Nancy Wilson (Left)	Mary Collier (Right)

Two unassuming sisters from Michigan who knew a good market when they saw one.

The two sisters own and operate www.ReadyStripOutlet.com, a Web site powered by StoresOnline and devoted solely to the Ready-Strip product line of paint removers and lead paint encapsulants. They say their customers are mostly housewives, although they do sell to some professional contractors.

When the dynamic duo first approached the Ready-Strip manufacturers about setting up an online Ready-Strip store, they were told that they couldn't make any money selling only Ready-Strip products on a Web site. But unrelenting Mary knew they could and refused to take no for an answer.

"I said, please give me a try!" Mary says. "I begged them for about a month to let me do it. They finally gave in, I think, because I bugged them too much."

To the best of Mary's knowledge, no other company on the Internet had attempted to sell the entire Ready-Strip line exclusively on their site. This set the two sisters' site apart from all the others.

Since opening for business, www.ReadyStripOutlet.comhas been successful for both the sisters and the supplying company. On average, the site pulls in 90 sales per week. "They [Ready-Strip] think that we're great," Mary now says. "They have the VP sending me notes and saying, 'Whatever you need, if you need any help, please let me know, and we'll fix it for you.'"

Mary and Nancy discovered StoresOnline when they were first looking into starting a business. Independently, each received a flyer in the mail inviting her to attend a StoresOnline Internet Marketing Conference. Both decided to attend and later, after attending an all-day StoresOnline workshop, came away with six licenses to build e-commerce Web sites.

Mary, a systems administrator for about 15 years, had been looking for something that was good technically. She was impressed with StoresOnline's technical setup, which was part of the reason she agreed to the purchase. However, neither she nor Nancy knew what they were going to sell when they bought their Web sites; even so, the two had their first site up in about a month.

The site, which sold computers and computer parts, didn't achieve much success, so the sisters started the Ready-Strip Outlet, basing their decision on what to sell by Mary's experience with the product.

After setting up the Web site, Mary and Nancy applied some of the tips they were given at the StoresOnline workshop. About two weeks after going live, the site had its first sale. Within three months the site was ranked number one on Google and Yahoo!.

Mary, who designed much of the actual site, says using the StoresOnline tool was easy.

"For me it was a good tool," she says. "I didn't have any problems navigating. There were very few things I actually had to contact StoresOnline and ask questions about. And when I did, they gave me answers right away. Whenever I need help, they've been able to at least point me in the right direction if they didn't know the answers right away."

As for to going into business, Nancy says the experience has been well worth its while.

"I think everybody should be in business for themselves," she says. "I think it's been wonderful. I think that StoresOnline is a good company."

For merchants who are looking to build a successful business as Mary and Nancy have done, Mary has a word of advice:

"Don't give up! When it gets hard-because it does get hard-when you're working late into the night; when you're working your regular job and not sleeping very much; don't give up, because it's well worth it, and StoresOnline really did help us get there. We were looking for a great tool, and this was a great tool.

Visit Mary and Nancy's Store Online at www.ReadyStripOutlet.com

*Testimonial results are not typical and your individual results will vary.  Your success depends on having the right price, product, and marketing efforts.