Name of your website?Your Janitorial and Office Supplies Store
Your name?
Donson
Your Location (city, etc)
Plymouth, MI 48170
Please give us a short summary of your website?
We sell janitorial supplies, office supplies and food service supplies from our online store at http://www.donson.net
What inspired you to launch your own website?
A desire to participate on the new Internet inspired us. We were one of the first to start selling janitorial supplies over the Internet in 1999. Business grew 400% but as larger competition also joined the Internet things leveled off.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
1999
How did you decide on a name for your website?
Donson Supply was started by Dave Donson in 1981. Our title describes the products we sell "Your Janitorial and Office Supplies Store".
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
Two come to mind: 1) We are a minority owned women operated small business that keeps cost low so our customers are not paying for all the extra cost that our larger competitors incur. Did you know that Amazon takes 15% of every sale? Amazon is not alone. Most online marketing takes very significant percentages of the sale. We do not have those cost and therefore do not pass them along to our customers. 2) Personal customer service. We have our toll free number posted on our website. When you call you always talk to a person not a machine.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
Grow the business with happy repeat customers. This is a family business that will pass to our kids. Hopefully, the income will continue to grow.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
When business is running smoothly (90+% of time) it is a good balance. There are times when computers die, vendors make radical changes, etc. that require more effort which requires some sacrafices.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
We would return the money to operations so that our cost could come down which would drive our prices lower. We believe our site is all it needs to be. "Keep it simple" is the model we use.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes, we have part time people to handle any increase in order capacity necessary. We could also bring in new people.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Two computer hard drives crashed last year. We never know when this might happen.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Keeping up with SEO. Google, Yahoo and MSN are always shuffling.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Word of month from happy repeat customers. While this method is very slow it is the most rewarding because it does not depend on the search engine results. When good repeat customers share their experiences with their network of business/personal friends, the new customer can find you via your URL even if the search engines have placed you at the bottom of their list.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Running our website has exceed my expectations. We merged our local business with another Janitorial Supply company in 2005 so that we could 100% concentrate on the Internet portion of the business.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
We started our first site in 1999 and will keep it in the family forever unless someone makes us one of those offers that "you just can not refuse".
Why sell over the Internet?
Growing a business using the Internet is very easy because the Internet is always growing.
What is your website address?
Your Janitorial and Office Supplies Store
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