I started this adventure 4 years ago and by starting this adventure I mean knowing I wanted to run my own business but clueless on what or how. So considering I did not know what to do I started reading every book I could that dealt with Entrepreneurs, Startups, Self Improvement, even some Social Psychology. I eventually got the Idea to create a Natural Nootropic supplement which is
Simply Focus and the website
Mental Giants Nutrition to sell it on. Simply Focus was created to scratch an itch I had acquired, I have a full time job, going to college full time for "Technical Management" and have two kids both very young and demanding much of my time when I was home, and I knew I wanted to start a business so I tried to read every chance I got. This would mentally exhaust me! So I began looking into brain nutrition, I believed with a strong and healthy brain it would cut the fatigue.
After researching all the products on the market, I started learning towards the natural nootropics and for a few reason, I was a little worried about putting chemicals in my body that particularly effected the brain, and second the research and understanding out their on the vitamins and herbs on the natural side was obviously greater. So I put togehter all the things that have shown to improve mental ability, energy, and focus. And Simply Focus was born!
Next step was selling and marketing, I sold over 60 bottles in the first week! which I thought was a pretty great feat, the problem was it was people I knew and were able to talk to and explain the product, I found if I were able to explain the product to anyone they were more then interested. Even better 90% of all the people trying it gave me awesome feedback, many bought multiple bottles on their second purchase, this was really exciting. But then sales began to slow down or I at least not getting anonymous sales online. This is a problem I still face today their is something, information or the presentation of that information that I am lacking on the website, I know this because I have been getting a decent amount of traffic but no purchases that are anomymous. So I did somewhat of a website overhaul, made the website more of a Nootropic theme which matches the company name and it worked out looking great. (shout out to my designer
Megan who did an amazing job)
****Case and point in the middle of writing this post two little kids came over and demanded I pick them up for some play time.. haha
Ok trying to regain my thought patter. After the website theme change I added some nutrition information and a 30 day money back guarantee which was an easy decision after all the positive feedback i've been experiencing.
Then after reading
Re-Work I got somewhat of a break through idea. Ive played sports all my life and been somewhat of a gym rat, with that I have been asked many times by friends and others what type of supplements they should use. After asking a few questions I was able to match them to a product that would work well for them. With that in mind it hit me, create an online supplement store that makes shopping for supplements SIMPLE. Most beginners and even advanced health enthusiast are overwhelmed and intimidated when walking into a sports nutrition store and it is understandable you walk in and there are so many options, everything with crazy made up terminologies and loud pictures most are hard to decipher. The same thing occurs on online websites, you have to skim through hundreds of products hoping that you can trust customer reviews on what to purchase, which is becoming harder everyday the way some sites prime reviews.
What I plan on doing about it. I am going to make purchasing supplements
SIMPLE and
EASY to do. Like I have many times in the past I will research products for people and only stock the highest quality and effective products for my customers, I will also take another step to ensure simplicity, I will cut down on the amount of products customers are subjected to. I will only carry up to 3 brands of any supplement category. For example in whey proteins I will carry a 1. high quality, 2. High Value, 3. Most Popular. I will also keep the category selection small and focus on the basics, i.e protein. multi-vitamins, pre-workout, ect.
I have a few other ideas that you will just have to wait and see on the
website, I truly believe they will change the way supplements are bought online, and I'm very excited about it. I'll try to keep you updated on the blog.
"See you at the top!"
Tom McConnell
www.mentalgiantsnutrition.com