7 business tips from PartyMachines’ ‘Formula for Ecommerce Growth'

Last month’s webinar, "From 1 to 1 Million: Social Media, Influencers, and a Formula for Ecommerce Growth," featured a lively discussion with Greg Gordon, the founder and CEO of PartyMachines.com. Greg took us through his journey to building a successful enterprise renting out foam machines, from his humble vending machine beginnings to amassing a huge social media following and driving record sales. 

We summarized seven key takeaways from the webinar that can help inspire other entrepreneurs chasing success—whether you’re a small business owner worried about your competitors or you’re considering investing in building out your social media presence but aren’t sure how to start, Greg’s experience should inspire you to “trust your gut” and try out a new tactic to grow your business.

Before we dive in, though, don’t miss our August 21 webinar, Practical AI Tips to Grow Your Ecommerce Business! As AI continues to proliferate in multiple industries, small and medium-size ecommerce businesses are wondering how they can apply AI tools to grow revenue and operate more efficiently. Featuring a panel discussion between Webgility founder CEO Parag Mamnani and special guests from Tailwind and Practical Ecommerce, we’ll cover ways to easily and affordably utilize AI to grow your ecommerce business. Sign up to attend the webinar and enjoy a robust Q&A afterwards, where the panelists will field questions from attendees about AI, ecommerce, and other business growth strategies. 

1. Competition can be a good thing

Being first to market isn’t always the best-case scenario. As Greg recalls, “The kids foam party did not exist until I started doing it. And [the industry is] still tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny. But [now] they’re coming out of China like gangbusters. They’re on Amazon. And every time somebody new started selling foam machines, I increased sales. Because the thing that you don’t want to be is the only one doing it.” 

Why does Greg embrace a more crowded market considering he was one of the first to grab a seat at the table? “It was cool because of my margins. My margins were really big. Now there’s more people selling, so my margins are shrinking. But my sales have gone up exponentially because the other people are out there selling this stuff.” 

That’s right—with great power comes great marginsability (we’re pretty sure that’s how the Spider-man quote goes). You might be the only game in town, but the only game in town means you may be dealing with a pricier overhead. Sure, more competition can mean a smaller slice of the pie, but it can also mean lower overhead costs. 

But remember: even though competition can be healthy, don’t make it obvious when a rival’s on your mind. “I would not and will never mention the name of anybody else who sells foam, because any press is good press,” explains Greg. “I use the phrase ‘People who compete against me,’ because I don’t consider them competitors. My competitor is me. I am my own worst enemy. Whatever energy you’re spending on the other folks in your industry, you could be taking that energy and spending it on yourself.”

That said, a crowded pool can make things challenging from a marketing standpoint—how do you grow your business and market it to stand out against the competition? For Greg, he’s evolved his business to start selling bath bombs, shower steamers, and bath products, and he predicts that this year sales of his new product catalog will surpass the foam party products. 

You’re probably thinking, “Bath bombs? Everyone sells those,” but Greg recommends thinking of ways to differentiate your products from the many others available. For him, he’s customizing his bath bombs for different regions to appeal to travelers and residents with hometown pride alike: “I’m gonna have some for the mountains in Colorado. I’m gonna have some for Austin tourists.” 

2. Invest in building a social media presence 

Want to know how long Greg’s been in the ecommerce game? He name checks MySpace. “It didn’t cost me any money to get the MySpace. Or the Friendster. Or the Facebook. Or the Instagram account. Or the YouTube account. Or the TikTok. I would sign up for whatever the new one was,” he recalls. “Because why not? And I would post a few things. I’ve got nine productive hours in a day, and I’m not using them all productively. So what’s 15 minutes to set up a TikTok account?”

If nothing else, it’s wise to register your brand name on each social media platform to block anyone else from grabbing them. Even if you don’t have a massive amount of time to invest on growing your social media presence, Greg recommends posting a few times. “All I know is that something’s better than nothing, and it doesn’t cost me anything or hurt me. Because content is content.”

Greg hired two college students to help manage his social media accounts, but if you don’t have the budget to make that happen, he also recommends using a scheduling platform, which makes managing social media “less painful.” “I schedule for weeks or months at a time, because I know my motivation, and I know that I get less motivated in the winter,” he explains. “So from November 1st, I don’t have to schedule or put anything on social media again until May, because by November, the month of October is when I schedule November, December, January, February, March, and April. I schedule 6 months’ worth of content inside of about two weeks. Do it, and do all of the platforms you can add. You can put the same photos or videos across different platforms—something is better than nothing.”

3. Get on Amazon

“Oh my gosh!”, exclaims Greg, “If you’re not selling on Amazon, call me. Sell your stuff on Amazon.” Why? He explains with a simple analogy: “You’ve got John and Greg’s Coffee Shop next door to Starbucks. John and Greg have the best coffee. I mean, it’s mostly better. It costs less money. But Starbucks has a line around the corner, and John and Greg’s has two people inside. It’s the brand, you know? Sell your stuff on Amazon. Because Amazon is all over the world. I’d always been selling all over the world for a long time, probably since ‘03, ‘04. But now it’s an exponential growth.”

We all know that Amazon is the Goliath to so many small retail Davids, but there’s an obvious advantage to being the biggest, most prolific marketplace in the world. Amazon has designed the process of listing and selling on their platform to be as turnkey as possible, and they have countless resources available to ease the burden for small businesses. “You can have a team of people [from Amazon] working on your Amazon account,” says Greg. “There’s so much within Amazon. I love it.”

4. Buy your trademark

Take the time to invest in the future of your brand by registering for a trademark. “You want to pay USPT, the US Patented Trademark Office,” explains Greg. “It’s gonna take you a year, but buy your trademark. When you officially get your trademark, submit it to Amazon. You can do it yourself—Amazon has all the help within Amazon for free” (another reason to get on Amazon!). 

Later, when you come across brand infringements, you can take quick and decisive action. “I’ve seen somebody selling a foam machine on Amazon from China, and they called them ‘foam party machines,’ and they can’t do that because I own the trademark,” Greg says. “So I got them turned off, and it took about a minute and a half of my life.” 

5. Find a like-minded person to share your journey

Ambitious people (which small business owners are) are very goal-oriented, and Greg is no exception. “I like a list of goals,” he shares. “I like a task list. I like holding myself accountable.”

But the path to building a successful business is long and arduous, so it can help to have a peer who’s on a similar journey to commiserate with. “I like [having] a person or persons to chart my growth with, or to go back and forth with someone else on the same journey,” says Greg. “I have a friend who’s a dermatologist, and he started his business not too long after mine, and we share our journey. It’s self-employment, the same hiccups. Another friend sells cars—it’s the same thing. It doesn’t matter what the product is. It’s business.”

6. Invest in tools that save you time

Okay, shameless Webgility plug coming (we know, we know, but Greg brought it up organically, we swear!). “I do want to point out that I wouldn’t be able to do the Amazon selling if I didn’t have Webgility, because I used to spend a day a month entering my invoices,” Greg tells John. “Yesterday I saw 160-some-odd items sold on Amazon. Those automatically, with no work, get synched into my QuickBooks because of Webgility.” 

“I tell people, ‘What’s your time worth?’ I mean, it was a day a month [spent entering invoices], and you gotta have good record keeping. Because Webgility allows me to put all those entries into QuickBooks effortlessly, people get to see the good numbers and give me a big line of credit.”

7. Trust your gut and don’t be afraid to take risks

Small business owners should feel empowered to take risks—because no risks, no rewards, right? “The biggest thing is you don’t know. You don’t know if something sounds interesting and intriguing—if it’s not gonna kill you and it’s not illegal, try it,” Greg suggests. “The world is smaller than I thought, and the opportunities are limitless to do whatever from wherever, whenever. Nobody knows your business better than you know your business. Trust your gut.  I can tell you what I’ve done, and I can tell you that it works for me.”

Greg Gordon’s decades of experience as an entrepreneur prove that even niche industries like foam party supplies can offer practical tips on how to grow your business and succeed in a constantly changing ecommerce environment. Thanks again to Greg for sharing his insights!