“Work hard, work efficient, and love what you do.”

TV Store Online started out of a basement in 2004 and now occupies a 42,000 sq. ft warehouse. What do they do out of this warehouse? They fulfill orders for TV show and Movie Fanatics! TV Store Online has every product you can image from TV t-shirts, halloween costumes, games, music, comics and more.

Fred Hajjar is the President of TV Store Online. He and his team continually think of new ideas and work on new licensing deals to provide their customers with the newest and best TV and Movie products available. Their newest venture is working on the site TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles.com and getting it ready for when the new movie and tv show are released in 2012!

 

MO: I would love to know about what inspired this website. An obsession with TV and movies? Noticing a need in the market?

Fred: I have been selling on Ebay since 1999 and had a couple of t-shirt sites that failed. The one category of shirts that did well was Dukes of Hazzard. While still in college, I then purchased dukesofhazzardstore.com and it generated a couple of sales a week for General Lee fans. I continued to see a demand for rare shirts, and then expanded TV Show and Movie categories on our current site, TVStoreOnline.com. It expanded the demographic greatly as everyone wears t-shirts and they make great gifts!

MO: Tell us about the process of moving from the basement to a building, to a huge warehouse. What were some challenges you faced while expanding?

Fred: It was definitely challenging. We did a lot more preparation with the last move and Fedex helped us out with the layout and supply chain structure. It’s always difficult and costly to make a move. The biggest challenge was continuing to run the business and fulfill orders while trying to organize the new warehouse.

MO: You mention that customer satisfaction is a high priority of yours. What do you do to ensure satisfied customers?

Fred: We try to exceed expectations with delivery and handle issues as if the customer is a priority rather than a just a person with an order number. We also try to appease any dissatisfied customer with alternate options to assure their satisfaction.

MO: What ideas do you have in the works for the TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles.com site?

Fred: We expect to build the largest fan site and Turtles store by 2012. A new movie and TV show are in the works and lots of generations know about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

MO: Many people who start internet businesses do not deal with large amounts of inventory. What advice can you give to other entrepreneurs who sell product online?

Fred: Work hard, work efficient, and love what you do. The almighty dollar can only take you so far. If there’s a market for your product and you are willing to slowly establish yourself, then your goals can be achieved with a realistic plan that does not involve trying to hit a home run from the get-go.

MO: I love that you listed your capital investment as $500.00. Tell us about the beginnings and bootstrapping the company. How did you initially gain traction?

Fred: I dealt with a company that allowed me to purchase less than the minimum requirement and they were great to deal with. I initially only accepted Paypal as a method of payment at first and taught myself search engine optimization techniques, rather than paying a company to optimize the site. Even though the site started off with minimal traffic, it slowly gained more traffic and a larger selection of products.