YGG’s first interview is with Joey Pomerenke, owner of JP eTail Group LLC, the company which founded Paws Up Pet Supply, among many others.

Joey is a member at YGG and has been for a long time. His username is “jpomerenke” so if you have any questions, you can get ahold of him on the YGG Forum.

First and foremost, thank you for taking the time to do this interview
for YGG. Lets get down to business.

Thanks for having me Eric.

To tie into this weeks poll, how old are you Joey?

I am 23 years old.

What were you doing in life when you decided to start your own business?

I was a freshman in college and was working at a major grocery store chain that I had also worked in through high school and I knew that I could not work the 9-5 and get paid a set salary no matter how hard I worked and that is kind of what got me going with the idea of owning my own business. That and also my dad was an entrepreneur at heart, so he guided me in that direction mentally I think.

Are you going to finish out college and get your degree as planned?

Yes, I only have one more semester left and have already spent upwards of $30,000 on it, so I am defiantly going to finish. Hell, even if I don’t use the degree ever again in my life (which I better not have to) I had lots of fun!

What is JP eTail Group’s flagship product?

Pet Supplies is definitely our flagship product as it is what started the company. But really I like to think of our company’s flagship product more on the lines of Ecommerce website and customer service. We are really just a service company that happens to sell pet supplies, etc.

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced through the development phase of Paws Up?

I would have to say finding the right companies to do work for you. We outsource all of our programming, web design, and graphic design. We needed to find a partner that was cheap, reliable and did great work. This was a lot harder then expected.

Also the supplier needs to be good also and that ones another big challenge we went through in the beginning. We used two different fulfillment partners before we started using our current partner.

You have your products drop shipped, correct? Did you have to negotiate a special program just for PUPS or did they have something right out of the box for you to use?

The distributor we use did have a program in place for consumer fulfillment, but it was mainly in place for their big brick and mortar clients to ship products directly to customers if they did not stock a particular product in their store. Also some big non brick and mortar companies used the program for fulfillment such as QVC.

We did have to negotiate good discounts from wholesale right off the bat. This is virtually impossible to do without any volume. They made a good choice in doing it because last I heard we are one of their top three dot coms now with order volume.

With so many competing websites out there, how have you separated yourself from the pack and put your product in front of consumers?

We just focused on having very competitive prices but also doing solely CPA advertising. With people not familiar with this form of advertising it is when a business only pays for advertising when one of their partners or affiliates gets them a sale. So we know that we are not paying too much for advertising with this form. We also don’t have to compete with bidding wars against the large competitors we have if we chose to do CPC advertising.

Some of our larger CPA partners (directly and indirectly) are Amazon, Shop.com, GiveAnything.com and Affiliates.

I know you’ve tried different methods for sales, such as lower prices with higher shipping, higher prices with free shipping, etc. - which combination has worked out the best thus far?

The most successful for us has been actual real-time UPS shipping rates with low prices. During the holidays we do run some free shipping specials and they do work very well for raising the average order size.

What other companies/websites does JP eTail Group LLC operate, or plan to operate? What do they do?

JP eTail Group will essentially be a collection of ecommerce websites.

We are still in the process of launching all of our future websites. We have over a dozen different sites we are working on at this time. They include a couple fragrance sites, a hot sauce/salsa site, sports memorabilia site, outdoor products site, a poster site and a few more niche pet product sites.

Be watching for TooDarnHot.com, TurnItUpSports.com, FragranceMonkey.com, PosterShark.com, CologneEtc.com, BuyDude.com, ZippoGuys.com, FlashlightBuy.com, SimplyBirdHouses.com, GuineaPigStore.com, PetSupplyGalore.com and HermitCrabStore.com
COMING SOON.

What can we expect to see from JP eTail Group LLC in the near future?

JP eTail Group is in the business of launching ecommerce websites. So in the future you can expect us to be launching new ecommerce stores with new product lines and also niche stores that use our current product lines.

If I asked you to answer “What is JP eTail Group� in 5 sentences or less, what would be your response?

JP eTail Group is a collection of ecommerce websites providing competitive prices and great customer service, making us the ultimate shopping experience. Customers can shop our collection of websites 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to get their favorite products shipped direct to their door.

What has been your biggest asset while building your business?

I would have to say the support of my family and also the fact that I was in college when I started the business. I used financial aid to pay for my personal expenses while starting the business so I did not have to work for someone other then myself after class.

Adversely, what’s been your biggest vice?

I would have to say motivation and drive. I am very driven to start a business, but when it comes down to daily operations and the repetitiveness of the day to day operations, it is hard for me to actually stay motivated and spend more then six hours at my desk, even if I have stuff that needs to get done.

Everyone starts to feel burn out on a project every now and then. What do you do to keep yourself motivated and focused?

I try to work on a new project constantly. Whether that is a new website idea or a new marketing idea for our current websites and projects.

Can you give us three tools that you use every single day to make your life as an entrepreneur more efficient, productive, or fun?

Well my computers would be an obvious one so I won’t even consider that one.

I would have to say my Blackberry is one. I couldn’t live without it. It’s my main business phone, my mobile email machine and my organizer. Without it would be lost.

I have a dual monitor set up on my computer from Mass Multiples (http://www.massmultiples.com/) I work twice as fast with them than I do when I am using one of my computers in our office with one monitor.

Fun? I would say our 46� LCD just because I need a break now and then and love to watch movies when am felling a little burned out. And I don’t want to forget the fridge always packed with cold beers. (Joey Laughs)

What’s your favorite quote?

Early to bed, Early to rise, work like hell and advertise. I am not really sure who said it, but I bet if you google it you can find out.

That’s Ted Turner actually. Great quote. If you could give one piece of advice to fellow young go getters, what would it be?

Would the above quote work for this also? (Joey Laughs) I would say find something that you have a passion for, find a way to make money with it (legally of course) and go for it. That’s really what entrepreneurship to me is all about. You don’t have to be the smartest person in the world to start a business. Shit, I am a C average student at college and I am doing just fine. Just find something you like that can make money and that alone should motivate you enough.

Thanks again, Joey, for taking a time out with YGG this afternoon. We appreciate your input, and hopefully YGG members can take something away from this interview that will help them on their journey through Entrepreneurville.

No problem Eric. I appreciate you having me here today and if anyone has any questions, don’t hesitate to ask me.

Check out Paws Up Pet Supply.