Our story started back in 2017 when my daughter started to play table tennis. We bought her a pre made bat which cost me £30. When the bat arrived, we liked it. After a few weeks I started to do some research into starting a small business in order to sell Table Tennis bats, nothing major, just legalising it all so I could run the business alongside my work. I needed something to take my mind away from work.
So in 2017 I found a stock table tennis bat from Alibaba and placed an order for 50 of them. Deep down I didn't really expect them to arrive so I put the the purchase cost on my visa card, so I was covered. A month later they turned up at my address and the quality of them was awesome. I listed them on Amazon and sent them in to my account, keeping the price competitive. Within a few weeks all 50 sold. I ordered another 100, sold again, ordered more, sold out again.
This continued for a year but as I sold more I found that other people were buying the same bat and using my listing, which I created, then undercutting my price. I had a think and used my creative skills, employing a designer from Venezuela (believe it or not). My plan was to create my own logo for a similar style bat which would allow me to trademark the logo (so no other person could continue to sell them). I negotiated a deal with the company and set up a legal agreement so they could not sell my brand to anyone else.
I did exactly that. It took a few months of planning the design and trademarking the logo then in August 2018 I placed my 1st real order. It was a big gamble as I had to order at least 200, due to being a private label design which had to be tooled. For a new unlisted product on Amazon it was a gamble. The cost with delivery was going to be a fair chunk of money, but I always say "speculate to accumulate".
The bats arrived the end of November 2018 and I quickly sent the first 100 in to Amazon. As they were on route to the Amazon warehouses I went to Morocco with my wife. I knew the deliveries into Amazon would take 3-5 days and I was nervous at the start of our trip but I remember the moment I had my first sale. I was sat around the pool drinking an ice cold beer, I checked my phone and there it was, a notification of the first Evolve Table Tennis Bat to be sold in the UK for £25. For the rest of the holiday the orders came in thick and fast, it was a great release time, into the Xmas period. I sold out before Christmas day. This was the start of the Evolve Empire.
What did i notice from this trial. There is something out there for everybody. No-one is useless in life, even when others try to put you down. Focus your energies on what you're good at and take that gamble if you believe in yourself.
This one small idea, four years ago has turned into a damn good small business, now turning over a good amount of cash with sales increasing 45% year on year. That one Table tennis bat has now 'evolved' into a brand........and is generally in the top 5 best selling bat's on Amazon UK. So what's next, USA maybe.
Since 2018 we have introduced many more items to the Evolve Brand including a second Table Tennis Bat called Emerge, two quality Badminton Rackets, gym bags, umbrellas and more.
In the coming year (2022) we hope to bring in at least another 3 items to boost us into the last 4 bust selling months of the year. We hope to design some of these products with you, our customers. Keep an eye on our blog and join in the fun. Get in touch with us and tempt us to design a product. We will guarantee to make at least 200 of the item with the first 100 hopefully going to pre orders from our Evolve customers on this site.
I started with the brand name for a reason - Evolve - Develop Advance Progress and Move Forward.
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