Today we’d like to introduce you to Alan Hutchinson.
Alan, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I am the owner and founder of HTmarket.com. HTmarket is short for Home Theater Marketplace. I started the business as pure play internet retailer online only out of my condominium in Chicago in the year 2000, I did everything for the business which included sourcing product vendors, building the web site, answering customer service and sales calls. In 2001, I hired my first employee and move into some offices. Before I started the business I worked for 10 years in the hotel business for companies like Hyatt and Marriott in sales and marketing positions. During my time with Hyatt I met a colleague in 1994 who turned me on to this new thing called “the internet”. He explained how it worked and I was intrigued enough to buy a new laptop that I put to use in my work at Hyatt. Back in 1994, we did not even have laptops issued to sales people, all the computers were on the administrative assistant’s desks to type proposals. I switched that format around where I would produce proposals to customers in real-time and fax modem them out and I had my assistant deal with other issues. In this experience at Hyatt I found out how efficient computers were and how the internet could transform the way companies could go to market. So in 1996 I started consulting companies on internet marketing and put that to use for other firms. In 2000, I decided to start HTmarket.com a retailer providing home theater goods to people worldwide. At that time we barely did any local business. For about 14 years we operated the same model. At one time we employed about 7 people at this time we employ 5 people and some contractors. In 2014, I formed my own brand of Home Theater Seating called HT Design and I trademarked the name and set up a showroom in our Ravenswood offices. We warehouse the seating in Addison IL. This was our first foray into local retail. We now operate a showroom for local customers to come try out and sit in our nine styles of home theater seating. This is an addition to our internet store. We can be found on Yelp for local customer or if you just Google Chicago home theater seating we come up number 1 in the results. Our local business has become a good portion of our business now.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It was a smooth road till 2009, we were cruising along with high growth rates. In 2007 the financial collapse of housing caused a ripple effect on down to retailers that sold household goods. This did not hit us till about 2009. Then in 2011, google updated algorithm which caused us to lose 50% of our internet traffic and one of our large theater seating vendors went bankrupt, both issues caused us to lose about 1 million in sales overnight. So from 2000 to 2009, we grew pretty quickly from 2009 to about 2013, we trended downward. In 2014 to 2017 we started growing again due to adding our own home theater seating line HT Design which has excellent reviews online. Many customers have posted good reviews on a site called AVSforum.com it’s a site for home theater hobbyists. This focus on doing one thing really well has helped us.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with HTmarket.com – Home Theater Seating Showroom – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We specialize in niche home theater goods for people trying to bring a bit of the movie theater home. The key to success in any small business is focusing on what your good at and a niche you can shine in. Trying to be all things to all people will not work. Our focus on service sets us apart from our competitors and our attention to providing quality products.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We don’t have any big changes, we just want to do more of what we’re doing. If you stay focused we can grow pretty easily, we may change up our product line a bit and explore new marketing channels. In the meantime we are doing more of same things that make us successful.
Contact Info:
- Address: HTmarket.com
5215 N Ravenswood
suite 101 - Website: http://www.htmarket.com
- Phone: 773-728-8140
- Email: sales1@htmarket.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hometheaterhtmarket/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/htmarket
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/htmarket
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/htmarket-com-chicago-4
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/user/hometheatertv
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