Ben Perry didn’t start out in ecommerce. His first business was a content site in the natural health space.
But when a Google algorithm update wiped out all of his traffic almost overnight, he didn’t start from scratch. He pivoted. Using years of buyer data he quietly collected in the background, he reverse-engineered what people were actually buying—not just what they clicked on—and used that to launch his own product.
A lot of founders build a product and hope people want it. Ben did the opposite. He found out what people were buying first.
That single SKU turned into a fast-scaling product line. Within three years, he grew to 50 SKUs and expanded beyond Amazon into Shopify, Walmart, Meta, TikTok Shop, and international markets like Canada.
Revenue grew 4x in year two, 2.5x the next.
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The kind of growth founders dream of until it nearly breaks your business
The category he was in took off, and he was riding that wave. But the reality behind the scenes was more complicated.
Ben was still solo. Every sale meant another layer of customer support, inventory planning, and inventory fulfillment complexity. The products had a high average order value, which helped margins, but it also meant high COGS and a constant need for cash to keep inventory stocked.
He didn’t want to raise outside capital, not because the business wasn’t fundable, but because he didn’t want to be locked in or take on unnecessary personal risk.
At one point, he was managing 50+ SKUs across Amazon, Shopify, and multiple 3PLs, all financed in part through personal credit cards. Forecasting demand, especially with inventory split across fulfillment channels, turned into a full-time job on its own.
And while the business was scaling, his bookkeeping hadn’t. He was still using a janky P&L template that was updated monthly in a Google Sheet with help from a freelancer on Upwork.
When the business got too big to manage in Google Sheets
Eventually, Ben hit a crossroads. He was doing seven-figures in revenue and knew he had to invest in some financial guardrails.
That’s when he brought in Bean Ninjas through a referral in his extended network.
The priority was getting the financials cleaned up, moving from Google Sheets into Xero, and backfilling data for the year so he could make growth decisions based on reality, not gut feel.
Making decisions based on real-time data
Once the monthly management reports from Bean Ninjas started rolling in, Ben began using them to track channel performance (from Amazon, Shopify, etc), see margin trends, and make inventory decisions.
This quickly became essential to how he ran the business, since he could see exactly what was working and where expenses were creeping up.
Ben said, “It got to be where I would just wait until I get the management report each month to make some decisions, especially around inventory, because I can kind of see how things are trending on a day-to-day basis.”
In fact, he’d already seen how chasing the wrong channels could be a distraction. When TikTok Shop became the hot new thing, Ben jumped on it and got early traction through influencer content.
But, his audience skewed older, the AOV was too high for impulse buys, and the influencer model required a totally different skill set.
“It was just a lot of work and the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze,” he adds.
Meanwhile, something far less flashy quietly outperformed…Canada.
He hadn’t expected much when expanding there, but Canadian demand and the potential for faster, cheaper fulfillment made it one of the most promising growth channels in the business.
That kind of clarity on what was working, what wasn’t, and where to double down was only possible once the financials were dialed in.
Deciding to sell the business
He knew his strengths were in starting things, not managing a 7-figure supply chain.
So instead of building out a full team, he decided to get the business ready to sell.
And when he officially re-engaged a broker and took the business to market, those books held up throughout the due diligence process. Bean Ninjas’ work stood firm. Clean, professional numbers gave buyers confidence, and gave Ben leverage.
A growth partner that stuck with him through the entire journey
For Ben, Bean Ninjas wasn’t just an accounting vendor. They were a key partner during the most important stretch of his business.
Their reporting gave him visibility into margins, OPEX, channel performance, and cash flow. It helped him cut what wasn’t working and plan around what was.
And when it came time to exit, the work spoke for itself.
