How Revenue Grew 40% And Launched A New Site For Tarot Products In 2021
This is a follow up story for PlayingCardDecks.com. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 4 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
I’m Will Roya the founder and operator of PlayingCardDecks.com which was launched in 2017. I use to perform and sell magic tricks at various events around the country and starting this business would allow me to sleep in my bed at night and work on something I could scale.
Some of our popular products are our Pip Box Club subscription, our exclusive PCD deck boxes, and our various mystery deck deals. We have over 2,000 SKUs and most custom decks are of a limited nature so we are constantly selling out of items and adding more. Here is the best sellers list.
Since last year our business has grown roughly 40% and is averaging 140k a month. If we have a good q4 we could surpass the 2 million mark this year. But at this stage, I’m more concerned about profitability rather than gross revenue. We have a 50% repeat customer rate so a lot of focus is still on great customer service and constantly adding new products and content to keep our regular customers happy and coming back.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to! Has the business been growing?
We experienced the pandemic bump from people staying at home. We had added a lot of content on how to play various card games before the pandemic started and that helped our organic visitor count explode.
We also had our most popular kickstarter campaign ever that raised over 35k from the help of 1,100 backers.
We also launched a new site for tarot products at TarotMerchant.com. This site is still in progress but it has already been doing upwards of 10k a month and the additional tarot products have also been selling well on our eBay and Amazon stores.
We added an afterpay payment option and text marketing and those have seemed to help.
We did hire an additional part-time employee to help with packing and my wife plans to leave her “traditional” job soon to help out more during our peak times.
I was also contacted by a major publisher last year to write a book that just came out:
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
Do not get burned out, when we were really busy I had to spend half my day helping with the packages. We went through a few temps before finding a good part-time employee that worked out. I still help out as needed but now I have the time for other activities. I also made sure to give my packing manager several raises as the business was doing so well and she was doing such a good job.
Don’t look for a magic bullet that will bring you success because there is no such thing.
I already had the plans in motion to launch TarotMerchant before the pandemic but if I knew there was to be such an increase in volume I may have put it off. I still have a lot of work to do on the site.
From the profit made I was able to buy some more rental properties. I just bought our 5th one earlier this year. Have had some issues with those since I manage them but think they are great long-term investments and they were all paid for in cash. My wife takes care of the administration and accounting and I have a good handyman so it hasn’t been too bad, but it does cut into my time and bandwidth a bit when dealing with issues, on the other hand, it is very nice to have those rent checks coming in every month.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
I have been going heavy on our deck launches, releasing 1 a month. These are expensive and time-consuming to produce but they are first released to our Pip Box Club members and then later on our site and we also have a distributor who will obtain a large amount to sell to other magic and playing card shops. So it makes good business sense and that is one of my favorite aspects of the business is producing new decks.
I have a large to-do list of things I would like to try and implement, especially with TarotMerchant. But between the regular activities that I know bring in a good ROI, it is hard to find the time. I also try to limit my workday to 6 - 8 hours now.
I’m not sure about the next 5 years as I may be looking for an exit in a year or so. I am an entrepreneur at heart and have some other ideas I would like to try.
Have you read any good books in the last year?
The Richest Man in Babylon by George Classon.
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
I think customer service is very important as it is hard to find nowadays. If I find a company with good customer service, even if they cost more, they will get my business over a competitor.
I would also say stay focused on a plan. Since the very beginning, I have made sure we have added new products every week, sent out a newsletter every week, added a blog post every week, posted to social media almost daily. This long-term concisely combined with great customer service is what has paid off for us. Don’t look for a magic bullet that will bring you success because there is no such thing.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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