In 2001, at the young age of just fourteen Sean Belnick created BizChair.com. Sean began gaining experience online by learning HTML and using Ebay to sell Pokemon cards. Sean’s stepfather was a veteran of the office furniture business and gave Sean $500 to start the retail website.
After the creation of the website there was immediate success. Sean said that during the summer before high school he spent his time making the site better, processing orders and talking to customers. The site exploded so fast that in 2004 the business was able to move into a 40,000 square foot warehouse. BizChair.com now has over 165 employees and operates in 700,00 square feet of warehouse space. They carry more than 40,000 products and have made over 500,00 sales. Sean says he is amazed that his “simple online furniture retail company has evolved into a market-leading, furniture distribution powerhouse”.
The business has recently opened a new division called “Microsites”. “Microsites” features all the items of the BizChair.com website and also sells vendor items. The new division has much more selection and dives into different furniture markets. It focuses more on direct customer service with personal phone calls and email. Overall the new division continues to grow and offers customers a big selection at a low cost.
The beauty of this business is simplicity. Anybody could have come up with the idea to sell furniture online. Sean saw the opportunity and took it, proving that no matter how simple or crazy the idea there is always a chance for great success. Sean says it best himself “Anything is possible and opportunities should always be taken advantage of.” Sean’s success is very inspiring and inspires me to act on the next business idea I have. You never know, it could end up as successful as BizChair.com.
Great post! I wrote about a young entrepreneur who started his business at age 14 as well. It’s amazing how dedicated these kids are to turning their dreams and visions into a reality. Also, I love that you said “the beauty of this business is simplicity.” I could not agree with you more. Most of the time people struggle coming up with new ideas is because they are thinking too hard. We all need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture in order to achieve success.
Very interesting! When you think about businesses created by young entrepreneurs who haven’t even started high school yet, you don’t normally think of selling office furniture. Sean obviously found a problem and was able to develop a business solving that problem. And now his business is expanding and employs 165 people! This was a great post – thanks for sharing!
Nice post Josh. It was interesting to read about someone starting at such a young age. Its crazy to think that someone who had yet to graduate high school had the ability to identify a problem and solve it to such a great capacity. Keep up the good work