Wilsons Blinds - Wilsons Online Retail Ltd

I left school in 1986 and went on a YTS scheme to do joinery work, i left the YTS scheme after 1 year and then got a job with a guy in the next street who was a carpet fitter, brilliant no more bus fairs any more and an extra £10 per week to. I worked with a few carpet companies over the next couple of years until i started working for my self fitting carpets in 1989 aged 19 with a cheap van which cost £200 and of i went into the ups and downs world of business.

I built up the business supplying and fitting carpets and vinyls for many years until in 1998 i decided to sell blinds as well locally along with the carpets i was then supplying and fitting blinds as well, but wanted to break out doing something nationally, so i decided to place a small add in the back of the News of the World on a Sunday offering 3 vertical blinds for £99 and for the customers to call for samples and an order form so it was a mail order type service i was trying to set up, customers were calling but i felt after 3 weeks i could do with a website so the customers can view the products and fill in an online form, so i knew nothing about the internet at this time and reached out for a copy of the Yellow Pages in search of a local web developer.

Well i struck lucky by finding a really good one and while looking round on Google at different websites selling blinds, i noticed some of them had the option to get a price by the customer entering their measurements and being able to buy online and also order a free sample, well this is just what i need, but i was told for a web site like this it would be about £20,000 well out of my budget. To my luck the web developer i found said he could build me a site like this for £3,000 to start me off, and he did and he loaded all the products up to get us going.

When www.wilsonsblinds.co.uk went live it was then a case of how do i get traffic to the site, so i decided to try this Google Pay Per Click i had heard off, i put a budget of £10 per day in with no idea what i was doing just got stuck in and 2 days later an order come in for a wooden venetian blind along with a few sample requests from other customers to, well i was jumping up and down on the bed as we had a desk in the corner of our bedroom, complete with phone and computer, i shouted down to my partner Jennifer come and look at this yahooooooooo. People really do measure and fit their own blinds. We progressed with the business through tough times also bringing up 3 children as well, it was really busy times for us both.

Its been a brilliant experience and there is always lots to learn, since getting Wilsons Blinds going.

At the moment we are concentrating mainly on growing Wilsons Blinds as we see great potential for growth from 2015 with our projected 5 year plan.