Tell us a little about yourself. What\u2019s your background? How did you start the business?<\/strong><\/p>\nMy background is Engineering and I worked for 15 years in the American Aerospace industry prior to starting this business. The E-commerce space has so much opportunity for anyone who wants to dedicate themselves to their own future. Despite some level of competitiveness, the E-commerce space has so much room for growth for anyone. I started the business by myself and have managed to successfully create detailed, well-documented and effective procedures to address everything from demand, freight-forwarding, customer concerns and so on. After an initial period of a few years operating the business by myself, it became apparent that in order to take it to the next level, I would need a team. And I have been investing time and money into building the team as priority #1 ever since before we get into launching new products.<\/p>\n
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As an e-Commerce business, where are your products made?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\nProducts are designed in US and contract manufactured in China. \n
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How have you marketed the product and where are your customers originating from?<\/strong><\/p>\nAll customers are US-based. We often get inquiries from Europe and Australia but have not really taken the time to establish those sales channels. Unfortunately, nothing has really been done as far as Social Media marketing nor website SEO. As far as Adwords\/BingAds – we picked some keywords 5 years ago and created some static bids and have a fixed budget of a few hundred dollars per month and left it as is ever since. With Amazon Sponsored Ads, we similarly have not had the resources to actively manage the ads so it is static and likely not even close to returning what a proper campaign should and can be returning. Most customers have found us organically over the years thru organic Google searches and word of mouth. I believe there is a huge opportunity to organically grow just from actively managing advertising and online marketing but unfortunately, we have been tied by resources (time\/focus). Saying that I do believe that our products provide a great value proposition to any customer who finds us and that is likely why we are succeeding today. <\/p>\n
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Is the asset on your listing owner-operated, how much time does it take to run the business, who else is needed on the team, and what is automated?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Yes, it is owner-operated. I generally work about 30 hours\/week but often choose to go 1-2 months without doing any work. Out of the 30 hours\/week, I would estimate that 10 hours is spent on truly “operational work” and 20 hours is spent on “growth” – which could be anything from interviewing new hires, working on new product lines, thinking about strategic items. The team is very mature and highly technical and capable. I split the team into 2 teams: Front-End (FE) and Back-End (BE). FE is more customer-focused (emails\/calls) along with a variety of mini-projects\/tasks. BE deals with everything technical – supply chain, freight forwarding, supplier pricing, warehousing, Amazon\/website listings, bookkeeping, etc. Currently, there are 2 FE full-time members and there is 1 BE full-time member along with 2 BE new hires under probation. I plan to continue investing in building a team with highly competent people who can help bring the business to the next level. Note, 99% of all operations can be handled by the team without my interference such as submitting a PO to the supplier, getting quotes from freight forwarders, updating Amazon listings, helping customers, providing custom RFQs, etc. I choose to be involved in some of them in order to have oversight.<\/p>\n
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What does someone need to do to continue operating the business in its current form?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Someone that is detailed and have an e-commerce background would make it easier but not necessary. The team knows what to do in 99% of the instances and you can learn all the considerations from the team and from me during a transition period.<\/p>\n
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Can you list a few opportunities for a potential new owner to continue growing the business?<\/strong><\/p>\nSocial Media marketing, Adwords, BingAds, Amazon Sponsored ads, launching new products such as mirrors (which is currently >80% completed which theoretically could double or more profits), reaching out to partner with other similar home websites, reaching out to big-box retailers, website SEO, listing on Wayfair\/Houzz\/Walmart\/Target\/eBay\/etc – all of which has not been done or have done been done well. Sales have been capped not by demand but really capped by supply chain issues in the last 1.5 years (out of stock on many SKUs). But new inventory just arrived in 13SEP and I expect to see the stock roll into all sales channels and for sales to increase in the coming few months. Especially with how hot the housing market is in the US, there is a lot of room for growth in the coming months and years if inventory is ordered in excess. I have not done a great job keeping SKUs in stock, instead of leaning towards “lean manufacturing” and keeping inventory tight which lead to a subdued outcome due to delays in freight forwarding as well as supplier delays. The better decision should have been to over-order and warehouse the items in the US.<\/p>\n
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What has been the evolution of this asset since its launch?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Started the company just by myself and after a few years, started trying to build a dedicated team that is highly competent. Everyone on the team is VERY sharp and dedicated. I am continuously interviewing and hiring and will continue to invest in the team as they will be the key to propelling growth. The next steps are really growing the catalogue with New Product Introduction (NPI) such as mirrors which is 80% completed. And after that, new products, new products, new products.<\/p>\n
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How does this business make money? What are the current revenue streams?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n50% of sales come from our company website and 50% comes from Amazon. OUT-OF-THE-ORDINARY MARGINS – Our MSRP is typically anywhere from 10-15x of EX-WORKS (1000%-1500%) so we are uniquely positioned with a high gross margin product – this is due to a unique relationship with the factory owner the company has had for the last 8 years. We are their number #1 customer and have helped them build their company from the start. They ONLY offer us these low prices and none of their other customers has these prices. \n
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What marketing channels are most profitable for the business?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Our website.<\/p>\n
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How does the business currently acquire customers and what is your breakdown for marketing costs?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Mostly organic and word of mouth. We do not do any marketing activities (we should). As far as advertising, we do spend a few thousand per month across Amazon\/Adwords\/BingAds.<\/p>\n
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How big is your current team? How many people does it take to run this business?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n5 people currently with 2\/5 on probation. We have operated fine with just 2 people (1 FE and 1 BE) for years. But in order to grow and launch new products, I believe the key is to build a bigger team. \n
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What\u2019s the reason for selling your business on Flippa?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I think with a team who is more experienced, more driven and have more resources, it isn’t hard to 5-10x the sales especially if new products are launched. I think I have reached my limitation in my capabilities and would like to take a 1-2 year break from all work due to a non-related health issue.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\nVIEW THE LISTING ON FLIPPA<\/a>\n<\/p>\n
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