I vividly remember this moment because it was moment I nearly had to shut down my business. Trusted Home Goods was operational for maybe 15 months at this point.

It was Thanksgiving Eve 2022 and I was in NJ for the holiday weekend. I was sitting at Frank Acilio’s table when I got a call from one of my suppliers saying my credit card had been declined for an order I was trying to fulfill. I pulled up my Bank of America App to find I had maxed out my business credit card. I was in WAY over my head.

I obviously knew the business wasn’t in good financial shape at this point. I was a start up who didn’t use anybody’s money and I had a HUGE learning curve in one of the most competitive industries. I was well aware I was floating a large CC balance month over month and getting crushed with interest but I just needed to get through the holiday season. I just needed more time to figure the business out. So I was faced with 3 options

1. Close the business

2. Take a Loan

3. Beg the bank to increase my credit limit

Taking a loan was out of the question because I wasn’t making any profit to pay it back. So it was either close the business and cut my losses or beg Bank of America for a credit increase. I walked outside of Franks and pretended to take a phone call so nobody knew what was going on. I had to think - I paced around for 30 minutes weighing the potential risks of my next decision. If I wanted to have the success I knew I was capable of I just needed to keep showing up for myself and my business. I just needed more time. I also thought, “Should I just quit, go inside and get hammered?” Instead I chose to continue the journey and beg Bank of America for a larger credit limit - which they happily granted for being such a valued customer LOL.

This bought me more time I needed to test products, advertise, and find winners. I invested more and more money into the business and month over month I kept losing money. I hired mentors, I bought courses, I read endless books and podcasts trying to find the answers and I realized my path isn’t going to look like what the guru’s were teaching. I was going to have to carve my own unique path to make this work.

I continued to stay operational without profiting majority of months for another 18 months and basically came to the same crossroads again. If I continued down this path I would max out my business credit cards again in less than 4 months. I was nearly $50k in debt on this business and it wasn’t getting any better. So I immediately turned off my google ads to slow down spending and during this time two things happened:

1. I was selling items on Walmart Marketplace where there are millions of shoppers and things really picked up here

2. People were still shopping on Trustedhomegoods.com but for cigar humidors - which you cannot pay to advertise because they are tobacco related products and against google ads policy. So people were finding me organically, which means FREE traffic and website visitors.

During this “downtime” I profited, dealt with less customers, and had higher margins than ever. So I kept my ads off, I stopped spending money recklessly testing products, slowed down, and took time to see where the leaks were. And that’s why I made the switch to exclusively focus on cigar humidors on Oct 1, 2024 - and it saved my business.

Debt Shredding

As you can see from the above story, starting a business is extremely risky. Mainly, because you can find yourself in a serious financial burden without the guarantee you will succeed. But that’s also why business owners get significant tax breaks - because the government rewards them for taking a great deal of risk for the economy.

Anyway, based on the figures of Q4 2024 I knew the business was going to survive and now it was time to focus on a debt pay down strategy. I was floating such a large credit card balance I was getting burned with credit card interest even on “good” months. Now that I knew I could be profitable without investing any money into advertising, it was time to got serious about what loan options made the most sense for the business.

The business came into 2025 with about $40,000 of debt - all still on the business CC collecting interest at an APR of 24%. YIKES! So here’s what I did:

• I took a $25,000 Shopify Capital loan with a one time interest rate of 8% and an 18 month pay back period. Shopify will take 10% of daily’s sale that automatically repays the principal pay down.

• I did a $10,000 balance transfer to another business credit card with a 5% balance transfer fee and a 12 month interest free period. The plan is to pay $825/month and this balance would be taken care of by the end of the year.

• I left $5,000 on my business credit card because I felt comfortable I would be able to pay this off quickly.

So How Are Things Going? Q1 Review

Q1 2025 was insane - we had an amazing start to the year. Here are just a few of the monetary highlights.

• Q1 Revenue - $150,674.06

• Highest Sales Month Ever = March $72,831.95

• Paid down $20,000 of above business debt

• I’m still finishing my P&L statement for Q1 but we profited just under $25,000. That’s about 17% profit margin. Which is pretty good by industry standards

As you can see, this is an extreme turnaround from just a few months ago. If you remember my total revenue last year was around $350,000 and my net profit was $12,000. At this rate our projected revenue is $600,000 and net profit $100,000. We’ll see how the year plays out but extremely pleased with how things started.

Why and how did this dramatic turnaround occur?

I attribute it to a few things-

• Changing my niche from many things to one category

• The 80/20 rule aka Pareto’s Principle: 80% of outcomes come from 20% of actions. This means 20% of my products are producing 80% of the results so I focused hard on making those products stand out. As it just so happens my cigar lockers ($5,999/unit) and electric humidor cabinets ($2,999/unit) are the 20% that are driving most of my revenue.

• My conversion rate is high on my most visited pages

• My most viewed product pages are better looking and packed with more pertinent buying information compared to my competitors which means I’ll win the sale more times than not

• Search Engine Optimization = Free Traffic. I’ve invested in SEO over the last year and it’s paying off. I am implementing many things myself but I have also hired help to move at a faster speed. Quick Lesson: Google and Bing reward online businesses with higher rankings for solving searcher intent. To keep it brief, there are a series of criteria google uses to determine if your business is the expert to solve the search intent for a search query. It’s an algorithm that weighs trust, authority, credibility, and length in business. All this can be achieved with showing google you are the expert in the industry using your product pages, collection pages, and blog pages where you strategically place keywords and commonly searched terms. Also, other websites linking to your site carries a significant amount of weight because it shows you are a credible business. Google and Bing are now rewarding my website with better rankings for solving searcher intent because they now can see I am an expert in the cigar humidor niche as opposed to selling all home goods products and not being an expert in anything.

• The new business motto is “We don’t lose money.” Which prioritizes a few things but most importantly it’s about changing my view and gaining leverage with a willingness to walk away from sales here and there. You can’t help everyone, and some sales are just not worth the hassle.

  • We don’t provide unnecessary discounts

  • We don’t provide any special payment structures outside of normal. Anyone who asks for an obscure payment plan outside of what is offered online is going to be extremely difficult to deal with and good luck getting your money.

  • When we don’t act desperate for sales, we get more sales

  • Letting the customer come to their own purchase decision on their own time. Taking the anti car salesman approach has actually worked well

How is Trusted Home Goods Different?

Since my competitors and I are not making the products we sell we can’t really differentiate the product itself and we are all generally priced the same. So how have I positioned Trusted Home Goods to be different in the online shopping world?

Every online business is trying to be high tech, automated, and cutting edge. I just want to be profitable, so I thought I would stand out by doing the opposite of everyone which is bringing the brick and mortar experience online through access and human touch points. I differentiate my business in two ways:

1. Accessibility to the CEO, Founder, and Owner of the business (that’s me). I give unprecedented access and availability to my customers. I advertise to call, text, or email anytime and you will aways talk to a real human and you will always talk to the owner of the company. Little do they know, I’m the only employee. My customers don’t know any better, they think they got lucky with who answered the phone when they called. My clients are either business owners and appreciate talking to another business owner or they are 45+ yrs old and appreciate the old school way of doing business in a world full of automation and robot calls. I can’t tell you how many people tell me how refreshing it is that someone answers the phone and is a real human. I know it works because when people call my business with a product interest - I get the sale about 50% of the time.

2. The Post Purchase Touch points and Customer Journey. Once an order is fulfilled I have a sequence of events that occurs

   • I send a hand written note from me and include Louisville’s Signature Makers Mark Dipped Cigar as a thank you for doing business with us. (I do not advertise this gift. It’s a small gesture but it’s a part of an over delivering strategy).

   • Next, a series of automated emails get sent out “from the owner of the business” personally thanking them, asking for feedback, and asking for a review with a photo of the product in use. Because I send the cigar I always get a glowing review and photo of the product. The review and photo helps attract other customers and then I get to use their photo on social media and also on my product pages. This effect snowballs over time.

   • Lastly, I set up a referral program. I notify the customer that they can refer their friends, family, other business owners to our store and I will share the profit of any referrals with them. This is unique but it is a part of the word of mouth strategy that builds a reputable brand.

Honestly, this is so simple yet you don’t get this shopping at Wayfair, or Amazon, or many other online businesses. Because I’m not serving millions of people, I can do the small things well and serve my customers to the best of my ability.

So What’s Next?

Everything I am doing now is about building a strong foundation. So when I add in additional sources of traffic and leads- the foundation doesn’t crack and we are optimized to succeed efficiently in the sales funnel. Isn’t it crazy that I’ve been working on this business for 4 years and I’m still talking about building the foundation better and stronger? Even the best and largest businesses in the world pivot and adjust constantly to better position themselves.

Levers To Pull

Once I’ve wrapped up some other foundational enhancement I will begin working to “pull levers” which will increase the traffic to my store.

1. SEO: Even though it seems to be working really well there is still much to improve upon. I am working with a company for the next year to execute a plan to rank higher on google for certain targeted keywords. I think this alone will take the company close to a 7 figure business

2. NEW! Buy Customized Humidors in Bulk: Targeting corporate events and group gifts this new feature is being offered at our store. Events, group gifts, promo items can be customized and purchased in bulk but must meet a minimum order quantity. This could be impactful once developed and targeted to the correct audiences

3. Outbound Sales: I want to build an outbound sales strategy targeting country clubs buying our cigar lockers. Many clubs in the US have high end clientele that smoke cigars so adding a cigar lounge or cigar service could be a nice addition for golf courses

4. Social Media: The bane of my existence, but social media is extremely important and FREE. Growing your presence on social media is not about posting photos, it’s about reels and videos, and engaging content. I will need to figure out a way to be more engaging on social but this is a low priority currently.

5. Social Media Influencers/Affiliates: This is a unique strategy where I can reach work with micro-influencers in the cigar industry and create a deal with them to promote my products. Either by profit sharing or just paying them. Either way it’s another important part of growing your brand.

I think I mentioned this in my first newsletter but the goal is to have the business valued at 7 figures then maybe sell or maybe quit my corporate job. Based on websites like Flippa and Biz Buy Sell, an online business can sell for 3-5x its annual profit. So for it to be valued at 7 figures with my profit margins I essentially need to do a little over $1 million in sales to get close to the goal. I think we’re positioned to achieve this over the next 12-18 months but we will see, things can change fast! All I know is that anything can happen with consistent and persistent action over time. Hope you enjoyed a little bit of the behind the scenes of running a business!

Bible Verse For Pondering

This bible verse really resonates with me. I’ve always felt a calling that is different from the way the world is telling me how I should live my life. I try to follow what God is putting on my heart to pursue and its not conventional by any means. It might rub people the wrong way, it might go against the grain, but I am content and fulfilled working towards what He has put on my heart. There’s 8 billion ways to live a life, nobody’s is the same. What is God putting on your heart to go after?

Sunny’s First 3 Months