When I try to mention this finding to people in my local business community I hear things like “who cares, it’s all a write off anyway” or “you should buy American”(as if these office superstores are all loaded with American made products.) These are both some of worst excuses for spending way too much money for no reason I have ever heard. It is all a write off but saving several hundred dollars a month on office products allows more flexibility in other areas of my business. As far as old “Buy American” thing, this one makes me laugh; I would literally have to hire a full time employee to determine what is made here and what isn’t. I usually just respond with something like “I’ll buy everything American if you start buying American gasoline or start riding your bicycle.” I am as American as next person whose ancestors came over on Mayflower but bottom line is that when I am done with my office supply purchases now I have a lot of money left over.

Don’t get me wrong, I still use office superstores for certain items when I don’t have time to go into a department store (they are convenient) and for one or two small items it is worth paying more. When I need to fill my supply cabinet, on other hand, I will surely take a trip to Wal-mart, K-mart or even Target to save literally a bundle of cash. I simply don’t care how neatly organized office goliaths are because with a little more effort you can find everything you need for your office and a little more while saving hundreds of dollars at a department store.

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Step 3: Choose one item and act. I get asked every day "why do some eBusinesses succeed where others never get off ground?" The answer is they take full advantage of leverage they can get out of their intellectual property. By choosing one item on your list to repurpose, and following through on it, you don't just create new products for your online shelves (a great thing in and of itself.) Simply by applying concept of repurposing, you increase value of time you spent creating your original offering.

Your time and energy are now "worth" more than before you read this lesson.

Fabulous, isn't it?

For all those who are dabbling in online world, but want to go big...good for you for starting a few things. You're right on track! Now your job is to repackage what you've got and serve your customers in as many ways as possible. Not everyone who goes out for breakfast wants their eggs scrambled. As an online business owner, your customers are waiting for you to offer them choice that suits them best, all way from sunny side up to eggs benedict and back again.

Repackaging existing intellectual property for long term online success has such a strong track record, I'm hard pressed to think of a truly successful online business that doesn't do it. So once you get hang of it, try going one step further and make sure new projects are developed with a good "repackageability quotient" from start. Every new product you create can and should have three or more uses. When that starts happening naturally, you'll know you've fully integrated this strategy into your online biz.