One Month in Business
So we’ve been open for business for exactly one month. Overall things are going well. Sales are increasing, and customers keep telling us how much they like the Sac. I think the coolest thing is when we are out on our local course (Willamette Park) and we see new friends using their ‘NutSac. We are the local bag men.
At the same time marketing the ‘NutSac is extremely challenging. As bone fide idiots, we had no idea what we were getting in to. One of our mistakes was using an Adwords ad that drew in way too many people. The ad said “lightweight and low profile.” Great ad. Worked like a charm. Lots of traffic, but unfortunately it didn’t pre-qualify our customers. We paid for lots of quick looks. If you run a small business, here’s a tip. You gotta use the ad to both entice as well as pre-qualify customers. A tall order when you only have 70 characters worth of copy to work with. Our new ad says “6 discs, lo-tech, all canvas,” and has been much more successful in bringing in only people who are looking for a smaller, high quality, custom bag.
The biggest challenge is to break away from over-reliance on the web. On the one hand the web is easy to use, but the downside is that people searching the web for a disc golf bag are mostly just price shopping. And let’s face it, it’s hard to compete with Chinese sweatshop labor. (Believe it or not, even at $35 we don’t make much per bag. The pressure to go overseas is almost overwhelming since we pay about 5X more to produce a bag in America than we would in China.) Yeah, we should probably go overseas and pocket the dough, but for now we’re sticking to our guns.
Now this is where we need your help. We know for a fact that our customers are good looking, intelligent, sophisticated, and know the value of quality workmanship (not that we would ever pander, as you’re far too intelligent to fall for that crap). The easiest sell for us is when someone actually gets to see the old ‘NutSac in action. They have to touch it. As soon as they have one in their hands they see what a sweet bag it is. So keep spreading the word! And if you need any additional business cards or have some killer marketing ideas, drop us a line. Thanks!