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Mitchell Zvagelskiy went from being a typical college student to co-founding a multi-million dollar startup at just 20 years of age.
Mitchell was quick to identify the trend, that more shoppers are simply choosing to shop online. Hence, it made sense to venture into the eCommerce market. In fact, Mitchell’s focus has always been on finding market opportunity and capitalizing on it. Mitchell was managing all this while being a full-time college student studying at the University of San Francisco.
According to Mitchell, the biggest hurdle when starting a business is twofold. Starting the business and building a team. Similar to working out in the gym, starting a business and showing up every day is tough. Particularly, being able to stick through when one doesn’t see results as fast as may be expected.
“Starting and staying focused for a year straight is without a doubt the hardest part as most are scared to take risks and step out of their comfort zone. If you get used to taking financial risk and stepping out of your comfort zone, the upside is huge.” Mitchell declares.
Born in the US in 2000 as part of a family that had immigrated from Belarus just 6 years earlier, Mitchell Zvagelskiy has surely come a long way. Growing up, Mitchell saw his parents working tirelessly to provide Mitchell and his sister with the resources necessary for a successful future.
“Their daily drive is what shaped me to have the mindset I carry to this day. One of my goals is being able to provide a large level of freedom for them as their priority always consisted of caring for me and my sister.” Mitchell states.
Another challenging aspect is building a team that loves not just what they do, but working together. In a world of people filled with massive egos, one person can ruin the culture of a team. One of the main skills one can learn is reading people, which will allow the building of a powerhouse team, leading to inevitable success within team culture.
Mitchell is the co-founder of Scale Online, a fast growing startup which started earlier in 2020 when Mitchell was just 19 years old. Since their launch, Scale Online has built up a team of 10+ members in the US and a 50+ store management team overseas.
“I started Scale Online with a mission of building the world’s most efficient eCommerce management service.” Mitchell states.
They also offer two services that are an integral part of Scale Online: personalized consulting and direct store management. Through their consulting, they directly work with the individual or company in starting and scaling their own Amazon based eCommerce store.
Through their store management service, they utilize their dedicated overseas backend team to perform nearly all the work their clients require to run their store. This includes product research, order fulfillment and customer service. Making it all a hands-off process for their clients.
Mitchell also started ZGN Talks, a Youtube channel where he documents his successes, failures, and experiences throughout the journey. Their primary focus is that this content adds value to those planning to start their own business.
For Mitchell, success ignites from his relationships with other people. Always striving to provide value to others, both inside and outside his career, he values the connections he’s able to build as you never know how they will help you in the present or future. Getting around the right circle is crucial too, as many struggle in life due to them being surrounded with the wrong crowd.
“The second I began surrounding myself with like-minded individuals, not only did I begin learning more about different aspects of life & business, but this played a direct correlation in the growth of my businesses.” Highlights Mitchell.
Currently, Mitchell intends to focus on reinvesting his cash flow into helping other problem solvers through angel investing. This allows him to network with interesting people who are building interesting companies, while also bringing value to the table and helping individuals & teams who will have an impact on the world.
One big lesson Mitchell learned throughout his journey is that if you want to build a business, you should be working on the business, rather than in it. Thus, Mitchell emphasises the importance of outsourcing in order to build a scalable business.
Mitchell also learned that paying his employees an hourly rate was simply not motivating enough. Therefore, they gave their employees a profit share as well. Meaning they would get paid based on how well a certain store was doing, which naturally made them work harder, and gave them a feeling of value and purpose as they had a direct stake in the success of the company.
“Most of the competition tends to focus on monetization rather than putting their team and customers first.” Recounts Mitchell.
Life can change fast if you change fast. As Mitchell moves forward, his focus continues to aim towards helping people who are building interesting companies that solve problems at scale.
If you want to know more about Mitchell you can also follow him on Instagram.
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