Home Business Online Opportunity 7 Skills You Need
Skill #2: Choosing What To Sell and Finding a Supplier
Now you can ask friends and relatives their opinion of what to sell. You know what they will tell you? They will either tell you about the latest fad to hit the market, something they read about in Time or Newsweek…or they will tell you about something that interests them and they have always thought would be a good business to get into. Why? Because it is human nature to assume that what interests you, interests everyone, or at least a lot of other folks. Therefore, it would be a great business to get into.
Perfect example-myself! When I was seriously considering an online business, I already had a product in mind, because of (at least my wife would say) my all-consuming interest in the game of golf. I am the happiest hacker on the course! My Dad introduced me to the game of golf when I was in high school. It gave us something to do together. As I began to play, it took me three months before I could consistently hit the ball in the air-off the ground. But usually once, twice or three times a round, during those early games, I would hit (what I considered to be) a great shot! Those shots I would replay in my mind during the ensuing week, and I would be chomping at the bit to get back out on the course the next weekend. That’s never changed, although my game has gotten considerably better since those early days. J
So, my first web store sells….FLOOR MATS!
Huh? Floor mats? Yes, floor mats. In fact, if you need a great floor mat visit my store at Best-Mats and pick out your favorite. We accept VISA, MC, AMEX or Discover cards, and provide excellent customer service with a full 60-day return policy. Uh, sorry for the commercial. But I am proud of my stores. I am proud of the work that has gone into them and the products that we sell.
So what happened to golf? Well, I have a passion for my favorite sport, but that doesn’t mean that it is the best place to start a new business. There’s a lot to be said for having a passion and intimate personal knowledge of the products you offer your customers. BUT that should not be the overriding factor in your selection of the products you are going to offer to the public in your first web store. How did I go about deciding on floor mats as my first web store?
Enter Chris Malta. Chris founded Worldwide Brands as a catalog-type review of businesses who sell products at wholesale to entrepreneurs. There are actually two catalogs. One is composed of companies that sell in light bulk to dealers for re-sale, and the other catalog has companies that offer the products at a wholesale price to re-sellers and they offer drop shipping services to their re-sellers.
What is drop shipping? Drop shipping means that you never invest in inventory. You set up your web store, sell the products, and the company you purchase the product from, takes your customer ship-to information and ships them the product (with your name on the address label, of course). Your customer pays you at your website, and you pay your supplier. Some companies will charge you an extra fee for drop shipping, and others do not. Why would you care? You set your retail pricing to take into account any additional fees incurred for the drop shipping. So, your customer that buys from you is happy (or else they would have gone elsewhere), you are happy and your supplier is happy. That’s one of the primary keys to sales, develop a win-win-win strategy where everyone walks away pleased with the sale!
There is much more to the Worldwide Brands Service than just the two catalogs, although these two catalogs are essential. Chris and his staff also offers software that allows you to test the market for different products, called the “Market Wizard”. How can you test the market?
When people want to purchase a product online they have no idea that you or anyone else sells a particular item (unless they have prior knowledge of your store). So what do they do? They go to their favorite search engine and type in a word or phrase about the product they are looking to purchase. That’s a simple explanation, there are a lot of psychological factors that can be explored about the entire online purchase experience and how customers search on the engines. But that subject is far too deep for this report.
The Market Wizard software tool offered by Chris is priced cheaply, actually too cheaply in my opinion, because the toughest decision to make when starting an online store is what to sell. The Market Wizard examines two major items:
- How many people are looking for particular terms at the search engines
- How many other stores are competing for this business
These are the two ingredients that you need to consider when selecting what to sell at your store. You need to know how popular the items are, and how much competition you will have trying to rank highly in the search engines for the terms people search for when trying to make a purchase of one of those items.
Caution : There are a lot of people on the web who prey upon unsuspecting newbie entrepreneurs, offering different products or services to skyrocket you and your store to the heights of popularity, sales and the wealth that comes from them. Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing. If someone offers you a CD-ROM containing a list of companies that wholesale products to entrepreneurs, chances are they simply went to the web and searched for wholesalers, compiled the list, categorized it, and are now selling it as the same product being offered by Worldwide Brands. Don’t get fooled!
Chris and his crew are very well known in this field. They research every company in their listings and talk with them personally. In every case in their “Drop Shipping Resources Directory” or their “Light Bulk Wholesale Suppliers Directory,” they specifically request that you tell the company you contact that Chris has sent you. Why? First of all, they want to reinforce to the companies in their directory that the listing is bringing them quality entrepreneurs who play by the rules and are serious about getting into the business. Second, these companies know that Chris Malta offers considerable insight to his customers about how to get into business. They know that the chances are good that the prospective client has at least filed with their state tax agency for a sales and use tax account. They know that the prospective client has contacted them out of a sincere commitment to their own future, because they invested their money into researching the best products to offer, and now they are seeking a supplier for those products.
My highest recommendation for finding the products you want to sell and for finding the suppliers to purchase those products from, goes to Worldwide Brands for their “Drop Shipping Resources Directory” and their “Light Bulk Wholesale Suppliers Directory”. The Market Wizard is also a great tool to help you decide what products to offer at your online store. If you visit and have occasion to email them, please tell them you heard about them from the Home Business Online Opportunity Free Report!
You can find a wealth of free resources designed to help you get started online with a store, as well as the Market Wizard, Light Bulk Wholesale Suppliers Directory and the Drop Shipping Source Directory at this link:
Worldwide Brands
Let’s review! You have started learning HTML and developing your own webpages. You have used the tools presented here to find what products to sell and set up an account with a supplier for those products. The next step is determining where and how to get your web store up…
Go to... Home Business Online Opportunity Skill #3