Posts Tagged ‘small business’

The problem with, “If I Were a Fish” Customer Service

March 25th, 2011

 

Fisherman with a child and his dog

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16230215@N08/3650612859/

I  went to a seminar put on by KSL Wednesday. KSL is a local news website in Utah.  KSL gets over 220M monthly page views, 3.8M of which are unique visitors. It ranks just under CBSNew.com in monthly visits.

KSL has done some very innovate things and decided to pass on some tips to the local market by hosting inexpensive business and marketing seminars. I know my co-worker and I learned a lot about branding during our seminar. I want to pass on an analogy Brett Harward used to further demonstrate the importance of research in deciding how to improve your business.

He began by explaining how you tell a novice fisherman from an expert. There’s one phrase, he related that almost always identifies a novice fisherman from an expert. It’s, “Well if I were a fish–I would eat that.” Said while looking at lures and bait. Much like novice fisherman, the biggest problem most business face is that they make assumptions about their customers or audience. They think, if I were a customer I would want this, or I would buy this.  But the obvious truth is that they’re not the customer, they are the business and they have a very different perspective than their customers who have nothing invested in the business.

He related an experience about a dive he took in a nearby lake to certify for his scuba diving test. He passed the test quickly and had a chance to go spear fishing with a friend. They swam around for awhile and found a huge school of fish.They were ecstatic to see so many huge fish in such a small area! In a frenzy, they each speared their legal limit of fish in about 3 minutes flat.

Well, they were so excited Brett thought he’d go to the top to see where they were so that they could bring some buddies back to the same spot. But when he came up, he was greeted by a group of angry fisherman. They stood up out of their lawn chairs and began yelling at him. He came up only feet from where their fishing lines had been and they assumed he had scarred their fish away. In my experience it’s not uncommon for fishermen to be possessive of their spots, but they were furious with him.

Brett however pointed out the irony of the interaction. These fishermen were angry with him, but a smart fisherman would have said,

“Wait! Don’t go! What’s going on down there? Where are the fish? What are they biting?” They had a great resource at their disposal, but treated him as a threat and lost a great opportunity.

So, what are your customers eating?

What would they like to eat?

How close is what you’re fishing with to what your customers want?

Advice from employees, vendors, customers, and other experts  is priceless. Are there resources at your disposal that you’re not tapping into? What could expert fishermen or scuba divers with perspective teach you? Are their other businessmen or competitors that would be just as willing to help?

I loved the analogy. Now statistics that you get by conducting research aren’t perfect, but learning from the past could save you from having to learn the hard way. I know. I recently learned my lesson as I thought like a novice and assumed that some products I bought at a thrift store would sell well. One of my unwise purchases was an HD set of dvds.

HD was the format before today’s blue-ray dvds. I would have to get a special player or attachment to play these dvds on a computer or my tv. So, who in their right mind would want such a difficult format?Hence, the reason I found them for such a “good deal” at a thrift store. I also bought some name brand jeans to sell, only to find out there was so much competition in the jeans category on eBay that I didn’t stand much of a chance, especially as a seller with a non-existent feedback score.

Do your research. Figure out what your customers want. Test it out and then apply it. Trust me you’ll be so glad you did. Good luck!

Here as interesting online tool that can tell you a little about your and your competitors websites and help you find places online to advertise.  Double Click Marketing by Google.

For more tips about selling online and building your business please follow us on twitter or read our blog.

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Brand Yourself As. . .

March 4th, 2011

Whether you know it or not, you’re being branded. Do you sell the cheapest shoes? Maybe you’re the cheap shoe store. Do you ignore customer complaints? Maybe your the store with terrible customer service. From your actions to your products, down to the way your website looks, judgments are being made by your customers and becoming a part of your online businesses brand.

When something goes wrong and you need a product that will fix it, experts say that generally one to three brands of products will come to a customer’s mind due to perceived value and advertising. If your brand is not one of the three brands to come to mind, you won’t see the loyalty or the sales that will come to those top three brands. This is why it is crucial that your product has a strong brand attached to it. People attribute value, benefits, and prices to brands.

At a speech to Utah State University, VP of Marketing, Rick Haskins, on the CW network talked about the importance of branding. “Trying to be all things to all people will fail, because it is impossible.” That is why it is so important to establish yourself as the best at something in your niche.

Haskins went on to talk about the first time CW auditioned women for “America’s Next Top Model.”  Few could handle a runway walk or talk about their reasons for applying. Now, applicants can walk the walk and talk the talk, declaring themselves as “the smart one,” “the fun one,” or “the one who is going to win.” Young people who grew up watching reality television get the concept of self-branding, Haskins said. ( Nancy Van Valkenburg)

What should your company be branded as? Look at your strengths as a company and the benefits you can offer. If you don’t plan on competing on price, something else should set you apart. Quality or speed of delivery may be your strengths. Find them and stick to your guns.

Your brand should dictate all your company does. Your brand should seep into the way your business is run. When it does your customers will have no trouble identifying what you stand for and what they can expect to receive.

Branding

Redbox's Ingenious Branding

Redbox is a great example of extensive branding. Convenience is one of Redbox’s most important benefits. They position their products in convenient locations like grocery and retail stores, gas stations, and pharmacies. Considering customers are always present in these locations, picking up a movie is that much easier. It’s just one less stop they have to make.

They continue to make the movie rental process easier by listening to their customers and participating in social media. For example, “Consumer requests for a more convenient return program, for instance, spurred Redbox to launch its ‘rent and return anywhere’ program.” Refusing to stop at that, they’ve encouraged online registrations that reserve your video and let you know which Redbox location has the dvd you want to rent. This eliminates the disappointment of arriving at a location and finding out that none are available.

The very design and vending system of Redbox screams convenience. The movies are easy to find and quick to rent, and their kiosks are easy to identify in stark red. They even incorporate their brand onto the dvd cases that are encased in simple packaging with clear directions on how to return the dvd. Ingenious! The branding is incorporated into everything!

What benefit does your company, or you as a seller, want to be known for? What will resonate with your customers? How should you portray the benefit? The answers are different for every business. However, a strong brand adds value, trust, and eventually profit to any business. Think of all the value a strong brand could add to your business.

For more tips about selling online and building your business, please follow us on twitter: @gogodropship or visit our blog.

If you’d like to sell well-known brands, consider drop shipping with GoGo Dropship. With millions of brands to choose from you’re sure to find something that interests you.

http://adage.com/article/print-edition/redbox-america-s-hottest-brands-2010/147056/

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How do I Know What to Sell on eBay?

February 16th, 2011
Ebay

Ebay

How do I Know What to Sell on eBay?

This is a fair question. There are some guides for potential sellers, but the truth is that a little creativity and a lot of research are what will really help a seller do well on eBay. Ebay Pulse is a guide that will give you an overall idea, but remember that many of these products are within markets that are already over-run with sellers. Categories like electronics and phones have so much competition, it’s almost impossible for a new seller to compete. So how can you compete?

Find a Niche Market

Niche markets are the key. Are you involved in social media? What topics are trending? Justin Bieber  has been a popular topic as of late. Could you sell a product based on a celebrity or news? You bet.

I  had a professor suggest that his students sell shirts with funny slogans about the latest celebrity scandals. By watching what key words are popular on Google, he said we’d know what kind of shirts to sell. Looking at current trends and news may inspire you. Just remember that in this type of business, you have to know when to stop selling. You don’t want your product to be old news.

Stay Ahead of the Game

Trending products can be the same way so don’t wait until you see that an item is gaining popularity in retail stores to move forward with it. Why? 1. Retailers will be hard to compete with because they buy in bulk and can get lower prices than the average seller. 2.The fad will be ready to end and you’ll get stuck with unsold merchandise. You have to stay ahead of the game.

So much of success is timing, luck, price, and/or innovation. You really have to nail one or two of these categories to be successful. If your product is creative enough or sought after enough, you’ll never have a problem selling it. However, you may have just as much luck selling something as common as a hot dog by selling it at the right time or for the right price.

My alma mater allows the business program to sell items on campus as part of their entrepreneur curriculum every semester. For some students, it’s their most dreaded semester.  For others, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity they’ll never forget.  Some of them included things like stick-on covers for laptops and cell phones, and wood plaques with etched poems, photos, and pictures on them.  But some of the most profitable businesses included a hot dog stand, a sunglasses booth, and a garbage service.

Make Your Product Successful Using Timing, Price, or Innovation

The hot dog stand offered a cheap, accessible meal to the students on campus. The sunglasses booth offered a seasonal item in high demand, at the right time, and benefited from the great weather on campus.  The garbage collectors heard that girls struggled to take their garbage all the way across the parking lot to their dumpsters. They offered an innovative convenience which was simply taking out the garbage for them at the right price.  Because their overhead minimal and there was no other competition, outperformed every other student-run business.  They didn’t  become millionaires from it by any means, but sometimes half the battle is succeeding at something small.

The less saturated your market the better.  But then you’ll have to create a need for your product. You’ll need to advertise your product extensively to create awareness. But if competition already exists, don’t worry. Let them open the door of awareness and you can enter the market as another, perhaps, better option.

So what technique will help your product succeed? Will it be timing, price, innovation, or pure luck? While we all hope for a little luck, why not make a plan and stick to it? You can’t generally compete on all of these levels, so why not pick one or two and concentrate on competing on those levels.

There’s a rule of thumb in advertising that I’ll call the “Business Triangle.” Each corner of the triangle represent three things. 1. Price 2. Quality 3. Speed. Like the principles above, you can’t have all three without at least one corner of the triangle suffering. If you pick speed and price, quality will generally suffer. If you pick price and quality, the speed will be affected. Think about this and use this to market your products. If you take more time because you are looking to deliver quality to your customer, advertise this on your website. Pick two of these qualities and apply the principles to your products and your website.

Lastly, if you want to be innovative, be innovative.  Retail chains like Walmart do well because they offer everyday items, but there is something to be said of the smaller company that offers unique, handmade, or one-of-a-kind items.  There is value in it.  Take Etsy for example.  They have become a popular website for this very reason.  So although there is plenty of thinking and products to offer “inside the box,” don’t be afraid to venture outside of it.

So as a recap, remember:

1. Do your research

2. Find your niche

3. Let timing, price, and/or innovation work for you

4. Find a market that isn’t over-saturated

5. Pick two areas of the business triangle in which to compete

6. If you’re going for innovation, consider the value of a one-of-a-kind product

Be fair to yourself and sell a product that can be successful. By doing your research and taking into account these tips, you can build yourself a profitable business on eBay. Good luck, but then again, with the right product you won’t need it.

Want to get more tips for having a successful online business? Visit us on Twitter: @gogodropship or read other posts on our blog.

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Is Online Selling Your Hobby or Business? Why it matters

January 19th, 2011

Are your online selling endeavors a hobby or a source of income? Why does this matter? The truth is that on your taxes it can make all the difference in the world.

The IRS has a website dedicated entirely to the subject. So what do they say is the difference? The following questions provided by the IRS website should give you some idea of how they determine if a venture is a hobby or business.

  • Does the time and effort put into the activity indicate an intention to make a profit?
  • Do you depend on income from the activity?
  • If there are losses, are they due to circumstances beyond your control or did they occur in the start-up phase of the business?
  • Have you changed methods of operation to improve profitability?
  • Do you have the knowledge needed to carry on the activity as a successful business?
  • Have you made a profit in similar activities in the past?
  • Does the activity make a profit in some years?
  • Do you expect to make a profit in the future from the appreciation of assets used in the activity?
  • Did your venture make a profit in at least three of the last five tax years, including the current year?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, you probably have a business. Congratulations, that means you can claim expenses on your taxes that a hobbyist can’t. You see the losses from a hobby can’t be used to “offset other income.”

The big difference is that there are numerous tax deductions for new business owners. Many sellers deduct costs of transportation they use when shipping an item or the costs of their home as a business. The point is, if you don’t have a business you won’t get all the advantages of a business.

Don’t over pay when you could be getting small business deductions. If you are a business, keep records like a business and enjoy the benefits of bigger tax refunds. The extra money your get back could make all the difference.

For more information visit:

1. IRS Clarifications about online selling:

2.An Ebay Workshop on the differences:

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BREAK POINT TWO

March 8th, 2010

Orders are easy; you get the money, you give some of it to your supplier, the supplier handles the rest. It is very simple, very straightforward. Analytic reporting and analyzing is something that is our personal responsibility as the website owner. No one is going to twist our arm and make us do anything, like a supplier would for a delinquent payment, yet this is something far more important to the success of your business.

Always Keep a Log

Always Keep a Log

The way in which you log is not as important as it is that you are logging your results. Be it in a spreadsheet that you will track results, or in a notepad, the important thing is you find something that works for you. The spreadsheet is the ‘normal’ answer, but if you’re not comfortable with it, don’t use it! Write by hand if that’s better for you, write it in a simple word processing document. This has to be something that is easy for you, or you are going to think of excuses not to do it.

A lot of marketing is going to boil down to running PPC campaigns, changing text on your homepage, and a host of other seemingly small, similar things. If we do not take the time to analyze what our efforts are actually doing, then there is no point in doing it. We cannot throw money or time into a machine, and expect results. We have to see in what areas our advertising is succeeding, and where it is failing, and change things accordingly. There are no hard or fast answers that can be given; your market is unique, and you have to work within it to be successful.

But with a little bit of extra planning, and weekly due diligence, we’ll be able to take full advantage of all that advertising gives us. Running a business is work, but if we take that little extra effort day to day, we’ll be pleasantly surprised by the results!

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Wal Mart Already Did It

March 3rd, 2010

One of the most common problems people come up against when starting a website is immediately trying to stack themselves side by side with a retail giant like Wal Mart. Why bother trying to sell my item? Someone can just go buy it at a big store for half my cost anyway.

And you know what, they’re right. If you’re trying to offer something to your customers online that they can buy at a big chain store that’s ten minutes away, why are they going to wait a few days for it to ship? You’re not going to compete if you’re trying to go toe to toe with a bruiser like that. They don’t have decades of experience and billions of dollars in their corner doing nothing.

Instead, we want to consider what strengths we have as a dropship site that a large-scale store would not. Our primary advantage lies in that we are not carrying any inventory ourselves. An inventory choice made by a brick and mortar store is weighed carefully. They have to purchase in high enough volume that they can reasonably meet the demand for the item. If the item isn’t guaranteed to do at least moderately well, they can stand to lose a pretty penny if it doesn’t move.

Brick and mortar stores have to choose the safer path. They’re choosing what will appeal most broadly. They cannot afford to take a chance on a strange product line that would only appeal to true experts. As a dropship site we can.

We are not buying our items in massive quantities all at once. If a product line we have to offer tanks and doesn’t sell, its a hop, skip and a delete button away from being gone. We’re not going to have to liquidate the item to get precious floor space. When we want it gone, it’s gone.

We are much more free to experiment; we can try items that might not be universally popular, but will gather a dedicated following. We can offer a wide variety of similar items without having to worry they’re too similar. We’re giving a depth of options that many stores just cannot compare to.

So when someone asks why you want to sell linens when someone can just grab a quick set from Wal Mart, remind them confidently that while basic cloth and Superman patterns are great, there’s a wide world out there that the discerning buyer is going to look for, and they’re more often than not going to find their mega stores wanting.

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Rule One: Not “Wrong” Isn’t “Right” | GoGo Dropship

February 16th, 2010

One of the most common spelling errors that people run into on their website is using homonyms incorrectly. One of the most common offenders is “web site” versus “web sight”. The common spell checkers out there aren’t going to catch it, as sight certainly isn’t a fake word, or even a misspelled word, but it isn’t the right word.

Make certain you are sending the “right” message.

Make certain you are sending the “right” message.

As part of this rule, the tense of the word is also important. You want to have the proper suffix for the job; -ing and -ed are our friends. It looks like we’re lazy and may drive away traffic when “We Are Have A Great Sale This Month!” on our website.

Making a mistake like that sends a message to your potential customers that you wrote things quickly, and may not have caught the mistake. We want to present ourselves as professionally as possible, so in addition to using the ever handy spell-check, read your sentence out loud before you submit the change. If it sounds wrong to you, change it until it sounds right!

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I Fought the Law (But the Law Won)

January 13th, 2010

A lot of new business owners are sometimes confused by the necessity of setting up a proper business entity, or going through the effort of getting a Federal EIN number, or state tax identification number. Many think that this is an unnecessary step, especially considering the time involved to get this information. To understand the importance of this documentation, one must understand the way that dropshipping and product sourcing work.

When we wish to begin our business, the common assumption is that we go straight to the manufacturer and move forward directly from there. If we’re going to be the next Footlocker, we should go right to Nike, let them know we want some shoes, and then we’re good to go, right?

Wrong. A manufacturer typically does not want to have anything to do with any company that is not capable of purchasing from them in massive quantities. The reason for this is they are selling the product at a mark up over manufacturing cost, which is typically very far beneath its eventual retail cost. To make it worth their effort, they need to sell in large quantities… sometimes numbering in the hundreds of thousands of units at once! Most up and coming stores, be it brick and mortar or online, simply cannot do that. What are they to do?

The solution that was reached is that another company will come forward and purchase the inventory from the manufacturer, and resell it to us in smaller quantities. This company, the distributor, typically has capital, but is not interested in marketing or advertising. They are more than happy to resell the item in a smaller quantity, allowing us a foothold in the industry. It is through these distributors that the concept of dropshipping came into being.

However, how does this all relate to our initial question of the necessity of these identification numbers? The answer is simple; there is a barrier of entry necessary for these distributors to ensure that they are dealing with actual members of the trade. Most manufacturers do not want their product hitting the market at just above-cost. They don’t want individuals purchasing their items at next to nothing, as many manufacturers have lucrative arrangements with departments stores and the like to sell their product. If everyone was going to be able to sell for a fraction of the store cost online, why would anyone ever go to the store?

This is a very bad scenario for the manufacturer, regardless of how nice it might be for us as consumers, and to combat this many manufacturers require any distributor that they work with to verify that anyone whom they resell their product to is a licensed member of the trade… hence the necessity for us as prospective resellers to have this documentation.

With this hard restriction on most suppliers, it is very important that we do go through the tasks of establishing our identification numbers, federal or state, so that when we do get to the point where we have a supplier we want to work with, we’re not stuck in a rut, entirely unable to move forward because our supplier is requiring legal documentation that we just don’t have. We may try to fight this step, but in the end, if we want to move forward with our business, we’re going to have to get legal, or get out.

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The Dropship Advantage

December 3rd, 2009

A common question that many people ask when getting into the e-commerce industry is, “Why should I bother?  Anything I can sell, someone can just buy at Walmart!”

It is a fair question; if big department stores can carry almost any conceivable product, why is it that anyone bothers to work online in the first place?  If we want to dropship, are we just doomed right from the start?

The answer, fortunately, is a resounding “NO!”.  What many people fail to realize is that the size of a department store is a great strength, but it is also a great weakness.  Your friendly neighborhood stores have to purchase each and every last individual item that they wish to sell to their customers.  Every decision is made off of painstaking research into what items have the broadest appeal, and bulk purchases are made accordingly.  As part of this model, there is not a lot of room for experimentation or error.  This isn’t the case with a dropshipping site.

With the freedom that the internet has afforded us as consumers, that model is becoming more and more antiquated.  Where it was once acceptable to simply purchase whatever was available at the store, as you had no real choice but a lengthy mail order process, if even that, we can now go online and look for our product, and see if anyone is selling anything a bit more tailored to our own preferences, not wherever the average consumer interest lies!

This affords us a great opportunity as dropship websites to hit these markets, at very little cost to ourselves.  We are not carrying any inventory, so any item that we place in our store from a supplier is simply an option on the table for our customers.  If the item sells poorly, we are not out any initial investment, or anything like that, we simply know that it is not popular, and we can replace it if we’d like to, but we’re under no obligation to do so. 

We are not losing any inventory space by having that item available, and in fact we are making ourselves more appealing to customers, who see the variety of items that we have to offer, rather then being shoehorned into purchasing whatever is most generically desirable.

We have to remember that working at the dropship level, we have the freedom to have a much more varied and interesting product line, and this freedom is something that the big stores cannot emulate.  Our inventory can be as vast and varied as we’d like, and at no cost to us, it is they who are unable to compete, not us!

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Just Another Healthy Adventure

September 15th, 2009

When I was about 16, I went on an overnight hike with some of my friends and their Dads. In the beginning, I didn’t want to go, because it seemed like it was way too hard. I wasn’t really in the best shape for backpacking that long of a distance and, besides that, my Dad couldn’t even go. I didn’t want to do it, in fact, I tried every excuse in the book trying to talk my parents into thinking it was a bad idea for me to go. Somehow, they convinced me it would be okay, and I packed up my things the night before. When we got there, everyone seemed to be so excited about the hike, everybody but me that is. I glumly crawled out of the car, put my pack on my back and headed up the trail with the rest of the company.

The trail wasn’t easy for me, in fact, I just wanted to stop and not reach the top. I could survive out there all by myself, right? For a moment, I didn’t care what happened to me. My feet hurt, my back felt like it was burning, and my sides felt like they were going to rip right open with pain. Yet, I kept climbing. By the time we reached the lower lake it was almost time for dinner, we had been hiking for hours and all I wanted to do was set up my tent, crawl inside, and take a long long nap. One problem, much to my dismay, my tent poles were nowhere to be found. Could this be? As you could guess, the night went on at about that same rate, concluding with most of the girls feeling sick to their stomachs.

The next day, I actually took the time to look around me; everything was so beautiful, I was sorry that I hadn’t taken the time to notice before. On the way back down, I couldn’t help but notice all the beautiful scenery that I had hated the day before.

The point I’m trying to make is that had I taken the time to enjoy the journey, the hike would have gone so much faster. I hope that if you’re starting your own business that you’re taking the time to enjoy it and that you’re excited to see the end result. If you’re not excited about it, the journey could be dull, painful, and take a long time. However, if you go into business with the right attitude, it could end up being another healthy adventure.

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