Ok, technically, the LLC was formed in February, but the opening date to the public was March 1, 2024. Most books on business discuss it from the back side of success, and there are not many "I'm in the thick of it still and not sure if this is going to work" books or blogs to follow. At the very least, I hope to have captured enough data to provide an interesting retrospective at the end of the year. So first, some website traffic data out of the Wix platform.
The most interesting numbers to me are the unique visitor counts, which are between 33 and 58 per month (February's 69 is an outlier as I reached out to friends and former coworkers to test/provide feedback on the site and the Google Ads bots indexed it that month as well).
54% of people who went to the homepage immediately decided they didn't like what I had to offer and closed the browser. I suspect this is mostly due to the map showing my relatively small service delivery area or users accidentally clicking on the ad from inside a mobile game (Google will place your ad in areas beyond search results). 46% clicked around enough to see at least what wares I had to offer.
In May, I kicked off a Google Ads campaign to boost my site traffic, showing up as a sponsored link on about a dozen different search terms. I know at least one customer found me via Google search, and that rental cost was just about enough to cover the entire campaign (though an $85 customer acquisition cost is pretty high to be sustained much beyond the end of the year). Another sale came from a comment on an old Reddit post, which was unexpected. I had assumed all of that traffic was bots.
The most heartwarming part of the data is seeing that most of the traffic has come from people clicking on the posts I've shared on my personal page. Most of my connections would never be customers (due to proximity and being avid campers already), but they still take a few minutes to check out the site or read the blog. Going from idea to product offering has been lubricated by the council and well-wishes of many voices cheering for this company's (and my) success.
Lastly, an interesting observation on product mix. The original concept was to have an all-in-one product bundle for families to experience the outdoors for around the same price as a night at a hotel, and that was the first offering I added to the website. So far, though, every tent rental has been for a solo or couple. I quickly built out a 2-person bundle, focusing on a lower price point and smaller form-factor gear that would take up less space (one out of state customer was driving a rented Audi convertible, and it was challenging to fit the regular-sized kit in the small trunk). I am still excited for someone to experience some of the more creature-comfort products like the 12-volt refrigerator, which is perfect for road trips, or the beastly 1200w portable power station, but I'm sure that time will come soon enough.
In short, I've been having an absolute blast learning more about operating a small business, and customer feedback has been unanimously positive. I am working on a direct-mail postcard to send to a few neighborhoods in my area and see how that impacts site performance. Getting feedback from other business owners has also been hugely helpful on this journey (shout out to Greg from Monkey Paw Entertainment, Frank from Virtualizen, and Zackery from [company not ready for public reveal quite yet]). I hope to have similarly positive notes to relay in the end-of-the-year post. Thanks for reading and pumping up the traffic stats 🙂
-Jesse
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