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Company: Bathroom Envy Ltd
Project: Bathroom-Envy Ecommerce Store

Dates: Oct 2007 to Dec 2007

How did the project start?

I have been in the bathroom and plumbing business for almost 10 years as a successful Corgi-registered small-business owner, yet have constantly found it a difficult task to source materials for my customers at the best prices. The majority of companies (both online and trade) have high mark-up prices to vastly increase their profits, however with time I was able to source and find the right suppliers (both cost-wise but also importantly with high quality and customer service as you would expect) and I believed I had found a new venture that could help a lot of people in the trade, while also benefitting the general public through a no-nonsense website.

What options did you consider?

It would have been easy to start with a simple catalogue in print format - listing prices and brief details, however in this business prices fluctuate all the time due to demand and base material costs, so within a few months the content inside the catalogue would have been obsolete, a waste of my money. I thought about a simple online website, listing products without prices or purchases, but what I really needed was an online store with payments taken, and also where I could log-in myself and constantly update products as I wished.

What help and expertise did you receive?

Initially sought funding from Business Link North East and a dedicated ecommerce adviser - Colin Whittle. During the tender process we met with several design firms, but one of them jumped straight out - that of Jordan Taylor and Big Boy Media due to their experience, portfolio, business ideas and general helpfullness - so was an easy option to choose them. After a very long funding process (about 8 months!) we were finally given the green-light, and the project was live and making money within 2 months.

Did you face any challenges or learn any lessons?

The main challenges were unfortunately with the funding aspects - the time taken to process the application(s) and finally receive funding was not worthwhile, and would have been much more beneficial to get the site live almost a year sooner. However with our feedback I know they have improved the system, so others shouldn't be in the same predicament we found ourselves.

What are the outcomes and how has it improved your business?

The outcome is that through both mine and Big Boy Media's persistence, we received the funding and the project was completed before Christmas and in time for the holidays. In the months I had to wait I negotiated for better suppliers and managed to double our catalogue of items to sell, so the time was not wasted. I now believe I have one of the most user-friendly bathroom ecommerce stores in the UK - and in fact I know this to be true due to the amount of profit we have made just in the first 3 months!

What are your plans for the future?

In the future we plan to offer a wider range of product types, but still keep our system in place and our price promise. We are negotiating deals to bring a vast array of designer hot tubs into play as well as work with existing suppliers to lower our prices even further. Search engine advertising has become very important to our sales, and we are starting to rank very highly in Google for our chosen keywords, but we are constantly thinking of ways to promote our store through different methods, especially social networking and word-of-mouth. For example, we have recently developed a Facebook app called "Celebrity Bath Swap" - watch this space!!