Our virtual success stories

Want to be a dot com entrepreneur? Five women tell Vanessa Howard how they started their Internet businesses

[PAGEBREAK]Surf success stories
Want to be a dot com entrepreneur? Five women tell Vanessa Howard how they started their Internet businesses

[PAGEBREAK]Time for a change
www.timecapsulegifts.co.uk


“Launching my own business has changed every aspect of my life”

Former maths teacher Lisa Corcoran (left), 36, lives in Leeds with husband Declan. She and a friend, Kath Holmes, 42, run an online gift service.
“I’d been a secondary maths teacher for 13 years and knew I didn’t want to pursue promotion in school, as the higher you go, the less time you spend in the classroom and that was the one thing I still really enjoyed.
Our idea came when Declan and I went for supper with our friends Kath and Ged and they mentioned that they’d collected items from when their son was born
15 years ago; a newspaper, the No 1 single and a few other mementos.
I thought, ‘What a great idea’, but little did I know that the idea was the easy part. We knew it would have to be Internet driven and Kath thought she could help with savings of around £7,000 for start up costs, but finances would be tight. My investment would be time and I’d give up teaching to devote myself
to establishing the business. Kath and I went to see a website design company and I realised how much we had to learn. It was terrifying. Although I used the Internet every day, I knew next to nothing about how e-commerce worked.
I found out that the average business advisor in a bank doesn’t have specialist knowledge either, so I’d have to call people and ask basic questions, such as how the funds travelled from the buyer to our business account. When you see credit card signs on websites and click through them to pay, there is a far more complicated world in the background involving merchant banks.
Juggling my job and the start up wasn’t ideal and I resigned from my job at Easter. A few colleagues thought I was crazy committing to something with no clear outcome, but others cheered me on. I thought: ‘If it doesn’t work out, maths teachers will still be in demand’, but if I didn’t try, I would always think, ‘What if?’.It was two solid months of work before the site went live. Even though I’m numerate, having to learn to use invoicing software was a real challenge. Then there was sourcing suppliers – boxes, for example, can’t be ordered overnight. We were determined to make the gifts look beautiful. If it’s a wedding anniversary, a birthday or graduation, you want the gift to be as special as the day. They are not inexpensive. A Silver Wedding capsule costs £89 and contains an original newspaper from the day, a CD of original hits, an exclusive DVD compiled from news archives and a personalised card. On the first day, I sat in front of the screen, waiting. When the first order came in, I was so excited, but then I saw that it was from a friend. Doubts flood in, as even if you have the best idea and the best website, if no one knows about it, you’ll fail. When the first order came in from a name I didn’t recognise, I was thrilled. We get a lot of our orders from people ‘Googling’ the idea of a commemorative gift, but when someone told us that they found us through word of mouth, it was such a boost.
Putting together the capsules is the part of the job I love most. Having a glimpse at people’s lives can be so moving, especially for ruby and even diamond wedding anniversaries. We’ve had some lovely thank you notes and that makes it all worthwhile.
Timecapsulegifts has changed everything about my life. I love what I’m doing, even though, at the moment, I probably draw half the salary I once did. Declan and I have had to make sacrifices, such as holidays, and I know that I might have to think about supply teaching if things get too tight, but whatever happens, I know I’ll never regret it. I look forward to the day that Kath can join me full-time. It has been such an incredible journey.”

Lisa’s advice Even if you have the best site, people need to know you exist, so read up on Internet marketing.

[PAGEBREAK]More to life
www.caladortravel.co.uk
“I thought it might take a morning or two a week”
Barbara Thomas, 59, lives in Guildford, Surrey, and once worked for a technical export company. She is widowed and now runs a holiday villa company.
“A few years ago my life seemed dominated by the M25. I had a senior role at an export company, but would dread the two-hour commute between Guildford and Uxbridge and began to wonder if there wasn’t more to life. I left with no clear idea of what I wanted to do and when the opportunity arose, it was unexpected. I’d visited Majorca, bought an apartment and became friends with a man who owned a few properties there. He asked if I’d let the villas for him in the UK. I wasn’t working and thought it might take a morning or two each week.
I’d never been involved with marketing or travel before and didn’t have the faintest idea of what I was getting involved with, but I knew the service I’d like and built an idea of what I’d provide from there. I realised the Internet would be vital, but I also wanted to be able to talk through what customers were looking for.
During a conversation, you can add aspects that will make a difference and I’m happy to say it’s paid off – over 50 per cent of my customers come back year after year. I spent around £5,000 with a web design company to set up the site, but I don’t update my pages every week, so don’t feel the need for them to be managed in-house. I also use a company to take care of ads in Sunday newspapers and web-based ads. They build links with other sites and refine key words, so that anyone looking for villa holidays will find our site.
When I first set out, I had no idea how the business would grow. I started to earn six months after I set up, but running your own business means your income will fluctuate. Now I have a company I can run indefinitely and, although it takes up much of my time, it’s so rewarding.”

Barbara’s advice Be prepared to work hard and, even if your business takes off, it will need to be sustained with innovative new ideas.

[PAGEBREAK]A dream realised
www.notonthehighstreet.com
“It’s been such a massive learning curve, but we’ve realised a dream”
Sophie Cornish, 40, lives in Teddington, Middlesex, with her husband Simon and their two children. Last month, she and managing director, Holly Tucker, 29, launched an online resource for shoppers.
“I’ve had a chequered career working as a beauty writer for magazines and in marketing and advertising. I was friends with Holly, who’d set up Your Local Fair, organising shopping fairs for creative small businesses, and had seen so many gorgeous items that weren’t available beyond occasional fairs. We thought an online showcase would be ideal. It was a good thing we were so enthusiastic, as it proved devastatingly hard work!
Our idea was a website where small creative businesses could sell original, high quality products direct to shoppers. We would provide an umbrella under which they would trade and we’d finance the site by charging a joining fee, annual subscription and by taking a small percentage of sales. It was a nine month slog and I think we called in every favour possible when it came to juggling childcare. Setting up the site was quite expensive and we pooled savings and a bank loan to raise almost £100,000. Neither of us is loaded and living on pasta became a way of life. Now, with the site just launched, we only draw the basic overheads, like childcare and travel expenses. Our aim is to be in profit this time next year.
We also had to learn a huge amount about the technical side. A lot of the small companies we deal with already had websites, but getting them seen by enough people was another matter. Companies, like eBay, have full-time teams buying up key words in search engines, constantly refining how they will come up first on your screen when you type a word into a search engine.
Our site helps companies pool resources. We pay an online agency around £5,000 each month to optimise the site on an on-going basis. Essentially, they are our marketing department. We’ll invest in pay-per-click sponsorship for key words, which the agency buys through an online auction and can be very expensive. A key word like ‘insurance‘, for example, can cost £21 a click. That’s each time someone clicks onto your site, before buying a product.
We’ll also buy online advertising on other relevant sites and will keep refreshing the site to make sure that Google can trawl us easily and pick on relevant topics. It’s a full-time task for the web agency and another reason smaller businesses struggle.
Once an order is placed through notonthehighstreet.com, the producer is responsible for sending it out, rather than us, so they know who their customers are and can deal with them personally.
Holly met many of our producers, mostly women who make beautiful jewellery, bags, clothes and food, when she ran Your Local Fair. We launched with 100 producers, or partners as we call them, and it is really satisfying to think that they’ll have a better opportunity to be seen. I hope customers will love it too. Anyone who’s bored with repetitive, low-quality choices on the high street and wants to find something original, but doesn’t have the time to trawl through Sunday markets and shopping fairs, should find the site ideal. It’s mind-boggling when I look back on all Holly and I have learnt, but it feels like we’ve realised a lifelong dream.”

Holly’s advice You can’t do everything. Find the right experts to work with and you’ll be able to concentrate on the bigger picture.

[PAGEBREAK]Our healthy future
www.vitalia-health.co.uk
“I had to ask friends to help and our living room was awash with boxes and envelopes”Stephanie Ozanne, 43, lives in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, with her husband Mike and their two sons. Four years ago, she established a health and wellbeing site.
“I started in TV production making documentaries and adverts and, before I had my two sons, worked for what was then Cable & Wireless as a project manager. I loved being a full-time mum, but it was a huge shock. In 2001, at another coffee morning, part of me snapped. I drew up where I wanted to be in a few years. At that point the ‘product’ could have been anything, but my idea came from an e-mail conversation with a friend. She told me about her American husband, a research scientist, who’d introduced ‘InnerTalk’, a CD-based positive affirmation programme widely found in the US, but not here. It’s backed with sound research and works across so many issues, from beating sweet cravings to stopping smoking. I was convinced it had huge potential.
I flew out to Washington State in February 2002 and realised that with ‘InnerTalk’ being developed by a scientist, not a marketeer, a lot of work was needed to bring it to people’s attention. The first hurdle was financial. To buy the licence for the UK meant raising a loan, secured against our home, for $250,000. I knew the web would be vital and took a website design course. The first site was pretty tacky and ill-equipped to deal with the response that came from the ads placed in national papers and magazines.
I had to ask my friends to help and our living room was awash with boxes and envelopes. You learn by your mistakes and when the second site was launched in July 2002, customers could buy online rather than having to wait for us to call them back. By January 2003, the work had snowballed and, as I was touring with exhibitions, I realised that there was a market for wellbeing that wasn’t being served properly. I began to research other products and, in 2004, Vitalia Health was launched. The site is going through its third re-design, as it’s important to keep finding ways to improve it and driving traffic is really vital.
I scan the papers every day and if a topic is in the press that we have the right for, such as ’yoga bag’, I know people will type it into Google. By refreshing our pages and making sure the key words are there, we‘ll move up the listings. The first page is what all sites aim for, but you have to be on top of it constantly. If your site is hosted by someone else, changes will be slower and you’ll be charged for them.
We’ve added products and slowly staff have joined us. People can ring up and speak to someone and we send out newsletters, as it’s important to keep communicating. The web alone is not the answer. I thought I was stretched in the corporate world, but now I face 50 hurdles every day. I love having more flexibility, working alongside Mike and seeing the team having such a good time. It couldn’t be more different from my old corporate life. We also have a charitable programme which I’m passionate about, sending ‘InnerTalk’ out free to help those coping with bereavement, cancer and forgiveness.
We’ve gone from a turnover of pretty much zero at the outset to over £1million in four years. We draw a consistent salary and feel so much better off as a whole. I’m very excited by what we do and think if you believe in what you are doing, you’ll enjoy it.”

Stephanie’s advice Use traditional marketing to drive business to your website.