Just curious... since we all have a store front in common, is anyone making a complete living from their on-line store? Is your store a supplement to a brick and mortor or is your store just a part time. extra cash type thing.

We have been in business for over 3 years, store front only and we get close but never close enough to quit our "real job"

We all put a ton of work into these stores and I thought an open discussion about it would be good, as well as supportive

What do you think

I've been in busssiness for 5 years and just this year openned a brick and mortor (which I regret) and I still am not paying myself. I was hoping that the brick and mortor would allow me to quit my day job

I figure that if I could boost my sales another 3,000. per month that I can just do my "bird thing." I'm in Wichita, KS, though, and our economy sucks so I'm relying mostly on internet sales. Having an employee available to answer the phone at all times (while I'm at my real job) has helped. Most of my sales are east coast and west coast, so being available by phone what are off hours for us is important

Two things I've noticed, 1 is when I recently updated the look and feel of my site (http://www.birdsupplies.com) to a more appropriate color scheme considering my type of business, sales increased. Second, staying on top of my Overture and Google is critical as is banner advertising on a few serious avian ezines.

Any ideas to boost sales and get rich would be greatly appreciated.

We've been turned on for 3 weeks, and still waiting for the first big sale. My overture PPC bring in a lot of traffic, but I think mostly just curious people. I think I need to focus on advertising in different areas.

On thing that may help all of us (I think it has been talked about) is to have a store search that will search all of the stores for an item. I have already given some business to a fellow r and would be willing to again since we are all in the same boat.

You've got to really target your overture and google keywords and use their advise on creating good copy in your sales pitch. I've found www.wordtracker.com to be invaluable in terms of searching for keywords.

You are absolutely right about targeting your words in your Overture or Goggle campaigns. We got nothing with "Bali" and "Indonesia' but made a $255 sale after 11 clicks with "Wayang" (a for of Indonesia performance). Our PPC Google ad has been going on for 3 days, but that is what we've learned so far.

We see the website as a supplement to our bricks and mortar store. I doubt if we could ever make enough to live on through the site. Still, we have the product, we have the warehouse...why not try to add a few hundred dollars each day to our overall sales? It is a low risk endeavor.

There are hundreds of MC clients that make a full-time living (in excess)... from their storefronts... I am not sure any of them will be quick to post this on the forum though... many are niche industires. They may not want to draw attention to their industries?

That's good to know, Captain. By the way, I have a cousin who sold $14 million through his internet site in the first year. Of course, he started from an established business with thousands and thousands of customers worldwide. So people do make money off the web.

We continue to see our website as just another channel for selling that complements our "real" store. For example, our local customers seem to take comfort in the fact that we are competent enough to have such a sophisticated website (thanks to !). We are even trying a Google ad targeting Sacramento residents to help them find our store through the Internet and our website.

I also believe that having pictures of our store on our site sends a message to Internet customers that we are a real business with real products.

I think Robert just hit the nail on the head there... unless you already have a strong customer base your probably going to be keeping your day job for a while as you build one

We're coming up on our 1yr anniversary and we've made back our low initial investment but as for paying ourselves... nope. It's all been going back into additional inventory and the costs of doing business (marketing, supplies, etc.). We estimate that out of the $3,000 a month in average sales right now we're probably making about a $800 monthly profit after COGS and expenses. Right now we're just happy that it's paying back the initial investment in a year and able to support itself right now.

First, let me say kudos to danilyn22 for asking such a bold question. I've been wondering that very thing myself since I started my store. I have friends and business associates who are self-employeed and doing well, but none of them with online stores. We can get together to discuss business strategy and such, but these chats don't help with my website.

That's one reason why I love the board!! As danilyn22 said, we're all in the same boat. As for me....my boat hasn't left the dock. I've only had a few sales through my website - but it's still a work in progress.

I have an existing small customer base that makes regular purchases - that money used to be profit, but now it goes into funding the web endeavors. So I guess you could say at least I'm not in the red.

I know we're all concerned about using the web to drive traffic, but don't forget your conventional marketing/networking too. The first two sales I made we from members of my local Chamber of Commerce (everyone should join theirs.)

Well, I guess I will step out of the woodworks. Our company does make enough to support our family. I work with both of my parents and we even have about 3 part time employees. We make about $20,000 a month right now and growing every month.
Here is my secret to success "Niche". If you don't have much competition than you will have more customers. Find something people need and that people can't easily find and you will have a winner. I know it can be hard to do, but you must use your imagination.
We have only been online for 2 years, but its foot work that has gotten us most of our business.
We don't spend much on advertising. We do the search engine promotion, but have never spent more than $600 on that. We do Affiliates, but don't get much out of that. Most of our business comes from us sending emails (some personalized, most canned) out to people we know need our product (which is almost everyone).
Than, word of mouth does the rest of the work.
We are just starting up a Friends to Friends program to reward our customers who refer their friends and we feel that will increase word of mouth ten fold.
I think the biggest reason entreprenuers fail is because they spend too much money that they believe will help the business, but don't put in enough work themselves. You must work hard to live the luxurious life later.
If you want to quit your "day job", you must start your own "day job" and "night job" and "weekend job". You won't make a million working a few hours a day. You will work the hardest in your life to become wealthy (or even just to live happy), but it will pay off in the long run (you will be able to retire earlier and do much more retired).
Here is something that I GUARANTY will increase your business and make things easier for you. Each and every night you must write down something you can do the next day to make your business better. From the smallest thing of organizing your inventory so that you can find things faster to redesigning your site so that it looks more professional. One thing a day will produce amazing results!
One last thing, no one (and I mean NO ONE) can do it better than yourself! Don't hire someone to do something for you if you can do it for yourself! Your time costs nothing (but some sleep), someone else's time costs a lot. Remember that!
Good Luck to all
Douglas
P.S. If at first you don't succeed try try again. I am 21 years old, I have already owned 3 other online business' (one I sold during college, the other 2 failed). You should never quit! If you believe in yourself and work hard you will eventually win out. And get free help, families are always the best to help out.

One more thing.
Never take the easy way out! The easiest jobs always turn out to be the hardest.
Look for something that would be challenging, because not many people will be willing to do something hard you will find yourself being alone in your own little market and making good money. Remember "Niche", niche usually means "challenging", so get out there and work for that buck and that buck will stick with you.

Thanks for all the great replies. I totally agree with Douglas in that you have to have a niche and it has to be fairly hard to find products elsewhere. Finding that niche can be difficult.

I liked Douglas's idea to write one thing you can do tomarrow that will help make your business better. Sometimes I feel we are stuck working our Other Job because we are being too cautious, afraid to quit . Imagine what we could do if we reinvested our time back into the business making it better. Its a hard line to cross!

By all means, if it wasn't for the brick and mortar store which has been operating for 23 years, we would not be able to fund our web endeavours. We've only been up for 8 months now and have had a few good sales. Our hits are going up everyday now and we're starting to get a better feel for what we need to do to kick it forward - big steep learning curve. Not everyone has the support of an already sucessful business to step up to the web. This forum is an invaluable source of information in that process. You guys are right - this stage of the plan needs constant attention and effort. I bring nothing to the table but elbow grease (which makes my track ball all goopy)

Here, Here! Thanks Danilyn22 for starting the topic that is usually on everyone's mind.
Douglas, good ideas on sticking with the challenges even when you want to sometimes give up.
It is difficult to try to put yourself into the market 110+%, especially when you are doing this all yourself and have to use your F/T salary to help support your online business - all in hopes of that "one day" being able to say goodbye to that and work for yourself. I know what little money I am making right now from my quasi online store (since most of my business comes from face to face customer base of friends and family), goes right back in to upgrading my online store; advertising (when I can afford it); and anything else I can create that I think will promote my business (online and in person). I do not have a brick and mortar store, and really have no intention of going that route, so I commend all those that are able to do that route AND do the online portion as well. Realizing how much effort, money, hair and tooth pulling it takes. But like all have said and basically agree upon.... if you want it done right, do it yourself. I have relied in the past 4 years (that is how long I have been trying to get my business online) on 2 companies to do the work for me. The first one went bankrupt and the second never fully came through for me - they made money off of me, so I had to make the choice of going back and doing the work and playing catch up. I enjoy the challenge, as Douglas pointed out, of doing the work and designs, developing means to lure customers to my site/business but just haven't found that niche to make things go.

This forum was a fantastic idea and I truly believe that everyone who posts in the forum is in one area or another, vastly knowledgeable and is willing to help others and I find that very refreshing; even at times when I get frustrated with my sometimes lack of knowledge, there is someone who points something out that causes the old light bulb to flicker and that moment of Ah HA!

I too, have been doing a sort of Rewards program for existing customers and referrals, but so far no takers. But that does not discourage me as I will continue to do that. My first year I gave out a Christmas gift to all my customers (I had a small number, 24) but they weren't expecting it and it was a nice surprise. It says a lot about you and how much you value the fact that they took an interest to buy your product and a much welcomed "Thank you".

I see I got off on a tangent and I truly apologize for taking up so much space but just wanted to also say Thank you to all out there for your wonderful ideas/comments/what ifs.

Sincerely,
Beverly
Goddess Enterprises