“It is commonly said that an entrepreneur needs to be strong in two areas, being a great idea person with a vision, and being a great execution person knowing how to put together and manage a company.”

Interview by Mike Sullivan

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No one likes to lug their entire shower caddy around with them on a trip.  Luckily Paul Shrater created Minimus.biz to help!  Minimus.biz is the leading online retailer of travel sized and individual sized items with over 2000 different items in stock.  They offer free ground shipping on all orders over $20.  Minimus.biz also operate a large wholesale division that supplies a number of different market segments from corporations, charities, non-profits, government agencies, military, educational institutions, and more.

The Minimus.biz website boasts “For travel, for camping, for your office, for your home, for your car, for you”  Minimus.biz has items for you wherever you go.

MO:
Can you tell us a little more about your background and what led you to creating this website?

Paul:
After graduating from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1995 (with a concentration in entrepreneurial management), I spent 9 years in the entertainment industry, the last six of those years as a film and television producer.  When my parents and sister and brother-in-law went on a trip to rent a cabin for a week in New Hampshire, they complained that at the end of the trip they had to throw away all of their favorite barbeque sauces and mustards they had bought in the glass/plastic bottles.  They thought, “wouldn’t it be great to have a place to get all of your favorite condiments… in packets.”  I thought that was an interesting business idea, but added to it by thinking that we could specialize in everything that was small, especially travel-sized toiletries.  No one else was doing this, and in 2004, I had the thought that people were finally starting to feel comfortable with entering their credit card information onto an online store (for many years, people were not), yet there weren’t a lot of stores operating online to service this new demand.  Thus, we thought we’d try it out and see what happens.

MO:
Can you talk about the different target markets you serve and how minimus.biz caters to each of these markets?

Paul:
We service many different market segments and each one has their own particular needs.  Thus, we look to add products to our lineup that appeal to the different markets.  One of the more custom approaches we do is in the building of customized kits.  Since we warehouse over 2000 items, we are able to put them into kit packaging material, and even label the kit with the name of a company, non-profit, or government agency.  This has different applications, from golf tournaments, to destination weddings, to military support care packages, to disaster relief kits, to kits for homeless shelters or international aid.  We’ve done so many of these that we’ve become experts in being able to work with customers to fit their needs of product mix and budget for whatever they are trying to achieve.

MO:
I see on your website that you are celebrating your 7th year in business.  How has minimus.biz gained exposure and traction over the last 7 years?

Paul:
This week we actually just celebrated entering our 8th year in business.  A couple of methods we’ve used are having a strong PR presence to get awareness, as well as servicing customers with top notch customer service.  We go out of our way to pro-actively reach out to a customer if there is any issue with their order, or to solve any problem that may arise.  In this day and age of computerized, or outsourced, or careless customer service, it is actually refreshing to be able to offer the type of customer service people remember from the past when people really cared about their customers.  It also helps to create a great word of mouth environment where people tell their friends about us.

MO:
You mentioned that in the future you have some projects you are working on that have some great charitable components to them.  Can you expand on this?

Paul:
Unfortunately, they are under confidentiality agreements, so I can’t expand on anything yet.  But, it is always great to work with organizations where we can create a great win-win-win scenario for them, us, and the people they service.

MO:
I would assume that many of your customers are people who travel frequently.  Do you have information/kits on your site for the frequent traveler?

Paul:
We do have a lot of kits on our website: http://www.minimus.biz/CarePackageMain.aspx.  However, for people purchasing for themselves, they generally just shop and get the specific items that they want.  The kits work better for gifting, care packages, or similar.

On the information side, we do offer a great packing list you can pay for with a tweet: http://www.minimus.biz/packinglist.aspx.

MO:
With 7 years in business you must have learned a lot about the whole-sale business.  If you could give one piece of advice to our readers looking to break into this industry what would it be?

Paul:
I think one of the most important aspects about being an entrepreneur is really the self-assessment piece.  It is commonly said that an entrepreneur needs to be strong in two areas, being a great idea person with a vision, and being a great execution person knowing how to put together and manage a company.  More often than not, these two things are not strong in the same person, and that is where making that self assessment, finding your weaknesses, and building a team around you to fill in for those weaknesses, is key for success.  I have seen and heard about too many people with terrific concepts, ideas, and vision fail because they don’t have strong business knowledge about costs, sales, marketing, financials, cash flow management, personnel management, or other key components for success, and they have tried to do it all themselves.