Q. Derek, tell us a little bit about your background. Have you always been involved with Simply Superheroes? If not, what did you do before? What caused you to change course and launch SimplySuperheroes.com?  

A. I began, like many people who sell online, with eBay.  I started selling on their website in 1999 and had a blast doing it, increasing my feedback and taking whatever steps I needed to keep my feedback at 100%.  And those steps were about having great customer service. 

By 2007 I knew I wanted to give it a go without eBay.  I started my own company and called it No Brainer Bargains.  I launched my own website in 2008 (read: yahoo store) after spending too much on a web designer and I learned two things: (1) eBay sellers are spoiled by the traffic.  It’s humbling when only 10 visitors or less look around your site each day.  It’s hard work to get traffic.  (2) You have to have a niche.  I didn’t have any theme to my store other than what I was selling based on price.  

So I knew I had to specialize.  Coincidentally I attended the eBay Live convention in Chicago and picked workshops to help me get an idea of how to specialize.  In one of the workshops, it was suggested I should sell what I like.  So I reviewed my current inventory and what I had been selling on eBay lately.  And that’s when it hit me – even though I was getting positive feedback from buyers of the Superman and Batman pajamas I sold, I was getting emails from them.  I thought they were contacting me because something was wrong with the pajamas or they hadn’t received their packages.  Instead, they were thanking me and telling me how happy I made their young superhero fans.  

And that’s when it hit me like when you hear a song you like and you get that tingling sensation going down the side of your body.  This sensation happened throughout my body…as if my body was telling me, “Dude–bingo!”  

After doing the research and planning for the next 6 months, I launched SimplySuperheroes.com. 

Q. Your “About Us” page (http://www.simplysuperheroes.com/pages/about-us) really caught my attention. Not only did I personally connect to your story about wearing Superman Underoos as a kid, but the story itself is very touching. Do you feel that your goal to “foster a child’s interest in superheroes through online activities and videos” helps you stand out from the crowd? Does this give you any competitive advantages? 

A. I think it gives me a credibility edge.  I’m not trying to do anything sinister with SimplySuperheroes.com.  I want to make the site entertaining and fun whether you’re shopping on it or not.  

Before launching the website, I looked at other sites and did not find any ecommerce sites that offered free activities for their target market.  When a parent shows their son or daughter a video on our site that he or she used to watch as a kid, this sharing accomplishes what I set out to do: superheroes are a bridge to connect parents with their children. 

Q. It is quite obvious you are following your passion with SimplySuperheroes.com. How does it feel to follow your passion?   

A. It feels great.  Following your passion is such a cliché but it’s very true. 

Q. Walk us through an average day for Derek Bacharach. What time do you typically wake up? Where do you work? What is your interaction like with your customers?  With your children? 

A. I usually get up around 7:30 and take either one of my two kids to school or both depending on my wife’s work schedule.  When I return home I hibernate in my home office to check emails and the website orders that came overnight.  I also spend time reading content related to ecommerce and marketing (and there’s a lot!).  And across the day, I review the google alert emails related to my website: names of superheroes, the name of my site, and keywords such as “superhero” and “superheroes.”  If something seems relevant from these emails I will tweet them, post them on the site’s facebook page or even blog about the topic if relevant enough.  After I’m done I start filling orders for the rest of the morning and early afternoon and then head over to the post office and fed ex to drop off the shipments.  If I receive a shipment of inventory, I’ll add these products to the website. 

Later in the afternoon, I shift gears to be Dad until they go to bed which is about 9-9:30 at night, then I may fill a few more orders, work on the next email newsletter, tinker with my Google search ads or do some needed accounting.  

Customers usually contact me either by the toll-free phone number or by email.  They are usually related to inventory or a recent order.  I usually contact a customer if there’s a mistake in the shipping address.  It’s always a pleasure when positive feedback comes my way whether by phone or email.  

Q. What made you decide to open up an online store as opposed to a traditional brick and mortar store?   

A. It’s easier to open an online store, having the eBay background of selling.  There’s so little overhead compared to a traditional b & m store.  With a b & m store, I would have to make a time commitment to lease a space for at least one or more years and this is not the kind of commitment I would recommend when starting out. 

Q. Let’s talk about the nuts and bolts of your operation. How did you go about finding products to sell? What there some trial and error in this area of your business?   

A. Persistence and luck.  Sometimes if I liked a product in a store, I would look at the packaging to see who makes it, look them up online and contact them.  

Other times I would search on Google for wholesalers.  I’ve also gone to merchandising conventions in NYC to connect with wholesalers such as the Toy Fair. 

Don’t get me wrong, not every wholesaler wants to work with me.  I’ve been told I cannot do business with certain companies because my financials are not strong enough or I haven’t been in business for “X” years yet.  

For the wholesalers I like, I send out a monthly newsletter to keep them up-to-date about what I’m doing. 

I certainly had my trial and error in product sourcing: buying from “middlemen,” over-buying, under-buying, buying too late for seasonal products.  Most of these errors you can correct by selling your products on eBay and Amazon. 

Q. Has your business allowed you to connect more with family than you would likely be able to do in a traditional 9 to 5 job?   

A. Owning an ecommerce website is time-consuming, though it’s nice to be able to take the kids to school and pick them up. We spend a lot of time together on the weekends whether I have a 9-5 job or not.  

On the other hand, what I sell makes it more fun with my kids, especially with my son who has, to this day, hand-picked the t-shirt designs of some of the superheroes t-shirts I sell. 

Q. Do you run your operation solely by yourself? Any employees? Any others you hire on a contractual basis?   

A. Solely by myself (so far).  I have occasionally hired people on a contractual basis to troubleshoot programming and web design issues that are beyond me.  

Q. What are your future plans for SimplySuperheroes.com? Any goals you’re striving to reach? Anything else in the works? 

A. The focus has been mostly kids’ products so far.  I’m in the process of including products for moms and dads, especially apparel.  Since I’m just getting started, initially I’m just trying to do better than last year.  Luckily, I’ve already done so in many ways (revenue, traffic, sales, email subscribers) so outdoing what I’ve done this year makes it more fun and challenging for next year.

Q. What advice would you give a struggling entrepreneur or someone who is debating whether to pursue their passion? 

A. To answer the second part of this question first, the real question you have to ask yourself is what’s your true passion?  This can be extremely difficult.  Mine used to be a few other things before I got into what I’m doing now.  Passions are not as permanent as a tattoo.  It’s your job to know whether your passion will fade like a temporary tattoo after a few days, weeks, months or will last longer.

Once you know what your passion is, you’re halfway there.  Nurture it.  If your passion is having your own business, see how it’s done.  Work at one just to see how it operates, the smaller the business the better so you can get a better view of its guts (read: operations).  

To answer the first part of your question – my advice is to take the plunge: plan, research, imagine, persist, repeat.  You can dwell all you want whether you should go for it or not but you will never find the wisdom you’ll get from running a business for a year.

Derek Bacharach is the owner of SimplySuperheroes.com and enjoys the life he has created by pursuing his passion. On SimplySuperheroes.com, Derek sells superhero merchandise for kids, moms and dads. View their library of over 400 superhero videos and browse through the many online resources. They also have a superhero fun stuff area to print out connect-the-dots, coloring pages, and play video games.  Follow Simply Superheroes on Twitter and like their Facebook page.