Skulltimate Gear

Business Prospectus

Overview:

Skulltimate Gear was started as a proof of concept in April of 2014 by Digital Marketing Agency Fresh Squeezed Minds. Designed to prove the viability of an on-line specialty retailer along the lines on retailers such as Hot Topic or Dollskill.com. The Market being primarily those interested in skull, merchandise, jewelry and accessories. Bikers, Goth, Rockabilly, Rockers, Pin-Up, Tattoos, Piercings are additional interests for The Skulltimate Demographic.

The Idea was to create and promote a brand serving this demographic. To that end Skulltimate Gear utilizes a Shopify E-Commerce platform. Visitors to can browse through multiple categories of skull, rock, goth, steam punk and other related merchandise and jewelry. Initially customer orders were fulfilled partially through physical inventory and partially through third party drop shippers. It was later determined that a complete drop shipper model was more efficient I terms of supply chain continuity and fulfillment.

Additional sales channels such as ETSY, Rebels Market and Wanelo were added. These types of Channels were unique venues for sales specific to our various Demographics. Strategic Partners such as Rock-line provided licensed Band T-Shirts and Alchemy of England Offered Unique Jewelry and Accessories to those interested in Goth and Steampunk merchandise.

Traditional SEO efforts resulted in top 10 placement on Google for search terms such as Skull Merchandise and Social Media Marketing garnered almost 60,000 followers between Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Fresh Squeezed Minds created ad campaigns utilizing various offers to collect audience information creating an opt in email list of approximately 5000 names.

Sales over the next 24 months were approximately $20,000.00. Up front R&D costs well exceeded revenues but as stated Skulltimate is a concept Brand. Skulltimate Gear is being offered for sale as an opportunity for buyers interested in a turnkey start up or for organizations already in this market space who want to capitalize on this Brand. Skulltimate gear is a registered trademark with The United States Trademark and Patent Office. Skulltimate Gear offers a unique opportunity to capitalize on this growing and highly lucrative Market. The following pages will include Historical sales and other pertinent information. Pro-forma financials are included however as Skulltimate Gear is an R&D project of Fresh Squeezed Minds we did not include startup expenses only those relevant to marketing, sales and fulfillment.

Fulfillment:

Vendor relationships have been established with the following vendors.

  • Ali Express: This Vendor offers a multitude of products through aliexpress.com they offer purchase for direct fulfillment or drop-shipping. There is a plug-in app which works directly with Shopify which allows drop ship orders to be fulfilled directly from the platform. In house inventory orders need to be ordered directly from The Ali-Express website. they have a low minimum order quantity. The prices are just a bit higher but not by much on many things. The key is searching with many different keywords and using the search function effectively on both of these sites.
  • Rock-line: This Vendor offers Licensed Band and Rock apparel and merchandise with a focus on t-shirts. Merchandise from companies such as American Classics, Bio-World, Bravado Entertainments, FEA, Funko Entertainment and more are available. This is a drop ship vendor who only sells wholesale to businesses such as Skulltimate.
  • Wild Bill’s Wholesale: Minimum order is I think $40.00
  • Print.io: These guys print and dropship anything you want from T-shirts to blankets to water bottles and no minimum.
  • Alibaba: We use them rarely because most of the minimums are too high to buy. Although, the prices are incredible if you can find things with a low MOQ.
  • Pacific Trading Online:This Vendor has skulls and steampunk stuff. All kinds of cool stuff. The minimum order is $100 though.
  • New World Sales: T-shirts and more t-shirts. Certain of these companies will dropship and some have a minimum. There are different manufacturers.
  • Silver Depot: This is where many of the rings on our website come from. Not necessarily the ones we have in stock now. We order, have them shipped to us and ship them out from here. They were supposed to start a drop shipping program but never started.
  • Alchemy of England: They dropship unique steampunk, goth, rock and other jewelry and merchandise.
  • Vousi: They are a jewelry store based in the states like Silver Depot. They do dropshipping and have a pretty good selection of rings. The challenge is they charge a lot for shipping on their dropshipping.
  • Customized Girl: This is where we get the booty shorts and crop tops for our models
  • Uber Prints: We use them to print some custom merchandise

There are numerous other companies who dropship and can easily be plugged into your supply chain.

Shipping:

Shipping of in stock inventory can be done through USPS.

Both Shopify and Etsy offer discounted postage and shipping labels which can be printed on site. Accounts with UPS or Fed ex may be used as well but will need to be set up by the owners.

Postage costs are passed on to the customer although free shipping is sometimes offered as an incentive.

Marketing:

Several different marketing avenues are available and have been utilized to promote Skulltimate Gear:

  • Social Media Content: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have been utilized to varying degrees of success. We have included reports from Facebook as that is the main avenue. By engaging our audience on a consistent basis, we have created a community of followers who will respond to our advertising as part of the Skulltimate experience. Some companies attempt to overtly over advertise. This can lead to disinterest and apathy on the part of our followers. A strategy of engaging them with unique content, videos, pictures and off-color humor and sexy imagery keeps our audience loyal and open to buying.
  • Social Media Ads: Ads can be promoted across all Social Media Platforms. Some of the techniques we have used are as follows. We will include graphics, ads and instruction on these to interested buyers.
  • Sales Funnels
  • Premium Offers
  • Discount Coupons
  • Search Engine: Search engine marketing through Google has become dynamic and highly competitive over the past few years we have utilized a combination of techniques to promote the web site.
  • SEO
  • Local SEO
  • Google Ad Words
  • Forums, Strategic Partnerships and Third Party Sales Channels (ETSY)

Financials:

Financials in the traditional sense are not available. Sales reports from both Shopify and Etsy are available to give some perspective on income. Other income came from sales channels not plugged into Shopify such as Rebels Circus and cash sales at vendor shows, festivals and bike rally’s. The income and expenses for Skulltimate was recorded as income to Fresh Squeezed Minds, Inc. A Pro-Forma financial will be forthcoming. The below illustrates a few of the basic income and expense scenarios that apply.

Stainless Steel Biker Ring:

Retail $29.95

Cost from Ali Express: $8.00 (Drop Shipped)

Gross Profit: $21.95 73%

Rockline T-Shirt:

Retail: $21.00

Cost from Rockline: $16.50 (Drop Shipped)

Gross Profit: $4.50 21%

Alchemy Sharps Cross Pendant:

Retail: $35.95

Cost from Alchemy of England: $23.23 (Drop Shipped)

Gross Profit: $12.72 35%

Temple of The Ancient Dragon: (Custom Sterling Rings)

Retail: $129.00

Cost: $35.00 (not drop shipped), Shipping: $10.00, Packaging: $2.00, Total Cost: $47.00

Profit: $82.00 63%

Average Gross Profit: 48%

These are just a few examples. Upon further discussions and signing of a confidentiality agreement access to the reporting sections of ETSY and Shopify can be made available to perspective buyers.

Sales reports are available now. A Summary of sales and other administrative expense are as follows:

Skulltimate Web Site: (Shopify)

May 1st 2015 through June 1st 2017

299 Orders = $8,921.00

Etsy Shop:

January 2017 through June 2017

50 Orders = $6,038.78

Shows:

2015 through 2016

6 events

50 orders = $2,500.00

Other Sales Channels: (Amazon, Wanelo, Rebels Market, Telephone)

50 orders = $2,500.00

Total Sales: $19,959.00

Gross Profit: $9,580.00

Fixed administrative costs are as follows:

Monthly

Shopify Fees: $350.00 * Based on sales and advertising

Etsy Fees: $300.00 * Based on sales and advertising

Vonage: $45.00 (Phones)

Grasshopper: $12.00 (800#)

Utilities: Rent, Utilities, Internet prorated for in home business: $150.00

Insurance: prorated as part of Fresh Squeezed Minds, Inc. : $20.00

Total Monthly Expenses: $877.00

Variable

Social Media Advertising: This includes Facebook, Instagram and Google Ad Words

This expense was heavy on the front end to establish the extensive following of 60,000 followers. Expenses in this area are dependent on the budget of the buyer but can range from $100.00 a month to several thousand if a major campaign in launched.

Packaging: Custom packaging was established with our Logo and was an upfront cost of $500.00 for approximate 350 units. Cost decreases with volume.

As stated earlier an additional financial information can be provided after confidentiality agreement is in place.

Additional Benefits:

Library of graphics and ad campaigns- A library of hundreds of branded images and ad campaigns will be available to the buyer along with established strategies to promote the brand and attract sales.

Unique products – A library of one of a kind unique sterling and precious gem ring designs are available through The Temple of The Ancient Dragon. This is important because Chinese competitors often will steal designs. These designs are copyrighted by the designer and if released strategically can attract customers based on the unique designs.

Proprietary Products- Skulltimate has designed a unique product developed in partnership with Actor and Director Zak Ward who played ScutFarkus in The Classic Movie a Christmas Story. A skull belt buckle dubbed “The Scut Buckle was developed in Sterling Silver with yellow eyes, braces and a coon skin cap to reflect the ScutFarkus character. We also produce about 200 buckles in Stainless Steel. Preliminary discussions with The Christmas Story House Gift Shop in Cleveland Ohio have been initiated. This is a great opportunity to promote the brand through established iconic channels.