HOW TO CHOOSE A COMPANY THAT WILL STILL BE AROUND AT PAYDAY!

Written by Judy Thompson


Copyright 2005 Judy Thompson

It happens over and over again. It has happened for many years with store-front businesses and mail-order opportunities. And it seems to be even worse with internet companies.

What is it? The “here today and gone tomorrow” syndrome! Now you see it … and doesn’t it look good? Now it’s gone … it flat disappeared, just like magic! What happened?

Possibly our “instant-thinking society” is largely to blame, along with a mixture of need and greed. We want fast foods, quick lubes, and instant cash!

And when it comes to making money onrepparttar internet, we sure want to believerepparttar 138340 promises of instant success. Its easier to jump in with both feet and think we will get rich with no recruiting and no work, than it is to do our “homework” and dig intorepparttar 138341 facts aboutrepparttar 138342 offer. Hmmm….maybe some of these “opportunities” actually resemble a lottery.

In reality, what all too often happens, is thatrepparttar 138343 so-called “opportunity” was hype andrepparttar 138344 company fails. As people begin to realize that they are not making money, and, perhaps,repparttar 138345 products are pretty much worthless, they start dropping out. Its like a domino effect…the people onrepparttar 138346 bottom quit, thenrepparttar 138347 next group that is now onrepparttar 138348 bottom quit, and this continues until so few people are left, thatrepparttar 138349 company can’t stay in business. If you happen to be an affiliate for that short-term company, you get burned!

What do you need to know to prevent this from happening to you?

You should start by finding out aboutrepparttar 138350 company that you hope will pay you “nice bonus checks” some day. Ifrepparttar 138351 info is not in their literature, ask questions.

I. How long hasrepparttar 138352 company been in business? Well over 90% of new companies will not survive evenrepparttar 138353 first two years! You need to acknowledgerepparttar 138354 fact that if you choose to join one ofrepparttar 138355 “hot new ground floor” opportunities, no matter how good a promoter you have been, ifrepparttar 138356 company fails, you fail, too! Here’s a warning sign to heed: if a promoter tells you that you “need to get in early” or you will lose out, don’t even take a second look!

II. Take a good look atrepparttar 138357 product line. Would you even consider purchasingrepparttar 138358 products for yourself if you did not have a promise of making money? Arerepparttar 138359 products good enough that you would be glad to see your friends use them, even though your friends may have no interest in your business opportunity? Personally, I sometimes order nutrition products from companies simply because I want their products, but do not want to pursue their business opportunity.

The Ecommerce Business Plan

Written by Ray Yee


Simply put, business plans can make or break your business. Starting a Drop Ship business online is no different from starting a traditional non-online business. Withrepparttar strong emphasis individuals place on writing business plans for starting up non-internet-based companies, it is equally crucial to prepare a business plan for your online business.

A business plan serves many important purposes forrepparttar 138339 online business. First, becauserepparttar 138340 business plan has a detailed list ofrepparttar 138341 tasks to undertake, it is a call to action for you to promote your business actively and not procrastinate on your marketing efforts. Second, it provides a blueprint that describes your company effectively:repparttar 138342 market,repparttar 138343 products andrepparttar 138344 steps you need for effective marketing. This serves to guide your business throughrepparttar 138345 months ahead.

Business plans normally comprise of five sections:

1) The Objectives. This section will describerepparttar 138346 objectives forrepparttar 138347 venture, andrepparttar 138348 mission statement that definesrepparttar 138349 online business. It states bothrepparttar 138350 financial and strategic objectives and is normally about one page long. There should be a concise description ofrepparttar 138351 Drop Ship business atrepparttar 138352 start. A brief example:

‘Magical Stores Online is an internet company that provides quality tools and resources for magic tricks. We aim to consistently provide magicians with reliable tools for conducting magic tricks, and also accurate information and guides on how to properly performrepparttar 138353 magic tricks with our tools. In our first year online, our target is to have U.S. $400,000 in revenues and $100,000 in profits. This can be achieved by attracting an average of about 5000 visitors to our website every month through effective internet marketing. Our strategy is to attract recurring traffic to our website by continually updatingrepparttar 138354 useful resources and information on our website. Magicians will constantly return for more useful tips on magic tricks. This cuts our marketing costs drastically and adds to our profit margin.’

2) The Executive summary. The executive summary should contain a few important details. It should outlinerepparttar 138355 basic model ofrepparttar 138356 company, howrepparttar 138357 business functions,repparttar 138358 market environment, and alsorepparttar 138359 business opportunity inrepparttar 138360 market. A continuation fromrepparttar 138361 previous example:

‘Magical Stores Online is a retailer of magic products onrepparttar 138362 internet. We specialize in card and coin tricks and stage magic, and classify our products according to age group, skill level, features, andrepparttar 138363 occasion they are used for. Magicians can browserepparttar 138364 product catalogue on our website and buy their products with a shopping cart software. They can choose to pay either by credit cards or by checks. We use a third party credit card merchant to process our payments, hence eliminatingrepparttar 138365 need to have a merchant account ourselves. A profit is realized whenever a sale is made, because we obtain our products at a wholesale price and we sell them at a retail price. Since our supplier, Company XYZ, drop shipsrepparttar 138366 products directly torepparttar 138367 customers’ address, we do not need to hold any inventory. Our market comprises of magicians of any age group who specialize in card and coin tricks and stage magic. The opportunity lies inrepparttar 138368 internet as a marketing medium for magic products. Sincerepparttar 138369 rise ofrepparttar 138370 internet inrepparttar 138371 mid 1990s, we find thatrepparttar 138372 major magic product retailers do not userepparttar 138373 internet effectively to market their products. With effective internet marketing skills, we believe that we can reach a wider audience thanrepparttar 138374 other major players, thus claiming a large market share.’

*Note that in a real business plan,repparttar 138375 business owner should aim to provide a more detailed version thanrepparttar 138376 examples given above. The examples here only serve to illustrate an overview of whatrepparttar 138377 basic business plan should encompass.

3) Marketing Strategies. In this section, you will describerepparttar 138378 steps you intend to take in order to market your business effectively onrepparttar 138379 internet. There are a few basic marketing methods available onrepparttar 138380 internet. Mentioned below are three ofrepparttar 138381 most popular methods.

- Email Marketing. Ezines and newsletters are powerful tools. It is simplyrepparttar 138382 most cost-effective form of marketing onrepparttar 138383 internet. Sending out email promotions or newsletters to your subscriber base costs virtually nothing, except forrepparttar 138384 time you spend on writing your newsletter. Withrepparttar 138385 web form on your website, you can capturerepparttar 138386 names and email addresses ofrepparttar 138387 customers who subscribed to your newsletter. I do not recommend that you send your subscribers with product promotions regularly, but you should continually provide them with useful tips and information. In this way, you establish your credibility as an expert and maintain a strong relationship with your customers, instead of appearing as someone just out to make money. Promotions for your products should only be sent out about once or twice a month.

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