online store Archives - Getting Supplies for your Online Store

GETTING SUPPLIES FOR YOUR ONLINE STORE

The two most difficult parts of running a retail business is finding a good location and getting quality wholesale supplies. First we are going to talk a bit about getting things to sell. You can do this the hard way by going the drop shipping route. I have nothing against drop shipping it is just that the profit margins are limited. Think of it this way that for every person involved in touching the item as it progresses toward the customer that person has to be paid. Just recall that age old saying in business, if you want to get rich you need to cut out the middle man.

The second best way to run a online store is to buy your supplies in bulk, package and ship them yourself. This is usually where the difficulty set in. Finding supplies who will sell you the hottest and most popular new items at your price is a challenge after all if it was easy to find these supplies for your online store then everyone would be doing it.

Let’s look at a video from a guy who can help.

Now you need an address for your store. A long time ago this would mean finding an actual brick and mortar building. That would have cost you thousands of dollars to rent or lease and a small fortune to buy. These days all we need is a domain name and a place to put it. Your domain name is usually a variation of the name of your business. Make it good and easy to remember. When people think of the thing that you sale your domain name will pop into their heads. If you sell burgers it should be something like burgers.com. Also keep in mind that there are .net, .info .biz and so forth. Take your time and do some research before making this pick. Location, location location is super important and your name is your location. I am recommending using Godaddy because they are the best, but you can feel free to pick another domain provider.

Now we must set up our basic website.

Thanks for dropping by and good luck with your online business.

Three Factors to Consider When Choosing Your Online Store’s Hosting Service

Setting up an online store is no easy task, and from website development to product stocking the entire process can carry a lot of variables. However, amid the tumult and long to-do list associated with this process, it can be easy to forget or underestimate one of the most important components: proper web hosting. Finding reliable, simple, and high-volume web hosting is essential for any e-commerce website, as these websites have to regularly deal with high volumes of customers and extensive product catalogs. Many unsuspecting startups become doomed to failure due to cheap or lacking hosting plans, as their web host is unable to process the many tasks and users present on the website. There are a number of factors to consider, and ignoring even one of them may be the death of your online store.

Development Tools

For web-savvy website owners, this issue is less of a consideration, as manual coding or exterior applications can suffice for the actual website development. However, for those not well-versed in HTML, CSS, and Java, it is important to find a service with high-quality development tools and applications. HostGator and GoDaddy have some of the best developer tools around, and should please beginners and experts alike with their high-quality website building tools.

Uptime

It is absolutely essential that your hosting service have high uptime. Every minute your website is down is lost revenue, and users are unlikely to return if they can’t initially connect to your website. Try to find a service with at least 98% uptime, and always check reviews for this factor.

Storage and Memory

The actual hardware of the provider’s servers is also extremely important. For an online store, you are probably going to need a relatively high amount of storage, and extremely capable memory and processors in your web server. Check the specifications and capacity of your hosting plan, as cheaper options will typically not have everything you need in this regard!

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Low Cost Ways to Get your Online Store Ready for Business

Setting up your online store doesn’t need to cost you an arm and a leg. While professional web design can be a great option, it’s also very expensive. Luckily, there are a number of great options available that will still provide you with that great looking website that has everything you need for your business to be successful, including mobile optimization and eCommerce. Plus, these more affordable web hosting options also allow you to more frequently change your website design until you find the perfect image for your brand and a structure that fits your customer base.

It all starts with finding the right web host. Many companies, such as HostGator, provide web hosting in conjunction with a great deal to pick up the perfect domain name for your website. This allows you take care of two birds with one stone -and for one inexpensive charge. Other larger web hosts, such as GoDaddy, even go a step further and provide you with the option of having them design your website and online store, at any time, for a small additional charge.

Once you have your domain purchased, web hosting covered, and your website up and running, you are well on your way to seeing your dreams of having your own online store come true. From there, you just need to develop your product and service base and engage in effective marketing.

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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.

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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.

Love Your Online Store

Do You Love Your Business?

-The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it. – Debbi Fields

-“It is more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy.”-

It is more fun to be the one who creates their own destiny rather than being the one who is controlled by it. As long as you run your online store your way you are in control. You will be the one who determines how your online store is run.

What I am getting at is that since you are going to be running your store then you might as well love the store that you are running. I hope that you have picked a sector that you enjoy. A business sector that you are enthusiastic about. If you have not then it will show through in everything that you do. You will get bored and from time to time do less than your very best. You will not give it your all.

Think of it this way you are in a relationship with this business. If you love this business you will treat it better. You will want to spend more time with it. It will be more of a joy and less of an effort to conduct business each day.

Ask yourself do you love the business that you are in. Do you enjoy coming to work at it each day?

If you do then I have no real advice for you. If you do not love it then I would suggest that you do one of two things. Either learn to love it or find a new line of work.

“But I have been at this for months or even years. I cannot go back to that 9 to 5 job I use to have. I have invested so much effort.”

Sure you did, but can you see yourself spending the next ten or twenty years working at this particular business? Running this store? You may think that you are too old to change, but people have changed jobs and opening new stores at all stages of their lives.

To love what you do is the heart of being a success at the business you are in. That love will translate into more effort. That love will translate in to time spent. That love will translate into making more money. If you are the best cheerleader for your business then it will have to make an impression on your customers.

Love what you do and your customers may grow to do the same.

Good luck and please take a moment to check out an offer I have selected for visitors to this site. It is free to try. The offer is for free business publications. Yes, people still actually read magazines. I picked up a magazine about blogging three years ago and here I am. I have half a dozen blogs that make money and two websites. I am just suggesting that you never know where that next new idea will come from. Someone will say something or you will read something and you are off down a road that may make you a great deal of money.

Good luck with your store and have a nice day.

The Lone Road We Walk

The Lone Road

There are going to be times when we as business people will have to wall alone. Usually this is because we have no choice. In an idea world we are all surround by positive and uplifting people, but the real world is populated by frightened naysayers. Voice that will whisper if you are lucky and shout if you are not that you can not do it. Or perhaps you can do it, but today in not the time and the way you are going about it is not the way. These are the voice of those who know everything and have accomplished next to nothing. Give them all the attention that they deserve. I would suggest five seconds and forget about them.

At the end of the day you are responsible for how your business runs. Do not get me wrong, these same voices will be the first ones to speak up when things are going well. They will want to share the good times, but not the struggles. The road will at times seem too long. It will be bitter and it will seem as if it goes round and round in circles. But do not give up. Failure is not the end unless you allow to be. If you are willing to learn from that failure you can grow stronger and accomplish all of your business dreams.

This online business or store that you have decided to run was never going to be a walk in the park. Some part of you always knew that it would be a long road, but that part also knew that you would persist and make it to the end. If you have not made it yet have a little fate, you are closer than you think.

Good luck guys and get back to work.

Your Go To Players

What Makes Your Business Tick?

We are in the middle of the summer movie season and the film industry has a certain way of doing business. They build their industry around what is called tent poles films. If everything else fails the profit that these movies bring in will keep the massive studios going. They are The Avengers, Spiderman, Men in Black, Batman and the Pixar films. These tent pole movies are their go to products.

What are your tent pole items? What are your go to products? What makes your online store tick? What keeps your online business afloat even when everything else is going bad?

Burger King has its Whopper and MacDonald’s has its french fries. Your business has it’s what?

Do you make most of your money from Ebay or Amazon and you just throw a bunch of stuff up for sale and hope for the best or do you go with a plan. I would suggest that if you want to support your family you come up with a plan and find a go to item. Your circus is coming to town and what is the one-act that you know will make the audience scream and gasp? What can you count on?

If you do not have that go to item where can you go to get it?
That is mostly up to you. I have some resources that I use. Some that work for me, but I can only suggest things. You will have to decide for yourself.

If you need help I would suggest business and or trade magazines. Yeah, actual magazines still exist and in this area they can be very useful. You can read about resources and find out about new developments in your niche. Below is a banner for a service where you can order some free business magazines. Sounds like a waste of time? Two years ago I was sitting in a doctor’s office and I picked up a beat up copy of a website magazine. Two years later I have two websites and seven blogs of my own. I wish that someone had told me about websites and the power of SEO years ago. What I am trying to say is that you will never know until you try it what resource will be the right one for you.

Okay that is it for today. Remember to stumble us on stumbleupon, recommend this site to a friend and try something new for your business. If not each day then at least one new thing a week.

Trying New Things

Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves — to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterday by our today.” Stewart B. Johnson

Why try new things?

This argument comes up as often when things are going well as when things are going badly. Why try new things, everything is running smoothly. This is the don’t rock the boat model of running a business.

I understand it and have fallen prey to it far too often. I spent the first half of my career as an online business person specializing in selling media. Hard media in the form of books, dvds and blurays. Anyone who has or still earns a living in this area can tell you that this industry peaked around 2008 or 2009 and it has been in decline since then. The reason for this is advancements in technology. VOD or video on demand and digital downloads of all types of media has impacted those who sell standard media. If you are having trouble understanding this look at the shape that your local news papers are in. The digital world is replacing old media and those of us who were slow to adjust watched our businesses go into decline.

The other side of the rock the boat coin are those who believe that if hey alter course that bad will go to worst. Thinking like that is borderline insanity and will be the death of your business. Change and adapt when things are going both well and do it with a greater sense of urgency when things are going badly.

If your online business is to grow you are going to have to make changes. Find new sources of supply to meet a demand that you are not even aware of yet. You are going to have to find new ways to reach your customers if your business is going to maintain its market share yet alone grow. With each post this month I will offer a link to a company or service that can help your business grow. Visit their sites and try their trial offers. Some may prove to be necessary for your day-to-day operation. Others maybe discarded after a day or two.

I would like you to check out this company, they can help you create and manage forms and emailing list. Why do I need such a company you ask? Well why do the business that do seven or eight figures in business online spend so much time having visitor fill out forms and gathering email addresses? The answer is that it is good for the long-term growth of their business.

Good luck with your online store and or business and remember the number one rule of those who have created a successful business is don’t be afraid to fail. After all how many planes did not take off before the first one did, how many cars did not start and how many phones never rang before someone was able to say “hello no, you
dialed the wrong number.”

Know your Strengths and Weaknesses

The Things We Don’t Know

There is probably one thing that you do not know that you do not know and it is obvious. You do not know your strengths and weaknesses. For the longest time as an online business person I had no clue what if any of my strengths were.

Once I found what they were and were not it allowed me to play to my strengths. I sort of do a check down at the start and end of each day. At the beginning of each day setting the basic goal of focusing my actions toward the areas that I am strongest in and then working on the ones where I discovered weakness. If I could not handle certain parts of the day-to-day operation of my business or if I found myself spending far too much time on an area that I found to be far to difficult then I would hire someone to aid me in that area. At the end of each day I go over all that I have accomplished and left on the table and normally the accomplishments are usually in comfortable areas of strength and the work left on the table are in my weaker areas.

The lesson learned from this is that knowing your strengths and weaknesses makes for a more efficiently run business. It is okay to admit that you can not do everything. As a matter of fact it is better than okay, it is good business. If you are having trouble with handling the marketing of your business or managing email and list then hire a company or service to do this for you. This frees you up to do the things that you do best. Some of us are good at writing and others are great talkers. If you are good at talking or appearing in front of a camera then use that to grow your business. Go on Youtube or get yourself an online radio broadcast or blog broadcast. Remember that at the end of the day the goal is always to be promoting you online store or online business. To always be closing the next deal.

Allow me to close for now. If you find these post or the information that I provide for you’re here useful take a moment to do a social bookmark, whether it is google plus or stumbleupon. Check out some of the companies that I promote on various pages of this site. It is free to click and visit them all. Companies like Gro Social has help many turn their Facebook page into a promotional tool for their businesses after trying and failing on their own to do so and the service known as GetResponse has helped many of those who have visited this site. If you need someone else to act as an auto responder for your business they are great. They can handle newsletters and sign-up forms for you. Building list and email marketing will be an important part of growing your business into something that can not only help you and your family get by, but get ahead.

Some of you have asked questions about my advertisers. I write about other things, but I do not mention much if anything about GetResponse, they have ads on most of my pages and I never tell you anything about them so I thought I would include a quick tutorial on their service. Okay here it is.

Okay that is the sales pitch for today. Get back to work and remember know your strengths and work on improving in the areas where you are weak.