My Thai featured in online Business Magazine

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"Thai Specialty Shop Clears Customs Hurdles"
-Importing know-how and unusual marketing techniques lead to early success for retailer of Thai products.
By Theresa Gawlas Medoff
for Office.com
Feb. 28, 2001
At a Glance
Name: My Thai
URL: [http://www.webspawner.com/users/mythai3/]
Location: Wilmington, Del[aware, USA].
Founders: Joel and Uthairat "Tum" Wilson
Founded: [Spring] 2000
Industry: Specialty retail
Employees: [4]
When Joel and Uthairat "Tum" Wilson decided to open a retail store specializing in imports from Thailand,they thought they had the necessary knowledge and experience in the import business.
After all, Joel had lived abroad in Europe and Asia for nearly a dozen years and had worked at Amazon.com importing books [to] the United States. Tum had worked in her native Thailand as the general manager's secretary at Crown Ceramic, which manufactures and exports pottery for the likes of Ikea, Pottery Barn and other chain stores.
That experience, along with Tum's knowledge of Thai arts and crafts and family connections in Thailand, made it a natural choice to open their
highly specialized gift shop, My Thai, in Wilmington, Del[aware]. In fact, Joel and Tum know of only one other Thai specialty store in the United States, and that is in D.C.
It appears their instincts were right: The store showed profit[ablity] after only five months of operation. "For a retail business to show a profit after only five months is really significant. With all that overhead, it usually takes a retailer two years to show a profit," says Olakunle Oludina, director of MicroBusiness Chamber of Commerce, a partnership among the YWCA, the Small Business Administration & Delaware State Chamber of Commerce to support businesses with 10 or fewer employees.
Their experience did give the Wilsons a leg up on most entrepreneurs, but they found they still had much to learn about tariffs, import quotas, packaging, insurance, shipping, and all the intricacies of customs paperwork and inspections.
"The trick is to know everything you are doing before you do it. The inspection is not the time to learn," Joel says. "The first time we imported stock, the customs inspectors opened everything because they saw we had a new business license."
The Wilsons knew that every item had to be clearly labeled with its country of origin; but what they didn't know was that the rule applied
even to individual postcards.
"We thought it would be obvious where Thailand postcards were from," Joel recalls. "We were given 30 days to stamp every single one of the
hundreds of cards and submit an affidavit proving we had done the work. That's not the kind of thing you want to be spending your time on a few
days before your grand opening."
Nevertheless, the lesson was learned, and now, before they package items for shipping, they label each one with a gold sticker emblazoned with My Thai's logo and the words "Made in Thailand." Joel advises other small-business owners to use a customs broker to ensure paperwork is done right and to help smooth the way. The Wilsons do most everything else on their own, including selecting the merchandise and packaging it for shipping.
They have made three trips to Thailand during the past year to select the silk clothing, leather goods, jewelry, Bencharong porcelain, hand-carved wood items and handmade Saa paper sold at their 1,000-square-foot retail store and through their Web site.
They shop at farmer's markets, temple festivals, small shops and showrooms. Since money and space are tight, they buy only enough merchandise to carry them until their next planned trip.
The Wilsons have employed some creative and inexpensive marketing techniques to sell their unique wares. They created a newsletter on Thai
culture that is sent periodically to customers on their mailing list, and Tum sends postcards from Thailand to let people know about the new
merchandise she is buying.
Dot Siegfried, owner of Marketing Mentors in Wilmington, Del[aware]., says direct mailings can work well if they are targeted and if the piece stands out either because of content or appearance.
"You can collect names of customers who come to the store or mail to groups that would likely be interested in your product or service. You can even do direct mail just in your immediate ZIP code," she advises.
The Wilsons have also found success in bringing their store on the road to small-business expos and community fairs.
"We take a stack of brochures, postcards and business cards with us," "We sell a lot of merchandise at these shows, but we don't just
concentrate on selling; we use the event to market ourselves, too." [Says Joel Wilson]
The Wilsons believe their attention to the minutiae of marketing has also made an impact. Every brochure, bag and box has the store's name,
address and phone number on it.
"This works like a charm," Joel notes. "People get birthday presents or Christmas presents, see the My Thai logo on the box, and are curious,
so they come in to see what the place is."
My Thai also displays the business cards and brochures of other local small businesses — Thai restaurants, for example — in exchange for the
same courtesy at those stores and restaurants.

MORE NEWS ARTICLES ABOUT MY THAI:

My Thai featured in online Business Magazine.

(reprint of the text as appeared on office.com 2/28/01)