Name of your website?www.heartsandroses.com
Your name?
James Norman
Your Location (city, etc)
George
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Our site is aimed at expats abroad who would like to have fresh cut flowers delivered to friends and family in South Africa - Local residents can also make use of the freecall number 080FLOWERS ( 0803569377) to order anywhere in the world
What inspired you to launch your own website?
We received many requests from expats visiting our retail stores in the Garden Route, South Africa. This website allows them to have flowers delivered easily and painlessly. Local residents also use the site to remain close to friends and family they may not get a chance to visit as often, due to high traveling costs these days.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
www.helpart.com was website displaying the artworks of children displaced by war and violence - set up during the Kosovo crisis and during the Turkish earthquake. As it was self funded we ran into funding and time constraints and had to close.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
Hearts and roses brings a happy loving feeling to flowers in a world sometimes too dark and despairing!
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
We offer a freecall to clients in South Africa, we have physical presence in the florist industry through our stores in SA so we are not simply a "cyber flower service" using others to do the real work - we understand the client and product intimately
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
We are developing other interesting and innovative ways to order flowers, targeting expats and all people traveling away from home - our goal is to build the heartsandroses.com brand to be synonymous with excellent quality fresh cut flowers and gifts delivered world wide -
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
thus far we realize time has been our major problem, but with expansion we understand the commitment - this will change as we employ staff and be replaced by financial constraint - the nature of this business dictates that ad spend volume is directly related to business volume - we are first trying the "freebies" on various expat websites! ( time again!)
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
We have a world fist in flower ordering which we cannot discuss at this early stage - should we attract an investor we will divulge details and take the world by storm!
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
We are restricted only by call center size so this is easily expanded by contracting out and taking a lesser margin for greater capacity.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
retail space price hikes in the over heated South African property market - we occupy prime retail space in local shopping Malls
What has been your biggest challenge?
Managing time
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Word of mouth and links to other sites
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
not as much volume as we had hoped so we are looking at outsourcing expert advise on how to get more traffic
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
just opened in its current form but we have had a "presence" with our old site for three years.
what would you like to say to the webmaster
Watch this site for something really big in the near future - give us two months!
What is your website address?
www.heartsandroses.com
