By Eric Brown
For many of us, the backyard pool is a place for relaxation, but for Brian Davis and his wife, Diana, the family pool is their business. They sell an almost infinite variety of equipment to make the family pool a true backyard vacation spot. Whether you are looking for the basics, such as swim noodles, safety vests or something a little more exotic, such as motorized fish and turtles to swim in your pool, you can find them at www.pooltoy.com.
PoolToy.com was launched in 1998, but it wasn’t Brian’s first experience in business. He has been an entrepreneur since he left First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach. His first business venture was a lawn care service. In fact, that’s how he met his wife. She was providing pool service for one of his lawn care customers.
Not only did they decide to get married, they decided to combine their business, opening a pool store in Chesapeake where they sold a variety of pool accessories, chemicals, toys, above-ground pools and spas.
Brian’s interest in the Internet had him looking into E-commerce in the mid-1990s, when many people were just starting their first business websites. He decided to test the waters, and opened his own site in 1998. As one of the first Internet-based retailers offering pool toys, he had a great head start on what is now a booming market. His wide array of products easily helped him to develop a reputation as a one-stop shop.
His online business experienced remarkable growth in just a few years, allowing him to sell the retail store in Chesapeake and focus solely on Internet sales. His company now processes about 200 orders a day during the peak pool season. But he really knew he’d made the right choice, he says, when his online sales volume began to grow so fast that it required him to clear out his credit card machine memory three or four times a day.
Because of his own interest in the Internet, he says his favorite book is HTML for Dummies. Brian started out doing all of his own work on his website. But a turning point came when he decided to get professional help to improve his website’s search performance. “I had heard horror stories from other business owners who had worked with less-than-ideal contractors. By bringing in a professional and learning the essentials of search engine optimization, I was able to optimize the site,” he says. He recommends optimization and the use of organic results as the best way to increase traffic to a website, rather than pay-per-click or other Internet advertising methods.
While the economy has meant that many people are cutting back on spending for nonessentials, Brian still sees plenty of opportunity for growth. His goal is to constantly expand his product line to include the newest and most up-to-date accessories and equipment for the pool.
