A Down Under SmallBiz Story & Tips with One on the Way’s Kelly Tredwell
February 1st, 2012 | Interviews,Online & Small Business Resources,Small Business Tips | No Comments »
Today we have the honor of sitting down with one of our new KikScore customers that signed up through our partnership with Shopify. One on the Way’s owner, Kelly Tredwell, has a really cool and interesting business that is focused on serving the maternity wear segment. Kelly’s entrepreneurial story takes us to Australia where her business is based, but she has customers all over the world! Beyond Kelly’s story about launching One on the Way in October 2010, she has some very good tips for small businesses and online store owners.
1. Tell us about your business and who you focus on serving?
One on the Way is an online maternity clothing store, specialising on providing pregnant women with fashionable maternity clothes.
2. How did you get started selling online?
I bought the business in October 2010, however, it has been trading since 2007. By the way you can find us on here on Twitter and Facebook.
3. What inspires you to grow your business?
Being a Mum myself and knowing how hard it was to find comfortable and affordable maternity clothes in the department stores, I am excited when I have been able to provide a customer with a dress or a top or something that she loves and will comfortably wear throughout pregnancy and beyond. I also have a passion for fashion and have plans to release my own maternity clothing label at some stage down the track.
4. If you had 2 lessons learned from your business that you could pass on to others about selling online, what are those?
Maintain excellent customer service – always address orders or customer inquiries within a 24 hour turnaround time. Be sure to research your advertising opportunities fully before committing financially.
5. Where has your business focused most of its energy this year?
For me personally it’s been about learning the industry, which was all new to me once I took over the store. A new website has been on the cards since then too so I had been focused on what I wanted to achieve from this project and with it just going “live” on 1st January 2012 I am very pleased with the results of my hard work!
6. What do you see as a new trend for small businesses and in your business?
For small business I think a trend will be focused towards excellent quality products and in my business, I think enabling customers to have a more interactive approach to shopping for clothes online would be fantastic. We’re working on it!
7. If your business could have a dream spokesperson for your company who would it be and why?
Audrey Hepburn – Graceful, Elegant, Chic and Sophisticated – like our clothing!
8. What is the biggest challenge that your business faces as a small business and how do you work to overcome that challenge?
Competition – both here and abroad. It’s everywhere, always a new online store opening up but that’s retail I suppose and I’m learning to not focus too much on what other stores/companies are doing.
9. Do you have any parting thoughts for our readers and the small business community?
For readers I think I would say that you don’t necessarily have to shop at the big, well known stores to get excellent products, quality service and fast turnaround times for purchases – small businesses are much more focused on achieving customer satisfaction so give us a go! For the small business community I would say keep going, keep putting in the hours and you’ll get there! Keep searching for the “difference that makes the difference” with your store.
Thanks to Kelly for sharing her story with the KikScore small business community. Let us know if you have any questions for Kelly in our comment section below.
