Budget for launching new Web site: $1, 500. Being your own boss: priceless.
That’s how Jeff Radecki, 21, a college student from Penetang, Ont., could sum up his summer, but he doesn’t. He’s more thrilled that he put his passion — environmental conservation — into practice by unveiling Buy Greenergy, an online resource for people wanting to limit their household energy consumption.
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| Intrepid Internet-meister: Jeff Radecki, Buy Greenergy |
“
Alternative energy solutions have basically been a hobby of mine, so I came up with the idea of selling energy-efficient products,
”
says the Confederation College student, who majors in multimedia production and graphic design. He applied for a small business grant and received $1,500 for start-up money, with promise of another $1,500 at the end of the summer for meeting all the requirements.
Even though Radecki
’
s skill set is an obvious asset for creating an online store, the new e-tailer still had to overcome the usual challenges. He had to incorporate his business, decide what products to sell, create the site, hire a drop-shipping company, set up secure payment and market his fledgling enterprise
—
with a dial-up modem and a shoe-string budget.
“
High-speed isn
’
t available where I live, so I work at home and take my removable hard drive into town to my friend
’
s office and upload my stuff,
”
says the young vendor.
To keep costs down, he used
OS Commerceto host his site.
“
It
’
s a free, open-source content management system for shopping carts, and I customized it. The new OS Commerce costs money, but it
’
s suppose to be pretty good so I might migrate to that later,
”
says Radecki.
“
But for now I get pretty good tech support through the forum, and it
’
s pretty user-friendly for adding products.
”
And when it came to choosing a fulfillment company, he picked
Doba.
“
I checked a few and did quite a bit of research. The one main thing I look at is the design of the Web site, especially since that
’
s what I do, and Doba
’
s was better than the others. If it looks good, you can tell they
’
re going to be professional.
”
He pays a membership fee and then pays an additional $1 to $3 per item shipped.
As for marketing, Radecki used PhotoShop on a computer he built himself to create his own brochures and business cards, and he says the sales of t-shirts he designed with his corporate logo are doing well. He enlisted the help of a friend to draft a press release to announce the site, which has so far received 4,300 unique viewers.
For now, the young business owner is happy to raise awareness, even if sales don
’
t jump.
“
If people don
’
t buy a product, but they get an idea for how to save energy and limit their household consumption, that would still be good,
”
says Radecki, but he is not without long-term goals.
“
I
’
m hoping to get enough exposure to get into the solar panel and wind generator sources of energy and sell those, but it
’
s hard to do that on a $1,500 budget so we
’
ll see how it goes.
”
Any plans for his end-of-summer $1,500 pay off?
“
Right now I
’
m thinking I might split it three ways, $500 to my Visa bill, $500 for tuition and $500 for myself. But I might just end up buying a computer with it.
”
Adapted from ECommerce-Guide.com, part of Internet.com’s Small Business Channel.
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