Tim Wood is a dreadful chap.  We should all avoid him at all costs, for the sake of your sanity and bank balance.

Tim, of course, is not a real person, it is an acronym for the 7 wastes as identified in the Lean Manufacturing philosophy.  Although LM is directed at manufacturing, obviously, we can all learn from it, even selling.  These are the wastes.

T is for Transport.

When selling it is obvious that you need to reduce your transportation costs.  Use the cheapest reliable delivery method you can.

I is for Inventory.

If you sell 10 widgets a week and your wholesaler supplies with a 2 week lead time then why ever hold more than 30 widgets?  Holding lots of inventory is bad for your cash flow.  Businesses fail through not understanding cash flow, understand yours and hold the correct inventory levels.

M is for Motion.

Hold everything you need to complete the sale close together.  If you are working from home then you need your stock, postage labels, wrapping paper, envelopes close together to avoid wasting time and motion.  Make completing sales a chore and it will not be long before you stop selling.

W is for Waiting.

In selling terms this is close to Inventory waste.  Understand your suppliers’ lead timescales so that you are not waiting for inventory to complete sales (a sure way to get bad feedback – and bad feedback kills on eBay).

O is for Over Production.

There is an option when using Paypal to create postage labels to print 2 sheets (the label and certificate) or just the label.  Unless you need a certificate of posting don’t bother.  Do not add anything to your product that does not add value, in the eyes of the customer.  You may like the special packaging, but does it add anything for the customer?

O is also for Over Processing.

What records do you need?  I rely on PayPal and eBay records for order details.  I do not need another ledger full of old orders.  I do need a stock list that is updated asI make sales.  That is because I need an easy way of seeing what my stock levels are, and when I have to reorder stock.

D is for Defects.

Obvious but bears saying again.  Defects are deadly, especially if you offer free replacements as I do (and I would recommend you to).  The offer of a free replacement should a product be faulty is good for business, unless you do not keep an eye on the quality of your stock.

I have been working some very long hours over the last 4 weeks or so. That is why I have not been able to update the blog for a while.

Working a string of 10 and 12 hour days has lead me to a couple of conclusions;

First, my desire to get out of the sheer mind numbing drudgery of working in a warehouse has increased, dramatically.

Second, this blog has been running for 6 months, so where is it now and what has it achieved?

In April it had over 2,000 unique visits! My newsletter now has a smidgen under 500 readers, and a number of people contact me to discuss the posts and are often complimentary, sometimes not but hey, stuff happens.

I think that this is quite a good start.

What have been the most important things that I have done to get here so far?

1. I bought and used a couple of great ebooks, foremost amongst those is Blogging to the Bank, which I think is a must have for everyone starting a blog.

2. I invested in The Internet Kickstart Course from Sara Brown & Tony Shepherd. This is a course that takes anyone from having no IM knowledge and leads them by the hand through the jungle.

3. I found a great service that helps to increase a site’s ranking by identifying sites that can be used to build back links.

4. Lastly, I have discovered that building a business takes time and a steady approach doing a little evreyday.

A couple of weeks ago I received a nice email from Tony. He called into question my grammar in the free ebook that appears on this page. In particular he questioned the sentence ‘Powersellers think like shops’.  He was entirely right, of course, what I meant was that powersellers think like shop owners.

You may be surprised that I was happy to receive his email, however, my view is that firstly he actually read the ebook and secondly I can now correct the mistake.  He also attached an ebook concerning grammar and there is a link to it here. grammarbible

I was a bit put out to be honest because I wrote a post a little while ago complaining about someone else’s sales page.  It also has to be said that I am a bit of a pedant and enjoyed Lynne Truss’ book ‘Eats Shoots and Leaves’ (you decide where the comma should go).

If like me you are interested in words, their derivation and usage then I would recommend that you visit World Wide Words an excellent site full of interesting and arcane words.

(memo to self, I must run this through the spell checker before posting it…..)

Sell successfully online

What is the point of being a PowerSeller?  Of itself being a PowerSeller does not mean much.  You can sell 100 small widgets a month making no profit and be a PowerSeller, what does it prove?

The point is that buyers trust PowerSellers.  Being a PowerSeller, coupled with a fantastic feedback record  improves your reputation and encourages people to buy from you.

That is the only point to striving to be a powerseller.

Sell successfully online

For the background to this follow this link.

I saw the man who offered me his stock and showed him what I had discovered.  To say that he was surprised would be an understatement.  He did say, however, that he knew the manufacturer of some of the items the company in question sold and knew for certain that they were not counterfeit.

So, the position is that while some of the goods from this wholesaler are legitimate they were prosecuted for selling non-licensed, counterfeit items.  Do I buy the goods that I know to be legit?  The answer is no for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, if they have a record for this sort of activity in the past how much can I trust them in the future?  Also, even if the goods I buy from them are legit if they are caught selling other counterfeit goods my account with eBay could be suspended until I am cleared.

It is just not worth the risk.

I just received an email from a well respected internet marketer.  There was the inevitable affiliate link to the next ‘best thing since sliced bread’ offer.  Now, I have  no doubt that my life would be revolutionised and improved beyond recognition by this product.  (Actually, I do but let that pass).  However, the true value of this offer was discounted by 90% to – wait, you guessed it $97!

Why is everything $97, or $27, or $47?  I do not know about you but these psychological selling points do not work on me, they just annoy me.  All I want is a product that works and that is cost effective.  Which is why I only recommend things that I have bought and use or if I have not used them I tell you up front.

Avril Harper is well know as a successful seller on eBay based in the UK.  She also wrote the successful eBay Confidential.  One of her ideas is that eBay is, essentially, a numbers game.  The more you list the more you sell.

It is more complicated than that of course but she estimates that a maximum of two out of three listings fetch bids first time arround.  The remaining items, when relisted, again sell two out of three, and so on.  As long as you know your exact costs and profit margins this is a very good way to test new products.  In fact knowing your full costs and profit margins is key to selling successfully online be that on eBay, Amazon, or any site.