Name of your website?LotaJava
Your name?
Nanette Chancellor
Your Location (city, etc)
Corinth
Please give us a short summary of your website?
We offer gourmet coffees, coffee blends,Oolong tea and other green teas as well as black and herbal teas. Our chais are Tazo and Oscar's. Gourmet candies are available in the cooler months. Some of our coffees and blends are available in decaf. Our coffees are not roasted until the day they are shipped to insure greater freshness. Our customers may choose the grind they prefer from whole bean,espresso grind,French press and drip grind.
We have kept our prices as low as possible and we offer one price shipping of $6.95 for any size order.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I have wanted to have my own business for many years. When I recently quit work I was looking for 'at home work'. My husband suggested I start searching the web for business opportunities. In doing this we found a company that helps individuals set up an online business. Since we love coffee and coffee shops we chose coffee for our business. We found a wonderful drop-shipper who caters to new comers and we were off. It is an ongoing learning experience, but one I am enjoying. I would love to have a walk-in shop as well someday if God is willing.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
LotaJava is my first web-site. We began working on it last October.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
My husband and I began brainstorming for names. I like the word java and its connection to the 1940's. He likes rhyming words so the result was LotaJava.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
We are small site offering only the simplest of coffee and tea products. I am a purist. I want to stay simple without gimmicks and weird flavors and even weirder names. Coffee is one of the simplest pleasures in the world and want my site to be the same.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
I hope this site will eventually bring in a good second income for me and my husband.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Since we are just getting started the scales are rather heavy on the monetary investment side. I have also invested many, many hours into building the site while my husband set up the business aspects such as credit cards and merchant account and the like. It has been a challenge for me since I had no previous experience in building a web site, but I have really enjoyed the challenge and feel that I have met it well. We have not had much actual business except from friends and family. I will be glad when we finally get orders from people we don't know, but who found us by an on line search.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would pay for ads on line, and do more physical advertising in our town.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
I believe I would. This is mainly because I have a trustworthy drop-shipper who is interested in helping make her customers a success.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
We were not aware of what it cost to get started when using a company to coach you, the cost of a logo, business cards,etc. We have been fortunate to have found companies that are interested in helping new comers and have gone our of their ways to help us with prices and support.
What has been your biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge has been building the site, even though I had technical support when needed. My entire computer experience consisted of using programs designed to fit the jobs I have had. I could create documents and that was about it.
Thankfully I didn't have to learn HTML or I would still be building the site.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
The site hasn't been up long enough for me to know this yet. I would suppose at this point word of mouth has been the best.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It is simpler than I expected.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
We actually were up and running a completed site in late November. Since anywhere I have access to a computer I can have my business I hope to keep it going for a long,long time.
My husband is a preacher and we move fairly often. This makes it very difficult for me to find jobs that I care about and even more difficult to have my own business. Having a web site is the perfect solution.
Would you recommend e-commerce to a friend?
I would only if they understood that it is not magic, but hard work that takes self-discipline and determination to succeed.
What is your website address?
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