Brainstorming an Idea
August 6th, 2008
Like most of us we all want to be our own boss and make tons of money. We all have that common goal but what differientiates us is how we get there. Creating a business idea may seem tough but it could be easy if you just think. Most of the time your “idea” for your business is right infront of you but you just don’t realize it.
I can almost guarentee you that if you just sit down and brainstorm for about 15 minutes you can come up with an idea. All you need to do is think about what you love to do and what you see yourself doing down the road. You want to run a business that you enjoy becuase if you don’t enjoy what you are doing you will rarely succeed.
Once you have a list of all the things you love to do, analyze each one and think about how you can create a business out of it.
For an example if you enjoy working on computers in your free time you can easily create a business out of that. You can open a computer tech shop right in your own home or even open up your own place right in town.
Ideas are everywhere and most of the time they are right infront of you. If you come up with an idea you will never know whether it will be successful unless you make the idea come to life. Remember that you don’t need a new idea to create a successful business.
Steven McDonald - Founder/Owner
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Finding a Business Partner
August 6th, 2008
his can be a tricky but sometimes a very rewarding task. But first off you need to decide a few things before you go out on the hunt.
1. Do you really need a partner to achieve your goal of success? If the answer is “Yes” then keep reading.
2. Why is it that you need a partner? If you can answer this then you will have a head start as far as requirements go when finding a partner. You will want to look for someone that is very knowledgeable about the business you are going into and you will also want to look for someone that can offer something that you can’t.
Finding someone as dedicated as you with the drive and passion you have for your business might be a fairly tough task. You must create a specific list of requirements so you don’t let yourself take on the wrong person. Remember if you hand over 50% of your business to someone else you probably won’t be able to take it back if the partnership doesn’t work out.
Posting on the forums looking for a business partner might not be your best bet as many people that reply might not have the intent you are looking for. A while back I posted on a forum looking for a business partner and every single person that replied either had no knowledge of the business I was in or they were all talk. If you do find a potential business partner online I wouldn’t hand over a portion of your business right away, make them earn it. Give them a bunch of tasks to do and see how they perform, this is like a test and it will show their true knowledge and capabilities.
I would highly recommend finding a business partner by finding someone you already know. If you can find someone you already know then you are ahead of the game. Becuase you will most likely already trust this person and you probably would work well with them.
Always remember never just give away a portion of your business to anyone, make sure you trust them and make sure you know they can handle what they are getting themselves into.
Steven McDonald - Founder/Owner
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Dropshipping: The Good, The Bad
August 6th, 2008
For those who don’t know, dropshipping is when the wholesaler ships directly to the customer. The retailer, usually an ecommerce based business, sells products that they don’t physically own, when a sale occurs the retailer orders from the wholesaler and the wholesaler ships directly to the customer. Most of the time the wholesaler will put the return address of the retailer on the box to appear as if the package came straight from the retailer.
Dropshipping at first glance may seem to be the key to success but there is two sides to it. A few years back I setup an ecommerce business selling tools and hardware, at first it seemed like it would be an instant success but later I came to conclude that it was a disaster from the start. I had these tools dropshipped from a wholesaler out in California, I order a couple “test” products just to test the quality and to see how they package and ship. If I can remember right I ordered a hammer and some other misc accessories, I was fairly impressed with the entire process so I moved ahead and setup a website. The wholesaler whom I was purchasing from set me up with my website for a couple hundred bucks, so within about a week or so I was completely up and running. I started promoting using google advertising but the sales just weren’t coming in. So I decided to see who else was selling the same products and to see what they were marking up their products. I came to find out that there were thousands of sites selling the same products, this is when the disaster started. I realized that I couldn’t compete with the competition just because of how flooded the market was. Through my research I also learned that there was a lot of complaints against my wholesaler regarding the quality and safety of their products. This is when I knew I had to close down the business, I couldn’t sell a product I didn’t believe in. Sure that ecommerce business of mine wasn’t a success but I sure did learn a lot from the experience.
The Good: Well even though my dropshipping experience was a failure I still see benefits in the dropshipping process. First off it reduces a good chunk of your start up costs. You have no inventory which means you don’t need to rent or purchase a warehouse, all you really need is a simple office. You also don’t need to package and ship which with a lot of orders can take time.
The Bad: The biggest thing with dropshipping is that you don’t have any control of the shipping process. You can’t put any flyers or catalogues in with the shipment nor can you put in a receipt with the actual amount the customer paid. You degrade your brand when doing this, the customer just receives what they ordered in a box, nothing more and nothing less.
As for finding a reliable and trustworthy dropshipper now that’s the hard part. What I’ve learned is that finding a good dropshipper through a search engine just isn’t going to work. If you’ve googled it then I’m sure millions of other have too and that’s what you need to watch out for, if there is hundreds of sites buying from a specific dropshipper then I wouldn’t even bother with that dropshipper. You need to find one that not many people buy from, which means you have a little work to do. If you find a wholesaler and their site doesn’t say they dropship it wouldn’t hurt to give them a call because you just never know. Maybe they will setup something especially for you, and if they do you’ve got your edge.
If you only read one line of this blog post read this one: ALWAYS DO YOUR RESEARCH!
Steven McDonald - Founder/Owner
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