Forget Bootstraps, Try Ties Instead: Laid Off Salesman Makes $100k a Year Selling Neckties Online
In an online economy and in the midst of a recession, one new entrepreneur celebrating his 10,000th necktie sold finds that slow is the new fast, and that patience and hard work never go out of style.
(PRWEB) April 21, 2009 -- When Hendrik Pohl, then a sales manager in San Francisco, lost his job at the end of 2007, he faced a moment of truth. Instead of dusting off his resume, he turned to a riskier and decidedly less glamorous option: selling neckties online. He got the suggestion from his father back in Germany, who started a similar business after getting restless in retirement. "About the first 100 or so times I told people what I was doing, I couldn't help but laugh as I said it", says Pohl, a 27-year-old San Francisco resident who spends his free time cycling competitively.
Today, www.ties-necktie.com, the company he started in early 2008, celebrates it's 10,000th tie sold.
While neckties are unarguably mundane, they offer decent margins, take up little storage space, are inexpensive to ship, and are still a necessary part of most white collar business attire. It is those exact qualities that can be rendered marvelous online, where Hendrik has spent the past year with a laser like focus on search engine optimization, the process of ranking high on sites such as Google or Yahoo. The process can be incredibly tedious, and involves a daily mix of posts in his men's fashion blog, writing articles, forging partnerships with other website owners, and soaking up anything and everything going on in the surprisingly large world of neckties. Even his company name is boring: Ties-Necktie.com, carefully chosen for maximum search engine impact. Day after day, Pohl spent nearly a year keeping costs low and working on his site, increasing his traffic by maybe a handful of visitors a week.
Then, in November of 2008, his discipline finally paid off. Visitors doubled, then tripled, and sales followed suit. At his current daily volume in 2009, Pohl is on track to earn a personal income in excess of $100,000; no small feat in the midst of a recession. He credits his success to a few easily replicable factors:
| | - Ignore the current trend of "free": pick a financially sound product (high margins, low shipping, etc.) that people are actually willing to pay for.
- Keep your budget microscopic by ignoring advertising, wacky stunts, etc. and focusing solely on search engine optimization and customer service.
- Most importantly, stick with it; it can take months for search engines to even notice your site, much less for customers to appear, and it took over a year of solid work for Pohl to generate enough business to fully survive off the sales.
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What he fails to mention is the level of dedication it takes to get traction in an increasingly crowded online marketplace. For those who think it sounds easy, make no mistake: selling neckties online is about as fun as it sounds. Pohl, whose previous experience with ties consisted of throwing on the closest one while he rushed to work, immersed himself in the world of men's fashion and slowly became an authority over the course of writing hundreds of articles and blog posts. For a native German who learned English as a second language and with more of a head for numbers than words, this was no easy task. The first articles sometimes took him the entire day or longer to write, and were grammatical disasters. Over 100 articles later, it's still no easy task.
While obviously Pohl doesn't want to encourage any competitors, he's excited to share what he learned with would be entrepreneurs. In addition, he now sees a world of opportunity in new products, from cuff links to pocket squares, or even digital products. "A lot of people dream about getting rich quick doing something glamorous or by becoming famous," notes Pohl, "But I think the real secret is doing the exact opposite: pick something boring, do it slow, and just don't quit."
While still far from rich, Pohl is confident he is on the right path. In an online economy, in the midst of a recession, maybe he's on to something: slow may just be the new fast, and old fashioned hard work may just be glamorous after all.
About Ties-Necktie.com:
Ties-Necktie.com is an online retailer offering over 1,000 brand name neckties, cufflinks, and bow ties. Besides ties the site features a men's fashion blog with style advice, dress code tips, and other helpful information related to the men's wardrobe.
Contact:
Michael LaPeter, Director of Public Relations
United E-Commerce, LLC
1-866-927-6065
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