One Woman's Story of Marketing on the Internet

Working from her home office one sunny Monday morning, Julie Azuma, President of Different Roads to Learning, accesses her computer at 8:00 AM in the morning. She finds six orders and several e-mail messages for her catalogue that came in since the time she logged off at 6:00 PM the day before. By late afternoon, Azuma filled a total of 20 orders, 6 of which were from overseas clients.

Azuma, a mother of two girls, Sophie age 7 and Miranda age 10, went on the world wide web to sell educational toys for learning disabled children in late September of 1995. She began with a web site (market survey) and her own domain and followed up with an on-line catalogue in November of 1995. She took her first orders in December of 1995. In April of 1996, she had the hard copy of the catalogue ready. Azuma has noticed an interesting phenomenon -- Internet browsers would ask for a hard copy of the catalogue even though the same catalogue is on the internet.

What should give non-computer nerds confidence is that before she began her business, Azuma was computer illiterate. In a recent interview, Azuma said " I remember going to a PC show and thinking how little I knew and wondering if I could ever remember everything. It really doesn't take long to figure out how to use the internet. It was painful in the beginning but now I feel very comfortable."

How Azuma decided on her product for her business is a very personal story. In 1994, Azuma wanted her own business and came up with the idea of selling playthings to the learning disabled because she had difficulties getting the right toys for eldest daughter, Miranda, who was diagnosed with autism. Initially she was going to open a retail store but the cost was prohibitive and potential investors found this type of start up to be too risky. After taking a series of small business development courses, she put together a business plan and investigated the possibility of selling over the Internet. She believed that the Internet was destined to become a lucrative place to sell her products. She thought that since 15% of children in America have some kind of a disability, most of them with learning disabilities, this would be a good niche market. She looked at the competition, researched suppliers and targeted her market very carefully.

Azuma had substantial initial expenses when she purchased computers, set up telephone lines, hired an attorney, and ordered inventory. Her cost for the web site was less than $2,000. Every 6 months, she updates her web site to feature new product and the cost is $1500 to $2000. Her present monthly cost for a server and domain is $75.00 a month with a $300 a month telephone bill for two 800 numbers and one business line. She has two Internet providers and pays a small fee for the use of credit cards and of course, pays a percentage of her sales to Master Card/Visa. Azuma added secured commerce in mid 1997 but only 5% of her clients used this method to pay and these clients were generally from abroad or from the West Coast. However, with the acceptance of e-commerce as a natural way of buying, sales from credit cards have been increasing on a steady basis.

During her first full year in business(1996), Azuma had only $8,000 in sales volume and in 1997 it jumped to about $100,000. If her present sales trends continues, she expects sales of about $500,000 for 1999. What has depressed her profit is the high cost of printing her catalogue. To cut costs, she had only one printing of her catalogue in 1998 and 1999. The Internet has given her a mailing list of four thousand, and she is planning to do more public relations and marketing to get the word out about her products. She recently bought a special needs mailing list and has been advertising in Exceptional Parent Magazine, Tuesdays Child and The Advocate (an autism newsletter).

She added software in February of 1998 and designed a special software supplement to her catalogue. She decided to add software when many of her customers asked her for software for speech and language which helps induce language in children. She has decided that technology products are more profitable and she is going to eliminate the merchandise that has not sold well. In the future, her catalogue of products will be much more serious, not the original toy catalogue she started with, but much more a learning catalogue. She sells items not readily available and she is now gaining fame as a specialized vendor. In the past, she had to fight to sell certain products but now companies seek her out to sell their products because she is known in the special needs markets.

Azuma's efforts selling to schools and institutions is beginning to pay off. She has linked her site with sites that are compatible such as those dealing with special needs children. She is getting school and early intervention business on a steady basis. A year ago, her customers were parent-based and now it is center and government and social service based.

In 1999, Azuma started a publishing company, DRL Books, which publishs a comprehensive handbook on autistic children. The demand for the book has outpaced projections and the new company is expected to gross $100,000 in sales this year. She is presently looking for other books to publish but has not found any quality materials which meet her high standards of assisting parents and teachers.

Azuma frequently attends trade shows and conferences, particularly those geared towards the learning disabled. Most of these are public relations and outreach tools rather than a profit-making center. She sees it as getting to know her customers, putting a face on her business. Since Azuma's business has grown consistently and each month she sees her sales volume go up, she is very positive about her business on the internet and although she is far from getting rich, her business is thriving and she gets what all of us want from our work -- satisfaction.

When asked how she felt about her business, Azuma responded "I really love the business. It is rewarding and I feel I am helping people. I feel confident and knowledgeable when I talk to people. When customers call and ask about particular items, I will tell them not buy "X" or "Y" if I don't think it is suitable for them. I am not the killer sales type but I do provide excellent customer service that results in customer loyalty. I am well versed on the subject matter and I feel I am helping kids and helping parents. Many parents are really lost on how to find things. They get a list of items to make their children better and they can't find it. They will never find them off the shelves in places like Toys R Us. What is particularly gratifying are the many e-mail messages and calls I receive from customers thanking me for selling a line of products that they can't readily buy elsewhere"

Besides raising two children and running her business, Azuma volunteers a considerable amount of time to assisting Asian American groups and is active in several autistic organizations. An unsung hero, it was not until 1997 that she was publicly recognized for her good works when she received the prestigious Martin Luther King Award for community service from the Governor of New York State. Azuma's generosity is inspiring and she has a large following of admiring friends. Her spacious loft is often filled with people since she allows many non-profit organizations to use her home for their events. Her husband, Tamio, is a supportive and loving spouse and together, they represent an ideal couple. They make a living but they remember that to help others, to give back to the community, is just as important as making money.

You can visit her on-line catalogue at: www.difflearn.com; e-mail: julie@difflearn.com Tel: 1-800/853-1057; Fax: 212/206-9329


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