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Tag: how to start an online business

How to Start an Online Business

September 18, 2017 /

how to start an online businessWant to quickly and easily start an online business? Luckily for you, there are a wide range of options.

Back in 2000, when I wanted to start selling a book I wrote online, it was very difficult. The only marketplace was Amazon, and I did sell there for awhile. But I also really wanted to start selling off my own website. Being a small business back then, your only option to sell was to set up with a credit card payment processor, through your bank, and they wanted $10,000 as a security. I wasn’t even sure I was going to sell $10,000 worth of books. Thank goodness, today there are so many options.

Where You Can Sell Online

Obviously there are the main marketplaces and e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon, Etsy, Facebook, Instagram and Shopify.

There are also other smaller Online Selling Sites you can try.

You could also sell on your blog, as I do, and simply use a payment processor.

What To Sell Online

A lot of people think that to sell online, you need to make your own products. Not true. You can sell vintage or used goods. You can also sell wholesale, white label and drop ship goods.

Again, what you want to sell will be determined by where you want to sell, as sites like Etsy do not allow wholesale or drop shipping, but Amazon does. Amazon doesn’t sell vintage or used, but Etsy and eBay do.

How to Start Selling Online

My 34-Page How to Start a Business Planner is a printable download, that will walk you through all the major decisions of WHAT and WHERE to sell online, including all of your various selling options.

  • 34-page printable PDF.
  • Each page 8.5 x 11 inches.
  • Created by a long-time marketing and small business consultant (me).
  • Planning pages for determining product, pricing, finance, start up costs, promotion, supplies & equipment and more.
  • Includes list of wholesales, drop shippers, private labels, print on demand, used/vintage, digital selling sites, marketplaces, course platforms and e-commerce providers.
  • Includes detailed start up checklists for setting up a business, setting up an e-commerce site and setting up an Etsy shop.

how to start an online businessWhether you want to sell handmade, wholesale, private label, drop shipping, second hand, vintage, my planner will help you determine, plan and launch your new online business in no time! Download today!

© 2021 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved. How to Start an Online Business.

5 Easy Ways to Promote Your Business This Summer

July 8, 2016 /

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

Summer is here and people are out and about – travelling, going to farmers’ markets, the beach, outdoor concerts – you name it. So it presents a lot of great opportunities for you to get your business seen by your local market with only a little bit of investment.

ways to promote business this summer

5 Easy Ways to Promote Your Business This Summer

  1. Baseball Games – If you are lucky enough to live in a city that has a major league baseball team (minor league is fine too), wear a t-shirt to the game with your shop url on the back (and front) and try to stand up every chance you get. Stadium seats are fairly low in the back so make sure your shop url is large and positioned between the shoulder blades. This also works great at music festivals, outdoor movies, anywhere a lot of people are going to be staring at your back for a while.
  2. Food Trucks – Food trucks are big business in the summer so approach a few about the possibility of putting a temporary sign advertising your business on their truck. Either offer to pay (extra revenue for them) or barter to see if they will go for the idea.
  3. Car Windshield Sun Shade Covers – This is an idea from my ebooks, but if you park your car in a busy lot all day, or outside a major summer event, use it to advertise your business by creating a sun shade visor for the front (and back) windshield of your car that clearly shows your shop url.
  4. Beach Umbrellas – You can have your shop url and/or logo screened onto anything these days, including a large umbrella that would get seen all day long the next time you decide to go to the beach (if I owned a bikini shop, I would totally be doing this!).
  5. Campers and Trailers – If you are planning on taking your camper on a long road trip this summer, have a banner made for the side advertising your business. It will get seen by hundreds of cars on the highway, especially since everyone will be passing you.

Are you inspired? If you can’t use one of these ideas, hopefully you are motivated to come up with one of your own!

IMPORTANT! If you want to get your products into holiday gift guide editorial for print magazines, they are working on these issues right now! Download my July Planner as it includes a Holiday Gift Guide Media Contact List for 40 major magazines and don’t miss out! If you need a reminder of how to pitch, be sure to read my post, Why You Should Be Pitching Your Products for Holiday Gift Guides NOW.

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© 2016 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved.

13 Things to Post to Social Media This Weekend

June 30, 2016 /

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

13 things to post to social media this weekend

There is lots going on this holiday weekend, so if you wish to get your business seen on social media in the next few days, this is the type of content you need to post that will likely get share.:

What to Post to Social Media This July Holiday Weekendsocial media content calendar

  1. Red, White and Blue Recipes
  2. List of Best Summer Festivals in (pick a city, state or country)
  3. Favorite Steven Spielberg Movies (the BFG comes out tomorrow)
  4. Favorite Roald Dahl Books (the BFG is his book)
  5. Amazing Fourth of July Fireworks PhotosBest Online Sales this Weekend
  6. Best Beach Reads Summer 2016
  7. Cool Facts about Canada (July 1st is Canada Day)
  8. Hottest Soccer Players from UEFA Euro 2016
  9. Favorite Country Music Lyric (for #NationalCountryMusicDay July 4th)
  10. Stylish Wimbledon Fashion
  11. The Coolest Celebrity Fourth of July Style
  12. Best Moments from Game of Thrones Episode 11

© 2016 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved.

Creative Ways to Expand Your Product Line to Increase Sales

May 28, 2016 /

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

Adding more products to your online shop is another obvious way to increase your sales. Now, it might not always increase your profits right away because costs could increase with the addition of the new products, but it is another obvious way to grow your business. So, what are some creative ways to expand your current product line?

 

creative ways to expand your product line to increase sales

Start by taking a look at your current product line and see if you can offer different:

  • Colors
  • Materials / Ingredients
  • Shapes
  • Sizes
  • Scents
  • Languages
  • Embellishments
  • Styles
  • Prices
  • Uses

For example, one of my customers, Bad Tags, sells cute dog tags in a variety of sayings, colors and shapes. They even have tags that indicate if a dog has special needs and add-on accessories such as rhinestone rings for the tags. Therefore, how do they expand their current product line even further to increase sales? Since their tags do have sayings, maybe they could offer them in different languages other than English to broaden the market; or they could do a higher priced line of dog tags with embedded birthstones or diamonds (trust me, there are customers for this); or they offer a dog tag that has an LED light in it so the dog is seen when walking it at night. They have customers buying tags for animal fundraisers, so they could offer a value bundle strictly for fundraising purposes.

I know a lot of art and photography shops have taken their art and put in on everything from t-shirts to mugs, which is great, but now everyone is doing it, which is not so great. However, these shops could take their work and sell it in a different form, such as an image spliced into three images. They could try putting the art or photograph onto a trendy new medium, such as glass, or onto supplies such as fabric and ribbon and now they can sell to other businesses instead of just to the end user.

Even repackaging items can help if you don’t wish to add new products. If you sell monogram necklaces, for example, sell a mother daughter monogram necklace set, which means you now get two sales but to the customer it looks like one. If you sell baby blankets, sell a set of three together that are embroidered with “crib”, “car”, and “stroller”. Simple ways to turn your current products into more listings.

Need ideas on how to expand your product line? I can take a look at your products and give you ideas on how to expand, just book my 30-Minute Phone Consultation.

Trending This Week

  • May 28 – #NationalHamburgerDay
  • May 29 – #SundayFleaMarket
  • May 30 – #MemorialDay, #TheBachelorette
  • May 31 – #NationalWearAFlowerDay
  • June 1 – #WednesdayFamily
  • June 2 –#ThursdayThoughts
  • June 3 – #NationalDonutDay

© 2016. Gail Oliver. All rights reserved.

How to Price Your Products to Appeal to the Gift Market

May 13, 2016 /

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

I often see people offering $20 necklaces for Mother’s Day and I sort of cringe. Now, I would expect a $20 necklace from my 13 year-old son for Mother’s Day, but I’m not going to buy a $20 necklace for my mother, it just feels too cheap. I realize some people are on tight budgets, but gifts take on a life of their own as everyone has a price point they feel is appropriate. If you are positioning an item as a potential gift, you may want to know some stats about the average prices people spend, so you are pricing your products for the correct gift giver.

 

How to price your products for the gift market

Grad Gift Pricing

The National Retail Federation said that college graduation gifts hit a new high last year to an average price of $102.50. Now, this price is a range covering parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc., and you can safely assume that parents will spend the most.

Valentine’s Day Gift Pricing

The National Retail Federation also indicated that the average price spent on a Valentine’s gift in 2015 was $146.84, and that men tend to spend more on the gift than women do.

Wedding Gift Pricing

Again, I often see $25 products being positioned as a wedding gift and I think no way. According to American Express people will spend $179 on a close family member’s wedding gift, $119 on a close friend’s, $114 on a relative’s, $79 on a friend’s, and $66 on a coworker’s for an average of $108.

Anniversary Gift Pricing

Now, what about anniversary gifts? According to research done by the Daily Mail, couples spend on average $170 on the first anniversary, $173 on the 10th anniversary, $242 on the 25th anniversary and $208 on the 40th anniversary. Again, this is couples buying for each other, not children buying for parents. 

Baby Shower Gift Pricing

The consensus at the blog, Baby Center suggests that the average amount spent on a baby shower gift is $20 to $25 for a co-worker or acquaintance, $50 for a close friend, or $100 for a best friend or family member (or a group gift).

Kids Birthday Party Gift Pricing

According to Learnvest, most people spend $10 to $20 on gifts for regular classmates but $20 to $25 for your child’s closest friends (at the elementary school level).

Teacher Gift Pricing

The price spent on a teacher’s gift does vary according to a person’s budgets, but Parenting magazine says the range for teacher’s gifts is $20 to $75.

This why many people avoid trying to target an individual or occasion altogether and will simply have shop categories entitled: Gifts $10 to $25, Gifts $25 to $50, Gifts $50+ and so forth.

A Real World Pricing Example

I wanted to buy a birthstone necklace for my 16 year-old daughter’s birthday and price was one factor I searched on. I wasn’t even considering any necklace under $50 because it didn’t feel special enough for a 16th birthday. I also didn’t want to go too much over $125 because she is only 16. Therefore, this became my search: “birthstone necklaces $50 to $125″. These are things you need to think about this when targeting a specific gift giver.

Trending This Week

  • May 13 – #NationalApplePieDay, #Fridaythe13th
  • May 14 – #SaturdayWellSpent
  • May 15 – #NBAPlayoffs
  • May 16 – #NationalLoveATreeDay, #MondayBlogs
  • May 17 – #TuesdayTip
  • May 18 – #WednesdayAfternoons
  • May 19 – #NationalDevilsFoodCakeDay, #ThursdayThoughts

MORE

Feel free to share this post, and if your business is struggling, check out my very affordable Marketing Services.

© 2016 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved.

3 Online Stores Whose Products I Love

May 7, 2014 /

by Gail Oliver, Small Business Marketing Consultant

I recently came across a few independent online shops and was really impressed by not only their e-commerce store but the creativity of their products.

Online Store: Bob’s Your Uncle 

The online store, Bob’s Your Uncle, actually features three other vendors as well, but I love Bob’s whimsical take on everyday items from dish towels to place mats to playing cards and the pure simplicity of the shop.

Insider Tip: One other thing Bob is doing that is very smart, is not only offering custom services, but also willing to design products for a company as a private label.

cool online shops

Online Store: Growler Goods 

Growler Goods focuses on dog products with a little boho flare. From dog tipis (seriously, doesn’t that tipi look comfortable?) to leashes to bandanas, these are products for the cool dog.

Insider Tip: I love how Growler Goods has an oversized, recognizable label all of their products, and displaying the “Martha Stewart American Made” seal of approval on their home page doesn’t hurt either.

cool online stores

Online Store: Yellow Leaf Hammocks

Sometimes specializing in just one type of product is ideal because you get found more easily in searches and you can quickly become the go-to standard. Yellow Leaf Hammocks look pretty amazing, come in a variety of styles, styles, and yes, you can customize your own as well.

Insider Tip: The product photography is so well done (I never thought to hang a hammock on a sailboat or dock), and they actively promote all of the press they have gotten from major publications as well as their philanthropy efforts, as the hammocks are made by artisans in rural Thailand.

unique online stores

If you really want to understand how to offer great products, appeal to your target market and establish a recognizable brand, check out these three shops.

quick consult 3

You too can have a successful online business and I can help. I offer a variety of very affordable marketing services including my very popular but limited time offer, My Quick Consult ($30) for those on a budget or just starting out. Find out more on my marketing services page.

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