Customer service principles 

Our aim has always been to be the internet’s favorite printer. To that end, we respond quickly and effectively to our customers to help them be as successful as possible. 

Although we can’t plan for every scenario in customer service, we use principles to give our team a framework for replying to customers. They are:

__1. Avoid negatives__

Avoid saying sorry, can’t, won’t, not able to, unfortunately and so on. People become adversarial when they read these words.

__2. Avoid patronizing__

Avoid saying anything that seems patronizing or insincere. Words like “sorry” and “appreciate” often seem insincere. Also, use exclamation points cautiously! 

__3. Be concise__

Respond in the fewest words possible. Practice by editing your responses after you write them to see if any words can be omitted. Practice editing your responses to omit needless words.

__4. Be comprehensive__

Do not leave anything to wonder, but do not overwhelm the customer with needless information.

__5. Ask coworkers for help__

Practice replying to difficult conversations with help from coworkers. 

__6. Don’t respond when upset__

Some customers are rude. Get help from a coworker or take a break if you're upset.

__7. Use saved replies__

Saved replies ensure consistency and we can report on their use to prioritize improvements.

__8. Tailor saved replies to fit the conversation__

Do not use saved replies exactly unless appropriate. Tailor replies to be clear and concise.

__9. Research the situation__

Retrieve all the facts surrounding a situation and craft your reply based on them.

__10. Research the customer__

Evaluate the customer's potential and tailor your response accordingly. 

__11. Use names__

For example, don't say "Thanks! Credit added!" say "Thanks Brian! Credit added!"

__12. Use screenshots to add clarity__

Take & share annotated screenshots to add clarity to replies when sensible. 

__13. Offer solutions & alternatives__

Use the information and experience you have to help customers discover the best possible option given the limits. 

__14. Develop FAQs when possible__

When new questions are encountered create public FAQs to document the proper response and potentially deflect inquiries. 

## Concluding thought
Of course, these principles don’t solve everything, but they lay a foundation for our team to build upon. 

To deliver outstanding service we also hire great people, relentlessly improve our training programs and collaborate with software development to devise elegant solutions to help customers. 

If you agree with these principles and are seeking an organization where exceptional people love to work, [we are hiring](https://www.stickermule.com/careers?ref=blog).


14 customer service principles that Sticker Mule uses to deliver great service to more than 100,000 customers. 

Our approach to compensation

Compensation is hard to get right. It's a tool to keep us aligned, but it's easy to design a compensation strategy with harmful side effects. Our obsession with simplicity serves us well so we opted for a strategy that’s easy to administer and understand. 

__Our approach is to pay above market wages for all positions.__ While many companies develop bonus programs that are difficult to understand and create undesirable incentives, our simple approach encourages financial discipline and long term thinking while reducing anxiety. 

## Encourage financial discipline
Doing more with less is the only way to pay exceptional wages. This incentivizes us to avoid wasteful spending, such as over hiring, and to be vigilant about hiring top performers, designing effective processes and avoiding low impact activities. Doing these well strengthens our ability to provide exceptional compensation for the long term. 

## Encourage long term thinking 
Bonus programs tend to encourage a short term focus by tying compensation to annual results. We hope our team retires at Sticker Mule. Paying above market wages encourages us all to be committed to making our company financially stable for the long term. 

## Reduce anxiety
Some companies use bonuses to compensate people because they can be reduced. This creates anxiety for both employers and employees. Employers stress about the disappointment created if bonuses don't meet expectations while employees, who have limited control over results, have anxiety over exactly what their bonus will be. By focusing on offering exceptional wages, we reduce uncertainty and make a lasting commitment regarding pay. 

## How we determine wages
We design sensible pay grades that define what a person makes based on their role and years of service. Grades may be revised upwards based on changes in the job market or nature of a job, but we do not offer wages to new hires that deviate from our system. If a grade increases, it constitutes a pay raise for everyone on it. 

## Why we don’t use equity based compensation
Companies use equity to encourage long term thinking and reduce costs by exchanging wages for equity. While these are desirable characteristics, equity-based compensation has downsides. It shifts risk onto employees and requires outside investors to allow employees to realize the value of their equity. 

By avoiding investors, we have absolute freedom to focus exclusively on the well-being of our customers and coworkers. We can be as big or small as we want and grow at a pace that’s sensible and pleasant. Our freedom allows us to attract exceptional people and maintain outstanding employee satisfaction.

If you agree with our approach and are seeking an organization where talented people love working, [we are hiring](https://www.stickermule.com/careers?ref=blog).



Compensation is hard to get right. It's a tool to keep us aligned, but it's easy to design a compensation strategy with harmful side effects. 

Sticker Mule's approach to employee compensation

Manufacturing principles 

We use principles to guide [decision making](https://www.stickermule.com/blog/decision-making-principles-for-startups) for each area of our business. Here are the principles we use in manufacturing: 


### 1. Safety > quality > delivery > cost
It's not worth operating if we do not keep people safe. There's no reason to ship product that is defective. And, there is little value in trying to save money if we do not deliver on time. 

### 2. Design processes so that anyone can perform them
To scale, you need to make processes intuitive so that you can quickly add staff when needed. 

### 3. Judge people primarily on attendance
Attendance is a straightforward evaluation metric. It’s mostly all that matters if processes and positions are well designed.

### 4. Manage via metrics
Focus on turnaround, labor productivity, material utilization and quality. Making these a primary concern avoids distractions. 

### 5. Share metrics publicly
Metrics always improve when they're visible. The important thing is to pick the right ones to share. 

### 6. Talk to people
Keep good relations with people to stay abreast of problems and spot opportunities to improve. 

### 7. Talk to attorneys
Always get advice on how to handle personnel problems. Don't assume your instincts are correct. 

### 8. Use pay grades
To ensure people are treated fairly, design sensible pay grades and do not deviate from them. 

### 9. Do not use incentive pay
Incentives are difficult to design and maintain. It's best to design processes and positions so that there is minimal productivity variance among staff.

### 10. Recurring savings > 1 time savings
Do not fret about 1 time savings or expenses. Recurring costs are what matter. 

### 11. Don’t tolerate malicious behavior
Mistakes happen, but it's unacceptable when harmful acts are intentional.

### 12. Discuss important situations verbally
Manufacturing problems can rarely be solved via email. It’s best to talk about them. 

### 13. Err on the side of extra training
People tend to want less training, but it's best to err on the side of more. This is especially important when training is provided by 3rd parties since it's difficult to schedule additional sessions.

## Concluding thought
We aim to build the most productive and happiest manufacturing operations you’ll ever find. Our principles are designed to bring consistency to our decision making so that we are always headed in that direction. 

If you agree with these principles and are seeking an organization where talented people enjoy working, [we are hiring](https://www.stickermule.com/careers?ref=blog).


13 principles of manufacturing designed to bring consistency to decision making so that we are always headed in that direction.

Content principles 

At Sticker Mule we view content as more than blog posts. Content includes everything from website copy, videos and FAQs to dashboards, emails, training guides and internal documentation. 

Vigilance about content quality helps us build a solid foundation for our future. Content multiplies as you grow so it is important to foster a commitment to crafting high quality content early. 

We created a set of principles that guides our team as they write copy, write scripts, shoot videos and create documentation. They're shared below for the benefit of future team members and anyone else that may find them useful. 

## 9 principles to help you create quality content

### Omit needless words.
Use the fewest words possible. ~~Practice by editing content after you write it to see if any words can be omitted.~~ Practice editing content to omit needless words. 

### Omit needless information.
Delete information that doesn't matter. 

### Use sentence case.
Camel Case Makes Reading Harder. Use sentence case. 

### Consolidate and optimize.
Combine similar content into a single optimized piece of content when sensible.

### Always be polishing.
When revisiting content fix problems when you spot them. 

### Obsessively organize.
Put content in the right place so that it is easily found.

### Use hyperlinks.
Link to additional content when appropriate. 

### Think about the future.
Good design is long lasting and so is good content. Avoid creating content that doesn’t provide long term value.

### Practice.
Crafting quality content is difficult. It takes constant practice to become and stay good. 

## Concluding thoughts

Since the internet makes every business international, content quality is more important than ever. Eventually, many of the words you write will need to be translated to support customers worldwide. If you can't craft exceptional content in your native language, it's going to be even harder to translate your message globally. 

An obsession with content quality may seem trite, but words, images and videos are all we have to communicate with our customers and each other. Making a mess of it weakens our foundation, while crafting and curating great content makes it stronger. 

Our aim is to build an enduring business and long lasting businesses need strong foundations. 

Content multiplies as you grow so it is important to foster a commitment to crafting high quality content early. 

Get a return on your time sooner to grow faster 

Recently, we expanded into [roll labels](https://www.stickermule.com/custom-labels). To do so, we made a substantial investment in new label printing and finishing machinery. Since the printers arrived months before our finishing machine, we soft-launched by purchasing a low-end finishing machine that could only make [circle roll labels](https://www.stickermule.com/products/circle-roll-labels). 

No one would have faulted us if we delayed launching until the proper finishing machine arrived. What would have seemed odd is if all of the machines arrived and then we continually postponed launching while they collected dust. You don't make business investments and not put them to use. 

> You don't make business investments and not put them to use."

Despite the obviousness of this principle, businesses struggle with it when investments are not physical. It would make anyone uneasy to see a machine sitting unused, but it's not as bothersome if human effort is invested in a project that gets delayed. This is an unfortunate because investments of time are significantly more valuable than investments of money. We can make more money, but we can't make more time. 

> Investments of time are significantly more valuable than investments of money."

Since most projects require collaboration, as soon as anyone invests time in a project, you are essentially letting an investment collect dust if you cause it to be postponed. 

Let's consider the life of a generic project:

1. Someone notices a problem with one of our processes and suggests a solution. 
2. A product designer, reviews the problem and proposed solution and drafts a spec for the design team. 
3. The design team creates mockups based on the product spec and iterate until everyone is happy. 
4. The project is placed in the development queue to be worked on. 
5. Development begins work on the project and submit a pull request once it's ready to be reviewed. 
6. The developer waits for feedback on the pull request and iterates accordingly.  
7. Once everyone is happy the pull request gets merged. 
8. Information gets disseminated about the feature so we can make use of it. 

Realistically, once step 1 is complete, someone invested time towards a project that should yield a positive return. The investment at this point isn't huge, but it grows as each additional step in the sequence is completed. As we get further along the process, the downside of delaying becomes greater as a larger investment is now sitting idle, collecting dust.

Business growth is all about return on investment. To enjoy strong growth and solid financials, you pick high return projects and execute them quickly. Picking the right projects is incredibly difficult. Getting them done faster is not. Since returns tend to compound and this cycle repeats constantly, shortening it has a major impact on long run growth. The sooner we get a return on capital spent (monetary or human), the faster we grow. 

> Picking the right projects is incredibly difficult. Getting them done faster is not."

This doesn't mean projects shouldn't be delayed or abandoned. If you discover a project is without merit it should be abandoned. Picking the right projects matters and sometimes we start the wrong ones. 

But, if something is worth doing, then it should be completed quickly. Investments in human effort shouldn't be viewed any differently than investments in machinery. You'd feel weird seeing a machine not being used and you should feel equally weird letting your coworker's effort go un-used. 

Our team works extraordinarily well together because we share a similar perspective on work. If you have a desire to do great work in a stress-free work environment, [we're hiring](https://www.stickermule.com/careers?ref=blog).


To enjoy strong growth and solid financials, you pick high return projects and execute them quickly. 

The Sticker Mule guide to Slack

![The Sticker Mule guide to Slack ](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/adc78a94269658848a6339ddef5a2992d387bc66)

Collectively, [Asana](http://asana.com) and [Slack](http://slack.com) manage the majority of our communication at Sticker Mule. We use Asana to handle task related conversations and Slack to handle everything else. Your company might prefer a task management tool other than Asana; the important thing is that you use one. 

To help onboard new team members, we created documentation explaining [how we use Asana](https://www.stickermule.com/blog/the-remote-team-guide-to-asana). I decided to also share our tips and conventions for using Slack for the benefit of prospective team members ([we’re hiring!](https://www.stickermule.com/careers)) and anyone that needs to coordinate a remote team. 


## Integrating Slack with your task management workflow

Tasks are the essence of business so it’s important to think about how Slack integrates with your overall task management workflow. To ensure our task management system & Slack play well together, we have four guidelines explaining when it’s appropriate to communicate via Slack or Asana. If you use a different task management tool like simply replace Asana with your tool of choice and these same guidelines will still apply to your organization. 

### Create Asana tasks once they’re identified via Slack.
New tasks are often identified during Slack conversations, but they should quickly be migrated to Asana where they can be easily managed. You can use [Slack’s Asana integration](https://slack.com/apps/A0F81FK1C-asana) to quickly add tasks by typing “/asana add Task Name” to create a task. 

### Avoid asking teammates to perform tasks in Slack.
It’s tempting to ask people to do things via Slack, but it’s best to create Asana tasks that can be easily recalled, assigned and completed when time permits. Slack messages are easily lost once read so it’s not ideal to issue tasks via Slack. 

### Avoid discussing existing Asana tasks in Slack.
Keep task related conversations within Asana so that they stay in context and can be responded to at the participant's convenience. Occasionally, it may make sense to have a Slack call to discuss a task, but action points from that call should be posted to Asana. 

## 19 additional Slack tips & tricks

### 1. Avoid using @everyone.
@here is less disruptive since it only notifies people that are working. Alternatively, use @mention if you want to post something publicly but only need to notify specific people. 

### 2. Use do not disturb to stay focused. 
When you need to focus on your work for prolonged periods of time use Slack’s [Do Not Disturb feature](https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/214908388-Using-Do-Not-Disturb-in-Slack) to temporarily turn off notifications so you’re not distracted. 

### 3. Configure your work schedule. 
Slack lets you configure your work schedule so that messages don’t bother you when you’re off the clock. This allows coworkers to message you at night without worrying about bothering you since Slack will wait until you’re working to deliver the message. 

### 4. Mute infrequently used channels.
Some channels you’ll find yourself using infrequently. Rather than constantly leaving and joining them it’s best to [mute them](https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/204411433-Muting-a-channel) so they don’t bother you, but you’re still able to use them when needed. 

### 5. Prefer Slack calls
Standardization makes training and onboarding easier. [Slack’s calling features](https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/216771908-Making-voice-calls-in-Slack) are powerful and continue to improve so we are gradually phasing out other voice applications. The one exception is we still use [Zoom](https://zoom.us/) for video conference calls. 

### 6. Use group chats. 
Don’t hold the same conversation with multiple people individually. Instead loop teammates into conversations as needed by using group chats. Slack also lets you quickly convert a group chat into a group call. 

### 7. Create custom emoji.
Ask your design team to spend a day creating a few [custom emoji](https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/206870177-Creating-custom-emoji) for the team to use. We rather enjoy inserting emoji-fied versions of each other into chats. 

### 8. Setup a few trigger words.
Don’t go overboard, but creating a few triggers that insert random nonsense into your chats is a great way to add amusement to your day and confuse new hires when they first stumble upon them. 

### 9. Create private channels for trips & meetups. 
Private channels are a great way to keep everyone in-sync during a company trip or meetup. We recommend creating them before the trip starts so everyone is aware they exist. 

### 10. Add a profile photograph.
We highly recommend [adding a profile photograph](https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/204092246-Editing-your-profile) so that coworkers can put a face with your name. Although we’re remote it’s still good to see each other so that when we do meet there’s already some familiarity. 

### 11. Hangout in your team’s dedicated channel.
We create a channel for every team and encourage team members to primarily use that channel to discuss work and life with their teammates. 

### 12. Use Zight to share screenshots.
[Zight](https://zight.com/) is a handy tool for sharing screenshots via shortened URLs. Slack automatically inserts the image into the chat when you share a screenshot via a Zight link. 

### 13. Archive inactive channels.
It’s easy to create a lot of channels so you should occasionally cull your channel list by archiving ones with low activity. You may want to abandon a channel entirely or merge the  channel into another one with a broader purpose. 

### 14. Edit existing messages instead of sending new ones.
If you mistype your message it’s better to edit your message than sending a new one. Slack lets you easily do this by hitting the up arrow. This reduces confusion and the number of notifications others receive.

### 15. Set highlight words

![highlight words in slack](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/513f69fb28040936d004022e3077eea408a6ee78)

If you mute channels that you do not use frequently, it can be helpful to set a few highlight words based on your role. 

For example, if you are a content manager you might set “blog” as a highlight word. (To find highlight words after the initial notification, click on the “@” symbol located at top right.)

### 16. Use keyboard shortcuts
Slack has a ton of amazing [keyboard shortcuts](https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/201374536-Slack-keyboard-shortcuts). My favorites are CMD+K (Quick switch), CMD+U (Upload a file), Shift+Enter (Create a new line), & Alt+Shift+Down Arrow (Next unread message) and CMD+/ (view keyboard shortcuts). 

### 17. Use the mobile app (optional). 
If your job involves being away from your computer a lot then the mobile app is highly recommended. 

### 18. Cross post content instead of uploading twice (optional). 
Slack has a handy feature that lets you cross post content across channels & messages instead of uploading twice. This is especially handy when you’re on mobile with limited bandwidth. 

### 19. Star specific channels & team members (optional) 
Starring a channel or a team member places it above all other channels and direct messages. This makes it easier to find and send a message to the people you interact with repeatedly.

## Conclusion
Slack is the fastest adopted and most heavily used application at Sticker Mule. It quickly replaced email and increased our cohesion despite being an entirely remote team. 

I hope this document helps both our team and others get more value from Slack.

Our team works extraordinarily well together not just because we share the same tools, but because we share a similar perspective on work. We all tend to be [humble, independent, logical, thoughtful and autodidactic](https://www.stickermule.com/blog/characteristics-we-look-for-in-team-members). 

If you have these characteristics too, [we're hiring](https://www.stickermule.com/careers?ref=blog).

Get the Sticker Mule secrets to using Slack with our remote team. Here are the guidelines we use, and suggest for other remote teams, as well. 

Decision making principles 

Not only is our team remote, but we also tend to work independently. Generally, after a 2 - 4 week onboarding period, new team members at Sticker Mule are able to independently decide what makes the most sense for them to pursue. To keep us aligned, we manage via mutually agreed upon principles that guide our decision making. 

As our team grows and we add new areas of responsibility to our organization, we decided to codify the decision principles we have followed to get us to this point. I thought it helpful to share these for the benefit of prospective team members as well as anyone else that’s curious how we operate Sticker Mule. 

## The 10 principles that guide all of our decisions at Sticker Mule

__1. Do not waste time.__

"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” - George Patton. Time is finite and the rate at which we complete projects drives growth and profitability. 

__2. Saving time > saving money.__

Since time is finite and fixed, it’s more important than money. We cannot make more time, and fast execution makes us more money.

__3. Recurring savings > 1 time savings.__

Do not fret about 1 time savings or expenses. Recurring costs are what matter. 

__4. Revenue = traffic * conversion rate * avg. order size.__

There are only 3 ways to increase revenue: 1) increase traffic, 2) improve conversion, and 3) raise the avg. order size. 

__5. Process improvements > capital investment > adding staff.__

It’s better to fix a broken process than to make capital investments and better to make capital investments than increase headcount. 

__6. Prioritize based on benefit and time to implement.__

Pursue quick wins with high return before difficult projects with moderate return. 

__7. Delegate when possible.__

If a subordinate can do a task let them do it, but don’t push work onto people that are already busy or unable to do the work you are delegating. 

__8. Avoid ideas that do not scale.__

If you find yourself saying “well as long as this doesn’t become too popular we should be okay” then you’re probably discussing something that’s not worth doing. 

__9. Do not undercut competition.__

Let competition win on price to avoid a race to the bottom. Our aim is to win on service & experience. 

__10. Do not be dogmatic.__

At times, it makes sense to ignore these principles but we should do so knowingly. 

## Concluding thoughts

Our team works extraordinarily well together not just because we share the same decision making principles, but because we share a similar perspective on work. 

We all tend to be [humble, independent, logical, thoughtful and autodidactic](https://www.stickermule.com/blog/characteristics-we-look-for-in-team-members). If you share these characteristics too, [we're hiring](https://www.stickermule.com/careers?ref=blog).

Here are 10 principles that guide all of our decisions at Sticker Mule. 

How to build an international ecommerce company 

![How to build an international ecommerce company](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/966a6654690f5f5ae42f0f3e478060cf95362dd5)

Last year, Sticker Mule shipped to __87 countries__. It's been a long process to lay a foundation to support international customers and we still have a lot to do. Since the decision to go international is one faced by every ecommerce company, I thought it’d be worth sharing our approach. 

Anyone looking to go international should understand 2 things before embarking on the journey: 

* International business is difficult and initially unprofitable. In order to effectively support foreign customers, you’ll likely take a loss early on as you build international volume. 
* Shipping worldwide is expensive and customers don’t want to be penalized for being far from your fulfillment center. 

Despite the costs involved in growing internationally, there are a number of upsides.

## Why you should sell internationally 
Aside from the obvious potential to acquire international revenue, there are three additional benefits to growing internationally that are worth considering.

### There's a lot of international web traffic to acquire.
Between paid and search traffic there’s a tremendous amount of international traffic to capture. International markets are not as saturated as the U.S. so it's easier to build both paid and organic search traffic.

> International markets are not as saturated as the U.S. so it's easier to build both paid and organic search traffic. [Click to Tweet](https://ctt.ec/2mgNH)

The downside is you need to manage a variety of country specific SEO & SEM strategies whereas in the U.S. you need to execute one strategy for a large market. 

### Internationalizing exposes you to additional partnerships.
I loosely define partnerships to include anyone that can send you traffic. By supporting an international audience you'll quickly notice that the variety of websites and people willing to send you traffic grows. Even bloggers that have a primarily domestic audience want to write about companies that support their foreign readers. 

### It aids your recruiting efforts to become international. 
Recruiting internationally is a tremendous benefit to us. The best talent and potential team members live all over the world. To date, only 10% of our development team works domestically. We pay domestic wages regardless of location because it’s fair and hiring the best people is more important than saving a buck. 

## 13 steps to building an international ecommerce company

Our 13 steps to becoming international are roughly sorted based on difficulty and importance. Steps that are easier and more important are at the top. We suspect most businesses will find it advantageous to implement these improvements from top to bottom.

### 1. Ship to foreign countries
An obvious starting point, but easier said than done. To start here, you’ll need a shipping system that supports international shipments. Initially, we used a 3rd party application until we were ready to build our own. 

### 2. Ship to foreign countries with tracking
Initially, it’s tempting to ship without tracking because it’s considerably more expensive to provide it. However, as your international volume grows you’ll find not having package tracking is a substantial burden. Delays and lost packages are more common internationally so tracking is necessary to troubleshoot problematic shipments. 

### 3. Ship to foreign countries quickly and with delivery estimates
Once you add support for package tracking you’ll find the next concern for your customers is to get their packages faster and with guaranteed delivery dates. This is mostly possible but at a considerable expense. 

### 4. Support international currencies
Inevitably it will make sense to add support for international currencies too. We started with the most popular ones including Canadian Dollars, British Pounds and the Euro. 

### 5. Support the metric system 
Depending on your product offering this is more or less important but since size is a critical aspect of our product line we decided it was necessary to support the metric system. 

### 6. Internationalize address forms
International addresses have different formats and it’s ideal to provide customers with an experience they recognize to help them fill in addresses correctly and avoid shipping delays. This is something I haven’t seen anyone implement effectively but it’s on our roadmap. 

### 7. Internationalize text content 
There are a variety of translation services and agencies to help with internationalizing content. It can be a considerable expense initially and challenging to maintain, but it’s a necessary step to becoming completely international. 

### 8. Internationalize video content
The next step beyond internationalizing your text content is to internationalize videos. We took a small step in this direction with internationalized captions but eventually we want to internationalize the voiceovers and footage too. 

### 9. Internationalize images
Familiar images help make customers feel more comfortable with your brand. Product photos, customer lists and screenshots all benefit from internationalization at some point. 

### 10. Internationalize hosting
As your international traffic grows it’s worth looking at how to further globalize your hosting configuration. Your site might be fast domestically but you’ll want to ensure visitors from your most popular regions have a similar experience. 

### 11. Provide customer support in foreign languages
Foreign customers are always happier to receive support in their native language. This is a considerable challenge and one we only started to undertake. 

### 12. Operate international fulfillment centers
Hopefully, international revenue will grow to the point where you can justify regional fulfillment centers which will finally position you to provide foreign customers with the same experience you provide customers in your home country. 

### 13. Advertise in international markets
Inevitably, you’ll want to build out an international advertising strategy. This is likely easier to do profitably once you operate regionally, but you could consider doing it sooner to build volume faster. 

International advertising tends to be less expensive, but, unless you’re operating locally, your margins may already be so diminished that justifying an ad budget is difficult. 

## Concluding thought
At Sticker Mule, our small team works from 8 countries including England, Ireland, Poland, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Italy, Canada and the United States. Cultural diversity has been immensely beneficial. It’s both encouraged and enabled us to build a platform for international growth. 

We still have a long way to go to fully execute the international roadmap identified this article, but we’re excited to continue growing our community of customers and colleagues worldwide. If you believe you can play a part in our international growth, [we're hiring](https://www.stickermule.com/careers?ref=blog).

Building an international ecommerce company isn't easy. So we've broken down the steps we've been following to help you get started. 

Characteristics we look for in Sticker Mule team members 

Recently, we decided to codify the characteristics we look for in new team members to help maintain our culture as we grow. Since our inception, we have always hired for a particular type of person although it was never explicit. As hiring became more distributed we spent a while thinking about what it is that unites us.

> Culture is even more important when you're remote.

The importance of culture isn't immediately apparent when you’re small but it becomes quite obvious once you grow. Without care, culture can change quickly; especially when you’re hiring fast. It only takes a few people that do not fit your model to create a cultural change that quickly spreads. That’s why we are relentless about hiring people that strengthen our culture and avoiding people that don’t. 

Culture is even more important when you're remote. Since we spend little time together in person, and in some cases never see each other, a shared outlook helps us understand each other even if we never met. We might come from all over the world, but we all tend to be humble, independent, logical, thoughtful and autodidactic. We try to hire other people that have these characteristics too. 

Here's a glimpse at the characteristics of people we look to hire at Sticker Mule and why:

## Humble
Possesses a modest view of one’s abilities and importance. 

__Why:__ People fail when the disparity between what they can do and what they think they can do becomes too vast. Humility is a prerequisite for improving and in a fast growing company there’s a constant need to scale your abilities as the needs of the company change. 

## Independent
Good to work with but able to get stuff done on their own too. 

__Why:__ Time is finite so it’s important to respect each other’s time by working independently when possible, yet being pleasant to collaborate with when necessary. The best teams, in companies, sports or otherwise, are comprised of talented people that know how and when to interact to achieve a goal. 

## Logical
Strong decision making skills that we can trust. 

__Why:__ Success is the result the sum of our decisions and actions. Decision making skills are incredibly hard to train so we avoid people that lack them. Responsibilities change as we grow, so we favor logical people over those who are merely experienced.

## Thoughtful
Concerned about the well-being of others and the company as a whole. 

__Why:__ People that put the well-being of each other first can be trusted to make optimal decisions. Anyone that is inconsiderate towards the feelings of others is difficult to trust no matter how intelligent, logical or experienced because they tend to optimize for their own benefit. 

## Autodidactic
Willing and able to learn from others and on their own. 

__Why:__ Organizations require new skills as they evolve. People that are unable to self educate run the risk of eventually becoming a burden because it can be hard to place them if our needs change.

## Concluding thought

At Sticker Mule, we hire for two things: skill and personality. It’s hard to pass on a skilled person because their personality doesn’t fit, but if you aim for longevity it’s critical that you do. We intend to be around for a long time. I suspect and hope most of our team will retire from Sticker Mule. 

If you feel like you will fit in well with our team then you should [apply to join us](https://www.stickermule.com/careers). We'd love to hear from you.

We look for 5 characteristics in new Sticker Mule team members to help maintain our culture as we grow. 

Hidden costs of a/b testing 

There's plenty of literature on the merits of A/B testing, but little information on its pitfalls. Most people in ecommerce, tech and startups would have you believe A/B testing is a must do activity when, in reality, it's often unnecessary and counterproductive. 

At Sticker Mule, we recently stopped actively A/B testing and I thought it'd be helpful to explain why. I should preface this by admitting we ran more than 70 conversion tests before making this decision and had only 3 significant winners. I don't know a normal ratio of tests to wins, but I suspect our situation is common. This isn't to say we don't believe in constantly working to improve conversion--we've found different ways, which I detail later. 

![The Hidden Costs of AB Testing](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/64feff7f772f6956dd6752f42069c17b12f845f0)

## The 6 hidden costs of A/B testing

### 1) Time
Resources are finite. Time spent on A/B testing cannot be spent elsewhere. How you use your time determines your growth trajectory. A/B testing is a growth tactic, but it's not always the best use of your resources. 

### 2) Lost conversions
Most conversion tests fail and underperforming variations cause you to lose conversions while they run. These lost conversions are an investment you make to improve your long term conversion rate, but don't forget they are a real cost. 

### 3) Performance
Related to lost conversions, A/B testing tools make your site slower and this also reduces your conversion rate--even for the control. The additional conversions you lose because of this performance hit are another, often ignored, cost of A/B testing. 

### 4) Confusion
A/B tests potentially confuse your team and customers. Customer service may struggle to properly service a customer if they don't know which variation the customer is viewing. You can educate customer service about the various tests you're running, but, regardless, you're making their job more difficult. 
 
### 5) Speed
A/B testing slows down your organization's decision making. Some ideas are obviously good and adhering to a strict A/B testing process reduces your time to go live. Time is finite and the number of improvements you implement per year has a major impact on your growth trajectory. 

### 6) Focus
Usually, organizations congratulate themselves for investing heavily into conversion. This is evidenced by a Head of CRO or paying consultants. The largest cost is not the salary of those persons, but changing the focus of other team members such as designers, customer support, and developers. The success of a Head of CRO is usually at the cost of making other colleagues less successful in their primary roles. 

## How we improve conversion without A/B testing
Stepping away from A/B testing does not mean we have abandoned efforts to improve conversion. Rather we are improving our conversion through other methods (yes, A/B testing isn't your only option).

You can monitor your long term conversion trend rather easily via Google Analytics to gauge if you're making good decisions. And you can add more precision to this method of conversion rate monitoring by looking at your conversion rate trend by channel. 

With that in mind, we're doubling down on the following to improve our conversion rate:

### Usability principles
Adhering to thoroughly researched [usability principles](https://www.nngroup.com/) generally yields good conversion optimization results. 

### Design principles
In addition to usability principles, there are basic [design principles](http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Principles-Design-Revised-Updated/dp/1592535879/) that tend to improve conversion when followed. 

### The golden rule
"Do unto others..." is a guiding principle for most of our decision making and it works great with regards to conversion optimization.

### Solving problems
Solving actual pain points our customers experience is the primary way we've been able to improve our conversion rate and strengthen our brand. 

## We haven't abandoned A/B testing entirely
I should admit that we still A/B test some ideas. Rather than adhering to a strict A/B testing process, we let our team to A/B test ideas they're curious about. 

To minimize the likelihood of testing too much, we turned off our 3rd party A/B testing tool and integrated split testing into our code base. That means, in order to run a test, we need help from development to set it up. This extra effort discourages running careless tests and has the added benefit of eliminating the performance hit that comes with using a 3rd party tool. 

Finally, we're now able to A/B test entirely different versions of our code which is much more interesting than merely testing basic design changes via a 3rd party tool.

If our approach of improving conversion rate by solving problems rather than using an A/B testing tool appeals to you, you share some of [the characteristics we look for in team members](https://www.stickermule.com/blog/characteristics-we-look-for-in-team-members). 

Feel like you'd fit in well with our team? [Apply to join us](https://www.stickermule.com/careers). We'd love to hear from you.

A/B testing has multiple hidden costs. We decided to mostly stop a/b testing for 6 reasons. 

Posts by Anthony Constantino