It's a NEW YEAR! Here's what we've been up to...
About a month ago, I came to the stark realization that 2015 was coming to an end. The year went faster than any other I can remember. At least, that's what I thought until I started going back over everything that has happened since January 1st, 2015.
On January 8th, my dad and I loaded up a van full of goodies and headed for New York City. I had never been on a business trip. I'd never traveled anywhere without my children. I hadn't even been to the East Coast before. I was a little bit excited.
My children were a little less than thrilled with the idea.
Our goal in New York was to meet with Philip Weiss, a high-end auctioneer on Long Island. My dad connected with Phil a few years ago on Antique Roadshow, where he is a regular appraiser. On the show, he picked up the scent of our golden-age comic book collection. On our way out the door that day, we picked up Mr. Weiss' business card. We talked soon after the show, and Philip Weiss Auctions later sold that comic collection for us. We had since acquired more comics in need of proper homes, as well as other valuable antiques and collectibles. Our hope was to meet with Phil on his home turf and further develop our business relationship, as well as hand over some of our goodies for auction.
Along our 1,000 mile journey, we endured snow storms and wrong turns, one of which led us straight into the chaos of Time Square, but we made it.
On the day of our big meeting, we sat and talked with Philip Weiss for TWO HOURS. He shared his limited time, passed on knowledge and swapped stories with us. He took several items we brought with us and held them for a future auction. He even let me hold an original copy of the Batman #2 comic book. I nearly fainted in nerdy delight. Dad and I walked away from our meeting feeling encouraged and inspired.
We went. We conquered. And we returned home, prepared to do business better than ever.
When we arrived in Missouri, we hit the ground running. After the sales problems encountered in the previous year (I talk in-depth about those in a previous blog found here) we knew that we needed to take action. We planned and brainstormed for months, and now it was time to do. With help from Notionfront, a local web content and marketing business, we developed a new logo and created a promotional video.
Congratulations! Your business rose to the top 100 of thousands of entries in the 2015 FedEx Small Business Grant Contest. The top 100 finalists were selected based on several factors, including their compelling business stories, product/service offered and votes received. We are impressed and inspired by all of these stories and look forward to getting to know everyone better through the second-round submission.
We have been selling on eBay for more than 10 years, and have been a "Top Rated Seller" since the program's implementation. We have improved our business by leaps and bounds, and even increased our inventory three-times over...yet 2014 nearly killed us. Our eight-person team continues to sell on eBay, but due to the many challenges that the market has faced, we decided to expand our vision and reach. The process has not been easy. There is no guidebook for venturing into the land of internet sales alone. Daily tasks, such as properly packaging shipments and promoting our business online, required months of research. We expanded into freight shipping, allowing us to offer furniture for sale online. We mastered the art of “free shipping”. We poured over websites and stumbled through the process of creating a website of our very own.
The very week that we began the process of reinvention, we became aware of the FedEx Small Business Grant Contest. This contest has been the motivation for us to push beyond all barriers and launch our business to the next level, growing in ways we had never envisioned. We are so proud to have made it to the top 100 finalist out of thousand of entrants.
We would love to win the grand prize tomorrow. We would put the money to good use by continuing to develop our brand through our website and social media. We also hope to continue to mentor other sellers both online and in our local community. Even if we are not declared the winner, we can honestly say that all we have accomplished during this process has been rewarding. For this, we are sincerely thankful.
These words still rang true the next day, April 21st, even though we were not on the list of winners from FedEx. It was a bitter sweet (and slightly ironic) moment, for as we came to the realization we had not won, the FedEx Freight truck pulled in to pick up a large set of furniture we had just sold. It was as if we were being told "life goes on".
May 2015 was a quiet month on the RoofTop, which prepared us for an eventful June. We started off the month by successfully grabbing the attention of some of eBay's biggest names. We connected via email and phone conference with executive members in North America, Australia and the United Kingdom. Communication from this group of people gave us hope for the future of eBay, and our small business, currently dependent on their existence.
Our website continued to grow, and we were averaging 70 unique visitors each day. We had been told not to expect many visitors at all within our first few years, so we were thrilled with our progress. On June 24th, I shared my very first non-eBay related blog. That day, our unique visitors reached 118, pushing us over the 100-visitor number for the first time in our short history. The very next day, we were shocked when one of our recent customers, a man by the name of Michael Wurm, mentioned little old us in his blog post. We had done a bit of research on this "Michael Wurm" as we were packaging his fireplace for safe travels to Pennsylvania. We discovered that he is kind of a big deal in the design, DIY and blog world. His Pinterest account alone boasts 3.2 MILLION followers. The post that day was titled Deck Decisions, and it contained not only kind words, but links to nearly every single one of our social media accounts, our eBay store and our website. Our daily visitor count suddenly shot up to 178, and remained that high for the next 8 days.
Just 2 days following the post read 'round the world, 3 members of RoofTop Antiques headed to Omaha, Nebraska for Antiques Roadshow. The blog post I mentioned earlier (that one that pushed us over 100 website visitors for the first time) started our most popular blog series to date: RoofTop Antiques Meets Antiques Roadshow. The trip to participate in one of our favorite shows turned into one of our biggest adventures yet.
Growth and change were dominant characteristics in the year 2015. Perspectives were stretched, adventures were capitalized on, blows were absorbed and new heights were reached. I believe 2016 has many of the same elements in store, but I like to think we are a bit more prepared this time around.
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Kellie
January 07, 2016
So thrilled for you Annie. I know first hand how hard it is to be a momma and run a small business. It is definitely not for the meek. Throw in the added challenge of growth, set backs, and leaps forward (both at home AND work) and we have officially become part of a 3 ring circus. Nevertheless, your doing it and your doing it well. You are beating the odds and THAT is the grand prize. The reward from that contest was a stowaway quietly hiding under beneath your determination. The grant would have been a mere consolation prize in comparison to what you actually gained. You unleashed your capabilities and there isn’t a contest on earth that can reward you with something that grand. You got EXACTLY what you needed from participating……the confirmation that you belong in this “circus” and that the reward in the journey not the destination. Totally agree we would be homies if we shared a zip code. There would be lots of coffee, laughing and well….the other thing that comes to mind is,well……dirt. I know deep down that we share the work ethic and drive that requires some “dirty” days. More is caught than taught and your kiddos are getting to witness the construction of their legacy. Proud of you!