In this Prime Talk Podcast Video Sponsored by GETIDA, Omar Angri, the founder and Managing Director of Margin Business, a global e-commerce consulting firm that focuses on helping brands grow internationally on Amazon, shares his journey into e-commerce.
Being in the e-commerce world is full of ups and downs. Knowing when to quit and knowing when to forge ahead can be difficult decisions to make. But ultimately every experience you have in your business journey can prepare you for the next step. Those failures can help you succeed the next time around if you use them as learning opportunities. Yoni Mazor of Prime Talk discusses the journey of starting your own e-commerce business and using experiences to help guide you through your next stations.
In today’s episode, Prime Talk has teamed up with Omar Angri, the founder and Managing Director of Margin Business, a global e-commerce consulting firm that helps Amazon brands grow internationally. Margin Business can help you scale your business in international waters by helping you with listing optimization for Amazon EU. They offer a full range of services like translation, sales copy, keyword research, and detailed competitor analysis.
Omar Angri takes us on his journey around the world as he looks for the best opportunities to optimize his own e-commerce business and then uses his experiences to create Margin Business. So if you are a North American Amazon seller looking to expand into the EU or beyond, then this episode is for you!
Learn more about Margin Business!
Learn about GETIDA's Amazon FBA reimbursement solutions.
Yoni Mazor 0:06
Hi everybody, welcome to another episode of Prime Talk. Today I'm really excited to have a special guest. I'm having Omar Angri. He is the founder and Managing Director of Margin Business, which is a global e-commerce consulting firm. Omar, welcome to the show.
Omar Angri 0:20
Thank you for having me.
Yoni Mazor 0:22
Our pleasure. Where are you located right now?
Omar Angri 0:24
Right now at the moment, yeah, we're located in Morocco. So yeah, because of the lockdown, everything was very quick. So we usually go in and out. You know, we're not permanently here. But you know, the last four months this is where we are, but it's all good. It's fine. You know, we have great weather over here. So
Yoni Mazor 0:44
I'm sure I can see. If anybody is watching this video recording. You'll see it's nice and sunny. He told me a moment ago he's on a rooftop in Morocco. Which town, which city in Morocco?
Omar Angri 0:53
Tangier, nice, Tangier, nice breezy town in the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar.
Yoni Mazor 1:00
Amazing. So it's right by the Mediterranean. Right?
Omar Angri 1:04
We can see Spain, so near.
Yoni Mazor 1:05
Amazing. Wow. Okay, so today, this episode is mainly going to be about you. You're going to share with us your story. You know, tell us who you are, where you from? Where did you go to school? How’d you begin your professional career? So without further ado, let's get right into it.
Omar Angri 1:21
Okay, perfect. So yeah, originally, I am from Germany. So I was born and raised in the northern part of Germany, Northern Hemisphere, very cold. Very typical northern, I guess it's the same as North America…
Yoni Mazor 1:37
North America, but which town over there in Germany?
Omar Angri 1:40
Hamburg, Hamburg, straight, like a few kilometers away from Denmark. So you can compare it with England, the weather in London. So, very dark, very rainy. But it was lots of fun. You know, I was brought up over there is a good time. And it was a perfect time over there really. I really enjoyed it. So yeah, this is...There I went to school there. I was born there. I was raised up to a certain age. But let's go over there a little bit. My humble beginnings. It's this way. So yeah, normal school, went up to high school, went, you know, into jobs, which are not really related to e-commerce today. But my first like, I am originally a graphic designer. So everything I learned was…
Yoni Mazor 2:34
Is that something you took a school or you just naturally developed into that?
Omar Angri 2:38
Yes, yes. I took one year to school for that. I didn't go to university but was one year school. So yeah, I really enjoyed this. And...
Yoni Mazor 2:46
So this one year was after high school? So you're 18 so you took a year after high school? Or was there during high school? OK, so it was after high school, you take a year, you dive into the world of graphic design?
Omar Angri 2:57
Exactly. No, before I went to business school, I didn't finish it, though. You know, they're still you were still fresh in your mind. So I wasn't wasn't really, you know, I only took the good things out of there and went on. It was...I will tell you later on it was because I was focused on really on other things. I'm very good with languages. So I think
Yoni Mazor 3:17
How many languages do you speak? Which ones? Let's have a quick count.
Omar Angri 3:22
First, it’s German. Second, English, third, French, fourth, Arabic and Spanish. So yeah, then from there, one year of business school and one year of graphic design. So from there straight, straight in I had the chance that somebody took me on and showed me the real graphic design, old school graphic design, you know, with the old Mac computers. And
Yoni Mazor 3:51
What year? We’re talking about what year roughly?
Omar Angri 3:53
Roughly about 2001.
Yoni Mazor 3:57
So 2001 you’re dabbling into the world of graphic design with the old, what you call old school only 19 years ago. But you had a Mac and you're designing...What were you designing for example?
Omar Angri 4:07
Yeah, it was, you know, it was for a company for it was un...first it was an under company from Philips. So it might, I mean before it was like it's a few months in a row but
Yoni Mazor 4:20
So you're saying Philips from the Netherlands, it’s a big company and most of us know it from the medical products they see in the hospitals or also if you brush your teeth, I believe today they own the sonic toothbrush right?
Omar Angri 4:36
The Ultrasonic, yeah yeah. So at this time, I was actually on a project where the 3D television...where they had the first pictures in the internet where the 3D flat screen was shown, okay. So the flat screen was not out yet. And we could you know, we kind of prepare with a 36 frames we need to shot every single picture and it was around you know, so it was
Yoni Mazor 4:55
Like the matrix right in a way?
Omar Angri 4:57
Exactly. So this is...it was the old time. Yeah, a project like this for I was going on for a while and that company and at a later stage, I felt like I need to try my own business. So I tried, first attempt to graphic design, but I failed. I think it was because I didn't take it serious yet, you know?
Yoni Mazor 5:20
Hold on, hold on. So we’re talking about something that I consider important for the show, you turn to do your own business. And so what year was this? This was 2001? Or a few years later?
Omar Angri 5:30
This is about this time, everything was been very short timeframe, you know?
Yoni Mazor 5:33
So 2001, you dabble into working for, you know, a company that's related to Philips, you're getting some real business experience. You said, Let me do a side hustle. And try my luck, but it didn’t go through because you're saying at that point, you know, you were not...you're not taking it seriously enough?
Omar Angri 5:53
I was taking, let's say, I was taking it seriously, but I didn't really see the impact behind it because if you know, in other countries, they take a lot of taxes. So, the first few invoices burned me as well. There are some 1000 2000 Euros of taxes as well. So
Yoni Mazor 6:10
So one thing that was...so you’re saying one thing that was an issue for your taxes, you know, income. It wasn't, you know, we're not able to make enough income, which makes total sense. Yeah.
Omar Angri 6:21
I mean, obviously, I would have been able to do enough income because I worked 12-15 hours. Yeah, you know, I mean, like a really good income, you can always survive, but for me, it's not about surviving. For me is to make the real, the real money was already before. So I said, yeah, whatever, I don't work. So I throw it away very quickly, which is obviously a mistake. So what I said was okay, let's try not try. I wanted always to learn languages. I knew if I don't get thrown in the water, I will not learn languages. So at that point, I only spoke two languages, let's say three. I spoke German, obviously, because I was born in Germany. Yeah. English and Moroccan, Arabic.
Yoni Mazor 7:01
So one thing I want to ask, I have to ask because you mentioned you're very close to Denmark, so no, Danish, yeah?
Omar Angri 7:06
No, no Danish, but you can kind of understand them. You know? Okay. That's okay. So yeah. And then I jumped directly, I jumped from Germany to Paris. That was my first move, because, you know, with no plan, I just said, okay, tomorrow? Yeah, let's go.
Yoni Mazor 7:23
And what year was that?
Omar Angri 7:25
That was about 2002-2003.
Yoni Mazor 7:29
Got it, you say, you know, I'm packing my suitcase, and I'm out to Paris. You know? Try fresh. And what do you do there? What happened there?
Omar Angri 7:37
I just worked for a corporate company, trying to, you know, to move on, because it was very fresh. There was
Yonia Mazor 7:45
But what were you doing for that corporate company? Same thing? Graphic Design?
Omar Angri 7:49
No, it was a company called Pixmania, nowadays it's very big, you know?
Yoni Mazor 7:53
Mmm hmm Pixmania. But what were you doing for them effectively?
Omar Angri 7:56
Customer Service. It was a normal entry job, which I, you know, which was very easy for us. As I say, people who are moved in that timeframe to other countries, they could really quickly get a job for and work for anything. That's why it's so easy then to move on to other spots, you know?
Yoni Mazor 8:14
Got it. So 2002 to 2003 you were in customer service in a big corporation. Take us next... what's the next station?
Omar Angri 8:22
The next stage was 2006-2007. I was about to get really into...ah sorry, in between there was 2005. I had another attempt of e-commerce business. This was already very serious. So what I was doing is because I'm very into sports, I'm a sports fanatic and I really like boxing, kickboxing.
Yoni Mazor 8:45
Kickboxing? So no soccer? Kickboxing? No football, like soccer?
Omar Angri 8:49
I didn't like soccer at all. I stay away from soccer.
Yoni Mazor 8:53
Yeah, I thought in Germany it's like a religion? They have a lot of pride in their national team in Germany.
Omar Angri 8:58
Yes, it is. Yes, it is. But you know, I was never into all that.
Yoni Mazor 9:02
Got it. Kickboxing. Alright, good.
Omar Angri 9:04
So yeah. So from there, I flew out to Thailand. Bought the best gloves I can buy, brought them back. I had the first issue again with taxes because obviously because I was running around with two bags. They were asking me what are you gonna do with it in France? Yeah, yeah. So I told them to listen, I tried to build my business. So they were so nice to me. And they let me go, you know, with two full bags of equipment. And he said next time you pay. I said, Okay.
Yoni Mazor 9:29
Well, kudos to the French customs, shout out. You let Omar get a break. You’re saying this is our investment in you. You start doing the startup hopefully it makes some money, pay taxes later, but the next time also you’ll pay.
Omar Angri 9:43
Really, I think that was really good, you know, because they've seen it and, you know, I was really serious about it. So I built up my webpage. Obviously, I had no clue of Amazon at this time, which was as well a very big mistake. I would not, you know it would be...everything would have gone differently. But we don't say would we just you know We take it like this. So next time, afterward I was like, I put my own website up, I worked for five days in a row, 24 hours or like, you know, just fill up everything. Put the, I mean, I could have it easier if I would have bought a webshop, but I was not that far at the moment, you know, so I built really everything from scratch, put my stuff in there, and began to sell.
Yoni Mazor 10:25
That’s 2005 right? This is 2005. And how did you bring traffic as soon as the website was ready to go? How'd you bring the traffic?
Omar Angri 10:32
Good question. I didn't have any traffic. So I was going crazy into forums, blog posting everywhere I could and got shut down very quickly as well because it was you know, it wasn't very close to time. So I...most of the time I was selling for people outside of the website so they get traction, they get a little traction and then you sell outside.
Yoni Mazor 10:54
So basically, it's almost like a business card?
Omar Angri 10:58
Yes. Well, I sold the stuff on site then then came over again, as well as critical time where it was personal stuff going on. And I stopped. I stopped selling this. Yeah? At this time at this time. I knew very good people, they have a very big brand right now. They're selling shorts, Thai boxing shorts, Wicked One they’re called. It's a very big brand. They have clothing brand all over the world now. So yeah, there was….I missed this one as well. So yeah, okay, so we move on from Paris, because I've seen many opportunities going out. I was about to go to Singapore. So yeah, because yeah, I was getting a bit. Yeah, let's say I get picky because the pay, you know, the salary was not what I was thinking of, you know, and I really, I knew I knew what I could do. So I didn't want to just to settle for something what I don't like it. You know what will get me in trouble afterwards because I cannot move anYonia Mazorore. Yeah, then I had another job offer came out of Gibraltar. Gibraltar is not far from here actually. It is beautiful rock in the southern hemisphere that belongs to the United Kingdom. And yeah, I was flown down there. There was a really nice flight and everything you know? So yeah, I began my, my corporate and other corporate job over there in this company.
Yoni Mazor 12:19
And what year was that? So? You move, you transferred from Paris to Gibraltar? What year?
Omar Angri 12:25
So this was about 2006-2007.
Yoni Mazor 12:28
Got it. Okay. What do you do for the corporation now?
Omar Angri 12:33
Yeah, I was first...I was handling as well the customer service because I came off the customer service environment. And I quickly went up the ladder. Because I really liked what I do. And yeah, when I went up to a VIP account manager, country manager, sorry, where I was handling the highest population of that company.
Yoni Mazor 12:54
What was this company doing? What kind of business?
Omar Angri 12:57
They were involved in gaming. It was a gaming company. Um, it was something
Yoni Mazor 13:04
Was this Playtecha? Was this Playtecha by any chance?
Omar Angri 13:08
There was Playtech involved, yes.
Yoni Mazor 13:10
Yeah. Playtecha. It's a big gaming company based out of Europe. I mean, I believe in the UK, which may be Gibraltar is part of the UK. I thought maybe it makes a
Omar Angri 13:18
What is the name? Playtech yeah?
Yoni Mazor 13:19
Playtecha. I think Playtecha. And right now at least 2020. They're big in the online gaming world?
Omar Angri 13:25
Yeah, I think so. I think so I'm not sure. I'm not sure whether we were...this was a company that was very strong on their own already. And also they had not many partners. So yeah, I'm not into gaming, you know, I'm not really and by the time I was working there, I realized this as well. So I really just distanced myself. And I knew I needed to go out of there. I could not do this for longer, as it wasn't going well with my inner self, you know? So I didn't feel good by doing this. But it was a super great experience. Don't get me wrong. And the people I met there as well were very, very good people, which opened my mind a lot. And I'm some, I think six months before, like, they sent me traveling, I went to Canada, I've been to many places in Europe, flying around every weekend. And I said no, I cannot do it. Because I had a family and it was too much. You know, so I said and I could do this for myself, you know? So I knew what I was capable of. And in order...instead of making money for a company, I said, I can make this for myself, you know? So I work on my own there. I begin again to start to wanted to start my business. What is today Margin Business? So...
Yoni Mazor 14:40
And this is early 2007-2008?
Omar Angri 14:43
Exactly. So no, it's not sorry. This was into 2012.
Yoni Mazor 14:48
Okay, so three, four years, you're already, you're settling into this job in Gibraltar, the gaming industry. You're getting tons of experience working with the high end people, high end talents. In 2012, you say, you know, I'm gonna make my footsteps into, I guess the e-commerce world slash Amazon. There we go.
Omar Angri 15:08
Exactly. So this was the third attempt after my missing out on the kickboxing one. I went...it was the equipment, sorry. I went for the third time. So it was like six months before I quit the actual job. Before I was thinking about quitting. I was already getting in and trying to, you know, trying to make my way in there. So we began with working with a company, my wife at that time was already working from home, working with an Amazon seller, which was very small, you know, it was selling small stuff here and there from China importing, exporting, you know? So we were beginning to take all that they do, from, customer service, to translations, to reviews, to account health, everything that you can think of yeah? So after six months, I had a few other clients as well, they were selling not through Amazon, but they're selling through in the States and Canada. One big one was selling shoes. Like little by little, we had more clients. And after six months, I felt like no, I cannot do this anYonia Mazorore. I cannot go to work, sleep three hours, work at home eight hours, you know? It was too much. And by the time I had already the balanced out. So the money was coming in. The money from the company was there as well. So I said okay, I cut it. So on the 31st of December 2012, I believe...Yeah, I stopped everything. 2013 2013.
Yoni Mazor 16:38
So the beginning of 2013, or the end of 2013?
Omar Angri 16:42
I'm not sure Mazorore...I think at the end, I think at the end. Yeah.
Yoni Mazor 16:45
So it's practically 2014, about six years ago?
Omar Angri 16:48
Yeah, let's….no. It's 13. It was 13. Yeah.
Yoni Mazor 16:52
Okay, got it. So the beginning of 2014. It's a fresh new world. This time now, this is a third attempt for you to dabble in business. And you know, there's a classic saying that says, Third time's a charm. And that job is actually an Amazon charm, which was the right place at the right time. Because from 2013 and now it's been pretty much a revolution, what's going on the growth has been tremendous. So I think your timing was perfect. And those failures that you experienced along the way had to happen. And they were in preparation for that big moment. You know, those cylinders, you picked up what you needed because there was a better opportunity for you much greater, much more powerful waiting for you ahead, you didn't know what at the time. But looking back, I think it's fair to say that pretty much it was there was part of the journey that you had to experience to get to this moment, or 2013, where the here what I can see that little bit of a change is that, you know, before you had an idea for a solution, okay, and then you had to go out and get business here, the business was already knocking on your door says, We need your solutions. We need your expertise, we need your knowledge, we need your know-how, and another one another, all of a sudden you're in business. And that I think made a lot of impacts and a lot of difference because now you're carrying yourself on your shoulder since then. So let's take us now into the journey where you pretty much are right now. You know, you call that Margin Business right away, talk and talk to us about, you know, take us from 2013. To now, you know the evolution of you know, your current business.
Omar Angri 18:21
Okay, so yeah, afterward, like I said, we were already working with the lab and we lost the first smaller client because when sometimes it's better to lose one and to get the next one because when you do too much for them, it makes no sense. So we stayed with the main client that we have from the beginning, we had the other client on the way we had, I think a third client which was coming and going. And making all the account management for them happen. And as we moved on, we moved as well because at the time I was living in Spain, so we made the first step and I said okay, now or never, we're gonna go do a world tour.
Yoni Mazor 18:57
So what does that mean? Were you saying, basically, you're gonna become a digital nomad?
Omar Angri 19:01
I don't like the word, digital nomad. I like rather digital...at that time may be a digital nomad, you're right. But today I like the word digital entrepreneur, you know?
Yoni Mazor 19:11
Yeah yeah, I like that also. I was about to swing it on my tongue and to correct to a digital entrepreneur like that. I'm gonna carry that. You know, the fact that you're online, you have clients all over the world, you work globally. It doesn't matter where you are physical. You're a digital entrepreneur. It's pretty awesome.
Omar Angri 19:25
From there, we went to...the World Tour means...well normally I was fixed on Asia because I really wanted to go to Asia. So we flew off to Thailand. Stayed there for two months. It's very difficult for the visa. So we went in and out and in and out, flew to Japan, flew to Malaysia and stayed there for three months as well. So in total it was about 12 months and then we said okay, we have to go back, set a little bit. See everyone so we flew back. This was the first time actually we flew into Morocco. And we said okay, because it was a good way. We have everything here. Well, we had what we needed. Germany as well, but we want to anyway to stay with the warmer, we came back here. We build the business more, more focus because here we, you know, when you're traveling, it's a bit hard. You need at least three months to stay everywhere. And we knew we love Malaysia. So there was already the first...Sorry, I forgot the part where we created Margin Business actually. It was somehow somewhere in January.
Yoni Mazor 20:29
Which year?
Omar Angri 20:31
At the beginning of...the end 2014 beginning 2015.
Yoni Mazor 20:36
That's when you're pretty much already in business. But you know what you said I need a name, I need a brand. And I need an identity for this business. Right?
Omar Angri 20:43
Exactly. Exactly. So yeah, but by this time, me and my wife were already really heavily involved in everything we say okay, need to be done. So there was a question where and why and how? So yeah, the first company we established in Belize. Margin Business Ltd. Still today there. This was the first company where we saw...the name came out of a mix of my last name and my wife's name, and we just mixed it up and gained margin out of it. Margin was just very good because you know, our business has a lot to do with margins and the business, the Margin Business was..
Yoni Mazor 21:23
It’s all about the margins I’ll tell you right now. The Amazon game and the e-commerce world it's all about the margin, healthy margin, healthy life, not healthy margin, not healthy life you know, so it's actually pretty the name it's a spot for sure.
Omar Angri 21:37
So yeah, from there we moved on and but you know, by the time...we lost our first client. We lost actually on that journey was the big client who was selling shoes, lost everything. We talk about million, it's a...they lost really everything. We were only for them handling everything, the accounts and everything. But they...and the shipments at that time was shipped by a very big now is even bigger, you know, but we work with ship buyer as well. We had a lot of a lot of experience with all of these different...
Yoni Mazor 22:06
So hold on, so your customer took a big loss in what way? What was the issue?
Omar Angri 22:11
They couldn't pay their incoming stock. And everything got lost at Los Angeles Port.
Yoni Mazor 22:19
So basically financial difficulties? Got it. So they went out of business because of financial difficulties.
Omar Angri 22:29
Exactly they didn’t calculate correctly. So yeah, from there on, we'll make the first loss. And then we take, we took a big hit, let's say this way. Um, then we came back here, we came back to Morocco. And yeah, moving on from there, the client that we had at that time, the Amazon client we first worked with grew very, very fast. So we grew with him. We grew, we grew, we learned everything we have to learn, we put everything in place. On the way we took more clients, more clients, more clients. By the time we stayed in Morocco for for about nine months, we have built up a significant amount of a network of clients...
Yoni Mazor 23:05
And how do they find you usually these new clients? I'm a little intrigued, because, you know, you're out there in Morocco, it's not, I guess, New York City, or Brooklyn, where you can throw a rock at any house, you'll find an Amazon seller? How did they find you? How do you guys usually connect?
Omar Angri 23:22
Okay, the usual one was referrals, you know, there were referrals. And back in the days, we had even there was still an opportunity with Upwork. Nowadays, it's a few days, a few years ago, already, there is no more possibility, because the margins for the people are too small. And we cannot deal with very small margins.
Yoni Mazor 23:41
Got it, so let me just throw it in there. So Upwork is a platform that helps anybody find any type of specialist, you know, it can be programming, it can be a designer, very much like Fiverr. And if anybody ever heard of Fiverr, the same kind of idea, you know, you can outsource many, many things. So that was a platform you're using back then also to generate business, but you're saying, ultimately, that was one method, the other method, organically basically, you have, once you have one successful customer, you have a an advertising. Already got a few. It's a compounding effect, they bring more into them and more, which is I think it's a good indicator to just to your business to yourself. It's feedback, you know, there are positive feedbacks, it keeps on creating ways of business. It means that's something you're doing something well, you know, you and your team, they're creating some sort of a value that keeps generating more business, which is interesting. One of the probably one of the best ways to run a business because the moment you see it slowing down, you can quickly say, Hey, what's going on? Where did I go wrong? You know, where can I make it better? And you take those actions to keep, keep the steady growth and keep the steady, positive feedback coming in. And keep your game on top because with this in this industry, every day things change. You have to stay up to date. Keep adapting, and the only thing that doesn't change is the change itself. That's the only thing. So you're in a very, very interesting and tough environment. And I think the failures that you had in the past definitely helped to immune your business ability to face disappointments, losses, challenges, you know, you just mentioned you had a big client that wasn't related to you, he, he lost his business because of financial difficulties, it was a burden on you. Nevertheless, this time, it did not throw you out of the game, you're able to continue, you're able to maintain that's, that's already a very important junction if I had to say, in your new journey and your current business, because it's that you build immunity, you know, your business advice along, that's a major major thing, you know, what's a business? A business is an organization, a machine to generate income, okay? Your first two machines you built had an issue that didn't survive. This machine that you're building right now you already six, seven years into the mix, it's growing, it's going to become more sophisticated, more capable, is generating more income. And the moment you know, if something goes wrong with it, you're able to fix it, shape it up, hopefully even set it up in a better way than ever. So if you keep that momentum growing, which is impressive, by all means, because physically, you're all over the world, enjoying what the world has to offer. So the balance that you have my perspective, it's awesome, because, you know, I'm here in New Jersey, and I pretty much envy the souls out there that are able to really, you know, be take a good part in into the e-commerce business, right, contribute their share effort, and but, you know, still have the sensitivity to enjoy the world. I think that's a very, very big blessing. And I salute you for that. But Sorry, go ahead. Let's continue the journey.
Omar Angri 26:47
Okay, no, so yeah, that's, it's true what you’re saying, you know, it's a, it's very different. And at the same time, like you say, it's, it's well, very hard, because you are in the internet, so it's pretty hard to make noise out there. I mean, it's noise. I don't mean like making videos all day long. This, you cannot make a noise like this, you know, you need to make noise accuracy, you prove that you're professional and that you can deliver what you're saying, at a given timeframe. And, you know, and 100% this is how you make noise in the internet world. When you like you in the, let's say, let's say at a fixed spot, you can, you know, organize everything around you there is plenty sellers everywhere. So you somehow you make your marketing, you know, obviously for you as well, you need to go with the internet, but you can as well for your hometown, begin to, like you said, throwing rocks at the doors and you know?
Yoni Mazor 27:40
Yeah, work locally, there's certain there certain spots or hubs in at least in America, where you know, there's business around so it's...I don't wanna say it makes it easier, but you know, it's another thing that will create more confidence to the participants in the game. So there are more participants, it's more fears, it's more competitive.
Omar Angri 28:02
Exactly. So yeah, for us then, when we were here, in 2015, the nine months, there was another big hit came in, because we had a client from China. So yeah, they flew at us lots of work. So we hired plenty of people, we were big team and everything. And you know, dealing with China, we know the risks was coming along, you know? They are, they can shut down from on any other day, but nobody or me, don't expect that it's happening. You know? I know that it can happen, but I don't expect that it will happen. It's a you know, it's a kind of psychology, psychological, psychological warfare in your head. So one day it happened. By that day, we were already back in Malaysia because we opened the company in Malaysia, we decided to do it because there we wanted to put the headquarters and everything. So by the time we….
Yoni Mazor 28:52
So you transferred the headquarters from Belize to Malaysia, yeah, at that point?
Omar Angri 28:56
Yes, we left Belize as another entity over there and we try we build up another structure in Malaysia.
Yoni Mazor 29:04
So effectively right now around the world, you have multiple entities you know, so you really work on a global level in terms of legalities also interesting.
Omar Angri 29:12
That's true. That's for the legalities actually because we always moving it's very hard for us to say really like this is this is here on this is there so we will have two entities where we can really put our our minds at ease.
Yoni Mazor 29:25
Yeah listen you're just like Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola is the one brand but it has companies everywhere. If you had to see the list of companies that Coca-Cola owns around the world or entities, you know, it's gonna be a long list but um, so same brand, same mission: selling Coca Cola. For you, your mission is selling sales, you really want to generate sales and more importantly, good margins for these sales and profits, good income for your clients. That's your mission. That's where you're focused on but you do it on a global level from a very unique perspective and angle, which is unexpected, you know from you know, graphic designing to selling kickboxing equipment to being involved in and gaming to what you do now. It's unexpected but you have definitely a unique perspective on it and unique ability to succeed in it. Okay, so you know, so you guys are in Malaysia, I would assume Kuala Lumpur?
Omar Angri 30:16
Yes, it was Kuala Lumpur. But the headquarters is in a small island in the north of Borneo. So obviously, we had to go there with a stay there for a bit. It's a quite, you know, rough part of the world, you know, when we speak about...it's very, it's very advanced. But you still see that it's far away from the normal world, let's say this way.
Yoni Mazor 30:37
The modern world, the modern world, right? With all its amenities or or…?
Omar Angri 30:44
The modern world yes. Three hours flight away from Malaysia in the other direction. So yeah, we were there as well. And like I said, by this time, we lost this big Chinese client. So it was in the way of everything was moving, I was very, we were very growing and everything. And it was a big hit as well. So we lost that part of business, we lost plenty of employees. But it was all good. So what I did is or what me and my wife did, we put our head back into learning. So we learned at the same time, and we try to build up the business at the same time.
Yoni Mazor 31:18
When you say learning, what kind of learning?
Omar Angri 31:21
Marketing specifically.
Yoni Mazor 31:22
So you took courses or you just…?
Omar Angri 31:25
We did anything that we could get, you know? Courses, masterminds, everything what we could get away, we would have to swallow
Yoni Mazor 31:34
Self-educated, basically, you’re saying I'm gonna..we're gonna self educate us and entrench ourselves into marketing and probably digital marketing or online marketing?
Omar Angri 31:42
Exactly, exactly. So this, this was two years, and then we went back again, here. We took a flight to Morocco. We said, okay, we need to stay stable now, again, another two years, and then we see what we're gonna do. So yeah...
Yoni Mazor 31:58
And during these two years, were you guys educating yourself? You’re still in business, yeah?
Omar Angri 32:01
Yes, yes. We were in business. And we were doing very..we were doing okay. You know, we don't like, I cannot say that we did like wow. But you know, we...
Yoni Mazor 32:09
Yeah, you plateaued, you keep a firm line. Okay. And two years later, which year are we talking about? 2015-16?
Omar Angri 32:16
That was 2017-2018.
Yoni Mazor 32:23
So you transfer back to Morocco, you say?
Omar Angri 32:25
Exactly, we went back here. Because it was very interesting, because we had a few clients here, a very big company in Italy, and another company in the UK. So the company which growing was in the UK, and they were at this point already 10 million turnaround per year, roundabout. So this was very good opportunity to meet everyone. Because, you know, they will use go by and you don't meet anyone. And you're like, Okay, I need to meet them, you know. So yeah, so we did this, this was the main purpose was that we came back. And then fast forward, getting better, again, better again, Corona hits.
Yoni Mazor 33:02
So quickly took us from 2018 to 2020. For these two years, you're basically able to firm your business and enjoy the growth of a few big clients. One of them we're doing over 10 million a year. And you said, You know what, I need to take this relationship to the next level and actually go physically meet them to enhance the relationship, right? And the strategic partnership with your client, which was, I guess, a new thing for you to do, you know, because you were so used to having the digital atmosphere where things are remote, you decided to break that cycle. And you're doing I guess, this kind of atmosphere for two years and now challenges of 2020: COVID-19. Take us in.
Omar Angri 33:41
Yeah, so yeah, we didn't expect this one. So yeah, as I said, my wife is a second co-founder and she's as well very heavily involved in...she took the marketing part, the marketing lead, as it sticks more to her the marketing part, as to be a more interactive person you know, I'm doing a lot of official stuff. I'm taking care of the inside of the company, the structure...
Yoni Mazor 34:09
Yeah the management, the direction, the operation.
Omar Angri 34:14
We found a way as well in these times and everyone did his own thing. And suddenly we found ourselves coming….It was one day...it was actually the one night we drove out with the car because you know it's Spain is not far and we can drive to Spain. We kind of came back and we found ourselves locked out. That's it. Doors shut behind us literally.
Yoni Mazor 34:35
In Morocco? The gates shut down on a global level. No way out.
Omar Angri 34:39
No more driving out. So fine, but we needed to deal in our heads with the situation. How this is gonna, you know, how it's going to be. The first weeks were very difficult because you don't know what's going to happen. You know? Actually it turned out very well. They handled the situation for me, one of the best in the world.
Yoni Mazor 34:58
So you’re saying in Morocco, the authorities of Morocco handled it in one of the best ways in the world. You...it's a safe environment, it's controlled, for the most part, minimal damages, you know, to people. So you guys are extremely lucky to be fortunate enough to get locked into in this framework?
Omar Angri 35:15
At the end before, we were bit afraid, but then we realized that is really good, and it’s the best whatever can happen to us. So in this time, we learn even more, so we subscribe to courses as well, at the same time we build up the company, just an example, more website, we have redefined our complete website, not it's, it's still in the making, but it's...t won't take long of maybe weeks to complete. So we use the time very, for me, I'm very happy that I use the time very well to build up again, to refresh my mind to study and to reconnect as well with the family, you know? Because when you do so much as well, on a business level with your family, everyone is involved all the time. So it's so you know, it's a bit upside down.
Yoni Mazor 36:01
So once again, from, I guess the calamity or the challenges, you were able to, I guess, yeah, find a way to change that momentum into positive momentum by once again, educating yourself, refreshing the website, you know, looking internally, what else can be improved and shaped up that's in the business level. But on the personal level, also, you know, take the moment to appreciate the family, what you have, you know, the personal relationship within the family. And now you're sitting, you know, we're sitting in June, end of June right now, maybe it's almost, it's almost July, but yeah, in your time of the world, you're getting closer and closer. But you’re feeling, you know what, you know, overall, you know, everything said and done, you started about 19 years ago in your professional career, a lot of ups and downs. But for the most, most part, you're on top, you're staying on top, you know, you run your own business, you run your own show, okay? You're doing it with your wife, you're able to experience and taste the world and many levels that people would simply Dream on, you know, really just, you know, yeah, I think a good number of Americans don't even have a passport, they just never leave out, you know? So in the perspective of things you were extremely lucky to, and a few critical moments to be in the right place at the right time, enjoy what the world has to offer physically, right? And spiritually, but also, you know, enjoy the fierce world of e-commerce and e-commerce growth, and service clients, and engage with them on a global level. It's phenomenal. I, it's a very unique story that I haven't had the chance to encounter yet. So I appreciate, you know, you sharing with us this refreshing perspective, it's been a hell of a ride. But before we close off, I want to just...I guess, you know, I think you can give us, you know, the listeners out there, you know, a good message of hope and inspiration, you know, for entrepreneurs, to the last words of our last message of hope and inspiration, especially coming from you, you have experienced so much in the past 19 years. I think it will be valuable for anyone listening. So go ahead, what's your message?
Omar Angri 38:11
Okay, a message will be that, you know, this, what we see right now is like a baby, this is only the beginning. You know? Everyone, everyone who thinks like, this is big, this is nothing. We are just starting, you know? I mean, in general, the whole e-commerce, the whole, the whole industry is just starting, you know, it's there's so much to do, and there is space for everyone. Nobody should think like competition, or no, this is my competitor, I cannot talk to him, or I don't know. No, we are all together in this right? You know, we're all together. And there is enough space for everyone to make money, you know, and let's make the money. And let's help the world help, you know, help everyone who is in it. And yeah, be nice to each other and benefit from the knowledge we can give to each other. So this is one of the plans what Margin Business wants to do to help orphans around the world, and to make them not suffer in this world, you know? So if we can achieve that, at some point, I will be a happy man. And that will be my Omar Angril of my life, you know?
Yoni Mazor 39:17
Amazing. So the message of hope is that there's so much opportunity out there, there's so much room for growth, you know, jump in. And don't be afraid competitors can actually be friends, especially in this particular time of the industry, because it's still in its baby steps. It can grow to a gigantic dimension next few years. And you're saying with all that wealth and creation and all that opportunity of material growth, you still keep a spiritual point where you want to help orphans. So I won't take that and package it for anybody listening. If you're an entrepreneur, get in. Don't worry, there's gonna be ups and downs, but overall the Direction is Up. But don't forget your soul. You know, you know if it's helping orphans, whatever it is, find a cause. But you have to of course reach the level of success where you have the opportunity to then help others. That's the underlying message that Omar has. You know, it is in the heart of his message, which really comes from the heart. Beautiful. I like that. Omar, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story today. I wish you the best of luck in our continued journeys around the world. Much health, much happiness. I hope everybody enjoy it. Take care, and I'll talk to you guys later.
