Apr 13, 2008 - 04:05:08 CDT
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What started as a hobby, selling antiques online from a dark, crowded basement, is now a multimillion-dollar, family-run company.
Balkowitsch Enterprises started as Sharon’s Collectibles & More, selling antiques and glass collectibles. Today, it is an online, premium medical supplies seller, working from a new 5,500-square-foot warehouse just south of Bismarck.
Sharon Balkowitsch always loved antiques — selling them, buying them, owning them. In 1997, she ran a little shop on Main Avenue in Bismarck, Sharon’s Collectibles; soon after, she asked her son, Shane Balkowitsch, to help her dabble online.
“Then I heard about eBay,” Sharon Balkowitsch said. “I was interested in looking for more things to buy. At that time, I wasn’t too computer savvy.”
The rest is history.
Shane and Sharon Balkowitsch operated Sharon’s Collectibles & More out of her basement after that, matching antiques with buyers online. The bathroom held their boxes, a closet held their packing supplies.
“Collectibles did very well for the time,” she said. “When we first went to the mailbox the first week, we had a $100-something check in the mail, and we just about had a heart attack. We thought that was big bucks.”
In fact, their first year, they sold about 2,000 items online.
Quite the difference from last year’s multimillion-dollar revenues.
They quickly moved away from collectibles, finding a market niche in medical supplies. Shane Balkowitsch had been working full-time as a registered nurse and found a stethoscope that he’d wanted to sell online. Within months, they became the No. 1 seller nationwide of the item.
Collectibles quickly dropped back to a hobby. In fact, with the growing popularity of online selling and eBay, the antiques market became too saturated. Prices were dropping.
But medical supplies were always in demand, and Shane Balkowitsch’s familiarity with the market lent credibility to the business.
“The customers want to buy from a nurse,” he said.
Still working out of a basement, the family labored in the early hours of the morning, hand-packaging and shipping, until the late hours of night, filling orders and packing up. Shane Balkowitsch’s wife often helped with the packing. Together, they all moved through their thousands of products, took late-night phone calls, always keeping an eye on the market, on distributors and buying trends.
In 2003, they were honored with eBay’s Platinum Level Powerseller, which requires sellers to pull in at least $25,000 a month in sales. Their success at selling online, when online selling was still gaining ground, was featured in Time Magazine and Reader’s Digest.
In 2004, Balkowitsch Enterprises made a bold move, building a new facility off Airport Road, with a warehouse and office space for more staff.
Brothers Loren and Chad Balkowitsch came on board, to help with business planning and online store management. Chad’s wife, Melissa, also helps part time.
Regardless of changing niches, the online industry is still a competitive one; buyers can research prices instantly, and even a 5-cent difference in a product can mean business goes elsewhere.
“The market is much larger than people realize,” Shane Balkowitsch said. “It’s easy to get lost out there.”
The Bismarck company, now called Balkowitsch Enterprises, is now in a position where manufacturers are contacting them to sell items.
The company does business internationally, which most of their own product manufacturers won’t risk doing; in fact, 20 percent to 25 percent of the Balkowitsch Enterprise’s business is now international. Despite language barriers and long hours, Shane Balkowitsch says, they get it done.
“The world is our market,” he said. “Our growth is not limited, that we can see.”
The risk of getting burned, of dealing with fraudulent customers, doesn’t outweigh the overall payback in the long run.
And that payback has been huge. What was a business that maybe pushed $3,000 a year in revenue in 1998, is now posting earnings in the low millions. They still log long days; keeping the phones open 24 hours a day means cell phones could ring all night long. But they feel blessed.
If history is a predictor, they’ll continue to grow. In 1998, the company’s average sale was less than $5.50; today, sales average $212 each. And now, there’s a lot more of them. They continue to research and sell new health, wellness, beauty, medical and fitness products, Shane Balkowitsch said. They continue to expand their product line and take advantage of the world market online offers.
“We’re very blessed, we really are,” Sharon Balkowitsch said.
(Reach reporter Crystal R. Reid at 250-8261 or at crystal.reid@bismarcktribune.com.)
Balkowitsch Enterprises started as Sharon’s Collectibles & More, selling antiques and glass collectibles. Today, it is an online, premium medical supplies seller, working from a new 5,500-square-foot warehouse just south of Bismarck.
Sharon Balkowitsch always loved antiques — selling them, buying them, owning them. In 1997, she ran a little shop on Main Avenue in Bismarck, Sharon’s Collectibles; soon after, she asked her son, Shane Balkowitsch, to help her dabble online.
“Then I heard about eBay,” Sharon Balkowitsch said. “I was interested in looking for more things to buy. At that time, I wasn’t too computer savvy.”
The rest is history.
Shane and Sharon Balkowitsch operated Sharon’s Collectibles & More out of her basement after that, matching antiques with buyers online. The bathroom held their boxes, a closet held their packing supplies.
“Collectibles did very well for the time,” she said. “When we first went to the mailbox the first week, we had a $100-something check in the mail, and we just about had a heart attack. We thought that was big bucks.”
In fact, their first year, they sold about 2,000 items online.
Quite the difference from last year’s multimillion-dollar revenues.
They quickly moved away from collectibles, finding a market niche in medical supplies. Shane Balkowitsch had been working full-time as a registered nurse and found a stethoscope that he’d wanted to sell online. Within months, they became the No. 1 seller nationwide of the item.
Collectibles quickly dropped back to a hobby. In fact, with the growing popularity of online selling and eBay, the antiques market became too saturated. Prices were dropping.
But medical supplies were always in demand, and Shane Balkowitsch’s familiarity with the market lent credibility to the business.
“The customers want to buy from a nurse,” he said.
Still working out of a basement, the family labored in the early hours of the morning, hand-packaging and shipping, until the late hours of night, filling orders and packing up. Shane Balkowitsch’s wife often helped with the packing. Together, they all moved through their thousands of products, took late-night phone calls, always keeping an eye on the market, on distributors and buying trends.
In 2003, they were honored with eBay’s Platinum Level Powerseller, which requires sellers to pull in at least $25,000 a month in sales. Their success at selling online, when online selling was still gaining ground, was featured in Time Magazine and Reader’s Digest.
In 2004, Balkowitsch Enterprises made a bold move, building a new facility off Airport Road, with a warehouse and office space for more staff.
Brothers Loren and Chad Balkowitsch came on board, to help with business planning and online store management. Chad’s wife, Melissa, also helps part time.
Regardless of changing niches, the online industry is still a competitive one; buyers can research prices instantly, and even a 5-cent difference in a product can mean business goes elsewhere.
“The market is much larger than people realize,” Shane Balkowitsch said. “It’s easy to get lost out there.”
The Bismarck company, now called Balkowitsch Enterprises, is now in a position where manufacturers are contacting them to sell items.
The company does business internationally, which most of their own product manufacturers won’t risk doing; in fact, 20 percent to 25 percent of the Balkowitsch Enterprise’s business is now international. Despite language barriers and long hours, Shane Balkowitsch says, they get it done.
“The world is our market,” he said. “Our growth is not limited, that we can see.”
The risk of getting burned, of dealing with fraudulent customers, doesn’t outweigh the overall payback in the long run.
And that payback has been huge. What was a business that maybe pushed $3,000 a year in revenue in 1998, is now posting earnings in the low millions. They still log long days; keeping the phones open 24 hours a day means cell phones could ring all night long. But they feel blessed.
If history is a predictor, they’ll continue to grow. In 1998, the company’s average sale was less than $5.50; today, sales average $212 each. And now, there’s a lot more of them. They continue to research and sell new health, wellness, beauty, medical and fitness products, Shane Balkowitsch said. They continue to expand their product line and take advantage of the world market online offers.
“We’re very blessed, we really are,” Sharon Balkowitsch said.
(Reach reporter Crystal R. Reid at 250-8261 or at crystal.reid@bismarcktribune.com.)
czbee94 wrote on Apr 17, 2008 9:25 AM:
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