“Don’t try doing everything yourself, use experts."

Jan. 11, 2016 - PRLog -- Big Laces was started by Cheryl and Dave Clayton as “The Lace Place” back in 2006, primarily as an eBay venture to earn extra cash.

Hi everyone, Dave from Big Laces shares her incredible journey on SellingOnlineToday!

Listen online: http://www.sellingonlinetoday.com/podcast-interview/big-laces/

Listen on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/sellingonlinetodays-podcast/id980276311

Some thoughts from the interview
“Essentially it started that I needed some laces for some shoes and I couldn’t find the specific laces anywhere. I looked on the internet and the only place I could find them was a over in America, but to make it worthwhile I think the minimum order was 10 pairs. I really, really needed the laces to the extent that I actually order all 1 pairs just to get the one I needed thinking I would keep the spares.

“EBay wasn’t in its infancy but it was certainly only a few years in. I can’t remember if someone suggested the idea or if I stumbled across it. I though actually I only need 3 so I’ll put the others on there, maybe some other people will need them. They sold not hugely quickly but quickly enough. So I thought I’ll order another 10 and see what happens."

“We just started increasing the range as more and more different types of footwear came out. We built the range up from there. We got a few brands on board. We started stocking their laces as I guess it’s not cost effective for them to sell individual laces.”

“I think nowadays there a lot of little niches that probably still exist that there is a need to be filled.”

“I would probably say 80% of people just buy a pair and maybe come back 2 years later when they have worn them out, who are just looking for a practical solution. I wouldn’t have thought there were enough of those people out there to build a business off, but turns out there is.”

“I would say I prefer our own website just purely because you have most control over it but in terms of visibility I guess it would be Amazon. They all have their positives and negatives so I think by using all three you offset the positives and negatives or each one by using the other two.”

“Encourage (customers) with business cards inside (packages) that pushes them to the website.”

“My interest is more in the computer side of the business and SEO so I put all my effort into researching getting us high organically. As that built we could drop the ad words because for a low mark-up item like laces you can’t afford to be spending much on pay per click.”

“I have been surprised at how successful the organic side has been given that we don’t give a lot of money to google via ad words.”

“That was one of the worst decisions I ever made was poo pooing amazon for so long purely because I looked at the 15%, but actually when you think about it 15% off, if you factor that in our amazon now eclipse eBay and our own website put together so I wished I hadn’t done that for so long but you and live and learn as you go through.”

“I pretty much do everting on the technical side as that is the bit that interests me, that’s what keep the business fun for me is the technical side of it, so I research and learn those bits and give the other bits I don’t enjoy to other people, accounting for one.”

“Being proactive with solving problems is one of the things we really, really focus on.”

“Word of mouth is huge in marketing terms for us. The number of people we get come in saying someone suggested that I come to you and this is what I need. It is taking time to answer those emails, even if it’s going to result in the sale of one pair of laces if that person goes off and tells 5 people and those 5 people tell 5 people quickly that one email you bothered to reply to can get you a lot of sales.”

“See how you can do it rather than just saying no because it is going to be too difficult.”

“We rely mostly on organic google placement and word of mouth, we don’t really market it any other way because of the nature of the product if you need a pair of shoe laces you’re either going to try in a store or you’re going to google shoe laces. We are not really competing in the same way that a lot of other businesses are.”

“You are always going to get people that complain, you’re never going to be perfect and how you handle the complaint says as much about you as a business says as much about you as the complaint itself.”

“It’s about solving the problem as quickly as possible because at the end of the day it’s probably your fault and therefore if you get it solved you get a happy customer rather than someone that is going to destroy you on the feedback.”

Best advice: “Don’t try doing everything yourself, use the experts because you will be amazed at how much time someone else can actually save you and therefore money but pick those people wisely.”

What do they offer?
On top of our wide range their Fat, Flat, Round and Super Fat Laces they offer a range of Retro Sweatband Sets and Beanies and a 5 Star Customer Service experience!