This week on The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly and Listing Party, Doug catches up with Paul and Faith from My Reseller Genie. They talk about how “Genie” works, how it all started, seller events, recent updates especially for consignment sellers, and more!
The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly is the e-commerce resource for the seller community across all platforms and a hub for information on growing your business. Find out more at thesellercommunitypodcast.com, leave a message or ask a question at anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast, or email us at podcast@listperfectly.com.
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Episode Links
Transcript
Paul and Faith of My Reseller Genie
Doug: Welcome to The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly today we welcome technically back Paul and Faith from My Reseller Genie. They’ve been on the show, but they’re back today to dig a little deeper. Welcome back, Paul and Faith.
Faith: Thank you so much.
Paul: Good to be back.
Faith: We’re excited to be here.
Doug: We’re excited to help you share your story. Paul, what does My Reseller Genie do for online sellers?
Paul: My Reseller Genie (https://www.myresellergenie.com/) is a web-based accounting software built specifically for resellers. Think of us as QuickBooks or Xero, but we only care about resellers.
Faith: That’s the short version. There’s a lot we can do.
Paul: The longer version is just, it’s a specialized tool. All of our development is geared towards resellers. All of our support materials are geared towards resellers. Our support rep, which is me right now, I only deal with resellers, support@myresellergenie.com So yeah, there’s, there’s a lot of benefits that come from a specialized tool.
Doug: And Faith, how does it work? Is there an interface? I upload a spreadsheet, my numbers, or how does that all work, high level?
Faith: Yeah, so that is a long answer. It depends on which plan you’re going to choose. So we currently have three plans (https://www.myresellergenie.com/pricing): Basic, which starts at $9.99 a month. And then there’s Premium, which is $14.99 a month. And then Ultimate, which is $19.99 a month. So very inexpensive, especially, after you look into some of these other accounting software we’re not trying to break your bank.
So again, it really depends on which plan you choose and also which set of platforms you’re on. Currently, we do have eBay integration, which is fantastic because that’s going to make getting all of your inventory, your sales, all of your fees, and returns into the app really quickly.
But the cool thing about Genie is that we have made it compatible with any and all selling platforms. Compatibility doesn’t equal integration necessarily. But it does mean that you can record all of your sales, all of your inventory from any and all selling platforms, even if you’re at a booth or if you sell a pair of shoes to your neighbor across the street and then with Poshmark and Mercari, those platforms specifically, we have a very succinct way to get all your inventory and sales. And it’s like a couple of clicks of a button.
So it depends on which platforms you’re on, and how big of a seller you are. You just start out with getting your inventory loaded if you track inventory and then your sales. And then we also have bank integration as well. So you can bring in all of your expenses, even PayPal integration, and things like that.
Doug: So Paul, what’s the first step for a seller to get started?
Paul: So the first step is when you log in, it’s going to show you a couple of screens like pointing you to different areas in the app. One of those is a checklist. So that checklist just gives you this general framework for okay, what are the things I need to be thinking about? And then from there you can use our startup instructions. We send them to you via email. There’s a little help icon right in the app where you can search our knowledge base. Or you can go to our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoVCqok3GEV2K6aqOgCH_qQ). We’ve got written instructions and video instructions.
Getting set up. There are things that will walk you all the way through it. And if you ever have questions, you can just send us a message and we’ll help get you back on track.
Doug: This would be one that I would like both perspectives on. From each of your perspectives, what made you decide to launch My Reseller Genie?
Paul: I would say it was abundantly clear there was a real need in the community. I saw it second-hand because my wife was the reseller. I saw the difficulties that she had, and then I heard about the difficulties that other friends or people that she met through Facebook groups or Instagram, like all of them are having similar problems. And we’re just like, yeah, between the two of us, we have the subject matter expertise and the know-how to create a solution here. Let’s do it.
Faith: And then from my end, this might be a little bit more drawn out, but so I started selling we’re coming up on seven years, seven years of reselling. I started out on Poshmark. Now I’ve expanded to other platforms and stuff. But when my first tax season as a reseller rolled around, I had no idea what I was doing and it was a nightmare. And I won’t go into that because I’m sure that most of you guys who are listening, know exactly what I’m talking about.
But there were tears, there were headaches, it was just three months of just, it was awful. And I was like I can’t be the only one who’s struggling with this. And… Come to find out, like Paul said, in my search on Facebook groups or on Instagram, just hearing from other sellers it was just very clear that this was a common theme in the reselling community. When it comes to the topic of accounting or taxes or any of those quote-unquote taboo words, which we are trying to, untaboo, is that we need help with this and, I’m not the only one and I’d say that it’s the majority, who needs help with this.
But fast forward through there, Paul helped me that first tax season. He was fantastic, made a spreadsheet and I was good. I had my system down and I was like, all right, we got this. But then fast forward a couple of years and COVID hit. And, Paul was working in accounting at the time. Thankfully he didn’t lose his job, but he did lose a couple of hours in his job, so we had to look for supplemental income and that, oh man, that was a headache, wasn’t it? I forget how long we searched.
It was rough trying to find something and it occurred to me, I will never forget. I was standing downstairs in my kitchen and Paul, he was working remotely, so he was just working on his computer at the dining room table. And I was like, babe. What if we took what you made for me and jazzed it up a little bit and offered it to the reselling community? We are very different people. I’m more relational and he is deliberate, he is technical. So many of the things that I am not. And so I expected him to just write off my suggestion right away. And, just think now, that’s not going to work out, but he actually paused in the way that Paul does when he’s thinking about something.
And I was like, Oh, this is a good sign. He paused and he was like maybe we could try that. And so fast forward, like three months later, he coded this gorgeous Excel spreadsheet. And it wasn’t even like a spreadsheet basically, cause you didn’t even need to know Excel in order to use it.
We sold 500 copies of that later that year. And then it became apparent to us that, Hey, in order to help more people we need to go web-based because, whether or not your spreadsheet is easy to use, people don’t like spreadsheets, myself included, even though this one is very easy to use. That’s how we got here.
Doug: No offense, Paul, Faith said nobody likes spreadsheets. Paul, are you full-time now?
Paul: Yeah, my emphasis Is My Reseller Genie. So I always tell people I have a background in corporate accounting.
Doug: And so Faith, you mentioned you’re a reseller. You told us where you sell. So I’m interested. How do you balance the two now? My Reseller Genie and reselling.
Faith: We love this community so much. It became apparent to us that because we were making software for the community customer support and customer communication, all that was going to be a priority for us because I’m sure that you can relate to having had bad customer support, like in the past with whatever company like you name it. And we were like, no, like we’re not going to do we’re not going to be defined by that. So all of that to say, My Reseller Genie is my priority always. And if I have time, I’m reselling.
So I wish I could say that I was full-time reselling, but this business has thankfully grown and it’s growing. Yeah. So the majority of my time is spent on My Reseller Genie.
Doug: And Paul, any chance you’ll sell?
Paul: I think there is a chance. I’ve sold a couple of items before and it was really exciting.
Faith: He loved it.
Paul: I did love it. That being said, I also recognize it’s a ton of work to be a reseller and to develop a competency of just being able to recognize value in something that most other people don’t. So I may get there. I’m far from there right now, but I could see myself getting into it, if nothing else it would be helpful to walk a mile in the reseller shoes.
Doug: Besides My Reseller Genie, do you do anything to help Faith with her reselling or is it all on her shoulders?
Paul: Yeah, it’s all on her. I packed up one sale once when she was visiting her sister. And she was amazing. She walked me through the whole process. I didn’t have to think at all. It was just like, she had it all systematized. Get this bag from here, get this box from here.
Faith: He’s not giving himself enough credit. I have dragged Paul to the thrift store before, and he has been a good sport. But it was very clear to me that it was just not his cup of tea to sort through racks and racks of clothing. Because that’s what I specialize in is clothing and shoes. But another thing that I will say is that we recently had our first Whatnot show. (https://www.whatnot.com/user/myresellergenie?referringSource=listings_serp) I think about a month ago and we’re not planning on going full-time on Whatnot or anything like that. It was more we just wanted to engage with the community.
It was a whole lot of fun and we did it together. I was the main one in front of the camera, but he was making everything, all the stuff just rolled in the background with all of the new listings pinned. And so he did great. And we had a whole lot of fun with that, but I still did all the packing up after.
Paul: Yeah, it was a lot.
Faith: It was a lot.
Doug: And you mentioned the seller community. You both are definitely part of it. You fit in so well. And, we’ve seen each other at many events. And you’ve attended and sponsored some events. So tell us a little bit about that.
Paul: Our first event that we attended and sponsored was BOSS Reseller Remix in Vegas. That was a lot of fun.
So we interact with customers all the time through email. There’s something totally different about meeting customers in person. It’s really exciting. Because A, if they have a problem, you can just sit down with them and open up the computer and you walk them through it.
And B like if your products have helped them, they tell you, and it’s really rewarding because you just, you work so hard on making this into something that you hope helps people, but seeing it firsthand is just wow that’s exciting.
Do you have anything you want to add?
Faith: There’s so much that I could say. As you mentioned we fit in so well. I think that’s because like we’re just all cut from a similar cloth when it comes to this reselling. Whenever we get to get together with other sellers, it’s not just motivational for us. It’s inspiring. It feels like family in a way. Just the community aspect is so massive. I’m just really grateful for this community.
And like Paul said I will never forget the first event that we went to last year to sponsor, we had one of our customers come up to us and she’s just beaming like her face. She was just glowing. And she just comes over and shakes my hand. And she’s I’m so excited to meet you. And I was just so humbled by that. I’m sure that you guys can relate to that all the time with List Perfectly, and people just coming up to you and just being like, thank you so much.
And it means the world to us to know that, okay, like this little vision that we had in our tiny kitchen in Baltimore, three years ago is actually helping people. It’s very humbling to us.
Doug: It’s great to make that real-world connection with people online, and there are plenty of sellers that I either know their real name or their selling name.
But here’s another, each of you question. For each of you, what’s your single top piece of advice for online sellers?
Faith: So I’ll just say this. And I’m saying it mostly because I have talked to so many of you guys who are listening and to a lot of people in the community about how you get into reselling and an underlying theme with that is people with either chronic illness or disability or mental health issue or just like you name it.
And I actually came from a background with that because I struggle with chronic autoimmune illness and that was the reason why I got into selling. So there’s that piece, but then it’s okay if you do struggle with one of those, which hopefully you do not. But if you do, and I do think that there’s a lot of us who do, trying to figure out what consistency looks like for you, because it’s going to look different for so many people.
I don’t want that to sound I don’t know like a generic response because I do think that people preach that sometimes. Figure out what works for you, but I know for me that I have tried to follow the mold for certain sellers. But I know with my health now, if I do that, I’m just going to get really sick and then I’m not gonna be able to work at all.
And so figuring out what is that balance? What is that workflow that you need? And it might look totally different than the majority of people and that’s okay. Just be confident in that make adjustments as needed and be willing to pivot.
Like I think it’s resellers, we’re already having to pivot anyway, because reselling has changed so much, especially in the last year, but being willing to pivot just with your personal life and the challenges that come facing you.
Paul: So I would say as much as you can try and develop systems that work for you because I mean As a reseller, like you’re a small business owner. And that’s a nice way of saying you have to do everything your operations, your I.T., your accounting, your executive, there’s just so many different areas that you need to be hitting on in order to move your business forward. At the company where I used to work, the CEO would always say that a company is like an orchestra and everybody needs to be playing together in sync for the concert to go well.
So you’ve got an orchestra that you need to run. Thank you. She’s a musician. So you’ve got an orchestra you need to conduct and you’re playing all the instruments as a small business owner. So figuring out systems that work for you is just, I think, really key for two reasons. One, you don’t have to think as much about all the different things that you need to do. And two, once you get to the point that you can hire people, you can say, here’s the system, learn the system.
Doug: Alright, for each of you what’s the number one mistake from sellers?
Faith: Some of you guys will hear this answer, but you think, Oh of course she’s going to say this because she runs an accounting…
Paul: we’re going to have the same answer.
Faith: Guys, I am not kidding. I’m trying to be very open-minded and think about all of the different mistakes I see. The biggest one that I see is people not tracking their numbers and not accounting for their business and so new people and guys, I, please know like I, I came from that background so I wasn’t doing it. I wasn’t doing anything and I, quite frankly, I didn’t see the importance of it. And that was the root, I think, because as soon as you realize that something’s important you’re going to find a way to make it happen, but once you realize that accounting isn’t just for the ease of tax season and to get through without tears but you realize that accounting is understanding the health of your business and realizing, okay, is this area healthy? Is it sick? Do I need to make changes? Where’s there need to be growth? Where is there stuff we need to just throw into the dumpster? Guys, it’s revolutionary.
And I hear from people all the time, just that they’re either not tracking their numbers or like they’re going to put it off. And I just have to say from personal experience and then just from speaking to countless people, whether they email us, if they DM me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/myresellergenie/?hl=en) or at the conferences that we’ve been at, a lot of people, unfortunately, don’t see the importance of it, but it’s extremely important!
Paul: Yeah, that was 100 percent my answer. I think I’ll just hit on something that you were already discussing, which is just the reason why you want to keep up with your numbers. Everybody knows that taxes are one reason and can you maybe get an accurate tax picture by just doing it once at the end of the year? Maybe, it’s tough. It’s not going to be fun. It’s definitely not going to be fun. It probably won’t be very accurate. You can get decent accuracy, maybe.
Faith: And it depends on how good your business is.
Paul: If you’re good, yeah. The other piece to it that I think is easy to forget about is just throughout the year running your business and having a sense of what’s going on.
I personally think it’s really stressful to just not have any idea what’s going on. It’s like it’s your income source and you don’t really know how much you’re making. You don’t have a sense of how much you need to be paying in quarterly tax returns, it’s stressful. So I would say the biggest mistake that we see is not keeping up with the books.
Faith: And hopefully some of you guys can resonate with this. I think you can because I’ve heard a lot of you say it. I used to think that I had a really good handle on my numbers. When I wasn’t tracking, because I can keep it all up here in my head. And I come from a background of having to memorize a whole lot of stuff.
Like Paul said, I was a musician. I like, like I had the music brain, all that. And I used to think I was good. Guys, that first tax season, I realized I was hardly profitable. Actually, I don’t remember. Was I in the red? I was either in the red or I wasn’t profitable at all. And I just, I say that not to scare you, but to appeal to you that you have to start somewhere.
And as soon as you do, whether that’s, obviously we’re here we’re My Reseller Genie but whether that’s using us or something else, a spreadsheet, whatever, You are doing yourself a huge service by starting to track. Don’t get stressed out or overwhelmed by thinking you gotta figure it all out in one day because this is going to be a process, it’s going to take some time and that’s okay.
But I promise you guys, once you start tracking, you’re going to realize, oh man, like maybe I’m not doing as good as I thought I was doing, but that’s going to give you the information you need to empower you to make the changes that you need so that you can come out on top.
Don’t just trust your memory. I’m sure some of you guys have amazing memories, but there are so many fees involved in reselling. A lot of us don’t think about the cost of certain things. And yeah, so I’ll leave it at that.
Doug: So where can sellers find out more about My Reseller Genie?
Paul: You can follow us on social media. We’re on Facebook, (https://www.facebook.com/myresellergenie/) Instagram, and YouTube. Our YouTube’s not too exciting unless you like, just getting a sense for what the software looks like, but it’s training material. And so it’s great to give you a look into the software and see how it works and stuff, we’re not trying to be too entertaining. It’s just…Here’s how it works. Here’s what you do. Yeah, so you can follow us there.
You can also go to our website myresellergenie.com.
Faith: Yeah. And on all those social platforms where the exact same, My Reseller Genie.
Doug: So what’s next for My Reseller Genie?
Paul: There’s always more. We actually just released a new consignment feature. So if you sell for a consignor, they can now attach that consignor to each item and then run a report at the month to calculate what they owe and commission.
Faith: It’s a really big deal. We’re so excited to have this feature because I feel like more and more resellers are doing consignments, even if it’s just on a really small scale. And so the fact that our software is now set up, not just to track, sales inventory across all selling platforms, but for consignors too, really.
Paul: And then, apart from that, we try not to say, specifics of what exactly we’re doing. We listen to what users asks are and then we try to solve those problems. So the big thing for us is making this software more usable for more different types of resellers and their situations, and then also adding automation so that you need to spend less time working on your accounting and more time working on your business.
Doug: Congratulations on that consignment launch. That’s cool. If you’re online selling somebody’s inevitably going to ask you to sell their stuff, you just have to figure out how that’s going to work, and what cut you’re going to get.
So anything to add?
Faith: We covered a lot of it.
Paul: I think that’s about it. Thanks for asking all the questions and having us on here.
Doug: Awesome thank you, Paul and Faith of My Reseller Genie, definitely friends of the show. We’re friends of yours. So we’ll see you out at events. Congratulations on everything and all the growth and success. And we’ll definitely have you on again.
Faith: Thank you so much, Doug. We appreciate it.
Doug: Of course.
Outro
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