Elmo's Head Explodes At The 1:10 Mark
This is more addicting than Wikipedia
Funny T-Shirts, and a relatively funny blog
Funny T-Shirts
RizzoTees on Twitter
RizzoTees' fan page on Facebook
RizzoTees on Friendfeed
RizzoTees on MySpace
Rizzo Tees has one employee - me. My name is Chris, and I operate Rizzo Tees out of my basement (henceforth known as "Rizzo World HQ" or "ManLand"). I have a full-time job, so I work on Rizzo Tees at night. I print, pick, pack, and ship your order myself. I have four industrial shelves filled with 1,400+ shirts. My basement can hold a whole lot more shelving units, and my goal is to grow the business but never grow it out of my basement. I operate the whole business by myself on a MacBook Pro and a couple of printers.
I lied - I do have a little help. I use a local screenprinting company to print all of my shirts, I have a few graphic designers help me vectorize my ideas, and a local web design company built and maintains my site. And my wife sprinkles in the occasional brilliant tee idea.
I sank quite a bit of money into starting Rizzo Tees. But why? Alot of random thoughts pass across my brain (San Francisco has a Chinatown, does Beijing have an AmericaTown?). These ideas are what I think about day-to-day, and I wanted to be able to wear them around. I ended up buying myself some Busted and Snorg shirts for my birthday back in 2007, and realized that my ideas would fit on t-shirts. I learned alot by checking out other t-shirt sites, but these shirts are for the most part my own ideas. When they're not, I've put my own twist on them (like the Home Run King's "756" shirt but with syringes making the asterisk). I have another 500 shirt ideas in the queue, which means I think about t-shirts all the time!
Where did the name Rizzo come from? Honestly, the name appeared before me in a dream, as if some sort of Italian branding apparition. And that's all I needed!
I love interacting with people - customers, people on Twitter, Facebook, blogs. That makes this a very fun business to be in - email me, find me on Twitter and Facebook - talk to me, tell me what's on your mind. The more people I get to "meet," the better. I hope to put alot of shirts on alot of people's backs, but I hope I never have to hire anyone - it's fun being on my own.
Peace to all of you.
Chris
Founder, Rizzo Tees
My "About Us" Page - What Does It Tell You About Me And My Biz?
Just recently, I had an "About Us" page put up on my website. I had it written about a month ago, and I posted it here on my blog. The page is now built and up on my main eCommerce site.
I tweeted about it here, and received generally positive feedback on it. Among the comments:
"it lets people know what you're all about, adds flavor, etc."
"I particularly liked the random thoughts on the page. Nice work."
"I was checking out your Posterus page yesterday and that 'about us' part really stood out. Glad you added it to your site!"
"I think it is awesome"
"great about-us page"
It's always great to receive positive feedback, and in general, I have found the Twitizens of Twitter to be some of the nicest and most helpful people.
However, one friend of mine brought up an interesting point that deserves debate - he said some people might have a concern about my business after reading the page, wondering if my site is the real deal. The part that concerned him was that I mention that I have a regular full-time job, and that I work on Rizzo at night, i.e., the tee business is a part-time job for me. His quote: "People who place orders like reassurance that things will go smoothly. They expect a full-time t-shirt operation."
It's an interesting thought - does the eCommerce customer have this expectation? In an attempt to brand myself, I thought about what I'd want that brand to be. Do I want to give off an appearance of a super-popular juggernaut of an operation? Do I want to appear more cutting-edge or "indie" (even though my designs aren't that "indie.") Do I just want to tell the truth - that Rizzo is my dream, I work on it at night, all night sometimes, it's incredibly small, I just started it with my own money, I'm the only employee, and I hope to sell each and every one of you a shirt?
I chose the last option. I still have some language on the FAQ page referring to "us" instead of "me" - as if Rizzo Tees is a big company with a team here ready to assist you and ship your order. I now feel that language needs to be updated, because instead of pretending to be huge and well-established, I decided to just lay it all out there and let folks know who I am and who is behind this new super-awesome tee site. I gave this alot of thought and just came to the conclusion that I have to be me. Besides not informing my employer that I've started a company (why stir that hornet's nest these days?), I decided that just being open about my quest is the best route to take. Everyone is different, but I am personally moved by the plight of the small entrepreneur - especially now that I've gone down that road myself. I had to look my wife in the eye and say "I'm gonna spend $xx,xxx starting up Rizzo" - luckily she did not look back and me and say "You have got to be fucking kidding me." She said, "Let's do it!" She believes, as I do.
It is possible that some consumers may be turned away from an operation that they know is small and run by one person. They may feel better buying from Gap.com. But here's the true scoop on RizzoTees.com:
1. My site uses 256-bit SSL encryption from Thawte. Secure. And I use Authorize.Net, the leading gateway. I never see your credit card number.
2. Every shirt is currently in stock. (I am down to one 3XL in TCP-IP, this is quite the tenses!) If you order a shirt during the day or early evening, I get it shipped out by the next day's mail. Every time. I wake up at 5am and check my email - if you order early in the morning, and it ain't Sunday, I package it up right then and get it up to the mailbox on my way to work.
3. I absolutely obsess over the packaging of your order. It's almost a maniacal sickness, pounded into me by a former boss at a distribution company. NO ERRORS! I literally read and reread the packing slip, then look at the shirt and the shirt tag - you get the right shirt in the right size, every time. I'm even careful to apply the shipping label straight on the package - that might be bordering on OCD.
I even have references! I have sold shirts to these Twittizens, among others:
Please ask them how their ordering experience was with me.
4. I work on my site by day when I can, and every night, 7 days a week. Gary Vaynerchuk hit it on the head here: http://rizzotees.posterous.com/i-enjoy-gary-vaynerchuk-and-hi -- at around the 11:45 mark of that video (and at 14:20), he talks about what you have to do to make your business dream come true. Work at it until you pass out from exhaustion. I took it to heart.
5. I answer all my emails, as long as you're not a spammer. I don't answer the ones where I am asked to facilitate a multi-million foreign bank transfer (did I mention I sell t-shirts? http://www.rizzotees.com/spam.html ). So if you have a question, a problem with your order, anything, email me and I will respond. I am on email 365 days a year. I was even on email when I was in Tuscany last June. My family was sitting around the pool at the villa, and I was walking down the rock road to get to the Internet station at the community house (I had Italian wine with me, don't worry). If you're on Facebook - hit me up - I like to respond via video, so turn your speakers up. The point is, I'm actually more accessible than the competition - you can find me on Twitter, Facebook, email at rizzotees [at] gmail [dot] com. And since you can smear me on Twitter, Facebook, your blog, you can be sure I'm on top of your problem.
6. Besides answering all emails, I take great care of my customers. A few weeks ago, I was on the admin side of my site, and noticed that one customer had tried to order three times, and each time the order had failed. They were unable to successfully place an order, and the problem was the billing address on the credit card - she was using a PO box for the billing address and the shipping address. The billing address she was using had to be wrong. I emailed her and apologized for the trouble she was having, recommended that she doublecheck her billing address (perhaps it was her home street address and not a PO box), and offered her a discount and asked her to try again. She tried again three more times, and on the seventh try, she finally tried using her home street address for the CC billing address - it worked! I emailed her and told her she was my most determined customer.
Unfortunately, a week later I tracked her package and it was undeliverable - the PO Box she gave could not be found. I immediately emailed her, provided her the tracking number, and recommended that she go to her post office in an attempt to get the package. Did not hear from her. Then I noticed the package was en route back to me, so I emailed her and asked her what I could do for her. Did not hear from her. The package finally arrived back in my PO Box, and I emailed her - she responded with her home address, and asked me to ship it there. It was at this point I asked Twitter Nation what to do, and the vote was overwhelmingly "Ship it back to her at no charge." So I did it - hopefully earned myself some good karma. The point here is, your problem won't get buried at Corporate - there is no Corporate. It's just me, and I will take good care of you and your order.
7. This t-shirt company is my dream, and nothing is gonna stop me. I want this, and I want it bad. Who would you rather buy t-shirts from? Sprawl-Mart, or the hungriest stand-alone t-shirt entrepreneur out there? I will do what it takes without breaking any serious laws, and I'll be an open book about it along the way. Plus I have a business background, so I hope people can learn from my experiences, as much as I have learned from everyone I've met on Twitter. The final point here is this: Rizzo Tees is my baby, and as Chris Rock said, "I take care of my kids!"
Twitter, Facebook, the world at large .... filled with entrepreneurial folks large in spirit but (currently) small in size. I am proudly one of them and felt it was best not to pretend otherwise. I am confident the majority of folks will respond positively. And then when Rizzo is so big that I'm using an ivory backscratcher and driving my gold-plated rocket car, LOL I'll remember how I got there.
My advice to you is to be yourself. It's much easier to be yourself than someone else, and in this new social media world, probably more profitable too.
Chris
Founder, Rizzo Tees
Two P.S.'s here:
1. Let me know what you guys think about that language on my FAQ page. Do you think I should change it all to first person?
2. Thank you to my friend for bringing this concern to my attention. I completely see where you're coming from, and it really got me thinking..... thinking enough to write this post. Everyone, please always bring me the truth, and nothing else. I want to know what you're thinking.
Stephen Colbert's Sexiest Moments
Great video here - sorry I cannot figure out how to f**king embed video on a Posterous blog - LOL you will have to go the extra mile and click below.
Get A Hold Of Yourself!
This Is Not A Limo!
This is not a car. It's like an SUV shaped to look like a car. Look at the size of the tires!
Google Gears - Allows You To Work In Gmail Without Internet Access
I am a big Gmail fan - I have a personal account, a business account, several other junk accounts that I use for various purposes, and I even use it to read my rizzotees.com email.
Now, a download called Google Gears apparently allows Gmail users to work in Gmail even without Internet access. It downloads two months of your most recent messages - if you find yourself away from the Internet, you can still read and respond to messages. Ostensibly, they would get delivered the next time you do have Internet access. I have not tested this yet, but it seems pretty cool.
An article about it:
http://www.slate.com/id/2210090/?from=rssWhere to go get it:
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