Not that long ago, Cindy Goble could barely send an e-mail. Today, she spends a good part of her day peddling perfume and beauty products on the Internet, as the owner of web-based retailer Beautymark Corp.
Goble's online career started in early 2004. She'd spent the past 10 years as a stay-at-home mom in London, Ont., and she'd been itching to get into business. "I was yearning for some kind of presence in the business world," she says. But she was determined to still spend as she could with her two kids.
Then a friend told her about a skin-care product that was only available in the United States. "I thought, why not try to sell this cream—which was remarkable for stretch marks and also on wrinkles—in Canada?" After speaking with the manufacturer, Goble decided that the best way to land a Canadian distribution deal was by going online. "I didn't know the first thing about the web," says the 43-year-old, "so I was very uncomfortable at first."
She holed up at the family cottage with a stack of books on how to operate an online business. "I read and highlighted and took notes," she says. Then she hired a web designer to create a site and teach her to run it. "It's very easy to operate, so I can add and delete products myself," says Goble. "That put me at ease." The designer also set her up to accept payments through PayPal, so she didn't need to be able to handle secure credit card transactions on her site (though she does take credit card payment by phone). To keep shipping simple, Goble restricted sales to within Canada and U.S., using Canada Post for domestic shipments and UPS for those headed south of the border.
Beautymark Corp. launched in November, 2004. But a few months later, having only served a handful of customers, Goble knew two things had to happen for her business to work: she needed to find a way to stand out online, and she had to expand her product offering beyond skin care. "I would go for weeks without any sales," she says. "I began to realize that my site was nowhere to be found in the millions of Web sites out there."
In the spring of 2005, Goble (with her husband's help) began to submit her site to online directories like Yahoo and Best of the Web. The more directories that listed Goble's site, the more likely it was that Beautymark would appear in an online search. Then, to boost her product offering, she bought the inventory from a perfume retailer who specialized in hard-to-find scents and was looking to shut down her shop. Goble updated the Beautymark site just a few weeks before Christmas and held an open house for the perfume store's existing customers in her living room. "It was a big hit," she says.
Now, when Goble sumbitted her site to all those online directories, she could add much broader keywords like "perfume," "fragrance" and "hard-to-find scents."
It worked. Goble went from fewer than 20 customers in September, 2005, to 100-plus that December. A year later, her business continues to grow. She now has more than 200 perfumes (more than 500 bottles at any given time) and stacks of coordinating boxes, tissue and bags stored in her basement. "The longer you have your Web site and the more directories you submit to, the more your business will grow. It's a snowball effect."
Goble's new products are doing so well (she has added a line of bath and beauty products to her inventory), she dropped the skin scream that started it all—it wasn't doing much to boost her sales. Now she's planning to move to a bigger home, so she can set up a permanent showroom and hold open houses. "I don't pay rent, I had no construction costs, and it's a one-employee business," she says. "My costs are very low, which made starting my own business more attainable." Plus, she's home every day when her kids get home from school.
Go to source.At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68
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