eCommerce Websites

Yea, yea I know this is a boring topic right?  Or is it?  When you realize that an eCommerce website is a way to sell items online then maybe it's not such a boring topic after all.  There are many ways to sell products online but for me an ecommerce website is the best of them all.  I've tried selling on eBay and yes I've sold some items but buyers on eBay are pretty much just bargain hunters and there is so much competition.  Combine that with the fees eBay charges and well, it's pretty tough to actually make any money at it.  Sure eBay works great for getting rid of things you no longer want or need or even for selling an item that is very unique but my experience is that the effort just isn't worth the return which brings us back to your own ecommerce website.

There are lots of options to pick from when starting an ecommerce website and I'm not going to go into detail of them all today.  Today's topic is just to introduce you to the different options and then on other days I'll go more into detail on each of them.  Here are some options for you to consider (in no particular order):

1. ProStores - Easy to use and setup. Template based.  $29.95/month +.05% transaction fee.  ProStores is an eBay company.
2. Yahoo Stores - Very similar to ProStores. $39.95/month +1.5% transaction fee
   
3. Nexternal - This is another turnkey solution but much more costly and presumably (at least according to Nexternal) more feature rich than ProStores.  Nexternal doesn't post their price on their website (that alone always makes me nervous) but I've discovered that they charge $250/month for their service.  I did receive one testimonial from a Nexternal user who loves the service but agrees it is expensive.
4. Volusion - 24.95/month (and up based on the number of products you have to sell) with no transaction fees.  Free templates, premium templates ($400 - $700) or custom designed.
5. Amazon WebStore - $59.99/month + 7% commission (ouch)

Well those are just a few of the leading providers of packaged ecommerce website solutions.  Of course there is also the option of creating your site yourself or hiring a company like PointBWeb to generate an x-cart based ecommerce website for you but we'll talk more about that later.  To give you an example of one of the sites they created you can take a look at Wild Heart Western, a women's western boutique.

Don't Miss Out on the Journey

It's easy to get so engrossed into the task at hand and trying to accomplish your goals that you forget to enjoy the journey.  Been there done that!  I work from my office at home and now that my daughter, son-in-law, and two grandkids live with us there can be days loaded with distractions.  But let me tell you, life is just plain too short to not enjoy those precious moments that come along that could be described as distractions.

One day this summer the kids were out front playing and Kim came into my office and told me I needed to take a break and come out side.  I was in the middle of some "important" task and felt bothered to be interrupted.  However, I got up and went outside and found some of the most precious moments a person could have.  There was my young granddaughter playing with the hose.  Yea, just a simple little thing but oh so cute and a memory worth cherishing.  I could have stayed in my office and kept working on that "important" task, funny but I can't even remember what it was now, but then I would have missed out on this precious moment.

Don't forget to enjoy life and live while working your way to the top.  Be it, a self-employed millionaire in the making or not.  Life it too short to just work your way through it. 

Live, love, and enjoy!

Are we there yet?

If you have kids and you've ever taken them on a long drive you know they can be famous for asking you a million times, "Daddy are we there yet?"  If you're like me you probably responded with something like "We're getting close", and then you'd try to distract them by engaging them in some game to occupy them.  Of course today I guess you just pop a DVD into the player and the kids veg out while watching Sponge Bob or some other movie.  Times change I guess.

Well when operating any new business I'm sure you've asked yourself a million times the same question.  Are we there yet or maybe more appropriately "When will we (ever) get there?"  It's tuff to have patients when the phones aren't ringing or the website isn't attracting a million page views a day.  What do you do?  You persevere and continue working the plan!  Don't give up, because as we said yesterday, "You can do it!" and I firmly believe that.

Keep working the plan and if the plan isn't working then make tweaks to the plan or heck if the plan is looking really bad then throw that sucker right out the window and replace it with a different plan just don't give up.  Follow the Winston Churchill charge when he said;

"... we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." 

You can do it, never give up, keep working the plan.  I know at times it's not easy but if you're down, pull yourself back up and keep on going and one of these days when you're asked "Are we there yet?" you can say, "Yes, we've made it."

You can do it!

When Kim and I first started out to create an online business we wanted to learn all we could from those that had been down that path before.  We somehow got in touch with the founder of Backcountry.com and were successful in scheduling an appointment with the guy.  During our "session" with him I'll never forget two things he told us.  First he reassured us by saying "You can do this" and then he followed that up by saying, "This will be more work than you can ever imagine".  Thankfully he followed that one up by repeating his first comment about how we could do it.

I want to let you know that being an entrepreneur is hard work.  Make that HARD WORK and LONG HOURS.  There, does that help to make the point.  Don't ever begin a business by thinking you can make a quick buck or you can get by with just a few hours here and there 'cause it ain't going to work that way.

You'll work longer hours than you ever would when working for someone else but the bottom line at the end of the day is that you are still working for YOU!  Don't loose site of that.  You get to make the decisions.  You get to reap the rewards of success.  And yea, you get the pain of the failures too but that's for a different blog.  Just remember the advise we were given,

1. This will be more work than you can imagine.
2. You can do it.

Go ahead, it's OK to dream big.  But don't just dream it, do something about it.  Plan to put in long hours.  Plan to pull your hair out on occasion.  But also always remember that YOU CAN DO IT!

Now go and get started because a plan is only a plan until action is put into place.

Gone to Maui

Day one - This is my very first blog entry. Wow, there are probably only something like 100 bazillion blogs on the Internet so what makes me think anyone will want to read my ramblings about becoming a self employed millionaire. Call me crazy but isn't that the American Dream? Doesn't everyone want to be a millionaire so they can retire and lay on the beach on an island somewhere in the Pacific. Haha, well if that's not your version of the American dream it is mine and since this is my blog, well then that's my American dream?

I may not be a millionaire (yet) but at least for this week I'm laying on a beach in Maui. It doesn't get much better than that. If you're ready for a vacation, and who isn't, I would highly suggest you think about a visit to this fantastic piece of paradise. Maui has it all, sun, warmth, water, fun, relaxation and on and on and on. I love Maui can you tell. One great website you can visit to get more information about Maui is www.GetLostInMaui.com. That site is chalk full of free information of things to do, beaches to visit, and restaurants to eat at.

So what is this blog all about? Well, in case you haven't been able to tell, I'm a self-employed entrepreneur and I thought I'd share with y'all what I've learned both the good and bad about my endeavors. First off, self-employment is NOT for everyone. It takes a ton of work, more than you can ever imagine but the rewards are fantastic. This blog will take you through it all and hopefully you can learn from both my successes and my failures. I've made some smart decisions as well as some dumb ones and I'll share those in detail over the days, weeks, and months ahead so stay tuned.

I may not be that millionaire yet, but I'm working in that direction and I've got my goals. The sky's the limit. Well, like I said, I'm in Maui so I'm not going to be spending too much time attached to this computer blogging but it's a start...

Aloha for now,

Norm