I wanted to leverage my experience running brick and mortar businesses into creating an e-commerce store.

Bavarian Clockworks is an e-commerce store that sells authentic Black Forest cuckoo clocks.

BusinessInterviews.com: What inspired you to launch your business?

Bob Ellis: I wanted to leverage my experience running brick and mortar businesses into creating an e-commerce store. I knew a lot about customer service, sales, and business strategy. However, I’ve had to teach myself a lot about web design and online marketing. Before launching Bavarian Clockworks, I researched a variety of different e-commerce markets. I looked at competing companies, and studied what they were doing well and what it would take to reach their level. My goal was to build an e-commerce business that could carve out a niche and become profitable quickly. The cuckoo clock industry interested me and it met all the requirement I was looking for.

BusinessInterviews.com: What has been your biggest challenge as a business owner and how have you met that challenge?

Bob Ellis: The biggest challenges have been establishing a network of industry supplies and increasing traffic to our website to drive sales. Because our suppliers are based in Germany, there are language barriers and legal issues that come with shipping products overseas. This is bad and good. It’s bad because it’s a pain to get started. It’s good because the barriers to entry make it more difficult for other companies to enter the market.

In addition, having our website show up in online search results has been a slow process. We’ve made tweaks to our website, started blogging, and did some guest posts articles on other sites. Over the past two years we have seen our online traffic and sales grow exponentially.

BusinessInterviews.com: What’s the most exciting thing on the horizon for you/your Company?

Bob Ellis: I am looking to start more e-commerce companies and replicate the success I have had with Bavarian Clockworks. I would like to grow a portfolio of online stores across a variety of different industries. For now, we are taking it slow and starting one new business. However, the goal is to expand. I will most likely need a financial partner to help with some of the startup costs that go with running multiple businesses.

BusinessInterviews.com: Where do you envision your company in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years?

Bob Ellis: We want to be the trusted leader in our industry. We hope customers are blown away by the support and experience of doing business with us. Eventually, our goal is to expand internationally beyond the US market.