Many companies wouldn’t mind experiencing growth of 10% to 15% in a year. But for AtomicPark.com’s Anthony Boldin, that’s a sign of a slow year. Boldin’s Milwaukee-based e-business company is more used to seeing a doubling, tripling or quadrupling of sales.
And it’s such dramatic growth that prompted the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce to declare AtomicPark.com No. 1 on its Fast Five list. The Fast Five are selected from among the Future 50 companies – Milwaukee-area firms honored by the chamber’s Council of Small Business Executives for fast growth.
From data provided for the Future 50, the MMAC uses a formula to determine the Fast Five, says Julie Granger of the MMAC. The determination is based on two years’ worth of actual sales and revenue and employment data and projected data for the current year.
Since its founding at the end of 1998, AtomicPark.com has reached just under $20 million in sales, according to Boldin. "For 2001 to 2002, with the tough economy, I am estimating to have only about 10-15% growth this year," he notes, adding that signs of recovery are already evident. "We have really started to see it pick up again in the last two months, so I look forward to a strong Q4 and a good 2003." But Boldin adds a caution sign to that prediction. "I am very concerned that our potential conflict with Iraq will keep the economy from recovering properly, or even fall further into recession."
He started the firm in a den off of his living room, working by himself. Today, the firm employs more than 30 people.
"The company’s potential, our downtown location, and my vision for it’s future, has assisted us in recruiting high-quality employees to help us grow," he says.
E-business remains highly viable – for those who go about it the right way, Boldin says. "E-business has only failed where people have tried to create a new equation for success," he observes. "An equation where success was defined by stock price, not by profitability, and stock price was driven by the number of web hits you get. Any company can get millions of hits by selling its products below cost or providing a service at no charge. These business models were simply insane and unsustainable."
He says AtomicPark.com has been a successful e-tailer because its business philosophy is "to treat the Web as if it were just a retail storefront. You have to offer easy accessibility, high credibility, low prices, and superior service, while backing it all up with guarantees. Lastly, we work hard to remove the reasons why a customer would not buy from us, instead of working hard to give a customer a reason to buy from us."
The firm offers a "30-Day Happiness Guarantee" which Boldin says allows AtomicPark.com "to remove a customer’s fear of buying from a company that they may have never heard of."
Additionally, the firm has never charged for shipping. "We were one of the first companies to do this a few years ago," Boldin said. "This eliminated the reason why a customer wouldn’t buy from us instead of going to a local store. None of these factors alone has driven our success, but certainly putting all of them together is synergistic where the whole has been greater than the sum of it’s parts."
Sept. 27, 2002 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
