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IBS:
Braith, The At Ease e-commerce web site is looking great and has
been running for 4 months now and I guess many months before in
the development... Is a web business still a cool job? or has
burning the candle at both ends and the middle as well, become
your life?
At Ease: I've been at this for
nearly 18 months now and I'm starting to slow down a bit.
I still love e-commerce, it's so exciting to be part of such a
dynamic industry.
IBS:
What is your background?
At Ease: I worked in the Fabric Industry
for 10 years, first with commercial textiles and then home
textiles. I was National Sales Manager for a company and
then an opportunity to be an textile agent came up when I was
living in Melbourne. That's when I got the "work for
yourself bug".
IBS: How
did you get involved in building a e-commerce web site?
At Ease: I decided that working for
10% commission wasn't going to make me rich and my partner had
to be in Sydney. At that time, e-commerce was just getting
going and without much forethought I decided to try and build an
e-commerce company around my existing business.
IBS:
Did you start out with a clear picture of what the site was
going to achieve?
At Ease: I thought I did, but
quickly realised that my idea wasn't going to work. At the
same time I had surfed to some homeware sites in America and
realised that there weren't any of these based in Australia, so
that was my starting point.
IBS:
Did you have help putting it together, what arrangements do you
have for site maintenance?
At Ease: It took 3 months to sort this
side of At Ease out. After a lot of stress, I decided to
go with a company called Infonet Media (highly recommended) and
we built the site together. They are on contract to
maintain At Ease for the long term.
IBS:
What roles have you taken on personally in the business?
At Ease: Sometimes it feels like I do
everything. My initial idea was never to directly employ
staff, but have everyone on contracts. That works well for
us as it has enabled me to keep costs to a minimum, but it also
means that at the end of the day, I have to fix any problems.
I now would call myself a content manager, if anything.
IBS:
How many hours a day would you spend on developing, marketing
etc?
At Ease: I don't think I could quantify
that because often its an as needs be situation. A lot of
things are in lace now and run fairly smoothly and there are
people who watch over that stuff for us too.
IBS:
Been threated with a divorce yet? [maybe this is just me...?]
At Ease: My partner works more than
me!
IBS:
How do you handle the rapid growth you have been getting?
At Ease: At present I am looking to
partner with another e-commerce company that has a lot of the
systems in place that will take us to the next level of growth
(anyone interested?). Venture Capital is very attractive
except that it means that we have to re-invent the wheel.
I would rather focus on the site and share the backend stuff
with people who have that up and running. So far we have
had some interesting meetings and I think we will be well placed
for future growth.
IBS:
What bits of running the business are the biggest pain? and how
do you motivate yourself to get them done?
At Ease: I'm not very financially savvy,
I'm an ideas person and team leader type, so I rely on my
accountant to hassle me to do things better. At least I
don't make mistakes anymore.
IBS:
Do you regret the day you came across the Internet?
At Ease: Never!
IBS:
What are some of the most important things you have learnt so
far? 
At Ease: To think outside the square and
to be patient (the latter is not a virtue of mine!)
IBS:
Any suggestions for making the best of your time?
At Ease: Never have a computer at home
(because you'll always be on it), work-out or excercise (so your
waist doesn't expand with all the sitting down) and only read
emails that are short!
IBS:
What are your plans for the site? and what do you see as
the next major milestones in its development?
At Ease: As I said, we want to
partner with another e-commerce site before the next big leap.
At the moment we are also developing a new department that will
be a high turnover area, so I am very excited about that, it
should be up and running in May; as well as a new loyalty
programme that should be fantastic.
IBS:
Any tips for the next budding e-commerce web site?
At Ease: Be patient and don't rush into
anything until you have done all your research. Also, try
and get to know industry people (there are good networking
nights in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane) because I learnt so
much by just asking. And have deeeeeeeeeeeep
pockets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Visit
At Ease
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