Archives for May 8, 2018

Launching an e-commerce store has become easier than ever, even if you don’t have a big budget. Check out these tips to help you grow your online store on a small budget.

Today’s tech startups are lean, mean bootstrapping machines. Online merchants could use some of that lean thinking for their own businesses.

Learning how to start an online business requires very little capital. It’s important to invest in your store and spend a lot of time optimizing it, but you shouldn’t have to pour your life savings into it.

Small businesses don’t have to turn to eBay or Etsy to break into the online business either. These sites can be helpful in terms of establishing a brand, but they can be a huge impediment when it comes to revenue growth. How many fees can you tolerate before finally set out on your own?

Looking to get an online store started quickly and inexpensively? Here are five great bootstrapping ideas.

Buy a basic shopping cart package

It’s easy to get ahead of yourself and buy all the trimmings available with a shopping cart software provider. But do you really need everything? Down the road, you might.

In the short term, though, all you need are the basics. The point is to grow in a scalable way. When you get to the next phase, your shopping cart platform should allow you to upgrade as you need it. Then you can add more products or hire that designer to create the perfect website.

Staying basic means:

• Only buying as much disk space as you need
• Choosing an inexpensive storefront template
• Starting with included features before upgrading to paid ones
• Working custom functionality into the system only when necessary
• Using a standard configuration for your website

Simple can be good, even in the business world. Starting with the basics is a good way to get some momentum before you start shelling out cash.

Use online chat for support

Manning multiple support lines can be tricky. Email support can be slow, resulting in lost customers.

For online stores looking to get started on a budget, you can’t go wrong with an online chat platform to handle customer service. This is a secret sauce for bigger companies.

Stay attentive to real-time customer interactions. It’s more than just an inexpensive support option – it’s also a truly efficient way to get more conversions and keep more customers.

Get started drop shipping

Drop ship sales take the shipping risk and investment burden off of your online store. All you have to focus on is actually selling the products.

First time hearing about this? Drop shipping is a method where you engage a wholesaler, drop shipper or other distributor to take care of product selection and shipping. All you have to do is sell direct to the consumer. A drop shipping system typically integrates with your shopping cart software.

First, you pick the available products that best fit your online store and upload them into the system. Every time a customer orders a product through your storefront, the order flows into the drop shipper’s system. They take care of product storage and shipping.

The only drawback of drop shipping is you won’t make a pure profit off of each sale. Because drop shippers take on extra risk and work, you’ll pay a cut to them.

If you market your store right, drop shipping can be a whole lot of payoff for a very small investment. That way, you can get some revenue flowing through your business before you start supplying your own products.

Specialize

Here’s a really great idea to help you start an online business on a budget: specializing in a very specific product niche. Specializing is what made brands like Starbucks so catchy for customers. When you specialize, you have a much better shot at becoming an authority on your products.

Specializing helps budget-conscious businesses stay focused, too. By only ordering a few types of products at a time, you ensure that you won’t overwhelm your budget. As a result, you can put out a much smaller investment in the beginning. When you find success, you can expand into other areas if you think it’s necessary for your business.

How can you narrow your store idea to be more specialized? Check out a few examples below.

• A home improvement products store could be narrowed to just paint
• A candy store could be narrowed to just chocolate
• A car accessories store could be narrowed to just security systems
• An electronics store could be narrowed to just mobile accessories

Find ways to narrow your store to save money and dominate your niche.

Partner up

Know anyone else in the ecommerce business? You could both split the load.

Setting up a direct affiliate partnership with another online store could be a great way to help a partner sell more products. At the same time, you’ll earn cash without the risk or upfront investment.

Typically, this will require a shopping cart that’s compatible (or at least flexible) with your partner’s inventory software. Either way, it’s an idea that could pay off for you and your partner in a big way.

According to recent studies, paid ads get 65 percent of clicks in searches with high commercial intent. This can include a paid ad set up to target a specific audience. Take a look at how to set up new PPC campaigns for good returns.

PPC advertising has become one of the most influential online marketing options for businesses. It is designed to engage people and lead into sales that can improve the bottom line. To make sure you do this the right way and launch a good PPC campaign, it’s best to understand the intricate details beforehand.

What is PPC advertising?

The term stands for pay-per-click advertising, meaning that each time someone clicks the ad, a set rate is charged to the advertiser. This rate can vary based on the agreement you’ve established beforehand.

You can use PPC to display ads for specific services or goods depending on what you’re selling. The goal is to put these ads in front of people who are already interested in the subject and might be looking for the product through search engines, forums or websites.

Setting up PPC campaigns

1. Establish a budget.

Start by establishing a daily, weekly or monthly budget as soon as possible. This is the set rate at which you will launch the ads. If you don’t have a budget, it is easy to start wasting money on failed campaigns. A set budget can streamline the setup and make sure it works according to your financial means. If not, it is easy to toss away money without even noticing it.

Look at the various rates and learn more about them before launching the ad on a platform. This will give you the gist of what’s going on and how much it will cost per click.

2. Set campaign goals.

You can only see the value of PPC advertising if you sets goals for your business. This can include the number of leads you want to come in via ads or even the number of recorded sales per ad. All of this information should be tracked and kept in mind during the campaign.

By looking into and establishing these goals, it’s easier to avoid making mistakes. A PPC ad is only as good as the person running it. Setting goals helps you remain on top of things without failing.

3. Split-test ads and platforms.

Take the time to split-test as much as possible, whether with advertisements or platforms. You want to take all of this information into consideration beforehand. The goal is to determine how the ads will be run and how they will work.

For example, imagine one ad doesn’t work well but another does. You don’t want to keep running the failed ad because you don’t know which one is doing well. This happens all the time when you put up a bunch of ads and hope for the best.

4. Emphasize relevance.

PPC advertisements have to be as focused as possible because of the value they bring. Relevance is the name of the game, because putting ads up in front of the wrong people will lead to inefficiencies. Targeting is essential for the long term.

Focus on a solution that is as relevant as possible. Take the time to sit down and write specific keywords that relate to your business and its products. The goal is to have a good feel for what you want to target.

5. Don’t ignore tracking.

Let’s imagine an ad has been set up and it’s time to start raking in new leads. How are you going to keep tabs on what’s working and what isn’t? This is where tracking can help, as it ensures each lead who engages with the ad is recorded. With Google AdWords, you can have all of this information listed in the main console online. It’s best to go through this information and set up a personal tracker as well. This reduces the wasted money from unrefined campaigns.

PPC advertising can have a lot of benefits, but it is important to set things up properly. It takes time and a lot of work, but it is well worth the hassle. A good PPC advertising campaign can launch your business forward better than anything else could. This is why it is such an appreciated online marketing method: It works well and can change the outlook of a business in a matter of days or even minutes.

Warren Buffett understands business and investing inside and out. But he didn’t learn everything he needed to know during his time in college — and he certainly doesn’t think school is the only way to develop and refine your skills. “I don’t think college is for everyone,” Buffett told students of Ivey Business School at Western University in 2012. “The best education you can get is investing in yourself. But this doesn’t always mean college or university.”

In a clip found using CNBC’s Warren Buffett Archive, an audience member at Berkshire Hathaway’s Annual Shareholders meeting in 1995 asks if Buffett and his business partner Charlie Munger if they would ever consider starting their own business school to impart their knowledge to future generations. The pair scoffs at the idea.

“Generally speaking, I think we always get a group of wise people after sifting millions,” Munger says. “But I don’t think anybody’s invented a way to teach so that everybody is wise.”

Buffett cites his parents and his mentor Benjamin Graham as major influences on his success. “I think you can learn a lot from other people,” he says. “In fact, I think, if you learn reasonably well from other people, you don’t have to get any new ideas or do much on your own. You can just apply the best of what you see.”

The Oracle of Omaha offers a few insights into how he learns, however. Here are two of this top methods.

He reads

“I’ve mainly learned by reading myself,” he says, singling out Graham, who wrote “The Intelligent Investor,” and Phil Fisher, author of “Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits,” as two of his favorites.

Buffett estimates that he spends five or six hours a day poring over books and newspapers.

For maximum success, he suggests everyone dedicate time to reading throughout their day. “Read 500 pages like this every day,” Buffett once reportedly told students, pointing toward a pile of reports and papers. “That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”

He studies successful people

Buffett says that business schools should study real-world examples of success, such as Nebraska Furniture Mart founder Rose Blumkin in Omaha. He explains to the audience that Mrs. B., as he calls her, started her store with $500 in 1937, “without a day in school in her life.”

“What is there to learn from seeing somebody create an incredible success like that in a competitive business?” Buffett says. “She didn’t invent something that the world had never seen before. She didn’t have a lock on some piece of real estate that protected her from competition. You know, all of these — and yet, she accomplished something that virtually no one has accomplished.”

Understanding what helps businesses like this thrive can’t really be taught in a classroom. “If you go to any of the top 20 business schools, you know, there’s not one page that’s being given to anybody to study what is an incredible success,” Buffett says.

He acknowledges that “it’s probably a little discouraging to a professor of management at some major business school that has gone on to get his doctorate and everything, to think he has to come and hang around the Furniture Mart and study a woman in a golf cart.”

However, he says, “they’d be better off if they did.”

It takes a lot of guts to quit your job.

Often it means stepping into the unknown. So, it’s not surprising that it can be tempting to stick with the status quo, especially if your boss promises to up their game — and possibly your salary — in a counteroffer.

However, once you’ve expressed your desire to move on, going back on that decision could be one of the worst moves of your career, according to recruitment specialist Oliver Cooke.

“If you’re a good performer in your business, the likelihood is your current employers will try to counteroffer (when you quit). You should be prepared for that,” Cooke told CNBC Make It.

IF THEY THINK YOU’RE WORTH THAT NOW, WHY WEREN’T THEY PAYING YOU THAT EARLIER?”

-Oliver Cooke, North American director at Selby Jennings