I would say that probably 50% of the calls that we receive are from customers asking for discounts on products that they wish to purchase in bulk. We are not a wholeseller so we generally don’t offer price breaks unless the quantities involved are fairly large.

But what is definition of large? Apparently, the term “large” and “huge” cover a fairly big range. This customer’s definition of “huge” was drastically different from ours as evidenced in the customer call transcript below. I don’t know, would you consider her order huge?

Customer: Yes, I would like to order a large quantity of handkerchiefs and I was wondering if there were any discounts for huge orders.

Me: Yes, we can definitely offer you a discount if sufficient quantities are purchased. Which product in particular were you interested in?

Customer: I was looking at the white scalloped crochet …

Every business requires a little bit of luck in order to be successful. Most of the time, it’s a matter of timing or being at the right place at the right time. But do you ever wonder how some people keep getting lucky over and over again? It might just be a coincidence but some entrepreneurs always seem to find a way to steer luck in their direction.

When my wife and I first started our online business, several fortuitous events helped us on our path to success. Whenever these “lucky” events occurred, I used to thank the heavens above for helping us out. But looking back, did our actions play a part in facilitating these lucky events? Did we do anything to improve our luck? I’d like to talk about some of these fortuitous events and how our actions helped improve our chances …

There are only 24 hours in a day so something in your schedule usually has to give in order to find the time to start your own business. When my wife and I first started our online business, both of us had full time jobs which left only about 3 hours of free time on weekdays and 2 full days on the weekends.

As a result, we had to make some sacrifices in order make time for the business. To make matters even worse, my wife was pregnant so there were always certain days when she simply didn’t feel up to working on anything.

Photo By Lepiaf Geo

Our schedules always seemed packed so we had to cut out several things that we both enjoyed doing. In retrospect, making the following changes to our lifestyle proved to be blessings in disguise.
We Reduced Our Television Consumption
This might not sound like a …

Most people think that starting their own business has to be an expensive endeavor. While it is true that many successful entrepreneurs self-fund their startups by racking up massive debt on their credit cards, it definitely does not have to be that way.

Thanks to the internet, starting your own online business is as inexpensive and risk free as ever. In fact, I highly recommend that you create a business that is well within your own means rather than risking your life savings all in one shot. If you can handle it, it’s best to start your own business while you have a steady job or an alternative source of income.

Photo By Rob Lee

I’ve received many questions regarding how much we spent starting our wedding linens business and I’d like to enumerate all of these costs below. As you’ll find out from reading this post, we risked …

I’m very proud to announce that MyWifeQuitHerJob.com was featured on the January 4th episode of The Rise To The Top hosted by David Siteman Garland.

I’ve been a big fan of The Rise To The Top since it started airing Sunday mornings on ABC(Check your local listings) several months ago and I even published my own glowing review on my blog.

I believe that entrepreneurship education is an important piece that is not covered very well in our school curriculum and David’s show and his blog successfully help to fill in that gap.

Watch The Show
I thought I’d just take a minute to talk about David and why you should watch The Rise To The Top. First off, David is a young guy and already ridiculously successful. David graduated from the University of Washington in 2006. In just 2 years, he managed to find the time to start 3 companies …

Much to my surprise, a good number of my readers are either in high school or college and I regularly receive questions about our online store from students currently in school.

This one particular student became inspired after reading about our story and now wants to start a business venture of his own. The only problem is that he is also contemplating skipping college to pursue his dream. J, this blog entry is for you. I apologize for taking so long to respond to you.

Here is his original email.

I have read some of the blogs on your website and I couldn’t agree more with your views on schooling and entrepreneurship. I feel we share a lot of the same views on life.

I am only 16 and in high-school. I used to earn good grades ever since elementary school, but lately I haven’t been so caught-up in getting an …

“I don’t think that your business is going to work”
“Your chances of success are very slim”
“I had an Uncle that tried to do that and failed”

Anytime you start your own business or take any risks for that matter, you’ll inevitably meet people who will doubt you. These people often mean well, but their negative comments can be a devastating blow to your self-esteem and your entrepreneurial spirit if you are not careful.

What makes things even worse is in some cases, the people who cast the most doubt on your business ideas are your friends and people who you care about. Some may not outwardly express their skepticism but secretly believe that your business won’t stand a chance.

Photo By Sappymoosetree

When my wife and I started our online wedding linens business, we had many people who doubted that our idea would ever succeed. Even today, I can only count …

My wife and I just closed the books for our online store and this past year was our highest grossing year ever! Having only been around for 2 years, my wife and I are still flabbergasted that our little online wedding linens store has grown so fast in such a short period of time.

Despite the economic downturn, we managed to increase our profit 147% this past year and my wife was finally able to quit her job to take care of our little daughter full time. While luck certainly did play a part in our success, I attribute the majority of our growth to specific changes we made to our business and we’d like to share them with you. But first, let’s start with some highlights of the past year.
Highlights

Year over year profits increased 147%
Year over year revenue growth was 94%
Our Selling, General and Administrative expenses(SG&A) …

The holidays and Christmas are always a difficult time for an online store because you have to deal with the flood of orders that come in. You have to deal with customers wanting to make returns. You have to interact with frustrated people trying to make last minute purchases for their friends and loved ones. For most retail businesses, the holidays are an absolute nightmare.

Even if you sell quality products and run a robust operation, the sheer number of orders and customers will create a variety of problems that are beyond your control. For example, every online store relies on 3rd party shippers in order to deliver their products to the end customer. What happens when there’s a breakdown with your shipper? When something doesn’t get delivered, is it the shippers’ fault or yours? What can you do about it? When …

Happy new year everyone! As you probably may have noticed, things have been a bit quiet lately here at MyWifeQuitHerJob.com. For the past two and a half weeks, I’ve been on vacation with my family visiting relatives down in Southern California and just got back a few days ago. My original intention was to make it a “computerless” vacation and though I didn’t quite succeed at avoiding my computer, it was quite nice to just relax with friends and family.

The problem with coming back home is that you have to face reality once again. But we are extremely excited for what is in store for us in 2009. Here’s a list of things that my family and I hope to accomplish this year with both our business and family life.
We Want To Transform Our Business Into A Real Business
What do I mean by …