King duo climbing the stairway to success, literally!

By Mark Pavilons

From the basement to the top floor, a King City duo are working their way to the top with their new business.
Ben and Mark McLean created Benji Sleep, an online business with one simple mission – to provide the softest bed sheets, at a fair and reasonable price, directly to your door.
The brothers grew up in King City and started the online e-commerce company two years ago and over the last three months (since COVID) their sales have increased 200%, with so many people looking to revamp their home decor.
“Over the last year we have lugged 26 tons of bed sheets up the stairs and out the door to the Canada Post location in King City,” Ben said.
Something as simple as buying new bedding can be a pain, and some of us underestimated how inconvenient it would be to purchase items like bedding at a big-box store.
“With the overwhelming options to choose from, we knew there had to be a better way to do this. The main inspiration behind Benji Sleep was our sheer motivation to break the status quo when it came to buying bedding products.”
Mark added they listened to countless sales people selling them on high thread count, and the fact that quality came with a premium price.
“We set out to simplify the entire process by eliminating your trip to the big-box store, debunking the myths around thread count and offering high-quality, versatile and affordable bedding ALL online.”
Reaching the right combination of materials involved a lot of trial and error.
“We tried absolutely every type of sheet fabric out on the market. Traditional cotton (percale and sateen), bamboo, silk, and even linen! We tried and tested every single fabric to find which was not only the softest, but also the best bang for your buck. We finally decided to work with a manufacturer to produce a double brushed, high performance microfiber that is designed to be extremely soft, hypoallergenic, wrinkle resistant, and temperature regulating.”
The McLeans noted the process meets environmental industry standards “Oeko-Tex Standard 100” which ensures no harmful chemicals or contaminants are used.
Benji Sleep offers free shiping when customers order just two products.
Realizing that some people are hesitant to order online, they offer a 100-night free trial! If you are not a fan of the sheets, send them back and they will refund you in full. Any returns are washed, and then donated to local charities/shelters in our community.
“We keep things simple and love when we hear from our customers about how easy the process was from start to finish.”
The entrepreneurs are very customer oriented and have built Benji based on what customers are looking for.
“We listen to our customers, and when we are launching new colours, patterns and products, we turn to them for valuable feedback.”
The brothers admit they “dove head first into this, and have learned so many things along the way.”
They explained the leap taught them about supplier relationships, packaging design, branding, digital advertising, website design and user experience.
“We had to start somewhere, and we were lucky enough that our parents gave up their basement for our new makeshift storage warehouse. We knew it wasn't going to evolve over night, so we steadily worked at making our process more efficient.
“When COVID-19 swept the nation, many people were putting more of a focus on their home decor and personal needs. At that point, we were ready and we were able to support the demand that came our way.
“We have come a long way, getting to know the ladies at the King City post office when we brought them our first order to ship out, to seeing their facial expressions when we would back up to their loading dock with our new ‘daily shipment,' to having a fully functional warehouse! It takes a team to operate a business, and it's important that every facet is providing value to the customer.”
Ben said they believe that consumer buying habits have changed since the pandemic. People are more likely to purchase online, especially when they have 100 nights to try their sheets.
Benji Sleep's prices are all below $100.
“As we dug around and scoped out the competition, we found that the majority of companies were listing their sheets for $150+ with added shipping fees. It was important to us to have a target of $100 with the option for free shipping. Our quality speaks for itself in the reviews that we have received.”
No one is perfect and that's why they provide a customer service chat line on the website that they monitor every single day.
“It has allowed us to be in direct contact with our customers to see what it is that they want, and how we can improve from a quality standpoint. Continuous improvement is very important to us,” Mark said.
While slugging boxes is hard, they admit they have fun working together and bouncing ideas off one another.
“Speaking with happy customers on a daily basis, and listening to their experience with our bedding product is what makes it all worth it to us.”
There's still work to be done.
They know they can improve on the product and create efficiencies. But a good night's sleep is vitally important.
“Everyone knows the feeling of an incredible sleep, however more often than not it's a terrible sleep that stands out the most. We want to change that. It all starts with a good sleep and we want to ensure everyone starts their day off the right way. We started Benji with a few important things in mind; simplicity, affordability, and quality bedding available with just a few clicks,” Ben said. “Benji's future will be dependent on our customers as they will steer us in a direction that makes sense from both a product point of view while allowing us to be ourselves and help our customers improve on their sleep every night.”
For more, visit www.benjisleep.com or email them at info@benjisleep.com