Interview with
Jonathan Kennedy
Written by Franco Varriano.
1. Overview
We’re really happy to have Jonathan Kennedy as this week’s 
Marketing Chat guest.
Aside from managing the Shopify Entrepreneur community, Jonathan is also owner of Heycarson, a web studio for new Shopify store owners around the world with concierge services focused on helping them in their first year of business with web design, graphic design and marketing. This week’s chat is on working with remote teams to grow your business.
2. The Interview
Ned: Thank you very much Jonathan for joining our 💡Marketing Chat series. Before we dive into the topic, can you introduce yourself and tell us how you ended up in the ecommerce universe?
Jonathan: I’m a scrappy entrepreneur from Ottawa – now living in Montreal. I was always entrepreneurial but I didn’t express it too boldly until 2010. After school, I worked a few years in the marketing department for the Montreal Canadiens before finally shifting over to my own business in 2009. My first real business was selling sports jersey display cases online. Through a close partnership I had built up while working at the Canadiens, I was able to start this first eCommerce store as a dropshipping business. That developed into a few other eCommerce stores, which then evolved into an SEO/Social media agency which I grew with 2 co-founders from Cebu, Philippines. With 5 years in the Philippines under my belt, lots of successes and a ton of expensive lessons, I decided to come back to Canada to start something fresh. Working on some level with the Shopify platform was a no-brainer.
Ned: The Shopify Entrepreneur page is one of the top destinations for ecommerce entrepreneurs. What did you have in mind when you created the group?
Jonathan: After leaving the Philippines, but before returning to Canada – I had a brief 4 month stint in Bali with my girlfriend (now wife). While there I played with a few ideas, including a new store and a few other eCommerce related projects. I started the Facebook group because I loved to geek out about Shopify and curate eCommerce topics. I had no business partners to bounce ideas off of, and figured there must be hundreds of others like me. Turns out, there are thousands of solo-preneurs trying to navigate the Shopify game, and many are on Facebook. Back then there were 2 growing groups, now there are dozens but I pride myself on keeping ours professional and in-line with Shopify’s brand.
Ned: Beside the page, you also run Heycarson, a company built with a remote team from day 1. How do you manage remote teams?
Jonathan: I pride myself in the way we’ve built our team remotely. It was a naturally way to go for a bootstrapped, global service business. Remote teams are hard but are cost effective. Before starting Carson, I thought long and hard of what I was going to do after managing a previous business with 50 people from a 330 sq meter office in Cebu, Philippines. I just didn’t want the responsibility of the physical space in my venture, or at least not one of that size.
I did everything I could to imagine a profitable business that would provide mobility, balance and happiness for myself and my team, but that could also be efficient and deliver exceptional value. Working remotely was a part of that formula for me. Remote teams aren’t a new thing anymore. I had been reading about and following Buffer, WooThemes, WP Curve and many other companies that were documenting their remote processes for years. The blueprints are available for everyone.
We use a very simple stack of off-the-shelf tools to run efficiently. Asana for internal task management and admin tasks, Slack for team communication, Helpscout as a ticketing system, Skype for small team calls and good old Google sites for process documentation. By the way, all are free tools except for Helpscout.
Defining the processes is key to a functional team. But the most important process for us, is how we hire and onboard new team members and keep team members motivated. Truth is, working remotely isn’t a fit for most people. Most people aren’t disciplined workers, not always because they’re lazy, but often because they just haven’t found their ‘’thing’’ yet. There are a few key character traits we’ve identified as being important for making sure new hires will fit within a remote culture. Superior written communication, growth-oriented and a primary motivator that isn’t salary are a few. The success of remote teams, ours anyway, has been a by product of amazing people, not the tools. I’ve chosen to work out of a bustling co-working office in Montreal to be surrounded by motivated people. Most of our distributed team however, work from their home offices.
Ned: One of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face working with freelancers is quality control. How do you assure quality control within your team?
Jonathan: We try as much as possible to set the expectations in our onboarding of new hires. We then manage performance through KPI’s and quality of work, based on customer satisfaction ratings, is one such KPI’s. We have a lead developer is who also focused on training and development of the team to keep them sharp. For our core offer, which is small tasks for Shopify stores, the developers are in direct contact with the customers so that instant feedback loop certainly keeps good developers on their toes.
Ned: What are the top 3 things entrepreneurs must have in place before hiring a remote team?
Jonathan: Emotional intelligence, a process for hiring A-players, a visible company mission statement and goals for everyone to read at anytime – to keep everyone in line with the big picture. Strong company values/mission and goals also provide a sense of pride for remote workers which they can share with their families.
Ned: One of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face working with freelancers is quality control. How do you assure quality control within your team?
Jonathan: We try as much as possible to set the expectations in our onboarding of new hires. We then manage performance through KPI’s and quality of work, based on customer satisfaction ratings, is one such KPI’s. We have a lead developer is who also focused on training and development of the team to keep them sharp. For our core offer, which is small tasks for Shopify stores, the developers are in direct contact with the customers so that instant feedback loop certainly keeps good developers on their toes.
Ned: How does Heycarson make the whole experience easier for online store owners?
Jonathan: We just have a strong understanding of the the challenges that store owners deal with and have closed the gap with one of the main obstacles – which is getting technical stuff done well, and within budget. We make it easier for the entrepreneurs to reach their vision when it comes to their Shopify setup.
By being laser focused on Shopify, our efficiency as a team, at our price point, is an excellent value proposition for Shopify store owners. We don’t require that the purchase of banks of 10-20 hours development hours at $80-$100/hour, or have minimum project budgets, that just doesn’t work for 80% of small businesses. We’re proud to have figured this out first and fast.
Ned: Assuming I’m launching an online store today, how do I decide tasks I should perform myself and the one I should outsource?
Jonathan: I believe the store owner needs to take stock of their strengths and then decide. As a general rule, if the work is core to the value proposition, the business model, or growth related, then it shouldn’t be outsourced or hired for, at least not early on. Graphic jobs, theme tweaks, order fulfillment, bookkeeping, research are examples of jobs I think that can be outsourced very quickly. Product development, sales, marketing and customer service are examples of jobs I would certainly try to keep within my responsibilities as a new store owners.
Ned: What should Heycarson customers expect from you in the coming months?
Jonathan: A new Shopify task app, where our internal team of developers will be accessible directly from within the Shopify dashboard. This is our first step toward removing every friction point from the hiring process for small/mid-sized technical Shopify tasks.
Ned: In a world where Heycarson achieves its vision, how is ecommerce better from a store owners point of view?
Jonathan: Our vision is for eCommerce stores to have seamless access to a pool of vetted, affordable expert help, 24/7. We want to remove all the friction points related to finding, vetting, hiring experts and communicating tasks that will push the business forward.
Ned: What is your top 3 pieces of advice to entrepreneurs launching their first online store?
Jonathan:
1. Part-time won’t cut it.
2. Choose one marketing channel and go all in until you prove your business model .
3. Hire staff only when your sales justify it. Do it yourself or hire small project contractors until you get traction.
3. Conclusion
If you’re an ecommerce merchant and don’t have automated email marketing campaigns setup for your store, you’re losing money. Right now.
Rare.io makes it easy to start using automated email campaigns for common challenges like: Welcome Series, Abandoned Carts, Order Follow-up emails and more! You can learn more about our powerful email marketing automation features here or go ahead and get started right away by using Rare.io for FREE.
And if you’re one of the thousands of merchants who are already using Rare’s Smart Email Marketing software and want to see how our Customer Success Team can work with your brand to grow your revenue – feel free to book a call at your convenience here.
You’ve Got Mail
Marketing Chat with Chris Pointer