Introduction

 Every single day, enthusiastic entrepreneurs start about 2,000 new small businesses. Three years from now, about 1,600 of those new businesses will have failed.

 Being in the business of helping others break into the retail business, we've had a ringside seat to witness competitors battle it out retail arena, and we've identified the 12 differences that separate the champs from the chumps.

 In this article, we reveal those differences and use our observations, experience, and expertise to steer you clear of the most common pitfalls and ensure that your business becomes part of the elite group of successful startups.

 Poor management

 People launch their own businesses for a variety of reasons. Some think it will be fun and easy. Others aren't happy with their current lifestyle and seek to better themselves financially. Still more look at their boss and think, "If he can do it, then I sure can!"

 But the truth is that 80% of new businesses fail within the first three years. The number one reason small businesses fail is, by far, poor management.

Recognizing the essentials of good management

 Good management boils down to developing a solid business plan and then effectively executing your plan or adjusting it to meet the needs of the current situation. Effectively managing a business, big or small, requires the following... Read More

Fraud Protection
Avoiding Fraudulent Orders and Unscrupulous Customers

Introduction

 In this article, you'll learn how to spot the signs of potentially fraudulent orders and protect yourself from unscrupulous consumers.

 Currently, identity theft laws are anemic and law enforcement is often unwilling to pursue "minor" cases. Until the laws catch up and law enforcement begins to prosecute these cases more aggressively, online merchants are pretty much on their own.

 Because of this, it pays to be informed about what you, as an online merchant, can do to protect yourself from credit card fraud and other deceptive activities.

 As described in this tutorial, you can implement four proactive strategies to protect yourself and your business from fraud:

• Prevention: Stop fraud by following fraud-prevention strategies.
• Early detection: Watch for red flags that indicate possible fraud.
• Investigation: When you notice suspicious activity, investigate.
• Action: When you're relatively certain that fraud is occurring, contact someone who can do something about it.

 Customers typically pay for merchandise with credit cards, checks, money orders, or PayPal payments. In the following sections, we reveal several ways to identify and stop the most common payment scams.

 Preventing credit card cons

 Credit card con artists have numerous hi-tech and no-tech ways of obtaining credit card numbers... Read More

Busting Common Wholesale Myths
By Stuart Lisonbee

 By definition, "wholesale" is "the sale of commodities in quantity usually for resale by a retail merchant." Some misinformed merchants falsely conclude from that that access to wholesale pricing guarantees retail success.

In this article, I bust the two most common wholesale myths and reveal that only by focusing on the 4 P's of retailing can you build and expand a successful retail business.

Myth #1: Wholesale prices are at least 50% lower than retail

 Busting this myth is child's play. Just take a look at these facts and figures from Wal-Mart — the poster child for retail success... Read More

Ramping up for the Holiday Retail Season
By Stuart Lisonbee

 For retail merchants, "'Tis the season to be jolly" translates into "'Tis the season to ramp up my marketing efforts." If you put it off till the end of October, you've already missed out on some prime holiday marketing opportunities.

 While traditional retailers are busy stocking their shelves to meet increasing demands, take the opportunity to ramp up your marketing efforts. Because Doba and its cadre of drop ship suppliers take the worries of inventory off your plate, you can focus your full attention on your holiday season marketing campaigns.

 In this timely article, we reveal tips and strategies to make the most of the holiday retail season.

Focus on your core offering

 Even Santa has to make his rounds to find out what the kiddies want for Christmas. Find out what your customers want, push the items in your product line that are likely to sell most briskly, and by New Year's Day, you'll find yourself jollier than old Saint Nick.

 But if you're thinking about unloading some of your... Read More

Sailing the Ship of Uniqueness to the Shores of Success
By Stuart Lisonbee

 Anyone with a little technical know-how and an Internet connection can open an online storefront and start peddling product, especially if the entrepreneur has access to Doba's powerful product sourcing and drop shipping tools. But peddling product at bargain basement prices won't ensure your success for three good reasons:
 

1. Major competitors can undercut your prices
2. The lower your prices, the less you earn
3. The less you earn, the less time and money you have to invest in improving your business

Selling Benefits: Pitching to Your Customer's Needs
By Stuart Lisonbee

 Focusing on the features of a product or service rather than how it benefits the consumer is considered by many marketing experts to be a mortal sin. Features merely tell the consumer what a product or service is or does. Benefits sell the product or service. Benefits convince prospective customers that your product can improve their lives. Let's look at a couple examples:

 Product: Car engine
Feature: Powerful 250 hp V6 engine
Benefit: Climb hills without losing speed and irritating other drivers

 Product: Video card
Feature: The most powerful graphics processor
Benefit: Never again get fragged by your friends due to low frame rates

 These examples reveal the contrast between feature and benefit... Read More

Cashing in on the Bump in Online Holiday Retail Sales
By Stuart Lisonbee

 While online merchants aren't exactly bulldozing their brick-and-mortar counterparts into retail oblivion, they are managing to chip away some of the mortar between those bricks.

 Roughly 75 percent of U.S. homes are now connected to the Internet, and in many of those homes, in the comfort of their living rooms, dens, and home offices, people are shopping online to avoid the traffic jams, high gas prices, and raging crowds. Increasingly, people are hopping on the information superhighway to buy the best products at the best prices through the convenience of online stores built by tech-savvy merchants like you.

 While online sales still represent a small portion of consumer spending ($24 billion online versus $450 billion offline according to 2006 estimates) the numbers are increasing significantly. Experts predict that this year, 8 percent of all holiday sales will occur online. As an online retailer, the number one question you should be asking yourself is... Read More

Building Customer Loyalty with an eNewsletter
By Stuart Lisonbee

 A well-designed eNewsletter, packed with valuable content and exclusive offers, can help you walk the fine line of keeping in touch with your customers without annoying them.

 In this article, you learn:

• How to design an attractive eNewsletter that increases your brand presence.
• What to include in your eNewsletter and what to leave out.
• How to encourage customers to subscribe without being pushy.
• How to automate distribution to save valuable time.

 Whenever you contact a customer, you have an opportunity to impress or disappoint, so you want your first attempt at an eNewsletter to be impressive. In any publication, your first impression hinges on... Read More

The Dirty Dozen - Avoiding the 12 Most Common Business Blunders / Busting Common Drop Shipping Myths / Driving eBay Traffic to Your Webstore
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Publisher - www.itccommunications.net . Copyright - International Traveller´s Card Limited


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