| John Watts and Doug Puls could play the blues if they wanted to—there are a few hundred harmonicas handy in the Ellicott City house that serves as their business headquarters. But a happier tune would be more appropriate for the founders of Coast to Coast Music, an Internet harmonica store that’s been going great guns recently.
Coast to Coast was founded in 1996 by Watts, owner of a home-improvement firm, and his harmonica teacher, Doug Puls. Things got off to a slow start, with the enterprise selling
instructional harmonica tapes and
harmonicas. But thanks to some lucky breaks and business smarts, they’re now selling
four times as many harmonicas and related merchandise,
and discovering they can play with the big boys in the online instrument business.
“I was interested in blues music and wanted to try the harmonica as a hobby,” recalls Watts. “Doug had some instructional tapes that I offered to sell online to pay for my lessons.” Watts created coast2coastmusic.com, an informational website, and added to his line of musical merchandise. Sales were made by snail mail, with customers printing out an online order form and mailing it in with a check.
The duo’s big break came in 1998 when Dell Computers purchased 1,300 harmonicas to liven up a professional conference. Dell flew Watts and Puls to Austin to teach the 800 conventioneers some basic notes and a few blues riffs. In December 1999, after rubbing elbows with all those geeks in Austin, Coast to Coast joined up with freemerchant.com, a secure server that allowed credit-card processing on the site. The company’s sales of six harmonica brands (including the popular Hohner and Lee Oskar), folk instruments, and accessories now have
quadrupled.
“When I started Coast to Coast, I thought it would be a self-supporting hobby,” says Watts, 47, with a laugh. “But it’s a real business now.” He would recognize one when he saw it, since he owns Coastal Builders, a $1 million home-renovation firm that employs 10 people. Puls, 49, continues his career as a professional musician who plays blues and other styles at venues all over the region.
Though still pint-sized compared to competitors, coast2coastmusic.com is proving that the image presented by a slick, efficient website serves as an equalizer: It is now shipping to clients in Russia, Japan, and Turkey, among other countries.
“I just made a sale to a guy on Reunion, an island in the Indian Ocean,” says Watts. “He bought about $400 worth of harps and reed plates all at once.”
That was not, however, his most memorable sale.
“I had a guy order 50 harps from me. Turns out he owns a company that sells vacuum cleaners and he was using the harmonicas to demonstrate the efficient suction of his machines.” |
Check Your Shopping Cart
