Sometimes we need to take a step back to see how far we’ve come in order to realize, even just a little, the enormous scope of the future’s potential.
I want to share a blog post that I wrote today for my store, in celebration of my sixth anniversary. It’s titled “Three Cheers for Six Years.” Maybe it’ll give you some inspiration that there’s always a new solution to find and a new profit center to embrace … as long as you keep your eyes and ears open and your business model fluid and flexible.
Three Cheers for Six Years
September 1st marked our sixth anniversary in Collegetown.
For the past six years, it has been our pleasure to serve this community. Looking back, we see how much we’ve grown; we see how much we’ve changed. And we love what we’ve become!
When we opened in 2011, we aimed to provide Collegetown with a full service, friendly, fun, and frankly fabulous shipping and business center. And we’ve absolutely done that! But soon after we opened we realized that there were a lot of very unique challenges that our very unique neighborhood was facing, but not many decent solutions for them. So, we started changing and adapting what we sold and the services we provided, morphing into something we never quite imagined … but something we’re extremely proud of. We’ve become the area’s solution center.
We’ve found small solutions…
Greeting Cards: We started with a few lines of unique greeting cards, basically because greeting cards are fun, Marty loves them, and we know how hard it is to find something different than the everyday cheesy stuff you see at every corner drug store. Word spread about our cards and soon we found ourselves traveling to stationery and gift shows all over the place just to source more unique lines to add to our selection. Now, we have a whole wall of cards and change our inventory often to keep them fresh, super classy, and always unique; we’ve become one of the most popular greeting card destinations in our little city!
Moving Boxes: Students are constantly moving and constantly needing boxes. By default, many were going to big chain stores and paying entirely too much for their “moving” boxes, only to find that they’d fall apart after they were filled and implode when anything was stacked on them. So, we expanded our selection of sturdy, durable shipping boxes into sizes that are perfect for moving and storage. We now stock over 50 sizes, all highly rated and very fairly priced. Each year, during our busy May move-out season, we sell way more boxes than we did the previous year. Word is spreading, and our boxes are the best!
And we’ve found monumental solutions…
International Shipping: Ithaca has a very large international and internationally-connected population, but international shipping wasn’t easy for most of Collegetown’s residents and visitors. Before we opened, we got all of our authorizations in order and became the first DHL Authorized Shipping Center (DASC) in town … and have remained the highest volume DASC in the region ever since, offering DHL rates that are less than DHL’s online published rates! We became a FedEx Authorized ShipCenter (FASC) and, through our unbeatable service, soon built up our FedEx volume to the highest available discount tier … and now our FedEx Express International shipping rates are also better than FedEx’s own online published rates. We have state-of-the-art software that compares all shipping options side by side in one screen to help our guests find the best option for their needs and budget. And we always print the labels and customs paperwork for you so all you have to do is sign! We’ve digitized and simplified the very confusing, complex world of international shipping … and do it at the best rates available in our area.
Private Mailboxes: People needed a solution to the inherent headaches that come with changing your address when you change dorms or apartments each semester. So we added private mailbox rental so students can keep the same address for their entire tenure in Ithaca. And now those mailboxes are popular with much more than just students–perfect to meet the needs of home based businesses, non-profits, clubs, and individuals who travel and need mail forwarding … or maybe just need a little bit more privacy.
Storage: Students needed a better storage solution. Most of the options available before we got here were disjointed and confusing. There were seemingly dozens of storage start-ups that would flash and fizzle, often only around for a season. Many of them didn’t have an actual brick and mortar location, but rather just a flashy website and hired hands who would show up in a rented truck, take your boxes, and then leave you with no idea of where your boxes were being held or who was watching over them while you were away. Then per-pound pricing and add-ons would really drive your final storage bill through the roof. So, we turned our year-round Collegetown shipping and business center into a storage facility as well! We offer flat rate, simply priced storage options, personal pickups, and extremely flexible delivery and shipping options on the back end. Our storage has grown exponentially every year, smashing records again in 2017 (and the year’s not nearly over yet!)
And there’s so much more we could talk about … like how our resume, thesis, and dissertation printing prowess has saved the day countless times, how our key duplication service has totally blown up, or how our come-to-you pickup and delivery solutions have brought our services to many folks who could otherwise not access our storefront.
In retrospect, looking back on all that’s happened, how we’ve changed, and milestones we’ve reached, six years seems like a long, long time. But in other ways it seems like we’re just beginning.
Because we indeed are just beginning; we’re in this for the long haul. And we can’t wait to see what the next six years bring!
#HappyAnniversarytoUs #UncleMartysOffice #Collegetown #SixYears #AskUncleMarty
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Marty Johnson, AMBC Director of Marketing | askunclemarty.com
Source: AMBC Blog
Source: AMBC Blog