Are you one of those people who gets a new Barbeque Grill, opens the box and starts putting it together without reading the instructions?

With age comes wisdom, though, so they say. I guess the one thing that I can think of right now that is GOOD about getting on in years a bit is that I learned a long time ago that instructions are there for a reason. Barbeque Grills actually take LESS time to assemble when I DO read the instructions, even including the time it takes to do the reading. )

I can’t even tell you in round numbers how many people come to our web site, buy our membership, dive right in, and then start calling and emailing us with questions that are answered right there on our site to begin with, BEFORE the purchase.

Now, don’t get me wrong, here. We do NOT mind answering questions! That’s why we have such a great Customer Service Team. If they didn’t have questions to answer all day long, they just wouldn’t know what to do with themselves! My concern, though, is that if so many people who buy access to our Certified Suppliers are not “reading the instructions”, they are probably not doing it with any of the other EBiz Tools they use either.

If you’re not taking the time to read up about the tools you use for your EBiz, you’re wasting your time at best, and playing a very dangerous game at worst.

Wasting time is bad enough in Home-based EBiz. If you’re not familiar with how your EBiz Store Hosting works, how your Merchant Account really works, how your Ordering System functions, how your Online Advertising and Search Engine positioning should be handled, and so much more, then you’re not going to become nearly as successful as you could be.

It becomes a dangerous game though, to mention just one example, when you don’t take the time to understand how your new Online income affects your Income Tax. You do NOT want to find yourself owing big money that you don’t have at the year, after spending every cent you made Online all year long without putting any of it away for taxes.

W. Edwards Deming once said, “Learning is Not Compulsory…Neither is Survival”. I don’t think those words apply to ANYTHING BETTER than Home Based Businesses. Learn, Survive, Succeed. If you don’t Learn, you may survive and even succeed to a point, but certainly not to your full potential.

I know that many people don’t like to just sit and read. When you’re reading business information, it can get boring very quickly. That’s one reason we try to write all the free learning material on our site in the easiest, plainest way we can, while still staying on point. No matter how dull or boring, though, if you’re using a tool for your EBiz, READ and LEARN all you can about it. It’s actually a little like an Easter Egg Hunt. You’ll find that the tools you use have capabilities you didn’t even know about. ;o)

If you’re looking for some easy EBiz reading to practice on that really will help you out, check out our Free EBook, Starting Your Internet Business Right. You’ll find it here; Click for Free eBook

We’ve seen and heard people say for years, “How come HE or SHE is successful in EBiz, and I can’t seem to make this work, even though I use the same methods?” In my experience, it is invariably the fact that the successful person knows all the tools they’re using inside and out, and the unsuccessful person still has three pieces left over from the Barbeque Grill in the back yard.

photo credit: Helga Weber

These are just two small examples of how the big chain stores actually make their profits in the Electronics market.

The Electronics market on the Internet is very often the first thing that newcomers to online business try to get into. It’s flashy and cool, and everybody says it’s the hottest market on the Internet. Well, maybe it is, but when you have, say, 100,000 people buying Electronics online every day, and 120,000 people selling them, none of the sellers are going to make much money.

It’s a pretty well saturated market, as has been for a long time. Most newcomers look at the wholesale pricing they get from Electronics Drop Shippers and other wholesalers, and complain that the prices are too high.

But they’re not. When you work with legitimate wholesalers like the ones you find in our Certified Directory, the prices are right where they should be.

The thing that most people don’t understand is that not only is Electronics highly competitive, which drives the profit margins down, it’s also an Accessory and Service Plan Market, and always has been. That means that the profits are not so much in the products themselves, but in the Accessories and the Service Plans that get sold with them!

Of course, you’re probably not going to be selling Service Plans for the products you sell on your website or eBay Auctions. So, let’s go back to the Printer Cable.

You can get a great printer for a good price at places like Best Buy. But, you can’t print anything until you buy the Cable, the Ink, and the Paper! And once again, that’s where Best Buy makes their money.

You can do the same thing. If you feel that you must sell in highly competitive markets, look at the products you’re selling, and think about the kinds of accessories that can go with them. Then, create package deals that you can sell on your Stores and Auctions. That’s how people who ARE making money in Electronics are MAKING that money!

Talk to your Supplier. Ask them what they carry that you can use to accessorize the products you sell, no matter what market you’re in. I guarantee you’ll find that the accessories carry a higher profit margin than the base products themselves, and that’s where you’ll make your money.

photo credit: Peter Kaminski

These simplistic product sites have many benefits;

1. Advertising
When you try to have a website full of many different products (such as a general store or discount store) you will have to advertise for all of your products. This can get VERY expensive and time consuming! Wouldn’t you rather advertise for only a few things versus several hundred?

2. Authority
Authority of a website is very important to the search engines. Authority shows the search engines that your site knows what it is talking about. Gearing all of your advertising and site content towards one type of product will show the search engines your knowledge and authority on those products.

3. SEO & Marketing
This is similar to the first two points. For good SEO, make sure to choose your keywords carefully. Only having one type of product to concentrate on, keeps your keyword amount low, and you are able to work harder on these particular keywords to get them ranked versus trying to get hundreds of keywords ranked.

4. Multiple Sites and Selling Channels
Niche websites allow you to create and manage multiple websites a lot easier. You can get one niche website completed, including SEO & Marketing, and then start working on another niche site. This will allow you test different platforms and selling channels as well. See which works best for you!

5. Qualified Leads
When people are searching the internet for a particular product to buy, they will be specific in their search terms. A well laid out, clean looking niche store, with good SEO & Marketing, will bring your store up higher in the search engines and give customers what they are looking for, the product they searched for plus options they may never have considered!

photo credit: cmpalmer

Since I love Coach Handbags so much, wouldn’t it make sense that I should sell them?

But, before I set my heart on something to sell, I should look at all the factors involved.

First, Coach doesn’t allow their handbags to be sold online by just anyone. They restrict their sales to prevent counterfeit products. So they only prefer to work with stocking retailers, specialty stores and catalogs that can meet their criteria.

Second, they are not looking to setup new wholesale relationships. They already have the stores they want to resell their products, and they aren’t looking to expand into new territories.

How do we know this? It’s on their website in the company information section.

Coach isn’t the only company like this. There are many other brands and designers that restrict sales and the product types don’t just stop with trying to purchase wholesale handbags. Electronics, baby items, clothing and more are restricted by many brands.

Make sure to do your homework before you decide on what product to sell, because there is a big chance that you cannot sell that product! Check out their websites, look at their FAQ’s, policies and procedures to determine if the company will even work with you at all.

We here at WorldwideBrands.com know and understand the difficulties that many online retailers face in locating products that they can sell. We only list in our Directories products that are available to online retailers and small based home business owners.  We verify the legitimacy of these companies to protect our members from scams, middlemen and counterfeit products. We do our homework so our members don’t have to waste their time running in circles and just focus on what is important; selling products online.

photo credit: WTL photos

Wait!?!?! Job?

Yes, we here at WorldwideBrands.com LOVE what we do! We love knowing that the hard work that we put into our Product Sourcing Tool by finding legitimate wholesale suppliers for our online retailer members keeps our members safe from scams and middlemen.

Do you love what you do? It’s always been said, that if you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work. So why wake up and go to a job you don’t like? Why not spend your days working for yourself, be your own boss and love what you do!

Worldwide Brands can get you started right. Go here; http://www.worldwidebrands.com for more information.

photo credit: qthomasbower

Marketing isn’t just about getting your message out there, it’s also about trying to get customers to purchase from you. A customer can’t physically hold the product or turn it around in their hands to look at it, so you have to provide that for them with images.

There are many sales lost everyday on eBay because of this one simple thing. Poor images.

When a potential customer searches through the eBay listings looking for the product they want to buy, they will encounter a list of matches to look at. Poor pictures on an auction will usually steer the customer away, because they can’t see the details on the image. That means for you, a lost sale or you will have to discount the product greatly to get rid of it, which hurts the market by devaluing the product.

So if your sales are hurting, check your images and description write-ups to see if there can be any improvements. You may find that the simple fix of taking great pictures of the products for sale and multiple pictures from different angles, will increase your sales.

photo credit: ssh

A SKU refers to a Stock Keeping Unit and is unique to the company that issues it. The SKU is then assigned to each individual product.

So for example, let’s say that I make collage picture frames. I have one black picture frame, that holds 5 - 4×6 photos so my SKU for that product would be Blk546 (or any other number I make up).  I have that same picture frame, but in brown. So my SKU for that product would be different, I might use Brn546. This would carry on until individual product has its own unique SKU.

SKU’s assist warehouses in keeping track of their inventory. So knowing the number of SKU’s that each wholesaler has, tells you how much inventory they have.

If you have any additional questions about SKU’s, please ask them below!

photo credit: ricardodiaz11

It’s that time of year again when you need to seriously consider getting your business started right for the New Year.

According to the US Small Business Administration, over 600,000 people start a business every year. Many succeed and many fail.

Why do they fail? According to the SBA, many small business owners fail because they lack the training and knowledge necessary to run a successful business.

At WorldwideBrands.com we help you with that. We have eBooks, articles, videos, workbooks and more that will teach you how to get your business started right, how to work with wholesale suppliers, what are the best services to use and more.

Along with our fantastic training and education, our main business focus is our Product Sourcing Tool. Our Tool contains over 8 million wholesale products from thousands of wholesale suppliers that work with online retailers.

We investigate and certify each wholesale supplier before we list them in our tool so our members can be assured that they are working with a legitimate wholesale supplier and not a scam or a middleman.

Sign up with Worldwide Brands today by taking advantage of our special offer of $20 off! This coupon will expire on New Year’s Eve, so don’t miss out!

Go here: http://www.worldwidebrands.com/happyholidays

However, once in a while we lose a distributor or two as well.

Why? Do they decide they no longer want to sell to home-based business? Do they go out of business? No. They decide that they don’t want to deal with the number of people we send them who do not follow their instructions when setting up a new account!

This can be a bad thing for both of us.

For us, it’s bad because we spend a great deal of time and money researching genuine Wholesalers. We don’t just pull these companies out of a quick trip to a Search Engine, like all the other lists and “directories” on the Internet. As you know from reading our site, we put a great deal of effort into our research, and spend a lot of money on large numbers of “raw leads” that we develop into just a few real Wholesale Suppliers that “make the cut” into our Product Sourcing Tool. We don’t like to lose those companies, but if they tell us to remove them, we remove them.

For you, it’s bad because every Drop Shipper and Light Bulk Wholesaler that drops out of our Tool is a lost opportunity for you. You won’t find most of these companies listed anywhere else, in any other list or “directory”. As I said, we don’t just search the Search Engines. Our “raw leads” are lists of thousands of manufacturers and wholesalers across the USA and around the world. We buy those lists from high-powered Research companies, and then we contact every manufacturer and wholesaler on those lists in order to find out if any of them Drop Ship, sell in Light Bulk Quantities, or will consider doing either or both.

We spend a lot of time, money and effort researching these wholesale suppliers and we love what we do!

The one reason, more than any other by far, that a Wholesale Supplier requests to be removed from our Tool is because they get tired of dealing with people who do not pay attention to their instructions on setting up new Accounts.

Let’s look at it from the Suppliers’ point of view. They think it’s wonderful to be in our Tool. We do not charge them a cent to be listed with us. If we did, there might be many companies who would not be willing to pay a listing fee. We would be short-changing you, our Members, by excluding legitimate Suppliers from our Tool simply out of greed. That’s not the way we operate. We list all qualified, genuine Wholesalers for free.

Again, the Suppliers think that’s great. We get emails and phone calls from them all day long, telling us how wonderful they think our Product Sourcing Tool is for their businesses. However, you have to understand that they are now getting a lot of new Account sign-ups, from our Members.

To the Supplier, that means Paperwork, and sometimes lots of it, depending on how they have their business set up. They all need to know who you are, so they have to process your New Account information. That takes them time. Most of them have to assign you to a specific Sales Rep. More paperwork; more time. Nearly all of them need to get a copy of your Tax ID. More paperwork; more time. After they have your New
Account fully set up and processed, they have a certain amount of time invested in you.

In the reality of the Business World, only about 10% of a Wholesale Supplier’s New Account sign-ups will ever do business with them. We know that a lot of our Members, when they get our Product Sourcing Tool, go a little wild and start signing up for accounts with nearly every Supplier we list!  That’s NEVER our recommendation, but it happens anyway! Those people who sign up for so many Accounts only tend to end up using a small number of them, once they finally decide what they want to sell.

As a result, about 90% of the New Account sign-ups that a Wholesale Supplier gets from our Members end up being unused; that Member will go off and use Accounts they set up with other Suppliers instead.

That, in itself, is not a bad thing. Wholesalers in general are used to this kind of thing. It’s a normal part of the wholesale-retail relationship, and the Wholesalers can handle that. The point at which some Wholesale Suppliers begin to get upset is when some few of our Members don’t bother to follow the Suppliers’ instructions.

I was talking with one of the owners of a Drop Ship wholesale company in our Product Sourcing Tool just a few days ago about this issue. He said that they have a very clear and simple sign-up process outlined on their Web Site, and that they had spent a good deal of money setting up and automating that process. I went to their web site to look at the process myself. It couldn’t have been simpler.

“I get emails all the time from your Members asking about New Accounts”, he said, “and that’s great. I have a standard email I send back, with instructions on how to go to our web site and sign up. But then, many of those people write back, asking more questions about the Account Signup Process. It’s all explained right there on the web site, where I told them to go in the first place. It seems that they just don’t want to take the time to read it. We don’t mind answering calls and emails from our Retailers. That’s part of our Customer Service. But, when we have to take time away from helping our existing Retailers in order to tell someone something that is already very obvious, it gets frustrating”.

“Then”, he went on to say, “we get people who are incredibly impatient. I get phone calls from people who say, ‘I emailed your company three times already about setting up a New Account, and nobody got back to me!’ We know our Customer Service is better than that, so we check our email Inbox. What we find is that they emailed us three times within the past hour, and we just haven’t had time to get back to them yet!”

We then talked about the thing that frustrates him the most. “People just bypass the whole process sometimes”, he said. “We’ll get emails that say ‘my name is Joe Smith, here’s my address, and this is my Tax ID. Set me up a New Account right away’. We simply will not do that, when we have a process already in place that’s designed to save us time, and save them time as well. They can go through the process on our site in just about five minutes, and our Database automatically sets them up with everything they need. We didn’t spend time and money developing that system so that we could go back and manually enter an Account for anyone who doesn’t feel like following our process.”

As you can see, there are reasons for following the processes laid out by the Wholesalers we list in our Product Sourcing Tool. This gentleman was considering asking us to remove his company from our Tool. Of course, we did not want to lose him, so I told him that I would write this article in order to help all of our Members to understand what suppliers like him go through in order to set up new Accounts.

We know that most of our Members do follow the processes that our Wholesalers ask them to. This article isn’t meant to chastise anyone. It’s just meant to help everyone understand these things from the Wholesalers’ point of view. The better you understand the companies you work with, the more successfully you can work with them!

So, here’s a quick list of things to remember when signing up for a New Account with a Wholesale Supplier, or with any Service or Supply company you might use in your business:

• Read the company’s web site before calling or writing with questions. Most of the time the answer is already there for you.
• Don’t get impatient! In the real business world, things take time. Many companies can set you up with an Account either instantly, or within a day or two. Sometimes it takes a week or two. Again, you’ll usually find Processing Time information right on their web sites.
• Don’t try to shortcut the process! There are good reasons for the processes that Suppliers use. They generally do not like it when someone tries to “move to the front of the line” by calling or emailing outside of their process.

As I said, these tips work well for any company you work with, not just your Suppliers. You need the goodwill of the people who service and supply your business, so work within their processes, and you’ll find them very easy to work with!

photo credit: Keith Williamson

We here at WorldwideBrands.com hope that everyone that celebrates Thanksgiving has a safe and Happy Holiday!

Always remember that Thanksgiving is a day for giving Thanks, nut just “stuffing” yourself with Turkey!

So THANK YOU to all of our fabulous members!

photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography