Two years ago, while looking for school supplies on ebay for her three small children whom she home-schools, Nicole Munoz stumbled across a link that advertised how to sell online. Intrigued, she began to wonder if it were possible for her to sell things online while living in a foreign country. After purchasing an online book called, “How to start a Yahoo store”, Munoz thought, “If they can do it, then I can too!”
Two years ago, while looking for school supplies on ebay for her three small children whom she home-schools, Nicole Munoz stumbled across a link that advertised how to sell online. Intrigued, she began to wonder if it were possible for her to sell things online while living in a foreign country. After purchasing an online book called, “How to start a Yahoo store”, Munoz thought, “If they can do it, then I can too!”
Armed with statistics on camping gear use, articles on the explosive growth of the internet and the $50 her husband gave her for her new hobby, Munoz started her first online camping gear store.
Her goal was to build a semi-virtual company. She would handle all the marketing, accounting and order taking from her home-based office, while the order fulfillment and warehousing would be outsourced. This would allow her to maximize time with customers and minimize her up front capital risk and ongoing overhead expenses. Best of all, working from home allowed her to work without sacrificing her care for her children and family.
Her internet site is fast loading with camping gear products, a section on camping tips, and features easy ordering via live chat and over the phone. Customers can also order via a state-of-the-art secure shopping basket system.
The internet site opened in January 2004 and turned a profit from the first month. From her profits she invested in learning tools to help her learn how to be more successful and about six months later her business just took off. She quickly realized that although depending on third party fulfillment centers was a good way to start, it was not going to work long term for a high volume business. After setting up accounts with vendors, her first $500 of products arrived at her dad’s garage. Before she knew it, the garage was full and full-time help was needed to ship out the products as fast as the orders were coming in.
Now, just two years after starting, her internet site has sold over $156,000 in the last 12 months. Munoz has recently opened two more sites: www.summitcampinggear.com and www.campinggearpro.com and plans to open a new store every quarter.
Her advice to anyone who is thinking of starting an online business? Start small and look at your new business as a hobby in the beginning. Use your profits to reinvest in your business and expand. Most importantly, never lose sight that for work-at-home-mom’s your most important job is the children in your home.
