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*Please note that this article was originally published in the April
9-15, 2010 issue of the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
We are a retail company in the most competitive space on the planet: the Internet. And we had a record year in 2009 and grew
over 15% in one of the worst economic periods in recent history. So how did we succeed in the worst economic storm in fifty years,
in a hypercompetitive space where winning customers is like war? Back to the basics: cutting costs, focusing on customer value,
and getting our company culture back on track.
Like so many other companies during the economic prosperity of 2007 and early 2008, we were fat. Without enough return
analysis, we created new positions within our company and doubled our staff to twenty employees, assuming that revenue would
come as we added to our team. We learned the hard way that is not true. Payroll grew 2x, revenue did not. After much analysis,
we determined what amount of revenue each new position must generate in order to contribute to the profitability of our business.
Many of our new positions were not meeting that number.
We still didn't want to eliminate the activities intended for these new positions, so how could we add responsibility to
our slimmed down team? The answer: efficiency through process control. We committed to writing down every single process
related to our business from how sales should answer the phone to how shipping should handle an expedited order, and made them
available to the team on an intranet site. We now have a shared information repository with over 140 unique processes that are
unique to our business. No more re-creating the wheel, no more missed steps, no more lost time wondering what to do next.
Suddenly our team could take on many more responsibilities working the same number of hours.
When cutting costs, an obvious place to look is inventory. In the past we purchased in small quantities, concerned with
inventory risk. But we were foregoing significant volume discount savings from both larger purchases from our current vendors
and in the case where we didn't already, going direct to the manufacturer. Utilizing our line of credit, we made larger volume
purchases including our first six figure purchase order, substantially decreasing our cost of goods sold.
With so many competitors on the Internet selling virtually the same products, differentiating yourself is a challenge.
Here is what we did. Our in house web design team spent hundreds of hours increasing the functionality of our website. For
example, you can now shop for the perfect air purifier by price, by brand, or by need. You can also do that in the vacuum
cleaner and dehumidifier sections of AchooAllergy.com. Additionally we drastically expanded our business lines. Before 2009
we only offered two brands of dehumidifiers. During 2009 we added over 25 new dehumidifier skus from five different vendors.
We wrote buying guides and comparison charts and encouraged our customers to write reviews on the products they purchased.
Another thing we worked on was increasing our private label program. Three years ago we launched a brand of allergy bedding
products called Allergy Armor. In 2009 we added Allergy Armor blankets and pillows and completely revamped the look of our
offering which included updated professional imagery and logos.
Lastly and most importantly we got our company culture back on track. It is not an accident that we have assembled the
best team of colleagues in the ten years we have been doing this. You always hear the cliché about the one bad apple, I speak
from firsthand experience. In a small company like ours you cannot have any bad apples and have a great culture. We now office
in a completely open environment, there are literally no doors, no titles, and everyone respects everyone else. No longer is
anyone late for work or for meetings. We celebrate around our company successes and openly brainstorm how to constantly improve
in our weekly meetings.
For additional information on AchooAllergy.com or for assistance with other allergy relief products and air purifiers, please call
1-800-339-7123.
Return to AchooAllergy.com to learn more about indoor air quality and to
shop for a Miele vacuum cleaner.
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