Job Q&A

Dean Quinlan, Co-founder of Silvereagle.com
by Kendra Lott
[More Job Q&A's]

Meet Dean Quinlan, co-founder of Silvereagle.com, a Web site that sells American Eagle coins. A month before Christmas, this 60-year-old Massachusetts native didn't know how to use email. Now, two months later, he runs an e-commerce site with his wife, Sandy Eielson, and his daughter and son-in-law, Martha and Al Indelicato. As Dean says of the venture, "At present, we're making a modest return on this project, but don't anticipate giving up our day jobs." With all due respect, that's more than Jeff Bezos can say.

Monster.com: Why sell silver coins?

Dean Quinlan: Well, I own a silver resource management company -- that explains my access to and interest in silver. I've realized over the years that people have an interest in precious metals and silver. Silver is really the 'poor man's precious metal'. It's affordable to most people.

Mc: So why the coins?

DQ: I've often given Silver Eagle coins as special gifts to loved ones. People always really get a kick out of them. The coins really are exquisitely crafted, and you don't see them very often. Then it occurred to me that millennium coins, dating from the last year of the 20th century and the first of the new millennium, would be a nice marketing concept. It germinated from that.

Mc: And has it proven to be something that people are interested in?

DQ: The site has been live for about one month now. And since the beginning, we've been averaging anywhere from 6 to 20 orders a day. Most days we get 12-15 a day. The overall demand has been exciting. Wešre getting orders all over the state.

Mc: What kind of marketing strategy do you have in place?

DQ: Well, we haven't done any off-Internet marketing. We've only used banner advertising on host sites, and relied on people finding us through search engines. We are attracting mainly people who are searching specifically for Silver Eagle silver dollars. We've secured the domain names 'GoldEagle2000' and 'AmericanEagle2000'.

Mc: What was your previous computer experience?

DQ: Zero. We're learning as we go. We're motivated by revenue growth. The more sales come in, the more determined we are to learn. It's gone fairly smoothly. We've had several extremely complimentary notes from satisfied customers; none have been disappointed.

Mc: What was your investment in the site?

DQ: Copy, design and implementation of the site cost less than $1,000.

Mc: How long did it take you from the time you had the idea to the time the site was up?

DQ: About a month. We wanted the site up by December to take advantage of the volume of Christmas shopping. We hadn't really researched e-commerce. Our knowledge there was pretty much in the general consumer category. We knew conceptually how it worked and decided to jump in and get started.

Mc: What programs are you using?

DQ: We're using Nova -- a MasterCard/Visa merchant program. But we accept checks and faxed orders, for those who aren't comfortable giving their credit card numbers over the Internet. We also have an order responder program that automatically confirms every order that we receive so that the customer knows that it has been received and is being processed. We found that without confirmation, people were getting nervous and inquiring several days later.

Mc: To what do you credit the site's success?

DQ: A unique offering. We think we have that. We offer demonstrated value. The site is clean, concise, and our story is well presented. Pictures help. But it may be the specificity of what we're selling. The Internet is a land of individual shoppers who know exactly what they are looking for, and who know that they can find it.

Mc: Do you think you'll stick with it?

DQ: Oh yeah, sure. It's great fun and we're making money.