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E-Commerce Solutions

Jun 27th, 2009
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I’m in the process of setting up a new shopping cart for my web site. Up till now, I’ve been selling online through a company that does everything on-demand for me. My current “store” is actually on their site, and when a t-shirt is ordered, they process the payment, print the shirt, ship it, and then provide me with my designated commission. That has worked great for a proof-of-concept test for me, but it’s not very profitable (for me).

So it’s time to start doing more of the physical work myself. I’m now ordering my own shirts and getting them printed locally. I needed to do that anyway in order to get into retail stores. For my online store, since I use GoDaddy for my hosting, I’ve got simple procedures for installing shopping cart programs like osCommerce and Zen-Cart. After doing some research, I chose Zen-Cart, and now I’m working on the customization of it. Once I’m done with that (as if anything is ever really “done”), then I’ll enter my products and be ready to turn it on.

I’ll post again when I’ve got it going, but thought you might like to hear more about the process I’m going through.

Brian

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Giving Things Away

Jun 21st, 2009
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Do you give things away? Products? Services? Advice? My blog at Gather No Moss is where I give information away, and I’ll always do that. But now that I’ve got an inventory of t-shirts, it’s been fun to give some of those away too.

I sent one with my pitch letter to the specialty running store that I wanted to be my first retailer. That was so that the owner could see it, feel it, wear it. When I was there to show him the rest of my inventory, I gave away two shirts to the two other employees that were there, and to two of the customers that let me ask them some questions.

I sent one to my sister-in-law in Cincinnati so that she could show it around at the running stores there. And last week I sent one to financial guru Dave Ramsey. He’s a runner, and it’s indirectly because of his radio show that I even started Gather No Moss, so this was one way of saying thanks to him. I’m also hoping that he wears it around in Nashville where he lives.

Now, if I can only get Angelina Jolie or the Jonas Brothers to be photographed in my shirts while they’re out and about…

Brian

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Who Believes in You?

Jun 19th, 2009
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Very few of my friends, co-workers, or acquaintances are entrepreneurial in nature. A good friend of mine has owned his own business for almost 20 years, and he’s good at his business, but he’s actually not very entrepreneurial. In fact, he just makes fun of me because he doesn’t really understand my bent. My wife doesn’t understand why I can’t just “be happy” with working for a large “safe” company. And the news on TV doesn’t help either.

I have to rely entirely on the Internet, books, magazines, and podcasts to get entrepreneurial encouragement. Recently, I met with a coach from one of our local SBDCs (Small Business Development Centers, which are funded by the SBA). Without resources like these, I’d have a hard time learning new things.

Are you in a similar situation? If so,  I’m hoping that this blog will be of help to you. I’ve had the privilege of providing advice and ideas to some people that have approached me. I love doing that, which is why this blog even exists. If I can pass on what I’ve learned, I’m glad to do it.

So, if no one else in your circle of friends believes in you, I do. And there are a whole bunch of others that do too. Check out the communities at StartupNation and 48Days.NET. There are many others, but no one has time to be involved with all of them. Pick one or two and get to know some of your fellow entrepreneurs. I’ll be there are people there that could learn from you too.

Brian

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Am I Doing Something Right?

Jun 18th, 2009
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I purposed last weekend to write a blog post at my Gathe No Moss web site every morning this week, and to try to discipline myself to keep doing that (at least three times a week) on an ongoing basis. I have no lack of things to write about, but it does take me about 30 minutes for a well-written post.

I’m not sure if this ramped-up blogging has anything to do with what else has happened this week, but I’m guessing that it does. Yesterday I received one email from a company offering to partner with me, and today I receive two more. One is a definite no (a t-shirt web site that sells very offensive t-shirts), and the other two are under consideration.

Another thing that I did today was enter Gather No Moss into StartupNation’s 3rd annual “Home-Based 100” contest. I’ve wanted to do this for the past two years, but wasn’t quite ready for it. Now I’m at a point where it makes sense. The purpose of this contest is to get publicity, for StartupNation and for the contestants. You can check it out for yourself, and I’d appreciate your vote (everyone can vote once a day, every day, so “vote early and vote often.”)

Brian

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Getting into a retail store

Jun 4th, 2009
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The business I’m currently working on, an active lifestyle brand and mission called Gather No Moss, is initially for writing and blogging about active lifestyles, and selling t-shirts to both inspire people and to further market the brand.

I’ve been blogging for almost two years, while working on the t-shirt designs and planning the business itself. Last fall, I began selling online through a company that handled all of the shirt ordering, printing, and shipping. That was a great way to get the concept into the market at almost no cost to me, but it’s not profitable for me.

Over the last month I’ve worked with shirt wholesalers and a local screen printer to get some shirts made. In addition to selling online, I’ve wanted to get into specialty retail stores: running, cycling, hiking, etc. A couple weeks ago I sent a letter and a sample t-shirt to the premiere running store in our area. Since then, I’ve been trying to contact the owner by phone, but kept missing him. Today, I connected with him on the phone, and then stopped by the store on my way home from work. This was quite unexpected on my part, but I was prepared, since I had two boxes of shirts in my car.

To my surprise, the owner was very happy to sell my shirts on consignment, offering a lot of advice and spending two hours with me to talk about things. I got more out of that meeting than I could have ever imagined. I left him with almost all of my stock, and he’s giving me some prime wall space to hang the shirts, and would like me to go to some races with him to sell too.

Wow! I’m pretty excited. I’ll keep you posted on how things go with those sales. My role in this is to continue marketing my brand, and also to help draw people to that store.

I also gave away four shirts: two to store employees and two to a couple that were in the store, and who gave me some great feedback on the shirts that I showed them. That couple is actually from West Virginia, and drove up to Pittsburgh just to go to this store. Now they’re heading back with my t-shirts and my business card, and will try to get their triathlete club to buy a bunch of shirts.

I now need to order some more shirts, as I’ve got friends asking for them. Not a bad problem to have…

Brian

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WordPress: It’s Not Just For Blogging

Jun 1st, 2009
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I learned HTML and created my first web pages back in the mid-1990’s when the Mosaic and Netscape browsers first appeared. But I don’t think I’ll ever create a web page from scratch again.

I’ve standardized on using WordPress for my web sites. I originally used it to set up a blog, which is it’s main purpose. But I quickly discovered that you can use it for general web pages too. There are many, many free “themes” that can be downloaded and used to create almost any look and feel you want. And it’s got functionality that I never learned how to do with HTML and other web programming languages.

You can set up your own blog for free (and hosted for free) at WordPress.com. It’s more or less like Blogger.com, where you add your unique prefix to wordpress.com. You can also download the software package from wordpress.org and install it to your own web host. Or you can do what I do. I use GoDaddy for my hosting, and they have WordPress (and many other things) available for free that will be installed for you.

So many options. You might want to check out Joomla too.

Brian

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48 Days To The Work You Love

May 31st, 2009
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It’s only fitting that the first entry for this blog to be about the man that started me on this journey. Dan Miller has a web site called 48 Days, and his first book was called “48 Days to the Work You Love.”  About seven years ago, I began listening to his podcast, and then when he released his book, I got one of the first copies. It changed my life.

You can check Dan out for yourself, but the thrust of his message, and one that I had never really thought about before, is that you can make a living doing something that you truly love to do. I had always liked what I did for a living (writing software), but he challenged me to think about what I really love to do. Find that, and then think outside the box to come up with ways (multiple way) to monetize it.

I love athletics. When I leave work, I don’t desire to write software. I’d rather be doing something active. That realization got my gears turning, and the entrepreneurial journey that I’m on now has been very exciting and fun.

That’s what this blog is about, and Dan’s teaching is what ignited that.

Brian

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