Name of Business: Hello Baby

Your Name and Age: Trevor Ginn, 35

Tell us about your family: I live with Scarlett, 2, newborn Lara and my girlfriend Christine in Bethnal Green East London.

What did you do before coming up with your business idea  and how was it making the transition?

I used to work as an eCommerce consultant, helping businesses to promote their websites through search engines, online marketplaces and social media.
The last company I was working for was clearly going to go bust and so I left before I was pushed. One of the easiest decisions I ever made!

When did you launch?

The business was launched in April 2008

How did you get started?

When I was working as an eCommerce consultant I saw that eCommerce was growing at around 20% per year and my clients were doing very well. This frustrated me as I felt that I knew much more about online marketing they did. So I decided to put my money where my mouth was and launch my own online business.

What research did you do before launching?

I did a lot of research into different retail sectors in order to decide on the vertical in which to start a business. The data we used was eBay historical data as this gives actual sales data at the product level. I had a number of different criteria for choosing a sector, for example, it had to be something I knew about, be non seasonal and have the opportunity for good margins. My research led me to believe that the nursery industry presented the best opportunity.

How have you funded the business?

Thankfully the start up costs of an online shop are pretty low and I was able to do a lot of the setup work myself and pulled in some favours. I also do quite a bit of consulting work to keep my head above water.

How do you promote your business? What has worked best?

We sell a lot of our products through the online marketplaces eBay and Amazon which are a great way to start off selling online. We have also built up a healthy level of natural search traffic from Google via targeted content and link building. Finally, We are also great fans of social media and have a blog and we twitter.

What has been your biggest challenge so far? How have you dealt with it?

We lost around £5000 due to online credit card fraud over the period of about one month which was quite depressing. Online credit card payments are a bit of a nightmare and not nearly as secure for the seller as you might think. In a separate incident we lost £1000 by listing 10000 items on eBay by mistake. It was all OK in the end as I managing to persuade my credit payment provider that the fraud was their fault and got all my money back! I also managed to get all my money back from eBay. I have no idea how I managed to pull this off!

How do you fit in work with the family?

I started the business two weeks after my first daughter was born so I have had to balance two demanding roles from the beginning. Luckily, I work very close to home and so I am able to work from home regularly.

What advice would you give to someone else wanting to work in this area?

I think that a lot of people hold themselves back by thinking that to start a business they need a brilliant idea. I am a great believer in simple
ideas brilliantly executed.

Your website: www.hellobabydirect.co.uk