Moving My Business Online

I have always loved sports since the day I was born back in 1966. I grew up playing all different kinds of sports, including baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, and football. Now obviously I didn’t play them all at the same time because of the overlap between seasons, but at one point or another those were the sports I played. Sports are great because they can give you a lot of physical exercises which are good for your mental and physical health. In addition to this, playing sports is something you can do with family and friends. I mainly played football and basketball in high school - those were my two main sports and the ones that I made varsity for. The problem is that I was never good enough at sports to play at any colleges I wanted to go to, so I just went to college and pursued a business degree. Turns out there are quite a few things you can do with a business degree, and I have always wanted to open my own business someday.

So a few years ago I decided that I would create a Christian sports store that was centered around spreading the word of God and improving faith in Jesus through the competitive nature of sports. Now I had a lot of push back on this for the first few years, because a lot of people were telling me that sports don’t really go well with Christianity. Historically, that may be true, but I definitely see it as a way to reach a certain demographic of people. Young people especially are very involved in sports and I think there is a great market for businesses that focus on this group of people. There is also a great opportunity to be spiritually invested in these individuals and I wanted to create a business that would do that. I mostly sell faith-based athletic apparel as well as some common sporting goods and other supplies. The biggest problem I have faced in the past year was having to shut down my store because of the pandemic.

COVID was a huge problem for everyone, but I feel like small businesses were hit especially hard. I was forced to close down my store, which created a lot of problems for me. I was not sure how I would make ends meet with my storefront being closed for the foreseeable future. Luckily, I was able to take great advantage of technology and begin selling my products online. I purchased a lot of shipping supplies to be able to start selling my products on a wider scale in the eCommerce world. I already had a website and did occasional online orders, but never before had I been exclusively online only. It was definitely a weird experience and one that has taught me a lot.

Like, for example, where to order cheap but effective shipping supplies and how to avoid greedy shipping companies that basically scam you out of your money. Overall I can now say that I have made it through this pandemic and I am excited to open my shop back up in the next few weeks that are coming up. COVID may have taken a lot from this country, but one thing is for sure - the COVID19 pandemic will never take my faith-based sports store and that’s a fact.

New to eCommerce? Let's Talk tips!

My first sale on eCommerce came because I needed money.  We all seem to need some extra cash in 2021.  The economy is not what people seem to be talking about because I feel more broke than ever.   I have been listing items on eBay for the last few months and I have found that it is an amazing way to make some extra cash and to clean out your home for old things.  There is nothing better than simply getting paid to not trash an item but instead just ship it to someone who wants to pay you for it.  Shipping supplies has been an area that I found was pretty tricky.  I lost money to start with and now have found out some pretty cool tips to save a lot.

Delivering a nice and perfect package is hard in 2021.  Most shipping companies treat your package like crap. And because of this, you need to prepare your items to do battle on the way to the customer.  If your item is damaged in transit then you probably just lost money on shipping and time and lots of things in-between.  Using the right type of packaging is key to making sure you are not losing money in the long run from returns. 

Stuffing is also very important when it comes to packaging because it has to do with the safety of the product inside.   If it gets returned and your stuffing didn't protect it then you just lost money again.  I want to hammer in the idea that safety is part of the ability to make money on your items. I lost money when one of my items arrived broken and the box was mangled.  It was worthless to me and I couldn't sell it again.  So make sure you are keeping this in mind. But you also don't want to lose money spending too much money on shipping supplies either.  Don't lose money buying all the parts of the packaging, like tape.  I did and it is not fun!

To be totally honest, I lost money the first time I sold something online because I didn't know about all the extras.  The tape is something you should always have around and I don't add that into the expense chart that much.  I also simply use printer paper for labels now.  I laminate it with packing tape when I get the addresses on and I have not had that fail me yet.  But the big issue is how to get boxes and bags and not spend an arm and a leg on them.  Well if you are a company then go to a packaging supply store online and buy in bulk.  But if you are like me then use, used bags and boxes.  I buy things on Amazon all the time and now I save the packaging and the stuffing.  I have a lot of boxes and bags in my closet and I keep them to put items in that I sell now.  The space that it takes up is worth the cost that it saves me. Depending on your brand and what you are doing it is totally fine to reuse boxes and bags.  But be wise in that choice. It can come back and bite you if it looks really bad.