For online sellers looking for a way to expand their business, it often means looking no further than the lucrative global ecommerce market.

Spurred on by double-digit growth in 2010, international commerce is entering an explosive growth phase -  one that will continue this year and for several years to come.

International sales represent a huge opportunity for merchants of all sizes and in all niche markets.

Consider this… while 73% of people in North America have Internet access and rank online shopping as their favorite activity behind email, only 50% of people in Europe 17% in Asia currently access the Internet. 

And as with their American counterparts, international Internet users like to shop online.

According to Reuters, online sales are expected to increase as much as 40% annually in Japan.

But while there’s a lot of money to be made in global ecommerce, it can also represent a significant challenge for online sellers.

Shipping costs, lack of international tracking, customs and duty fees, long shipping times and post shipment customer services issues have caused many online sellers to limit or exclude international sales.

That being said, ignoring this mammoth customer base can have a dramatically negative effect on your bottom line.

Additionally U.S. markets saturated with products and sellers in certain categories, often remain wide open for those merchants who are willing to ship worldwide.

Without a global presence, your business is not fully online.

Bongo International Helps Sellers Create Hassle-Free International Sales

Fortunately, doing business in the global marketplace is now much easier thanks to an innovative service from Bongo International. I first learned about Bongo in April 2010 at the Ecommerce Summit in Las Vegas.  It was there that I met Greg Sack President of Sales at Bongo.  After talking with Greg at length and viewing a demo of the product,  I was impressed by the features and benefits of their service, as well as the user friendly integration for sellers.

Bongo International is a mail forwarding and parcel forwarding service that ships products from the U.S. to 174 countries worldwide.

But Bongo is much more than your old school run of the mill parcel forwarding service.

Bongo is truly a full service international liason between you and your global customers.

In fact, Bongo has developed an entire process designed to provide the solutions that resolve the everyday challenges faced by merchants who sell to international customers.

From international tracking numbers to payment fraud checks, package consolidation services that alleviate high shipping costs to the ability for your customer to calculate shipping, duties and taxes before checkout – Bongo International has looked at every problem with shipping worldwide and solved it.

Best of all, this service is free for online sellers and gives you the opportunity to increase your sales, while decreasing your costs as well as those of your customer’s.

Bongo Benefits for Your Business

In addition to the benefits listed above, one of the best features that Bongo offers is the ability for your customers to remain on  your site during checkout, thereby significantly reducing the potential of shopping cart abandonment.

• Because Bongo becomes a seamless part of your checkout process, it adds to increased international customer confidence.

• The consumer pays a small fee, either one-time or subscription (if they are frequent shoppers) for the convenience of using Bongo’s service.  Bongo customers can save up to 83% in shipping costs compared to other shipping carriers, making it an attractive option for international shoppers.

• The Bongo application works on eBay, ecommerce websites and with most major shopping carts; as well as Amazon, Buy.com and 1ShoppingCart.com. You can see some of the additional Bongo partners here.

• Bongo International has also recently partnered with ChannelAdvisor to provide integrated international shipping solution for ChannelAdvisor customers.

Listen to My Interview with Greg Sack and Learn How to Increase Your International Sales and Take the Pain Out of Shipping

In my interview with Greg, we walk through the international sales process step-by-step, as well as how Bongo easily integrates into almost any ecommerce scenario.

We also brainstormed an innovative way that international sellers can use Bongo’s services to work with U.S. wholesale suppliers and ship worldwide from the U.S., opening up a whole new business model for sellers outside the U.S.

The thing I like best about using Bongo’s service is it enables busy online sellers to stop wasting precious time dealing with the mundane tasks of international shipping and start focusing on making more international sales.

Which is exactly what you should be doing as the CEO of your online business.

Listen to my interview with Greg Sacks directly below. Learn step-by-step how to integrate Bongo into your business and get tips and strategies on how to sell successfully internationally.

Lisa Suttora Interviews Greg Sacks of Bongo International

(Click the + sign below to listen.)

Download

Then tell me below what your international selling strategy is.

-Lisa

Ready to make some money this holiday season? Then grab a glass of lemonade and sit down to read this post. Because what you’re about to read will be key to your holiday income success.

Starting on July 5th, with the kick-off of the back-to-school shopping season, the countdown begins to 2010 holiday sales. There are  almost 9 weeks from July 1st to September 1st, when 38% of online shoppers will begin their holiday shopping.

If you wait until Fall to starting thinking about and preparing for the holidays, you’ll find yourself in catch up mode from September to December, and as a result leave a lot of holiday money on the table.

Preparing begins with the actions you take in July.

Every year at this time, I begin helping people prepare for holiday sales.

Unfortunately not enough people take action early on. And there’s nothing worse than rounding the holiday bend in November and watching sadly as your holiday sales slip by.

Don’t let this happen to you! The time is now…

To get you started, I’ve listed some of the holiday prep steps you’ll take this year:

• Creating a holiday inventory list
• Choosing your affiliate products & signing up for the programs
• Creating a holiday marketing plan
• Ordering last-minute inventory
• Organizing your physical products
• Snapping up packaging supplies on the cheap
• Creating holiday advertising graphics
• Planning your website and blog “seasonal decor”
• Creating holiday gift sets
• Setting up your holiday blog/ sales pages if you are an affiliate marketer
• Setting up your email marketing campaign
• Bringing in seasonal help

Now if the thought of putting together a plan for the holiday selling season feels overwhelming to you and you’re wondering how you’re going to find time to add yet another thing to your already overloaded schedule, there’s relief in site.

With 15 holiday selling seasons under my belt (whew!)  – 7 offline & 8 online!  I have the planning and action steps for holiday income success down to a science. Stay tuned, for the upcoming announcement about this year’s Holiday Selling Guide.

If you want to be the first in line to plan your holiday sales, enter your name and email address below for early bird notification:

-Lisa

If you sell physical products, affiliate products or information products, you’re on the brink of the next big online selling season – back-to-school.

Even though many people are just getting into the swing of summer fun, those who have children attending school or who are attending school themselves are already starting their back to school shopping.

To see how back-to-school sales trend, you’ll need to use one of my top research tools Google Insights. You can see by the chart below that searches for the keywords “back to school” are already trending upward:

Teachers prepping the classroom are looking for ideas for their classroom bulletin boards and starting to buy classroom supplies.

And keep in mind that in many parts of the U.S., school starts in late August. So if you sell any merchandise related to back to school purchases, it’s time to get it listed now!

If you’re an affiliate marketer, your back-to-school affiliate sites should be up and running.

If your blog covers parenting topics, school related topics, fashion, technology, accessories etc. you should be reviewing and promoting  back-to-school affiliate products.

The back-to-school shopping season runs from July through the end of October.

July is the pre-season. August and September are in-season. October is post-season. (Post-season back-to-school shopping takes place after the kids have arrived at school, taken a look at what everyone else has/or is wearing and then head back online to round out their “must have’s”.)

That’s 4 months of heavy back-to-school related selling opportunities.

So while you may still be enjoying the summer, your business should be featuring merchandise or affiliate products that are in-demand by back-to-school shoppers.

Here are just a few of the hot products online shoppers will be looking for over the next few months:

• Laptops
• Netbooks
• Laptop cases
• Brightly patterned backpacks
• Rolling backpacks
• Sports bags
• Motorcycle boots
• Ankle bootsGirls school uniforms
• Boy’ school uniforms
• Locker gear (mirrors, shelves, decor)
• Running shoes
• Gym clothes
• Teacher supplies
• Art supplies
• Eco-friendly lunch boxes
• Eco-friendly hot mugs and thermoses
• Cosmetics
• Costume jewelry
• Watches
• Anything with a peace sign on it (clothes, jewelry, accessories)

And some hot brands…

• DV by Dolce Vita
• Dolce Vita
• GUESS
• House of Harlow
• Jessica Simpson
• Michael Antonio
• Miz Mooz
• Modern Vintage
• Nine West
• Rosegold
• Steve Madden

All this back-to-school traffic headed will also impact you if you sell non back-to-school related products as well. Once people are back inside and at the computer shopping for back-to-school supplies, they’ll also catch up on shopping for themselves.

How will you capitalize on the back-to-school shopping season?

Tell me below.

-Lisa

If you sell physical products online, the next 90 days (July – September) are key product sourcing months for your business.

Not only are there a variety of product sourcing opportunities to take advantage of  during this time, but it’s also the last chance you’ll have for  lead time when it comes to preparing your product line for holiday sales.

Whether you are sourcing products wholesale or sourcing locally, there are a number of opportunities to be aware of and to capitalize on over the next few months.

8 Ways to Successfully Source Inventory This Summer

1. Trade Shows. The best (and a must for all professional sellers or would be pros) way to source wholesale products is by attending an industry trade show. There are trade shows for every product category. The biggest benefit of attending a trade show is the ability to see hundreds of vendors exhibiting all in one place. You get to meet them, look at their products and write an inventory order during the show. The suppliers also get to know you.  Even if you don’t write an order at the show, 3 months down the road when you do call to place an order you already have a foot in the door. Making a call to say “Hi Steve, this is Jen – we spoke last July at the sporting goods show.  I’d like to place an order for the new  hockey sticks you showed me.” is a much better way to start a vendor relationship than making a cold call.

Locate all the industry trade shows here. And if you are traveling on vacation this summer, be sure to see if there is a trade show happening at your destination location.  You may be able to write off part of your trip (DISCLAIMER: Check with your accountant on this.)

2. End of season supplier specials. With the turn of season happening, now is the right time to contact your suppliers and pick up great deals on end of season merchandise. And as an online seller, you can you carry merchandise farther into the season than the brick and mortar stores do.  On the Internet people buy swimwear all year around. Take advantage of your supplier’s seasonal turns.

3. Place holiday season pre-orders. The hot holiday wholesale products sell out fast.  Call your supplier now and ask them what they expect to be their #1 selling products for the rest of the year.  Place orders now in anticipation of pre-holiday season delivery.

4. Retail resale. The back-to-school season starts in your local stores on the 5th of July. This means there will be racks and racks of saleable merchandise marked down and ripe for the picking by online sellers. Do your pricing research before you buy and then take advantage of these deals. Big box retailers are also clearing their toys shelves to make space for this year’s holiday inventory. For years I picked up Lego sets at Target at up to 70% off which I turned around and sold for a profit during the holidays. Again, you have to know your merchandise!  Not all Lego sets will sell well.  So use a tool like Terapeak to assess supply, demand and pricing potential.

5. Retail pre-sale. Your local stores are also bringing in the hot toys for the season! And while you won’t get these at a discount, if you have enough inventory capital to buy and hold, you can make a lot of money when these toys are in-demand and sold out by November. You MUST and I repeat you MUST do some trend research to find out what toys are expected to be hot this season.  Part of your job as an online seller is to know what will sell!  Want the insider tips on the latest product trends, be sure and sign up for my  free Hot Trend Alerts! newsletter. These trends don’t just cover toys, they cover all types of hot niche markets.  They also apply to affiliate marketing and information marketing!

6. Local sourcing. Yard sales, estate sales, thrift store sales abound from July-September. There is an unending supply of inventory for anyone who wants to get started selling on eBay or who is already in the business of selling unique, one of a kind items. When it comes to sourcing from yard sales and estate sales, start early and go back late. Start early for best selection then go back at the end of the day to see what can be picked up for free or purchased in bulk. Where are you going on vacation this year? What products are made/sold locally that you could stock up on and sell online? Do some research online and learn about the regional products of your destination.

7. Find suppliers who will drop ship. If you want to find suppliers who will drop ship products for you, you need to do so sooner rather than later – before supplier orders heat up! This applies especially if you have a plan to have products drop shipped over the holidays. Test out drop ship suppliers this summer, before the holiday rush starts!

8. Expand your product line with importing. If you’ve been thinking about importing products from China, using a service like the new AliExpress can help you expand your product line through importing with minimum expense and risk. Take some time to thoroughly research your importing options before your online sales ramp up in September.

As you can see, there are lots of sourcing opportunities over the next few months. Now that you know what the options are, take action! Don’t let this chance slip by.  Pick one or two of the methods I’ve outlined above  -the ones that are right for your business – and go for it!

“Markdown!” “Lowest Prices in Town” “Save 75%” “Rock Bottom Prices!” “We’ll Beat Any Price” “Cheapest Deal in Town”. For the past 18 months, these sales slogans have been screaming at consumers from websites, TV and newspaper ads and more.

$1 dollar bins, something you’d normally find only in the aisles of a dollar store, Wal-Mart or KMart are now a fixture in many stores – the first thing you see when  you walk through the door.

But here’s the problem. Shoppers are tired of the message.

Your customers have “frugal fatigue.”

They’re tired of pinching pennies, “buying down” from the product levels they’d normally buy at, always looking for the cheapest price. They’re tired of compromising on quality and service to save a few bucks. And even if they don’t have a lot of extra money to spend, they don’t want to be constantly reminded of it.

Granted, the rampant excess buying of extravagent luxururies is over.  Back in 2005, one of the trends I talked about when I spoke on stage at eBay Live! on the topic of product sourcing was a trend called “mass lux”.

Luxury for the masses.

At the time, people were spending huge sums of money on disposable products. Parents were buying $900 purses for their teenage daughters. In multiples! Heck women were buying $1500 – $2000 purses for themselves, without batting an eyelash.  And these were not people with 7 figure incomes. These were everyday people, making an average income.  Those days are gone.

A Badge of Honor

When the need for frugality kicked in, most people were actually glad to do it. Like eating a big buffet on Sunday and feeling virtuous about cutting back your food intake on Monday – people realized their spending had gotten out of control.

It even became somewhat of a sport for newbies. Those who had never looked at a price tags with much scrutiny were suddenly clipping coupons and happily telling their friends about the money they’d saved on their latest purchase. Or where to find the cheapest prices on food.

But the 2009 holiday season, it became apparent that people had frugal fatigue. Just like day 10 on a low calorie diet, the celery doesn’t have the same crunch and you’re ready for a cheeseburger!

In fact WordSpy, one of my favorite places to keep up with the latest in words, defines frugal fatigue as :

Mental exhaustion caused by constant frugality during hard economic times.

And yes, your customers have it.  They’re tired of being reminded that they are on a budget. Ready to upgrade their shopping choices.

And as a savvy online seller you want to make sure that you are communicating a Unique Promise of Value (UPV) that doesn’t focus solely on being the lowest price in town. You have to clearly explain the value of what you’re offering.

Reuters ran an interesting article today titled “Retailers Broaden the Meaning of Value” that underlines this point.

Recently the term “great value” has become synonymous with low price.  But value is and always has been about more than just price.

What are the benefits of your product?

What is your Unique Promise of Value?

You can’t compete on price. It’s a downward spiral. Even Wal-Mart changed their message from “Always Low Prices” to “Save Money. Live Better.”

Their new message brings up a much more compelling Unique Promise of Value for people.

If your store sells kitchen accessories – what would your message be?

How about “Cook at Home. Eat Healthier. Save Money.”  As a potential customer, now you’ve got my interest!

But if you were to say “Cheapest prices on cookie sheets.” The first thing I’d think of were those cheap baking sheets that warp, rust and burn my chocolate chip cookies.  As a shopper, I don’t want more junk to throw away in a landfill.

If you want to see a store that’s wildly successful and excels at promoting a Unique Promise of Value, check out Moosejaw.  Yes they run sales. And they have some great deals, but that’s not the message that attracts their customers.

So if you’ve been focusing your message on “Low! Low! LOW!” prices, it’s time to go back to the core of your business and see what else you have to offer your customer.

Whether it’s style, selection, value, service, expertise, humor, whimsy, trendiness, quality, product obsession, a keen eye for what’s hot, the latest and greatest, the tried and true or the plain but useful.You’ve got to have something besides “Great buys all the time.”

How about you?  What’s your Unique Promise of Value? Tell me below.

PS: This doesn’t mean that you can’t/shouldn’t offer your customers sales, discounts and special deals.

But when you do, add some special sauce to it! “Save 20% on our color-popping, sizzling hot summer tank tops!” (As opposed to “Lowest price of the season on all tank tops. Yawn )

It’s time to re-energize your customers and help pull them out of frugal fatigue!

-Lisa

Are you being true to yourself in your business?

When I first heard the quote from Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken”, I thought it was one of the most brilliant things anyone had ever said.

Maybe I was just ready to hear it.

I was fresh out of college, working in my first job as a merchandise buyer and ready to take the world of retail by storm.

Of course, growing up I know people had echoed that same sentiment to me in many forms. “Be yourself honey, don’t try to be like someone else.” my favorite aunt used to say to me.  “People will like you for who you are.  And if they don’t, they’re not your true friends.” said Fergie (a friend of the family, who was “Fergie”, way before the singer “Fergie” or Fergie the Duchess of York became famous.)

But for some reason it never quite rang true until I heard the quote from OscarWilde.

I think it was the “everyone else is already taken” that really clicked with me.

I remember thinking to myself “yah they are already taken”.  And it was in that moment that I felt like someone had given me permission to be myself.

So if everybody else was already taken, I may as well be me and enjoy it!

It made sense.

I started thinking about this the other day, when I was thinking that maybe I should switch from pronouncing the word niche (rhymes with switch) to niche (rhymes with quiche).

You see I’m interviewed a lot on the radio about the topic of niche markets. And over the past couple years, I’ve noticed more and more, the people who interview me are pronouncing the word “niche” like “quiche”.

So on interviews it sometimes feels like a game of “niche-niche tennis”. The interviewer says niche (rhymes with quiche) and I reply with niche (rhymes with switch). And I can just imagine our audience listening in and laughing at the niche – niche banter.

A few years ago no one, except my friend Robin Cowie, former president of Worldwide Brands and producer of the Blair Witch Project pronounced niche  like quiche. But with Rob  it sounded good, because he grew up in South Africa  and has one of those totally awesome accents that makes plain old English words sound like something special.

However, over the past few years, I’ve noticed that everyone seems to be now pronouncing  niche like quiche. Maybe it sounds more sophisticated.

So a few weeks ago, I decided in the interest of radio interview compatibility, I’d better start pronouncing niche like quiche and not niche like switch.

The first few interviews, it went OK. I had to stop myself from pronouncing niche like  switch a couple times.

But it was fine… until this afternoon. When I gave a 90 minute energy filled teleseminar called “15 Creative Ways to Make Money on eBay”.

I started out saying niche = quiche, but then I got so wrapped up in showing people how they can think our of the box when it comes to making money on eBay, that niche just automatically popped out like switch.

“Great “I thought, “now I’m having a game of niche-niche tennis with myself.” LOL!

90 minutes later I wrapped up the teleseminar totally psyched because I knew I’d expanded people’s vision of how they can use eBay to make some money.

And you know what?

They didn’t care if I said niche = quiche, niche = switch or niche = nicho (the Spanish pronounciation).  What people cared about was that I gave them 15 great ideas about what to sell on eBay and how to sell on eBay.

And it was at that point I thought of Oscar Wilde’s quote. “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.”

Right then and there I decided I was going to pronounce niche = switch like I always have. I was not going to rework the pronunciation.

Niche = switch is who I am. My favorite food is pizza. I don’t like “nouveau Northwest Cuisine”.  But I do like to shop at Nordstrom. No rhyme or reason. It’s just who I am.

How about you?

Are you being true to yourself in your business? Or are you trying to be someone you’re not?

Are you trying to copy someone else’s style because you think they have “it” and you don’t? Or do you think there’s only one persona you can adopt to “make it” online.

There’s a big difference between observing a successful person’s behavior and modeling what they do within the context of your own personality.  Versus completely squashing your true essence in the name of “success”.

So are you building an online business that reflects your authentic personality? I hope so.  Because it affects the kind of customers you attract. And if you attract the wrong customers your sales will suffer.

Something to percolate on. And if you ever feel yourself tempted to be someone else in your business other than who you really are… remember – everyone else is already taken.

-Lisa

Last week Overstock.com launched a new online marketplace “The Main Street Store” designed to attract small U.S. businesses, including minority and women owned businesses who manufacture or hand-craft their own products.

Upon learning about this marketplace I immediately liked what I saw.

My enthusiasm for this marketplace starts with the the Main Street Store mission statement issued Overstock’s CEO Patrick Byrne:

The ‘Main Street Revolution’ is a partnership between Overstock.com and small and minority-owned business owners across the United States. This initiative creates a national marketing and distribution channel for producers of consumer products by providing the opportunity to sell their products on Overstock.com and O.biz (our B2B website).

It is designed to increase the visibility of small and minority-owned businesses which currently lack exposure to national markets.

By joining our network these small businesses can reduce their supply chain costs, and open their products to a mass audience. This represents a grand opportunity for producers and consumers nationwide to participate and contribute to the national recovery effort.

There is a huge need for this type of “shopping local” marketplace in the ecommerce landscape.

And the potential for groundswell support is massive.

Much like eBay in the early days, the human factor behind what Overstock calls the “Mainstreet Revolution” has the potential to boost sales for millions of U.S. based businesses.

I once read this quote from CEO Patrick Byrne:

We tried to run it like we were building an old-fashioned billion-dollar business, not a New Economy billion-dollar business. We run the company as if there is no public market, and we are just trying to build real value.

They are providing value with the Main Street Store.  Note: In January 2010, the National Retail Federation ranked the company #2 in the U.S. for best customer service.

How to Get to Main Street

The Main Street Store can be accessed by clicking the See More tab on the main navigation bar. As the site and selection grow, I hope that the Main Street Store will be more prominently featured on the home page.

The Main Street Store can be accessed by clicking the "See More" tab on the main navigation bar.

Because the site has recently been launched, there are currently only a few thousand products listed on the site, and that’s where you come in.

Requirements to  List Products on the Main Street Store

I emailed Overstock to get the details for participation in Main Street Store and immediately heard back from  Overstock’s Aminah West on  the details of the program.

Main Street Store is open to:

• Small, U.S. based businesses with fewer than 25 employees
• Inventory can be resale products or products that you make.
• You must be set up as a legal business entity. If you need help setting your business up as a legal business, you can find out how to do that here.
• Ship via a traceable carrier like UPS, FedEx or USPS
• Provide product images to Overstocks’ specifications
• Use Overstocks inventory management tools
• Products must be made in the USA.  There are some exceptions for specialty and niche items. Resellers or distributors are not allowed on the Main Street Store.

For the full list of requirements, contact  mainstreet@overstock.com

Currently, Main Store Store offers the ability to list in the following categories:

• Jewelry
• Clothing
• Gourmet Food
• Gift Baskets
• Health & Beauty
• Home Improvement

• Pet Supplies
• Bath
• Home Decor
• Baby
• Luggage & Bags

More categories will be opening up soon.

More and more we’re seeing ecommerce marketplaces come together based on values. On the opposite end of the big box retailers, people want to shop with e-tailers who share a common vision, value and goals. As a society, we are voting with our wallet more than ever before. It’s for this reason that I hope to see the Main Street Store become a big success.

For complete details on the program, how to get started, product pay out, sales management tools, marketing tools and more, contact mainstreet@overstock.com

-Lisa

The only thing constant about entrepreneurship is change. If you’re not one for change, prefer the status quo and like to keep things “as is” for was long as possible, then being the CEO of your own business is probably not for you. Nothing will kill your online business faster than stagnation.

Keeping your business current  is the name of the game. Although this doesn’t mean “chasing rabbits” or having ‘bright shiny object syndrome”.  Nor does it mean dumping your core values.

A current  business  means your market + your products + your marketing + YOU = are in tune, fresh and relevant in your niche!

Unfortunately, even the most well-intentioned entrepreneurs can let things get stale. Reinventing doesn’t mean starting from scratch. It means updating, refreshing and sometimes retooling.

So how do you know if your business is ready to be reinvented? Here are 7 business and personal signs that tell you it’s time!

7 Signs It’s Time to Reinvent Your Online Business

1. You’re doing things exactly the same way you did a six-months, a year, two years ago or more. Things happen fast on the Internet. (That’s one of the things I love about it the most.) Everyday brings a new tool, technology, strategy, opportunity. Your customers change. The market changes. If you’re doing business in exactly the same manner you were 6 months ago, your business is losing ground. What’s one new thing you’ve implemented in your business this month?

2. What your customers want to buy from you has changed, but your offerings haven’t. Can you imagine going to your favorite store week-after-week and seeing the same products displayed the same way? It wouldn’t take long for you to say “What’s the point of coming here anymore, everything is always the same?”  What new things are you offering your customers? Are you continually bringing exciting products into your business?  It doesn’t matter what you sell – whether it’s physical products, affiliate products or digital products – you have to continually introduce new products into the marketplace in order to keep up with what people are buying now.

3. Your business model isn’t a viable business model. If you’ve read my recent blog post on profiting without passion or purpose, you know that I am a firm believer that you can’t be successful in your online business without a passion, purpose or interest. But that doesn’t mean “do what you love and the money will follow”. If you love goats and want to build a business selling goat products but there isn’t a big enough market for goat products – you don’t have a viable business model. If you want to build a business selling common craft project instructions that are widely available for free on the internet, it’s going to be a tough-go. And many times your business model and your numbers don’t add up.  I had a client who wanted to design, sew and sell her own clothes online. She also wanted to make a consistent $10,000 a month in her first year with no additional staff. We ran the numbers – she wouldn’t have had enough hours in the week to turn out the inventory required to make that kind of money on her own. Even with staff, she would have been working for free. Passion, interest and optimism are core when running your own business. But a viable business model is a requirement.

4. Sales are lagging. If your sales are not what they used to be, something has changed. And before things get any worse, you need to find out what the problem is and figure out a way to solve it by reinventing what your business offers.  If you sell physical products, the first place to start is by looking at your product line.  What new products have you brought into your product line recently?  If the answer is none, it’s time to restock. If you’re marketing affiliate products and your sales have dropped, what’s changed? How’s your traffic, what’s the demand for the product your marketing, did you get slapped by Google? If you’re business is not growing, it’s dying.  But don’t let it get to that point before you refresh and reinvent it.

5. Your niche is declining or has changed. Every niche market ebbs and flows, morphs and changes. This is why it’s so important to stay on top of the trends in your industry. Trends are about people – your customers. Lifestyle changes, demographics, the economy, marketplace changes all dictate the trends in your niche.  What about your niche? What’s really going on in it today?  Is it growing, changing or declining? How has it changed? Where does your business fit in?

6. You haven’t grown as a person and neither has your business. The person you are when you make your first $1 on the Internet is not the same person you’ll be when you make your first $10,000 or $100,000 or $1,000,000,000.”

In fact, it’s impossible for you to remain the same and make more money. If you’re not growing as a person, neither is your business. That’s why if you haven’t made your first $1000 yet, you shouldn’t be worried about how you are going to make your million.  You’ll  grow and change along the way and as you grow, so does ability to make money.

7. You’ve lost passion/interest in your business. This one is tricky. Because there is a fine line between temporary boredom or frustration in your business and a true loss of passion/interest. And  of course there are a whole slew of emotional reasons why we may think we’ve lost passion in our business, but we haven’t. Things like fear of failure, fear of success, wanting to “have fun” and not work, reluctance to adhere to a schedule, perfectionism, you name it. But don’t kid yourself. You know in your gut if you’ve truly lost passion/interest in the business you’ve been running. And if you have, the time to sell it or reinvent it is now. Don’t wait for it to die on the vine so that you have an “excuse” to shut things down.  I see this happen all the time. Instead of taking a stance of power and saying “I’m ready to move on.” and then sell the business or reinvent it while it’s still profitable, they wait till it’s on life support to make changes. It’s a lot easier to sell or reinvent a business when it’s on top.

Catalyst for Change

Einstein said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

If it’s time to reinvent your business, it’s better done sooner than later. There’s no sense in waiting a moment longer to reinvent a business to make it more profitable!

How about you? Is it time to reinvent your business? Have you recently reinvented your business? Share your experiences below…

To-do lists don’t work. In fact, they often quickly become “Didn’t Get It Done Lists” for even the most well-intentioned entrepreneurs.

Why?

Because most people make a daily to-do list packed with more tasks than they could ever accomplish in one day.

I call this being “Time Optimistic™”.

Time Optimistic is a state of mind that lets you think you can organize the office, put together your email newsletter, write a blog post, add new inventory to your website, finish that special report, make a couple joint venture calls, take care of the kids, run a few errands and cook a cozy dinner for ten – all in one day.

How do I know about being Time Optimistic?  Well if the definition of  Time Optimistic were in the dictionary, you’d see my picture next to it. 

When I got started in business, I’d write these looonnng to-do lists… I’d easily fill up an 8.5 x 11″ piece of paper each day fully anticipating that I’d get it all done.

But I kept falling short.  Day after day.  And it was frustrating. 

In fact one of the most common concerns I hear from small business owners is that there’s not enough time in the day to get it all done!

Finally I decided that if I was going to run a successful, profitable business, I needed to get a handle on it.

I knew it was time to learn to manage my Time Optimistic nature. (Notice I said manage, not cure.)

I tried a lot of different systems, read a ton of different books, listened to various experts – until one day, it occurred to me….

“What would happen if I scheduled the activities on my to-do list on my calendar?”

Make an appointment with myself to get the things done that I KNEW would move my business forward.

What if I made an appointment with myself, just like I did with clients and colleagues and stuck to my scheduled appointment time?

It’s sounded like a practical approach,  so I decided to try it.

My first big wake-up call happened when I tried to schedule everything that was on my 8.5 x 11″ to-do list into one calendar day.  There weren’t enough slots. It was at that moment that I realized I’d been like a hamster on a treadmill, running as fast as I could with no hope of ever “catching up”.

And I knew I needed to get real with my time.

So I started scheduling my most important tasks on the calendar each day.  And then I stuck to the schedule.  And tracked how much time it actually took me to do things versus what I’d expected.

And I called them Action Appointments™.

When you set up Action Appointments with yourself, you’ll also find that the things that you imagine will take hours, usually take no time at all.  The things you think will be quick and easy, usually take the most time.

Hour-by-hour, in as little as 15 minute increments, I scheduled each task as an Action Appointment .

And I was AMAZED at what happened next!

I had been so worried that if I didn’t accomplish everything on my to-do list that my business would start to fall apart.

But what really happened shocked me.

When I scheduled Action Appointments, I actually completed things!  And because I was now committed to scheduling and completing the tasks that I knew would  grow my business – it began to grow at a pace that I’d never imagined possible.

I went from feeling like I was constantly scrambling to check things off a never-ending list, to feeling like I was in control of my business and my LIFE.

And the big surprise is that even though I was doing less “stuff” the actions I was taking were key to the growth of my business.

I’ve scheduled Action Appointments with myself every day since.

Schedule? Structure? Yuck! What About the 4 Hour Work Week?

Many people get on the road of online entrepreneurship because they’ve heard that running your own business offers you freedom from a schedule, the ability to do what you want when you want to.

And it does – to a point.

The good news is that as an entrepreneur you do have the freedom to work whenever you want to. But you have to put in consistent time on your business every day.

If you’re at your most creative from 12:00 -4:00am, there’s no reason you can’t work between 12:00 and 4:00am.  But you have to schedule that time as work time on your calendar and then keep that appointment.

When you have an appointment with yourself, it also makes it easier to say “no” to people who want to eat up your time during the day because “you work from home”.

Because of my Action Appointments I also know exactly what I need to do that day when I hit my desk in the morning.

Scheduling Action Appointments Does Not Require You to Be Inflexible or a Perfectionist

Without Action Appointments I couldn’t have built a successful business, taken care of my family, managed the house etc.  It would not have happened.

But I don’t want to give anyone the impression that every day is  smooth sailing and I never miss an Action Appointment. Some days life happens.

I have days when I don’t get it all done.  When there are literally not enough hours in the day.  When there are not enough slots on the calendar for the important tasks.

I still have days that feel out of control, times when I feel overwhelmed.

But it doesn’t worry me because I always get back to my Action Appointments. If Tuesday was chaotic, I start fresh on Wednesday with my new Action Appointments. And I get right back on track.  It’s one thing to lose focus for 24 hours. It’s another to lose focus for a week or two.

Action Appointments Will Work for You Too!

How about you?

Do you feel like you have too much to do?

Do you sit at your desk paralyzed, not knowing what to do next?

Do you end each day frustrated or demoralized because you didn’t get everything done?  Or even worse, not making the money you know you could be if only you could fit it all in.

Then it’s time to start making your own Action Appointments.

In fact, soon after I saw the results I was getting,  I began introducing this approach to my coaching clients to see if it would work for them.

I saw the same transformations in their businesses too!

New clients who had been struggling endlessly to get things done and dragging a mile long to-do list with them day by day, started making Action Appointments and almost immediately started making more money. They were also less stressed, happier, felt more and control and most importantly, were becoming more realistic about their time!

Try scheduling  Action Appointments™ with yourself this week and let me know how it works for you by posting below.

Remember, you can learn all the best business building strategies in the world and they won’t do you any good unless you take action!

-Lisa

Microsoft announced today that effective July 30th, it’s cancelling the Bing Cashback rebate program.  Bing Cashback gave cash back to buyers who made purchases from participating merchants located through the Bing search engine.

Microsoft stated that there was low consumer adoption of the program, but reading through comments from users on the blogosphere paints a different picture.  Bing Cashback was embraced by both buyers and participating merchants.

Even 3rd party sellers – those who sold on eBay benefitted from the added incentive of Bing Cashback. During the 2008 holiday season, many of my clients who advertised in their eBay sub-title “This item eligible for Bing Cashback” saw an increase in sales. At that point the rebate ran 25-30%.

In 2009/2010 the rebate percentages lessened, but people still found the rebates enough of an added incentive to use Bing to watch for shopping results that had the Bing “Gleam” (the gold coin with the dollar sign ) next to it.

Granted, the Bing Cashback program wasn’t perfect.

Some of my clients who own ecommerce websites wanted to participate, registered for the program and never heard back from a Bing rep.

For the most part buyers were happy with Bing Cashback, payment was quick – but everyone once in a while someone had an experience in which it took weeks to get cash back.

There’s all sorts of speculation today about the real reason that Microsoft cancelled the program. And Microsoft has announced there will be a new program rolled out later this summer. No word as to what that is or who will be able to use it. One thing’s for certain, today’s consumers like rebate, ca

So for now the shine is off the Gleam and cashback will soon be gone.  Hopefully we’ll see something new and exciting roll out before the holiday selling season.

-Lisa