Archive for November, 2007

Hi everyone, today I am going to tell you how to save some money on ebay auction fees. We all know that once a month ebay hits you with their bill. My bill is usually in the thousands each month in auction fees. But, believe it or not, I probably save my self at least a thousand dollars a month with some sure fire tips. The tips I will tell you about are very well known. Lots of powersellers use these same tips to reduce auction fees. You may not save thousands of dollars, but you will see a huge decrease in your monthly ebay bill, if you use some of these tips.

Use dutch or multiple item auctions. These types of auctions will allow you to sell multiple items in one auction. If you have multiple items that are the same, this type of auction comes in handy. You can sell multiple items to be sold as bulk to one lucky bidder. Or you can sell multiple items to many different ebay users with buy it now. When you list multiple items in one listing, you only pay for one auction. This alone can save you tons of money each month. Sometimes a person will miss out on your auction and offer you a deal for one of the items for sale. Ebay doesn’t recommend this type of practice, as it would be an outside deal. But I can’t say people don’t do it.

Don’t pay for the extra pictures and services. learn HTML, it’s very easy and it will save you tons of dough. With HTML you can place pictures into your auction for free. You are able to add your own add-ons that ebay will ordinarily make you pay for. All these little add-ons is how ebay makes their money. Millions of people pay for these same options that you can place for free right into your auctions with HTML. Plus you get the benefit of using a professional looking auction template with custom options to your liking. By using HTMl in your auctions will also increase your sales.

Use second chance offer. Second chance offer gives the person who came in second on the bid war, to win the auction at the price they ended their bidding at. If the bid war ended at 50 dollars. And the second place bidder bid $49.99, you can offer the item to them. Usually that person is so mad they lost out on the auction, that they are happy you offered them a second chance offer.

Relist your auctions that don’t sell.Yes, if you relist your auctions the second time around it is absolutely free. On the condition that it sells. But most auctions sell the second time around. Some categories don’t let you do this, but most of categories will give you this great discount. Lots of ebay members don’t know about this little trick. Use it and you will save!

Open an Ebay store. Having an ebay store can save you lots of money because the item can stay up for weeks. The listing fees for each item is really low with an ebay store. If you are good at drawing traffic, your ebay store will not only save you money, but it will be a gold mine.

Use the pricing pyramid for starting prices. For example, if you are selling an item for $25.00 the auction fee is $1.20. But if you list it at $24.99 the auction fee will be $0.60. You can save your self some good dough by keeping the pricing pyramid in mind. Ebay’s pricing pyramid is right here

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html

If a buyer doesn’t pay get your auction listing fees back. Did you know if someone doesn’t pay, you can get your auction fees returned. That’s right, go to your “my ebay” and look for the customers who bought stuff from you. Now give them a payment reminder. You can give them 2 more payment reminders, through a stretch of about 2 weeks. If they don’t pay for the auction on the third payment request, ebay will refund your auction fees. Just click onto refund auction fees next to the non-paying customers name in your “my ebay”.

Use ebay promotions to your advantage. Every once and a while ebay will give you free auction listings. Other times they will take a percentage off of each auction listing. Use these auctions to your advantage. List as many auctions as you can on these days. After all, even if they don’t sell, what did you lose?

This should save you all tons of money when that monthly ebay bill comes in.

Stop by tomorrow or subscribe for free, if you enjoy my blog.

Thank you for stopping by,

Lisa

Hi everyone, I hope your are well. Christmas is almost here, do you know whats hot? The key to making sales all holiday season, is knowing what’s hot this season. Your sales boost can be close to 100% of your auctions selling. Most powersellers consider selling 80% of your auctions selling a great day. So to us powersellers, Christmas is a gold rush! Today I will be telling you about the 25 hottest items selling on ebay for Christmas. These are the items all the kids are asking their parents for. So you can be sure, there are millions of parents who will shop on ebay, so they don’t let their kids down this Christmas.According to Ebay’s hot list, these are the items you should be selling if you are an ebay merchant.

1. iPhone
2. Webkinz / Lil’Kinz
3. Transformers
4. Collectible Barbie
5. Dooney & Bourke Zebra Tote
6. Nintendo Wii
7. T.M.X. Friends - Ernie & Cookie Monster
8. BCBG Dress
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
10. Rock Band Video Game
11. iPod nano 8GB (Black)
12. The Simpsons
13. PlayStation 3
14. I’m Not A Plastic Bag
15. Motorola RAZR2
16. Designer Fragrances
17. Citizen Eco-Drive Watch
18. Nike Air Max 360 II
19. Abercrombie & Fitch Hoodie Jacket
20. Dept. 56 Snow Villages
21. Nike SasQuatch Sumo2
22. Gibson Electric Guitar
23. Craftsman Hand Tool Set
24. Burton Snowboard
25. Vtech Gadget

The Ebay hot list is located at pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/holidayhotlist/2007/technology.html

You can also find what else is hot on Ebay there. They have items in 10 other categories that will be hot sellers. The categories are technology, toys, collectibles, sporting goods, musical instruments, media, health and beauty, home, jewelry and watches, and clothing shoes and accessories.

So learn what is selling this December and buy a bulk quantity. You can guarantee yourself profit by studying this hot list and putting it to use. For example, if you buy 1000 iphones with $50 profit on each unit. You will make $50,000 profit this December on selling iphones. My goal is to make $50,000 this December. What is your goal?

I hope this list helps some of you make some money. If you have any questions, just email me. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

LP@thehomedropshipguide.com

Hi everyone, I hope you are good. Well, Christmas is almost here. The best time of the year for sales is Christmas season. Did you know if have Christmas sales, you can triple your sales through December? If you are really experienced, you can makes 10 times more sales through the holidays than you did your previous months. Last year I made more money in December than the 5 months before. I used every trick I knew and it worked. I have learned more tricks this year and have put them to the test. I can project my sales this December being 10 times more than I made last December.

Here is how using coupons will boost your holiday sales through the roof. Make some coupons through the month of December. Make them all Christmas oriented themed coupons. Make the coupons have huge discounts like, 50% off your entire order. Give buy one get one free coupons. Make coupons that give a free mystery gift if you spend a certain amount. I am sure there are dozens of Christmas themes you could base them on also. You can draw in customers that will be repeat customers. Hand them out, post them on free advertisement based systems. Email them to your family, friends, or past customers. Pin some up at the local train or bus stop. You can post your coupons almost anywhere. Chances are, if they buy from you, they will come back if they like your service also. If you have been reading my blog, you know how to reel in customers to be repeat customers for life. If not, search through my blog, you’ll find a few posts that will help you reel the customers in and keep them. Coupons are the most effective means of drawing in customers. You don’t have to make them just seasonal either. Coupons can be used all year around.

Having sales all through the holidays will also help your business. Try and have a different sale every 7-10 days throughout the month of November. Try and have a different sale every 3-5 days throughout the month of December. Advertise your sales on your website home page or on each ebay auction. Email the sales pages to your friends, family, or past customers. Post the sales in forums or newsgroups you belong to. Advertising for sales is really easy. Sales sell themselves. When people see a sale, they know they will save money. Just make the savings worth while. Compare the savings to other competition. Sales are basically the same as coupons except the difference is, sales are for everyone. So base your deals the same as you would make coupons for. Buy one get one free or 50% off and so forth.

If you plan your sales and coupons to go with each seasonal holiday, you will increase your sales like you have never seen before. Don’t think you are losing money. Gear your prices accordingly so you don’t lose out. If you give great prices and customer service like I do, you will gain repeat customers. Repeat customers will make you profit on the next transaction they make with you. Chances are, if someone comes back more then once; you have gained a repeat customer for life. That means they are going to make you money in the long run. So throw them a bone every once and while. After all, everyone makes out. The customer gets a great deal and you gain profit for life.

See you all tomorrow, thanks for stopping by.

Lisa

Hi everyone, I hope you had a good day. It’s getting cold outside, winter is almost here. Have you ever wanted to help others when times are tough? If you have a business, doing some volunteer or charity work can help out everyone. You could have tax write off donations, charity, & volunteer work to your business. Tax breaks are how a home business survives. You have to do as much as you can, to rack up those brownie points with the IRS. Whats better than helping out the needy when times are tough? It really can make you feel good doing charitable work.

Volunteers are always needed at the food banks during the holiday season. Lots of local organizations need voluneers this time of year. If if you can only help out seasonal, it will really make a big difference for the community where you live. I do seasonal volunteer work around Thanksgiving and Christmas. There are people out there going through tough times that nobody seems to care about. Yes there are some people with alcohol or drug problems. But really, a majority of the people that need your help are regular people at a tough time in their life. They are straight up working people that may have been layed off or had a similar incident. Some have mental or physical disabilities that their monthly checks don’t pay for everything they need. There are lots or reasons that someone may need help. You can save your community tons of money by doing volunteer work. Contact your local city hall or food bank to find out how you can help. There may be an organization that you already know of and want to help. Give back to your community, go help them. They need you to help make a difference.

You can give donations to charitable causes. I try and give money to local animal shelters. They can’t keep animals there if they can’t pay for them. If they have money and resources to take care of the animals, they won’t have to put them down. I have saved lives by donating to animal shelters. It’s a tax write off to donate money. Another words, your giving away money to a cause that needs it, and you get that money back when tax time comes. How can you lose? If you have the money, don’t be greedy, share the wealth to those who need it. It’s best to do research on the charities you donate to. It’s awful, but there are some scam artists who pose as charities. Do some research, find out who you would like to help. Then donate some money. You are only helping everyone, for free.

Charity sales are another great way to add tax write offs for your business and help out your community. You could have charity sales in your storefront, online store, or ebay business. Give all or a percentage of each sale to a charity of your choice. This is also a great way to draw in customers. I can guarantee, if you have the right charity to work for, you could sell a piece of blank paper for a thousand dollars. I actually sold an empty walmart bag on ebay for the SPCA and the bag sold for over $500.00. SPCA needed the money, we had the money to lend. Eight months later I got reimbursed when it was tax time. There are tons of ways you can let charity bring you more sales. Go have some charity sales. Help out your community!

People don’t usually figure to give up their spare time or money to charity. The advantages of giving your money away to charity helps everyone. Your community needs you. If you’re well off and have spare money, give some to places that need it more than you. Don’t be a Scrooge, you are giving a small loan without interest. Whatever money you give out through the year is 100% tax deductible. That means whatever money you give, you will get back. That is why you see famous movie or sports stars giving millions of dollars to charities. Because they will get it back when tax time comes. They are great people for being smart enough to make a difference. Step up to the plate and be smart enough to help your local community. They need your help right now!

Take care everyone. See you tomorrow.

LP@thehomedropshipguide.com

Hi everyone, today I will be explaining all the good points of owning your home business. Nobody seems to understand the advantages of working at home. Just today I overheard someone saying that they are very happy at their job. Then they went on to say, I wish my boss and I got along. He makes my life a living hell. What the heck? How can you be very happy at your job, if your boss is making it a living hell?

Well one advantage of having your own business is you are the boss. You don’t have to fear another person all the time. You don’t have to look over your shoulder every five minutes to see if the boss might catch you actually doing your job. Ever notice the boss is never looking when you are working, just when you aren’t working. That’s when they notice you. By working at home you can make your own rules. You can set your own hours. You can come and go as you please. There is nobody to answer to. You can take your time and take each goal step-by-step.

Being a home business owner let’s you get better as you go. As time goes on you train yourself into your routine. You get better at certain tasks and are able to perform them quicker also. Then you can expand your horizons and branch out. There is always room to learn something new. Your goals will become easier and more achievable as you grow. Being your own boss gives you time to research and market things you couldn’t before. You can change up the routine so you don’t get bored. Going into a regular job every day usually requires boring, repetitive, tasks. When you work at home you can change the agenda so you don’t get bored and quit.

Now you have time to tend to your personal life. How bout the days you have to ask off from work, because your far behind in personal activities? When you work for yourself, you don’t have to ask anyone to take time off. You can spend some time with your family. Going on vacation is so much easier, you just go. The kids baseball games that you always miss because of your regular job. Working at home will let you go to all your kids baseball games. You will actually find yourself being more punctual and willing to do things you weren’t willing to do before. It may be the freedom. Freedom does something to the human brain, that lets us enjoy life much more and open up. You don’t have to worry about going to bed early, because you have to work tomorrow. You could even get your family to help with your business. Some family businesses have really grown because the whole family got involved. There is a lot of time you have to dedicate to have a successful home business. The more help you have the easier it will be.

The bills you pay, mortgage and utilities are your business overhead costs. You don’t have to rent or buy a storefront to work at home. The money you save for no overhead will let your business thrive. After all, you are going to pay these bills to live anyway. So you have a free place to work. Other merchants may have high overhead costs for their place of business, so they have to boosts prices. You don’t have to boost anything except your profit margin with a home business. You will also find you are actually willing to work everyday. The headaches of going to a regular job, don’t apply, so it can give you more motivation. Some people don’t go to work on certain days, because they knew it would be a dreadful day. Not when you have your own business.

Taxes are a benefit also. You can claim taxes on your home business and write off everything from the car you drive, to the house you live in. You can make the government pay for everything. They want to pay for everything, because your business is helping the economy. The IRS knows that lots of small businesses fail. That’s why we get the best benefits on tax deductions. You can’t write off diddly squat at a regular job. If fact, most regular jobs rape you in taxes every year. In the corporate world, it’s not rare to see people pay money to the IRS, come tax time.

Are you still sure you love your regular job?

Thanks for stopping by the blog everyone. I really appreciate all the positive feedback. I’m so happy I can help you all get your home businesses started.

Lisa

Hi everyone, I hope your weekend was good. Today, I am going to talk about making your business mobile. In today’s business world you need to be available at the last minute. You also have to be very flexible and ready for anything. Owning your own business doesn’t stop after 5:00. It can be a 24 hour a day task. Especially, if you are just starting out. You have to be willing to give up your personal life and pay more attention to your business if you really want to succeed. Being mobile can let you enjoy your personal life also. It’s easy to answer an email when your out with your friends. It only takes a minute and it really means a lot for your business reputation.

One way you can keep up with today’s technology hungry business world is; Be Mobile. Start off small, use your cell phone or PDA to answer emails or Instant Messages(IM), when you are away from the office or home. You may think a cell phone should only be used for a phone. That couldn’t be further from the truth if you are a modern business owner. The technology is there, use it. If you don’t use it, someone else will. That basically means technology will take your business away, if you don’t take advantage of it. If you know you are going to be away from your business for more than a few hours; having a mobile business device can mean the difference between getting a sale or losing one. You could answer the email or Instant Message(IM) as soon as it comes in. Most customers are impressed with how fast and efficient you can answer or help them.

Another way you can stay mobile is having a laptop. You may not be able to afford one and that is fine for now. But, eventually you are going to need a laptop to keep your business mobile. When your business picks up and you are away from the home or office, you may be bombarded with customer and potential customer needs. Would you rather answer 100 emails when you get back, or would you rather answer them as they come in? You want to handle customer and potential customer needs right away! Don’t wait until later, unless you have to. With a laptop and wireless connection, you can bring your home business anywhere. You can answer emails, admin your website or business, anything you can do on your home pc, you should be able to do with your laptop.

That’s why mobile devices are so important. If you know you are going to be away for a few days or weeks, being mobile can really save your business and keep it going strong. Your business will never prosper if you have to take days or weeks off. Even if you go on vacation; Having a mobile device can reassure you, that your business will be running smooth for your return home. Don’t leave yourself blind and wait days or weeks to answer and deal with customers. Chances are, if you make them wait that long, they will never do business with you anyway.

There are so many uses for mobile devices. I am sure some of you, might have other uses or devices that you communicate with your business while you are away. Either way, the technology of making your business mobile is here. Take full advantage of it. Or you are just losing out!

Thanks for stopping by everyone. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

LP@thehomedropshipguide.com

Hi everyone, I hope you’re all doing well. I figured I would talk to you about learning from others. You can learn some important lessons, from listening to someone who has already “been there, done that”. Who other to learn from, than some great business giants. Bill Gates and Donald Trump for instance. You can look online and find their success stories anywhere. Let me tell you, Bill and Donald have very inspiring stories. Not just them, but you can learn from anyone who has failed and come back to succeed.

There is an old saying, “you can never succeed until you have failed”. It means, you should always learn from your mistakes. This is a great rule to remember. Learning from your mistakes, is the most important thing you can do, to move forward and grow as a business. Almost 95% of businesses fail the first time around. That means the odds are stacked against you. You could do tons of research on knowing your business inside and out. But you will never learn, without hands on experience. You will make mistakes along the way. Nobody is perfect, no matter how hard we try to be. Just take into account the drawbacks of making a mistake, each time you make one. Note what the repercussion of the mistake is, and think of a way to fix or avoid that mistake in the future.

Look up some great business person whom you admire or may be inspired by. For instance, my inspiration is Bill Gates. Even if you don’t have a favorite business person. Look one up online in a search engine. There are millions of success stories of famous business people online. Learn from the best. Learn what their mistakes were and how to fix them. Even the best business people have failed their first time around. Take advantage by learning, how you can avoid the same types of mistakes they have made.

Get inspired by someone. There are tons of famous people that have helped business people like myself, by making their success stories public. Some famous business people go on seminar tours to teach people how to succeed. The only way to succeed is to fail or learn from others who have already had the experience. Did you know, Bill Gates plans to give away 95% of all his money to help people by the time he is old and gray( it’s not too far away)? What could be more inspiring than that? This comes from a man who has quit Harvard Law School, to chase his dreams fail or not. And he is still willing to help people.

Great men like Bill Gates are everywhere. They failed and got pushed by everyone when they first started out. People saying their ideas are too far fetched and crazy. Look at them all now. Bill Gates is probably the richest man I know of. And no matter how many times people squashed his ideas, he kept going. He wanted to go all out when he started Microsoft. People said he was crazy, when his vision was to have a computer on every desk with Microsoft software in every computer in the world. He wasn’t too far off with his vision, because he kept chasing it.

Chase your dreams, but know where to draw the line each step of the way. Learn from the best, how to succeed and make as little mistakes as possible. There may be a successful business person you know and would like to ask questions. Most successful business people would love to give their secrets away for free. They know that only a small percentage will use their knowledge. Don’t fail at your dreams. Don’t ever let people tell you it’s not possible. If you can see it, you can do it. The most successful business people in the world, were all inspired by a vision and a strong passion to make it happen. Find something you like and chase your dreams. Find something you love and do it!

See you all tomorrow and be safe,

Lisa

Hi everyone, I hope your Thanksgiving was a great one! I told you all, I would give you a surprise today. I have had many people asking and emailing me for a list of wholesale distributors. There really isn’t one wholesale list. Wholesale lists could be a list of websites that have drop ship or wholesale in their business name or description. These types of wholesale lists are scams. No real wholesale distributor would advertise that they drop ship or sell wholesale. They don’t need to advertise this information. Most wholesale distributors are already well established and have thousands of big business customers already. This is why you should never look for a drop shipper or wholesale distributor in a search engine. Middlemen posing as real wholesale distributors and drop shippers flood search engines.

A good wholesale list is a list that has been researched extensively. In order to find a real wholesale distributor, you have to call the manufacturer. Then you have to ask the manufacturer for their wholesale distributor information. Then you have to call each wholesale distributor and ask, if they do business with home businesses. Then, if you want to drop ship, you have to ask each wholesale distributor if they drop ship for home businesses.

All this research to find a few wholesale distributors could take you hours, days, or weeks of research. So I am going to give you a list of the wholesale distributors that I use. All, but one of them, drop ship as well. Remember, in order to do business with any of the wholesale distributors I mention, you have to have a business license(LLC or sole proprietorship) & state and federal tax ID numbers.

Most of the time, it is against the manufacturers rules to post wholesale prices to the public. You may have been to a wholesale distributors website and noticed you only saw retail or msrp prices. This is because, they are not allowed to post the wholesale prices unless you have a business license. This is why most wholesale distributors have a special pricing catalog available to members only. Because members have already shown the wholesale distributor proof that they are a business. Make sure if you sign up with a wholesale distributor; they don’t charge any monthly membership fees and no hidden charges. These are the types of middlemen businesses you need to watch our for. They are only out to take your money and give you overpriced goods and lousy cutomer service. Real wholesale distributors will never charge you monthly or membership fees.

Okay, the first wholesale distributor that I recommend for home business is Moteng International. Their website is Moteng.com and they sell mostly camping and sporting goods. They are a very good company. They also drop ship for your business. If you own your own website, you can make maximum profit using Moteng. I would recommend using them to drop ship on ebay. But keep in mind, too many people already use them for drop shipping, so your competition will be tough. If you want to buy in bulk, I would definitely recommend Moteng. They have very low wholesale prices, if you buy bulk. Their drop ship price is very reasonable also, under $5.00 per customer order. (remember, if you visit any of the wholesale distributors websites I tell you about, you will only see retail or msrp prices. You have to become a member to see the wholesale prices.)

Second wholesale distributor I recommend is; Wynit Inc. Their website is wynit.com and they sell electronics and electronics accessories. They also drop ship for your business. The prices are kind of high to drop ship on ebay. But, if you want to buy in bulk to resell on ebay, Wynit is one of the best. Their wholesale prices in bulk are the best around. Keep in mind, the more you buy, the better the price. Their drop ship price is also very reasonable at $5.00 per customer order.

My third recommendation for a wholesale distributor is Petra Industries. These guys are great. Their website is petra.com and they sell electronics and electronic accessories. Petra also drop ships for your business. Some items petra has, can make you some really good money with drop shipping on ebay. Just remember that the competition will be tough. They also have some really good deals if you want to buy in bulk. They also have a very reasonable drop ship fee of $5.00 per customer order.

Jewelry Sprite is another great wholesale distributor that drop ships. Their website is jewelrysprite.com and they sell, guess, jewelry. The jewelry they sell is not top of the line, but it sells really well on ebay! I would recommend giving jewelry sprite a try if you want to drop ship inexpensive jewelry for your ebay business. They also have very good prices if you want to buy in bulk to resell on ebay. Their drop ship price is very good at under $5.00 per customer order.

The next wholesale distributor I am going to tell you about is one of the best. Their name is Elegant Moments. Their website is elegantmoments.com and they sell lingerie and adult novelties. They also drop ship for your business. They have some of the best quality lingerie I have ever seen. I have a store-front dedicated to selling nothing but elegant moments merchandise. I also own lots of their merchandise, so I can recommend them as great! If you want to make some really good money on ebay, I would recommend selling elegant moments merchandise. They have some great deals if you want to buy in bulk also. Their drop ship fees are $7.00 per customer order ($2.00 handling + $5.00 drop ship fee). Even though their drop ship price is high, they have great wholesale prices that will more than make up for it. I recommend elegant moments to boost sales for your ebay business.

Last but not least, is another great company. Their name is Active Light. Their website is activelight.com and they specialize in selling major electronics names like Sony & Hitachi. I am not sure if they drop ship. They were talking about starting to drop ship soon. They are really good for buying in bulk and reselling on ebay. The prices are spectacular. I definitely recommend them for your big name brand electronics.

If you don’t find what you need at any of the wholesale distributors, I recommend and you don’t want to do hours, days, or weeks or research, there is another option you can take. World Wide Brands is a great place that will find you a wholesale distributor or drop shipper, for any product you want to sell. Their website is worldwidebrands.com and they are a dream come true. They have teams that constantly call manufacturers, to find out the wholesale distributors and drop shippers that work with home businesses. They can save you 75% or more of your research time. I wish these guys were around when i started my ebay business. They would have saved me years of product research.

That’s it everyone. I just gave you all the tools I have, to find and use real wholesale distributors. If you can’t find what you are looking for, email me or comment and I will do my best to help you. I hope I have answered most of your emails asking me for wholesale distributor lists.

See you all tomorrow, Take care!

Lisa LP@thehomedropshipguide.com

Hi everyone, I am at my families house for the holiday, so I will keep this short. First off, I would like to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that you must give you employees the day off. You should always take a break from work on the holidays. It can give you time to rest and think of better ideas to improve your business. We tend to think better after we give ourselves a rest.

Try and offer your employees paid holidays. You should give them 5-10 paid holidays a year. Big corporations usually give 10 holidays with a couple of floater holidays. Your employees will enjoy the time off. It’s very rare that businesses take care of their employees for the holidays. If you had a really good year, toss a bonus check at the employees a few times throughout the year. They will really appreciate the gesture. On top of that, your employees will give you that much more.

If you don’t have employees, treat yourself to a day off on holidays. You’ll thank me. I’m sorry today’s post is so short. I won’t be making a post tomorrow, but I will make up for it on Friday. I have a little treat for you all.

Have a safe holiday everyone. Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone is doing good. Today, I will be telling you about responding to your customers needs. Hearing your customers feedback and opinions, can really make a difference in improving your business. You can take the feedback to improve your business and make it more successful. Remember my old saying; there is always room for improvement. There might be a section on your website or business that is not working properly. Sometimes as a business owner, you overlook the customers needs. Customer needs are so important to keep your business running as up-to-date as possible.

Try and have a section dedicated on your website for customer feedback or ideas. If you don’t have a website, try giving your customers a questionnaire or comment card. This is a technology age. Use technology and keep updating. When something big comes along, take a chance. Don’t look at it as, a fad that will fade soon. Look at it as an opportunity to grow. There will be many new things that come and go. Believe it or not, those are the money makers. And guess who can tell you what the money makers are? Customers can tell you so many things about technology.

If you could set up a forum or feedback place for the customer, you will be able to help everyone. People could post their ideas, comments, or problems in a public forum. Then you or others could help them. When someone posts a good idea for improvement, thank them and tell them you will implement it soon. Then use that information to make things better. The customer will be pleased that you actually listened to them. It will even encourage them to come back to your website or business. It’s a win, win situation.

Ask your employees what you could do to improve things more also. They are all looking from the outside, in. You would be surprised at how many good ideas can come from your employees. Your employee feedback can be as important as your customer feedback. It can help things move along so much smoothly, by knowing what the employees needs and ideas are.

The problem with owning a business is; you tend to see things from inside, looking out. You think and plan, for what will work best for your business. You will by nature ignore the customers needs. That’s why it is so important to not overlook the customer. You have to plan ahead. Accompany every customer need with a solution. Always support your customers and don’t ever ignore them.

See you all tomorrow & Thanks for stopping by!

Lisa

Hello everyone, how are you? Today is more like a part 2 from yesterday’s post. If you are thinking about starting a home business, don’t jump into the first thing that comes along. Do some research. Find out what will most likely succeed with you. Make sure it is something that people are interested in. You don’t want to invest money into something that will fail in the next 6 months or so. Do as much background research, in what the customers want as you can. Surpass what the competition is doing. Make sure it is not breaking any laws as well.

I want to talk about the importance of this, because a friend of mine recently failed at his business. He started an online gaming tournament league. The league represented counterstrike & halflife 2 among other popular favorites. It was a great idea, other than the games he chose to represent were full of cheaters. People would download programs that made them win. These programs are called trainers or hacks. So in turn, other members noticing all the cheating going on, demanded refunds and cheaters be banned. He tried to ban as many cheaters as he could, but they kept coming. He ended up refunding every member, and had to shut the whole business down for restructure. He never planned ahead to do something if people cheated.

So it is very important to see whatever you can into the future and plan ahead. Whatever can go wrong will. Trace whatever steps you may have to go through, to run your business in relation to your customers. Even if you have to make a practice run. Just something simple that will bring you through, whatever process your customers will go through. Practice runs can show you all the problems that can arise, when you run a business. Thinking ahead can save your business.

Ask someone to help you. Get a beta tester. Another pair of eyes can really help things move along. Ask a friend or relative to test run your website or business transaction process. A tester can really make a huge difference with things you wouldn’t even think of doing. Make sure that everything will go smoothly. After all, your customers will get very upset, if they pay for a service that is flawed or not perfected. They want what they pay for and that’s only right, that they get what they want. Make a check list for the tester to go through. Have them fully test the website or business transaction and make any notes for improvement. Then take whatever the tester had for improvements and make them immediately.

Please do all the research you can before jumping into any project. Don’t throw your money away. Most businesses take lots of time and money to get rolling. Research will help you so much. I see so many people fail because, they are trying to do what someone is successful at. Just because someone else is successful at something, doesn’t mean you will be successful at the same thing. Take what you are interested in, and go all out with it. If you are interested in something, it will be easier to make a living doing it. Chase it down with lots of research, so you are more of an expert that you already were.

Thanks for stopping by my daily blog everyone! See you tomorrow.

LP@thehomedropshipguide.com

Hi everyone, I hope you had a great weekend! Today is Sunday, so I will keep it short. Are you curious about starting your own business? Have you ever thought of what to do in order to start your own business? There are tons of things you could do to make money. You have to keep it simple enough to see yourself doing it. If you don’t close your eyes and see yourself doing it, you won’t. Starting your own business is as much mentally challenging, as it is physically. If you start off with too many obstacles, you will be sure to fail. So just keep things simple.

Start off with something you enjoy. Don’t start a business in something you don’t enjoy. You will surely fail. You want to keep motivated enough to work everyday. If you overload your self with too much, you will not have motivation to continue. Take each day step by step. Remember to write out a daily goals list. It’s very important to keep track of your daily goals on a checklist. You have to see your entire project into it’s future. So look at what you want to accomplish in one year and make a daily goals checklist to make it there. You can’t accomplish everything you want in one day. Anyone that promises you millions in a few days is a liar. Unless you just won the lottery or had a huge amount of money to invest.

Take on 3-10 daily achievements, each and every day. Make each daily set of achievements, set you up for your one main goal. It’s important to make your daily goals reach out to achieve your one main goal. Everyday’s goals should take you one step closer to your one main goal. For instance, you can’t have a successful storefront overnight. You have to have little daily achievements to reach your goal. From getting that loan to opening your store and advertising.

Don’t make your goals untouchable. If today you just got a loan for your new store. Tomorrow your goal should not be, going to the car dealership to buy a Porsche. See your goals, map them out, and chase them down! Keep each goal simple and do-able. If you make each goal as reachable as the last; your long term goals will fall right into place. Don’t over do it.

Thanks for stopping by everyone. Feel free to subscribe to my daily blog, it’s free.

LP@thehomedropshipguide.com

Hi everyone, I hope you are well. Thanks for all your comments on the new blog. I really appreciate the feedback. Today I am going to tell you about how to protect your paypal account. If you are a paypal member, you recently got an email informing you about phishing scams. The paypal phishing scam are emails that look exactly like a paypal email. But they are fake. There are two ways you can protect yourself against phishing email scams; Learn how to spot them and how to protect yourself. It is also best to have a premium or business paypal account. Then you are covered if any fraudulent activity is found on your account.

A phishing scam email will have a fake story that is designed to make you click the link, so they can steal your personal information. It’s usually threatening enough to make you want to click it. It may say, you are suspended or your account only has limited use, until you click here. Or something along those lines to scare you into clicking the link. The sender is trying to trick you into giving them any personal information about your identity. They are probably trying to steal your account passwords or bank information also.

Don’t trust the email address the email is supposedly coming from. It is really easy to disguise an email address to look like another. Just because it says it came from paypal, is not necessary true. If you click on to the link, notice it doesn’t go to paypal.

Paypal will never ask you for any of your personal information through an email. This includes, your full name, password, drivers license number, social security number, credit or debit card numbers, pin numbers or bank account numbers. If anyone asks for any of this information, They are not paypal and should be looked at as a scammer.If you recieve a phishing email forward it along with the header to spoof@paypal immediately.Paypal will do an investigation and go after them.

You may get an email claiming that you need to install paypal software. Never trust an attachment or software update claiming to be from paypal. Paypal will never send you any files or attachments ever. These files may be a virus or worm. Don’t open or attach any files sent in these emails. Just forward it along with the header to spoof@paypal.com.

One of the safest ways to check and see if an email is really from paypal; Go directly to your paypal account from your Internet browser. Then check the information out in your account. Never go to your paypal account by clicking on a link in the email. Even if you think it’s a real paypal email. Don’t take that chance.

If you are not sure if an email is really from paypal. Forward it to spoof@paypal and ask them. They will send you a return email informing you if it is real or not.

Update your internet browser to the latest version. This will ensure you have full protection in your browser. Also, run windows update and install updates that you need to add more security. Paypal is making a number of steps to stop fraud. But you have to know, they can’t do it without our help. If you even suspect an email to be a fake paypal email, forward it to spoof@paypal right away, so they can go after the culporate. Do your part to help.

The same with an ebay email. If you think its fake, forward it to spoof@ebay.com right away. Ebay will do an investigation and let you know if it is fake or not.

I hope this helps some of you be more protected from fraud. If you have any questions about this post feel free to email me.

LP@thehomedropshipguide.com

Hi everyone! I have a treat for you today. Some information to expand your horizons. I am going to tell you about places you can buy or sell online. And none of them are ebay. Ebay isn’t the only auction marketplace. There a few out there that specialize in something or are up and coming to be huge auction marketplaces. When you own a business, you never want to settle for one thing. The more places you branch off to, the more customers you will get. Yes, you may not get the sales you get on ebay, but there are other marketplaces that offer their services for free. Ebay charges high fees, so why not try the same thing for free. You want a back up plan for other places to buy and sell from. As usual, my review is based on my own experiences. I recommend every one of the websites I mention in today’s post.

Bid4assets.com is one of my favorites! You can sell here, but I wouldn’t recommend it. This website doesn’t get traffic for buying goods off merchants. It’s nothing fancy, but it holds some great bargains. It’s not really a place you want to buy little things from. Government agencies like the U.S Marshalls Office, FBI, and ATF confiscate items from people every day. Bid4assets is a major place that the government resells seized property, from high end cars, to homes with lots of property. Anything that the government has lawfully taken from fugitives and so forth. There are some junkers, but that’s to be expected. Most of it comes from crooked low down people, I am sure. This is a great place to check out. Everyone now and then there is a great deal there.

Blujay.com is another great marketplace. It’s 100% free to use and you can even set up a web store. This isn’t an auction marketplace, but it is a great place to set up a free store. They get tons of traffic. Not as much as ebay of course, but they get enough traffic so you will have sales. You can also find some really good deals. They let you use Google checkout and Paypal for payment methods excepted. These guys grow everyday. Someday soon they will be a marketplace giant. When you set up a webstore with them; you webstore is automatically placed into google and froogle search engines. It’s a fantastic place to branch off to.

Ecrater.com is another spectacular free marketplace. Ecrater’s best feature is; You can set up your own E-Commerce Website, for free! Ecrater gets tons of traffic everyday(in the hundreds of thousands), so they are nothing to shake a stick at. Your E-Commerce store and products in it will be automatically sourced into google search engine. You can find some really good deals here also. Just buy some stock cheap and resell on ebay. I really recommend branching out into an ecrater E-Commerce website. Again, your sales won’t be like ebay, but you will notice them coming in. There is one downside; they only let you accept google checkout in the checkout options. But you can also list payment details in your item description, if you accept other payment methods. This is my number one recommended marketplace. Everyone should have an ecrater store!

Ubid.com is another great place to buy and sell products. Ubid has really grown in the past year. You are missing out if you don’t buy or sell on Ubid. The auction fess are a lot cheaper than ebay. This is another place I make a habit of buying goods to resell on ebay. It is also the best place, besides ebay to sell products also. The traffic and customer base is probably the biggest, out of all the auction marketplaces that I mention today. You will do a lot of sales being a member of Ubid.

Bidz.com is another great place to find some really great deals. This a great place to buy some top notch jewelry. You can also sell here, but that’s not what the customer base is there for. You won’t make much if you try and sell anything here. But if you are looking for something as elegant as a 6 carat diamond ring, you have come to the right place. You can make a lot of money, if you buy low and resell on ebay. The prices are really low on bidz! They can charge lower prices because they have branched with many top jewelry makers from around the globe. In the past year or so, Bidz has really grown into a top jewelry website. I have been using them for over 2 years now and have saved thousands of dollars on jewelry. Diamonds are a woman’s best friend.

Half.com is a great place to buy smaller items like movies, music, video games, and books. They even started a sellers option, so you can sell your movies, books, and video games. Take advantage of half.com for all your media needs. They are a branch of ebay, so you can even use your ebay name.

Amazon.com is another force to be reckoned with. Amazon has been around almost as long as ebay. Amazon has great deals everyday on all sorts of items. They are probably the most comparable to ebay, out of the marketplaces I tell you about today. You can buy or sell here. The traffic you will get at amazon will be substantial. I recommend selling on amazon. I wouldn’t really say you could buy and resell on ebay for higher prices. Also, the sellers competition at Amazon is about the same as ebay. You will see sales generate by selling on Amazon. You can find some good deals here, if you are buying something for your self.

Bidville.com is another good auction marketplace. You could sell or buy there. There are some really good bargains. There isn’t traffic like ebay, but it’s a place to branch off into. Most of these auction marketplaces are great to buy low and resell for a higher price on ebay. The more places your products are on the internet, the more sales you will get. You won’t make a fortune at bidville, but it provides a unique experience that you will surely benefit from.

Those are the marketplaces I recommend you expand your business to. Growth is the best way any business can make more money. Yes it’s true, you won’t make as much as you do on ebay, using these other marketplaces. But using all them together will at least double your sales volume. You won’t be hit with outrageous auction fees either. That means more profit for your business. Also your business name will be well known through out search engines. You won’t be stuck on one marketplace. With a little originality, you could grow faster than most businesses doing the same old thing. Give them a try you won’t regret it.

If you have any questions feel free to ask me.
LP@thehomedropshipguide.com

Hi everyone, I hope your are all doing good. As you may have noticed I changed the blog theme and added some links. I figured it was time for a change. The old blog template was getting kind of old. Today, I am going to try and help you all grow for the better. Changing the way you do things can help you and your business grow. Don’t ever settle for what you have. No matter how good it is, you can always do better. There is always room for improvement. Bill Gates wouldn’t be where he is today, if he would have settled with windows 95. Change can only help you, if you know the right ways to change for the better.

Second opinions always work best. You may think everything is fine and dandy. Ask someone else who is looking inside the picture, instead of outside. You see, you may not find any flaws in your work or business, no matter how hard you look. It’s always good to go with another pair of eyes, for some opinions to make things better. For instance, is the type blinding you on your website? Or is it too light and not readable. An outside opinion may let you know about these small details, that you don’t notice all by yourself. Forums are a great place to get second opinions also.

Make sure you are upgrading, when you make change. This may sound silly, but some businesses downgrade without even knowing it. If you are upgrading, remember, sometimes less is more. Try and always keep things plain and simple. But at the same time, offer the customer a new and modern experience. The last thing a customer wants to do is, step backwards in technology. If there is new technology and you can get your hands on it, use it. You’ll find if you are the first to show new technology, you will be remembered for always staying up-to-date.

Change is so important. Not just to change, but change for the better. I would rather buy a product that was made 2 months ago, instead of a product that was made a year or so ago. Same with websites; Don’t you find yourself attracted to newer designs that show more technology? Nobody wants to see the same old thing. The same old thing, is just what it says, everyone has the same thing and it’s old. When things feel and look old, it’s time for a change.

Search around for ways you can improve. Ask people what you can improve. Ask them what can can change to make things better. Ask people what they don’t like. Ask people you know, honest opinions without disagreement. Don’t jump down someones throat if they say something you don’t like. Just hear them out. They are helping you more than you know. You want to hear a wide vary of opinions. Not everyone one is going to like the way you are doing things. That’s the best part, find out what they do and don’t like. Then accommodate as many different people as possible using the information you gathered.

I hope this helps some of you change for the better.

LP@thehomedropshipguide.com