Image Source:Blurred forest by jonasj

I was reading some news about the success story of Zappos.com. – The number one online footwear store. If you don’t know anything about Zappos, You can read the following news on CNN. Shoe In – Zappos has become the No. 1 footwear retailer on the Web by making customer service a competitive weapon.

Personally, I am also a satisfied Zappos customer, but I am not here to promote Zappos. I was amazed by how a start-up company growing so fast in so little time. I don’t want to repeat their success story here. What I really like to do is to think how the rest of us can learn from Zappos.

While reading the news, I decided to follow Zappos CEO Tony on Twitter.

I decided to send Tony a short question. He is following over 5300+ people on twitter. So I did not expect to receive his answers. I simply asked the following question.

What would you suggestion small retailers who don’t have $M to grow like Zappos?

In few minutes, he replied my question with the following answer.

Provide a unique customer experience that your customers will love and develop a personal emotional connection with… it doesn’t have to cost a lot of $, just make your store experience unique, memorable, and addicting

Hmm… Tony is very active on Twitter. Shortly after sending him a follow up, I got few more Zappos folks following me suddenly. OK. That’s surprise. That includes Zappos’ COO, Warehouse manager, recruiting manager and so on.

What amazed me is that Zappos really embrace the new technology to help them grow their business. That’s also not my point here either. I then discovered old news on CNN that mentioned Zappos. You can read it on CNN about Start Last, Finish First – Have an idea for a startup that could challenge an industry leader? There’s never been a better time to come late to the race.

This news did get me thinking how we can become the next Zappos. Zappos is not the first one selling shoes on the Internet, but they finished first and became the largest one. It’s very inspirational to people like me, who really want to get their life going to the next level.

I always have fears to do something that I don’t even have clues. Afraid of being a loser, I often became a really loser at the end. I don’t believe that Tony knows about shoes that much at beginning, but he has turned his business into the shoes retail giant. Even Zappos started with $M funding and a lot of investment from other sources, they only started making profit two years ago. It took Zappos about 7+ years to become profitable. That’s something a small business should learn about. It takes time to get real profit, if you don’t give up too quick.

I did more reading on Zappos’ blog. I found a great presentation that CEO Tony presented recently. You can see the slide show about Get $1 Billion. Don’t pay attention on how the grow and how much money they have made. Pay attention on those 4 things you need to get $1 Billion.

 

| View | Upload your own

Now, my real challenge is not what I will be doing and not how fast I will be doing. It’s about how I accomplish those things with minimum budget, since I don’t have $M to spend. However, Like Tony said earlier. “It doesn’t have to cost a lot of $.” Well it’s easier say than done, but I agree with him 100%. They are not the first case study to prove it.

To be honest, at the moment of this writing, I feel that I am lost in the forest like the image above. I almost forgot that I have all the materials and resources to build my business. I just need to turn the trees into the solid wood and build from them. That’s it!

I think this post will be read by many people, because Zappos’ COO Aflred just sent me a twit asking me to send him this post URL. Anyway, I have to thank Tony and Zappos folks for following me on Twitter and inspiring me with fresh new challenge.

Where will I be 7 years later?

If you are interested in what I will be doing and how I do, feel free to follow me on Twitter.