Jeffry Radspinner opened Venture Surplus on January 1, 2015. It is an online Army surplus store that provides government issue uniforms and mil-spec gear for soldiers, veterans, hobbyists, and preppers.
Venture Surplus is customer centric, a major differentiator from competitors. Venture Surplus offers a satisfaction guarantee and free returns on all products. Furthermore, while most surplus stores sell general military surplus, Venture Surplus specializes specifically in army surplus and carries one of the largest sections of hard to find army gear on the internet.
Creating positive impact for veterans and soldiers is incredibly important to Jeffry. “I want to help them anyway I can. Whether it’s getting them the gear they need for deployment, field training or turn-in, offering them employment or just contributing to veteran organizations and partnering with veteran owned businesses. Overall, I want to continue to work with the military community throughout the country.”
Prior to opening his first business, Jeffry at the age of the 18, realized that as an entrepreneur, he could do and start whatever business he wanted. Dreams became a reality after working on several business ideas and settling on his first eBay store, to get the experience of running a business without taking on a large loan. Additional experience, which would contribute to his future business success, included an internship at a local government contracting company where he learned how to research, collect and sort data effectively. After selling miscellaneous items for a few years on eBay and subsequently on Amazon, Jeffry became serious about business ownership and focused on developing a niche in army surplus.
With all business development, there are challenges. The largest challenge Jeffry was to overcome was how to build his own website, to develop his OWN brand. “To solve the website problem, I put together a team of web developers, marketers and graphic designers that already knew how to build and develop a website. Now we have a decent website that shows ups on Google!”
After a year in business, Jeffry discovered the SBDC and the resources that are offered to existing businesses including one-on-one consulting and Leading Edge for Entrepreneurs, an 8-week strategic planning course. “I don’t think I would have been able to take my business this far without the help that I received from the SBDC. Everyone there was so incredibly helpful and supportive. I still use some of the research tools I learned about in Leading Edge, refer to the business plan I wrote and have updated it as my company has grown. I would recommend that anyone that is looking to start a small business to take advantage of the resources and the help that the SBDC offers because it will help them get ahead.”
Jeffry is proud of building a good team that works well and efficiently providing customers with an exceptional experience. To Jeffry, the most valuable strategic growth initiative was the development of systems and processes for each job within the company. Having a defined process for each job made training new employees easier and efficient.
You can find out more about Venture Surplus at www.venturesuprlus.com or email Jeffry Radspinner at jeffry@venturesurplus.com
