SirDarryl Roundtree: 0:53
Oh, thank you for having me and I’m glad to hear that the learning stuck right BPL, 4PL. So thank you for that, that’s right.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 1:00
No, I think that’s huge. So for those of you that haven’t heard of that technology, I think it’s important to know it, particularly if you’re in the e-commerce space. So, SirDarryl, I want to ask you to kind of just tell us more about what Zip Ship does in that space.

SirDarryl Roundtree: 1:19
Sure. So Zip Ship is a full service third party logistics company. So let me explain full service first. So full service means that we have kind of everything that you would need from a third part of logistics provider. We’ve got warehousing, we handle storage, we handle fulfillment and we handle logistics. So we do have an in-house freight brokerage, which means that we’re able to coordinate container pickups from different ports. We’re also able to coordinate different inbound shipments. If you need something shipped from a manufacturer to us and then from our warehouse to either a distribution center, we can ship directly to a customer or we can ship directly to a retailer. So we’re pretty much able to handle all of your warehousing services in-house.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 2:07
Got you. So you all are like the behind the scenes team. If I had a clothing company or a jewelry company, then I get my product to you and then you all take care of everything that needs to happen to get it in front of a customer. Is that right?

SirDarryl Roundtree: 2:25
That is correct. We’re, believe it or not, we’re the last. We’re the block in between your website and the customer. So, and if everything is done correctly, it should be seamless.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 2:37
The hidden middleman yes, invisible, got it, got it. Okay, so you’re a background. Let’s talk a little bit about your background. You were in logistics prior to launching Zip Ship, is that right?

SirDarryl Roundtree: 2:53
That is correct. I’m definitely going to date myself here, but I’ve been in logistics for 20, yeah, 20 plus years. Kind of amazing to even say that.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 3:03
But you’re not dating yourself. I’ve been in marketing and sales 20 plus, so hey, that’s all right.

SirDarryl Roundtree: 3:08
We’re contemporaries right, there you go. Yeah, a really really deep, deep background in supply chain. So supply chain, you know is, is everything from like raw materials, manufacturing, distribution, logistics and returns. So it is like I like to say supply chain is from the manufacturer to the shelf. It’s everything a lot of us, a lot of customers, don’t think about, like how do my items actually get to me or get to the shelf in the store? And really COVID brought supply chain to the forefront. So when we started to see shelves empty of, you know, paper towels, toilet paper, masks and all those different things, there was a significant interruption in supply chain. So kind of back to my background. I started a manufacturing with the Food and Beverage Company, spent about 10 years there and it was a large Fortune 50 company and really I credit that time of my life with just a thirst and hunger for knowledge in the supply chain space. You know, going into an environment where the processes and the documentation was very rigid and the expectations were high from a performance standpoint, you know we really learned like the deep ends and outs of the business that we operated in. And then after that I had a good friend of mine reach out and she needed some assistance, kind of getting connected to a retailer, and it was something I was familiar with and that was the birth of Zip Ship, because she had a 3PL provider that was not invisible in the process. So there were a lot of interruptions, a lot of customer complaints, a lot of lost inventory, missing products, missing orders, so just a lot of red flags and I said, well, until we find someone else, I’ll take on the fulfillment and just kind of do it out of my house. And that was the birth and origin of Zip Ship. So, you know, one person turned into two, people was turned into four, turned into eight. Next thing, you know, I had a dozen clients that I was providing service for.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 5:28
Are you still working out of the home?

SirDarryl Roundtree: 5:31
No, no, I’d probably be a divorced man if I was still working out of the home. So it quickly exploded. So I had a lot of inventory with that one client and then, as I added more, you know, I started looking around and say, okay, well, I got to find a small warehouse. So I was lucky enough to find a small warehouse. It was about 3000 square feet and not far from home. It was in in Mableton, Georgia. I’ll find a five minute, you know, drive from home and it served its purpose. It had, you know, had office space had about, you know, 3000 square feet of this would have. This was at the onset of COVID. So this was you know, 2019, right, and what was happening was the market, was the e-commerce market, was being pushed by, you know, by COVID folks being at home and you know, shopping. Right, they had the, what are called the, the relief checks at the government.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 6:30
Relief checks, oh yeah, I forgot about those already.

SirDarryl Roundtree: 6:35
How could you forget? Right, there was all this disposable income. You know they were, you know, lighting Amazon and their favorite online retailers up, so there was a significant surge in in e-commerce businesses, like a lot, a lot of folks, you know, started making haircare products at home and doing all types of things, and and we benefited from that, you know. So, you know, our customer base continued to grow and it forced us to move into a to another location, went from 3,000 square feet to 12,000 square feet in, I think, 2020, and the momentum just just kept going and just kept going and we moved from 12,000 feet to 18,000 square feet. And at this point, I know we, I connected with the Go Getter Group and this was when we really started to build out some marketing. So, you know, prior to that, it had been our growth strategy had been primarily word of mouth and purely related to, which, you know, are to, you know, two methods that I still really strongly believe in, but then we started to add it to the marketing piece. So we revamp their website. We would, you know we were talking about the flow right from the keyword search and SEO right, so we implemented those forms and, you know, really started to see a boost and change in the website. Honestly, it changed our credibility right because the website was really done nicely, it was clean, it had all the right content, it flows, the color scheme, the palette was, you know, it was nicely done. We had a, you know, really good logo and what started to happen is we started to receive interest from larger clients. So it was not only you know this, the startup crew, you know the startup solopreneurs and different things, but it started to be like you know businesses, like local businesses, as some you know some larger entities.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 8:50
Wow. So if I were to map this journey, it was like 20, 20, what? 2018, 2019 or so, that that first friend came to you, so someone you knew, relationship, which is still huge. You know I always tell people it’s great and you know I specialize in helping people with online marketing, but nothing, nothing, nothing replaces the relationships you have, the face-to-face communication, getting out and putting yourself in front of people, especially in startup phase. But to map out what happened with you, so 2019- ish, 2018- ish you start and then you said it quickly multiply through relationships, word-of-mouth this person told that person, this e-commerce business owner told that one and then, by 2020, it was like whoa and COVID health, which is good. It’s pretty amazing.

SirDarryl Roundtree: 9:38
And it really is a great story. I mean the nights that I sit up kind of worrying about what’s next. You know, I reflect back to the story kind of. You know, my barber said something to me and it was really profound. It was, you know, he said, You know, the person you are today is preparing you for the person that you’re going to be tomorrow, and it’s an endless cycle of that. So you know, when we talk about relationships and we talk about investing in yourself, the person that you are today is a result of the investment that you made yesterday and the week prior and the year prior. And you’re starting to see that manifestation now. And the person that you are today, if you’re continuing to invest in yourself and your business, you’re going to be a different person tomorrow, next week, next year, and it’s a constant cycle. And you know the other thing that you mentioned, that I’m a you know, beyond a firm believer in relationships. But you know, I truly believe relationships are one of the master keys to any type of success, whether that matter for your entrepreneurship, if you’re, you know, if you’re an athlete, if you’re in corporate America, like, relationships are the cornerstone for your success Because you know what happens as you, you know, as your message gets out there, as your connection and your energy gets out there, you know folks remember who you are and and you know how you make them feel, whether or not you’re able to service them. Or you know, just, if you have good, you know good, positive vibes with them, they always come back. Oh, that guy, he does, you know he does warehousing, or they know that. Okay, he has a warehouse, so he’s the warehouse guy. If I got a question, I can, I can go back to him and you know that’s really been and it still is a. You know, part of our growth strategy is just, you know, getting getting more out there. You know getting in front of people, not speaking or anything like that, but you know I do attend a lot of networking shows. You know shows of modics and different things, and just, you know, introduce myself to, you know to a lot of different individuals and share an exchange info. And you know we talk about problems and you know things that are going on in the market and a lot of times it comes back, comes back full circle, you know, two, three times.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 11:55
And I want to harp on that for a second, because some people will think, when they’re growing their business and another person will say, hey, get out there, they think I have to get on a stage, I have to speak. And you said I don’t, I don’t get on stages necessarily and speak, I’m just. I’m just a participant, but you’re making the connections. So let’s talk about the how and making those connections. Okay, so you exchanged info, right, but what does that really look like for you when you go home with 10 business cards from a networking event or an industry conference that you attended? What happens? Because some people, the business cards are in a pile. So what happens?

SirDarryl Roundtree: 12:36
Got it and I’m really happy to share this and maybe it’ll help somebody. So I have a. I have a hard and fast rule right when I, when I take business cards, I give myself 24 hours. So within 24 hours. Doesn’t matter if my, if my business card stack is is one person or five or or whatever, right, I need to get a message, a thank you message, in 24 hours. So if I take a business card, you know I’ll make some notes, I will make a concerted effort to respond within 24 hours. That means I just came from, came back from the national retail federation up in New York, right? So I probably had 20 or 30 business cards. So what that? What that looks like is when I got back to the hotel, you know I every day it was a three event Every day I got back I had five or six business cards. I would you know I cheat a little bit now. Now I use ChatGPT to come up with the, at least the framework for the email. Of course I’ll change and modify, but I come up with the email. Hey, it was great to meet you, you know, really enjoyed the synergy and the discussion. And I send that email and I also include a, a Calendly link. So say, hey, it was great connecting. I know we talked about setting up some time to talk, but I’ll include my calendar, my Calendly link, so that they can actually follow up and hey, yeah, I want to connect let’s, you know, let’s set up a meeting and and and follow up and reconnect the further discussion so that that piece is, is is really been successful for me, it’s really it does a couple of things like from a I know we talk about relationships and kind of being what’s the word. I’m looking for authenticity, right, and you know folks value time and and if you’re respectful of folks, time and and and you, you know you connect and you, you know you got that good, positive vibe, you know, from that initial interaction and folks see, see that you’re, you know, authentic and hey, we met. I want to make sure we keep the connection, you know, hot, keep it alive. You reach out quickly. That that goes a long way. I mean, it really does. And I’ve had multiple, you know multiple people when they do reach reply to an email and they say, hey, you know, I really appreciate the fact that you, you know that you kept the continuity going. That says a lot and it means a lot and you know those relationships, you know, just continue forward. So you know it’s found in 24 hours is the first rule. The second one is you know authenticity, you know how you know go, you know going to the relationship. You know authentic, your true self. That my second rule and Third rule is is following up and just, you know, keeping a connection alive. And whether that’s, you know, you know certainly not daily because that’s probably too, too aggressive, but you know, after the initial Conversation, maybe a week, you know, you know, then two weeks and then you kind of let it tail off but there’s nothing, nothing really growing. And you know those, those rules have really, you know, help me grow the business, help me build new relationships. And I got a quick story. It’s help, it’s help like Like scale relationships, and what I mean by scale is, let’s say, you meet, you meet a person and At the time it’s not a good fit for you and that person to Move forward, but it’s a good, good connection, good relationship, you know, and that person runs into someone else that has a need and they’re able to say, oh, I just met somebody that was that works in this space. You know, let me refer you to so here recently I’ll do kind of the same was, same was plug. But we just started a new relationship with the international supply, international supply partners and that their industrial supply company, where they just secured a Very large RFP with the large enterprise level client and they were looking for support, looking for resource. Well, a person that I met, you know, maybe three weeks, three weeks ago, introduced me to the CEO of international supply partners and through that introduction, through that relationship, you know we’re not gonna partner with ISP and in supporting that are, you know, that RFP. So just that, that’s, you know, quick testament to the power relationships, to the power of genuine connection through you know this. You know, just looking to be a resource, looking to be you know of service and looking to support, you know the entrepreneur network. You know there’s a lot of opportunities that can come. Do that, do that method.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 17:24
Absolutely, and you’re talking about email is kind of the tech part of how you’re nurturing those relationships, and I always tell Clients and friends and associates that when you’re running a business like after you do those steps you talked about which I love that you have a framework for how you’re approaching it. The the final step. Yes, it’s like you said, like you’re gonna directly Email those people and then eventually you know you’re checking in with them. You don’t hear anything. Put them in your email list, you know if you, if as long as your email list isn’t sending out a daily email, you know if you send out an email every other week or once a month, and it’s high value and informational. That was one of the first things I did when I started growing my marketing agency, when I would meet people at events and when I contacted them I would say is it okay if I also put you on my email list? I dropped some really great information and and I really didn’t really get anyone that said no, you know, so Open to that, you know as long as you know, and I would give them the heads up, so that’s really sound advice. There’s one more topic I want to talk about, and that is you also mentioned that you you initially launched without you know, let’s just say, branding in place, right, the logo, the colors game and all that. So that came in retrospect for you a couple of years into the business and then, once you got there, you know that is that has worked for you as well. I want to talk about that a little bit too, and just kind of the value of that. So for you, what is that? What are the steps? I guess I would say Investment-wise, and you and I work closely together when you were in that phase, of course, but just from your point of view as the business owner. How did you look at? Hey, I got to get a website up and I’m hoping that this website will deliver some leads to me. What did that look like for you?

SirDarryl Roundtree: 19:15
So during that time it was it was certainly higher, higher an expert right. So At the time we were still in growth phase within the business, so there was a lot of activity. I was still Still very, very, very much hands-on and like the day-to-day operation, even though we were, you know, training, training new associates we had, you know, still building the team, still very, very much hands-on with like the day-to-day operation and at the end of the day, I made some attempts to, you know, to try to like do a website and some marketing things and just quickly realize, like, okay, this is not my area of expertise and I know it. And you know, working with you I had a very clear, I had a really clear understanding of kind of what the process is. You know what we’re gonna do, what the anticipated outcome. You know we reasonably expect right and and the results were. The results were there, right. We started with the website, we started building out the social media platform. You know we had a had a posting counter and just, you know, you guys were really good at walking me through the process, telling me what’s going to happen, actually making it happen, and then we get together and review the results and then adjust and for us the return on investment was certainly there. But I definitely say to my fellow entrepreneurs, as much as we like to try to create with our own hands, and it is cost-effective the other thing you have to look at is time, and it’s one thing if you have the time to invest, because you got to learn it, you got to spend time learning the language, so to speak, the marketing language, digital marketing language, and the customer profiles and the customer personas, and so at the end of the day, it’s worth the investment to kind of save yourself some time and energy and paying an expert to help you develop in the areas that you’re not strong in. And I’d say even before that you really have to got to be honest with yourself and just say this isn’t my strong suit.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 21:28
Let me rely on you, don’t try to do it all but entrepreneurs.

SirDarryl Roundtree: 21:34
We think we have a Superman, Superwoman, keeping on right and that we have to do it all. The bottom line is always in view. I mean, I used to walk around the warehouse and I see a person sitting down and I would have my virtual reality augmented reality. I see this person standing and I can just see money. Yeah, just flying, Going down the drain. Just flying around. I’m like, oh man, look, you got to do some work though. I’m sorry. Just stand around.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 22:08
I hear you. All right. So, I want to wrap up with a couple of quick questions. One is given that you’re in the e-commerce space and on social media there are dozens I mean, I know I get sucked into the Instagram and Facebook ads all the time and end up buying stuff that I see online, especially if the ads been showing to me for a while. What is your advice or recommendations or thoughts that you would speak to e-commerce business owners as it relates to getting their stuff together? when it’s time to outsource 3PL type of support.

SirDarryl Roundtree: 22:44
Sure, sure. So the first thing is kind of know where you are from a business standpoint and kind of a peek behind the curtain. Our sweet spot, our ideal customer that we look for, is at the tipping point when the balance between sales, marketing and the warehouse operation is starting to teeter more toward operation. So if you’re at a point where you’re spending in an eight-hour day, you’re spending four hours doing your own picking, your own, packing, your own shipping right? If you’re spending more than half your day in that part of the operation, you probably want to start to consider, right? Even with your own internal team, because a lot of entrepreneurs they hire internally, they hire people to do that. But then, even with doing that, you still get to a point where you got space limitations. You’re still working out of your home, you’re working out of your basement, like I met a young lady the other night. The other day she was doing her fulfillment out of her basement and she’s doing five, six, seven hundred orders a day out of her basement. It’s too much. It’s taking over my house, taking over my home, and then develop a checklist and on that checklist, for when you start to look for 3PL partners, look for, I’d say, proximity. So if you’re a local business and ideally you want to have a local 3PL, so if you need to go visit the warehouse, you can Most 3PLs, they have a 24-hour policy. If you let them know, within 24 hours you can go by and see them. So local is preferred. When it comes to pricing, you want to target I’d say anyone from like 15 to 25 percent of kind of what your product is. So let’s say you got a product that sells for 10 bucks, right, you want to get your fulfillment done for, you know, two to three bucks, I’m sorry, 10 to 15. So a buck to a buck 50, maybe a buck 75. And then, in that same breath, kind of look at the range of services that they offer as well. So is it purely, is it just fulfillment, like you know, warehousing, storage and fulfillment, or are there some additional services that they offer? And finally, last but definitely not least, is customer service right? So you want, you absolutely want a dedicated account representative, you want some, you want a one throat to choke, like I like to say, like you want to be able to pick up the phone and call someone and say I’ve got an issue, I’ve got a problem, can you help me? And you know, if you’re not able to reach that person, do they have another mechanism? You know email or phone number that you can get connected to the, to the 3PL, and get some support.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 25:41
Perfect, Sir. How can people get in touch with you, find more information, and do you have any special promotions or offers for anyone who would want to take advantage of your service?

SirDarryl Roundtree: 25:51
Sure, so you can reach us at our website, first and foremost, www. zipshipusa. com. We’re under social media, as you know. Instagram @zipshipusa is our social media name, and then if you’re just looking for, like general info, info@ zipshipusa. com and you’ll get get myself or someone from our team to respond. And you know we do have a full suite of services that we offer everything that I just mentioned, including a dedicated account manager, and we just launched that public locker network is really a growing thing. I know. You know you and I we talked about it a while back, but it finally launched our technology, our app. It’s called ShipSafe Network. It’s available on Google Play and Apple, the Apple Store and Shopify. So if you’re a Shopify owner and you’re looking to gain access to the growing public locker network, we’ve got about 1000 locations nationwide right now, but that number is growing extremely, extremely quickly and it just enables your Shopify clients to ship stuff into a locker so you can avoid so they can avoid, you know porch piracy and have a lot more control of their shipments. You know downstream and you can also process returns.

Sonja Crystal Williams: 27:16
Wow, a lot of amazing things in the works for you Everyone. I will drop those links so you can access them if you want to check it out. Thank you so much again, SirDarryl, for being a part of our show. For everyone else, until next time, thank you, thank you.