This post is not a question but more of a tip or technique you can use.  How were your ecommerce sales this holiday?  I had the highest sales ever and here is how I killed it.  You must have a indexed site that is established, I also recommend using an email marketing campaign along with this.  You have read about this concept but its worth repeating because its very effective….Give your customer value.  Here is how I did it.

1. Choose the item(s) you want to promote and make sure you have enough inventory and a good a good shipping system in place.
2. Create (yep) some sort of accessory kit or bonus bundle that does not suck.  I say this because there are so many sites or retail storefronts that say, buy this thing and get this really cheap whatever it is, for free.  It’s highly unmotivating.  Blow their mind, its tax deductable.  I shop for bonus bundles when I am ordering from my vendors whether its in the US or I am importing.  Find several items that you can put together that are inexpensive to buy in bulk (importing is great for this) then combine them as a kit.  For example I bought a bundle of stuff that cost me $13 but actually had a retail value of $103.  Take pictures of this cool kit and make decent graphics.  Now think of this, If I just lowered the price of my product by $13, it would have been a snoozer (regular price item is $179 to $229) but if you give them $100 worth of stuff its instant buzz.
3. Create your coupon codes to program your shopping cart.
4. Make a home page graphic to get the most attention.
5. Feature this promotion in your email marketing campaign.
6. Blog it on your blogs (yes more than one)
7. I also run the ad right next to some sort of newsletter sign up box or giveaway, build build build the list.
8. Next write 10 to 20 different variations of tweets about your promotion, Give this to your SEO person.  My guy has over 200 accounts (which is somewhat low) and have them start tweeting. Use good twitter manners and dont spam .   If you dont have someone with that many twitter accounts, find one.
9. Go to every relevant social site and forum and tell the world about the special.  If you can make a video about it, do it, then upload it to all video sites.  My particular product does not do super well on video.
10. I then also blogged the special on my blog matrix, not one blog but many blogs, all theme relevant.

Be organized, make your plan, tape it to the wall and tweak the heck out of it.  This promotion yielded a 98% increase in sales over Dec of 2008.  It will inspire you to have some sort of whopper promotion going every month.  Build one for each month and figure out your own road map.  Of course you will get more of a bump over the holidays, but I make it work much more consistently so that it is now a matter of tweaking.  Good luck!

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Every once in a while you come across something pretty neat that is directly related to a new business idea.  If you are interested in the jewelry business, this company is a good opportunity to get going quickly.

To summarize what this site is about we have reviewed it and will include the details.

Details

• drop ship turnkey site
• pre loaded with 20,000 products
• $995 down and $50 per month.  Don’t let this number scare you, it really is pretty inexpensive when you consider you get the site and you do not have to hunt down any of the products.
• You get a customized logo
• Marketing tools (free data feed)
• Extensive FAQ’s section

Website Details

Your Turnkey Drop Ship Website Includes

• Clean and crisp high-resolution images with white backgrounds and image zoom functionality
• Products pre-categorized into collections for easy navigating
• Advanced search, search by price and keyword search capabilities
• ‘Email To Friend’ option on all product pages
• Mailing list with customer email addresses automatically added when orders are placed
• Email template generator to send promotional email blasts to your mailing list
• A complete shopping cart pre-integrated into your website
• Pre-optimized website with relevant meta tags ready for major search engine crawling
• Promotional messages displayed in FLASH on homepage
• ‘Last Updated’ date stamp on every page of the website
• Updated ‘Order Status’ and tracking information
• Promotional offers such as free shipping, jewelry box and certificate of authenticity

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• Raising Ecommerce Revenue, Amazing Results
• How to start building links to your website

In order to be truly interactive, we really should have put this post out long ago.  So we are doing it now with a call for comments and questions.  What kind of help do you need?  We are prepared to tailor special sections, articles, video, or what ever it takes to get your questions answered and get you moving on your way.  To help you with this please refer to the following sections and include that in your reply or comment.

E-commerce

• Product Ideas
• Store front platforms
• Building the site
• Hosting the site
• Finding products after I get selling my own
• How to produce my own product locally

Importing

• Where to find product
• More information
• Where to find a sourcing agent
• Importing and selling on Ebay
• How to deal with customs.

Blogging

• What topic to blog about
• Where to set up my site
• Costs
• How can I make money at blogging?
• Differences between services
• How fast can I start

Ebay

• How to get started
• Where to host pictures
• Paypal

Information Products

• Where to get them made
• What topics do I pick
• I can’t write, now what?

So now comes the fun part, if you have signed up for our newsletter, take it a step further and ask us a question.  You can email us directly at our email address.  We are all about helping you get going, especially in today’s economy.  It really helps your state of mind when you know you have something going and can constantly work on it.

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• Raising Ecommerce Revenue, Amazing Results

I have some advice from you, but it tends to go a bit different than what you get on here.  Why on earth would you want to get your products into a bigger department store?  First of all, if you are new to the business, this takes some time and experience.  For example the buyers that work for these large chains have a manufacture list and can go direct to your source if they want to.  They really do not need a middle man, and I say who cares.  What you should really do is develop your own brand with these products and open a website that is niche oriented.  Niche is where the future is, niche is authority and Google and other search engines love authority.  My brother has an account with Walmart that took him 9 years to get into.  They (Walmart) has beat his pricing and packaging down almost to the point of pitiful margins.  He does much better working with his distributors and through his website.  Most people think that the major department store is really the sign of victory, but it is slowly changing.  Think about it, would you rather talk to some kid at walmart about a little bit of everything or to a expert in one particular product line.  If you specialize, like in niche markets, you are the experts and people will automatically recognize that as fact.  I hope this stretches your perception a bit.

No related posts.

If you are thinking about getting started with an online or home based business.  You can easily get overloaded with a ton of responses from all sorts of people in the business.  Most will say that their business is the best or most profitable.  A lot of time that is because they think its the best because it is the field they are in.  This is similar to someone saying the pizza is best from their home town just because its what they know and what they like.

What you need is the basic facts to get started, a place to learn the basics.  When you have those basics, then you can go on and start to sift out the gems from the rocks.  There are a lot of rocks out there.  We have found a site that is a video site and it teaches you how to get started in your home based business.  It gives you the basic dynamics of what to look for and explains some very important facts.

Buy a business on Ebay?

If you think a good idea is to buy a premade or existing business for sale on Ebay, then you really need to look at this site too since they really focus on it.  There is a lot of garbage out there and if you do not know what to look for, you will get separated from your hard earned cash.  The site includes a membership and you can easily get through all the material without having to sign up for another month.  The best part is the checklist that you can take with you (print) and use a valuable reference in whatever site you choose to buy (or create).

You can find all this information plus a bunch of free stuff in their guest section.

http://www.internetbusinessnavigator.com

This one I highly recommend.

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This is an excerpt from a forum post, but I do believe that it holds a nice little snippet of information, which is the name of the game.

Answer 1

“i would say , that their are so maney ” networks marketers ” that the supply is greater then the demand.”

Answer 2

“The lack of marketing due to cost can be an issue. I suggest the advertising system I am using with great results to promote my own business. It is called The Online Ad Network and you can run as many ads as you like without having to worry about spamming.  (link omitted) You can have your new advertising account up and running within minutes.

You can also build a fantastic residual income referring other advertisers!!!!  It’s simple. And it truly pays to advertise!”

Answer 3

“The main reason is that network marketing takes WORK. Most of the time people talk to their friends and family and then do not commit to finding new contacts for there product. The second reason is that the products are not products that people use or reuse daily. The product needs to be something that will stand on its own, so it can be sold at retail for a profit. The fact is that people would rather work 8 hours a day to make other people money instead of spending a few hour a day building their own business.”

My answer

In my humble opinion it is a combination of things. One being that the programs that exist are over saturated and cheesy. They may be profitable in the very beginning but quickly fade out. There is not longevity to their programs. I think people are drawn to “easy” or “fast” or “automated” when real business is none of these concepts. When they find out how much work it takes, they lose interest. I am more the proponent of building something tangible and real, something that can be controlled, built and sold when your ready. But like I said, that is my opinion, I am sure many will disagree.

Ken

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Time management

• So when your product ships from overseas you basically do not touch them or handle them at all when you use fulfillment.  You pay a monthly fee per pallet that covers the storage and a freight charge for shipping the product out.  Most fulfillment businesses ship a lot of packages and are willing to pass some of the savings on to you.
• So basically you do not handle your product at all from the time it leaves the manufacturer to the time it arrives to the customer.  This in itself is much better for most business owners in the long run.
• You have to individually crunch your own numbers to see if it will work for you.  You also need to take into account that your product needs to be a complete unit for the fulfillment scenario to work best.  If you have to combine products or do any type of assembly, it takes away from the profit scenario and increases costs.
• Typical storage charges can be from $8 per pallet to $20 per pallet, depending on where they are stored.

Shipping costs

Another factor is shipping costs.  You do not want to pay full retail shipping to your fulfillment company that is just wrong.  A 20% discount to new customers is not unheard of with a decent volume of shipping.  If you have a fulfillment center centrally located in the country, then you can ship to either the west coast or the east cost with reasonable costs.  If your center is on either cost, you have higher costs when sending to the opposite coast.  For example, if your fulfillment is in California, and you ship to New York, then that is going to cost you more to send a box than it would to Arizona.  Having an office centrally located is a good advantage over time.

Summary

Personally I have done both types of shipping discussed in this article.  I may have switched to fulfillment sooner, had I known some of the details discussed here.  Depending on what type of ecommerce store you run, it may be necessary to use a combination of both types.  Larger operations use more than one fulfillment center to handle shipments.  Usually they have one on each coast to take advantage of the shipping cost savings.  Finding the right system for you involves a bit of homework and some brainstorming.  This is a small price to pay for not being held hostage to all the details of shipping your product to your customer.

Ecommerce Shipping and Fulfillment Part 1

Ecommerce Shipping and Fulfillment Part 2

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Fulfillment

So how do you touch your items less and spend less money?  Fulfillment is a different way of looking at the physical process of moving your items and touching them less

Here is a break down of things you do NOT do, but still gets done by someone else.

• Items unloaded from ship, trucked to warehouse near port
• Shipping container stripped out (unloaded) and put on pallets
• Items labeled and shipped to your customers when ordered.

So how do you save money?  Most of the money you save is in time.  Most online business owners today get sucked into a vortex of time wasting activities, not realizing how much time they give away working “in” their businesses when they should be working “on” their businesses.  Here is a sample breakdown of how the fulfillment process can save you money.  Substitute your own money amounts into the examples.

• Unloading the truck and moving into warehouse.  Most likely a full day’s work plus hiring or employing some help.  Generally you can figure 3 people to unload the typical twenty foot container.  (the reason you need help is that typical trucking vendors allow you two hours to unload, you cannot unload this all by yourself in two hours)
• You will need a forklift and pallet jack unless you have a loading bay. (most do not)
• Items will have to be stacked in some particular order according to stock numbers to keep the inventory organized.  This can take a good chunk of time depending on what you are receiving.  Personally we remove all the items from the truck and spread them out before we move them inside.  When overseas manufacturers load your containers, they do not do it with any particular order, so things can be mixed and matched to load maximum volume into the container.
• Product may need to be reboxed or combined for final product assembly.
• Product then needs to be “picked” or selected, when the customer orders it.  The shipping label, packing invoices are printed and then it somehow makes it way to UPS or Fed Ex for shipping.  All of this takes time.  If you hire someone or employ someone, this can be many hours of their job functions.

If your are looking for Part 1 of Ecommerce Shipping and Fulfillment

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If you inventory products for your ecommerce site finding a good solution for shipping and storing your products can always be challenging.  Most warehouse the items yourself and spend lots of time “touching” your products.  So what is “touching” and how does it cost you money?

The typical scenario

You bring in goods from overseas and they get off a boat and are trucked to your location.  You (the receiver) unload and move them into a warehouse.  Generally you will spend some time inspecting your inventory and organizing it so that you can pick your items and ship in an effective manner.  Sometimes if the packaging is not complete, you many find yourself repacking or re boxing items for final shipping.  So here is how the “touching” is applied

• Unloading it off the truck, you have to do this
• Into the warehouse
• Organizing in the warehouse
• Possible repacking
• Final pick for shipment to the customer who ordered it

This is five times that the item is touched, moved, processed or handled.  If you are smart, you most likely have an employee do this work, which means you pay the employee and manage the process.  Not counted here is the managing of the items coming from port and getting to your ware house that is a separate discussion.  The warehouse cost is also not included in the cost at this particular point.

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Every year credit card theft increases.  Every year online fraud increases as well.  If you sell any type of product online, chances are pretty high that there will be some sort of fraudulent activity that you are going to have to deal with.  So why does this keep increasing?  The answer is simple, fraud pays, and people know it. The problem is simple to figure out, people are not afraid anymore because they know the system cannot or will not handle it.

Last month a customer made a purchase on my site using a stolen credit card.  A couple of days later a real nice lady that owned the credit card called me and told me that someone stole her card.  I told her I would be happy to help her and give the police everything they needed to catch the guy.  I had the name, address, phone number and email address of the cheater.  An open and shut case, right?  Wrong, the authorities could do nothing, not because they lacked information, but because they are overloaded.  So I with my wild imagination came up with the perfect solution.

I will take the time to now warn you, this solution can be considered unethical, so if you get jammed up about that, you might want to go read some other article about something else.  My solution actually solves problems creates jobs and creates a better place to live.  You also might get a laugh out of it which is a bonus.

New Business Opportunities

The best idea of the year is called Product recovery.  Here is the theory behind it and an explanation of how it works.

Theory

Product Recovery is kind of a conglomeration of the Police, The Repo man, The Better Business Bureau and a Bounty hunter.  It also has a strong technical background (geeks) and a great accounting program.

Product Recovery might bend some rules and laws but they are highly effective in their techniques.  In some ways, not all but some, it resembles the old version of the Mafia.  I do not agree with the techniques that they employed, but you know that no one messed with them whatsoever.  For some reason everyone understands a crack in the teeth, it would seem to be the only real answer to this growing problem.  But that is not the theme, this is theory.  Here is how it works.

• Joe knucklehead uses stolen credit card on website
• Website owner ships product and afterwards finds out about the fraud, he calls Product Recovery.
• PR takes the facts and retrieves said product back from “alleged customer” using their own “collection technique”
• Website owner pays PR half the value of the item and gets his property back.

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So what’s Vendio?

Vendio is auction management software.
Why do you need it?
Well you don’t need it, but you will want it when you find out how simple it can make your life.

The old way

Go to Ebay to list your item, First you have to find a place to upload your pictures. That means you have to have a place where you can store all your pictures online and then plug that link into the Ebay listings. Next you start the listing process by filling in the template and writing all the text for your item.
You would next link those items to your pictures and fine tune the listing. If Ebay burps or you make some mistakes you could lose all your content and have to start over again. (grrrr)

The Vendio Way

Go to Vendio and sign up for free. Instead of finding a place to host your pictures, you can load them up on Vendio. They are all in one spot, its super easy to do, and you can keep everything organized. Next you want to launch an auction. You choose the auction template you like, fill in the blanks like
you did on Ebay, attach the photos and save. Now when you save it, it’s saved and you can simply copy it again if you want to run constant auctions with the same item. This gives you the ability to tweak your ad and constantly adjust. The best part is if you are running another auction it takes you about 10 seconds to launch one since all your text is prefilled in. They also have a variety of listing templates so you can give your auctions a professional look. Why not tip the scales in your favor?

Now here is the greatest part. Vendio is a database, so your items are organized by month, date, year etc. If you want to see what sold the best in March of last year, you simply look it up. If you want a bottom line figure to do your taxes, it’s all there. If you want to watch your auctions as they run and track how many people look at your auction, you can do that too. The possibilities are endless which is what makes it a great tool. You can automate your checkout for auctions and even remind people to leave you feedback. Vendio has it all and is very robust. The cost to use it is 1% of your final sale price and .10 per listing. To me it’s like having a personal manager track and organizes my activity and the 1% is always worth it. Beside’s, its tax deductible.

All the features can be seen here, this short article cannot possibly do all their features justice.

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Where to go with your Budget

Here is a quick and dirty list of what you should at least consider when building your budget.  If you are in the website/ecommerce/blogging type game already, this is a familiar list.  IF you are not, you need to do your homework and learn how to implement these.  If you don’t, you will waste your money. These are not listed in any particular order.

1. Blog
2. Article Marketing
3. Social Bookmarking
4. Social Marketing
5. Forum Postings
6. Web 2.0 sites
7. Wiki’s
8. RSS Feeds
9. Directory Listings
10. Blog commenting

In summary I would like to leave you with some advice that is pretty much straight and to the point.  It is not meant to degrade or discourage anyone.  In fact if you are as bullheaded as I am, it may spur you on to make something happen.  When I was growing up, we had chores to do around the house.  Like any kid I tried to do as little as possible and cut corners where I could so I could go and do what I really wanted to do.  My father would say, “Why do it half as….”  Who wants to be known for that?  Anyone can do a mediocre job, why lump yourself in with that?  Since then I have added to that with these little morsels of learning.

1. Why be “just another _____” (fill in the blank)
2. Most people want to do things the easy way.
3. Being successful online is hard work and not easy.
4. If it was not hard, everyone would do it.
5. Easy, Guaranteed, Simple, Quick, “make big money”, “monster profits” and “fabulous opportunities” are terms for suckers.
6. Never put your success in someone else’s hands.
7. No one is as motivated as you are.
8. There is a time to outsource and time to do it yourself, but most of the time, you need to outsource it.
9. Try very hard not to “work in your business” “working on your business is much smarter.
10. Don’t just sit there, do it.

Looking for part one of The website Misnomer?

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The other day I had an interesting discussion with a friend about putting up a website to sell a product line that he was starting.  To make a long story short, he offered to supply me with product if I built the site and started promoting it.  Sounds good right?  It could be if the keywords had some potential, but the conversation revealed some interesting insights.

Build it

First you have to build the site, which means you have to decide on which platform you want to build it with.  Considering the fact that I already own and operate stores, I thought it might be a good idea to use the same platform that I already use.  This makes life easier, since you don’t have to learn something new (software)  Learning takes time and stops my progress.  I don’t like to be slowed down since there is more things to do in a day then there is time.  So you could build the site yourself, switch to something new, pay someone to build it for you or just throw something up as an experiment.  Either way to make a summary out of the conversation, you are going to spend about $2000 on the site, whether you hire a basic design out or you do it yourself. (Your time is worth money remember?)

What’s behind door number two?

So let’s say you spent the two grand and now you have a site, now what?  Well this is where most people get excited since their site is finished and it’s online.  However they are not making a dime because they are not promoting it.  In fact, they had no idea that they need to promote it because most website designers don’t know a thing about promotion.  They are two different specialties.  You really need a budget to make sure your website is found by your customers.  By the way, this is not easy, and anyone that tells you that it is, is a big fat liar.    So in order to do it right, since I spent $2000 of my hard earned money, I need a blog.

Blog Please

I wont get into the specifics of why, but I will say that if you are smart you will use a blog to promote your site.  So here we go again.  Do you use a free blogging platform? (Very limited)  Do you hire it out?  Do you build it yourself?  If you have someone who knows what they are doing, you can plan to spend between $300 and $500 for decent blog and design.  This is if you know who to ask and where to go.  But don’t forget the blog needs promotion too, just like the site.  The blog works for the site, but it still needs to be promoted as well.

Door Number Three

So if your math is right you have about $2300 into this project and know one including Google knows you exist.  And if you do not exist in Google, you don’t exist period.  So you need a budget, if you’re serious.  So how much do you spend?  That my friend is the golden question that begs to be answered.  Most people would say, “Pay what you can afford”.  This to me is a mistake.  The correct answer is in the form of a question.  How much do you want to dominate in the search engines for organic search results?  If you want to make it to the first page of Google or Yahoo, then this is going to take some money and a good plan.  I am not saying you have to spend a fortune, but I am trying to get you to understand that you cannot spend $100 a month and make it happen.  You would be better off taking the $2300 you invested and taking your special someone on an all inclusive cruise.  The point of this conversation is this, if you want to be a player you have to be aggressive, have a plan and make a budget.  I know people that spend 50K a month on their plan and I know some that spend $500.  Budget is a function of keywords as well.  If you are trying to rank for the word “mortgage’, get out your checkbook or buy a lot of lotto tickets, that my friend is a long row to hoe.  However if your keywords are less competitive you can spend less.  This of course leads you to the keywords conversation which is another article (sorry)

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By Jeff Smith

Are you wrestling with the type of business you will operate online?

You may have your goals, even have a market in mind but confused
about the online business model you can use to earn both short-term
dollars as well grow future profits?

It’s true, you have the opportunity to:

- Create Your Own Products

- License Products

- Market a service

- Earn commissions through affiliate marketing

In fact, you could combine one or more of these to reach your goals.

FIRST – GOALS BEYOND DOLLARS

In my mind, you should set some goals in your life that go beyond just
money – then figure out how much you would need to achieve to reach
those goals.

For instance, if you want to experience the freedom of giving up your
current job – that’s your goal, and to fulfill that goal, you may
want to earn 80% of current income within X months.

In my case, I wanted to replace a six-figure corporate income and
did that a couple of years ago.

If you have ever worked for a large company, you’ll appreciate it
when I say that I never wanted to be spending more time in meetings
than producing results again.

Having a reason, deep within you, gives earning your financial
goals meaning resulting in an inexplicable, often magic ability to
achieve the unimagineable.

So, you have your purpose, now is it product, service or affiliate
marketing that will get you there?

THERE’S ONLY ONE RULE THAT COUNTS

In my case, it was a mix of products, services and affiliate
marketing, but…

It all started with the product.

I know many successful online business owners who use different
combinations of products, services and affiliate marketing.

Let’s not pretend that there is any set formula for mixing each of
these EXCEPT…leading with your own products is the single best
way to ensure you get the highest return for the least effort in
all 3 business models.

Here’s the important thing…

1. Having your own products will draw far more business options TO you
instead of you having to chase service or affiliate business.

2. Having your own product increases your credibility and perceived
value to your market (assuming your product is relevant and is good),
which allows you to get more for your services and get better
conversions on your affiliate marketing.

3. Creating or licensing a product gives you leveraged income. In
other words, you create (or license) once and it generates passive
revenue for you for months (even years) to come. My own income split
started at approx 1/3 for each of product, service and affiliate
marketing – now is much more like 65% product, 25% affiliate marketing
and 10% services (I have purposefuly limited them)

Think about it, you spend a few weeks developing your own information
product, another week or two in your launch while you continue to
build sales as long as you continue to expose it to your market.

Even your marketing can be fully automated by building your own
army of affiliates and joint venture partners. With a few months
work launching and marketing your product, you can literally sit
back and collect a check for years.

With your own book, ebook, report, course, workshop, audio or video
products out on the market, you’re business will grow fast. Of
course,
you need to make sure your product tackles a real challenge in your
market and presents you as the ultimate solution.

If you get the feeling that your business is stuck in rush hour
traffic, it’s taking far too much time and effort to squeak out an
inch of progress, then it’s time to clear a certain path toward
success by leading with your own product.

Become A High Paid Information Publising Entrepreneur Using the
System That Experts Agree, Will Put You On the Fast-Track To
Releasing and Profiting From High-Demand Infoproducts. Find it here:
http://www.infoproductcreator.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_Smith
http://EzineArticles.com/?Monster-Online-Business-Model-That-Really-Pays-Off&id=96641

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Progress Minded People

Someone asked me the other day why I started my own business even though I had a perfectly good career in another field.  I told him that my business allows me to make progress and my career does not.  So I thought it might be a good idea to explain how this concept works. (in my mind anyway)

There are two different types of people out there when it comes to employment, there are people who work for themselves (entrepreneurs) and there are people who work for someone else. (Employees)

Employees

So let’s start with the Employee minded person and you will see what I mean.  An employee works for someone and is quite happy doing so.  Whether the position is white collar or blue collar they start at some entry level position and begin to work their way up the corporate ladder.  At some point, if they can keep the same job, they will eventually go as far as they can go.  This could even be as radical as the president of the company, but it is still the top of the chain. (See graphic)  What happens is, that particular peak never again progresses any further.  This generally is fine for most people since they made their goal and now they can enjoy the benefits of enjoying their life and their accomplishments.  If you are in this category, I applaud you and congratulate you wholeheartedly, well done.

Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneur’s brains are wired a bit different than employees.  It is not necessarily better, just different.  If you look at the graph you can see that the progress goes up, levels off for a bit and then goes up again.  Entrepreneurs need to be fed and are never really satisfied with their current status.  In this particular example there is no peak; the sky is the limit for someone in this position.  One of the reasons is that entrepreneurs are not content with making a goal and then staying there.  They simply set another goal and strive to achieve that goal again.  It can be bigger or more challenging, but it keeps their brains engaged and active.  There is always a better mousetrap.  These types of people like to control their own progress.  They like to push to make things happen and are generally unhappy when they are not making much progress.  Working for yourself is more personal since you own it.

So which are you?

I have heard some people say they are a mixture of both.  This could be partly true if you have a career and then start out to build your own business while enjoying the stability of a steady paycheck.  These people eventually quit their jobs and cross the line into a full line business man or woman.

Progressing

So how do you keep moving up the highway of learning?  I have found several useful tools that I use every week.

1. Add new products. If you are in the ecommerce field, you will find that you will always want to be adding more products.  This not only fattens up your website, but it keeps your creative juices flowing to give something to your customers that your competitors do not.
2. Brainstorm Coming up with new ideas, researching new marketing techniques or learning new skills always challenges your creativity and keeps you moving forward.  The thing I love about brainstorming with what I call the “morph” principle.  That is when you are working on an idea; it generally turns into something else that you were not thinking about.  This is where the really good money making ideas come from.
3. Outsource Outsourcing frees you up to do stuff that helps you make progress.  Making progress makes you more successful.  You would be amazed at what things you do that sap your time and keep you from being progressing.
4. Network This is very similar to outsourcing because it can give you ideas and help you become affiliated with people you might not have come into contact with.  I have met more people that I would never thought about talking to through networking.  There is always someone out there that knows more than you.
5. Plan Planning forces progress.  I do weekly planning as well as monthly planning.
6. Learn Learning a new technique or staying on top of the latest trends keeps you moving forward.  Social media is a great example of this since it really is the hottest trend on the Internet today.  There is not just one site that defines social media but hundreds of new sites.  They all have advantages and disadvantages and can all help your business.  This in itself keeps your brain engaged and working on a high level.

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Paying bills is no fun. Juggling costs for a start up business is not picnic either. If you are starting out on a shoe string, you know that it can be a challenge to pay everything on time. Again being organized is key. I do some key planning on the white board before starting the business. This can help in the lean months.

1. Set up a company bank account
2. Set up a company credit card linked to the bank account
3. Set up a credit line linked to the bank account.

Pick a bank you like and set up a separate account that has nothing to do with your home account. Most banks will be more than happy to set up the credit card at the same time as well as the line of credit if you qualify. I always try to pick a credit card that has some bonus point’s perks. Today’s marketplace is competitive. If the economy is slow, banks need to come up with ways to bring in more business.

The perks are for you. Use the card for all of your expenses and build up some points. Put every expense that relates to your business on it and watch it add up. You might as well enjoy an extra gift card or airline miles if it is available. Many of the awards are useful for your business such as gift cards to Office Depot or Staples. You can use these cards to save money on the things you need for the business anyway, or you can treat yourself for being smart.

Sometimes things come up in business that you did not plan. Occasionally you will be strapped for cash and you can use your card to take up the slack. It used to be considered evil to use a credit card to start a business or finance parts of a business. However times are changing and the use of the card in a responsible way is more accepted and encouraged.

Using line of credits in some instances is gaining more credibility as well. One of the main advantages of this and the credit card route is that you can do it on your own schedule. Banks are notorious for not giving loans to new businesses. That can make it very hard to get your business going. If you are responsible and can manage budgeting the card payments, this can give you some needed flexibility. A year or two later you have a track record as a business and you will be much more likely to get a loan.

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About 8 years ago I was looking for a way to supplement my income.  I worked for the airlines, which most people think is a good job.  However contrary to popular belief, even if you are in the cockpit, you are expendable and subject for dismissal at the moment fuel prices rise, but that is another story.

So there I am, no work and mouths to feed.  I had been selling children’s tables and chairs on Ebay for a while and it was going very well.  By the way, very good market here, the most powerful demographic online today (hint, foot stomp, wink)  But, the problem was, I could not make them fast enough in my basement to sell enough to live on. Somewhere along the way I needed a router table to make a better top and chair sides, so I built one.  I eyeballed that thing and thought I might be able to sell it better.  So I made a bunch and sales pick up.

I really needed some inserts for the table and was not able to find any.  I found a great website called “Global Sources” and found a company in India that did the Acrylic work I was looking for.  I stumbled onto this and wonder how I made it happen.  I ordered the parts, and had them shipped  to my nearest port of entry.  I will now give you highlights of all the dumb mistakes I made so the story keeps moving.

• Acted as my own freight forwarder, knew nothing about customs
• Screwed up customs form
• Had to drive to port three different times
• My goods had to be warehoused while I figured out how to get them out, I paid huge warehousing fees
• Went to load my goods into my pickup and warehouse strictly forbids loading your own goods
• Finally got items into truck and drove away not realizing that customs does not put things back the way they found them, lid to crate blew off half way home on the highway somewhere in Maryland. (if you were behind me, uh, sorry)

Despite my stupid mistakes I decide to bring more in a year later.  Do you think I used a freight forwarder this time?  Nope, I wanted to save some money.

• I did a slightly better job with customs
• I still had to pay some warehouse fees to some guy name Lou
• The port in Philadelphia is very scary, bring large friends
• I ended up paying the same price to bring something in, as I could have for retail
• Don’t try to skimp and save money, bring in a lot of goods and do it right, lesson learned

Ok now I am up to bat about 2 years later.  I have a website and want to expand my product line, so I contact another Chinese company and make arrangements.  This time I hire a freight forwarder.  You basically give them the order details and tell them to notify you when it gets here. (yeah, pretty easy)

• I ordered 10 pallets worth (called LCL, which is less than container load)
• I have to wait till truck comes which takes longer
• When truck driver comes, truck driver does not want to wait while you unload your stuff. Truck driver gives you evil eye if you don’t have forklift and muscle. (pallet jack too)
• LCL loads are prone to damage since more hands touch your stuff, I had many destroyed boxes by careless forklift drivers.
• I am learning, so this is better but I paid too much to the freight forwarder.

Now I am acting like the executive I think I would like to be.  I consider ordering a full container since I want to have less damage and get more product for my money.  I still work with same company but I have to hammer on them for quality control, lots of mistakes coming out of Chinese factory.   I order the container, but get little response from my manufacture overseas.  Why you ask?  Well it’s Chinese New Year, and basically everyone takes the month off, good luck.  Eventually I get going and give my order to the freight forwarder.

• Order comes, but the container is sealed with some kind of bolt not even Hercules can break (bring a hacksaw or grinder, just in case)
• I hire college kids with stronger backs and less sense than me. (they need money)
• I rent a forklift and pallet jack and even a friend who can drive a forklift
• We unload in less than 2 hours to my happiness.
• Everyone goes home and I am happy.
• Then the freight forwarding bill comes with surprises, a rate increase and fees not mentioned. Yep, time to find a new company.

The next order is a container from my same manufacturer and 10 pallets from a new company for two separate shipments.  This time I do more research,(I am big on research now) and hire a sourcing specialist.  I tell him my woes of poor quality, long delays and high prices.  He connects me with the right people who know what they are doing.  My sourcing agent actually goes to China, and goes straight to my manufacturer and hammers out new agreements.  He saves me money, time and grief.  I spend  less money, but he takes a small fee and so it’s like spending the same money without grief.  I now have our goods shipped to a fulfillment center, after the container hits port.

• I don’t worry
• I don’t lift boxes
• I don’t think about customs
• I don’t have to give money to a guy named Lou

Yes it is funny when I think about it now, but it is a life lesson.  The bottom line, don’t step over a dollar to pick up a dime.  Sourcing products from overseas can really bite you and cost you some serious dollars if you are not careful.  Learn about Chinese culture and how to build up relationships with factories overseas, this will help you in the long run, but that is another article.

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This is probably the $64,000 question that I get asked frequently. So we have made a video to help you answer this question. It really does take research and some creativity to figure out what you would like to venture into. Get a pen and some paper and write down all your ideas after watching this video. The video has some key points in it and will help you to determine in which direction to go next. We will also list some references that you can check to get the job done. Don’t forget, there is a lot of reference material here on this site. It’s not all about manufacturing a product but more about manufacturing yourself as a business. That is whether you sell product, sell a service or sell knowledge. It all starts here.

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Blog reference in the video

Forums

http://www.smallbusinessforums.org/

http://www.homebusinessonline.com/community/forum/

http://smallbusinessonlinecommunity.bankofamerica.com/index.jspa

Article

http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Kind-of-Business-Should-I-Start?&id=57316

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Here is what I did, instead of going to the bank, assembling a business plan and jumping through hoops and begging for cash. I applied for a line of credit from my bank where my commercial account was set up. A lot of people preach against using Lines of Credit and credit cards for starting businesses. My take on that is, if you are irresponsible and cannot manage your money, then you should not own a business. But if you are tactical and strategic, then using this money can be smart and very flexible. Suze Orman used to talk all the time about using Credit cards to start a business. When your business is humming along after a couple of years, you then can approach the bank and the SBA for additional or expansion funds. When you have this proven track record and some cash that you invested yourself, you will have a better chance of getting approved. The banks call it “having some skin in the game” which means your personally vested in your future.

Make sure you plan on paying a nice chunk back to your line of credit each month. If you really want to do it right, make the LOC payment a regular payment with online banking. This way, you will never forget and it will show responsibility as well as keep you from doing “one more thing”

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I do a lot of reading in forums lately. My favorite (this week) is a small business forum that attracts a lot of people looking for start up information. I notice that many people want to get start up business ideas, but do not really care about what type of business that it is. As long as it makes money seems to be the general thought pattern. That may be a thought pattern that could come back to haunt you later on down the line. For example my good friend Blanche joined an well known MLM program with the lure of making big money. When I asked her how it was going, she told me that it was a lot of work. It seems like you have to work your rear end off and everyone ends up fighting over a quarter. When it is all said and done, you really do not own anything of value.

I myself run several sites, one being a very busy ecommerce site. While I am happy my hard work is paying off, it also is a lot of work. However I am building a real and sellable business in the asset. It is important to know that when you are involved in the customer service part of business, it can be somewhat draining, depending on your product. The reason why is customers. The bottom line is, some customers are painful to deal with. It would seem that there will always be a small amount of people that make the most trouble. This brings me to my mental health outlook. If you are going to start a new business, or look for business ideas, why not choose something that causes the least amount of mental havoc? If you do not have thick skin, you may not want to be involved with the general public on a sales basis. The reason is, no matter how good your product is, there will be that one idiot that you cannot make happy for all the money in the world. If you are not use to that, it can stress you out and cause you to lose sleep.

So what do you choose?

There are several online ventures that can keep your blood pressure down. Blogs are a good example since you are creating most of the content yourself and the interaction with most readers is civil. If you sell products on your site, they would be mostly affiliate products in which the manufacture would have to deal with returns and other issues.

Information sites rely on people clicking ads to generate revenue and can be very profitable and satisfying. Information products are also very good and good for your mental health. If you are good at something, writing a course or Ebook can be profitable as well. Video is all the rage on the Internet today and making them and marketing them can help you stay sane in your quest for alternative income.

So why the sanity buzz?

Chances are that most people that are starting an online business are either unsatisfied with their current job, or they have recently become unemployed. Some want to have a good alternative plan for worst case scenarios. I think that is a good idea since no one should have to rely on someone else to make sure they have enough income for retirement. If you pick something that you may be doing for a while, it might as well be something that does not stress you out. We are finding out how important stress plays a role in our lives every day. Do yourself a favor, look ahead five years when you are thinking about an online business. Knowing what your weaknesses are now will certainly save you some grief and aggravation later.

Forum

http://smallbusinessonlinecommunity.bankofamerica.com/index.jspa

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