Wheelin’ and Dealin’ Part 1

This article is going to cover some theories behind buying and selling on the internet and how best to portray yourself as a small ‘garage’ business using sites such as Amazon and eBay as shop fronts.

I think the most fascinating thing about buying and selling on the internet is watching the patterns which emerge from people’s buying habits, and seeing how different little tricks can change what people buy.

The first issue everyone has to overcome when selling stuff on the internet is competition. I would say this is probably the biggest hurdle. And it is such a big issue because there are so many people doing the same thing. I am currently reading Alan sugar’s book, where he talks about going into the Hardware shops as a Salesman and offers his products. There isn’t the same way of working on the internet as there is in the real world. There is no human contact or traditional persuasive selling patter which can be used.

The internet has its own selling system and it mainly involves the user coming to find you, not the other way around which is the more difficult bit. What you also have to consider is not only is there lots and lots of things which people are selling but also lots and lots of things which people are buying. The range of stuff which you can find is so much more expansive than any shop you may find, no matter how big or small.

So we are in a situation with so much to choose from to start selling, limited funds, and so much competition. I know what you will be thinking now. How do I even start. My top tip here would be to clear out your loft, or under your bed. Have a good old sort through your junk and find a few items to sell. Maybe 4 or 5. Advertise them on eBay. I am not going to tell you how to sell on eBay, that is for other blogs or maybe a later post, but I will tell you the first items you sell will be the best indicator of where your selling path may go. You can really get a feel for what people snap up, what sells and what doesn’t, how the system of eBay works and also how best to market items.

You will find many extra tools on eBay, most of them designed to squeeze every last penny out of the profits you make so you have to be careful with this. Do the maths and make sure you aren’t making a loss. Work out what is effective and what isn’t. Also by selling a few items you will build up some reputation on eBay and people will be more inclined to buy from you.

Let’s all take our parents for example. I know mine are certainly the ones who won’t buy anything of Amazon unless it is fulfilled by Amazon and take extreme care on eBay. They may really want that china teapot somebody bought you for your birthday 6 years ago because it has a tiger on it, but if you don’t have a very good ‘reputation’ they will stay well clear. I could make or break most of your sales.

Even the tech savvy look at this when purchasing. I can’t stress to you the importance of it. And it is built up with you being reliable and professional from the very start.

Don’t miss part 2 of this article where we look at moving you little endeavour on from just clearing out the junk under your bad or in the top of your wardrobe.

Please follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Making Some Cash on The Internet

So for a lot of us, we feel the internet is the place to make money. Depending on your skills and interests, there are lots of places to make money. From YouTube, to Blogging, to buying and selling, there is so much you can do on the internet and so many outlets to sell your services and products.

There are 2 main categories which you can make money on the internet. The first is doing something for someone else and the other is selling something to somebody else.

The first, can involve many different things. Some examples inlude famous YouTubers such as The Yogscast, SeaNanners and the like who make videos and post them on YouTube and monetise them by allowing YouTube to place adverts on your videos and give you a cut ofthe profits. You can also do this on google blogs and any other form of posting articles or blog posts such as squidoo and others simular, where you add a google adwords section whih displays results from a google search in a box and then google pay you per click.

You can also offer you services as a freelance writer. Websites such as eLance and others allow you to offer yourself to write and people bid on a certain job. Your profile is stored up and people can view it, thus able to evaluate whether they want to work with you very easily This is a great platform and I have built myself up a little work pile which mainly involves copywriting and proof reading. The easiest and most boring jobs are the ones which you should start with and then progress from there.

The second category involves a little bit more thought and possibly a little bit of an outlay finance. Selling stuff to people on the internet is so easy in the growing global world of online shopping. However people's successes are built on their own good service. If you sell well and reasonably, then people will come back. If you mess people about you loose a lot of customers very quickly.

There are many ways you can sell stuff. eBay, Amazon and the likes are the best, with being able to set yourself up your own web store being even more easy than ever before, the word is your oyster, literally. You can sell virtual products: anything from web templates and websites; to music samples and loops, as well as digital imagery, fonts and graphics. BE very very careful with anything you do in this field that it is enirely your own work. However I may do a future post on this.

The final thing is your traditional wheeling an dealing. The way the likes of Peter Jones and Alan Sugar made their money. And with the internet now it is so much easier to set up an online sports shop for example from your own bedroom. Once again customer satisfaction is key and there is a lot of psychological theories which cover this. These are for another blog post though.

I hope this has filled you with inspiration to start making money on the web and I hope you prosper fully. Make sure you follow me on twitter @peachy146

Don't Spend It, Save It!

One of the most effective ways of making money is believe it or not, saving it. Just think about the amount of cash you may spend on grub from the tuck shop or the newest COD, and think about how much that all adds up to. Try putting the £2 a day you might spend in the shop on your way to school in a pot and see how quickly this adds up. Also think about all the unnecessary purchases. Music, games, stuff like that. You don't have to pay such a price for some things as well.

I am not saying you should just give up all your little luxuries that you buy with the money from delivering the local newspaper, but just think about what you are spending and try saving it in a jar or pot to see how much you really do spend. Trust me, the results are outstanding. You may be able to save up in 2 or 3 months to buy yourself a new x box, or an iPod, or a new Bike.

If you just have a little bit of sensibilty when thinking about each time you spend money, then you can save a packet! Also, cutting down on those sweets will make you a little bit healthier too, which could also be a little benifit! 

Remember, SAVE IT, DON'T SPEND IT!

Jargon Busting - Revenue and Profit

First of all I would like to clear up a few keywords. There is lots of jargon that comes with business and it's quintessential that you understand what everything means, so you can translate it back into English and use the information it comes with usefully.

The first is the difference between revenue and profit.

Now they both concern making money, but they are slightly different. Revenue is the total money which is made from a sale, while to profit is the money which is made on top of all the original payments for purchasing, manufacturing etc. For example, lets say we have just sold a bar of chocolate to somebody. Say we bought it for 30p a unit for a wholesale market and have sold it on at 50p a unit. That is a total revenue of 50p, as that is the amount of money that we have taken for that sale. OK. We had a chocolate bar, now we have a 50p coin. However we paid 30p for that originally, so not all of it is profit, so we do seller price - the bought price: 50p - 30p, and we get 20p. This is the amount of money we have made from selling the item, so that is the profit. This is one of the most simple, yet fundamental concepts which we have to understand in business, as everything requires us to be making a profit, but we can only be making a profit once all of our expenditure costs have been covered.

To break even, as it termed as, where you balance the amount you paid for a unit to the price you sell it for, we would have had to have sold the chocolate bar for 30p. we have not lost any money on the sale, and we have not made any either.

This is an important point to consider when choosing a process of making money, or when pricing up items which are to be sold. I would suggest, think of how much money you would like to make off the sale and add that onto the initial item cost, and how much you would pay for it, and then find somewhere in between. A standard guide is a mark-up price (mark-up is the price which the item is sold at) of 125% - 150% of the purchasing and manufacturing costs, but we will go into a lot more detail at some stage in the future.

So we have covered the basic principals of what this all boils down to. Making Money. I hope this has cleared the waters, rather than disturbed the silt. 

Thank you for reading. For any furthr questions please email me at peachy146@gmail.com.