new here...greenoak

[greenoak]

im new here but have had a business for a long time.we are a husband and wife team, and son.....we started in antiques and now have new furniture we design and have made locally.good old antiques and lots of old furniture that we have rehabbed...we sell retail and wholesale...and a little on the web....we supply lots of neat stores in our area...
our store is big and full and tons of work..we have antiques, garden iron, shabby stuff, archetectural stuff, a picture line, and our furniture ..a rough room, a half price room, big showroom, outside areas etc etc. www.greenoakantiques.com we are cash and carry...and dont ship anything but our shabby pictures at this time...
our store is about 9000 sq ft and we have had lots of experience..we are a destination shop...love to talk business..

love shabby and cottage

ann

[Lynzee]

Hi Ann--welcome to the forum!

I love your website! I saw so many things I know would be perfect for my home! Wish I lived closer--I'd be right over! :D

Lynzee

[zuzus_garden]

Hi Ann,

Rochester, Indiana? That's too far away! :( I would love to be able to visit you on your Back Porch!!!

Welcome to the CL forums!

Zuzu

[Kathy Ann]

Welcome Ann! Great site, it made me want to jump right in!

[greenoak]

thanks for the welcome..
.my dil does the website...im a dud but do the design kind of.... i like a lot of pictures.... the bad thing is lots of whats on there isnt here anymore.... the favorite spot on it is the now in page...


we get about 700 hits a week....but really havent worked up a selling idea on the internet .....we do our shabby pictures , but thats about all...i cant see taking the time to ship stuff....we are so swamped with the store...we have the equiptment and talent to do alot more but not really wanting to....if our economy gets much worse here in indiana we might have to revisit that...


do any of you have brick and mortar...or is it mostly internet...?

i love the mmp site and layout...would love to go visit all of you!!

ann


www.greenoakantiques.com

[Kathy Ann]

I am exclusively internet. After 21 years in the media, I'm sick of people.

[zuzus_garden]

Kathy Ann - I love your honesty!

Ann - I did my web site design, and my hubby wrote the software. Zuzu's is online only. I love shopping online. I don’t remember who wrote this, but it sums up what happens to me when I shop the flea-market and malls…

”When I go to the flea market, I come home with a balloon hat and indigestion. I guess the shabby chick cleaned up before I got there.”

That’s why my biz is online, and why I am (and millions of others are) a comfy-digs ‘n fuzzy-slippers online shopper.

:)
Zuzu

[Lynzee]

I'm a brand new business and don't have an internet site (and don't yet know if I ever will), but I am definitely a "bunny slipper shopper". I find flea markets and malls totally overwhelming--way too many things to see and far too many people. I'm crowd phobic and tend to hyperventilate in close quarters with a lot of people I don't know, so I've found it's just much better for everyone involved if I stay at home and let Rachel, "the shabby chick", do the legwork for me. :D

Lynz

[greenoak]

what kind of store lynzee? ann

[Kathy Ann]

I thought you'd appreciate that Zu! I belong to a lot of civic organizations, and I get plenty of contact from there. I started off doing the memory quilts for local customers, but I find that they're so enthusiastic, they want to call and come over to check progress all the time. I don't enjoy that at all.

[Lynzee]

Seasonal home accents--wreaths, swags, floral arrangements, centerpieces, baskets, etc. I say "home", but almost all of the seasonal decorating projects I did in the past when it was "just" a hobby were for businesses. :confused:

:)
Lynz

[Cottage Collections]

I am exclusively internet. After 21 years in the media, I'm sick of people.

LOL Kathy Ann! I hear ya! Sometimes it's so much easier dealing with people via internet and phone. And the dress code.... I LOVE it!

[Cottage Collections]

do any of you have brick and mortar...or is it mostly internet...?

i love the mmp site and layout...would love to go visit all of you!!

ann


www.greenoakantiques.com

I'm strictly internet too. It just doesn't make sense for me to try and have a physical storefront when I do all the business I can handle right here. Of course the flip side is it's a lot more work to have to photograph everything and list everything and of course ship it. That's probably my least favorite of all! Other than those few things.. I wouldn't do it any other way. I spent too many years on my feet 12 hour shifts pushing a med cart. Now I have a pretty shabby chic office and a comfy desk chair and all the coffee I can stand!
I think I did 99% percent of my Christmas shopping online this year. I think with everyone being so busy these days, shopping online is really the trend.

[Casual Cottage]

Welcom to the forum Ann. I just read your post on the MMP forum and visited your website. Mine is strictly an internet business. I'm in Fort Wayne. I'm not sure how far away Rochester is, but it's not very far. I am already planning a shopping trip to your shop!

[greenoak]

that would be great marilyn...im just 50 mi west of ft wayne on 14.....what do you sell? i love shabby and cottage and have lots......

its good to hear some internet stores are making it..do you think my picture idea would have a good chance?

...we made a good second income for my dil on ebay for about 4 yrs but not now...things are so cheap there.... now, we couldnt get 4$ for antique cup and saucers....

hopefully there will be room for some brick and mortars too...we sell gazebos and props for shops like huge cupboards and big ladders etc etc.......so i think a huge space suits us pretty well...hoping our customers dont give up on us...

my dh and webmeister both do tons on the internet...not me tho....i cant go thru all the steps...i can deal with amazon one click and thats about it....


ann of greenoak

www.greenoakantiques.com

[Alicia]

Hi,

I have had a website for 5 years, very little business, then I l self taught myself how to optimize it and we now get upwards of 500 hits a day. It take time and patience. I put in an hour every day linking to other websites.

We just moved from NYC to San Antonio Texas 5 mos ago , so I sent an email to an NBC affiliate local show and voila, last week I was on TV-- very heady experience.

We can transfer any image onto tumbled marble tiles for a wall mural or backsplash- seems to be a very good market for our product and it's growing.
We don't have a storefront, just the website and work out of our garage and one room in the house.We don't have ecommerce-- I just tell people they can get lucky and chat with me ( and give me a CC#)-- LOL

I agree with you re Ebay-- it adds up in cost to add items and everyone wants everything cheap-- I'd rather put the dollars and cents into advertising on a small scale.

Alicia
http://www.AliciaTappDesigns.com

[greenoak]

wow alicia...what a great idea;...does it have to be on tiles?

guess i better rethink links...a few years ago when we went online the word on the street was they didnt do you any good..and we decided not to go for links....we arent mostly internet sellers...


apparantly we are on the meta tag track and its obsolete...i have really gooten some info here!!!

..but i think i hear links are a good way to increases your hits..and pushes you up on google? . right?
ann of greenoak


www.greenoakantiques.com

[Alicia]

Hi Ann
Links are the way to go--If you don't want to pay exhorbitant advert rates-- Type in tile murals in Google Search -- we should be 1 or 2 or certainly on the first page. Our page rank is 5. This is not a 123 way to get high page rank.. I'm telling you, you have to be prepared to spend hours upon hours to do this. Go to Google search and type in Alicia tapp or Alicia tapp designs - and see all the links we are linked to;
Keywords and meta tags are very important if they say what's in your content on the page

Our product is only on tiles-- We keep it very targetted to customers and we sell wholesale.
Alicia
http://www.AliciaTappDesigns.com

[Cottage Collections]

Welcom to the forum Ann. I just read your post on the MMP forum and visited your website. Mine is strictly an internet business. I'm in Fort Wayne. I'm not sure how far away Rochester is, but it's not very far. I am already planning a shopping trip to your shop!


I am so jealous Marilyn! I want to go too! Everything looks great.

[zuzus_garden]

Hi Alicia - Add yourself to Introductions so folks can find you and give you a warm welcome! :D

Oh, and Ann - there's a Web Site Help/Link Exchange thread going...if all this great conversation about links is in Introductions, others might not be able to find it. :(

Zuzu