Summary: Millions of people are still
coming online each year, and many of those people come to the Internet with dreams of
making their financial dreams come true.
THE REALITIES OF AN INTERNET BUSINESS
Millions of people are still coming online each year, and
many of those people come to the Internet with dreams of making their financial dreams
come true.
The truth is that building a website to sell products and
services is not the easiest way to make a living online. A lot of specific knowledge or
money will be required to be successful with a standard website.
You must acquire skills -- or pay someone who already
possesses those skills -- in the following areas:
- Graphic design
- Copywriting
- HTML design
- Perl or PHP programming
- Database programming
- Marketing research
- Promotions
When this is understood, most people throw their hands up
in frustration and walk away from their entrepreneurial desires.
Maybe cash is the problem; maybe the desire is just
lacking.
If you have reached this point yourself let me offer one
piece of advice...
DON'T THROW AWAY YOUR DREAMS JUST YET
More people than I can count are making a successful living
online, and none of them own their own website or send a single commercial email to
anyone.
How is this possible?
Two words, "EBay auctions."
EBAY MAKES IT EASY
EBay covers all of the difficult technical issues. And more
importantly, EBay already has floods of visitors eager to purchase your wares.
EBay has provided everything you need to operate a
successful business online with three exceptions:
- Products to sell
- Time to list the products in the EBay database
- Cash to acquire the products
CHOOSING THE KINDS OF PRODUCTS
Before choosing your products, you should ask yourself what
you enjoy the most. You may enjoy cats, NASCAR or even antiques. You should select
products consistent with what you enjoy for two reasons.
First, you bring to your presentation a real appreciation
for the products your are offering.
Secondly, a job you hate is one you will quit. A job you
enjoy doing will be one that you will want to keep forever. If you are starting your own
business, the hope is that you will be doing it for a very long time.
I personally know people who have generated a nice living
on EBay selling cat-related items, NASCAR memorabilia and antiques.
FINDING THE ACTUAL PRODUCTS TO SELL
I recommend against diving in and spending thousands of
dollars buying products that you may or may not be able to sell.
A drop-shipper is a middleman who is willing to permit you
to buy an individual product, and then they will put your business name on the return
address of the product package and handle the actual delivery for you.
By utilizing a drop-shipper, you can speed product delivery
to the client without risking your own cash to keep a product in inventory.
If you are lost as to how to find a drop-shipper, consider
subscribing to the drop-shippers directory: http://thePhantomWriters.com/drop_shippers_directory.html
Through this site, you can get all of the information you
need to find drop-shippers from which you can order over 500,000 products from over 1,000
brand names.
LEARNING TO LIST YOUR PRODUCTS AT EBAY
Learning to use EBay is pretty easy and straightforward.
EBay has put forward a lot of effort to help people to become successful. For example,
EBay has an entire area of their site devoted to the online entrepreneur.
To get an overview of all of the services and tools that
EBay provides to sellers, you may visit: http://pages.ebay.com/services/index.html
EBay also delivers courses and strategies to help you to be
more successful: http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/index.html
THE IMPORTANCE OF CASH FLOW TO YOUR SUCCESS
EBay provides tools for both buyers and sellers to rate one
another. The speed of delivery is one of the most important factors that sellers are rated
on. By providing quick delivery, your buyers will give you a good rating -- and more
shoppers will bid on your products.
EBay recently purchased PayPal.com to help facilitate
purchases for their buyers and sellers, and they have integrated the two systems together.
Unfortunately, getting the money from your PayPal account
to your personal account generally takes four days. Even with a merchant account, the time
gap is nearly the same. This time gap expands the turn-around between the transaction and
delivery of the product unless you take action to speed the process.
If you were doing high volume, you would want to minimize
the handling of a transaction to reduce the chance for a foul-up and to increase your
ratings within the EBay system.
But how can this be accomplished?
MANAGING CASH FLOW
While you could rely upon credit cards to get the job done,
it is not something I would recommend. Paying credit card interest rates to process your
customer's purchase, is an unnecessary burden.
Instead, put a sum of money into a dedicated bank account
with a debit card attached to it. When you verify a transaction has been credited to your
PayPal account, then use your debit card to immediately process the order with your
drop-shipper.
But, how can you do it this way on a tight budget?
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO THE RESCUE
Let me ask you this. Do you have a 401(k) account?
Experts advise that you not touch your retirement savings
for anything other than retirement income. That is good advice. Fortunately, it is
possible under special circumstances to acquire loans against your 401(k) accounts.
Beginning in 2002, even the self-employed small business
owner with no employees could open his or her own 401(k), called a solo-owner 401(k), and
borrow from it just as employees with big companies can.
Weigh this option against the others available to you. It
only makes sense to take out a loan rather than to take a hit in heavy taxes and penalties
for drawing your retirement money early. Seriously, consider taking advantage of our
historically low interest rates to meet your cash flow needs.
To learn more about creating and borrowing from a
solo-owner 401(k), please visit: http://www.investsafe.com
IN CONCLUSION
It is wise to choose your new business venture based on a
model that has proven itself over the long-term. EBay has been proving its concept since
1995; helping thousands of people build a successful and very profitable business.
The time to act is now. Choose the product line that will
give you the most satisfaction and then get busy. Your success awaits you.
Bill Platt Copyright: 2005 |
