In this Prime Talk Podcast Sponsored by GETIDA – Kamal Singh Founder & CEO of AMZ, One Step talks about How an Amazon Seller Community Greatly Helps grow in E-commerce, also more information about his life's journey. #KamalSingh #AMZOneStep
About Kamal Singh of AMZ One Step - At AMZ One Step, We strive for excellence in each area of product listing optimization. Our work is to make sure that we exceed your expectations and add value to your brand. Your product idea is worth millions, Let us make it look like one. We are a group of experienced e-commerce experts with an astute understanding of the online business framework’s dependence on quality-driven listing creation and optimization. Product photography is considered its prime real estate and is given the utmost priority by our team of experts.
Yoni Mazor 0:06
Hi everybody. Welcome to another episode of prime talk today I have a special guest today I'm having Kamal Singh. Kamal is the founder and CEO of AMC one-step which is a full-service agency for creative I work for Amazon sellers. So Kumar, welcome to the show.
Kamal Singh 0:22
Thank you, Yoni. Thank you for having me. Excited to be here.
Yoni Mazor 0:25
Them here, Sam here. Thank you so much for joining us today. So today's episode is going to be the story of you the story of Kemal saying he's gonna share with us everything. Where are you? Where are you from? Where were you born, where you grew up, as you begin your professional career station to station until you reached where you are today in the world of E-commerce. So without further ado, let's jump right into it.
Kamal Singh 0:46
Okay, awesome. So, Yoni, I'm born and brought up in India and come from very humble beginnings. It's on the north side of India, Punjab. That's where I was born. Kind of a bright student, you know, really well
Yoni Mazor 1:00
In Punjab is the town or the regions.
Kamal Singh 1:03
It's the state.
Yoni Mazor 1:04
It's what the name of the town is?
Kamal Singh 1:07
Okay, I don't know if you can pronounce it. It's called L A, L O. W A L.,
Yoni Mazor 1:12
Laval. Three St. Simple. How do you spell that?
Kamal Singh 1:15
Okay. L A, L O. W A L.
Yoni Mazor 1:17
L A, L O. W A L. Okay, that's pretty good.
Kamal Singh 1:20
Yeah, it's a very small town. And it only it has got around, I would say 100 families, you know, 400 homes, you know, it's a very small town. So, I did my elementary school there. Then I went to a high school, which is just like 10 kilometers away, you know, kind of a bigger town. Then I moved to a lot bigger city in India. It's called the Jalender that's where I did my you know, you know, 11th and 12th, which is kind of the high school as well. Then I moved to Canada for my for Allah, Allah,
Yoni Mazor 1:52
Are you jumping a lot? We're gonna step back. You know, he said the, it was a village of 100 people or 100 families, 100 families, I would say yeah. And this is a village or a little town or boy.
Kamal Singh 2:05
It's a very small village
Yoni Mazor 2:06
Village. Okay. So your, your, your parents, for example, what kind of industries were they involved with? What was the economy of the, of the village,
Kamal Singh 2:14
It’s mainly farming, mainly farming, and, back in the early 90s, you know, people started migrating to different, different countries. And then my dad was in the Indian Army, then he moved to Germany for you know, he migrated for work. So it's a mixture of farming plus people going abroad.
Yoni Mazor 2:35
And you know, and when you say, farmer, what kind of farming what was the crops that we raised over there?
Kamal Singh 2:39
So it's seasonal. So in summer, you would do rice, and in winter, you would do what? So it's mainly and sometimes, you know, some people used to do like sugarcane and stuff. So so so it's a big-time and Punjab is known for farming, you know, it has brought the Green Revolution to you know, Indian economy. And, and, and India is exporting like, you know, wheat and rice to other countries just because of that province. It's so rich and farming. And, you know, people do that for a living. And
Yoni Mazor 3:09
so what was a revolution about, like, technologically, they were able to adopt new ways and methods of farming, and that was so raw, more much more, you know, productivity and output and that was able to, to create a citrus scenario where they're exporting or what was, what was the change, all of a sudden,
Kamal Singh 3:25
It’s mainly the productivity, you know, the, it's mainly it was mainly the productivity of the crop. India was importing from other countries, you know, for food, but, you know, they worked hard on, you know, fertilizing the soil and, you know, working on, you know, all those fertilizers, and making, you know, just worked on the productivity. And you know, people were very hardworking, you know, the farmers, they're known for the hard work. And, you know, they took it to the heart and
Yoni Mazor 3:50
The modernizer can fairly say they were able to modernize and step into the 20th or 21st century, the past few decades, in terms of productivity with farming and make it like the United States where the United States you have so much produce here. You can also start exporting, you know if it's wheat or soy or whatever. That's a good way to put it. Yeah. Got it. Okay. Very interesting. Your mother was also involved in industries or
Kamal Singh 4:11
No, she's, you know, like any other Indian you know, mother's she was like, a housewife. So she's always been a housewife. Yeah.
Yoni Mazor 4:19
How big was your family? How many siblings?
Kamal Singh 4:21
Were three I'm the eldest one. I have a brother and a sister who are younger than me but they are here living in Canada with me right now. So yeah,
Yoni Mazor 4:31
So I see you are already kind of based in Canada but we'll get to that part. But okay, in the meantime, I want to just so grow up you said even where you went to school and then later on you kind of went to high school another city but you know, in the village but also when you went move to the bigger city, where you will entrepreneurial at all are we trying to make money with one other to you know, to have extra income or any money on the side or, or just focus straight up on school education hard-core.
Kamal Singh 4:56
I never thought that I would ever be an entrepreneur in a while. When I was going to school, the only thing I had I had in mind, you know, just to become an engineer, get a good job and get a high-paying job and stuff like that. So that had been in my mind for the entire childhood because that's how the Indian kids are grown up, you know, I go to school, either you become a doctor or lawyer, or an engineer so big you become a professional. So I never in my wildest dream, thought that I would be an entrepreneur,
Yoni Mazor 5:27
But you never tried to make money on the side and selling bubble gum or working side jobs or summer jobs or anything like that.
Kamal Singh 5:33
Not until I was 22. When I found that that's when I moved to Canada, but since
Yoni Mazor 5:39
So yeah, it's fine. So let's get closer there. So you said you move to another town. What was the name of the big city or wasn't a town a big city? What was the name?
Kamal Singh 5:47
It's called Calendar.
Yoni Mazor 5:48
It's Kalender. And it's also in Punjab. It's always in
Kamal Singh 5:51
Punjab. It's a big city as compared to my village. But it's not so big city as compared to the
Yoni Mazor 5:59
Or yeah, exactly. Yeah. New Delhi. But so what was the population there? How big was that change for you?
Kamal Singh 6:05
I think there was, there was quite a bit of change. It was, I think the population for that city was around, you know, 2 million people. And it was quite a change, you know, all these students, you know, it's like a person from a rural area is just, you know, trying to get mixed up with the urban area kids and stuff like that. If I can get
Yoni Mazor 6:29
Back to the United States. If you are some farm in Texas, you're gonna move to Chicago, as about 2 million people there. That's going to change, you know, the farm area of Texas, maybe your family's into a big city like Chicago. Its moderns. And Vance is bustling and hustling. Okay. And that's where you got your, your high school degree, and then college degree or what was just transitioning,
Kamal Singh 6:50
Just the high school degree. It's, we call it grade 11, and grade 12. So yeah, so So I graduated, I got my high school degree in Kalender. I just lived there for two years, then, you know, there was a step. Next step, you know, moving
Yoni Mazor 7:05
to the next station in Canada. So what's the story all about? What happened? What transpired?
Kamal Singh 7:09
Okay, so I, as a kid, as I mentioned that in my village people either to farming or they go, they migrate to different countries. So I always wanted to go out I didn't want to do farming. So as you know, I took the higher studies in Canada, there was there's this town called near false. It's next to it. You probably know it already. So,
Yoni Mazor 7:32
So buffalo, so it's a border town with buffalo. The state of New York, New York state visit?
Kamal Singh 7:37
Yeah, exactly. Right. So that made me excited. I am gonna go to Niagara Falls. It's like right on the border. You can see New York from there. And it's a beautiful town. So I was super excited. So I took I chose my school in Niagara Falls. And then, you know, once I graduated within six months, I moved there and it took electronics engineering when I moved here, so I was always at school. I was at a college university. It was a college it was a Negro College. Now your college
Yoni Mazor 8:03
Got it. And so you took the test. You went there and you had a scholarship of some kind, or you have to pay for everything.
Kamal Singh 8:10
Yeah, we had to pay my parents had to pay for the first two semesters but I was you know, working on the side at a restaurant and you know, I saved some money and paid for my next tuition fees by myself.
Yoni Mazor 8:22
And was putting the years on this what year did you move to Canada?
Kamal Singh 8:28
First I was a server at an Indian restaurant. And then also what year?
Yoni Mazor 8:33
What year? Did you move?
Kamal Singh 8:34
Okay, what's your so I was 2010 It was December of 2010. So this December next week, it will be 11 years have been
Yoni Mazor 8:44
I registered for that. Okay, so December of 2010 you know, towards already 2011 you kind of shift away and enter the location where you live. So you moved to Canada and Niagara Falls. So your parents helped that in the beginning financially, but then got to support yourself? And then what would so how long does continue? What was the next question for you to graduate and start moving you know, your professional career?
Kamal Singh 9:09
So as an international student, when you come to Canada, you know, after your school, your first step is okay, how do I get permanent residency you know, you don't want to after spending that much of money, you know, you want to find a nice job and want to find a way to get your permanent residency or you know, as compared to a green card in the USA. So that was my next goal. And to get a permanent residency, I had to find a job in my field. So that's what I started doing. So I was working for I started applying for lots of jobs but Niagara Falls Ontario like it, which is closer to Toronto is a highly competitive area, you know, you as an entry-level, you don't get that job, you know, they are looking for like five, six years of experience and they go okay, what do I do so then I moved to Alberta, which is kind of a Texas of Canada. So I moved here and
Yoni Mazor 10:00
What is the Texas of Canada? Well regards big as large as farming. It's both.
Kamal Singh 10:05
It's all of that it's a mixture of that. It's big, it's large, you know, it's kind of a dry so,
Yoni Mazor 10:11
You know, what's out there? What's the main town?
Kamal Singh 10:15
It's there are two main cities. There's one Edmonton and one Calgary. So
Yoni Mazor 10:19
Edmonton, Calgary, and Alberta. Yes. Yeah.
Kamal Singh 10:23
Yeah. For hockey fans. It's Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames. So so these are the two main cities I moved to move to Calgary to try to find a job there. I could not find a job there I
Yoni Mazor 10:35
Was that when he moved.
Kamal Singh 10:37
So what year it was 2013 2013 you
Yoni Mazor 10:41
About three years and maybe two and a half years at Niagara Falls. And then you moved to Calgary, Alberta?
Kamal Singh 10:48
Exactly. So move there, you know, I tried to find a couple of jobs, you know, I got a job at a restaurant, just do it, just for my pocket money. But that was not enough. If I wanted to get a permanent residency, I had to go into electronics if I wanted to become a permanent resident. So then I moved to Edmonton, which is like, I think 300 kilometers, three hours’ drive. So and I found a job here, worked there for about a year and a half. And then I got my permanent residency. And then then I was finally a permanent resident and that
Yoni Mazor 11:21
Was a job with electronics, you were engineering, are you doing QC? Whoa, are you doing there is
Kamal Singh 11:26
What I was doing. I was mainly doing the installations of, you know, the cell phones, you know, fiber, fiber networking, you know,
Yoni Mazor 11:34
With cell phones, BlackBerry, I know, it's Canadian, that's,
Kamal Singh 11:36
It’s like there's a company called TELUS. And we like telecommunication, it's just like, as compared to a TNT similar to that. So we were providing, you know, the internet, Home Services, you know, cable services, phone, cell phone, and all sorts of good stuff. So my work was mainly in the fields, you know, to, to make sure the connections are, you know, good.
Yoni Mazor 12:00
Got it. So you said a year and a half after that you were able to get your permanent residency? Yeah. And what did you say? You said, in that job, you started to spread your wings was an extension for you.
Kamal Singh 12:09
So once I got the permanent residency, then I was kind of literally I was free, you know, I was like, Okay, no, now I don't have to stick to this job. And I could do a whole lot. Because now your main goal of the life is kind of, like, it's like, it's like a dream. You know, when you're thinking about back in India, if you're thinking about, okay, I want to go there, I want to get settled down, I want a good job, and everything was achieved. So there was like, you know, okay, what's, what's next? What's next, right? So, being in being a migrant and your family back home, you have to send money back home, and you have to support your family, you know, and stuff like that. You have to take care of your siblings and all that it's just like an Indian tradition. It's kind of an Indian thing to
Yoni Mazor 12:53
Most of the world, my friends. America is kind of a promise for so many communities all over the world. It's very, very common, but yeah, good job.
Kamal Singh 13:01
So yeah, so and that kind of, you know, put me in a debt too, you know, just putting everything and I was
Yoni Mazor 13:07
You're in debt.
Kamal Singh 13:09
I was in debt, you know, I'm bad spending or, you know, just taking care of everything. And I was in debt. So, I started doing that's when I started doing this side hustle kind of thing, okay, when I do this, I'm gonna do that, you know, did lots of to, like, you know, started with cleaning business. And that didn't do well, then I started an electronics business on the side. That didn't do that much. Because
Yoni Mazor 13:32
You’re still working for that. You know, that company, I was doing the cell phone stuff.
Kamal Singh 13:37
Exactly. So that was all like my evening stuff. But Canada is cold. It's as cold as you can ever imagine. So working at night, and you know, doing the outside job, for example, installing cameras and stuff that was not easy. And I'm like, Okay, this is something not for me. But the good stuff is I had my roommate back in, you know, 2014 2015 we lived in the same house, and he learned so much about bitcoins, and all this crypto stuff. And he was teaching other people how to trade and how to, you know, do the stock exchange and everything. And we were living in the same house.
Kamal Singh 14:15
And he, he was like, I was going out hanging out with people but he stayed in the basement, he just learned about the new skills and everything. And you know, he was all of a sudden he was making a whole lot of money. He was like to the next level. And that kind of you know, made me inspired that okay, I want to do if he can do it, I can do it too. So I started looking for Okay, I need something online and then I just Googled something, okay, how to make money online or like, you know, and that's where I found the Amazon FBA. Just by I just got inspired by somebody who was you know, living in my home, but all of sudden he raised he just went to the next level making
Yoni Mazor 14:52
let me get this straight. You were living in your home when you were in Alberta or back in Niagara Falls when you were a college student in Alberta. So okay, you already moved to Alberta. You were working a job but he was still in school or he was just doing his hustle.
Kamal Singh 15:06
He like we went to the same school together and he also moved
Yoni Mazor 15:10
Away and Agra falls, or an Indian River Falls, Niagara Falls God and then he also teamed up. So your same school back then and then you teamed up on the same apartment in Alberta and Calgary.
Kamal Singh 15:21
Exactly. So he was doing a different job, I was doing a different job. But in the evening, I was, I was more towards watching TV, you know, hanging out, but he would come home, and he would, you know, just learn something new and he wouldn't go out. So he learned Bitcoin and stuff and he invested back in the day, like so many years ago. Like it's really popular right now. But he did well,
Yoni Mazor 15:45
As a Canadian native also
Kamal Singh 15:48
Know, he was from India too. So you can also like
Yoni Mazor 15:51
His merit, or some sort of threatening change, or what was his trajectory.
Kamal Singh 15:57
He came, He came like a year after from India, and like the same school and he wants to he also wanted to get to say it was the same trajectory. He also wanted to get
Yoni Mazor 16:06
The repay as you did, he paid for his journey into Canada.
Kamal Singh 16:09
Exactly. Everything was the same. And that's what hit me if he can do it. I could, why not me, right, if he could reach that next level, living in the same circumstances, living in the same conditions and everything. And he can do well in his life. Like, I gotta do something.
Yoni Mazor 16:25
Makes a lot of sense. Yeah, you because you guys kind of walk the same path and trails, but it seems they saw that he is paving more and more and more children to succeed in life financially or professionally. So that inspired you and triggered you. Okay, so you went to Google, and then you found out, you know, the world of E-commerce came knocking on your door through your search on Google and what happened tickets there.
Kamal Singh 16:44
So I found some videos and you know, I, I was watching the video, and I'm okay, how to sell on Amazon. That immediately, you know, it clicked in my head. Okay, this is something that I want to do. This sounds easy, you know, watch videos, and I started making my account. Once I realized
Yoni Mazor 17:01
Was that when you started your account, what year was that? 2015. Okay, so you already have two years in the category? Yeah. Yeah. Two years into the mix. You go in 250. And you start selling on Amazon. That's the moment Right,
Kamal Singh 17:13
Exactly. That is the moment I started doing started watching some videos. And, the first videos that showed up, were retail arbitrage they were not private labels. But YouTube was full of like retail arbitrage online arbitrage. So that's what I started doing, you know, and I did that for about six to eight months. And my basics were like, really, really good. Because when you're doing retail arbitrage, you know, you kind of understand what is the BSR? What's the subcategory? You know, what's that mean? Category, how-to, you know, do the how to calculate the margins, and everything's all sort of good stuff. The
Yoni Mazor 17:48
Fundamentals of trading on Amazon, whether you do private label or reselling the trading is, you know, what's he’s the BSR of the bestsellers? Rank? What's the position of the product? What's the velocity? What's the speed? What's the sales revenue? And what's the mathematics of the margin and profit. But you started selling on Amazon, Canada, or Amazon, us? Or both?
Kamal Singh 18:04
Amazon Canada first, so I was shipping to Canada and the US Canada was doing well. It's not like as big as us, of course, but, but then I'm like, okay, even once Canada was working, then I started thinking, I figured out okay, how do I do retail arbitrage being in Canada and shipped products to the United States? And, you know, yeah, so then I was doing the USA as well and Canada both. And then the videos on my YouTube started coming up, we can also do private label. So then I'm like, okay, okay, that's a lot easier. You know, now I don't have to go to the stores every single day and you know, source products and then come home labels.
Yoni Mazor 18:42
Arbitrage by visiting the retail stores and scanning products, products. Exactly. And what stores we have over there in Canada, they used to visit we have Walmart,
Kamal Singh 18:51
we have Walmart, we used to have to target Safeway, and you know, Toys R Us We have like all those most 90%, you know, you would find them in, in Canada as well, like Dollar Tree, you know, dollar store and all that stuff. You can thrift stores and everything. So garage sales, it's kind of similar to the USA.
Yoni Mazor 19:13
Yeah. So sounds like about the same stories, are you realizing that sourcing your inventory instead of being spread out to all these stores, you know, hone in, find a supplier, create a product and maybe even create a brand and take that private label path? Exactly. Yeah. So that was 2016 already.
Kamal Singh 19:28
That was 216 2016 already, like kind of to 2016. And then in the meantime, I also created a meet-up group within like, in my city, that was people would just come to join we would do Amazon beta people would come you know, we talk about Amazon and everything. So that's what I was doing and I will I was also in if somebody needs help from that meet-up group. I will just help them out. If they need something, you know, any questions about shipping or finding, you know, like any questions have like the meetup group was successful and nobody expected to meet Amazon sellers back in the days in
Yoni Mazor 20:08
June as well, when you started up the year
Kamal Singh 20:10
2016,
Yoni Mazor 20:12
The meet-up group and that's, that's pretty cool. It seems like you learned from a friend you know, even if you're paving the way and eCommerce you said, Okay, I'm gonna pay more when you commerce community and create this group, and how big was the group and its peak?
Kamal Singh 20:24
Right now is the peak, we have around 500 sellers just from our city alone. And not just that, I created meet-up groups in five different cities in Canada as well. And every group has about a few 100 sellers. And, and I think meet up and Event rite was really, really at the peak before COVID What we realized that after, when the COVID hit meet up and Event rite also got hit, because people now want online events, not the in person. So it was at the peak, but now it's not at numbers are at the peak now. But the engagement was at its peak right before the COVID. And then everybody you know that there was a lockdown. We were not doing all those meatuses and everything. So now we're back into, we're trying to, you know, build that community back once again, you know, we still bring
Yoni Mazor 21:17
it back to physicality and get it physical engagement, as opposed to the Virtual Engagement and you're saying, you know, your town 500 sellers, and then other towns a few 100. More so all in it's a few 1000 sellers that you impacted their lives and professional trajectory in the marketplace. That's pretty amazing. Coming from, you know, humble origins in 100, you know, yeah, for one, just, there's more, more and more people want to have in their village who grew up and ready set out 100 families for-profit family. So you created your village in Edmonton, and you're in the category in your town. It's pretty amazing. Okay, so, you started with the arbitrage private label community? And what's next for you? What was the next question?
Kamal Singh 21:58
You know, when I created that community, the other thing I forgot to mention that I was oh, that was also inspired from a, you know, from my friend, like, he was teaching people how to, you know, crypto, crypto, then I also started doing the same thing, I started teaching how to sell on Amazon. And I have I had few students there, but instead of launching a course, I was like, doing more one on one. And at one point, I had, like, so many, like, 40 people who were learning when I was getting like phone calls midnight, and you know, all those everybody? Well, then yeah, I'm like, Okay, this is not the way you know, it's not how I want this to be just, I can get a lot more students, but I'm gonna get burnt out.
Kamal Singh 22:40
So once those students you know, then I stopped taking new students, but, but from those meetup groups, people were asking me lots of questions, hey, I need who's your sourcing guy who gets your PPC done, who gets your images done? And everything? So people were asking me at first I was like referring them to, hey, go to this guy go to that guy. And a lot of the companies which are famous right now, but then at one day, I decided that okay, you know, if people are going to keep asking me, Where do I get the work done, I might as well open an agency and just get everything done under one umbrella and don't forward them. I handle all the communication, and the project management and Crystal gets the work done by other people. And that's how the AMZ one step started in 2017
Yoni Mazor 23:24
Or 2017. So basically, what a year into the community, we're able to realize that, you know, the need constant need for an agency for creativity. I said we keep passing all around, create a local, local solution.
Kamal Singh 23:39
Exactly. At first, like I didn't, I didn't think that it was going to be creative. It's not it's, at first I'm like, okay, whatever you guys need, we'll get it done. But our creative over time, you know, they were consistent, consistently getting really good feedback. And people are like, Okay, your designers that amazing, amazing, you know, this is good, then, you know, when I looked in the Amazon space, there was like, lots of PPC agencies, lots of big software companies and everything and there was no brand specifically you know, just for the creative, there's like one or two companies. So then I'm like, okay, you know, what, I don't want to do what everybody else is doing, let's do something different, which people need it anyways. And there's no big brand dominating that so so. So then our focus was kind of shifted towards creative only, but at first, the named company of the name and they decided, okay, we're going to be one-stop-shop. That's why we chose the name, AMC one step because we want to be the one-stop shop. But we're still a one-stop-shop but our creative are remain you know,
Yoni Mazor 24:37
As your core competency. Over time, we're able to develop distinct quality and performance level that is unique and special to you. So you can win in that domain and provide good value for the community and the sales community. Okay, so once again 215 discovered Amazon started selling your product start from retail arbitrage and then it fastens to, to private label to 16, create the committee to 17 you're ready to create your agency for solution for the sellers to keep on growing their committee. And what's next? What's the next evolution? All right. And over time, we realized that you know, creative is is the best, you know, performance a core competency that you have, you know, for, for yourself and your clients. And this is only 2017. And take us, you know, the next steps of the evolution for you. You know, it can be for the agency, you can talk more about the agency, how it developed over time, or all the Fortran because right now, it seems like you have three or four tracks, right. So hold on, did you already keep always kept retail arbitrage, or did once you went to private label, you completely change?
Kamal Singh 25:39
That's a good one. So so when I went to the private label, I stopped retail arbitrage. And when I started my agency, I sold my Amazon brand private label as well. Would you sell to somebody from my local meet-up group? So this is why you know, building communities has been very important for me. I sold my private label brand to somebody who was coming to the meet-ups. And the other cool thing, I found my business partner, who is the CEO of AMC, one step now, through that Meetup group, he was like, really engaged guy. And I, you know, he was like, you know, he was professional and everything.
Kamal Singh 26:17
He was like, energetic and everything. I was like, Okay, maybe it's the right time to partner. Look for a partner who could, you know, fund something and also take some of the responsibilities and help me grow. And then I found a business partner from his navy Sadam from that same Meetup group. That's amazing. So he's like, Okay, sounds good. Yeah, let's, let's, let's do this. And he was also super excited. So and we're, since then we've been working together. So same community has helped me sell my Amazon brand, grow those, you know, meet up groups, and do the Amazon conferences, also found a business partner through that, you know, through the same community.
Yoni Mazor 26:55
That's amazing. Okay, so once again, from retail arbitrage into private labeling to, you know, making an exit within the community and within the community, creating a business, and then also, you know, finding a partner there. And let's talk, you know, talk about, you know, to 70 and 8090. And what was the evolution of the business? We got started, where are you guys today, the experiences, or maybe dramatic moments you guys had?
Kamal Singh 27:16
Yeah, no, I have, I have a lot. So, at first, you know, we were kind of struggling to get consistent leads, like, for we were getting leads from that community, sometimes it would be a lot, sometimes there is nothing, you know, it's kind of hit and miss. So we were, I was kind of working towards, Okay, what's next? How can we get consistent, consistent leads, so we started working on the SEO, you know, we were on Upwork, we were on Fiverr, like, everywhere, just trying to get the business. But Fiverr and Upwork helped us, you know, you know, in the initial days, we were getting some good business.
Kamal Singh 27:53
But in the meantime, our Google SEO and Google Ads started working well. And then we were getting like a consistent business from there. Then. There's one more story there was a friend of mine, he runs a trucking company, he runs a trucking company. And he mentioned to me, he's like, Hey, come on, I'm doing so well, because I have my dispatch sitting in India, and they've been doing everything for me. And here, I just have to only thing I have to do is pick up the shipment and drop it off. And why don't you do something similar because the labor is a lot cheaper? If you know, then we opened our second office of an offshore that gave us good margins and all this money, we were putting it back into the ads and started going over, you know, I didn't
Yoni Mazor 28:41
Assign so what was the advantage here? What was going on? You said he had a yet what kind of company if I had
Kamal Singh 28:48
My friend had a trucking company and what they were doing, they were outsourcing a lot of things, you know, they had a second location in third world country, you know, they had an India
Yoni Mazor 29:00
Where there was a certain industry or
Kamal Singh 29:03
Yeah, trucking like they were just picked up from, you know, grocery store and stuff like that. So mainly, they were doing dispatch from India. So they had a team of, you know, people sitting outside Canada and doing all that for them for a lot cheaper. So
Yoni Mazor 29:21
How does that help you? It helped
Kamal Singh 29:23
Us with, with scaling and with the margins, because now we could hire like four people at the same cost that we would do it in Canada. So that
Yoni Mazor 29:33
All AHA so on. So the tracking, that's one industry, but you're in the service business, right? You're serving others so you need to get labor. Yeah. And the way you get labor is through that company that's based in India that helps you find labor.
Kamal Singh 29:46
I know that was just an inspiration. That was just an inspiration that made me realize that okay, for example, if you have to scale a service-based agency, you need more people. If you want more people and you want to do it in like USA or Canada it will be a lot more expensive because people don't want to pay a lot for photography, for example, if you're launching your product for maybe $5,000, you don't want to spend like $1,000 just on the photography, right? So so and to achieve that sweet spot, we needed more people, and who could do it at a cheaper price than what sellers want to pay? So what
Yoni Mazor 30:18
Was the balancing? So you had the work kind of done domestically in Canada, and then the post-production, you let's call it was done overseas when you know, people may be even more talented than the locals, but obviously can get paid less. Because, you know, it's a different economy over there.
Kamal Singh 30:33
100% so that was the plan. So, you know, in 2018, or, you know, we had now two offices, and we were growing at a really fast scale. And, you know, and then we were doing the second
Yoni Mazor 30:46
The office was assumed in India, it's in
Kamal Singh 30:49
Pakistan,
Yoni Mazor 30:50
Pakistan, which part? You know,
Kamal Singh 30:51
It’s in Karachi, Karachi. So yeah, because Amazon is huge in Pakistan. So you know, people you can find trained people easily as compared to India. So, yeah, that's what we did. And, you know, and our business started doing well. And we were like, at we were doing conferences on our own in Canada. And, you know, the turning point for us was the white label Expo 2020. Where we went, it's been, you know, almost, you know, almost two years now. And it was Vegas, in Las Vegas. Yeah. So, we went there, and we were like a fanboy I've always seen Bradley and you know, jungle scouts team Kenny and everybody in
Yoni Mazor 31:41
Brawl and Bradley Sutton from Helium. 10. Yeah, Valley Centre. You know, he
Kamal Singh 31:44
Was there. We were like fanboys were like, oh, wow. There's a Bradley realistic sheltie. And just like, you know, we had a community in Canada, what we did, we were like, okay, you know what, we're just gonna go to every single booth and ask people if they could come out for dinner because the white label was the first. It was the first event. And not there. We’re not a lot of employees of companies out there. So we went to every single booth and ask people, Hey, we're going to do a dinner tonight. Would you like to come to join us? Like, there was a restaurant hex next front of the Bellagio? And everybody was like, there was Anthony Lee, there was a Bradley stern there was a barkhuizen. All you know, Melissa, and everybody, we just asked every single buddy.
Kamal Singh 32:29
And people said yes, okay, let's, let's do it. So So we became really good friends with, you know, lots of those guys and everything. So that's how, you know, we realized that the conferences are the future where you could grow your networking, and you know, you can find really solid clients and still have fun and travel and grow your agency. So we found that we, that's when we were like, Okay, this is something we want to do in the future, and we found some, like, really good clients, and that's where our graph just, you know, went up. And now we're at a stage, we have a team of 125 people already, our headquarter is in Canada, and, you know, we have like, a huge team in Canada as well. So I think the conferences worked out well. And, you know, just in networking and everything, you know, you've we were able to do the partnerships and all that changed, you know, the entire
Yoni Mazor 33:24
Epidemic here and, and people you know, we're jumping into E-commerce, and they needed there was no big boom in the industry, and well-positioned to accommodate all that growth. Because you had the foundations, right,
Kamal Singh 33:35
That's, that's another good point, Yoni, because just because we were out, we had a second office in Pakistan, we went to the conference and the COVID head. So I think the first white-label Expo was in February, and the COVID hit in March. So we were like, prepared to scale. You know, we already had, like, a team and everything who could, you know, deliver a massive amount of projects, you know, in a short amount of time with them with the video grade quality. So that kind of helped us so we were prepared, for this kind of growth.
Yoni Mazor 34:05
Yeah. Nice. So okay, another physicality is coming back. So what do you plan to do as part of your strategy? Because you mentioned community is very important and conferences and events. So looking to the future, you're gonna do it just in Canada worldwide, more than the United States? Where's this heading? In terms of community and conferences for you guys?
Kamal Singh 34:22
Right now we remain focused, short term goal is just to revive, you know, the community in Canada, you know, after the pandemic, you know, people are still kind of hesitant to come out and you know, and everything people are not the traffic on meeting up.com and eventbrite.com. Is, I think it has probably all those groups created like years ago, you know, people are not that, again, engaged anymore. All those app downloads, you know, so we just our first goal is to, you know, revive the existing communities’ engagement. And then, you know, maybe down the road there's everybody doing Uh, conferences in the USA now I think it's already at that stage where we don't want to jump into, we can just go and exhibit and maybe you know, attend the conference, and get the knowledge out of it. I think that's enough for us for now.
Yoni Mazor 35:12
Yeah, I do recommend that. Engaging with communities, local and global. I think it's an amazing component of growth for obviously, the service providers, but even more so for the sellers. What’s working, what's not working, what kind of connection you can build their business partnerships are friend, friendly partnership, prefer professional partnerships can be established. Usually, there's a lot of magic that happens within all these communities. Okay, so I guess I want to start packaging unless you want to add something.
Kamal Singh 35:37
I know, I think Rob and you guys, I have met Rob, at the conferences, and I've seen you speak at our booth was I think you were speaking, I think you didn't speak in the September Vegas, right. So you know, our booth was next to you. So it's a for even for the sellers and service providers, community conferences, networking events are super important, you know, if you do want to be in the business, and, you know, skill,
Yoni Mazor 36:04
Yeah, I do support that in enjoy it, I'm in that environment myself, and I find it to be extremely useful all around for everybody and engaged and involved. Okay, so I want to start packaging the opposite to see what we got so far. Right. So born and raised in India, and you know, the state of Punjab. And then around 2010, you, you know, had the opportunity to go to Canada to Niagara Falls to attend college, you know, your parents helped a little bit with the funding, but then you were able to kind of continue and sustain on your own for about three years. And then in 2013, you moved to Calgary to Alberta able to find a job that eventually helped you to secure, you know, you know, your permanent resident status in Canada, and also financially, you were able to help your family as well. And then to 13 to 15.
Yoni Mazor 36:53
You inspire by a friend that you will use to live with, you know, it's also kind of the same origin story, you know, some from the same country, but you see how he, you know, is succeeding, but also, you know, taking a lot of initiative in China to develop himself, you know, on a business space level, so you Googled search found, you know, miraculously found the world of E-commerce, and I guess that appealed to you, and when it was comfortable for you. So, you did early steps of, you know, heading into the industry, start with retail arbitrage, you know, walked around the stores to find, you know, you know, an arbitrage a gap or price difference between what's, you know, you can buy that and what's selling online, especially on Amazon, that was your humble and early beginnings to the E-commerce space. And after, by the year 2016, to discover that there's another opportunity with E-commerce with private label, you did that, then you started the community group, because, you know, you found out that locally, there are hundreds of sellers, that over time develop to be part of the community, then you're able to develop that to a few more talents, four or five more towns in Canada, which is amazing.
Yoni Mazor 37:58
But also, you saw the demand that everybody kind of has to fertilize their growth and the assistance they need. So you could have one-stop, you know, the mission was to, you know, account for everything for them. But over time, we discovered that in a creative, it's a spark of genius that you and your team can have. In the meantime, you also can sell out to a member of a committee to your private label business and focus just on that just on this core competency and core business of, you know, creative for Amazon sellers. So it all was born through the community approach and all developed through their community approach. And then you take that forward, you can kind of engage yourself now with conferences to keep developing the business but also developing other businesses. And as the pandemic is subsiding, and hopefully, you know, physicality will come back on track, that's where you and your team are expecting to be even more bullish on not restarting the community, engaging again, physically together with all these events, and helping each other in motion to the future. So that we got the story correctly so far.
Kamal Singh 38:56
I think yeah, that's, you know, right on. So yeah,
Yoni Mazor 38:59
Nice, beautiful stuff. So thank you so much for sharing what I find to be inspiring. This is remarkable. You can you know, to a country, like Canada and North Northern America. You know, just to kind of have a better life for yourself, I think you'd achieved that. But also probably achieving it to, you know, members of your community, your clients, and, you know, in Canada, and probably worldwide and of course, you know, the office in Pakistan in Karachi, I'm sure they're also probably delighted to have the opportunity to engage in this world of E-commerce and have a public good job, and a good industry that is growing. So it's amazing. So I want to finish up the episode with two more points. The first one will be is if somebody wants to reach out and connect, where can they find you? And the last thing would be is what is your message of hope and inspiration for entrepreneurs listening out there?
Kamal Singh 39:41
Yeah. So you know, if you have a question for us, if you guys do want to find me on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, it's an easy one-step, you know, AMZ one step, you know, spelled out so you just find us there. So, yeah, for entrepreneurs, you know, I wanted to add one more thing, you know, just like I got inspired by one of my friends, you know, when I quit my telecommunication job, and I was like, okay, and I was able to, you know, quit that job, and then I was able to do full time, my agency, two friends of mine, they also got inspired from me, and they just bought two new businesses like last month, so, so it's just for entrepreneurs, I think you just, you don't need like, you know, to read a whole lot of books and everything, the inspiration is all around, you just look at, you know, community and people around you, you know, who's been successful, what they have, what they have done differently. And I think you guys can do the same thing. And I don't think what I feel that helped me well was was consistency, you know, you guys might feel that things are not working, but just keep hustling, keep working out, you know, keep working hard, there will be a time you know, when everything that you have worked hard, and will pay off eventually. So I think consistency is the key and, you know, the just look for inspiration all around me, you don't have to, you know, dig down deep. It's, it's next to you, and it’s around us.
Yoni Mazor 41:10
So and yeah, it's beautiful stuff. So keep looking for inspiration, it can be in the books, but also feel free to look around, you might be surprised that it's so close to somebody living your roommate, somebody in the community, some of that, you know, around that is being successful and you can learn the elements of their being why they're being successful, adapt that, nevertheless, work and work hard to achieve those goals. Even though you know, sometimes it might seem that it's not working. But consistency is key. And hopefully, you know, having all these mixed together you find success over time. Beautiful stuff. So Kamal, thank you so much for sharing the story with us today. I had a great time. I hope everybody has enjoyed it, stay safe and healthy the next time.
Kamal Singh 41:48
Thank you
