Getting Supplies for your Online Store

-Make your product easier to buy than your competition, or you will find your customers buying from them, not you.-Mark Cuban

The design of your site is important. It is like the entrance to a store. When a customer arrives they need to be able to find what they are looking for as quickly as possible. If they cannot they will quickly jump over on to another site.

Think about how often you have done this. You arrive at a web store looking to purchase something and you can not find what you are looking for or if you can you have to jump through countless hops to find a cart and to purchase the item.

Most online business people would suggest that you do not handle this aspect of your business yourself. They would suggest that you spend some money and have another service provide this for you. Yes I know that we live in a diy world. I am a huge fan of do it yourself, but in this case you should have others do it for you. When you are a small store you can do business out of a shoe box or a chase drawer, but as you expand you will purchase a register and then computerize multiple checkouts. That is the progression from store, to big store to department store to franchises.

You need to progress from simple buy it now button to professional checkout.

You also need to update the look and feel of your site as often as possible. If you run a WordPress site take the time to do the updates. It does not hurt and it can only improve the look and accessibility of your site.

If you have not built your first website then I would suggest that you do your research well. That you investigate what has worked for others. Spend time on Youtube and watch some tutorials from the professionals. Take advantage of all the free information you can obtain. Take advantage of all the deals that come your way during any given year. Always look to grow your online presence. Improve your hosting packages. Do keywords and domain name research so that SEO becomes easier. A good name for a website can generate a great deal of organic traffic.

-Every day, you’ll have opportunities to take chances and to work outside your safety net. Sure, it’s a lot easier to stay in your comfort zone.. in my case, business suits and real estate.. but sometimes you have to take risks. When the risks pay off, that’s when you reap the biggest rewards. Donald Trump –

Nothing is ever achieved by standing still except falling behind. You have started a business. The business is going well, but you have reached to point where you believe that if you tinker with it you many mess something up.

My question to you is this. Are you a business person or are you playing at being a business person?

A good online business person takes calculated risk from time to time. A person who has no clue what they are doing or how they got there in the first place sits on what has been done already and trust to luck that things will magically continue to work out.

Is that any way to run a business?

Is that what you have been doing?

Does that sound like a winning business plan?

If it does not then you need to investigate the options available to you and take the safest ones first. Learn through trial and error or better yet free trials and errors. There are so many services out there that can help you grow your business and add dynamic elements to your business. Many of them offer you free trials to see what their services can do for you. Why not take advantage of these services. Check them out and see if they improve your bottom line.
Allow me to introduce you to two services that offer free trials and can help to grow your businesses.

Both services are well-known and are used by thousands of businesses, maybe your direct competition uses some of them.

Okay I know that list building and email list sounds a bit complicated, but the truth is that most of us have vast email list to tap already and we are usually unaware of it. For every online sale you have made whether it is with Google checkout or PayPal or many of the other online payment services used, a record of the buyer’s email is kept. You can get those records from Google checkout or PayPal by clicking a few buttons.

Try a few services out and let me know how it has grown your businesses.

Good luck and please take a moment to stumble this site on stumbleupon, share this post with a friend and to add us to your google plus.

Thank you and have a nice day.

Business, Chance and Choices

Your Business, Chance and Choices

-There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.-John F. Kennedy

You will always find yourself faced with the simple fact that to move forward you must adapt and change. Take a few moments and list all the great and wonderful things that have happened during your life time from sitting around and waiting for things to happens.

It this a short list or a non-existent one?

Most, if not all great movements during your life time have happened do to the fact that you made bold moves. You took grand chances. What I recommend for you is that you find a risk worth taking and go for it. There will be a thousand possible moves that will come up during the life of your business. Should you go it alone? Should you hire help? Should you market in a different way? Should you reinvent your business? Should you stick with that supplier? Should you go out and find new suppliers? Should you try new things to expand your business or stand still?

So many questions will come up. Some many great opportunities will be presented to you. I cannot tell you what to do. No one can tell you what to do. You will have to make your own choices and yes each choice will be a chance that can represent success and or failure. That is the funny part about life. Nothing we do that is worth doing comes with a promises of success. Politicians promise you that if you vote for them they will make everything all right and of course the other guy will make everything all wrong. They are professional liars. I am just a professional business man and the only promise that I can make you is that if you do not take chances with your online business then you will not grow it. It will never become that business that supports your life style, that supports you family and allows you to live a better a richer life.

This is the part where I am supposed to ask you to go out a buy my book and or sign up for my course. I have a book, but I am not here to sell it. I will only suggest that you review all the good ideas that you have been sitting on. Find the one that is the lowest risk and try it. If it involves free trials and the chance to opt out all the better. Just try something new and take the time to pat yourself on the back for how far you have come.
Sometimes we forget to be thankful for the small improvements that we have made along the way. Be thankful for the small growth in our businesses.

Catch your breath. See a movie. Read a book. Spend time with a friend or a family member that you have not seen in a while. To quote Charles Dickens at this time of year “Mankind should be our business.”

Over the coming days, weeks, months and years you will make choices and even if you choose to do nothing you will be taking a chance. Be always aware of this and good luck with your business. Please take a moment to stumble us on stumbleupon and to add us to your google plus.

Other Online Marketplaces

Perhaps up until now you have only sold inventory on Amazon and Ebay. Those markets are getting tighter and with more and more rules and performance numbers to reach each quarter these market places are making it harder and harder on the seller.

Some would say that means that it is time to look for a few new marketplaces to move your inventory. The first marketplace you should investigate is one created and owned by you. Having your own website is a good business move. Even if you sell at other sites having a site that you can send customers to is good for your long-term survival. There have been many top sellers at Amazon and or Ebay that woke up and found that through no fault of their own that their accounts had been restricted or suspended. A problem that could be worked through and overcome, but the loss of business can not easily be made up for. The one thing that can never be replaced is time. Having your own site means that you can go one no matter what may happen with the sites that you normally work at.
Next thing you should do is look into expanding to other sites. There are many sites out there where you can list items. Sites such as Ioffer, Sell.com, Etsy, Ecrater and Ebid.

Most sites are free to join and list. Some like Sell.com and Webstore require a small fee to join, but usually it is worth it. Research them and visit them.

Okay that is it for today. Good luck with your business.

All About The Customers

All About the Customers

The golden rule for every business man is this: “Put yourself in your customer’s place. – Orison Swett Marden

Who are they?

Where do they come from?

How do I find them?

How do I keep them?

The customers.

Did you hear me? The customers. These people are the one thing that no business can do without and all business must seek to add more and more of them.

Your customers are what will make your online business the thing that will provide for you and your family. These people are gold to you and should be treated as such. Your customers have to be first located. Once located they must be treated well and made to feel as welcome as possible. Then these customers must be held on to at all cost. The easiest sale you will ever make is to a repeat customer. They know you and what products and or services you can provide. They will be happy to spend more money with you if you treat them well.

Identify repeat customers. Keep a list of them and stay in contact with them as must as possible.

The customer is king and you are there to serve them. They pay not only the bills that keep your business up and running, but your home as well. Keep that in mind when you obtain a new customer. Never look away from that fact when you are in contact with an existing customer.

In other words keep your eyes on the prize. Your online business grows only because of the customers that you are able to find and keep.

Good luck guys and get back to work.

Doing Business As A Professional

-Professionals are people who can do their job when they don’t feel like it. Amateurs are people who can’t do their job when they do feel like it.-

Ask yourself what type of business person that you are? What type of online business do you wish to run? How do you want the world to see you?

Someone who works through the hard times?

Someone who works even harder when things are going well?

Someone who adds new elements to their business even when business is booming?

Doing these things are nothing more than doing what a professional is supposed to do. You are a pro at what you do. You have to tell yourself everyday that this is not a hobby, but a profession. Treat each and everyday like that and sooner or later you will see yourself as a professional.

Look at the athletes and performs that you admire. Usually this admiration is fueled by not only their natural skills, but their behavior as well. How do they conduct business when few are paying attention? How you have heard that they are the first person at the training faculty and the last one to leave. How they study and a work harder than any one else. How they play the game the same way whether they are up by twenty points or down by twenty.

Be a professional when no one is looking. Give your best effort at all times.

Okay, that is it for now. Remember to like us on stumbleupon and add us to your Google plus. I believe that it is time to get back to work.

Doing Business is About Getting There First

Doing Business, Getting There First

-The first man to the oyster bed gets all the pearls, the next one gets nothing but shells.-

Being first in all things is not always the best policy, but usually it is. Someone was first to come up with the idea of an international auction site to be used by anyone and everyone, Ebay. There have been many copycat sites and some of them actually do a better job of it than Ebay, but because they were first and had built such a head start it will be years before their spot at number one will be challenged.

Being first at doing something leads many customers to believe that because you got there first, that you invented the niche you must be the best at it and for those who wish to compete with you it will be up to them to convince consumers otherwise.

Being first gives your business an advantage. Black Friday is just a few weeks away and look at how many businesses maneuver each year to be the first to open. The first with the biggest sales offer. First to get you into their shop or store. Even if the consumer does not buy anything that day it still gives this business the advantage of setting the price point. Best Buys or Target has set the price. The customer runs all over town checking out other sale prices, with that original price always in mind. After two or three days they are back where they started and they are making a purchase. Running an online business or online store is no different. Reach the customer first with the best deal and they will come back to you sooner or later.

To be first does not mean that you will be a success anymore than scoring the first touch down in a game does, but it does give you an advantage. Find a way to be the first one to offer your customer what they are looking for. Stores spend millions of dollars each year sending out sales circulars. They do this because it has been proven to work. They fill the pages with items from all departments in hopes that the potential customer will see something that they must have and they will have to come by their store. Once they are inside the game is on.

You can and should do the same thing. Find out who your
customers are. Build a list of them. Collect existing names and emails of those whom have done business with you in the past and then be the first one to contact them. Tell them about that item or service you have to offer. Keep doing it. Keep offering invitations for them to come into your store or visit your site and sooner or later you will see your sales increase.

Okay that is it for this post. Please remember to add us to your google plus and to tell a friend about this site. If you do nothing more than to just check out the sponsors of this site that would be a great help. They pay to keep this site going and they actually pay a little even if you only visit and glance their offers.

Thank you for stopping by. I think it is time to get back to
work.

Online Business and the Talent To Succeed

-The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success. Talent is only a starting point in business. You’ve got to keep working that talent. – Irving Berlin

Some time, maybe not too long ago, you discovered the you had a talent for business. You created an online business and it began to grow. It started to thrive. Things looked good for as far as the eye could see and then for some reason things began to slow down. Your online store is not making as much as it once was and you are wondering why business is not growing.

Perhaps it is in part due to the fact that when you started out you depended upon your talents and drive and somewhere along the line you stopped. Maybe you just wore down. Perhaps you allowed the routine to take over. After all if things are going well why change them. Maybe you decided to take short cuts and some of those short cuts hurt business rather than making things easier?

Maybe when you became successful you forgot about those talents and skills that got you there. Maybe you took risk and now you don’t. Maybe you were the first to try new things and now you are afraid to rock the boat that you built.

You can go on the way that you are going or you could try to recall the person that you use to be.

Try to find that person who built a business rather than the one who babysits an online store.

If you used social media to start your business go back to that and find new ways to grow it.

If you have a list of contacts and customers find new ways to exploit that list. Try email marketing. Dollar for dollar it is an investment that returns over ten to one. There are ways to improve your business that you have never even considered.

Please remember to stumble us on stumbleupon and add us to your google plus. Thank you and good luck with your business.

Online Business Plans

Online Business Plans

Your business plans have not gone exactly as you thought and you are at a loss what to do next. There will be days like this. Days when your online business plan is not the smoothly running machine that you thought that it would be. Days when plans that you knew would come off without a hitch have fallen apart and dark clouds are forming.

Let them form.

Allow yourself to take a few minutes or even as much as an hour or two to allow the rain to fall. To allow yourself to feel bad about how things are going. Then get back up. Dust yourself off and find a new approach to what ever problem has come up.

How do you do this?

The answer to that is largely up to you. I can suggest some things, but no one can do it for you. My advice is to check out the competition and see what they are up to. If they are thriving and you are not then investigate why. If their business is doing better than yours then you need to ask some question. Do this, but do not dwell on the bad day that you are having. Your goal has to be to put this day behind you.

Cheer yourself up by looking at new ways to grow you business. Find new ways to interact with your customer base. It will not be easy to start something new. It will be difficult at first, but all things are difficult at first. I promise you that over time you will get better at it.

Again I will suggest expanding your business with email marketing. If you can build a list of existing customers and keep in contact with them then you are going to make more money in the long run. Think about it this way. Who is the best possible customer? Those whom have already purchased a product or a service from you already. If you have provided a good product or a great service then you have a customer ready to return. We all return to stores that we are comfortable in. We all eat at those restaurants that have provided quality services in the past.

To better insure that you do not have another truly bad day at the office then I would suggest getting to know your existing customers better.

Okay, that is it for today. Remember to stumble us on stumble upon and to add us to your google plus.

Learning Equals Better Earning

Learning Equals Better Earning
-I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.- Winston Churchill

-The most important thing I’ve learned since becoming CEO is context. It’s how your company fits in with the world and how you respond to it.-
Jeffrey Immelt

If we are lucky we are learning something new every single day. I was a child when I first heard the saying, there are things that you never knew that you never knew. That saying made me asked the obvious follow-up question.

Why?

The answer was simple. Because like most people, especially children, you think that you know everything so you stop asking questions. The smartest person in the room is not the person who sits back with their arms folded, nice crease in their pants, smug look on their face. Their universe is fixed. In their minds their knowledge rivals God’s and there is no point is discussing it. These people will never learn, never grow and never change. They may succeed in the short-term, but when called upon to adapt to new situations they will be lost.

Then there are the ones who look to tomorrow to act. Trust in the voice of all those who say it can not be done. It must not be attempt. Trying is not nearly as good as dreaming. These are the people who believe in destiny. Everything will work out for me because it is meant to be. We know these people. We see them everyday. Perhaps we work with people like this or live with people like this. There is only one word for these people. Fools. As long as they appear to be learning they equate this to learning. As long as they appear to be successful they equate this to actual success. You could spend a life time telling them about sacrifice and hard work and perseverance. All that you will get is a foolish look in response or worst the uttering of their favorite phrase, “Shut up.” Their goal will always be to end discussion, to end debate and to end the learning process.

If you have read this far then we can be confident that you are not either one of them. You want to learn. You sometimes feel the burning need to learn new things. You run an online business and there are so many areas where you may be losing business due to a lack of knowledge in a certain area. Perhaps you have not learned enough about social media and how it can aid your business. How you can use it to grow your business. Maybe you have not taken the time to learn more about list building or basic email marketing.

You run an online store, but you have never looked into selling digital goods or using affiliate marketing to add an extra income stream. The things that you do not know that you didn’t know are costing you money. Today would be a good day to change this. Please allow me to help you were I can.

A Well Structured Website