Distributor Interview with Bryan Buckner of Guardian Self Defense

Laura: When did you start your business?
Bryan: We started Guardian Self Defense in May 2006, so just over 4 years ago.

Laura: Why did you get started with Safety Technology?
Bryan: Well I’ve always had an entrepreneur spirit. After Grad school, my MBA, I started to search for businesses with a relatively low start up cost, something that would supplement my family’s income. Found Safety Technology’s ad in one of the small business magazines, researched the company and convinced my wife. The rest is history.

Laura: What were some of the obstacles you had to face and how did you overcome those obstacles?
Bryan: The obstacles are plenty and they are daily. When it gets tough, my theme is “if it was easy everyone would be doing it”. It takes a lot of research. Optimizing my web site was a big obstacle, but the most important and also most difficult when trying to drive consistent, quality traffic to your site.

Laura: How has this business changed your life?
Bryan: A lot of ways, for me it’s really been a blessing. I thank God everyday that we found and started this business. It’s allowed my family and I to do things we couldn’t have 5 years ago. My wife quit her full time jobs and works for the company. I was able to hire both of my sister-in-laws. And the ability to give back feels good. We currently give to 4 different children’s charities.

Laura: What advice would you give to someone else starting a business?
Bryan: Work hard and be humble.

Laura: What is the main thing you are doing to drive traffic to your site?
Bryan: We do a variety of things from web advertising, pay-per-click, newspaper articles, craigslist to word of mouth. Oh and through our email list. We have over 19,000 contacts. I write at least once a week and sometimes send specials or discounts on Fridays. Or if it’s a slow week or holiday approaching I’ll shoot something out to the list and we see a spike in sales almost instantly. We also advertise some on Facebook and Myspace.

Laura: What’s your favorite product?
Bryan: I’m a pepper spray guy. I really like to distance it gives you to defend yourself against an attacker or animals. So my favorite would be the Wildfire 9oz Pistol Grip.

Laura: What is the craziest story that a customer has told you?
Bryan: I guess because we are so close to LSU, the most outrageous, and not from just one person but multiple people want to know if I would be interested in hiring them to get sprayed and shocked with pepper spray and stun guns and letting me record it for advertising.

Laura: Can you give me one of your internet marketing secrets?
Bryan: I wouldn’t say it’s a secret but the most important thing I do is try to get back links to my site. I spend time everyday, usually a couple of hours. It may be requesting a reciprocal link from another site or maybe submitting articles to web directories. That’s what I try to focus on everyday. With that, I’ve watched my keyword rankings go up dramatically especially long tail keywords.