What Sort Of E-Commerce Business Are You?

Step 1:

Which of the seven e-commerce Business Structures does your business fit into? What sort of product range do you have, and what is your USP? Once you have the answer to these questions you can start building your e-commerce MasterPlan.

Step 2:

Ways to build right website

The website is the most important part of any e-commerce business. What sort of website do you need? How do you build it quickly and effectively? How to find the right PiggyBack website? Plus, avoid conversion blockers.

Step 3:

Cost, growth and profit

To form the basis for future growth and profit, you need to get a handle on the key numbers in an e-commerce business. That is the Margin, the ROI, and the Scale. Then you know what you need to achieve.

Step 4:

Products and promotions

Once you know the numbers, you can start organizing what your products are going to be, and promotions sit very closely with your product decisions. How many products do you need? What promotions are you going to run? What mix do you need?

Step 5:

I Have Built It: Why haven't they come? (aka Marketing!)

The first 4 Steps culminate in the creation of your marketing plan. It's the marketing plan that will bring you your customers, and make them spend. Here we go through how to take the outcomes of the other 4 Steps and build them into a marketing plan.

Section 2: Key Online Marketing Methods

Content Marketing

For some of the e-commerce business structures, content are at the heart of their online marketing. For others it is a very useful tool. The key is in getting organized.

Email Marketing

The key tool every e-commerce business needs to master. It will keep your customers buying from you, it will drive your sales, and it will build your relationship with those customers.

Social Media Marketing

It is increasingly important for every business because it impacts in so many ways. Social Media can build brand awareness, activate offline marketing, distribute your content, power your search traffic, and much more.

Brand Awareness Marketing

If brand or customer base are your USPs you need to work on building brand awareness. There are thousands of ways to do this - how do you work out how it should be done for your business?

Offline Marketing

To build an e-commerce business you can't just look online for your marketing - offline is still very powerful.

Search Marketing

If you can get search marketing working for you, then you build a solid foundation of sales - that just keeps coming in. But it's getting ever more complex. How can you build your search marketing so it keeps working for you, no matter what Google does?

PPC (Pay Per Click) Marketing

It is the quickest way to get sales online. Not as easy as it looks, though - success is in the optimization, and how you build it to start with.

Don't Forget The Wedding And Engagement Ring Insurance

Getting married is one of the most important events in our lives. Marriage signifies the commitment you make to that special someone; the person you have decided to spend the rest of your life with and with whom you may start a family of your own. Because this is such an important time in our lives it makes sense that it comes along with a few other important details like the wedding itself as well as the wedding and engagement rings.

Wedding Insurance

Because the wedding itself is such a big event more people are taking out wedding insurance policies. If you are unfamiliar with this it may sound a little strange at first, but for many people it makes a lot of sense. This special day is often planned a year or more in advance, if there is an unexpected accident or illness and the wedding needs to be canceled you can lose a lot of money in deposits that were used to secure everything needed for that day.

A wedding can be quite expensive and if you have a particularly large event planned you may want to do what you can to protect that special day. Wedding insurance can often provide protection from a variety of problems that can occur with the various vendors that are needed on that day, from catering to photographers.

Engagement Ring Insurance

The rings are not simply an attractive piece of jewelry but a symbol of the never ending love and commitment between the married couple. Of course the engagement ring in particular has become particularly important. After all it is a beautiful piece of jewelry, one that will be worn everyday for many years to come, and a symbol of love and commitment.

The husband to be often spends a great deal of time and effort and money to find just the right ring. Once the perfect ring is found and purchased it is important to protect it with insurance. A homeowner's policy will cover a certain amount, but likely not enough to cover the full ring. You can add a rider onto your homeowner's policy, but make sure you take the coverage with you if you move to a new home together after getting married.

Another option is to take out a separate policy to cover the ring. There are jewelry insurance companies that specialize in this, or you can use the same company you use for your other insurance needs.

Planning a wedding and planning to change your lifestyle can create some chaos for a while. There are so many things to plan and of course there is still your day-to-day life with your regular responsibilities. But don't forget to protect the important parts of this special union.

Eureka! I've Found THE One Magical Wholesale Supplier for Your eBay Business!

'Actually no I haven't. Because they don't exist.'

There seems to be some kind of myth that if you look, and carry on looking, then look again, then look some more, that you will find this 'one' magical super wholesale supplier that can make you rich, easily, with no effort, and no hard work. Well let me tell you to stop looking for them because they do not exist.

Yes some wholesale suppliers are more profitable than others. Yes some wholesale suppliers will offer better service than others but will you find one that nobody else uses thus eliminating competition and making you super rich overnight? Of course not.

What happens is, certainly in the early stages of business and I'm referring here particularly to eBay ventures. Is that the enthusiastic entrepreneur will begin the journey of sourcing wholesale suppliers for their chosen product. They hopefully will have an idea of what products to sell on eBay by researching first. Some won't though and they will trawl through wholesale supplier directories, lists, websites. You name it, they'll search it.

The ' I'll just have another look ' syndrome

Finding a wholesale supplier, can and often is an all consuming task. I mean it can take, days, weeks, months, years even. Especially if you don't know where to look in the first place. Or you continue to look 'just in case you find a better one'. This 'magical' super supplier that everyone talks about but nobody knows who they are.

There are literally thousands and thousands of wholesale suppliers which you could use for your business but I'm here to tell you that in my experience (and I've a fair bit of experience sourcing out wholesale suppliers) that it isn't so much what you sell, but how you sell it. Plenty of people will disagree with me about this but what I've said is true in my own experiences.

Another way to look at this is that no matter what product you sell, you can almost guarantee that competition will be fierce, especially online and on eBay in particular. Yes there are areas or ' niches ' that will be relatively untapped but even if they are, it wont be that way for long. Other sellers will notice these ' niche ' products selling well and start selling them themselves. Increased competition does and will, drive profit down.

I will say this though. The more targeted your market, the better you will sell. Drill down into specifics what you want to sell. Example - If you sell cycling products, don't stock every cycling product that has ever been created. Find a niche within that area. You might sell bike pedals only. There must be literally thousands of different types. Specialize.

Find a suitable wholesale supplier, develop a relationship with them. They will help you. They want your money and you want their products.

Do NOT continue to search over and over and WASTE your time thinking the grass is greener on the other side. It invariably is not.

Hope you found that informative and it's all true in my experience and humble opinion.

If you are looking for wholesale products and suppliers, leave a comment or ask a question. I just might know the answer.

Mark Davies

Your Airport Transport Options

If you are going on holiday then you have huge amount to look forward to, but quite possibly an equal amount to organize and plan. When we go abroad we are of course travelling a huge distance to a foreign land, spending large amounts of money and putting our daily lives on hold - so it's perhaps no surprise that this requires a lot of organization and planning.

One of the important aspects to consider here when planning your journey and your stay is how you intend to get to the airport and back - which is something people often forget when they are fixated on the rather larger matter of flying to another country itself. Getting this right might seem less 'big' than getting your flight right, but actually the consequences can be just as big if it means you end up not making your flight. Here we will look at your options to help you choose precisely how you are going to get yourself to and from the airport.

Coach or Train

If you go by coach or train then this has to be one of the most unpleasant ways to consider travelling to your airport. On the one hand it can be cheap if you're travelling solo and require minimal planning, but at the same time it means that you have to still organize transportation to and from the coach or train station, and it means you need to make sure you have some way you can get your luggage there and back too. Then there's the possibility of it not turning up (which is highly stressful) or getting delayed which means you'll have to leave much earlier than you probably should. That and you then need to sit on a coach crammed with other people who will probably be noisy and unsettled.

Taxi

If you go by taxi this is the more expensive option for each person, but it's considerably cheaper if there are lots of you and you want to spread the costs between you. Meanwhile if you go by tax, you'll be able to just relax while someone who knows the roads takes you there and back again and handles your luggage etc. too. The only downsides other than the price are relying on someone else to arrive on time and to keep tabs on changes to your flight time, as well as having to make small talk and travel in a car that's not your own.

Driving

If you drive yourself then you can leave literally when you want and you'll not be at the whim of anyone else - all of which makes this a very convenient and pleasant way to travel (you'll also be in your own environment with your own music etc.). This is also the cheapest option by far as you'll only pay petrol and it will be the same no matter how large your group. The downside of driving of course is having to find the energy when jetlagged on the way home, and then having to find somewhere to park your car - but this latter point shouldn't be an issue as long as you have tried in advance to find somewhere suitable.

Business Buyout Agreements - Part II

This is the final article on business buyout agreements. In Part I we've covered the basic situations where it's prudent for business owners to create buyout agreements. We've discussed the major components of the buyout agreements, addressing the circumstances under which co-owners can compel each other to sell their interest in business, the right of first refusal and forced buyouts. The main question that still needs to be answered is how to calculate the appropriate price of business, and what will be the payment terms. We address this and other issues below.

Methods of valuation To prevent lengthy and foreseeable disputes over the appropriate value of the share, valuation method must be agreed upon.

Independent appraisal With this method, a third party neutral professional appraiser (preferably, a pre-selected one) determines the value of the company. The main advantage to this method is that it uses an objective and flexible standard which reflects the current value of the business, taking into account such difficult to value assets as company's goodwill, reputation and earnings potential. The main drawbacks are that it takes time and can get expensive.

Earnings capitalization With this method, you take company's gross revenue, subtract costs, and multiply this figure by a certain agreed-upon number (capitalization rate). The advantage of this method is that it is quick and relatively easy to calculate the value. The main drawback is that the final number may not represent the true value of the company. For example, the company may not show much profit, and yet have great real value, if you reinvested nearly all profit back into the healthy, growing company. To account for this, you may decide to multiply company's gross revenue, rather than pure profit.

Book value Book value is company's assets minus liabilities. The advantage of this method is its simplicity but the main drawback is that it does not account for earnings potential, especially if the company is new. To account for this drawback, you may decide to use a multiple of book value, where you multiply the book value by a certain agreed-upon number.

Other issues An effective buy-sell agreement should address the following issues:

- Should the agreement be guaranteed by pledging corporate assets, personal guarantees, loans, etc.?

- How to allocate shareholder loans?

- Should there be a covenant not to compete?

- Should the spouses of the shareholders sign the buy-sell agreement? What if they will not?

Why Does It Hurt?

Take a candy from a baby and they'll scream the house down... and the same pain goes deep into the heart of a human being when something they thought they loved gets wrenched out of their hands too.

I say "thought they loved" because if there's pain in losing something it's a clear indication that love wasn't at the heart of the dynamic, need was.

Addiction to cocaine is a well known pain and withdrawal is awful (so I'm told) That addiction is absolutely identical to the cause of pain.

When a person eats too much and becomes obese is the problem the food they eat or is the real problem what needs they are having met by food?

Without doubt food is a temptation but if nurturing, self love, self respect and belief in ourselves is furnished through the temporary satisfaction of eating a hamburger, don't blame the food giant. Deal with the cause.

The key is to list down what nourishment you are/were getting from that source of pain... the addiction... and then replace it with another source... usually a source more healthy, more on purpose, more linked to your values... this is, in most cases really easy and the more you do it, the faster the pain goes away.

There's a link between dopamine (happy body chemical) and the root source of fulfilment. If we lose dopamine triggers from everyday life we then gravitate down to sex, food, drugs, alcohol, sport, greed and spirituality. These are not wrong it's just that they produce dopamine but lead us off track from the soul purpose of our life. The pain of regret outweighs the pain of discipline and yet, the lack of dopamine leads to the feeling of depression. Nobody enjoys that feeling...

Dopamine is the feel good drug the body produces... it is triggered most when a person's highest values are met... The trouble is that there are two sides to everything and although we might think our values are being met by one association (like a boyfriend and winning lotto) there's a counter balance to that association we also have to deal with. A boyfriend might occupy time, have different ideas, be rude, or dirty and suddenly there's dopamine sometimes and no dopamine (depression) at others. This creates head spin.

If we are all born with a purpose for our life then the ultimate dopamine hit is living it. That's quite a cool idea because purpose never changes, purpose is unachievable (its a journey not a destination) and purpose can be linked to everything from going to the bathroom to leading Virgin Airlines. Purpose is the ultimate dopamine hit... WHY? Because everything that happens in your life can be linked to it for a real feel good experience.