As eBay continues to grow, more businesses are discovering this online marketplace. eBay is the go-to place of bargain hunters (ehem, “value oriented customers”), and big retailers are finding that eBay’s traditional customer base has a place in their revenue model. Companies, both big and small, are discovering the effectiveness of eBay as a new sales channel. Ebay has slowly evolved from simply the marketplace of pez and beanie babies to business liquidation, among others. So how are businesses like Sears, Samsonite, or National Geographic using eBay? To sell new overstock items To sell open-box returned goods To introduce and

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A PowerHomeBiz.com reader sent us this question: Hello. I have a small business that I would like to invest additional monies in. One of the sources is a simple IRA being managed by my financial institution. I was advised that I could set up a self-directed IRA to invest that money in the business. As an S-Corp, would that be possible? And how would I go about doing such a thing through my CPA, attorney, financial institution or all of the above? Also, how long would something like that take? Thank you! – Bryan Stone, TX Read the response of

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An interesting article from AdBumb.com posits that banner advertising networks are selling their inventory using the CPA model — unknown to the publishers as well as investors. Said to be a hush-hush but common industry practice, banner ad networks resort to negotiating CPA deals with advertisers in order to sell their low-quality inventory. Afterall, it looks better to the shareholders that all inventory was sold out, never mind if the publishers were tricked to believe that they showed CPM banners only: Talk to anyone who knows much about online advertising and you’ll hear quickly that some of the bigger networks

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In my last article, The Reality of Buying Wholesale, we looked at some of the controls that the largest companies in the consumer goods market place on their distribution channels. As we learned, some of these companies make it impossible for the small, start-up online retailer to obtain their merchandise. However, this is no reason to give up on your dream of being a retailer. Less capital to invest just requires a little more creativity. Many established retailers have built their businesses by starting out small and then adding more products as they grew. In this article, we’ll look at

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I will be one of the guest speakers at the upcoming expo/seminar geared towards women. Billed as “Celebrating Life: Women’s Expo,” this one-day gathering will include seminars and exhibits covering various aspects of womanhood, including health, career, grooming, home business, and other issues (even daytime soaps!). I will be speaking about “Turning Something We LOVE into a Profitable At-Home Business,” a topic well-covered here at PowerHomeBiz. This event will be held on September 17, 2005 (Saturday) from 10 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the New Jersey Convention Center in Edison, New Jersey. My talk will be at 1:00 p.m. If

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Writing a business plan is a fundamental step to ensuring your business has every chance of succeeding. Common statistics state that 9 out of 10 businesses fail on the first 5 years of operation, and of the remaining 10%, 90% fail in the following 5 years. Why? There may be a number of reasons – from poor customer service, inadequate product, poor logistics management and cost control. However, the number of businesses that do not define their goals and map out their path to success is phenomenal. Taking the step to define your business goals, plan where you want to

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A July 2005 whitepaper prepared by VerticalResponse Inc. offers a list of 7 effective ways you can bring an offline buyer to your website. If you have a retail store or sells through catalogs and now wants to bring your buyers to your website, here are the suggestions made in the whitepaper: 1. Send promotional codes in your direct mail piece or postcards if they shop in your online store2. Encourage store customers to register for promotional offers on your website3. Web-only inventory clearance4. The lure of the free gift (everybody wants freebies!)5. Visible web address in your postcard mailings

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Pop-ups, what else! In a survey conducted by Tayloy Nelson Sofres for Hostway.com in July, almost 35% of the 2,500 respondents said that pop-ups are their pet peeves on the Net. They also find annoying the requirement to register and login before viewing the website (17%) and the installation of extra software to view the site (16%). The rest of the website characteristings that US adult Internet users find the most annoying include: Slow-loading pages (9% Dead Links (5%) Confusing navigation: hard to find pages, too many clicks (4%) Content that is out of date (3%) No contact information available

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The August issue of Business 2.0 magazine focuses on what it calls the “29 best business ideas in the world.” While I expected a single article focusing on the topic, the magazine interspersed the lessons in all their articles. For example, idea #1 can be found in their Editor’s Letter while the others are in various articles in the issue. Plus, I was thinking “business ideas” in the vein of the hottest businesses to start only to find nuggets of business wisdom that worked in the recent past. Some of these ideas may be over-the-top for home business entrepreneurs (e.g.

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I am a movie nut. I love watching movies, and the only thing I love more than movies are articles that talk about business lessons from movies. I chanced upon this article at MultiChannelMerchant.com (formerly CatalogAge) about the five things that business owners can learn from the film “Fantastic Four” starring Jessica Alba and her superhero cohorts. More than the fabulous costumes and special effects, the most talked about aspect of the film was that it opened in such a spectacular manner that it lifted box office receipts from the doldrums. The film made money enough to turn the industry

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So you have taken the first step to opening your business and you have decided to make it a Corporation or Limited Liability Company. There are many companies out there that offer incorporation services, so how do you know which one is the right one for you and your business? These nine steps will help you make an informed decision about the incorporation company you choose, so you can avoid the pitfalls of incorporating with the wrong one. 1. If you build it they will come Just because an incorporation company has a web site doesn’t mean that it is

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Mid-way into the summer, big e-tailers are already getting ready for the holiday season. They are gearing up for the increased volume of business as people flock to their site to purchase gifts. Buying gifts online is said to have become a standard behavior. But are your visitors and customers viewing your site as a “must visit” place to check out and buy gifts? Are they buying gifts from your site, whatever the season? According to MultiChannelMerchant.com, there are 8 ways to boost your site’s gift sales: Provide enough pertinent product information Create a gift center Display gift suggestions Sell

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