BPA in plastics becomes a concern for parents

As I mentioned in the previous post, once my site was up, I had no idea how to attract customers... they trickled in now and again from various trade shows I did (expensive and time consuming - I did 3 or 4 and decided ROI was not worth it) and from starting to get indexed on search engines (though at this point I had no meta tags and I had not submitted my site to search engines). I also did not have a blog yet.

This went on for a year... a hobby business which took a backseat to a day job and a night job taking care of my family.

Anyway, back to plastics - well, in January 2007, I saw that more and more of my peers were throwing out their plastic sippy cups and baby bottles and replacing them with glass bottles and metal sippy cups. I decided I would add these products to my catalogue (after talking it over with my husband who I often call "my banker".

The timing was perfect. I started with Sigg bottles. They sold like hotcakes - I went from selling a couple of items a week to at least a dozen bottles a day. News outlets were publishing stories almost on a weekly basis about the dangers of plastics so people were Sigg-crazy. And then Sigg decided not to accept any new retailers in Canada, so again, good timing. The best part about all the bottle sales is that they increased my mailing list for other items and I started to have repeat customers.

I added adult-size Sigg bottles to my catalogue, and then Klean Kanteen stainless steel bottles. Next came Green to Grow and ThinkBaby BPA-free baby bottles.

By June, the water bottle craze slowed down to normal - they still sell well today - in fact, they are probably my hottest selling Christmas gift this season, but April May 2008 saw a crazy spike where demand exceeded supply by the manufacturers.

Website launched now where are the customers??

So, the Stork website was designed, built and up and running but no one was buying - well, of course not - I had never heard the term SEO (search engine optimization for those of you who are in that same boat).

Well, I had already bought inventory so I decided to hold an open house offline and get some sales as well as start getting the word out about my new venture. This was mid November 2006. It went well - sold about $500 worth of stuff to friends and family.

I also did a few local gift shows - spent way too much time not to mention money on these... never again. A couple of hours before and after as well as the time at the show really cut into family time.. and no one buys at those shows anyway... if anything I broke even and if you count the value of my time, I lost $$.

Time went on and I passed out my biz card all over - I added my site to free directories when I came across them so sales trickled in - really a slow slow trickle. I also went back to my regular day job and Stork became a hobby (well at this point it was still a hobby).

Oh - and then a month later I was pregnant again... we're now in Feb 2007 - I'm 3 months preggers with my second child - I work full-time and have a 1.5 year old son - Stork is still a hobby and sales are still trickling in.

I stopped working at my day job in April - Stork was growing ever so slowly but I was still enjoying every minute of it...

I spent the summer spending time with my first son before the impending birth of his baby brother.

Charlie was born in late August 2007. The first few months were spent in the typical daze and Stork maintained its now steady trickle.

So you're wondering - does she make this hobby into a business at some point? The answer is yes - there was a turning point and it's coming.

January 2008 - plastics start to become a real concern for parents in the media (especially here in Canada)... I have an idea. Read the next post to see what happens.

Begin at the beginning

Before I start this post, I just want to recap one important note from my previous posts which will set the stage: I had already written a very detailed business plan for a bricks and mortar store which also included a web sales component so that was done. I realized that I could probably afford to get up and running and turning a profit within a year or two (depending on my diligence). Below I break out the web part of the business.

In order to get rolling on my website, the first thing I did was make a list of what needed to be done. Though I don't have that particular list anymore, here's what it probably looked like:

1) Check out competitors sites and business models (circa 2006)

2) Figure out exactly what I want to sell and to whom

3) Find an experienced web developer who knows how to set up an efficient and effective ecommerce site (and get quote)

4) Find a graphic designer to come up with a logo and site look (get quote)

5) Source products - find out what usual mark-up is on products and find out what their terms are (will they sell to me, a new small web business?)

6) Figure out my start-up budget requirements

Here's what I came up with within about a week (and then I'll comment on each item giving my current opinion on what I came up with back then):

1) There are a few large sites with whom I can't compete (Babystyle, etc). There are a few smaller sites but given the size and growth potential of the market, I can see there is room for many more of us. There are a few sites that I really like so I'll pick a couple and use what I like to come up with a website and business model of my own.

TODAY: I don't think I could have done anything differently - most of my learning has been through trial and error on my own site and I'm not sure that I could have recognized potential pitfalls from looking at other sites more closely back then.

2) I want to sell shippable (i.e. relatively small and light) unique baby gift items that are not available in small to mid-size markets across North America. I would like to focus on mom-made products if possible, but quality is the most important factor for me. My price range would be what I call affordable high-end and I would try to be the lowest price available (legitamitely) online. I would sell to moms as well as baby gift givers.

TODAY: I still like to sell smaller items - If I can drop ship (which means the manufacturer ships directly to the client) then I would prefer to do that even if it means a smaller mark up (no inventory!). My focus is still on quality products and quality materials - I am more concerned with product safety now. My price range is about the same though I am less concerned about being the lowest price - I have many repeat customers because of my level of customer service and I often run promotions, but I need to make money to stay in business and sometimes that means charging full price. My main focus is still on baby gifts but I now also sell complimentary items for big brothers and sisters and parents too. I have found that my customers are about 65% people buying for their own families and the other 35% gift givers.

3) I contacted a few web developers from their tiny little links or logos at the bottom of nice sites that they had designed. Most quotes were well out of my league. I almost went with one company which wanted to charge me $4000 for site design, logo design and ecommerce database. However, I finally chose a much less expensive option ($650 not including logo or graphic design) - RazorIT. I chose him because he had done work for my husband in the past and I knew he was reliable.

TODAY: I wouldn`t have done this any differently - I have changed so many things on my site I`m very glad I didn`t put out the big bucks right at the start.

4) Since my web guy isn`t really a graphic designer, I decided to spend some money and pay a professional - but without blowing my budget. I posted my project on Elance.Com. There, you post your project and designers from all over the world bid on it. I got my logo and site design (landing page and inside page layout) for $450. I think this was a steal.

TODAY: I have since used this company, Trapdoor Media for several other small projects. It was an amazing electronic working relationship.

5) I contacted several companies that I had found online to see what the deal was in terms of selling their products in my online store. Some do not do online at all... so they were out. Others had huge minimums and I was too chicken to go with them. Many just required a business registration number/Tax ID number and anywhere from $150 to $1000 minimum first order. Usually, you have to pay shipping on top and that's all I understood at that point. So I began ordering (What fun!!! Shopping....)

TODAY: I have since learned there are other rules involved in retail - you must notify your vendor exactly where you are selling. They also need to know what price you are selling at (though in Canada there is no minimum price; they just call it a suggested retail price and strongly discourage you from selling below that). Some vendors are hands off and others are controlling... I'm still learning the ropes in this area and have some stories to tell later on in this blog.

6) Here's what you've been waiting for - What at that time I considered to be my start-up budget:

Web Site - $650 (was enough to get me up and running)
Graphic Design - $450 (did not spend a penny more)
Inventory - $3000 (can't remember exactly but I think I stayed within budget for start up)
Business Registration - $60 (on target)
Shipping supplies, office supplies and gift wrap - $200 (could have spent less but did not)
Business Card Printing - $150 (on target)
Laptop of my very own - $800 (my husband got sick of me asking to use his)

TOTAL SPENT PRE-LAUNCH: $5310

Read about what happened next in the days to come...

Most Common Questions

The questions I get most often regarding my business are about:

1) Inventory:

• How do you find products?
• Do you buy it and store it (in other words, do I hold inventory)?
• How do you contact the manufacturers/distributors?
  

2) Site Design and Development:

• How did you find someone to design the site?
• How do you get the products online?
• What if you need to make changes?
• Are you really tech oriented?

3) Marketing

• How do you drive traffic to your site?
• How do you convert traffic into sales?
• How do you keep track of these numbers and how do you use this info?

4) Success

• How is your business doing?
• Do you still like what you're doing?
• How many hours a week do you spend on this business?

Then, there are questions that people don't ask but I know they wish they could:

• How much did it cost to start up?
• How much do you make now each month?

Then, there are questions that I think they should ask if they're interested in building their own small business:

• What is the value of your inventory?
• Are you concerned about cash flow?
• How long did it take to build the business to where it is today?
• How many hours a week should you be spending on the business if you want it to continue to grow?

There are many more questions so if you have any, please ask - the idea is for this to be a completely open and honest forum for info exchange.

Throughout the next few blog posts, I will attempt to answer these questions until we arrive at the present and a whole new set of questions are posed.

An idea is born

I'm going to begin at the beginning with a little background. In Canada, we get one year maternity leave... while babies and children thrive with routine, a baby's routine is sometimes tedious for someone with a life that pre-children involved work, social life, being part of a dance team for local pro football team and volunteer work. By the time my son was about 6 months, I was ready to start doing something in addition to my full-time job as a mom. At that time (about 3 years ago) our town had no interesting baby stores (the picture has changed markedly since then) and I spent a lot of time searching online for baby items that I felt suited our personal style (my husband likes to shop too).

Wait, let me add one little note - about 5 years ago I founded and then sold a service business for singles (Dinnerworks) and my husband did the same with a business called campus discs. He currently is working on a new venture, Joined.Com. All this to say, we are entrepreneurial and we love the freedom and creativity involved in building your own business.

So of course, my idle mind desperately wanted to come up with a new business idea. I decided it would be a bricks and mortar retail store - I developed a biz plan, worked out the numbers and wow - I would have been working 70 hour weeks for $60000 a year profit. This did not make sense to us - especially with a baby and the hope that in the not too distant future there would be another little one. But, all was not forgotten... my love for shopping and my current lust for all interesting things baby, led me to a few products which I knew I could sell online.

StorkBabyBoutique.Com (at least the idea) was born. I believe this was August 2006.

Now, how did I go about getting started. To find out, read on.

Getting Started

For the last 2 years I have been building an online store. People always ask me how I got into it, how much time it takes me per week, what they need to do to do something similar... at the same time, this venture started really as a hobby, something to do while I was on maternity leave with my first son. It took off in Jan of 2008 and now is an actually profitable albeit small business. Yet, I can see that there is so much more that I need to do or at least could do. I feel like I'm just scratching the surface.

I've decided to start this blog with the goal of chronicling my ad"venture", hopefully providing some insight on the process, and most importantly getting some feedback from others on what works and what doesn't. I haven't been able to find any similar chronicles online, so if anyone knows of any blogs that I could follow, please let me know!

Here goes...