs. It’s not like you can just throw up a factory in Wyoming, right? Like there’s all sorts of things that go into that. And the other thing that I think is in this, I don’t want to get political, but like, have you ever lived next to a factory? I have not. So I live next to a paper plant.

08:48
Um, it’s just, it’s everything smells. It’s disgusting. um, like there’s a lot of, like, I don’t think people really want to live next to some of these production facilities, right? Like a lot of them are dirty, you know, the, the environmental impact is huge and it’s not like you can just throw up a plant.

09:08
and then get it staffed, Like you’ve got to, people have to relocate. There’s just like a whole big, it’s not like this can be solved in like 30 days. This is like a one to two year like process if you want to start manufacturing something somewhere else. I mean minimum. Like I think the Tesla factory took three years, something like that, the one in Austin. Yeah. So it’s like, well, even if you’re like, fine, that’s fine. We’re going to manufacture, you’re going to manufacture your own linens, right?

09:38
Well, that doesn’t you can’t just like all of a sudden put up a factory in your backyard. You know, it’s it’s much more complex than that, which I think makes things even more complicated for people. Although you were able to move some of your suppliers or you moved to different areas. Right. Like how realistic is that for other people like for you textiles? There’s definitely I feel like a bigger. Yeah. I mean, every country does them. It’s just right.

10:05
to varying degrees and we don’t even do anything fancy. It’s not like we’re making clothing or dresses or, you I mean, it’s literally a piece of fabric with lace around it. Right. So for us, it’s easier. And the last time this happened, you know, we were like, okay, let’s just make sure we have alternative sources in case stuff goes down. So we’re okay. I think, I mean, you know, it’s going to hit our margins, right? But our margins are pretty high anyways, so we’ll just make less money. But you know,

10:35
Even if we were to pay the 125 or 40, whatever percent it is right now, it wouldn’t affect us that much because of margins. I’m just thinking about the people who have like 50 % margins or 60 % margins. Like essentially, if you double the cost of the good, then you’re not going to be profitable. Right. And so here’s the thing, like these tariffs just hit so sudden without warning.

11:05
that you can’t even prepare. You can’t all of sudden charge double for what you’re selling, right? Right. Yeah. And you didn’t have time to like. So we say sudden. mean, I do feel like Trump campaigned on tariff. So like I think you could argue that you knew it was coming. I think we’re talking about 60. Well, right. No, no, I’m not like saying that. But like even even if you knew in November, that’s not enough time to change anything. Right. Like you probably already have stuff in production.

11:34
You know, like I know the timelines that we had, it was 60 to 90 days from like deciding. So even if you want could pivot, you can’t pivot that quickly. Oh, yeah, for sure. You can’t. So where I see this being hugely problematic is that so for you, for some of my clients, if this was me back, you know, when I have my e-commerce store.

11:59
You have you already have a customer base, right? So you can kind of leverage the fact that you have a customer base to continue to stay in business. But if you’re trying to launch a business, right, and all of a sudden your margins get chopped, right? So you are already probably I think when we when you first start out, your margins probably aren’t as great as they can be because you’re new and you don’t know what you’re doing. And and then you have to pay advertising costs, right? Because there’s no way you can just start a business and not spend money to get customers. Right. So

12:29
You’re spending money on people. That’s not true anymore, actually. Well, people are just launching on TikTok and so right. Right. But TikTok, mean, TikTok’s not cheap. Like if you’re using affiliates and coupon codes and things like that. just mean organic. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But I don’t think that’s everybody. Yeah. I think you have to understand TikTok to be able to do that well. And so I’m like, how do you even get started in e-commerce today? Because.

12:58
I was thinking it’s easier now. It’s easier to start than it is to have already had something running and have this thrust upon you. Interesting. I think the opposite, but maybe I’m not thinking about Well, I’m giving a workshop this afternoon, right? Right. And every time I do these workshops, I find a new product. Right. So this time, instead of going to China, I just clicked on India and the US.

13:25
Because when you’re first starting out, you have the option to shift your production right away from the start. Yeah. Right? Whereas if you already have stuff and you’ve already worked with this vendor for years designing something, then you’re in trouble. So, oh yeah, yeah. Our vendors had mold, stuff like that. We weren’t going to switch. So if you’re brand new, I wouldn’t say it’s easier, but like you have options. It’s much more flexible. Yeah. It’s not like you’re locked in. That’s a good point. Yeah, didn’t. I wasn’t really. I was thinking about it just in the like hard cost to launch.

13:54
Because it’s not like these tariffs affect only one person. They affect everyone. Yeah. And it’s just a matter of time before they run out of that inventory. And then everyone’s going to have to jack up the price. So if you’re starting out now, you have more flexibility over vendors and the playing field’s level, essentially. Yeah, I can I can see that. So. If you were thinking about like, OK, I guess the next question is if you have an existing business.

14:22
How do you jack up your prices without sending your people into a complete frenzy, your customers? So what I’ve seen so far, and I’m not sure if, actually you probably have noticed, I’ve been getting a lot of emails from stores that have said, hey, the prices are going up, this is your last chance to buy. Yes, I’ve seen that. And whatnot. What can you do as an existing vendor? You just have to…

14:51
What we’re doing is we’re actually going to be increasing the prices just gradually. You know how you go to your favorite restaurant and you notice your portion sizes are smaller but the plate is getting bigger? Yes. It happens gradually, over a year or so, a couple of years. That’s how we’re going to do it. You’re doing the boil the frog technique? Yes. Slowly increasing There’s different schools of thought though. Some people will say just rip the bandaid off.

15:21
Yeah. But we have enough skews. Like we have like 600 skews or something like that at this point. Yeah. Where, you raise them kind of gradually in different categories. I don’t think people really notice. Interesting. So you’re doing a slow, slow roll. Slow roll across different categories. one thing I’ve noticed that the auto manufacturers are doing is they’re they’re actually dropping their prices. Have you seen this?

15:50
No, I didn’t see that. So robbing or maintaining? Well, it’s dropping in the marketing sense, right? So I know Ford recently rolled this out and Hyundai is doing something similar is they’re doing employee pricing. So basically they’re charging you the price that if you were a Ford employee, you would pay to buy a car from. OK, Hyundai is a special case because they manufacture their cars, I believe.

16:19
in the US, right? Yeah, I think in Kentucky or one of those places. Yeah. So of course they can afford to do that and that’s a good marketing strategy for them. Yeah. So it’s interesting because I think some like the card manufacturers are are trying to get creative, right? Like with oh, but like it’s interesting because I read an article about it and it was like, yes, Ford is giving employee pricing, but they’ve upped their interest rate. Right. So like they got rid of their

16:47
2 % finance, know, it’s like, they’re gonna make it up on the other end, you know, to some extent. So they’re not like truly just giving things away. And I noticed that Hyundai, like not only are they doing some like employee pricing type stuff, they’re giving like, if you buy one of their electric cars, you’re getting the free, they’re like during a free installation of the power pack, whatever that you need in your house.

17:12
So there, you know, I think some people are trying to capitalize, since everyone’s talking about how expensive things are going to be, I think some companies are trying to come in and like, oh no, look at us, we’re still gonna give you a good deal, right? So I think that’s another way people are doing it and they’re gonna make it up on the other side, right? Which if you’re a car manufacturer, you can do that because you tend to finance everybody.

17:35
Yeah, I know here because my sister-in-law just bought a car. I mean, they’re jacking up prices not on the sticker, but what the actual price is when you actually try to buy the car. Yes. So it’s like one price. then when you I yeah, it’s like an extra six thousand dollars of who knows what. Yes. Of some markup that they make up. But the MSRP stays the same. Yes. Yeah. Because Toyota manufactures a lot of their cars in Mexico, I believe. Mm

18:03
And Mexico, there’s a 90 day reprieve on the tariffs right now. Right. So it’s really just China really. And the textiles and. And I think there’s a reprieve on the electronics now, right, that Trump just imposed. Yes, which I find interesting. Can we talk about like all the TikToks? You mentioned you’re on like the. Yes, yes. So if you guys aren’t on TikTok and I know

18:32
a lot you guys listening probably aren’t on it. What Chinese manufacturers have been doing to fight back is they’ve been like talking about how all these luxury vendors like Ferragamo, Hermes, Gucci and all them do in fact manufacture all their bags or a large percentage of their bags in China, whether they’re sent to Europe afterwards to just get rebadged. And what they’re doing is they’re offering these links to buy these bags direct.

19:01
at like 10 % of the cost. and they’re actually so I’ve I fought I’m in luxury bag TikTok. I don’t own any luxury bags. Let’s be clear. Steve’s gonna make it sound like I do. You do you have a Kate Spade bag. That’s not no and Hermes bag is $35,000 and they don’t even let you buy it if you want it. You have to like get their good graces to purchase something. Do you consider Gucci or Coach a luxury bag? Coach I would not say Gucci.

19:31
probably is like on the border, right? So. Okay, Miss Toomey, do you consider Toomey a luxury bag? No, absolutely not. Wow. Oh my God. No. Okay, well go on. Anyway. I’ll let people in the comments like. Yeah, come at me. Come at me today. But what I think is interesting is that they especially so like Hermes, I feel like is the one that they’re really going after, which is so interesting because Hermes has like worked really hard to build this like. Yes.

20:02
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20:31
just sign up right there on the front page via email and I’ll send you the course right away. Once again, that’s mywifequitterjob.com slash free. Now back to the show.

20:42
absolute like gated brand, right? Like if you have the privilege to purchase an Hermes, right? Like it’s like a big deal. So they basically are showing like people stitching together these bags, right? And I mean, I don’t know if they’re Hermes bags or not, cause I’m not like an authenticator, but they look like the bags, right? They’re the same. And he’s like talking about the palladium hardware and he’s talking about the type of leather and he’s showing all the different things and they’re showing people stitching it. And you’re like,

21:12
Oh, yeah, those are those are made in China. Right. And then they’re obviously promoting the link to purchase the the fake. Right. The the dupe. But to me, it’s like it’s a great strategy. Right. Like if you can take down some luxury brands like there, it’s like going to send this. like a domino effect to me of like how

21:36
people are gonna start reacting to what’s going on. And they’re also doing it with furniture. Have you seen the furniture? Yes, I have seen the furniture one. Yeah. I actually think this is the dumbest strategy ever personally. Interesting. OK. And I’ll tell you why. Like, let’s say I am a business owner. Right. Yeah. And I make stuff over there. Like, let’s say I’m Hermes and I see China is doing all this stuff. I am never, ever going to give my business to China ever again. You say that, but where are you going? India.

22:07
It’s not like so India is probably poised to be the next China right now. Yeah, because they were the first to say, hey, you know, we’re not retaliating. Let’s negotiate. Yeah. And there’s other places to do this. I mean, it’s going to be painful. But like they basically just pissed off all the luxury brand manufacturers. Yes, they did. And they just pissed off anyone who’s even thinking about making anything in China now. Yeah. So I definitely was like, whoa, this is but to me, this feels like you cornered like the lion.

22:36
Right? like we, we made these decisions and China is like, you want to mess with us? Like we’re coming after like, they just want to blow everything up. Like figuratively speaking. Right? Sure. But I mean, it’s dumb in the long run. Yeah. I think overall it’s dumb. And I also dumb. I’ll let you finish. Well, no, I also wonder, who are these people making the content? Is it truly that because they’ll say, like, in my factory, I’m like, that’s not your factory. Right. Like, that’s not the factory owner.

23:07
having these conversations. So like who’s giving permission for this content to be put out there? Yeah, I don’t know. You know I mean? sanctioned by the government to a certain extent. Yeah, for sure. OK, so this is why I think it’s also dumb. And granted, like these fakes have been around for years. You go to China, like every street corner you can get them. Right. The people who are buying these Hermes bags, the Birkin bags, they’re not going to carry the fake. Right. Right. The whole point of it is status. Right.

23:36
And if you’re someone of status and you want to show it off, you’re not going to carry a fake. No. Right? So the people who are buying these cheap knockoff bags are people who probably wouldn’t buy the real thing anyway. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Right? So it doesn’t really technically hurt the big brand outside of causing this huge commotion that’s pissing off every person. Basically, they’re just telling the world that if you give us your IP, we’re just going to copy it and sell it for pennies on the dollar.

24:06
But also I feel like they’ve already been doing that. They have but not overtly, right? Right, yeah. I mean how many Asian brands, Chinese brands are on Amazon right now selling and undercutting? I mean that’s the whole strategy right now, right? Is they put 15 Chinese sellers on one product, right? And put the other person out of business. They’ve been doing this for a long time. It’s just now they’re flaunting it. Okay, so they’ve been doing it for a long time but through the Amazon channel,

24:34
where it’s like less overt. Now it’s all over social media. And now like you’re gonna think twice before ever using China as a manufacturer again, because they’re just gonna knock you off. Like it’s overt now, right? Whereas before if you’re selling on Amazon, you might not be aware that all this stuff is happening. And here’s the thing before also, like you could easily police this if you want. And China was pretty good. Like if you went through the measures of trademarking and-

25:02
Copywriting or whatever in China they could they would actually shut down the factory But it seems like they’re removing that restriction now, right? And so what large companies gonna want to manufacture in China with these risks ever again? Yeah, no, I think I think it’s Like to me it just feels so chaotic Right now and it’s like okay. We can’t stay in this level of chaos long term Can we I don’t think so, but maybe maybe we can maybe this is just like the new

25:32
the new world we live in, right? It’s just absolute chaos. And how are they getting away with this? Actually, so so they’re not using the Gucci or Louis Vuitton, right? But if you click on it, it’s the exact same like it’s like you’re buying a dupe in China, right? Yeah, yeah. How can they get away with this on TikTok shop? Why? It’s like blatant trademark and copyright violations that so I don’t know. Have you clicked on any of the links?

26:01
I have. Okay. I haven’t clicked on links because I was like, I don’t know. So it’s being sold directly through TikTok shop. Yes. Okay. So some of the ones that I have seen have not been so the I’m not in that side of TikTok. I’m in the side where it’s like click on our like bio and there’s a QR code and the QR code takes you somewhere else. Like it takes you off of TikTok. So that’s what I’ve been seeing. And they’re like, don’t

26:27
Don’t DM us because we get so many messages. Make sure you just use the QR code to go. So they’re not doing it directly on TikTok, the ones that are primarily in my feed, which makes more sense to me. I can’t believe they can get away with that on TikTok Shop. This is just an aside, but if you’re on TikTok, how do you scan a QR code? I know. They were like, screenshot it and do this. And I was like, what? It’s too much for me. Yeah. But yes, on TikTok Shop.

26:57
Okay, that’s blatant. that to me, that feels like it will be taken down sooner rather than later. I mean, it’s already been, you know, three, a week, pretty much. Yeah. I usually it doesn’t take this long to take things down. And it tick tocks a Chinese owned company. Right. So maybe they’re not allowed to have to talk in China. They have to use a VPN to get on it. No, no, no, no, no. I’m saying like it’s still controlled by. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Right. So maybe they’re just a little lax on taking it down.

27:27
Yeah, I could see that. Like, oh, what? I didn’t see anything. No, we’re on it. We’re on it. We’re researching. So who knows where this is going to go? I mean, I just know there’s a lot of colleagues who have shipments or they need the shipments and they need the inventory. Yeah. Right. So what do you do right now? I don’t think we can last that long. I certainly don’t think that China can last that long either. Yeah. So I don’t know what’s going to happen.

27:57
Is there any benefit as a seller to just laying low right now, waiting it out, not really doing anything? Is that like a safer bet or is that more of a risky, like you need to start having another plan and taking action right now? Okay, so I mean, I can tell you what we’re doing, but I mean, I can’t speak for other people. Here’s the thing, like there’s no visibility on what’s gonna happen in the future. Right.

28:24
And when there’s no visibility, you can’t really plan for it. So let’s say you shift all your production to India, for example. Right. Well, let’s say the trade talks with India fall apart. I don’t think they’re going to, but let’s say they do fall apart. Trump issues 125 % tariffs on India. All that work that you just did. Right. Could be potentially undone. Yeah. Right. And for us, like for a small vendor, it’s not as big of a deal. Right. But for someone like Nike, let’s say.

28:50
or Louis Vuitton and they’re investing in factories in these other countries like they all did in Mexico, like they all did in Vietnam actually. Vietnam was the largest investment that Chinese factories have made. And now Vietnam has like a 40, I can’t remember the numbers, it’s like 46%, which instantly obliterates their investments there. Yeah. So how do you plan? In order for things to go back to normal, Trump has to

29:19
gives some sort of roadmap, right? Okay, the tariffs are set. This is a long-term thing. Not this like, oh, you get a 90-day reprieve off the tariffs, because you have no idea what’s gonna happen in 90 days, right? You’re not gonna switch vendors every 90 days. Yeah, that’s really not even possible. This is my fear, and this is just my own personal, like this is not based off anything. My fear is that companies like Nike, big manufacturers, right?

29:48
we don’t compete with in any way, right? They’ll find the loopholes, the tax breaks, the incentives, right? Like there will be provisions made for them to like be able to stay in business, but it’s the little stores, right? It’s the million to $5 million stores that are gonna get just crushed because they don’t have the cash reserves, right? Like they don’t have…

30:15
They don’t have the ability to one get like the breaks maybe that will be given to other companies or they just don’t have the, you know, customer base and the to withstand it. I actually feel the complete opposite way. Interesting. OK. And the reason why is like you’re as a small business owner, like I’m agile, like I got like very few expenses. Yeah. Right. Whereas if you’re a large company like Nike, you got to make factories. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

30:45
huge capital outlay and all that. So it’s a huge risk. So when you’re agile, and you can make these changes, it’s to me, it’s not as big of a deal. And all those breaks that you’re talking about, I actually have a video coming out, actually, I’m doing office hours today, and all the ways to avoid tariffs. Yeah. And they’re available to everyone. It’s not like if you’re a large company, you know, right, you can take advantage of these and the small companies can’t.

31:12
It’s just like the larger guys have more resources to do some of these things. Right. That I’m talking about, but it’s available for everyone. You can’t like discriminate based on size. Well, you can possibly discriminate on is by industry. like right now, semiconductors and electronics have gotten. But something’s going to have to be done about textiles for some of the larger factories. Yeah. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it will trickle down to stuff that we do. Right. Whatever happens. Yeah. I think.

31:41
I know that you guys are agile like Bumblebee, but I think that not all, not that you’re a small brand, but smaller brands, know, not a lot of them are already strapped and tight. You know what I mean? Like you have a business model that is actually has a lot of cushion in there. But some people don’t, some people don’t have that level of margin to work with, to be as flexible. I guess what I’m trying to say is,

32:09
We’re not making like huge capital investments on machinery and people and infrastructure. Right? If a product doesn’t work, we just don’t make it or we stop selling it and move on to something else. We’re a different vendor. So I think the larger companies have a lot more at stake here. No, for sure. Right. Then the little guys. You know, it’s so funny. So this workshop that I’m giving this afternoon, like

32:39
I’ve changed a lot of the content. So before it was an example, how to source from China. Now the examples are a comparison of sourcing from China versus the US versus India. And so I chose a product and I’m running the numbers for all of them. And what’s funny about it is that even with the tariffs, China is still cheaper than the US by a factor of two. Oh, yeah, I believe it. Right.

33:08
And India, it just kind of depends because you can’t find like the exact same thing in India. You’re probably gonna have to do some talking. Like you can get a base price, but it just ends up being slightly cheaper with the current tariff. And I see how this lecture plays out, but it’s just interesting because there’s options for us. Yeah. And that’s why I think that the U S is in a better position.

33:36
because we have the option of sourcing from different places. Whereas if you’re a Chinese factory that’s dependent on US demand, and all of sudden that demand goes away, you can’t manufacture that. You can’t go to other countries and say, hey, can you buy my 100,000 lightsabers? Because the US isn’t buying them anymore. And the US buys so much junk compared to other countries. Yes.

34:02
I don’t think there’s any other place like the US is willing to buy all this junk. That this is my system. No, I totally agree. Like it’s just there’s a lot of stuff. Right. Yeah. So it sounds like you’re pretty like you think this is a great time for people to get into e-commerce. No, no, no, no, no. I’m not saying that for sure. You’re like, no, I’m not saying that for sure. And I’m saying that it doesn’t affect. It’s not as negative as

34:32
as you think. And if you’re starting from scratch, you actually have options because you, you know, you don’t have any ties to any existing factories. In terms of like the best time to start. Here’s how I see it also. AI is replacing jobs right now. I mean, you should see the Silicon Valley. Like, I’ve been chatting with coworkers, they’re not hiring new engineers anymore. Yeah. And a lot of these companies, and I’ll use the example here.

35:01
There’s people in different countries like the Philippines or where the labor is cheaper operating robots in the US remotely. Right. And there’s this whole wave of robots or AI that’s building all our stuff already. Yeah. Right. So the way I see it, like no one’s job is safe. Yeah. Like you to think that if you’re an engineer or whatnot, your job was safe. Right. Because you’re one of very few people that can do

35:31
to do these things. I honestly think thanks to AI, nothing is safe. it doesn’t have to be e-commerce, but you have to be doing something on the side just in case. Because this is only going to get worse. Just wait till Tesla releases their fleet of self-driving cars. And this is already happening across in Waymo, right? Waymo is in all these major cities now. It’s going to Japan, and that’s going to replace all of the Ubers. Right?

35:59
All the Ubers and lifts, Uber eats, maybe DoorDash at some point. So if that gig economy is gone, what are you going to do now? You got to have something on the side. Doesn’t have to be e-commerce. It’s got to be something. I don’t know. How do you feel about that? No, I agree with you. I think I was working on office hours yesterday and I was I was just using AI to I want to talk about lead magnets, right? Because I think that’s

36:28
I think now more than ever, you need to try to be building an audience, right? Getting people on a list so that you can talk to them, even if you don’t quite know what you want to do yet, right? Like just getting the right demographic on a list. So I was like, you know, I wonder how far I can use AI with a lead magnet, right? Like, I’m like, that’s kind of been my little hobby lately is like, what can AI do that that I didn’t think it could do, right? Or like, how far can I take this? So.

36:55
It basically built the entire lead magnet for me, but then not only that, it told me how to implement it and what tools I needed, and then it showed me how to set it up in ConvertKit or Kit, right? Like it basically, I mean, we’re not too far away from it literally doing the whole thing, like where I don’t have to be a part of it at all, right? So when I started playing around with that yesterday, I was like, this is really fascinating because the deeper I get into it, the more I realized that like,

37:22
I think you and I were talking about how graphic designers are going to be obsolete, right? And first I was like, I don’t know, like totally. But the more I like dig in, Canvas about to release some crazy things next week. Like the more I see this stuff, I think, you know, it’s amazing what we’re going to be able to do with with not a lot of people. Right. We without the level of expertise that you thought was like absolutely required in the past. Photographers, graphic designers, writers.

37:52
Yeah. Photographers, models. Yeah. I mean, H &M is already using AI models to model their clothes. I mean, so where does it stop? I mean, these are already thousands of jobs, if not millions of jobs being displaced. Yeah. Already, right? So what is there left? You got to start something on your own. And granted, like the best people, like we mentioned in the last episode, they’re always going to have jobs, right? Yeah. Best people are going to But what about the remaining 80 %? Yeah. Or the remaining 90 %?

38:20
You need to have some sort of income on the side. Again, it doesn’t have to be e-commerce. I don’t think this environment is that great period because there’s just so much uncertainty. Like you need predictability to do stuff, right? Yeah. But that’s the way I feel right now. And I think like since we were talking about e-commerce for most of this episode, it’s not as dire as you think because when you’re first starting out, you have flexibility. It’s mainly the people who are more entrenched.

38:48
who are going to have these, who are seeing all these problems right now.

39:17
go to SellersSummit.com and if you’re interested in starting your own e-commerce store, head on over to MyWifeQuitherJob.com and sign up for my free six day mini course. Just type in your email and I’ll send the course right away via email.