Stinkyink.com: A tale of ecommerce & true grit
How to recover from near bankruptcy & build a multi-million pound business!
Someone who comes up smelling of roses is a phrase that springs to mind when talking to John Sollars. After two failed ventures in the 80's and 90's, his third start-up has the sweet smell of success and is all the stronger for the lessons he learnt in tough times.
The first venture was a small CB radio shop in Kidderminster which he closed down, the second an electronics manufacturer which went bust in the last big recession (1992) costing him a lot of money and which took 10 years to recover from emotionally and financially, but all good learning processes.
John now runs a flourishing web superstore, Stinkyink.com, selling printer ink cartridges for every make and model of printer in the market. He recalls that at the start in 2002, “I had absolutely no knowledge of how an internet business worked, just a burning desire to be in on the cutting edge!” Calling on the right experts, he has harnessed ecommerce and back-office technology to build a business turning over £3 million.
Early on he had to overcome a £32,000 fraud scam and then a warehouse break-in that together nearly bankrupted him. John fought back and within two years was in profit. Now he employs 14 staff and next April he’ll celebrate 10 years in business.
Stinkyink.com has been regularly among the top performing companies in Shropshire as winners and runners up in the Shropshire Chamber of Commerce Best Business competitions. The business has been recognised by both Investors in People (IIP) and also British Standards Institution (BSI) with ISO9001:2008.
Looking ahead John is planning further online ventures: “Using the existing back office resources coupled with the knowledge my staff have built up, we can dominate new niche areas as the opportunities arise – all with minimal extra overheads: it’s brilliant!” So ecommerce has certainly proved to be the lucky penny for John Sollars.
