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Fairlie-based entrepreneur Daryl Foy has chosen the internet as the way to retail his merino wool outdoor clothing.

With the outdoors his passion, Foy relishes being based in a remote location, backing his “hi-tech skills” as a way to sell products from adventure clothing to internet games.

Foy does travel to Christchurch and other centres to show off his clothing wares, but says his clothing website provides his preferred one-to-one internet-based business model.

The adventure sportswear was carried in traditional retailers like Run 79 in Tekapo and Bivouac Outdoor in Christchurch.

But it was on the iRULE website where he gained 90 per cent of his sales. Foy settled in South Canterbury about five years ago, leaving Melbourne and his homeland of Australia to be closer to the outdoors. He chose Fairlie over Dublin, Ireland, and Portland, Oregon, partly because it had “no traffic”.

The web had several advantages over the traditional retail outlet, he said. “There’s nothing stopping you (here). It’s all up to you what you achieve _ I like that sort of challenge.” Continue reading →

Linda Byerline hates to admit that her business experience is self-taught. She was a stay-at-home mom with a nursing background when she posted an image of an extra cloth diaper she had made for her daughter on eBay.

Four years later, Byerline runs Happy Heiny’s, which provides cloth diapers online and in retail stores across the world.

“It completely caught us off guard,” she said of the immediate success of the company.

Byerline is planning to open her first “brick-and-mortar” store in El Cajon later this summer after moving the business out of her home this year. The shop will also offer parenting classes but she is determined to keep Happy Heiny’s from having “that company feeling.”

San Diego Biz

What do you get when you cross online classified ads with web-based video? Realpeoplerealstuff.com is equal parts Craigslist and YouTube—a whole new way for customers to reach out to one another to sell their used appliances, automobiles, collectibles, concert tickets and countless other goods and services. “Realpeoplerealstuff.com combines the hottest internet trends in one, easy-to-use site: e-commerce, snarky writing, funny videos, everyone’s desire to be a star and video sharing.”

With a few clicks of a mouse, customers can upload their own video commercials, recorded on their camcorders, webcams, digital cameras or cameraphones. Ads are organized by category and location, and users can enter text descriptions, prices, thumbnail photos and tags along with their video clips. For best results, users are encouraged to engage their personality, creativity and sense of humour when filming their commercials. And who knows? One may well turn out to be the next average Joe or Jane launched into internet stardom. The service is entirely free—for now at least, though there may come a day when, like Craigslist, modest charges apply to select portions.

Realpeoplerealstuff.com improves on two of the top trends on the internet—videos and classified ads—by combining them. And it’s a smart new use of personal video, especially considering the number of people who are growing accustomed to using their cellphones or digicams to create and upload their own videos. With classifieds, videos obviously a useful extra layer of information, especially when it comes to renting apartments or selling cars and other large items. Definitely one to start up locally.