Name: Sail and Trail
Based: Burton-on-Trent
Website: www.sailandtrail.co.uk
I’ve always been passionate about the outdoors and am both a keen caravanner and a Yachtmaster, so setting up my own outdoor lifestyle company seemed like a great way to combine my hobbies with work.
Sail and Trail is a small company and there’s been a lot of learning on the job. Firstly, I learnt that if you can’t do a job efficiently, outsource it to someone who can, whether it be for printing, accounting or design.
Secondly I learnt that while people do like to meet you face-to-face, to try on lifejackets or see how a generator works, nothing can compete with the internet.
We’ve diverted our focus from tradeshows to our online presence and have seen staggering results. In 2009 the internet was responsible for just 25% of our turnover, with the rest coming from shows. In 2014 75% of our business was done through our online presence and only 25% at shows. In that time we have also increased our turnover three-fold to well over half a million per annum.
However, the thing that has really increased Sail and Trail’s efficiency is the recent implementation of in-depth stock control systems that allow us to list our products on our website, Amazon and eBay all in one hit.
As any small business owner will know, time is the one thing you can never get enough of, and now I have more of it I can focus on other areas of the business.
Neil Phillips is the founder of Sail and Trail
