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April 2012 Update

It’s been a while since my last business status update.  I do seem to be bouncing back and forth between what to do in 2012.  In reality it looks like 2012 with be a non-expanding year for me.  I’m just not into beginning a new business at this moment.

I was talking with my friend who is in ecommerce also, and we’ve realized that in our request to get passive work from anywhere income, that we have somehow bogged ourselves down in our work.  I can’t really just take off whenever I want anymore.  I have a employees and an office.  I have paperwork that piles up after a week and bills to pay on time.  We somehow created a daily job for ourselves.  I hope this will change with my new hire that will start in June.  She will take over day to day operations of my stores.

Of course, as I complain in my blog, it’s not all that bad.   I just got back from spending almost two weeks over in Prague and Budapest again.  It was a short vacation, but well worth it.  During that time, I did not do any work for my ecommerce stores which felt very good.  I really feel that vacations do help your business.  Every time I step away, I get new ideas as I come back.

The new google update a few days ago hit two of my sites pretty hard.  Traffic was cut in half and both of those stores dropped to page 2.  I have to work on getting them back to the front page again.

Going forward, my goal is to slow eliminate myself in day to day operations at the stores.  So these are the steps I’ve taken so far:

• Hire a manager (starting in June)
• Hired an SEO company (started in April)
• Hired a bookkeeper/accountant to come in once a month and reconcile everything (First meeting this week)
• Began using an online company to simplify my shipping process

Of course, all these things come at the expense of profit margin.  I do watch my margin and I realize that expenses are slowly creeping up.  However, they could be worth it if I free up my brain and new ideas materialize due to that.

So with those steps I am hoping to free up much more of my time to do more “profitable” and “fun” things.  With the day to day stuff becoming minimal, I can concentrate on increasing sales in different ways than just more stores and SEO.  And I have been try to become more strategic in a sense.

• I recently found a new supplier and am offering a new line of products.
• I have also broaden my China imports.
• I’ve also decided to shut down a few of my non-performing ecommerce stores.
• I’ve decided to not open up anymore stores.  I’m going to increase my store selection instead of opening new stores.

In addition to that, I have been revamping the website for my other online business that I do solely 100% of the work.  I tried to hire someone for this business last year but it did not work out.  I’m not sure what direction I want to go with this one as it is very customer service oriented.  So hiring people is not as easy.

Lastly, I do have a new business in mind.  But I have learned that I cannot attempt to start this one until I get these other two running like a well oiled machine.

Posted in Ebiz | No Comments »

DVDs, Downloaded Movies and Previews

I received a Netflix DVD today and was forced to watch 14 minutes of previews before it got to the DVD menu.  This kind of shit just annoys the crap out of me.  This was a DVD in which you could not fast forward the previews in any way.  Of course, you were able to rewind a preview easily.

So basically you pay for the DVD and the studios still aren’t happy.  They still have to cram ads down your throat and waste your time.  Guess what happens if you watch 1/2 of the movie and have to watch another day.  Yup, another 14 minutes of the same previews.

When I went to Taiwan, I downloaded and paid $3.99 for 6 movies (24 hour rental) on my tablet to watch on the plane.  Well, I didn’t know that I had to activate the movie by watching it for a second which required internet access.  So I sat on my 10 hour flight movieless.  Then on top of that, I was charged for movies I never got to see because while in Taiwan, I could not download (you can only do that in the USA) the movies I paid for.  The rentals expire after 30 days.

I did call to get a refund, but the hoops you need to jump through for that was not worth getting the $24 back.

Now I am someone who could visit foreign youtubes, torrent sites, burn DVDs and get my hands on pirated movies any time.  I know which sites to go to.  I understand how to use a torrent, burn a DVD, save a streamed video, etc…  But I don’t do that, because I can afford the movies and I also would rather just pay and get it conveniently.

However, all this shit that they make you jump through just to watch a movie that you PAY for is making me go back to the torrent route.

Then on the other hand, Apple makes this very easy but I need to get an Ipad since you can’t do it on Android.

So, I think I’m just going to download torrents because it’s actually easier than paying for DVDs or movie downloads.  or I’ll have to get an Ipad…

Posted in Making Money Online | 3 Comments »

What to do, What to do

I get in these business funks every once in a while.  I just become unmotivated to do much.   March is turning out to be a decent month for the ebiz.  Sales are good.  My warehouse is getting stocked with alot of inventory.  I’m getting a little cash poor, but I’m usually low on stock on everything so I’m trying to keep my inventory up.

This year I seem to be waffling on everything.  I can’t seem to go in one direction.  First it was renting websites out, then it was the SEO business.  Now I’m leaning towards a travel site and doing Iceland and Antartica trips.

I have a friend who will be going in the website rental direction.  I’m probably going to sit and wait to see how he does.  Of course if he does well, I’d get motivated to jump in.

The nice thing about having friends with different business models is that we can find out what works and what doesn’t and go in those directions.  It’s so much easier to start a business if you have a friend who is already successful in that field.   You can just pretty much copy him, but in a different niche.  There’s plenty to go around.

The website rental business is SEO intensive and the one thing I’ve figured out this year is that I don’t like doing SEO.  So I’ve decided to outsource the SEO and hire someone to do it.  I know that I can do it, but SEO is just not a fun thing to do.  It is a critical aspect of any business and I just don’t do it enough.  So hopefully this outsourcing works out and I can be rid of SEO management.  Finding a good SEO is very hard though.  It’s like finding a good contractor to remodel your home.

I’ve been getting alot of wholesale inquiries and it’s to the point where I need to seriously look at distribution for the products that I’m importing from China.  Alot of B&M stores want to carry my stuff, but I’ve been hesitant only because I wasn’t looking to become a high volume, low margin warehouse.  But if the volume gets high enough, I may have to do it.  I’m also running out of warehouse space already.  I can’t stock upward or else I’d need to get a forklift which I definitely don’t want to do.

Posted in Ebiz | 4 Comments »

Car Dealers

I sold my 4Runner last week and had the Ferrari as my only car for a few days.  So I really needed to buy a car quick.  Trying to buy a Honda or Hyundai when pulling up in a Ferrari is a different experience.

First I have to deal with all the “Are you trading that in” questions.  And then the “How fast is it” questions.  But after all of that, they generally treat me as a pretty smart buyer.  In fact, I liked to pre-empt their strategy by telling them what they are going to do before they do it.

I love how they always ask you what monthly payment you are looking for.  I told them I’d like to pay one payment of $25,000.  I was looking at a new Hyundai Sante Fe and the sticker was I think $29,900.  He does the ‘let me talk to my manager’ thing and before he leaves the office and I say to him, you better not come back with that $29,700 shit that they always do.  So the guy comes back with $29,500.  LOL  After that, I didn’t even counter.  I just left.

So I did not buy the Sante Fe.  I just couldn’t get myself to buy new, but it was a very nice car and the warranty is great.

The next dealer I went to was a Honda dealer to look at a used Honda Pilot.  The sales lady tells me that it’s in outstanding condition.  So I drive all the way their and the car is a piece of shit.  They basically wasted my time.  I told the sales guy that I didn’t want the car.  He said what price would you buy it for?  I said to him that if you offered it to me at half price I would still think about it.

I really hate car dealers.  I wonder how a business that is so hated survives.  I bet that if I opened up a car dealer that just sold cars at invoice all day that it would be successful.  But I would get run out of business by other car dealers and car companies.

Below is a picture I took while at the Honda dealer.  This sign is posted on the wall.  This is why poor people or financially illiterate people never get ahead.  People will do anything to get that sale.  Could you honestly feel good about go down this list with a customer who can’t find a downpayment amount?

I never got the chance to experience how this list works, but I would have loved to debate them over each of these items.  Below this sign (which I didn’t get in the photo) said “Reasons that it is in the customer’s best interest to put as much down as possible”.  There reasons were, instant equity, lower monthly payment and less interest.

Posted in General | 5 Comments »

Real Estate Update

I have heard from many different sources and people that the Phoenix real estate market is turning around.  Based on the offers floating around and people complaining that investors are buying everything up, it feels like 2005 again over here.

With that said, my real estate has been pretty much uneventful lately.  I just received rents checks, which I guess is how it’s suppose to be.

BTW, the house in Avondale had the toilet flapper go bad.  I got two quotes, $175 and $349 to replace the toilet workings on the inside and redo the water line.  Are plumbing prices really this high now a days??  To get just the flapper fixed it was $125 because they don’t just fix flappers, they replace the whole thing.  I think my problem is that I’m using google to find a plumber and that the top searches are going to be larger companies with an army of plumbers.  I need to find that independent plumber that does 1 or 2 jobs himself a day.

I had to replace carpeting in a 2005 built townhome.  Time flies because it seems like I just bought that place!  It’s a good rental market in Salt Lake City.  My old tenants left and the townhome was rerented within 15 days at $50/mo higher rent.

The Houston apartments are still there.  My gut is that one is sputtering along and always on the verge of foreclosure and that the other one is turning the corner.

Posted in Apartments, Real Estate | 2 Comments »

Processes, Processes, Processes…

Processes

So this past week or month I’ve been working real hard on processes.  I finally got around to getting an inventory system and a barcode scanner and printer.  All of my inventory is now barcoded and scanned as it is packed.

I was also working on a help desk type ticketing system for phone calls, returns and emails.

My big project is integrating Quickbooks, all my stores and automated shipping into one easy process.  After going through a bunch of software companies, I think I’ve finally found one that fits the bill.  The price is really reasonable too.  Only about $100 a month.

I installed it on Friday and was planning to implement it over the weekend but I ran into some bugs and unfortunately the company is closed on weekends.  If this program works as advertised, I seriously would not need any employees!  Yes, it’s that good!

Of course I will always need someone at the warehouse since boxes can’t pack themselves.  But the work will be much easier for my employees.

Changes

I will have some big changes in a few months.  I will have a new employee starting in June.  She is going to run all the ebiz stores.  I hope to have most daily operations out of my hands so I can concentrate on growing the business.

One of my employees is leaving sometimes this summer and the other one I will change his job responsibility to probably something more SEO, marketing related.

Not that this is a real business and not some small dropship store run out of my home, I need to restructure everything.  I need to move domains to their proper owners, setup new LLCs, etc…  just to get things “correct” in my eyes.

Vacations

Of course, the number one reason why I have employees and a warehouse is so that I can take vacations.  I have another trip to Prague coming in 3 weeks.  I’m pretty excited to go back.

This summer, I’ve booked a whitewater rafting trip in the Grand Canyon.  It’s a 5 day trip on the Colorado river.  We hike down Bright Angel trail to Bright Angel Lodge and put into the water there.  From there it’s 4 days of rafting until we get to Bar 10 Ranch where we helicopter out of the canyon to an airstrip and then take a charter plane back to the south rim.  Based on the photos and trip reviews, this should be a great, exciting and one of those decompression trips.  No cell phone or internet for 4 days!

Posted in Ebiz, General, Vacations | No Comments »

SEO business

I can’t seem to get this one off the ground.  I have people asking me to do their SEO all the time, but I am just not motivated to start this business.  I know I have to.  I just can’t get myself to do it.

Here lies the problem with most people’s motivation.  If you are motivated by money and you don’t need it, that motivation is probably going to wane.  I look back at the hours I put into my first online store.  It was alot of hours for very little money during that time.

But it was also fun and a learning experience.  I didn’t view it as work.  But I also did need a decent stream of income at the time.  So it was either work on the store or get a job.

Now with this SEO business.  I don’t really NEED to do it.  It’s something I’d like to do just for business diversification.  I don’t need the money nor do I care about it that much.  I like to help people make more money.  I get my happiness from that.  However, there is also alot of pressure in doing that.  If this business did $10,000 a month, I don’t know how I’d feel.

You see with SEO, you are responsible for your client’s results.  Since I like to help people I would feel very bad if I wasn’t getting results for my clients who are paying me good money.

This brings me back to the story about a guy I met on the plane while on my way to Taiwan.  He runs a large online store and we got to talking about ecommerce and importing during the flight.  He told me that he is paying $30,000 a month on PPC and $5,000 a month on SEO.  When we parted he basically said to shoot him a quote and maybe he’d toss some business my way.

When I got back to the states, I sent him an email and he was still interested.  Now here was my dilemma.  For those who know SEO,  a $500/month SEO job for a local business is very different than a $5,000/month job for a national business.

I couldn’t just take what I’d do with a $500 job and multiply it by 10 to complete the $5000 job.  It is much more brainpower intensive.  $500/mo jobs could probably be done with minimal strategy and probably 1-2 hours a month of managing.  A $5,000/mo job would take alot of research and planning, and you probably wouldn’t see results for a few months.  I’m pretty sure that they would want a weekly meeting and weekly reports.  I’d get sucked into a semi-corporate world again!

So I sent the guy a toned down quote for $1250/mo last month.  He did not reply to it, I never followed up and I’m sort of relieved.  I am pretty sure I could have helped him and provided value.  But my nightmare would have been if he liked my work and wanted to up the work. :)

Posted in Making Money Online | 9 Comments »