Business on the internet has become a reality for all of us. Whether you are running one, or making online purchases, it is a viable business model. One of the problems you encounter when you think about starting an online business is finding a realistic business model that provides both income and stability. There are so many unreliable schemes offered, that is it difficult to determine what is legitimate, and what is a money grab.

When you are considering starting an online business, one of the first things to determine is how much time you have, and how much money you can invest. Is this something you want to do part time around your job and family? Or do you have the time, and self-discipline to devote eight or more hours each day to it? You will hear stories of people who are making thousands of dollars while they sit on the beach, but when you investigate further, you will find that in the beginning, these same people invested thousands of hours, and dollars, to get to that point.

Another consideration is how adept are you online? Do you have the technical skills to build a website, manage an autoresponder, and manage payments online? These are all skills that can be easily mastered, but you need to remember there is a learning curve to any new skill. Allow yourself the necessary time to develop the skills you need to be successful. Even if you plan to outsource some of the technical work for your internet business, you will still need to understand the basic workings of your website.

Once you’ve determined how much time, money and technical skill you have, then it is time to decide on what type of home business you want. The choices for internet start-ups are endless. You can sell a physical product, information, advertising, you can even create and sell websites. Let your imagination loose and you can find a business that fits your dreams. Many people fail at online businesses because they are trying to build their own business by following someone else’s dream. True online success will come from learning the skills you need, and applying them to your own passions.

Starting an internet business is really no different than starting any other type of business. You need a set of skills, you need time, money and determination to get it going, and you need a sense of commitment to keep it going. You need to have a plan to follow, to stay on track. You also need to have financial goals for your business, at the very minimum, a monthly income goal, so you know if you are spending your time on the right tasks.

Invest some time before you rush into any home business to determine what outcome you want, whether it’s extra income to pay off the mortgage, or outrageous money to chase all your desires. Decide if you can commit to the investment of time and money, then promise yourself to never quit.

But I know an MBA is valuable.  So, I’m doing the next best thing.  Surrounding myself with MBA grads (they are a chatty, mentoring group and love to share their advice) and reading.  There are infinite resources on the web and in books.

First order of schooling was, according to my informal MBA polling, “Strategy.”  Below are the key elements I researched, studied (no reason to read something unless it’s to understand it fully), and applied to my idea.  It took a few days to complete but by the end of the exercise, I had an in-depth, multi-leveled outline of the various features I needed to create a strong, fortified company that would withstand the long-term pressures of competition.

Michael Porter’s Five Forces

• http://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Strategy-Techniques-Industries-Competitors/dp/0684841487/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320436855&sr=8-1
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_five_forces_analysis
• http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/porter.shtml
• http://worldacademyonline.com/article/34/477/porter_five_forces_model.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYF2_FBCvXw

Complentors: the 6th Force (not included in Porter’s 5)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complementors
• http://www.12manage.com/methods_brandenburger_value_net.html

Resource-Based View (RBV) (Competing Theory for Strategic Management)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource-based_view
• http://tamanpowell.com/Writing/assets/Resource%20Based%20View.pdf
• http://www.ecofine.com/strategy/RBV%20of%20the%20firm.htm

Remember — it always pays to do your homework.

Although I’d never run across any other company or website doing what I wanted to do, it did not mean it was not already out there.  My first step was to make sure that my idea was unique.  I knew exactly what I wanted — or at least, I knew generally exactly what I wanted (I wanted to build a company that helped online shoppers — such as myself — buy what we wanted to buy, from the place we wanted to buy it, when we wanted or needed it, at the best possible price ever offered).  But was there already someone doing it?

I created a list of every keyword associated with my idea: online shopping, e-commerce, e-retailers, e-stores, shopping aggregators, saving money online, cutting coupons, e-coupon sites, efficient shopping, saving time online, etc.  I spent five days in the public library while my children were at camp, following one keyword to twenty sites, which lead me to ten new keywords and twenty new sites.  Sometimes, the information felt valuable.  A lot of times, it felt off-topic.  But I knew I was getting closer to answering my question.

I took copious notes (which is code for “cut-and-pasting”).  I looked into market sizes, leading companies in similar markets, census information (you’d be surprised how much data our government tracks and analyzes), hot trends in e-commerce, hot trends in coupon use, coupon demographics, e-commerce trends, shopping cart optimization, conversion marketing, etc.  I took  a lot of bathroom breaks.  I let myself flip through a magazines in the “Periodical” section every two hours.  I was deep into a world that was complex, active and cutting-edge.  There were a lot of players, a lot of success and a lot of failure.  There was so much to do and so much more to learn.

But no one was doing exactly what I wanted to do.

I delved deep into the websites of “tangential competitors” (I called this my “rogue McKinsey approach”) and spent a considerable amount of time trying to understand the roles of affiliates online.  I learned about retailers and what drives their sales, what keeps them up at night and how they have talk about using the internet to shape their future growth.

This led me into the world of technology itself.  If I was going to start an internet company (versus a “brick-and-mortar” or offline-based operation), I knew I had to understand the basics.   I’d never taken a computer science class.  The truth was — I didn’t really understand where that damn web-highway was kept.  My early searches started with “How the Internet works” and ran all the way to the issue and implications of Internet 2.0 (also known as Web 2.0, Internet2).  HMTL For Dummies.  Software Architecture.  Designing a website.  Thank goodness for Wikipedia.  I scoured their site and worked my way through their largest articles.  I had to re-read most of them twice.  Or three times.  Some, I’m still working on.

Every afternoon, I left the library and headed for camp pick-up.  I was exhausted — and exhilarated.  By the end of the week, I felt confident that my idea was, in fact, original.  Or rather, original-enough.  There were many companies whose business touched on various aspects of my idea but no one had brought them all together into one format.  It was a large market.  No one was doing exactly what I wanted to do.  My idea was evolving into something.

It had the promise of being a real business.

I’ll try to keep this part short:  Born, raised and schooled on the East Coast. Moved to California after college.  Worked in the entertainment industry for 6 years.  Fell in love.  Got married.  Agreed it was best that one of us stayed home to raise the babies.  Got pregnant.  Quit job.  Raised two kids.  For 8 years straight.  Then, my youngest graduated from preschool and suddenly, I realized my children would be gone from 8 am – 4 pm.  That was a long time to be home alone.  It was time to get back to my career.  So I pulled out my resume.  And gasped.

I’d spent 10 years out of the paid-workforce and while full-time childrearing was the hardest job I’d ever had (and the only one in which I didn’t get to take long lunches at nice restaurants), there was a gaping hole in my resume.  My last position was in 1999.  I had not worked in over a decade.  No one would hire me at my last level.  And for sure, no one would give me the promotion that the last 10 years fine-tuning my household management skills warranted.  And consulting?  With a case study of only two, it was hard call myself a Childhood Development Expert.  My options were limited.

I could go back to the Entertainment Industry but that would require business breakfast, lunch and dinners, networking, showing up at an office regularly.  Although my children were in school full-time, I wanted to greet them at the bus stop, help them with their math homework and inspect their tooth-brushing job before they went to sleep.  You see, I’m a control freak.  And I’d read too many childrearing books to know that children thrived in an environment with involved parents.  A traditional desk job wouldn’t work for me.  I had only one option left.  I figured I’d write.

Novelists make their own hours.  A completed manuscript was their resume.  I’d written a book while I was pregnant with my first child (yes, I’m the ambitious sort).  It was terribly written and in desperate need of editing.  I could rewrite my soon-to-be-best-selling novel, get it sold, get it made into a movie and voila, I’d have a hyphenated career.  Writer/Producer.  We’d shoot the movie over the summer.  Great experience for the kids.  That was my plan.  As unrealistic as it sounded.

Then, one evening at the end June, I was talking with my girlfriend and she mentioned a problem she was having while shopping on the web.  The conversation went something like this:

“Don’t you just hate it when that happens?” my friend said.

“Oh I hate that,” I said.  I’ve told you about my idea, right?”

“No, what idea?” she said.

“The one where I fix that problem?…” I babbled away for a good 10 minutes, explaining my solution to our web shopping problem.  My friend didn’t interupt me.  She is very patient that way.  Finally, I stopped to take a breath.

“That’s a brilliant idea,” my friend said.

“Really?” I said.  ”You think so?”

“I know so,” she said.

The next day, I replayed the conversation to my husband, adding “I think it might make a good company, you know?”  He smiled and said, “Why not?  Every company has to start somewhere.”

So, cut to a few weeks later.  I couldn’t stop thinking about my idea.  I thought about it more than I thought about my characters in my book.  Finally, I gave myself the rest of the summer to decide: start a company or rewrite my novel.  And well, three months later – and this is how the decision worked out.

I had been thinking of the idea a lot lately and stumbled across a video giving a similar but different perspective. Check it out

Not Every Failure Is A Learning Experience from Ross Kimbarovsky on Vimeo.

Check out the video here

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The more I thought about how to create an entrepreneur, the more significant traits came to mind. The first, and most important is that of EXPERIENCE. It trumps all. Period. You learn to keep your hands up by getting hit in the face, and you get to Carnegie Hall by logging over 10,000 hours of practice with your instrument. This Blog cannot give you that.

The next is the people you spend your time with. You constantly hear phrases like “You are a combination of the 5 people you spend the most time with”. The older I get, the more I recognize the impact important people have had on my life (peers, mentors, family, etc.) This blog cannot give you that.

The third I believe is that of reading/education. I read almost entirely non-fiction, and each book has given me new insights and a piece of the author’s perspective. For this reason, I’m starting an occasional article series titled “Required Reading”. There’s a long list of books I could recommend off the top of my head, but I want to go in depth with each to analyze key points and ideas; something I wish I would’ve had when I was reading them.

To kick off the series, I want to start with the book The 4 Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. I’ve been a huge fan of Tim’s for a long time and read his blog on a regular basis. It has been criticized that it is just a compilation of many other topics, but this is exactly why I’m starting with it. At its core, The 4 Hour Workweek is a about developing skills, working more efficiently, travel, and countless business strategies. The huge reason I find the book so valuable however, is Tim’s twist on each, as well as his view that each of these is interdependent. As a self proclaimed “lifehacker”, Tim breaks down the fundamentals of effective modern business practices and tosses the rest. These basics drastically changed the way I view both business and life, and I return to sections of the book often to revisit the ideas.

For business, Tim describes the “80/20 Rule” as the foundation for time management. The idea is that 80% of your income/productivity/results come from 20% of your effort/clients/time. Anyone that has spent obscene amounts of time dealing with an unruly client only to have the client buy little or nothing understands this idea. The Tim Ferriss solution? Give the customer the proportionate amount of time and energy that they contribute to your business. If they go with another company, you will save yourself the headache of dealing with them. If they continue to work with you, you have set a standard that professional and efficient business dealings will be expected. The big fish is usually experienced enough to know what they need ahead of time while a poorly organized business is more likely to be the squeaky wheel. Only give them the grease they deserve.

On the other hand, The 4 Hour Workweek preaches that being the squeaky wheel is a must in all aspects of life. This isn’t the same squeaky wheel as the unruly client, but rather a person that will persist and take bold chances where others would be too afraid. You want something? Call until you get a no. When you get a no, move on until you get another no. Find the yes. You want to write a book? Write it. Don’t underestimate yourself. You want to start a business? Do it. The 1,000 people that talk about will underestimate themselves and not follow through. Ask for forgiveness, not permission. Etc. Etc. Etc.

This is THE MOST IMPORTANT theme the book communicates. The idea that risk and failure are requirements on the road to success. For that matter, you shouldn’t aim for the common definition of success. Go for the top and use the potential huge payoff as fuel to push through the hurdles. If 90% of people strive for moderate success, then going for the top means you only have to compete with 10%. I love every application of this idea.

As for specific business models, Tim outlines several in particular. The least effective I feel is to write and market an ebook… I think in 2007, when the 4 Hour Workweek was written, the general public trusted ebook authors a lot more than today. Once the web was flooded with ebooks that were worthless, people realized that anyone could write one. I think that realization undermined the credibility of the market and it is on the down slope. Aside from ebooks, Tim describes a small business that doesn’t try to “reinvent the wheel”. AKA become the middle man with a product that people would buy, but isn’t widely known or available. While I don’t think this idea will produce the next Google, if a middle man style business is structured properly it can put extra passive income in the owner’s pocket with minimal time investment. From this philosophy the phrase “4 Hour Workweek” is born.

The latter topics of the book I found less helpful. Just the phrase “mini-retirements” makes me cringe. Tim’s philosophy is that an entrepreneur should build a business and at frequent intervals go on a long “mini-reitrement” regardless of the implications this has on their business. Upon returning, the refreshed entrepreneur can start a new business that will ignite more passion in them… The concept makes sense in a quasilogical way, but the time, effort, and risk involved in a new venture is daunting. To subject yourself to that throughout your life seems a bit unrealistic. The idea that people shouldn’t spend the best years of their lives focusing only on work is a great point though. A healthy medium of a self sustaining business and more frequent vacations should replace the term “mini-retirements”. Despite the strange logic in parts of the section, the travel advice is extremely helpful.

Overall The 4 Hour Workweek is a must read for any entrepreneur. The perspective Ferriss offers is like steroids for your Entrepreneurially muscle. With the case studies and easy outlines, I found myself thinking constantly throughout the day about side projects I would like to start. My copy of the book looks like a college textbook with dozens of tabs, a self made reference list, and countless highlights. While it won’t give you the detail that some other books offer, it was an extremely helpful jumping off point for future books and topics that I found interesting. Today Timothy Ferriss has become a successful Angel Investor and continues to write on the side.

I just stumbled across Neil Patel’s Blog and one post in particular stood out to me. How Not to Market Your Startup. It outlines the pitfalls to avoid with early internet startup businesses and in depth reasoning behind them. While the latter seem pretty obvious (don’t bribe your customers), his discussion of Search Engine Optimization and Digg/ Technorati/ TechCrunch strategies are awesome. I highly recommend the blog overall

I would definitely be interested in reading the “How TO Market Your Startup” however…

He was average height, Caucasian, wore glasses, was well dressed, and well polished. We had continued to catch up on occasion through events with mutual friends and one such night out in New York he began telling me about a business he had started working with called Vael Project. I was curious about what venture he would invest his time and energy into so I asked “Vael Project huh, what do you guys do?”. In response he plopped his foot on the small table at the lounge we had met up at to show us the shoes he was wearing.

I was intrigued both because I knew little about the men’s footwear business but also at the quality of shoe that had now taken its place next to my Heineken. To appease my curiosity I asked how business was. He responded, “Well I’ve almost maxed out my credit cards, I barely eat or sleep, but business is picking up and we’re getting orders”. With a response like that I knew we’d get along.

When I interviewed him, we began talking about what a normal workweek was like. “My workweek starts on Sunday at 1 pm. When dealing with China you have to be on their schedule. Our Thursday is their Friday you know?” To accommodate this, Sunday-Wednesday are dedicated to organizing orders, checking in on previous orders and making sure incoming inventory makes it to where it needs to go. By Wednesday the orders must be finalized to send out the following day or Vael risks losing another week to the time change. “From there, Fridays and Saturdays are usually for cleaning things here and taking care of web designs and orders from shops. Then Sunday at 1 pm we gotta get back on the orders and follow up.”

After hearing this grueling schedule, I commented on the toll it must take. Matt responded with, “I’ve lost close to 30 pounds since starting with Vael. There’s a lot of nights I wake up in a panic at 2:30 in the morning to double check emails and make sure things are getting done. I promised myself that while some people might be smarter, I would work twice as hard and think twice as hard as them”. Like with any business run primarily through the web, hiccups occur and a single missed email could have major consequences.

As a final word of advice to start up entrepreneurs or those with an already existing business, Matt’s advice is “Make decisions as they come. It’s not always the perfect decision that’s the best but the one that helps the company get over the problems they face at that exact time. If you put decisions off, waiting for the perfect solution a lot of times the problems will get much bigger. You can fix problems later and learn from your mistakes but you can’t move forward without actually doing something.”

Like the industry standard, orders must be placed with factories 3-6 months before the shoes will actually be released. This means that at any given time, the company must be 3-6 months ahead of trends to trump the competition.

As a personal favorite, Matt likes the Brogue style and says he wears them daily in all conditions.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/21/mike-maples-talks-venture-capital-and-thunder-lizards/

The theme? Don’t settle for small entry and small exit strategies for your business. Plan big and disrupt the marketplace.

14th August 2009: I am dispossessed. My worldly goods are variously at my mother’s, with friends, and with strangers, courtesy of Oxfam. I think of Marcus Aurelius, Erasmus and Vladimir Nabokov. I have two suitcases and a wedding in Ireland to attend.

18th August 2009: I am in Paris. Just. I have slept for two hours and have dragged myself and two suitcases to Dublin airport. On the plane I try to die. I succeed. It is 35 degrees and I am sweating champagne. I am in a youth hostel. I am not in Paris. I am in hell.

19th August 2009: I have a job interview. In Arcueil. I am late. By the time difference. I find Arcueil. I interview. It comes to nothing. This will become a theme. I find iced tea. I weep. The following morning, I strategize jobs and flats. The soundtrack is the yelping of Spanish teenagers, the wretching of Girl Guide leaders from Newcastle, and a French boyband chasing girls in Neuilly to the tune of Blur’s “Girls And Boys”. I decide the flat is the more pressing concern. Lists of apartments from Se Loger and Particular à Particular dominate my life. I see apartments with no loos going for 500€ a month. The queues stretch round the block. In a Franprix in the 17ème “Time to Pretend” by MGMT is playing. I sing along. I go to the American Church because I’m a cliché. It rings true. I sign the lease to a flatshare. My landlady talks continually. In two languages. She eats only liver. She will be leaving soon. For Turkey. I walk under the Arc de Triomphe and laugh at my luck. I tell myself that all Parisians must do this and that here lies the explanation for their froideur. It is a kindness; they would otherwise laugh in the faces of those less fortunate. I propose cabins à rire.

For the love of God! I pass this on the way to the supermarket. September 2009

24th August 2009: I become known in my local café. They bring me coffee at 2 when I’m looking for jobs and wine at 5 when batteries are flat. There are tourists, loud, disorganized and blinded by the sun. There are Parisians, quiet (emails and texts are preferred), collected and wearing status shades. Emails and texts are preferred because of the cost of calls. Returning calls for job interviews, the money flows from my prepaid phone faster than I can talk. I am literally exhaling  50€ notes. Food: I wasn’t hungry until I saw my market. I set up my own autoenterprise and advertise in FUSAC. The Eiffel Tower, visible around every corner, takes on basilisk-like qualities as my job search becomes more desperate. I cannot go near the thing so reproachful is it of my folly.

10th September 2009: I have a job. I also have my own students. The children of two bankers, an osteopath and a teacher’s son around the corner from my flat. An editor emails an ancient article for me to proof. I don my status shades and doubt the wisdom of my choices. The magazine covers on the kiosks are all about the flu pandemic and the newspapers are daily reporting the suicides at France Telecom. I go for a walk in the Bois de Bolougne and try not think about the perfect existential novel. After a party, I am in the back of a taxi. The soundtrack is “Time to Pretend” by MGMT. Le Monde launches its new magazine with the theme of happiness. It would seem that the French don’t possess it and the following week three pages of the main section are devoted to suicide.

3th October 2009: I have been paid. The rue du Faubourg St-Honoré is at a standstill because it’s Fashion Week, but, fuck that, Uniqlo has opened at the Opera Garnier and I have been paid. Parisians, not known for queuing, stretch down to American Express, such is their desire for discounted cashmere. I am there too, reading LVMH’s in-house magazine and the Economist. I am not alone in my reading. When Paris queues, it reads. My French becomes a Mayor of Paris project, two hours on Monday evenings and two hours on Wednesdays. On top of my three fullest working days, the classes will suck almost all enjoyment from my life. Most weeks it will take me until Friday to recover. I am offered a job with an internet
start-up. I take it. I need the money. MacBook, Converse, book to write, now, internet
start-up: I’m a cliché. Testing software products on Thursday and Friday evenings sucks the remaining enjoyment from my life. Crossing the Seine on the metro, I write an email to Charlotte, whose been having a tough time of it back in the UK. I try to downplay Paris. Obligingly, the sunrises over the river, the Eiffel Tower to the right, the Sacre-Coeur in the distance, and Paris is bathed in pink. I do not finish the email and am relieved to be in motion.

10th October 2009: Nuit blanche. I cycle back home with my flatmate at three in the morning. We are momentarily disorientated and don’t know how to get home without the lights of Eiffel Tower. They turn it off? Who knew? I start wearing black. A lot. I can only tell it’s the weekend because the emails from my former employer about car parking temporarily stop. I thank my stars that I am out of it though when I receive one, not related to car parking, in which the phrase “McDonald’s delivery model” appears. Can’t you tell I worked for a university? I need indie-rock, ideally Sunset Rundown. I need the Queen Mary, Côte des Neiges, Summit Circle, l’Oratoire, and the downtown core. It would never break me down as Paris does. I need a vodka-cranberry.

November 2009: In my café the children of American ex-pats complain about their  iPhones and Harvard applications. I stop going for a while. My mother visits to witness my existence. We convulse in Bon Marché at the Christmas decorations; birds of taxidermical reality. Six pressed into a box look like the chocolates of the Medicis. We go to the Pompidou Centre. There’s Nan Goldin. There’s Simon laughing in Avignon. He becomes my desktop. Because of Nan, because of the villa, because of Simon? I can’t decide. Spotify starts using the subjunctive in its ads. I almost come. Charlotte Gainsbourg turns on the Christmas lights on the Champs-Elysées the same week her new film, Persecution, opens. I realize why I always wanted to live in Paris. Google buys the provider of the software we have selected for the start-up and locks it down. I’m so exhausted that I actually weep, and that’s before I can think about the money.

9th December 2009: Intimations of festivity are unavoidable, and,  in a moment of clairvoyance, I see myself rejecting every bread in Tesco Inverness on the grounds that none is sufficiently dense for the foie gras I will be bringing back. Food, or more accurately, chêvre, becomes a priority and I eat so much goats’ cheese I can smell it on me when I come out of the shower. I am required to explain the phrase “corporate America”, in the European headquarters of IBM. On the day of my departure it snows. Paris is aghast. It never snows in Paris. Photographs, seen in Le Monde when I’m at the British Library the following day, show Paris to be indifferent to this unexpected eventuality: slyph-like skipping in black coats; words, only visible from rooftops, meticulously written in the snow; robins taking refuge in railings. I dispatch requests received from the finance ministries of both France and the UK before taking what seems to be the last Eurostar of the year.

It's snowing in Paris, 21 December 2009

Now I am sure I will run into quite a bit of controversy with what I am about to write, but what the hell; I hate seeing people getting ripped off every day. The only person making $100 a day from home is the person that came up with the idea of manipulating people to spend money on their method that will make them rich.

Let’s look at the facts:

Did you ever see someone that was well off (don’t have to be rich) or successful that did it over night? Perhaps if you win the lottery, rob a bank, or do something else illegal.

Successful people have spent time and effort in building their success, and it was not over night. Sometimes it is a few months, perhaps even a few years. But in the end it is all hard work.

Do you really think you get something for nothing? If you do, you should really think again about starting your own business. Every business bases its decisions on what is called a Return of Investment (ROI). Do you see the key word there? Investment!
You will have to invest something to get the return.

Can you start a business for free on the internet? YES! This is the good news. You can actually start a business and make money without spending money. Perhaps you think this contradicts my last statement with the ROI? Well in the end you will invest your time.

What if you don’t have time? Then you should not even read this. Time is the one thing that anyone starting a business needs. You need time to think about your idea, prepare to start, figure out what you want to do, then get things started.

Can you really make $100 a day? Not in the first 6 weeks and here is the surprise – probably not in the fist 6 months. If you start a business it will probably take you at least 2 weeks to set things up properly. Once this is done, it will take about another 2 weeks to start to market it properly. Now you have just spent 4 weeks in your new business, and still have not made money (but you have not spent any either). Finally after about 6 weeks you might get lucky and make between $50 and $150. If you did not, you have to rethink your business and adjust it to become more successful. With hard work, tons of research and readjusting, you could be making $1500 a month after about 6 months.

Now if you are interested, I am going to give you tips on how to set up a business, market it properly, use the tools available on the web, and take advantage of the wonderful world of WEB 2.0.

I’ve been in London working on a few small projects, and some speculative stuff. The severance pay is almost gone, and I’ve taken up a job with an Internet start-up. Though I remain focused on my new job, I stumbled across this on the BBC’s Today programme… Listen in at 1 hour 18 mins. (Wednesday 18th Feb)

Best Buy Year Supply Click Here

Best Buy Year Supply Click Here Cat Lovers

Today’s Rusty Deal Check it Out

Before you know it the frost will be gone and the bugs will be out.  For as long as I can remember we have sold Frontline Flea products in our retail locations and also on-line starting in 2000.  We sold all the top brands and every month the Frontline Plus sales would slowly get stronger and stronger than the other lines.  The other stat we started to notice is that we saw hardly in returns do to product not working.  We would get Advantage and Bio Spot product back from time to time but nearly never with Frontline Plus.   Our first website ever was called Fleadrops.com and all we sold was Advantage and Frontline and Frontline Plus.. We sold a lot of it..  We are sending an email to all of our past customers this week introducing them to our new site and new products.  Should be an exciting week.

When I was discussing our product selection with folks they all asked why are you limiting yourself to just Frontline Plus and High Peak outdoor gear?  I want to build a site around the best products we can find and products that we can stand behind and use ourselves.

It seems like so many companies try to be everything to everyone.. such as Amazon and Overstock.. and we sold our business in 2004 we where heading down that same path.

We went from fleadrops.com to TjsPetshop.com .. fleadrops which carried 4 brands and maybe 15 sku’s to Tjs that carried over 3000 products and had 5 separate fulfillment houses and our own 4000 sq ft warehouse.

What happened next?  Well, that is part of the next post/book that is under construction!

Long story short! We want to be known as carrying the best products.  Products that work! Mfgs that stand by their products and products we use.. Rusty is a Frontlne Plus dog in fact all the pets in our family proudly wear their Frontline Plus…  Give it a try if your not satisfied we will buy it back!  Click Here – Buy NOW

The moral of the story is it is OK to be specialized and build a business around great service and the greatest products.  At least, I hope.

As we are seeing more unique visitors each day and our orders are coming more rapidly I have to stop and think about the first order we ever got online.  It was a gentlemen named Paul from Hawaii and it came about 5 in the morning.  We had the office in the house and I ran like the house was on fire to answer that phone..  Answered it like we had been in business for 10 years…  From the day on I always tried to answer that phone even when people ordered on Easter I would answer..

Facebook (find your ex’s, people from 6th grade that you haven’t called in 30 years), LinkedIn, Twitter, Twellow, Twollo, Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger, MySpace…I am sure there is a ton of others that I am missing..

So now you can market a business for next to nothing but your time which is now turned into blasting a quick tweet to your followers so they know that you are at Jiffy Lube and the attendant didn’t tell you that you need an oil filter.. and your 347 followers are so pleased to hear that..

Isn’t this the old chat rooms of the 90′s coming back?  It sure feels like it.. you are having a real time “chat” with a group of people.  the only difference is that these folks have actually signed up or “followed” you by choice… nothing wrong with the old chat room.. I loved them because you could be someone else and just mess with people..

Same thing happening now.. the only difference is the “avatar” or pic that follows you around… but there are a ton of Dave Mathews and Barack’s .. One is the right one but you never really know..

Posting.. interesting.. contributing! it is so funny to watch the posts come through.. I imagine people searching the net for something so profound that they will get “dugg” on digg..

I love Twitter .. I really do because I don’t have to read an entire blog and I can follow a ton of different folks nearly 1500 and I can check out blogs, biz sites, like minded people doing what it is I am doing.. It lets me unfollow people that use the site to promote the latest berry drink that if I get enough people under me I can make a ton of money and never have to work again!!!!

Twitter rules for me.. it lets me mix biz with some pleasure and control my intake of info and from who it comes from.. Facebook.. “hate” I am sure there is value but way to many “do you want to be friends” from people that probably don’t even remember me!  LinkedIn .. dig that..  Tumblr.. cool platform . .easy to use but I can’t keep up!

With all that said, at the end of the day we sell High Peak Outdoor Activity Gear, Trek Light Gear, Outward Hound and Frontline Plus flea control for those activity dogs and cats!!!

Cat Lovers!  Frontline Plus for Cats this weekend only $125 bucks for a year supply.. Buy it here http://rustydeals.com/frontline-plus-for-cats.html .

They’re excited about the launch!

it is so funny now that we are 7 days into the launch of http://rustydeals.com the question i get asked 5 times a day is.  how’s the site? how much have you sold.  the perception is that you turn the site on and within minutes the orders start rolling in.  I wish.. it takes time for a site to be indexed and listed into the directories that will move the site up the google (god) ladder.  

we have a few more items to load into the store mainly Outward Hound pet products.  we are excited about the opportunity to carry this awesome line.  we already have requests from twitter followers no less for some items.  

i did do a search on google tonight for high peak gear, high peak sleeping bags and found that for some keywords we were already on the second page.  Moving on up! 

our traffic is running about 100 unique visitors a day which is exciting as well.   i think about 60% of that is coming from twitter followers.. 

so we are ready for your orders of frontline plus flea control, high peak gear, outward hound, and trek light gear.. shop now and shop often tell everyone you know about this great site you found! http://www.rustydeals.com!

From OtherInbox.com: “OtherInbox is the cure for email overload – it provides consumers with a free email account that automatically organizes newsletters, social networking updates, coupons and receipts from online purchases so that its easy to find the most interesting things and ignore the rest.”

Ok, that’s good copy, but I needed to try it out a bit before I offered up my two-cents. Here are some ways I’m already using it. I’ll save the feedback as it’s just in beta and they are working out the bugs and getting ready to launch some new features.

1. Organize all my newsletter emails. I get (and try to read) a ton of e-newsletters from Clickz, Media Post, Ad age, etc. I hate to have them stacking up in my normal inbox while they patiently wait for me to read them. I created an “other inbox” for each of them and now I can quickly read through them and easily save the ones I want to read later without the jumbled mess.

2. Use it to keep-up a bit better with my multiple Twitter accounts. Yes, I have more then one. I’m currently on Twitter as @Adomatica, @Enfartico, and @Cyclingtalk. If you try to manager multiple accounts you know that it is a pain to get the notification emails all to the same email account and then make sure you are logged in as the correct profile when using the notification to follow your new followers. With OtherInbox, I created an inbox for each of the my extra profiles and I can check out the action in a big chunk and once I am logged in properly.

That all for now. I’m sure I’ll have some other ideas/feedback soon.

Razoo is a community united around making a positive difference in the world. Where passion leads to action, and a whole lot of collective good comes from individual contributions.

Razoo is a for-profit online community where members can create profiles, join groups, create groups, post comments, share blogs, support causes and keep updated on new events in the non-profit world. Causes include a full range from saving the ocean to aiding the homeless to international development. In turn, Razoo then donates grant money to the causes who host the most members. I encourage you to check the site out. The best past about the site is that you do not have to be a member to browse.

Razoo has recently been featured in the Washington Post. Both articles come from December 07:

1. Social Networking for Social Causes. This article talks about Razoo and other social networking applications that work for the social good.
2. Social Networking for the Socially Minded. This article provides more background on how the internet start-up began and its history.

Randball — http://www.randball.com, an internet Start-up by a Taiwanese entrepreneur. Flying solo, he is able to run such an innovative & not to mentioned fun game all by himself. While I think is really respectable. Takol, Respect from me.

I won’t be a good person to write a review or introduction of the game as there are some who did it well. Take a look, it will interest you.

http://www.freegroup.org/randball

http://playpcesor.blogspot.com/2007/09/randball.html

I will wish him all the best I have on his initiative. This will be a big thing.