James Harris was born to be an entrepreneur.
Even though James was a field supervisor for RadioShack in Eastern
Los Angeles, with a background in inventory, warehouse, and operations,
he always had ideas for new businesses that he and his wife, Virginia,
could run on the side. He and Virginia opened a delivery laundry service
called "Laundry King." It went well, but Virginia had to drop
out of the business when she got pregnant and could no longer pursue
the business.
Later, the couple started a couples getaway business entitled "Weekends
to Remember." Their aim was to provide fun, romantic weekend trips
for couples. Unfortunately, the business was not profitable due to the
high promotional costs of the travel industry.
James was fairly comfortable with computers and had owned one since
college (1993), when he used a word processor for his term papers. Later,
he had learned how to use computers to help with inventory management.
Eventually, while overseeing a website startup for Morgan Phillips,
a mattress distributor, he watched the company's Internet efforts and
observed what worked and what didn't. He was primed to launch his own
Internet business and thought, "If they can do it, then so can
I."
In September 2000, James heard from a family member about an Internet
training seminar in Torrance. The meeting was about making money on
the Internet, and it included a free lunch. James said, "You can't
go wrong with that!" and he went. Virginia attended the follow-up,
full-day workshop at James's insistence, basically to learn enough about
it to "give her blessing" to this new business James wanted
to launch. They bought websites at the end of the day. "It's worth
the risk," James said. "It's worth the gamble. Let's go for
it and see how it turns out."
James was excited about this new venture. He already had a great product
idea. Everyone he showed it to liked it. He just didn't have a good,
cost-effective way to promote it widely.
James wanted to sell furniture. When he went to the Internet workshop,
he knew this was the product he wanted to sell. He knew his brother
could make the product, and he (James) would promote the site. He had
his plan and was ready to go.
James got his site up and going, and people began to buy. He made his
first sale within a month from the time his site was published.
Today, James no longer works for RadioShack. He manages his furniture
storefront full-time. When questioned about the financial impact this
endeavor has had on his family, he simply says, "It's had an immense
impact. Now it's become my career. It's my business. Before, I used
to work. I made a salary. Now all I do is the storefront."
And the "icing on the cake," as James puts it, is the ease
with which he can maintain his website. When he bought the site, he
didn't fully understand that he would be able to make changes to his
storefront himself using the StoresOnline builder program. Now, in retrospect,
James believes this easy maintainability is how he "trounced his
market." When he was working with his former employer's site, the
company paid every time the programmer made any change-no matter how
insignificant. And unless someone were a programmer going into an Internet
business, which James was not, the expense and delay of making changes
would stifle a lot of a website's growth. But with the StoresOnline
builder, James can make changes to his storefront anytime he wants.
He can run promotions or sales, change prices to emphasize specific
products, and more.
"That's the true blessing of the site," James explains. "I
can change it, control it, or do whatever I want to it. I know the storebuilder
like I know my motorcycle."
Visit James Harris's Store Online at http://www.catlitterfurniture.com
*Testimonial results are not typical and your individual results will vary. Your success depends on having the right price, product, and marketing efforts.
