EBay : 7 Questions with Yiannis Choutris of YiannisWine

The first thing Yiannis did when he opened a brick-and-mortar wine shop? Start selling wine on eBay.

Now, his robust eBay sales have helped him grow his hybrid business into a wine-lover's destination in Virginia Beach.

Shop Yiannis' hand-picked wines on eBay at YiannisWine.

7 Questions with Yiannis Choutris of YiannisWine

1. How did you start selling on eBay?

When I was working at the country club, I was working for close to minimum wage, and I saw an opportunity to sell something on eBay, back when it was first starting.

I bought and sold two fishing rods, and I realized that there was money to be made. I could sell stuff on eBay. Little by little, I started selling fishing tackle on eBay, and it became very popular with buyers.

So when I opened up my retail wine store, the first thing I said to my employees was, "Hey, we can sell wine on eBay."

1. What does community mean to you and your business?

What defines community for us is everybody in our circle, and our community is a national one.

I have friends in every place, and that's because of wine and how it brought people together.

We have our local customers that come into our restaurant for food. Their friends and family in other parts of the country go online and buy wine from us because they were recommended by the local folks.

I have people driving down from New York for a four-night experience at our restaurant. I have people driving down from New York to pick up a case of wine because they want to visit us, even though we would ship it to them.

Community is everything. Without it, we do not exist. Everything we do every day, every breath we take is because of our community, our circle, our customers, their friends, and their experiences with us.

Yiannis, educating a tableful of wine lovers.

1. What's your favorite quote?

A very successful friend of mine started his business out of his garage. He told me, "Teach them to leave and pay them to stay." That didn't make sense to me in the beginning. Over time, I've gotten my own understanding about what that meant.

I teach a lot. I teach my employees, my peers, my customers. But I also make sure that my employees are happy to stay. I listen to what they tell me. They're happy to come to work every single day because of the environment that they're in.

If my employees come to work happy, I go home happy.

1. What's your top productivity hack?

My trick to stay productive is I grew up poor and nothing was ever handed to me! Every task that I take on, the reward for me is excelling.

1. What's your process for sourcing merchandise?

It's difficult to source wine blind. We always try. We always taste.

With wine, every vintage is different. Every bottle is different, and something that is great this year may not be so good the following year. And something that sells today may not sell tomorrow.

I travel. My team travels. We taste wines. We visit the wineries and we create relationships with them. And that gives us access to those wineries. Everything is done with a phone call. "Can we get this? How can we get this? What is it that we like about it?" That's what separates us from the big box stores. We try everything we bring in.

Yiannis, perusing his warehouse selection.

1. Where do you see your business in 1 year? 5 years? 10 years?

My goal is to be the number one wine purveyor in the country.

For us to grow like that, we have to operate more efficiently. The more efficient we become, the easier it is for us to process orders. Efficiency is the biggest key for us.

It's an ever-evolving industry but the tools are there. And the more efficient we become, the bigger we will grow.

1. What's one thing you would tell yourself when you first started your business?

I would not change a thing. I'm not saying that I did everything right, but it was a progression and that progression is necessary to where we are today. Again, it's an ever-evolving industry and we continue to evolve.

Without the mistakes and without being proactive, we wouldn't have what we have today.

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This interview has been edited for concision and clarity.