deleted

[haosmark]

removed

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[PatrickP]

I don't see anything about testing the products to see if they would sell before doing any of this.

Did you do any sales testing?

 

[Pinnacle]

I remember doing everything you have done when I had my first business.

I second PatrickP, though. Does anyone want what you're selling?

 

[LamboMP]

All I read here is a bunch of busy work done before any real action is taken.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[haosmark]

There are plenty of people and businesses that sell same category of products. It will sell.

All I read here is a bunch of busy work done before any real action is taken.

Progress thread. I posted where I'm at and asked for advice. Busy work or not, it's all progress the way I see it.

 

[LamboMP]

how many customers do you have? How many sales? I'm with PatrickP, you are focusing on all the wrong things.

 

[haosmark]

I must have misinterpreted the purpose of this sub forum. MOD, please feel free to delete my thread.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[PatrickP]

You can delete it yourself. Just click on Edit in the bottom right corner of your first post.

 

[Mike39]

I must have misinterpreted the purpose of this sub forum. MOD, please feel free to delete my thread.

You didn't misinterpret what the sub form was for, progress threads are all about making progress on your business. You got the feedback you were looking for, the fist thing you should be perusing when you start a business is sales, all the website building, business registering and busy work can come later.

You got what you wanted, if you want a lot of "ra, ra, your doing great" posts, come back with sales and you will get PLENTY, until then, a lot of advice can be a hard pill to swallow, but people who post are only trying to help you from their experieces

 

[theag]

You didn't misinterpret the subforum. They just advised you to focus more on the parts of your business that actually make you money, instead of the back-office. I'd recommend you don't delete this thread, but maybe talk a bit about how you chose your product, how did you find out there is a need for it? Did you confirm that this need exists and that your potential customers are willing to buy your product to solve it? You can answers these questions by talking to your potential customers, if you haven't already.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Determined2012]

Give everyone FREE shipping.

 

[The-J]

Geez, I came to this thread and I see everyone else has beaten me to what I wanted to say.

My biggest mistake in business was taking the risk (getting a license, registering the business, things like that) before getting a customer. I'm currently running a business without sales.

I don't want anyone else to make that mistake.

You live and you learn. Focus all your efforts into getting a customer.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I'd recommend you don't delete this thread,

Too late... but based upon the responses thereafter we can assume it's a lot of non-sales producing busy work; business cards, website logos, etc.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[haosmark]

My biggest mistake in business was taking the risk (getting a license, registering the business, things like that) before getting a customer. I'm currently running a business without sales.

Isn't this something you must have in order to be able to deal with legitimate distributors? On top of that you absolutely must have Certificate of Authority to collect sales tax.
There's no risk in registering a dba, getting ein and certificate of authority; it's a really simple process.

I'm not really hoping to have a customer base for a good 3 to 4 month, because it will take time for me to learn viable ppc tactics and build SEO campaigns. Wednesday, I'm getting my first batch of merchandise. Since my site is still being developed, it's a perfect time for me to start building experience with ebay, amazon and the whole shipping thing.
In the end, it's only money that's at risk here. My options are: 1) save it and never know what could have been 2) take few trips to a strip club 3) Start a business.

MJ DeMarco, there are plenty of threads out here that mentioned nothing about sales in their initial posts, surprisingly they passed for a progress. The response that I got was, "meh so what" and no one cared to answer the two questions I had, thus I choose to remove it.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

there are plenty of threads out here that mentioned nothing about sales in their initial posts, surprisingly they passed for a progress. The response that I got was, "meh so what" and no one cared to answer the two questions I had, thus I choose to remove it.

Just because the response you got was negative, doesn't mean it should have been removed. There is learning value in these threads, even if the reaction you received wasn't what you expected.

Isn't this something you must have in order to be able to deal with legitimate distributors? On top of that you absolutely must have Certificate of Authority to collect sales tax.

Yes, probably so. (Sorry I don't have access to the original post.)

For starting entrepreneurs w/o concept or business validation quite yet, I always recommend a generalized structure with a generalized name -- that way, if (or when) you have to shift gears, you can do so without the hassle of changing names, registrations, tax forms, etc.

For example ... if you have all the proper licensing and tax registrations for "Diamond Enterprises, LLC" (just a name I threw off the top of my head) you can use that to shell your business activities until you find the concept/business validation you need. Diamond Enterprises could be anything! Websites. Media. Apps. Publishing. Inventing. Asset Mgmt.

Conversely, if you set up "Diamond Realty, LLC" -- you are confined to a specific space (in this case, real estate) and if you need to shift gears, you probably have to start a new LLC and all the other non-sales activities that go with it. You don't want "Diamond Realty" owning an app development company.

Would love to see the original post if you still have it.

 

[haosmark]

Sadly I don't have a copy of the post, but it was a step by step action plan to a full business set up with questions in regards to how people take care of shipping and collection of taxes. It's not that I found the response negative, it's that people didn't see any value in what I posted and chose not to read far enough to get to my questions. So I figured, ok, I'll just keep it to myself and be on my way then.

The thing is, why do I need to test the ground selling an item or two, just to see if it works when there are successful businesses who already did it for me? I'm not here to build the universe from scratch, if they could do it, so can I.

Anyway, I spent all day yesterday researching the tax topic and the end result I guess is passable, but not ideal. My decision is to charge items shipped to NY a flat 7% sales tax fee (lowest NY rate), then calculate the difference and send the balance to the state of NY at tax time.
Wednesday, once my shipment is in my possession, I'll be working on accurate product dimensions and figuring out the best way to get shipping supplies. If anyone cares to share about their shipping technique, please, feel free to share, I'm all ears!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[leono]

The thing is, why do I need to test the ground selling an item or two, just to see if it works when there are successful businesses who already did it for me? I'm not here to build the universe from scratch, if they could do it, so can I.

Just because other people are doing it "succesfully" doesn't necessarily mean you can too. There are literally millions of singers, actors, and people in MLMs not making any money for a variety of factors not limited to the ridiculously high levels of competition. Produce the first sale to make sure the idea works. If it turns out you can't really make the idea work then you can simply just cut your losses. What you're doing is ... well ... wasting a lot of time (and money) on things that aren't important. No sales, no business is the general philosopy are here. Make that first sale and people here will be excited and happy for you, but not before.

 

[AllenCrawley]

I wish you hadn't deleted your original post.

There may be others selling what you plan to sell but why would customers buy from you? Higher quality? Lower pricing? Superior customer service? Better selection? Faster shipping? What is going to separate you from these competitors. This is why so many are going to ask about your sales vs sales of your competitor. You need to know that YOU can make the sales.

 

[haosmark]

Just because other people are doing it "succesfully" doesn't necessarily mean you can too. There are literally millions of singers, actors, and people in MLMs not making any money for a variety of factors not limited to the ridiculously high levels of competition. Produce the first sale to make sure the idea works. If it turns out you can't really make the idea work then you can simply just cut your losses. What you're doing is ... well ... wasting a lot of time (and money) on things that aren't important. No sales, no business is the general philosopy are here. Make that first sale and people here will be excited and happy for you, but not before.

Several companies didn't even want to consider talking to me until I showed them proof that my website is in development (they don't even sell to ebayers or amazon merchants), then I had to provide provide them with my resale number and a copy of my business license. What product are you going to be testing if no one will let you in B2B world without those things?
Can someone explain this to me? What do you do, how do you do it? Do you buy a widget for $50 from Amazon, then sell it for $50 + the cost of shipping on eBay or Amazon and call it a test?
This is a real question. Please, someone explain this to me, because I just don't see how this would work.

AllenCrawley, you are definitely correct. My aim is to provide only the most well designed merch in my line of business aimed at a specific niche. Competitive pricing, good customer service paired with fast response, and with experience I will of course tweak my approach.

Worst case scenario, I end up with loads of accounting, tax and business experience, slap it on my resume and increase my value to employers; and all for a couple of thousand dollars.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[biophase]

Anyway, I spent all day yesterday researching the tax topic and the end result I guess is passable, but not ideal. My decision is to charge items shipped to NY a flat 7% sales tax fee (lowest NY rate), then calculate the difference and send the balance to the state of NY at tax time.
Wednesday, once my shipment is in my possession, I'll be working on accurate product dimensions and figuring out the best way to get shipping supplies. If anyone cares to share about their shipping technique, please, feel free to share, I'm all ears!

Sales tax is not a big deal. It should be based on your business location, just collect your city and state tax from in state buyers.
Shipping is not a big deal either. Just buy some boxes from Uline and package peanuts, get a Fedex account.

I didn't read your original post but I think I see what others are saying now. You are worried about tax and shipping where you should be concentrating on sales and your website.

Can someone explain this to me? What do you do, how do you do it? Do you buy a widget for $50 from Amazon, then sell it for $50 + the cost of shipping on eBay or Amazon and call it a test? This is a real question. Please, someone explain this to me, because I just don't see how this would work.

Without knowing your product it's hard to say. If there are other stores selling your product I guess you don't need to test the need or demand. What you probably should test is your PPC cost and maybe SEO work. What is your cost per click for your terms? Are you going to be competitively priced or more expensive than other stores?

 

[AllenCrawley]

Several companies didn't even want to consider talking to me until I showed them proof that my website is in development (they don't even sell to ebayers or amazon merchants), then I had to provide provide them with my resale number and a copy of my business license. What product are you going to be testing if no one will let you in B2B world without those things?

Yes you will need these things but do this exactly as MJ suggested....

For starting entrepreneurs w/o concept or business validation quite yet, I always recommend a generalized structure with a generalized name -- that way, if (or when) you have to shift gears, you can do so without the hassle of changing names, registrations, tax forms, etc.

For example ... if you have all the proper licensing and tax registrations for "Diamond Enterprises, LLC" (just a name I threw off the top of my head) you can use that to shell your business activities until you find the concept/business validation you need. Diamond Enterprises could be anything! Websites. Media. Apps. Publishing. Inventing. Asset Mgmt.

That's exactly what we did. All of which took about an hour of my time to do.

There are several ways you test to see if you can sell. I'm sure others will chime in on this but you can do a PPC test. It can go something like this. Set up a landing page for one of the products or line of products you plan to sell. Include photos, the sales copy, why to purchase from you, etc on this page. You can use a freebie site like weebly or wordpress.com for this. Include a buy now button on this page. Install google analytics. Now when someone clicks the buy now button direct them to a page that explains the product is currently not available or something to that effect. Remember this is just to prove you can sell. Google analytics will show you how many actual clicks that button received - which for all intent is a "purchase". Determine ahead of time how many buy now button clicks is viable proof that you can sell. This could have been done before anything else to prove to yourself you can sell this product or line of products. Then you can move forward. A progress thread started with an explanation of how you determined there is indeed a market for your offering, how you will be different from any competitors and how you verified you can get sales would be met with a greater positive response.

 

[Deanna]

There are several ways you test to see if you can sell. I'm sure others will chime in on this but you can do a PPC test. It can go something like this. Set up a landing page for one of the products or line of products you plan to sell. Include photos, the sales copy, why to purchase from you, etc on this page. You can use a freebie site like weebly or wordpress.com for this. Include a buy now button on this page. Install google analytics. Now when someone clicks the buy now button direct them to a page that explains the product is currently not available or something to that effect. Remember this is just to prove you can sell. Google analytics will show you how many actual clicks that button received - which for all intent is a "purchase". Determine ahead of time how many buy now button clicks is viable proof that you can sell. This could have been done before anything else to prove to yourself you can sell this product or line of products. Then you can move forward. A progress thread started with an explanation of how you determined there is indeed a market for your offering, how you will be different from any competitors and how you verified you can get sales would be met with a greater positive response.

HOW do you do that...determine how many buys are enough?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[haosmark]

There are several ways you test to see if you can sell. I'm sure others will chime in on this but you can do a PPC test. It can go something like this. Set up a landing page for one of the products or line of products you plan to sell. Include photos, the sales copy, why to purchase from you, etc on this page. You can use a freebie site like weebly or wordpress.com for this. Include a buy now button on this page. Install google analytics. Now when someone clicks the buy now button direct them to a page that explains the product is currently not available or something to that effect. Remember this is just to prove you can sell. Google analytics will show you how many actual clicks that button received - which for all intent is a "purchase". Determine ahead of time how many buy now button clicks is viable proof that you can sell. This could have been done before anything else to prove to yourself you can sell this product or line of products. Then you can move forward. A progress thread started with an explanation of how you determined there is indeed a market for your offering, how you will be different from any competitors and how you verified you can get sales would be met with a greater positive response.

This is a very interesting approach. I like it, however I read a lot about people not being able to convert clicks for months, and only later they would start making sales.

I completely forgot about starting to draft my PPC! It will average at about $0.30

HOW do you do that...determine how many buys are enough?

Also a good point.

 

[Deanna]

This is a very interesting approach. I like it, however I read a lot about people not being able to convert clicks for months, and only later they would start making sales.

I completely forgot about starting to draft my PPC! It will average at about $0.30


Also a good point.

Don't panic...I just started teaching myself adwords and analytics a couple weeks ago...over the last week I'm averaging 1 "buy" a day...which I think is excellent for what I'm doing...but I'm hoping someone who actually knows what their doing will tell me if I'm right or delusional. Lol

 

[biophase]

This is a very interesting approach. I like it, however I read a lot about people not being able to convert clicks for months, and only later they would start making sales.

Why would that be? Does the consumer know he clicked on your PPC ad and that you are in your the first month? Most likely the reason is these people's websites got better with experience and that's why they started converting.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Determined2012]

I think you determine how many "buys are enough" when you are able to sale enough of your product to past the point of breaking even, getting to the point of making a profit.

(At least this is what I would use to determine this)

I could be wrong... But if your product can not make a profit, maybe it not viable...

Unless you have the type of business where you go in anticipating a couple of years (or some other pre specified time frame) of being in the red before you establish and position yourself to turn a profit... I think Amazon or Ebay started out this way.

 

[Deanna]

I think you determine how many "buys are enough" when you are able to sale enough of your product to past the point of breaking even, getting to the point of making a profit.

(At least this is what I would use to determine this)

I could be wrong... But if your product can not make a profit, maybe it not viable...

Unless you have the type of business where you go in anticipating a couple of years (or some other pre specified time frame) of being in the red before you establish and position yourself to turn a profit... I think Amazon or Ebay started out this way.

Mine is subscription based...so profit as in monthly subscriptions paying for the database creation? For the test phase I just want to know it has enough value TO create it...at what point do I know that? Thanks!

 

[haosmark]

Don't panic...I just started teaching myself adwords and analytics a couple weeks ago...over the last week I'm averaging 1 "buy" a day...

That's really good to hear!!!

Most likely the reason is these people's websites got better with experience and that's why they started converting.

Yeah, that must be it. I mean there just has to be a starting point, and it's never at the top.

I think you determine how many "buys are enough" when you are able to sale enough of your product to past the point of breaking even, getting to the point of making a profit.

Yeah, but advertising is expensive. Essentially you'll be spending money on projected sales and the more you spend the higher the break-even point.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[AllenCrawley]

HOW do you do that...determine how many buys are enough?

Well, for me that would depend on the product, the demand (exact match searches), visitor to buyer conversion of your test salespage, etc. So, let's say you have driven 1,000 visitors to the page and you have 10 "sales". What is the cost of those 1,000 visitors and what is your profit for that those sales? Are you profitable?

Or you can pull a number out of thin air. I watched a mixergy interview with a woman that did a PPC test similar to the one I explained earlier. She determined if she could sell a few of her feathers over a short period it would be worth pursuing. She "sold" 15 in 4 hours. Now with her she was actually testing a product no one was yet selling but had 30,000 global monthly searches for... "feather hair extensions". However, she quickly decided selling 15 in 4 hours was worth pursuing. She stopped her adwords campaign and got to work sourcing the feathers.