Small Business Innovators - Andy Ketter of PlazaRugs.com
July 28, 2008 :: Steve FisherAndy Ketter took a unique route to entrepreneurship. He worked at Network Solutions for 5 years doing Technical Support, Sales & Marketing. During this time, he started an online business with a business partner. It was called PlazaRugs.com and as if you couldn’t have guessed, sells rugs online. Over time, the business grew to the point where he left his job at Network Solutions to do it full time. Still, he has stayed a Network Solutions customer and it makes a strong statement when an employee loves what your company does enough to run his business on it and long after he has left continue to run that business on your product.
I was able to spend some time with him recently and here is a transcript of our interview:
Steve: How did you get the idea for PlazaRugs.com?
Andy: Actually this wasn’t my idea at all. I had a friend (now business partner) approach me about starting a business with him selling rugs. At first I didn’t really think there was a large enough market for it, but after doing some research, I realized this was a good opportunity.
Steve: For the uninitiated, could you explain your vision for the business?
Andy: Sure. The vision of the business is to be a value leader for home furnishings products online. It started with rugs, and now we are moving into other home furnishings like lighting. Each niche has it’s own site catering to people looking for that specific product. Our goal is to be a top 5 player in each niche of home furnishings that we pursue. We focus on service and value… we don’t offer the cheapest product, rather we want to offer high quality at a good price, and to offer service that’s second to none.
Steve: You started this business as a side venture while you were still at Network Solutions, how long did it take you to go full time and what was the moment that you decided to make this your full-time job?
Andy: It took about 18 months before I was finally able to go full time with the business. From the start we used the Network Solutions Ecommerce platform because we knew it well; it was the product I was in charge of when I was on the NetSol sales and support teams. Over the course of the first year we grew rapidly. Both Mike’s, my business partner, wife and mine jumped on board to help with the business. Without their continued effort and support, we wouldn’t be where we are today. We had a strong holiday season and were quite satisfied with our first full year in business. At first Mike and I thought sales were strong because of the holiday. But then we realized as we continued to grow in 2008, it really was due to the natural growth of the business. By spring of 2008 I was pretty much working nonstop between Network Solutions and our business, and I just knew that we wouldn’t be able to keep moving forward until I made the leap of faith and started working on the business full time.
Steve: You are still a Network Solutions customer. What services do you currently utilize and why did you choose to stay with Network Solutions?
Andy: We currently use the Network Solutions ecommerce software platform. It’s really a great tool for the money. It offers us the flexibility we need to make our site unique and appealing to our visitors, and also gives us a lot of great merchandising tools to help customers find the product they need quickly. I’d say a lot of our success has been that the tool has made are site look like we’ve been in business in years. It’s a lot more professional looking than many of our competitors.
Steve: As a long-time entrepreneur, what do you find are your greatest lessons learned from starting your business?
Andy: I think one of my biggest lessons is that even though you’re an entrepreneur working for yourself, you are still working for someone, your customer. Sales and customers are the lifeblood of any business, and if you don’t treat them like a million bucks they’re going to go somewhere else. Another important point is that you need to work on the business as opposed to in the business, as much as you can. When you start out of course you are everything; sales, webmaster, marketing, accounting, etc. But once you can afford it, it’s so important to get people working in the business doing those day to day things so you can focus on the bigger picture items, growth, and planning. I can’t say we are there yet, but Mike and I both try to stay out of the day to day as much as possible so we can focus on growing our company.
Steve: What is your philosophy on being an entrepreneur?
Andy: I think our philosophy is a bit different in that we are committed to growing organically, on the profit of the existing business. With doing business on the web, we don’t have many large, up front expenses, so we’ve focused on making sure we don’t get too big for our britches. At times that means growing slower than we could if we took out a large loan or looked for capital in some other ways, but in the end it means we’re in full control and we’re not working to pay the bank, we’re working to pay ourselves.
Steve: What would you like to see happen over the next 18 months for Plazarugs.com?
Andy: I want to see Plaza Rugs become a top 5 player in area rugs online. Right now I’d say we are top 10, but there is definitely a lot of room to grow. Also I’d like to launch 5 more properties selling other home goods. LightingPerfection.com is our newest, which technically is live, but not accepting orders yet. I’d like to see us branch off into 4 more niches over the next 18 months, but I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag yet as to what’s coming after lighting. 
Steve: Sometimes I like to close an interview with a “Do This List”. So for you, what are the top five things you have learned building an online store and relying on it as your primary business channel?
Andy: If you’re launching an online store, the top 5 things I suggest to be successful are:
1. Plan. I think the saying goes “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. As an entrepreneur you move at the speed of light, but if you don’t step back and plan the direction of your business, you will most likely fail. Planning is a lot of work and not usually the most fun part of being an entrepreneur, but the better the plan, the more chance you have to do well.
2. Work hard. Selling products online is no get rich quick scheme. You will need to put in a lot of effort and probably make some sacrifices to truly make it successful. This is not a 9-5 job, but the rewards are definitely worth it.
3. Be accessible. Make sure your customers can reach you easily. Human interaction is something that can set you apart from your competitors online.
4. Don’t wait for perfection. I’ve fallen into this trap before a lot of times because I’m a bit obsessive compulsive… but if you wait to push something live for it to be absolutely perfect, you’ll never get it done on time.
5. Test. You don’t want to find out that after you’ve spent a ton of money advertising something that your checkout or product search doesn’t work. Be sure to test many scenarios, and ask others to test as well. Find the least computer literate person you know to test ordering and navigating the site. If they can’t figure out how to order or find products, you probably have a problem.
To find out more about Andy’s growing business, check out PlazaRugs.com
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