How to Sell to a Retailer

Selling to a customer is not the same as selling to a retailer or store owner. If you want your products sold in other stores, you need to remember that buyers/retailers/store owners are not primarily interested in your product; rather, they want the profit that your product can bring.

Here are some things to consider when dealing with retailers:

• Know your demographics: who will your products appeal to and who would buy your products. If there is a match between your market and retailer, or if your product has a wide appeal, then you stand a greater chance of making the sale.
• What are the key features of your product: how does your product work; what makes it stand out from the competitors; what need or want does your product address. Help the retailer understand how to sell your product.
• Check your price points: what are the prices of comparable products; if your price is higher than competitors, why and what additional value does your product offer
• Show the retailer how to sell your product: how do you plan to merchandise your product; how will its packaging stand out from the other products on the shelves; how much space does your product require on the shelf

Earning Online By Not Doing Anything

Someone asked if it is possible to earn online through advertising by simply creating a website and then not really doing anything after that.

Don't we all want that -- to earn on autopilot without doing anything at all?

One of the first mistakes is thinking that you can create a website, leave it and not do anything yet continue to earn from advertising. I know of sites "abandoned" by their owners that continue to earn good advertising income, but these are sites where some great work was done early on (i.e. get optimized for the search engines and links developed).

I think it is possible if you have a page or a few pages of REALLY COMPELLING content that have legs -- meaning without any work in terms of adding new content or promoting the page, you can still get constant stream of traffic and people are responding to the ads. This is possible if you have a viral website that attracts visitors like magnet who then share it to others. But that is not easy to pull off.

With millions of websites out there, your first work is to make people find your site. You cannot assume that you simply create a website, forget about it and people will find it -- that's not how the Web works. Without traffic, you won't have visitors to view or click on the ads -- which means no income

When you create a site, you need to think of two major things:

• content creation
• traffic generation

If you don't want work in terms of content (meaning you don't write the articles or you don't hire writers), then do something like MySpace or Digg or Craigslist where it is the users who actually generate the content. But even then, there's a lot of work involved in terms of cleaning up the content and keeping the community in check and ensuring that the right technology can support the activities of the site.

If you want to earn online income, then you need to work on it. Maybe not "working hard" but more by "working smart."

Balancing Home Business and Family

I previously wrote about the how to survive life as a work at home mom , which got a great comment from a reader.

Today, an article at Lousiana's ShreveportTimes.com focused on the same topic as well, with some additional tips on how to balance home business and family:

• Prepare a realistic schedule -- and stick to it.
• Write down your priorities for each day.
• Keep work and family commitments separate
• Know your boundaries
• Choose the right kind of home business, as not every business can be managed well from your home if you have a family

You can read more tips on this topic from our Your Home Business and Family section

How Are You Coping with the Economic Downturn?

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is the non profit economic think tank who has the distinction of making the official announcement that we are in a recession. While Martin Feldstein's group is yet to announce that we are in a recession, signs seem to be pointing that we are in a very bad downturn, if not a recession.

The stock market is going crazy; the gas prices is through the roof; foreclosures are sprouting like mushrooms; consumers are holding off spending, and so on.

The question is: are you and your business prepared for a recession?

Read some tips on how to survive a downturn . Ride out the tough times with these strategies. Recession or no recession, you can also avoid catastrophe in your business and break the chain of mistakes to prevent business disaster . Also learn some proactive measures to bullet-proof your business.

On a personal level, if you are concerned with your retirement savings, be sure to protect your nest egg.

Event: Smart & Simple Strategies for Startup Success

Microsoft Office Live is organizing an event for women entrepreneurs entitled Vision to Venture: Smart & Simple Strategies for Startup Success . This event will be held in the following cities:

• St. Louis = April 2
• San Diego = April 15
• Miami = April 22
• Austin = April 24
• Seattle = May 9

If you live anywhere near these areas, you may want to check this out. Registration is free anyway. If you cannot join in person, you can register for the free, on-demand Webcast - available in May.

Choosing the Right Product Lines

When you open a store, whether brick and mortar or online, you start by thinking your store's concept. What is your store going to be? What image do you want to convey? What type of consumer do you want to reach? Then you move on to what products will you sell to convey the concept and image you have in mind.

Or at least that's how it is supposed to be.

I came across someone who wanted to open an online store selling military coins and eco-friendly stuff for babies and adults.

My first reaction was "Whaaaaat?" Military coins and eco-friendly items do not match at all -- they have two different markets, where a buyer of military coins may not even give a hoot about buying eco-friendly items. They are just so different from one another where it doesn't make sense to combine the two together.

It's one thing to launch a store where you offer anything and everything for one group of audience (e.g. store for women where you offer shoes, clothes, accessories, makeup, etc); or you are everything and anything for everyone like Amazon.com. But to offer two mismatched product lines with no common elements together is just courting for disaster.

When choosing the product lines to sell, the rule of thumb is simple: does it make sense to the customer?

If it makes sense to the customer, then you've won half the battle. The last thing you want is for a customer to go into your store, especially online, and get confused as to what you are really all about. You want products that your target market is interested in, so you won't have to work twice as hard and spend twice as much to reach two different clientele.

Take pregnancy mom clothes and baby clothes and baby accessories -- those two work well together. Your client -- the pregnant mom -- is highly likely to be interested in baby stuffs. So with one customer, you have a higher chance of getting more per sales from that one single person

If you sell eco friendly stuff for babies and adults, extend your product line to eco friendly and baby friendly home furnishings. Or even eco-friendly home cleaning products. You want to get more from each customer that goes into your store to help maximize your marketing expenses. A customer who wants eco friendly items for themselves and their babies is more likely to be interested in eco friendly items for the homes. If a person can buy 5 items from your store instead of just 1, then so much the better!

If you want to sell two mismatched items, it is better to create separate stores for them, and not shove them together in one store in an effort to save on domain name registration, hosting or other online store operating expenses.

Otherwise, you'll end up confusing the customer: what is your store really about? Why would I buy from you when I don't know what you are really selling? And you dont want that. This is basically the essence of branding, where you convey to your customers who you are and what you are about.

Starting an Auction Web Site

eBay's huge success can inspire others to replicate its business model and start their own auction site.

Alas, it is hard to follow eBay's model where anything and everything can be traded on their site (within their guidelines, of course). Even Yahoo Auction, with all their marketing might and technology, can't even hold a candle to eBay. None of the big auction sites - from Ubid to Overstock Auctions -- can really claim to have anywhere near the customer base of eBay.

If you are thinking of starting an auction website, the key to success is FOCUS. Do not go head-on with the giant that is eBay -- if you want your auction site to survive. I've seen some small entrepreneurs start an auction site, attracting very few sellers and buyers their sites look almost pityful. You'll stand a better chance of succeeding if you focus on a particular niche.

Look at the wine arena for example. You have Winebid.com, CellarExchange.com, and other auction sites that are doing pretty well.

Think of a sector or a particular audience. For example, Playle.com is a small auction site for vintage postcard collectors.

Then find a good auction software that you can configure and customize to add features you'd like in your auction community. It is best if you yourself is a techie, or can have someone on board who knows how to troubleshoot and configure the software.

Unless you can make the software yourself, expect startup capital to be around $10,000 or more. You'll need robust and scalable hosting, one that can handle 100 to 100,000 users on the fly without crashing -- and those don't come cheap (dedicated servers start at $99 per month and up).

There are very successful niche auction sites out there. Study how they are done, and copy the aspects that worked well for them.

Getting Sick is Not an Option for Solo Entrepreneurs

I have just been released from the hospital for an emergency surgery last Wednesday. Everything went well, and I am now back home recuperating.

But I have not been able to post anything in my blogs, which brings me to the question: If you are hospitalized or get sick, do you have a back up plan for your business? Or will your business take a sick day as well?

Lucky for me, I have several dependable folks helping out with PowerHomeBiz.com and our other sites. But solo entrepreneurs may not have such luck. Imagine if you're a web designer who has committed to a client the completion of their project at a certain date, only to find that you cannot do it because you're in the hospital. Or if you are running an ecommerce store and orders are pouring in, but you can't do anything with fulfillment as you are too sick to do so. Unfortunately, for many of us, no work means no pay.

We don't want to think about getting sick or hospitalized, but it is important to create a back up plan for your business, especially if you are working solo and your family depends on you. Here are some things to consider:

• Run as many processes of your business on auto-pilot as much as possible. An information site or blog earning from Adsense can survive days without getting new content or being updated -- and yet income can still come in. But if you sell advertising or products or services and new orders are coming in, you must at least have an autoresponder telling customers that their order has been received and will be processed within the next two business days (or whatever duration you are comfortable with). That way, your customer can be assured that you have received the order and hopefully processing it.
• Invest in technology. Buy a laptop to allow you work wherever and whenever you need to work -- even in hospitals. More importantly, get a wireless broadband Internet access to allow you to be online anywhere. Verizon Wireless Internet costs about $49 per month -- and in the case of my hospitalization, this service is a definite life saver. These are business expenses so you can deduct these items from your tax bill. Or at least get a smartphone like Blackberry or Palm Treo with Internet and email access so you know what is happening to your business.
• Get a helper. Or at least someone you can rely on who can help things running in your business while you are unable to do so. It can be as simple as your wife or husband calling your clients that you may be a little delayed in fulfilling your obligations to them because you are sick. Or a back up person who can work on your projects for you until you get better (properly compensated, of course). Or even your family members to help pack and ship the items ordered by customers.
• Eat right and be healthy. Of course, the best advice is to make sure you avoid being sick by taking care of yourself. Find ways to release stress from your business. Relax and sleep right.

10 Most (and Least) Profitable Businesses to Start

Forbes.com has made a list of the 10 Most Profitable Businesses to start, which are:

• No. 1: Accounting Services = Average Pretax Margin: 25%
• No. 2: Legal Services = Average Pretax Margin: 21. 6%
• No. 3: Dental Services = Average Pretax Margin: 20.9%
• No. 4: Specialized Design Services = Average Pretax Margin: 17.6%
• No. 5: "Other" Health Practitioners (e.g. Chiropractors, optometrists, podiatrists, physical therapists, speech therapists and mental health professionals) = Average Pretax Margin: 17.5%
• No. 6: Outpatient Care Centers = Average Pretax Margin: 16.9%
• No. 7: Insurance Brokers = Average Pretax Margin: 15.9%
• No. 8: Physicians' Offices = Average Pretax Margin: 15.8%
• No. 9: Medical And Diagnostic Labs = Average Pretax Margin: 15.3%
• No. 10: Depository Credit Intermediation = Average Pretax Margin: 13.6%

What jumps at me from this list is that majority are professional services that mostly require specialized training and education, such as accounting, tax, law, design and medical-related firms. The irony is that medicine related careers are the highest paid careers, and now they're also the most profitable. So if you're a doctor, you can't go wrong whether you are employed by a hospital or running your own practice -- you'll still be very profitable.

The writer explains that the reasons these businesses top the list in terms of profitability are: constant demand and relatively low overhead.

As for the least profitable businesses, this is their top 10:

• No. 1: Community Care Facilities = Average Pretax Margin: -7.2%
• No. 2: "Other Support" Services (e.g. organizing trade shows) = Average Pretax Margin: -2.6%
• No. 3: Beverage Manufacturing = Average Pretax Margin: -2.2%
• No. 4: Real Estate Related Services = Average Pretax Profit: -2.1%
• No. 5: Bakeries And Tortilla Manufacturing = Average Pretax Profit: -0.9%
• No. 6: Amusement and Recreation Services = Average Pretax Profit:% -0.9
• No. 7: Motor Vehicle Parts Manufacturing = Average Pretax Profit:% -0.7
• No. 8: Specialty Retailers = Average Pretax Profit: -0.5%
• No. 9: Beer, Wine And Liquor Retailers = Average Pretax Profit: -0.18%
• No. 10: Travelers' Accommodations = Average Pretax Profit: 0.26%

The reasons given are interesting -- from small retailers lacking the muscle of big retailers to squeeze profit margins from their suppliers to restrictive alcohol sale regulations to continuous capital improvement needs in the case of hotels and travelers' accomodations.

If you're thinking of starting a business, the list is worthwhile to consider.

Can an Entrepreneur Succeed When Focusing on Various Ventures at the Same Time?

Is it wise for an entrepreneur to start several new businesses at the same time?

Someone asked if it is possible to start several ventures simultaneously -- in this person's case, two consulting businesses, an Internet project, and a construction company -- at the same time.

I do run several businesses, but never started them at the same time. I suppose one can do it, but it depends on various factors, such as:

• Your work ethic
• Your level of productivity
• Your capacity to multi-task
• Your resources
• Your knowledge in these businesses

There are people who can do it -- and succeed, but many fail. The question is: can you do it?

You need to ask yourself:

• Do you have money to hire someone and delegate some of the tasks that needs to be done to work on these projects?
• Do you have responsibilities outside of these four projects?
• Do you have a family who may want a portion of your time, as working on 4 different projects at once may mean you need 25 hour workdays?
• How focused are you?
• How well do you manage your time?
• How much are you willing to sacrifice to get these projects off the ground?

It all depends on your willingness to commit and work hard at it. But working on all is EXTREMELY HARD. If you don't have laser like focus and operates on clockwork, or have a family who also wants your time and attention, then it will be hard to start these new businesses at the same time.

In my opinion, it is better to stagger your various projects and focus on one. This way, you can make sure that the first project has started well and is now running smoothly BEFORE moving to another project.

How to Survive Life as a Work at Home Mom

Having a home-based business is a great way for moms to earn money while staying at home. However, the reality is easier said than done. A home-based working mom must be adept in the tricky balancing act of caring for the kids, ensuring the house is in order, and running the business.

I have 3 kids, ranging in age from 7 months to 5 years old -- all needing attention and care of their mom. It is hard to write when my baby wants to be carried, or the older siblings want to play. Harder still to conduct a decent phone conversation when my 3 and 5 year old boys start screaming at each other. Not to mention taking care of the seemingly endless laundry, and other million and one things that needs to be done in the house.

Here are what worked for me to retain my sanity (and actually work) as a home-based working mom:

• Scrunitize your schedule -- and stick to them. The best time for me to work are when my older two boys go to school. My 3-year old who is in pre-school, gets off from school at 11:45 while the eldest at kindergarten goes home at 3 pm. So the window of opportunity for me to work are the 2.5 hours I have after dropping them off to school and picking up my second son from school. That's when I make important calls when the household is quiet. When the two older boys are home, I make sure I have time for them so any work is put aside for later.
• Be prepared to work after everyone has gone off to bed. Thankfully for me, my household is asleep by 8 pm so I have ample time to work in the evenings. I work from 8:30 pm to midnight, while watching my favorite prime time shows. I know of other work at home moms who work from midnight to 3 pm, which I can never do as my brain cells are non-functional at that time.
• Get a babysitter. I survived without a nanny with the first 2 boys. But when my youngest was born, I found it extremely hard to take care of a baby and 2 toddler boys and manage the needs of the household. It was just too much. My nanny comes to our house from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to take care of the baby. And she is such a godsend! I've always read tips about finding someone to take care of the kids so you can work properly, and now I realized how having someone to help you with the kids can allow you to do some work.
• Give your kids space in the office. We created our home office to allow the adults to work at the same time with the kids. The two boys have their own computers in the office, as well as their own table and chairs for their coloring and drawing works. The baby has a bouncer and playpen in the office. This set-up allows us to work together as a family, with the each kid busy with their own activities.
• Get the support of your spouse. This is incredibly important and cannot be underestimated. Your spouse's support can mean the two of you sharing household responsibilities to allow you to do work for your business.
• Take yourself seriously. You are a mom -- and a business owner. Life can be tough (it always is) but you are living a rich life that allows you to take care of your family while pursuing interests and passions as well as contributing to your family's finances. Give yourself a pat in the back sometimes. You deserve it.