I’ve been here before. Back in 2002, I got into the online Halloween industry after a friend of mine invited me to a Halloween trade show in Chicago. It sounded like fun, and I wanted to check it out since I’ve loved Halloween ever since I was a kid. I looked forward to it every year like most kids look forward to Christmas. Anyway, after 3 days at that trade show, I was all in. I wanted to be a part of this thing. I made an arrangement with my friend that I would sublease space in his warehouse, set up my own little website, and give it a shot. I was in my early twenties, and didn’t have much idea what I was doing, but I just followed his lead and figured it out for the most part – well I figured SOME of it out.

I figured out the website (at least it worked and was getting orders), I figured out working with suppliers, setting up the credit card system for accepting payments securely, and shipping and fulfilling orders for the most part. What parts DIDN’T I figure out? Lots. First of all, I lived on my profits from the business. Instead of reinvesting 100% of my profits back into the business, I spent it all. I was understaffed. In my first year I tried to do everything myself; I mean EVERYTHING. My second year, I hired my first employee, but we were still overwhelmed. We had literally thousands of emails from customers asking every question you could think of – some about their orders, some asking if they could change them, some asking when they would ship, some asking about specific product details. And we couldn’t keep up. So yes, there is such a thing as growing TOO quickly too when you aren’t prepared for it!

Instead of focusing on the quality of service each and every one of our customers received, we focused on the profit margin we were getting on each product. Ahhh yes, the days of being young and dumb with zero experience lol. After my third year with our customer base dwindling and our repeat customers making up very little of our sales, a personal tragedy struck at that time, and I decided to just shut it down.

But almost twenty years later, I’ve reminded myself I still love Halloween, and I’m not a quitter. Today, my business philosophy is the complete opposite of what it used to be. My focus is on making sure EVERY customer is 100% happy with the entire interaction. My goal today with HalloweenFanatic is to create a culture and community of customer/fans that are also obsessed with Halloween and that demand nothing less than the best online shopping experience. If I can’t do that, there’s no point in doing this. So the journey begins! HalloweenFanatic.com is born!

I hope you’ll join me!
– David