Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Why Do you want to sell on-line? - Part One

 

??  WHY Sell On-Line ??
 
One of your first steps prior to selling on-line is to ask yourself, “WHY do I want to do this?” While you may have heard that selling on-line is easy, not much work and that you can make a lot of money doing it, that isn’t necessarily so. Selling on-line requires patience, perseverance, time and effort. If you aren’t prepared to spend the time and effort to do this, then you might want to look into finding a different way to make money. This is not said with any kind of condemnation. If you need to earn extra cash, and who doesn’t these days, at least find a way to do it that you will enjoy.
 
As you start asking yourself the question of Why do I want to Sell On-line, some of the things that you need to think about is how much money do you need to make or want to make. The need to make a certain amount is how much isn’t being covered currently by your paycheck job. The want to make is because you want to save to go on a great vacation, eat out more often, buy more clothes, and things like. In other words the things you could live without if you don’t make the money. The money you need to make is a whole different story if every month the gap between your paycheck and the utility bills gets ever wider; you are using credit cards to buy your groceries, etc. I believe strongly in living a frugal life, but I also understand shortfalls in income versus expenses.  So write down that figure that you want to make as a bare minimum on a monthly basis and you have your first goal set. Then figure out how much more it would take to give you a more comfortable life style on a routine basis. That is your goal to push towards once you are consistently making the minimum goal. Having that minimum goal keeps you focused during the month and gives you a kick in the backside if you aren’t anywhere near that goal and it is the 25th of the month. Then you ask yourself where you went wrong, too much TV, not enough promoting, lousy inventory, poorly written descriptions and titles and poor photography?
 
Along with how much money you want to make, decide if you really want to have a small business or just a hobby to make a little money. Be honest with yourself. If you don’t think you can be a success and just figure that you will try to make some money out of a hobby, you won’t be making much. You won’t get the full tax benefits and write offs that the IRS allows. But if you say you want a business and treat it like a hobby then you are a hobby seller. To be frank, this blog is being written to benefit those that actually want to start an on-line business.
 
If the thought of having your own business, scares you silly, that is okay. I felt the same way. You may need to find a mentor that will encourage you to take the chance. More about mentors later in another post, but a good idea now is to be looking for one that won’t tell you all your ideas are marvelous even if they aren’t nor do you want one that will put down everything you say.
 
Are you desperate for money so see selling on-line as a quick and easy way to round up money? Sorry, but for the most part that isn’t going to work very well for most people unless they are about to lose their home that is filled with expensive stuff that you might be able to raise needed funds by selling off all your excess stuff. Otherwise, the people that I see that jump into selling on-line through sheer desperation have multiple problems getting a store started. The money won’t come in like you want and think it should. Depending on the selling venue, some sellers don’t get their first sale for a month or more.
 
Until my next post, write down why you want to sell on-line and figure out your sales goals of the minimum you want to make monthly once your venue is up and running well. Also, how much do you really want to make to give yourself a more comfortable life.
 
Tip of the Day: Talk to as many people as possible that sell on line to find out what they sell; how their sales doing, why they are selling on line, what lead them into it and ask them if they sell in a niche and why. Keep your ears open and you can learn so much. Of the people that you talk to, think are any of them good mentor material?

 

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