FREE USA Shipping on All Orders Over $75 - No Back Orders & Ships Next Business Day!
FREE USA Shipping on All Orders Over $75 - No Back Orders & Ships Next Business Day!
March 24, 2020 3 min read
Some amazing business advice I received early on after starting ITS, was to never outsource your core competency. As ITS grew beyond a content-only business model using advertising revenue to keep us going, we leaned into memberships and an amazing community that still supports our content to this day.
As we continued to grow, so did interest in the ITS logo and what started as selling promotional items like stickers, patches and t-shirts, turned into carrying the best products we could find that complemented the preparedness skill-sets we advocate and write about.
That first ITS Store order shipped out of my dining room in 2010 was the result of my logistics nerdity that originated from selling Star Wars figures on eBay back in 1996, just over a year after they opened. I’d collect action figures by buying an extra to sell for a profit to pay for the one I’d get to keep. I sold my collection a long time ago, but what remained was the enthusiasm, efficiency and speed at which I’d use to compete against myself to get those packages out the door to the winners of my auctions. I’d also track everything in spreadsheets before auction management software was developed.