Missionary wife sells over $156,000 during second year of Online Busines

Two years ago, while looking for school supplies on ebay for her three small children, Nicole Munoz stumbled across a link that advertised how to sell online. Intrigued, she began to wonder if it were possible for her to sell things online while living in a foreign country. After purchasing an online book called, “How to start a Yahoo store”, Munoz thought, “If they can do it, then I can too!”
Armed with statistics on camping gear use, articles on the explosive growth of the internet and the $50 her husband gave her for her new hobby, Munoz started her first online camping gear store.
Her goal was to build a semi-virtual company. She would handle all the marketing, accounting and order taking from her home-based office, while the order fulfillment and warehousing would be outsourced. This would allow her to maximize time with customers and minimize her up front capital risk. Best of all, working from home allowed her to work without sacrificing her care for her children and family.
The internet site opened in January 2004 and turned a profit from the first month. From her profits she invested in learning tools to help her learn to be more successful and about six months later her business just took off. She quickly realized that although depending on third party fulfillment centers was good to start, it was not going to work long term for a high volume business. After setting up accounts with vendors, her first $500 of products arrived at her dad’s garage. Before she knew it, her dad’s garage was full and she realized she needed full-time help to ship out the products as fast as the orders were coming in.
Now, just two years after starting, her internet site has sold over $156,000 in the last 12 months. Munoz has just opened two more sites: www.summitcampinggear.com and www.campinggearpro.com and plans to open a new store every quarter.
Her advice to anyone who is thinking of starting an online business? Start small and look at your new business as a hobby in the beginning. Use your profits to reinvest in your business and expand. Most importantly, never lose sight that for work-at-home-mom’s your most important job is the children in your home.

Contact Information

Nicole Munoz

Owner

Ashtonhome

Contact via E-mail