I've always thought of running an online store as a little like playing a video game. Except this particular video game involves real people and money. Those first few sales are really thrilling. Sales come in during the day and even at night while you're sleeping, and every time, "beep", a sales notification comes in on your phone or email.

I got my first taste for the excitement of running an ecommerce business when I created an online store to sell sporting equipment in France. We had just started building the store and we only had one product listed and the description was not yet translated into French.
Then, out of the blue, my business partner got a call from a guy asking where on earth his order was! We hadn't even checked for sales: the store wasn't launched. It turned out that my partner had posted the store on a public bookmark site, Google had found the store and not one but two people had put through orders!

I had been keeping an eye on Shopify for a couple of years before I had the chance to build a store on it. I loved how simple it was to use and how beautiful the stores created with it were. And then there were the interactions with the sales and support teams - such a positive bunch of people, everything was possible and above all "awesome".

It's such an inspiration to see all these new stores launching and hear the stories behind them. Real people creating real businesses that work! What's more there's the "Build a Business" competition that Shopify runs each year: build an ecommerce business and compete for prizes. That's just brilliant!

For all these reasons, I really do believe that Shopify is the way to go if you want to develop an online store. And it was this enthusiasm that inspired me to write "Shopify & You." I hope this guide will make it easier for you to build your own business with Shopify. Good luck as you begin on this exciting adventure!