Along with my wife Dorothea, we own and operate a couple of small business in Loveland, Colorado (USA). One of the businesses is a restaurant (The Hobnob Restaurant) that we’ve owned for over 20 years and another is a candy making company we’ve owned for 13 years.

I became interested in online marketing and making money online because of the restrictive nature of the businesses I’m in now.

In the restaurant business you are restricted on the number of customer you
can have by the size of your dining room and how well you can pull your
clientele from the local area.  You also need a lot of employees,  a bunch of very expensive equipment and you need to deal with the local health department…and believe me…NO ONE wants to deal with the health department!

Competition is another major problem.  Within five miles of my location there
are over 200 restaurants!  Combine that with a slow economy and an uncertain future and it becomes very difficult to run a small local business at a profit.

Because of the restrictive nature of running a local business that is confined to a localized customer base,  we decided to get into a business that
was not controlled by geographic location or that relied strictly of local
customers.  Mail order was the perfect solution.

My candy company,  which is called Columbine Almond Toffee is more a mail order business then a retail or wholesale business.  About 95% of the product we make is shipped to individuals and companies all over the world.  The Hobnob is the local retail outlet in Loveland.  I have only one other retail outlet and that is inside the terminal at Denver International Airport.

Obviously,  in mail order,  the potential customer based is not restricted to a
fixed location.  Your growth potential is nearly unlimited.  The only problem
would be the purchase of equipment (again,  very expensive),  increasing
manufacturing space and hiring and training employees if demand increases for your product and you outgrow your current manufacturing capacity.  Is that a good problem to have?  Maybe…at that point some hard choices need to be made.  I’ve seen to many companies fail because they grew too fast and could not manage the growth.

…and along came the internet.

The internet is a dream come true for a business person. There are basically
no restrictions and you have access to an unlimited customer based. It’s easy to get started and any knowledge you need is at your fingertips.  Regardless of your budget you can start an online business. With the right product or service you could have customers from every corner of the planet.

So how do we…and you… reach those customers?

I hope this blog can help.

Steven M Schultz

You can reach me at
steven@trafficincomesecrets.com

About me:  I’m married with three kids.  I have a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business and Computer Information Systems from Regis University in Denver. I earned a black belt in Haidong Gumdo in November 2007.  I’ve worked as a Quality Engineer in the Aerospace Industry assigned to the Space Shuttle and I’ve been involved in my own business for nearly 30 years.