How much do you take per month?

[PrettyPaws]

I know many people don't wish to give information like this away for whatever reason but I am really interested to find out where we are in the grand scheme of things. I feel like we're doing ok but if we want this to become our full time income stream we need takings up buy 500%

We are just coming up to our first birthday and for the majority of this year I think total monthly sales will be around the £1500 mark, you can at least double that in November/December however. I'm always thinking fo ways to get more customers but have hit a brick wall at the moment.

The investment to get the site going was only £2000 so we have already made that money back which I guess is good going, the business has paid for itself in less than a year, probably about 8 months. I just wish we'd invested £20,000 and could say the same

 

[RayB]

I bought A Local Printer as a going concern just over 4 years ago. Turnover has risen from an average £40,000/month when I took over to an average of £180,000/month now

Profit is now ahead of our industry average.

I had to invest a fair chunk of my own cash into the business on top of the purchase cost; but the business has now paid for itself

 

Pretty paws don't be afraid to widen your product range into other areas,or related areas.Once you have a site with a good traffic flow you can sell what you like.

I would always concentrate on high profit items.

I think RayB would support me in saying they key to success for most sites is SEO.

a 500% increase in profits is easily obtained on the old internet in most cases.

Earl

 

[RayB]

Pretty paws don't be afraid to widen your product range into other areas,or related areas.Once you have a site with a good traffic flow you can sell what you like.

I would always concentrate on high profit items.

I think RayB would support me in saying they key to success for most sites is SEO.

a 500% increase in profits is easily obtained on the old internet in most cases.

Earl

I agree to a point Earl, but only around a third of our sales are online (approx £750k per annum).

The rest of our business channels (which I don't tend to talk about on UKBF) are not reliant on search engines in any way.

I like to spread it about

 

[PrettyPaws]

Thanks for your replies fellas. I'm glad you're doing so well Ray.

I agree, I think if I we to do it all again I would have looked at selling items over £100 at least. This whole year has been a massive learning curve and I may start looking into starting a couple more sites with higher value items.

I agree with what you say about SEO, the thing is we're doing really well at it and I can't see us going much higher! We are first page of Google for "Dog Collars", "ID Tags", "Dog Clothes", "Dog Clothing", "Dog Accessories" Page 2 for "Cat collars" , "Dog harnesses" (I'm working on these!)

I have done all the SEO myself and would really like to try my hand at marketing some high value products because the same sucssess would bring great rewards.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

After a quick look at your site one thing you may try is really upmarket animals jackets and matching goods, by this I mean around or even over the £100 mark, some people will just spend spend spend on their little friends and whilst you present ones are more than what I would pay I think there are plenty who will pay much more

 

I agree to a point Earl, but only around a third of our sales are online (approx £750k per annum).

The rest of our business channels (which I don't tend to talk about on UKBF) are not reliant on search engines in any way.

I like to spread it about

yes we Know all about you father of the chapel NATSOPA types and your dodgy dealings.

I was talking about the average online shop.Selling a variety of goods ,you alledgedly sell a service +a teaspoonfull of ink and some recycled Daily Mails.


Earl

 

[RayB]

yes we Know all about you father of the chapel NATSOPA types and your dodgy dealings.

My dad was a NATSOPA, and I met the FOC now and again

 

[PrettyPaws]

Will you two stop Hijacking threads with your silly arsing about!?

After a quick look at your site one thing you may try is really upmarket animals jackets and matching goods, by this I mean around or even over the £100 mark, some people will just spend spend spend on their little friends and whilst you present ones are more than what I would pay I think there are plenty who will pay much more

I'd love to Chris! Do you know of any suppliers?

 

Will you two stop Hijacking threads with your silly arsing about!?

ooops you tell him pretty paws.

seriously get as many and varied products that produce a high return.

best bet is to do dropshipping but only directly with manufacturers.That way you have no capital outlay,and high returns.

On the internet the world is your oyster,pick products wisely ,work on your SEO.

and this time next year..................

Earl

 

[PrettyPaws]

ooops you tell him pretty paws.

seriously get as many and varied products that produce a high return.

best bet is to do dropshipping but only directly with manufacturers.That way you have no capital outlay,and high returns.

On the internet the world is your oyster,pick products wisely ,work on your SEO.

and this time next year..................

Earl

Yep, will do. ID tags are our best sellers and just doing a deal to get some very high end tags - £25 each which I hope will do well. These are drop shipped by the manufacturer.

Any more tips to get me site high up!! I really am worn out from getting it up this high (I was hoping for a pat on the back!)

 

[INDIZINE]

PP, do you do cat collars with the tracker thing in them? Not sure what theyre called.

 

[Fergus]

Rather than going the dropship route it might be worth trying to get someone to make you some doggie clothes that are then your own brand , as you would build up a brand identity and be selling something different to your competitors !

Much easier I would have thought to push it in the media etc if it is actually your own product and at least it's only you that benefit.

 

[PrettyPaws]

PP, do you do cat collars with the tracker thing in them? Not sure what theyre called.

Do you mean the GPS tracker? I've not seen them for cats, only for dogs as they are pretty large. We don't sell them either way because it's not just a one off cost, it's also £xx per month.


We did look into our own brand of clothing but the costs were too high for us.

 

[INDIZINE]

Yes gps I imagine. My nephew mentioned his friend uses one on his ferret when hunting with them. Then he tracks them to dig them out of holes if they get stuck. Might have to try somne gun shops.

 

[Mrs Malapup]

I bought A Local Printer as a going concern just over 4 years ago. Turnover has risen from an average £40,000/month when I took over to an average of £180,000/month now

WOW hats off to YOU!! I cant imagine what dealing in those figures can be like.........I guess Im just a small thinker

 

[PrettyPaws]

I bought A Local Printer as a going concern just over 4 years ago. Turnover has risen from an average £40,000/month when I took over to an average of £180,000/month now

WOW hats off to YOU!! I cant imagine what dealing in those figures can be like.........I guess Im just a small thinker

...any chance of a link from your pet looves site?

 

[Mrs Malapup]

...any chance of a link from your pet looves site?

Done

 

[danmaull]

What online marketing have you done so far, as this could help to boost your business if its done correctly, and are you just operating online?

 

[PrettyPaws]

What would you sugest Dan?

 

Do you mean the GPS tracker? I've not seen them for cats, only for dogs as they are pretty large. We don't sell them either way because it's not just a one off cost, it's also £xx per month.


We did look into our own brand of clothing but the costs were too high for us.

One problem is that site owners like shop owners think and feel safer selling the same products that they know even if they are not very profitable.

On the internet once a site has traffic you can sell whatever you like,without a huge capital outlay.

Our cheapest product is about £1.00 but a couple of years ago we sold a house for £500,000 .

now thats a lot of dog collar sales.

Earl

 

[RayB]

After a quick look at your site one thing you may try is really upmarket animals jackets and matching goods, by this I mean around or even over the £100 mark, some people will just spend spend spend on their little friends and whilst you present ones are more than what I would pay I think there are plenty who will pay much more

I must say I'm really liking this approach. Maybe a "designer pets" section added to the site with some higher value/margin products??

PS - PP - I wasn't trying to hijack the thread - I just had to slap Earl down

 

[danmaull]

I would start by looking for some forums and maybe trying to become an active member and try to negotiate with the admins for an advertising space on there forum, if you decide to do this i would go for the forums that look the most active to get as many sales as possible.
Also place yourself in as many free directories you can find as lots of people use them, are you running any form of PPV campaign at the moment? as this could also be a big possibility to explore as it may be quite expensive.
Hope this helps a bit

 

[RayB]

I bought A Local Printer as a going concern just over 4 years ago. Turnover has risen from an average £40,000/month when I took over to an average of £180,000/month now

WOW hats off to YOU!! I cant imagine what dealing in those figures can be like.........I guess Im just a small thinker

To be fair, printing is a low margin business that depends on volume. But it's what I know so I stick with it.

 

To be fair, printing is a low margin business that depends on volume. But it's what I know so I stick with it.

Thats exactly the point I made in an earlier post.Now Ray has a fairly powerfull site that could be adapted to sell other higher margin products.

Not knocking it as he is doing well now out of ,as he says "what he knows".

we would only entertain products with a minimum of 30% profit up to .......

Earl

 

[RayB]

Thats exactly the point I made in an earlier post.Now Ray has a fairly powerfall site that could be adapted to sell other higher margin products.

Which I suppose is what this thread is about. I am looking a other high margin avenues for our site. But not at expense of watering down it's topic of eco/printing

 

Pretty paws you have 2 ways to go get a 500% increase in traffic,or get a 500% increase in profit,or of course a mixture of both.

er thats 3 ways.:|

Earl

 

[Optegris]

I know many people don't wish to give information like this away for whatever reason but I am really interested to find out where we are in the grand scheme of things. I feel like we're doing ok but if we want this to become our full time income stream we need takings up buy 500%

We are just coming up to our first birthday and for the majority of this year I think total monthly sales will be around the £1500 mark, you can at least double that in November/December however. I'm always thinking fo ways to get more customers but have hit a brick wall at the moment.

The investment to get the site going was only £2000 so we have already made that money back which I guess is good going, the business has paid for itself in less than a year, probably about 8 months. I just wish we'd invested £20,000 and could say the same

About £8K per month but with a 30% average margin

Remember though, turnover is vanity, profit is sanity*



Shamelessly stolen from Dragons Den

 

[RayB]

About £8K per month but with a 30% average margin

Remember though, turnover is vanity, profit is sanity*



Shamelessly stolen from Dragons Den

That saying has been around for donkeys years, long before DD. I first heard it in the eighties.

But it is soooo true

 

[PrettyPaws]

I must say I'm really liking this approach. Maybe a "designer pets" section added to the site with some higher value/margin products??

Well if you guys know of any then please let me know! I think £250 for a dog bed or £40 for a rain coat is pretty high value!!

 

[PrettyPaws]

Thats exactly the point I made in an earlier post.Now Ray has a fairly powerfull site that could be adapted to sell other higher margin products.

Not knocking it as he is doing well now out of ,as he says "what he knows".

we would only entertain products with a minimum of 30% profit up to .......

Earl

You don't need anybody selling your jet skis for you do ya?

 

[RayB]

Well if you guys know of any then please let me know! I think £250 for a dog bed or £40 for a rain coat is pretty high value!!

I don't know where to source the products, but I'd wager some would buy

 

[PrettyPaws]

I don't know where to source the products, but I'd wager some would buy

We stock the biggest names in the market but will keep looking. Maybe I need to look at something a little different which is available dropship with £500 + profit margin.....any ideas

 

We stock the biggest names in the market but will keep looking. Maybe I need to look at something a little different which is available dropship with £500 + profit margin.....any ideas

here you go flog half a dozen of those a month should make you smile,certainly make us.

http://www.thejetworks.co.uk/boats.htm

Earl

 

[sysops]

We stock the biggest names in the market but will keep looking. Maybe I need to look at something a little different which is available dropship with £500 + profit margin.....any ideas

A lot of people will disagree with me, but I don't believe dropshipping is something to aspire to. If you're already doing order fulfilment in-house, aim to grow your business along the same lines. You will be able to provide a far better level of customer service this way.

 

[PrettyPaws]

A lot of people will disagree with me, but I don't believe dropshipping is something to aspire to. If you're already doing order fulfilment in-house, aim to grow your business along the same lines. You will be able to provide a far better level of customer service this way.

I agree, but sometimes dropshipping is the only available option.

 

[PrettyPaws]

here you go flog half a dozen of those a month should make you smile,certainly make us.

http://www.thejetworks.co.uk/boats.htm

Earl

Tell me where to sign and I will!!

 

I agree, but sometimes dropshipping is the only available option.

don't confuse dropahipping with affiliate type progs and professional dropshipping companies that pay peanuts.

As said before get right to the source and 30% plus is the norm for a phone call.

Earl

 

[PrettyPaws]

We get at least 30% on all our products....unfortunatly it's 30% of £20

 

[sysops]

I agree, but sometimes dropshipping is the only available option.

No, it's not - the other (correct) choice is not to sell that particular product/range.