I quit my job to sell Christmas trees online - follow my journey

[iamrofe]

Hi all,

I bought Christmastrees.co.uk on DL last year, and last month I decided to quit my job to sell Christmas trees online.

I'm documenting the whole journey, from finding a supplier, to building the site and marketing it.

You can follow the journey here https://rofe.co.uk/christmas/

 

[ian]

Always enjoy your mad journey's, you are a loon. Best of luck.

 

[dee]

Brilliant. I'll be watching.... loved the dating escapade. wanksock is down by the way lol

 

[Rossy]

Bold move, I like it!
With a good business model this could turn out like a walk in the park!

 

[martin-s]

I'll be interested to see how this goes. Christmas trees are such a hyper-local product and I'd have assumed that most people in the countryside at least know where they get theirs each year.

I could see it doing well in towns on a Just Eat model, where you do the deals, take a commission and existing local outlets do the delivery?

 

[Adam H]

I quit my job slash view a subpage on my company PR/SEO freelancer page.

Nice PR and a good idea

Bet your fun at parties Maybe marks got a few of his socks left he can send you to brighten your day

 

[DesD]

Brilliant. Have followed you on Twitter and look forward to following your journey.

 

[iamrofe]

I quit my job slash view a subpage on my company PR/SEO freelancer page.

Nice PR and a good idea

ha! I don't actually do freelance, and nowhere do I advertise it, it's just a page full of dumb shit I've done for myself!

 

[iamrofe]

I'll be interested to see how this goes. Christmas trees are such a hyper-local product and I'd have assumed that most people in the countryside at least know where they get theirs each year.

I could see it doing well in towns on a Just Eat model, where you do the deals, take a commission and existing local outlets do the delivery?

I'm going to explain in the next video, but it won't be a just-eat model, that would be too chaotic and I'd have no idea on the quality as could differ everywhere!

I think there's a big opportunity, especially this year with the pandemic, a lot of people aren't going to want to go to busy garden centres, christmas tree farms, department stores, or wherever it is they get their trees from. People are buying online now, more-so than ever!

Trees are a ballache to transport too, which means if you live in a city and don't have a car, it's a hassle to get one.

Hoping this all works in my favour!

 

[iamrofe]

Brilliant. Have followed you on Twitter and look forward to following your journey.

Thank you! I hope it works out hahaha

 

[JMI]

Good luck. I did something similar over 10 years ago on christmas tree man .co.uk a joint venture. The main guy ended up on Chris Evans show as we were selling the middle class eco dream of replanting the same tree each year nationally - it would even be collected! We had orders from Dorset to Newcastle, PayPal was doing 300 pd, then 1k pd, then suddenly 5k-8kpd from mid November, John Lewis were interested in being involved. Everyone got their trees and was happy... Then meltdown.

PayPal was overflowing with money. Post xmas no trees got collected hundreds complained to paypal, PayPal suspended the account with 100k+, never got a penny!

 

[iamrofe]

Good luck. I did something similar over 10 years ago on christmas tree man .co.uk a joint venture. The main guy ended up on Chris Evans show as we were selling the middle class eco dream of replanting the same tree each year nationally - it would even be collected! We had orders from Dorset to Newcastle, PayPal was doing 300 pd, then 1k pd, then suddenly 5k-8kpd from mid November, John Lewis were interested in being involved. Everyone got their trees and was happy... Then meltdown.

PayPal was overflowing with money. Post xmas no trees got collected hundreds complained to paypal, PayPal suspended the account with 100k+, never got a penny!

No way! That's really interesting, I'd love to do a service that collects trees, maybe one for the future.

If the sales were coming in, then shows there's a market for it

If you have any words of advice or wisdom, i'm all ears!

 

[lazarus]

I assume you have thought about offering an extra add-on service for the collection of the old Christmas tree.
I think most people would go for that, if you can make it work somehow at the £15 - £20 price point.

Even if you offer the collection service in specific built up areas. You could hire a man with a van to go round and collect them. You could probably get 50 in a large van. Probably 20 blokes or so could cover most of the counties major areas.

 

[dee]

No way! That's really interesting, I'd love to do a service that collects trees, maybe one for the future.

If the sales were coming in, then shows there's a market for it

If you have any words of advice or wisdom, i'm all ears!

Just set up the trees to automagically explode / self destruct 12 days after Christmas. Booom...job done. You're welcome.

 

[DesD]

My gran used to say money doesn’t grow on trees - here’s hoping you can prove her wrong!

 

[dee]

I assume you have thought about offering an extra add-on service for the collection of the old Christmas tree.
I think most people would go for that, if you can make it work somehow at the £15 - £20 price point.

Even if you offer the collection service in specific built up areas. You could hire a man with a van to go round and collect them. You could probably get 50 in a large van. Probably 20 blokes or so could cover most of the counties major areas.

Get in contact with the cubs/ scouts head office . Seems to be a tradition in most areas they do a tree collection service . Offer them the collections list at the full 5 quid and save them the hassle of list building and put a bit back into local communities. You can use it as a positive pitch.Tack a quid on the front end to pay for the admin.

 

[JMI]

No way! That's really interesting, I'd love to do a service that collects trees, maybe one for the future.

If the sales were coming in, then shows there's a market for it

If you have any words of advice or wisdom, i'm all ears!

Our model was unworkable except with the help of massive supplier.

My advice is think very carefully about what you do in the current climate.

 

[DaveP]

Mark did you ever have a successful date from the 2000 applicants?

 

[iamrofe]

Mark did you ever have a successful date from the 2000 applicants?

I DID!

I'm with someone, she doesn't hate me yet, so I guess it's going well.

 

[BREWSTERS]

I DID!

I'm with someone, she doesn't hate me yet, so I guess it's going well.

If at any time you want to change that...get married!

Good luck with the trees. Years ago I was looking for industrial premises and viewed a big unit which was full to bursting with Christmas decorations. The company renting it bought throughout the year from China, then they said they'd clear the lot out and start again. They had other units around the country and were vacating that one for somewhere bigger.

Nice holding page BTW.