On this episode of Honest Ecommerce, we have Mussayab Ehtesham. Mussayab Ehtesham aka Moose is the mind behind DMOOSE, an e-commerce brand that started in 2017 with a global mission to empower everyday athletes. We talk about using a diversified business strategy, striking a balance between business and personal life, the power of long-term planning, and so much more!
Mussayab Ehtesham, affectionately known as "Moose" within his circles, is originally from the vibrant streets of Pakistan. Moose grew up in a middle-class family, instilling in him the values of hard work, resilience, and self-reliance—pillars that would become the foundation of his entrepreneurial spirit.
The visionary mind behind DMOOSE, an e-commerce brand that emerged in 2017 with a global mission to empower everyday athletes, Moose has transcended mere numbers. His story serves as a testament to breaking barriers and achieving monumental success through the right mindset and unwavering perseverance.
With a background in Mechanical Engineering and a track record as a Project Manager in the automotive industry, Moose brings a distinctive perspective on business, innovation, and leadership. Beyond the realm of business triumphs, Moose's narrative extends to overcoming personal health challenges, offering profound insights into the crucial connection between physical and mental well-being.
He underscores the power of mindset in achieving goals, continuous learning, and growth. For Moose, a balanced life is the key, revolving around the principles of family, fitness, and freedom.
As an entrepreneur, investor, and motivator, he is on a mission to assist others in finding clarity, knowledge, and vision in their lives.
In This Conversation We Discuss:
Resources:
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Mussayab Ehtesham
Learn from your mistakes. Don't be afraid. I always try to think because we live in a world of social media where we need instant gratification. Try to think about things from the long term point of view.
Chase Clymer
Welcome to Honest Ecommerce, a podcast dedicated to cutting through the BS and finding actionable advice for online store owners. I'm your host, Chase Clymer. And I believe running a direct-to-consumer brand does not have to be complicated or a guessing game.
On this podcast, we interview founders and experts who are putting in the work and creating real results.
I also share my own insights from running our top Shopify consultancy, Electric Eye. We cut the fluff in favor of facts to help you grow your Ecommerce business.
Let's get on with the show.
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Honest Ecommerce.
Today, I'm welcoming to the show Moose, the mind behind DMoose, an Ecommerce brand that started back in 2017 with a global mission to empower everyday athletes.
Welcome to the show.
Mussayab Ehtesham
Hey, Chase. Thank you so much for having me.
Chase Clymer
I'm excited to chat so quickly just so folks can have an idea of the type of business DMoose is. What are the products you guys are currently selling every day?
Mussayab Ehtesham
DMoose is an online one-stop shop fitness brand. Our goal is to remove the complexities from fitness and let people come to just one platform and buy anything for their fitness needs, be it supplements, weightlifting equipment, weightlifting accessories, apparel, blog, coaching, whatever.
Our goal is to be a place where the newbies can come and start their fitness journey.
Chase Clymer
That's amazing. Now take me back in time.
Where did the idea for this business come from?
Mussayab Ehtesham
The idea of this business actually came from my own health and wellness struggles. Back in 2016, I was actually diagnosed with IBS.
And at that time, I used to work as a mechanical engineer as a project manager for an automotive consulting company. I've been working there for seven years. And I actually wanted to do more in life than just do a nine to five.
And I identified that I need to have more freedom in my life after doing some other ventures, such as real estate and technical analysis and stuff and all that. I failed on those things. And I realized that the best thing for me to do is start an online business.
So I looked internally and I was excited about the fitness aspect of things. I started finding some fitness products. Found those and started selling those and the mission grew bigger and bigger.
I was actually going through my own struggles of finding supplements and I was changing my own lifestyle, my own attitude towards fitness and health and wellness mindset.
So it gave me the idea that there is not one place where I can go and find everything that I need for my problems. It kind of gave me the idea slowly that I should create a platform where anybody can come in and find anything that they need for their fitness journey.
So it started slowly evolving from being just like one product, two products, then we started adding supplements, and then we started writing blogs, and then we added weightlifting equipment. We are on our way to add a barrel as well in our business to kind of complete that mission of being a one stop shop.
Chase Clymer
That's amazing.
Now, what you'd learned from your previous role as a project manager, how did that translate over to this new creative endeavor and entrepreneurship and starting your own brand?
Mussayab Ehtesham
I believe anything that you go through in life is preparing you for something in your future. So maybe you're going through some hardships right now. And you're probably complaining about those hardships, but they're preparing you for a better future.
So I actually never thought about starting an Ecommerce business. I always thought I would be doing a job since I'm a kid. Like my family, I'm from Pakistan. So there are only two careers that you can choose from, either an engineer or a doctor.
So my family wants me to be either an engineer or a doctor. But when I actually became an engineer, my boss put me into a project management type of role. So as a project manager, I really understood how to visualize the end result, how to plan things, and how to make Gantt charts. I was handling bigger projects.
Those things, I think, were some of the top skills that I actually learned from being an engineer and a project manager that I actually transposed into my business. And still to this day, I use those things.
And I'm actually a promoter of the quote, “If you're failing to plan, you're planning to fail.” So we plan a lot of things. We visualize it.
And all the successful people, they do the same thing. Without a vision, without having a goal in mind, defining the steps that you need to do to get there, you cannot go there. So planning, planning, planning, and some more planning is what has helped us.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely.
How long were you doing them concurrently? I mean, how long were you still working the 9-5 and then working on the Ecommerce business? And when did you make that leap of faith to just focus on the Ecommerce business?
Mussayab Ehtesham
So when I started in 2017, the first year of our business, we hit $1 million in revenue. And I was still working 9-5 because I did not want to quit my job. I knew that in order for me to scale my business, I have to keep on pouring in more money.
So whatever the business was making, I was putting it back in. In 2018, I did the same thing. We grew the business 200x. The next year, we grew the business even more. But in late 2019, November 2019, is when I decided that I cannot grow this any further and it's getting too much for me.I’m having a lot of anxiety and doing too many things at the same time.
So in 2019, we were well in 7 figures, close to doing 8 figures, is when I decided that this is the time that I need to quit my job and go into this 100%.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely. Obviously, having too many hats to wear had the anxiety of it.
Was there anything else going on with the business where you knew if you focused on it, you were going to see the growth that you needed to get that confidence?
Mussayab Ehtesham
Hiring was one of the main things. I was still doing a lot of small things. By that time, I had like two or three employees who were doing a few things. But I knew in order to scale further, I need to take more of a leadership role and stop doing things that I am doing every single day and come as a leader who strategizes on things, who plans things, and gains more knowledge.
So acquiring more knowledge at that time became a difficult thing - going to networking events, going to Ecommerce events, because I was still involved in my job. So I had to take time off.
That's one of the reasons that I also quit my job, so that I can put in that extra time and energy into finding new things, finding new employees, gaining more knowledge, and what's working from a marketing point of view.
And that's actually the time when I decided that I do not want to only sell on Amazon, I also want to sell on Shopify as well as a brand, because Amazon actually suspended my account for two weeks during that time, which really pissed me off. For something stupid.
Amazon was known for doing those silly things back in the day. They don't do that anymore. They're not that stringent. But back in the day, they would just shut your account for even small review manipulation or something like that.
They suspended my account for two weeks and it really pushed me to start thinking of this whole thing not as a side hustle, but as a proper business because I'm going to rely on it. So I need to take this very, very seriously.
Chase Clymer
Yeah. I felt myself agreeing with you when you were talking about hiring is hard and getting stuff off your plate. Delegation is such a learned skill for entrepreneurs because you have this ingrained do-it-yourself mindset almost.
Do you have any advice for younger entrepreneurs out there that are struggling with delegating tasks from their to-do list?
Mussayab Ehtesham
I'm a believer in getting a lot of knowledge, especially in the Ecommerce industry. Our industry is changing so fast, faster than any other industry in the world, right? AI is coming and marketing is changing every single day. Amazon is changing every single day. So first of all, I believe in being obsessed with more knowledge.
Secondly, I obsess over this quote I use all the time. “It's not about how, it's about who.”
I think one of the examples that I actually use with my employees as well is Alibaba's owner, Jack Ma. If you read his story, he just had an idea that he wants to create a space where he can bring in all the suppliers and people can find those suppliers, but he did not know a single thing about computers.
And still to this day, he claims that he did not know anything about computers. And so he gathered the best minds in the world, made them sit together and told them that, “Hey, I need to solve that problem, solve it for me.”
So he had the knowledge and what he did was he found out who is that person who can actually help solve that problem for him. So I think my business kind of took off, and gained some speed as well, when I realized, “Hey, I need to find the person. I should be obsessed with finding the best person that fits in that role.”
Initially, when you're trying to do those things, it's very hard to kind of put that math of like, “Hey, if I do this, I don't have to pay that much money to that person.” But you need to think from a growth point of view. If you do this, you will grow as well. You're not just going to remain in the same state, you know. So if you do this, you will grow as well.
Go with that hope. Go with that, and give it your best. Once you do that, I'm 100% sure you will succeed.
Chase Clymer
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Chase Clymer
I want to circle back to something that you said that the brand started on Amazon and then transitioned into Shopify as well and some other channels.
Can you talk to me about getting started and how did you find your first customers on Amazon?
Mussayab Ehtesham
Finding customers on Amazon is easy. Finding customers on Shopify is the most difficult thing. I think if you find a customer on Shopify, that is the day you can say that you’re actually a business.
I believe Amazon businesses are not businesses. I've seen so many people who were my competitors, and they have come and gone because they thought we would launch this product, we are backed by investors, we're gonna just burn like 20, 30 grand, and I've seen them come and go.
But the only thing that can make you stay permanent is making a brand. I am a firm believer that the future on Amazon is off the brands. It's not about individual products, because if you have branding, you will stay long-term, you will stay permanent.
So we kind of shift our focus towards the same thing as well. Start treating us as a business, start treating us with a long-term vision that we are not an Amazon brand, we are a business.
So as any other business, you can be in retail, you can be on Amazon, you can be on Shopify, you can be on Target, you can do wholesale. If you think from that point of view, then Amazon just becomes a marketplace or a small channel for you. You'd really need to think like that.
I believe Amazon businesses are not businesses because we don't know the complexities, the intricacies of an actual business. Number one thing in a business is to do a sale, and Amazon does the sale for us. We know we can manipulate it in certain ways with the algorithm and all that, but once you go and get a customer on Shopify, you realize that this is actually business.
How can you bring them through a funnel? How can you increase their average order value? How can you increase their lifetime value? This is all the conventional, traditional businesses are doing as well.
So Amazon, if you think from that business point of view, Amazon is just a channel.
Chase Clymer
Oh man, I couldn't have got a more honest and sincere answer from you that I enjoyed listening to if I had told you to tell me that answer. And I'm going to reference this episode a lot with people.
So when I think of Amazon and starting a business on Amazon, I think that if I wanted to test a product and see if I had product market fit, see if the way I'm proposing the benefits and features of my product, to see if there's an audience out there for it, I think launching on Amazon to test that is a great idea. Amazon has billions of maybe... Not billions, but millions and millions of millions of customers that they will let you put your product in front of.
But I couldn't agree more that it's night and day launching on Shopify because you have to work to gain every single sale that you get. But the benefit of that is you own that customer and that relationship and the sky's the limit from there.
Mussayab Ehtesham
I mean, also, if you look at any big business, right, they don't think from just selling on Amazon point of view. I'll use the example of the iPhone, right? They also sell on Amazon, they sell on their website, they sell in retail, they sell in so many different places, Best Buy, or whatever, they don't think about just selling on Amazon.
So in order to become a proper business, yes, Amazon is a great channel. Obviously, Amazon has its own customer. You should have an Amazon strategy. But don't just rely on Amazon because that's not good business.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely.
So do you remember how far into the business you were when you started to diversify and you were like, “All right, we have to crack Shopify and figure this out, build this flywheel,”?
Mussayab Ehtesham
In 2019, late 2019. As I said, I was going through my old health and wellness issue and my vision was growing bigger and bigger that I want to build a bigger brand, much like Nike or Lululemon.
But 2019, when Amazon actually suspended my account, it really pissed me off that I need something of my own.
Chase Clymer
So you didn't have a store before that?
Mussayab Ehtesham
We just had a domain. No, we never had a store. We just had a domain.
So that's when I started shifting from Amazon conferences, Amazon knowledge to gaining knowledge of Shopify. And first I realized, “Hey, Shopify is gonna be easy,” but it's a whole different beast. You have to do your branding, you have to understand AOV, you have to understand creatives, you have to understand marketing, sales, customer service.
Everything you have to understand properly. You know, how does a website converge, CRO, email marketing, SMS marketing. You name it, you have to understand and know it.
So if you don't like being an Ecommerce owner, I don't think you can do Shopify. You really have to want to be a marketer, you have to want to be an Ecommerce owner because that thing will wake you up every single day. Even though you're losing money on Shopify, a few days you will wake up and you’ll be like, “Okay, what can I optimize?”
Chase Clymer
Absolutely.
Do you remember how long it took you, and what the strategy was to start to get those first customers on Shopify exclusively?
Mussayab Ehtesham
I would say it took a while. Late 2021, 2022 is when we actually started attending a course from Tony Robbins called Business Mastery. That really helped me put things into perspective.
For actually any business, but for Shopify as well, I say there are three important things: how can you increase the number of new customers, and increase their average order value, and increase their lifetime value or frequency of purchase?
Focus on just these three key metrics all the time, obsess over these three key metrics. How can I bring new visitors? How can I increase their average order value and their frequency of purchase, which is the LTV?
So if you just increase 10%, let's say your conversion rate is like 2%, but you just increase 10% of the new traffic, you're going to make more money. If you just increase AOV by 10%, have everything else the same, you're going to make more money. If you increase 10% lifetime value, focus on that.
So if you make like small, small, small, small increments and just keep on focusing on how can you fix this AOVs, like, you're going to frequently bought together upselling, upgrading to a bundle, cross sell and post purchase upsells, cross sells, LTVs more like email marketing and inserts and community and all of those things where new visitors is obviously, then you go and find different sources of traffic, maybe going for publishers, Facebook, Google, TikTok, SEO, maybe driving some traffic from Amazon.
So keep on focusing little by little, little by little, and those things will eventually stack up.
But as I said, it took us a long, long time to understand Shopify. Branding is very important, having a good website is very important, CRO is very important. If you don't have a nice converting landing page or a product page, it's not gonna work.
People really want to see some reviews, trust pilot reviews, your reviews on your website. It's gonna take a while. But if you keep going, I'm sure that you can start seeing some results.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely. I believe 1% better every day is just such a good attitude to have in life, and especially in entrepreneurship, because that compounding growth is wild.
These days, what's the split between Amazon and Shopify if you're allowed to share?
Mussayab Ehtesham
I would say Amazon is still 60%, but we are growing every day. We also sell in a lot of other Amazon marketplaces like Canada, UK, Germany. Those are some of the big marketplaces for us. And we sell like FDA, not like we have proper warehouses. But Shopify, my goal is to grow as much.
I actually heard from a very big entrepreneur recently, he said, “No channel should be more than 33%. If any channel is more than 33% for you, you're relying too much on that channel.”
So my goal is to reduce Amazon to at least 33%, Shopify 33%, maybe retail 33%. So that we are not relying on one channel so much.
Chase Clymer
Yeah, it's a healthy mix. I've heard similar stuff for service businesses. For anyone out there that's a freelancer or an agency person, if you've got one client that's over 33%, if they go away, your business might go away because that's just too much. Too many eggs in one basket, to make it very, very simple.
Looking back on what you've done since 2017, is there anything that stands out as a mistake you made that you can share to maybe let the listeners try to avoid?
Mussayab Ehtesham
That's a good question.
There was a time when I got comfortable because in 2020, that's when it took me some time on Shopify as well. In 2020, the fitness industry was booming. On Amazon, we blew up. We actually went out of stock on almost every single thing. Shopify, same thing happened.
And we got comfortable for a while, me and my employees, because we were just getting sales, and that hurt us.
As I said, this industry is very competitive. I saw a lot of people come and go. In Ecommerce, and in any other business, I later found out that you have to stay on top of your game. You have to keep on getting more knowledge, keep on improving yourself physically, mentally, not just from the business point of view, but your own personal life as well.
I also believe if you're not working out, if you do not have good health, you cannot have a good business because your health kind of portrays what you're doing in business. If you have good health, you work out, you have a right mindset, those things will portray into business.
You will think bigger, you will have the right mindset, things will fail for you but you will still keep on going. So kind of those things go hand in hand.
And also, I mean, this is like a different subject, but I am also a believer of family, fitness, and freedom. Living a life in balance, not just focusing on one thing. That also helps me in my business as well. For example, when I go for a walk, a lot of ideas come to me when I actually go out for walks or when I'm not working in the business.
You step away from the problem. All of a sudden you realize, “Shit, I need to do this, this is a next level idea. This is what I can implement. This is the person I can hire.”
Sometimes it's okay to step away from your business as well and do other things. As I said, I believe in living life in balance. So if you live life in balance, everything will improve for you.
You cannot have just one day where you say, “Oh, I'm going to party.” For me, Saturday and Sunday are the same. Yes, you should maybe work less on Saturday, Sunday, but don't wake up at like 11 am or 10am. Just try to wake up at the same time and have the same day. Work on your goals, work on your career, work on your health, work on your family, try to do community work, try to do all of those things and everything will improve for you.
Chase Clymer
Absolutely. 1% better every day, right?
Mussayab Ehtesham
Yeah. Awesome.
Chase Clymer
Moose, is there anything I didn't ask you about that you think would resonate with our audience?
Mussayab Ehtesham
I don't know. You probably know your audience the best.
But if this is for newbies, I would definitely say that learn from your mistakes. Don't be afraid. I always try to think… We live in a world of social media where we need instant gratification. Try to think about things from the long term point of view, long term gratification.
When you think from that point of view, you make a better strategy, your mindset is different, your vision is different, and even if you fail, you know that, “Okay, I know this is gonna take some time.” Tell yourself, “Hey, I'm building this thing, this is gonna take some time.”
I give the example of this to my employees as well, like Tesla, sorry, SpaceX, for example, right? SpaceX, actually, it took them so many years to develop reusable rockets, right? They were not selling from day one.
With my employees, we actually do a product launch and sometimes it fails, and we say it's okay. We are gonna learn from this and we will keep on improving it and see where we went wrong. But we're gonna crush it. We're gonna find out where it's wrong and we're gonna crush it. So that comes from the long-term thinking point of view.
I always think, how do I see myself as an 80-year-old or a 100-year-old? What are some of the things that I want to achieve when I'm 80 years old or 100 years old? And when you think like this, your thinking changes a lot. You start to do things, bigger things rather than small things.
Especially in the US and Canada and Europe, I believe in Western countries. So I come from Pakistan. People here want instant gratification, and we live in a life of luxury. Our problems are like small problems. Hey, this is not going for me, blah, blah, blah. And then we start complaining. I don't know which subject to choose.
But if you look at the problems of the rest of the world, they don't think like that. These are like luxury problems for us. So I just say, think long term and everything will fall into place for you.
Chase Clymer
Those are great parting words, Moose.
If I was listening to this episode and I'm curious to check out the products that you are obviously so passionate about, where should I go?
Mussayab Ehtesham
Go to dmoose.com. And if you use the code Dmoose10, you will get 10% off as well. You can also find me on Twitter, @mussaverse.
Chase Clymer
Awesome. I will make sure to link to all that stuff in the show notes.
Moose, thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Mussayab Ehtesham
Nice. Thank you so much for having me.
Chase Clymer
We can't thank our guests enough for coming on the show and sharing their knowledge and journey with us. We've got a lot to think about and potentially add into our own business. You can find all the links in the show notes.
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