Do What Your Competition Wont Do
| Category: Selling Techniques | Date: 2002-11-21 |
We all want the easy way out. That's just human nature. But, if we want to earn maximum profits in minimum time, we need to consider doing what other people won't do.
Here are two general business principles that can make you a lot of money:
1. The more trouble you go to, the more money you will make
2. The more risk you assume, the more money you will make
A perfect example is in the wildly popular online auction business. Obviously, to sell effectively you need strong products that many buyers want.
There are three general categories for non-specialized auction goods:
1. Drop shipping
2. Wholesale
3. Closeout
The EASIEST way to sell is with a dropshipper who has a website. What could be finer? You pre-sell an item, then send an email or call a toll free number and have it sent directly to your buyer pocketing the difference. You never even see the merchandise. No risk, no trouble.
Unfortunately, there is a problem with this beautiful business model. First, the price reductions from dropshippers are usually very low. They are selling convenience, and they know it.
Secondly, since most of them are online, your potential customers may find them, too.
Third, if you aren't careful, you could be selling a product that isn't in stock, creating a lot of problems with your buyers and ruining your reputation on the auction sites.
Closeout is at the other end of the buying stick. The price reductions are amazing - often 90%-95% off - but the work and risk is higher because you usually must buy in larger quantities and you definitely must take delivery of the merchandise. No easy shipping here.
A personal story: I used to make regular expeditions to a closeout warehouse near Atlanta. It was a real drag because it was approximately 90 minutes each way. When I got there, it was such a dumpy place. Concrete floors, glaring fluorescent lights. There were big boxes and bags of "stuff" stacked everywhere, with no apparent order. No display, no description - just a big jumbled mess. The owner, who was about 65, inherited the business from HIS father, and his sons worked there with him. The dad sneered at the internet and wouldn't even talk about it.
When I went, I took a van and wore old clothes, because I knew I would get dusty. I spent hours plowing through tons of merchandise and made lists of possible items to sell. Then, I would call my son who was at home on the computer, read him my list and go have lunch while he did some research.
After his report, I would go back and buy certain things, loading them all in the van myself. When I got home, I had to unload it, store it, take pictures, write listings, then box, wrap and mail. It was a whole lot of work!
But the profits were wonderful. For example, I bought a huge box of miscellaneous Liz Claiborn purses for $3 each! They were selling for around $70 at Macys. I got between $45-$50 for each one of those bags! Quite a healthy return on investment.
Other lucrative goodies included all kinds of name brand sports shoes and T-shirts; Revere Wear cooking utensils; Weider sports supplements and exercise equipment; tons of seasonal decorations; brand new books for 10-25 cents; more clothing than I even knew existed; well known perfume and cologne and huge numbers of items I can't even recall.
I wish I could say that I have made huge numbers of dollars by dropshipping - but it wouldn't be the truth. It's only been a minor part of my auction income.
Lots of auction sellers deal in large - even huge - volume. It's OK to make a $2 profit if you're selling 2,000 widgets a week and you don't mind all the detail work that goes with it. But, if you want the really large profits, seek the out-of-the-way little places, the ones that no one else has heard of. That's where you will find the gold.
As in auctions, so too in any business. What will you do that your competitors won't?
Copyright © Sydney Johnston, 2002.
About the Author
Sydney Johnston is the author of Make Your Net Auction Sell!, the "bible" of net auctions, published by sitesell.com. Subscribe to Auction Gold to learn how to find make money with online auctions, the hottest, most active business on the net. FREE book, "How To Suck Up Hungry Customers Faster Than A Vacuum Cleaners On Steroids." auctionknowhow.com
sydney@auctionknowhow.com
http://www.auctionknowhow.com
Here are two general business principles that can make you a lot of money:
1. The more trouble you go to, the more money you will make
2. The more risk you assume, the more money you will make
A perfect example is in the wildly popular online auction business. Obviously, to sell effectively you need strong products that many buyers want.
There are three general categories for non-specialized auction goods:
1. Drop shipping
2. Wholesale
3. Closeout
The EASIEST way to sell is with a dropshipper who has a website. What could be finer? You pre-sell an item, then send an email or call a toll free number and have it sent directly to your buyer pocketing the difference. You never even see the merchandise. No risk, no trouble.
Unfortunately, there is a problem with this beautiful business model. First, the price reductions from dropshippers are usually very low. They are selling convenience, and they know it.
Secondly, since most of them are online, your potential customers may find them, too.
Third, if you aren't careful, you could be selling a product that isn't in stock, creating a lot of problems with your buyers and ruining your reputation on the auction sites.
Closeout is at the other end of the buying stick. The price reductions are amazing - often 90%-95% off - but the work and risk is higher because you usually must buy in larger quantities and you definitely must take delivery of the merchandise. No easy shipping here.
A personal story: I used to make regular expeditions to a closeout warehouse near Atlanta. It was a real drag because it was approximately 90 minutes each way. When I got there, it was such a dumpy place. Concrete floors, glaring fluorescent lights. There were big boxes and bags of "stuff" stacked everywhere, with no apparent order. No display, no description - just a big jumbled mess. The owner, who was about 65, inherited the business from HIS father, and his sons worked there with him. The dad sneered at the internet and wouldn't even talk about it.
When I went, I took a van and wore old clothes, because I knew I would get dusty. I spent hours plowing through tons of merchandise and made lists of possible items to sell. Then, I would call my son who was at home on the computer, read him my list and go have lunch while he did some research.
After his report, I would go back and buy certain things, loading them all in the van myself. When I got home, I had to unload it, store it, take pictures, write listings, then box, wrap and mail. It was a whole lot of work!
But the profits were wonderful. For example, I bought a huge box of miscellaneous Liz Claiborn purses for $3 each! They were selling for around $70 at Macys. I got between $45-$50 for each one of those bags! Quite a healthy return on investment.
Other lucrative goodies included all kinds of name brand sports shoes and T-shirts; Revere Wear cooking utensils; Weider sports supplements and exercise equipment; tons of seasonal decorations; brand new books for 10-25 cents; more clothing than I even knew existed; well known perfume and cologne and huge numbers of items I can't even recall.
I wish I could say that I have made huge numbers of dollars by dropshipping - but it wouldn't be the truth. It's only been a minor part of my auction income.
Lots of auction sellers deal in large - even huge - volume. It's OK to make a $2 profit if you're selling 2,000 widgets a week and you don't mind all the detail work that goes with it. But, if you want the really large profits, seek the out-of-the-way little places, the ones that no one else has heard of. That's where you will find the gold.
As in auctions, so too in any business. What will you do that your competitors won't?
Copyright © Sydney Johnston, 2002.
About the Author
Sydney Johnston is the author of Make Your Net Auction Sell!, the "bible" of net auctions, published by sitesell.com. Subscribe to Auction Gold to learn how to find make money with online auctions, the hottest, most active business on the net. FREE book, "How To Suck Up Hungry Customers Faster Than A Vacuum Cleaners On Steroids." auctionknowhow.com
sydney@auctionknowhow.com
http://www.auctionknowhow.com
Copyright © 2005-2006 Powered by Custom PHP Programming