WisBusiness.com
“Flying
Cart helps small businesses soar to new heights in cyberspace.”
By
Amanda Jutrzonka
MADISON – “To help small businesses be amazing online.” This
is the mindset driving the success of Flying Cart LLC, according to Rishi Shah,
the founder of this Madison-based company.
Flying Cart assists online sellers and stores. The company
provides personalized customer service and business support to companies
interested in starting or improving their online sales.
Flying Cart is a subscription-based web application.
Specific services the company provides include credit card processing,
management of administrative responsibilities, and
tips and tools for successful online marketing.
Flying Cart serves more than 6,000 small- and medium-sized
companies. More than 30 percent of Flying Cart’s customers are gained through
referrals.
Flying Cart has a wide variety of customers, including
Lynette Zanardi, founder and owner of Sassy Couture, an online retail venue
that sells trendy and glamorous accessories for women and kids.
“Flying
Cart has made my online retail business simple,” Zanardi said. “Their website
is very do-it-yourself user friendly. It is set up to make it easy to list your
retail items online.”
When Flying Cart was formed in 2005, the company already had
400 customers signed. The company started with a simple, but creative, one-page
website, worked endlessly to catch the eye of news media, and frequented blogs.
Shah recommends the same strategies he used to start Flying Cart to help his
customers succeed online.
Major competitors include Ebay and Yahoo! Stores. However,
Flying Cart has grown by providing more personalized service and customizable
options at a fixed monthly fee.
According to Shah, Flying Cart’s differentiating factor is
simple: “We make our customers money.”
Flying Cart is one of 21 companies selected to advance in
the 2009 Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest. The company, selected from
a total of 326 first-round entries, is now competing in the contest’s third
phase.
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In 2009, Flying Cart plans to host several educational
seminars with a focus on e-commerce. The nationwide educational initiative will
consist of informal workshops that will provide local entrepreneurs with tips
on how to succeed in today’s increasingly web-based world.
Flying
Cart has already held seminars in Chicago, Houston, San Antonio, Austin,
Madison and Milwaukee. More than 1,000 people have encountered these classes.
The company plans to hold more than fifty classes this year alone, and already,
by the second week of March 2009, has completed 12.
The
business plan Flying Cart is using for the Governor’s Business Plan Contest
focuses on these seminars and scaling the process out over three years. The
goal is to have small classes in as many cities as possible. People
participating in these classes are small business owners, people who sell out
of their homes, or people who are thinking about
starting a new business.
One of the obstacles Flying Cart faces is helping customers
get over their fear of selling their products/services online.
“Small businesses think like small businesses. Our goal is
to help small businesses think like big businesses and survive by going online,
but a lot of small business owners have an inborn fear of being online,” said
Shah.
In
the end, Flying Cart attracts and retains customers by providing them with
simple and easy solutions to achieve success online.
“Flying Cart is just so easy to use, I can't say that enough. Cost is very minimal to use their service and everything is already set up for you,” said Zanardi.
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