Hey Reader,

You’re reading The Long Game - insights on financial mastery, entrepreneurship, eCom & building a rich life from Andrew at eComFuel.

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Lean Team > Great Marketing

A store owner in eComFuel use to have 35 people on payroll.

He made some hard calls. Hired a 3PL. Replaced most full-timers with freelancers.

Today he has one employee and eight contractors.

And his profits have never been higher. His management stress is down 95%.

When I researched what actually drives profitability across hundreds of stores I found something surprising.

It wasn't ROAS. It wasn't hiring Stanford MBAs and locking them in a room 18 hours a day to market.

The top performers had HALF the team size of everyone else.

Staying lean beat great marketing.

It's not just your big headcount.

It's the nice office. The big warehouse. The stack of SaaS subscriptions you forget about.

Top brands in my research were also 25% more likely to outsource warehouse operations. And 25% less reliant on paid traffic.

If someone said you had to cut 25% of your overhead or lose the business, could you do it?

You likely could.

Now ask yourself why you haven't.

The hard conversations are often avoided until we're forced into them.

Store owners winning on profit have them proactively, without waiting for a recession or existential crisis.

This is part of my series on Building Financial Mastery, specifically Pillar #3: Optimize Your Three Biggest Profit Levers.
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Price testing / optimization and tax planning are the other two big levers.

For a full deep dive on all 3, check out episodes and posts below 👇:

For the full deep dive on this topic:​
🎙️Listen to this week’s podcast episode​
📖Read the in-depth blog post​

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💬 Inside eComFuel This Week

Hot discussions from inside our private community for store owners:

• How to cut what you pay Klaviyo by 40%
• COO's been here 20 years. How to reward him?
• We're using Openclaw!! How it's been going.

Run a 7- or 8-figure store? Learn about membership & full access.

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🧪 eComFuel Trends Report

This is my dive study on all things eCom. If you own an eCom store there's two big reasons to be a part of it:
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​International Business Class Ticket - One person walks away with a complimentary business class airfare ticket anywhere in the world.

Early Copy of the Actionable Report - Learn what's working, what's not, and how you stack up to other stores you size.

Next week is your last chance to participate before I go into a cave to crunch the numbers.

--> Join the Study​

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👥What My Friends Are Up To

​Sellers Summit- I'm headed to Florida to attend Sellers Summit, April 21-23rd, hosted by Steve Chou. I always learn something new. Maybe I'll see you there.

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🌐 Interesting Things I Like

​Incredible EDM Mix - Most days I'm cranking this in my office as I work, it's an incredibly upbeat, motivating mix. H/T to Justin Mares for putting it on my radar.

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☕ Where I Ramble Between Newsletters

🎙️ Catch My Weekly Podcast: Longer form takes on building an incredible business and amazing life.

👋 LinkedIn and X/Twitter: Yes, I'll reply! Would love to hear from you.

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