makechange.store

Hello, I'm a small business owner and a recent candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. I plan to use the power of e-commerce to effect positive change. There are many smart and capable people of integrity who want to help their communities, by combating racism, pollution, government corruption, supporting veterans, or helping with education policy. Whatever the issue, a major barrier to making a difference is money. I plan to help by building a simple yet powerful online retail store, in partnership with experts in digital marketing, drop shipping, and e-commerce. The store will sell high demand products via Amazon and other distributors. The revenue from this business will be used to identify and financially support community leaders who are making a difference. Their impact could be in education, healthcare, politics, environment, or any other positive effort. In addition, the store will communicate its positive impact to its loyal customers giving our changemaking community leaders a wider online audience.

I am the founding member of a commercial financing and consulting company which catered to small and medium sized business and real estate investors.  I'm also a former U.S. Air Force officer with nine years of service.   In addition to running my small business I have been a volunteer and community leader.  I've worked with several advocacy organizations to effect change in our community and in our politics.  I'm a fellow of the North Carolina Institute of Political Leadership, a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and a member of the National Eagle Scout Association.  I abandoned my consulting practice in order to run for Congress, while on the campaign trail I met many people working to change their community.  I want to use the power of ecommerce to help these changemakers build a better tomorrow.  

The United States spent over $840B online last year and that number is expected to grow.  Further, more and more customers expect businesses to be change agents.  According to a survey by McKinsey & Company two out of three Americans say that their social values now shape their shopping choices.  The rise of social movements such as BLM and #MeToo are increasing people's desire to do good in the world.  This store will use social commerce channels to empower everyday consumers to make change by donating net profits to specific impactful causes and creating branded online communities where discussions about causes can happen.  Causes will be selected by either participating investors willing to join our board or by participating customers willing to subscribe to our leadership team.  Our customers will remain loyal knowing that their buying power is also change power.  

The initial online store will be developed and branded by ecommerce experts and supported by a major U.S. based ecommerce dropshipping platform.  The products offered will be selected based on gathered data of trending products online.  This way we can capitalize on trending products from several niches.  Social media marketing, influencer marketing, and Google ads will be utilized to drive initial trafic.  We will create branded Facebook pages and groups to host discussions.  As the groups get larger a dedicated community hosting platform may be utilized to maximize engagement.  

Initial cost of the store set-up, including web-design, SEO and social media build out is estimated at $10K.  Marketing services are estimated at $3K monthly.  Ad buys are estimated at $4K Monthly.  Internal staffing is estimated at $5K monthly.  The hope is to raise enough capital to fund the first year of operations - $154K.     Given current trends in ecommerce profitability is expected after 6 months of operations.