I sell onions online

More precisely, onion Vidalia.

This onion variety is considered sweet: thanks to its mild flavor and aroma, people eat it just like apples. At least that's what most of my customers do.
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During the telephone order - in the season of 2018, if my memory serves me correctly - one of them shared with me a story about how he took Vidalia on board his cruise ship on his vacation. During each meal, my client tormented the waiter: “Take an onion, crumble it and add it to my salad”. This story made me smile.

Yes, if you love Vidalia, then you love her ...

However, let me not run ahead.

How did I get started? I am not a farmer. I am an IT person.

I depend on domain names

This may seem strange, but my journey did not start with an idea.

In 2014, the domain name VidaliaOnions.com was put up for auction: for some reason, the owner abandoned it. Being born in Georgia, I am a little familiar with the industry and immediately recognized it. I bought expired or abandoned domain names and enjoyed developing them. However, then everything was different - although I made a bet, but only for the sake of fun, having entered with the offer of $ 2,200 and being sure that it would be blocked.

After 5 minutes, I became the proud owner of VidaliaOnions.com and did not understand at all what I should do about it.

On your marks! March! Attention!

After the domain was at my disposal, I tried to focus my attention on other projects, but its name continued to hover in my head.

It seemed to say:

... hey ... I'm here ..

William Faulkner had an interesting approach to character creation - they initially wrote as if they themselves, and he (Faulkner) served as something of a mechanical layer. His quote:

“I would say that you need to settle a character in your head. Once there really, he will do all the work. All that is required of you is to keep up with him, writing down everything he does and says. You must know your hero. You must believe in him. You must feel that he is alive ... After you understand this, the work on his description turns into a purely mechanical work. " [ source]

I treat my projects the same way Faulkner treats my characters. I buy domain names with the intention of developing them and give them the initiative. They themselves are a source of inspiration. They lead me to what they should be. I'm just the guy behind the keyboard.

Sometimes I buy them at auction, sometimes from the original owners. But, as a rule, first comes the domain, and then the idea.

Usually I'm not in a hurry with the project. The path of some domains seems obvious even before the purchase, and the path of some becomes clear only in the process. Domain for onion Vidalia was one of the last. After I purchased it, he continued to nudge me in the side:

Take care of me, take care of me ... You know how, you know how I should be

A month later, I began to understand what he was saying to me. Every year I buy pears from Harry & David. I needed to do the same service for Vidalia onions: instead of delivering pears from the farm, delivering onions.

The idea is not bad, but it’s not so easy to take. I am not a farmer, I have no workers, I do not have a packing shop. I do not have a logistics and distribution system.

But the domain continued to look at me ಠ ~ ಠ //// in a whisper ////

Just start ..

"Become a goal for Nothing and go to Nowhere until you reach the goal"

(c) Tao Winnie the Pooh

I did so, being stupid enough to take on a project of such complexity. The size of the market justified the online adventure. Google Trends showed a steady number of searches for the name of this variety, and cooks around the world praised the “sweet onion caviar”.

Thus, I began the journey without an end goal or a milestone post. Just started to go. Without God sent investor. Without patron. To finance the company, I used a modest income from other projects. It was February 2015 in the yard.

Taking up the case, I found out where the Vidalia onion committee is located, which represents all the farmers who grow this variety. I made contact with them: they were kind enough to listen to me.

In the end, I was introduced to three farmers in my region.

Well come together with the third of them, we decided to try. His company has been on the market for 25 years: never concentrating on direct deliveries to consumers, it nonetheless realized the importance of such work. In addition, they had a packing shop. However, the most important element was that they grew first-class onions.

And we started.

By the most conservative estimate, we planned to receive fifty (50) orders in the 2015 season. The season was over with over six hundred (600).

While the farmer was growing onions, I did my best to work with clients, sales, online segment development and logistics. Before that, I did not have projects that directly work with consumers. And I realized that I really enjoyed it.

The more we plunged into work, the more we grew. To such an extent that our competitors stopped trying to sell onions by mail and sent their customers to us.

We began to try alternative marketing opportunities - we placed a billboard on I-95, south of Savannah, facing car traffic entering Georgia from the north; we also sponsored a cyclist traveling across the country for charity and a basketball team from a local school; In addition, we provided assistance to a local elementary school.

We organized a hotline for orders, which - from time to time - gives us more sales than the site.

Of course, we made several colossal mistakes that are completely my “merit”. For example, we spent $ 10,000 on defective packaging boxes, which we ordered from a little-knowledgeable and incompetent manufacturer in Dalton (this happened at an early stage and nearly made me stop).

Fortunately, I decided not to allow such miscalculations to put an end to the enterprise. And in truth, our customers would be rather disappointed if this happened. Last year, when I called back one customer, his wife picked up the phone. I began to introduce myself, but she interrupted me in the middle of a sentence, shouting to her husband in complete delight: “VIDALIA-MAN! VIDALIA-MAN! PICK UP THE PHONE!"

At that moment I realized that we were doing something right. Something that helps people, leaving a positive mark.

Sometimes I say that I prefer a goal to an income. Now, as we enter our fifth season, I don’t give up my words.

And it gives me extreme pleasure. I am happy to be in touch with this industry.

I am Peter Askew, and I sell onions on the Internet.