Zearth.com finds success online

Four years ago McKinnon Baxter was trying to scratch out a second career as a writer and director in Los Angeles. But it wasn’t working out, so during a visit to the Sundance Film Festival in 2000, he came up with another idea: Why not start an Internet business?

By WALT WILLIAMS, Chronicle Staff Writer

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2004/09/26/news/zearth.txt

"Do you go with something that looks like it is more solid and has a future, or do you keep gambling?" Baxter said, recalling the decision he faced. "That was a time in my life that I decided to do something that was less a gamble and seemed like it had a better probability of a good future."

With just a computer, a fax machine and a telephone in a single-bedroom apartment, Baxter, 37, started the company that would become http://www.Zearth.com.

Since then Zearth.com has evolved into a full-fledged online retail store offering office furnishings, outdoor gear, fitness equipment, assistance products and other items. "Comfort" is the overriding theme. Whether it be hammocks or ergonomic office chairs, the products sold on the site are meant to make life at home and work more relaxing.

The company is essentially Bozeman’s version of Amazon.com, the popular online bookseller. Its offices and warehouse are located in the city.

Zearth.com now has 25 employees and Baxter expects to add new people soon. The company is projected to take in $9 million in sales revenue this year, about 35 percent more than it did the year before.

Zearth is a "dot-com" company that has managed to thrive where many others have failed because, according to Baxter, he took a more traditional approach to establishing the business, building it up slowly, one customer at a time.

"I think the reason we have been successful is because we took a very different approach" from other dot-coms, he said. "We did not seek venture capital. We built the business like any other retail store would build a business on Main Street."

Baxter looks the stereotype of the dot-com entrepreneur — young and causally dressed around the office. He grew up on a farm in New York, received a business degree from San Diego State University and moved to Bozeman in the 1990s to take a job as a real estate broker.

Baxter left Bozeman for six years to pursue a movie career. During that time, he supported himself as salesman for a company that sold products for people with back problems.

But he eventually became unhappy with the way the company did business. He had nearly reached his boiling point with his employer when inspiration struck in 2000.

He was volunteering at the Sundance Film Festival, whose theme that year was "merging of the media" — TV, film and the Internet. The idea grabbed hold, and he soon found himself in a public computer room registering Web domain names.

Baxter stuck to what he knew. He started comfortchannel.com, a site devoted to selling ergonomic products. He ran the business by himself out of an apartment in Santa Monica, regularly putting in 15-hour days.

"I can remember in the early days I knew this was going to be big," he said. "I had a strong belief it was going to be big."

Within a year he was able to expand his operation. He moved back to Bozeman, setting up shop in a house in the city and hiring staff. Jean Grotberg, now the company’s director of vendor relations and product development, was one of the first people brought in after the move.

When she first took the job, Grotberg thought she was joining the company’s customer service department. It turned out she was the customer service department. Her office was the house’s porch.

"I think what appealed to me most of all was that, without a doubt, it was very obvious I was getting into the very foundation of a company I knew nothing about," she said.

For Grotberg, the job was an opportunity to lay the base of what could turn into a successful business venture. Many of the structures, procedures and processes she started are still in use.

"It’s a great feeling," she said.

Zearth’s offices are now located in an office building on Haggerty Lane. It has a warehouse on Rouse Avenue, although nearly all the products it sells are shipped directly from the manufacturers.

The company processes an average of 150 orders a day with an average order amount of $135. The company has operated over the past few years without incurring debt, financing its growth mostly with internally generated revenue.

The company recently received a loan from Bozeman’s revolving loan fund, which it will use to hire new employees. It also has entered into a partnership with another company that will allow it to ship its goods to foreign countries for the first time.

Baxter said it was a no-brainer moving the company to Bozeman. There is a lot of talent in the city.

"My feeling was there would be people here that wanted to stay in Bozeman and build something great from the ground up," he said.