We realize that absorbing so much information about E-Commerce may have the effect of distracting you from what we see as the best, most important reason for having a Home Based Internet Business in the first place - Financial Freedom.
So, we wanted to share a story with you -- Just a little something for you
to look forward to once your Business is up an running.
Our First Sale.
Audrey and I were chatting it up the other day. We decided to take a break
from our Home Business and spend some quality time enjoying the fruits
of our labor. She was sitting on the couch, plucking away at her bass
guitar and I was paging through my new “Home Improvements for Idiots”
guide that I picked up from the Home Depot the week before.
It’s funny how often we chat about our business even in our “Play” time…
We “Remember”…We “Look Back”… We start talking about all of the STUPID
mistakes we made when we first started to build our little Home Business
Empire. I’ll be honest, they’re not all flash cash and fame… Sometimes,
the memories make my stomach to turn a back flip or two. But our stroll
down memory lane usually winds up at the moment where our hobby changed
into a business. And then when our business made us money.
Our turning point was our Yahoo! Store. Let me just tell you, having one
didn’t occur to either one of us until we almost gave up. I remember the
endless conversation about whether or not a Yahoo! Store was the right
option. We spent literally months roaming around the internet looking at
all of the so called “Turn Key” e-commerce options. One E-commerce site
had a banner across the top that read ”Get Started NOW for less than
$500 a month!”. That was depressing. I remember looking across the desk
at Audrey…
She said ”Can we really do this?” Many a long nights followed.
$500! I don’t know about you, but that’s a lot of money to shell out every
month, especially when it’s for technology. I mean, all that money just
to keep the “Virtual lights” on. That was a hard time and we almost
quit.
I mean, we both had GREAT jobs! When I say Great, I mean FANTASTIC. We
worked in the Movie Business. The only thing that could be better than
making Movies and Television would be piloting the Space Shuttle (Audrey
actually went to Space Camp, so that might have been an option)!
But, we both wanted desperately to own our own business. But at that
point, the chances of that were looking mighty grim.
Then, one Saturday in January (It was snowing) Audrey stumbled on an
article from CNET. It was a review of Turnkey E-commerce Solutions. She
got real quite. All of the sudden, she gasped.
CNET had the monthly price of a Yahoo! Store at $100. It also gave Yahoo!
Stores a GREAT Review. When she told me that, I dropped my Internet
Marketing Manual and pulled up a chair next to her computer.
$100! One-Fifth the Cost of that “Premier” E-Commerce Provider! We
immediately went to Yahoo!
We started to speed-read all of the benefits of owning a Yahoo! Store. We
saw that the Yahoo! Shopping Network got 13 MILLION Shoppers a day and
in order to be in that network, you had to have a Yahoo! Store.
Then…
Audrey gasped again. CNET was WRONG! They quoted the price of a Yahoo!
Store too high… Across the office and out into her foyer she called to
me…”Andy! Its Fifty Bucks a Month and the First Month is FREE!”
We signed up that day.
Now, picture a time-lapse outdoor scene. The snow melts away…The grass
starts to get green again, the trees start to bud…..
We went through 5 Different Yahoo! Store Permutations before we refined
our formula for Supply and Demand. 5 Stores and 5 Months later, we
finally had a product that our research indicated would pull in sales.
We found our supplier and put our first product up in our store. What an
amazing feeling! Just to make sure that what we were seeing on our
computer wasn’t some cruel fluke of Internet nature, we called my mother
an asked her to surf over to our site.
“Ohhh…Look! That’s You Guys!”
I have to say, our store sucked at that point. We just needed to
accomplish something – anything! You should have seen it! Our Homepage
was atrocious! It read “Thanks For Coming” …Gag!
But still, we were on the Internet, we had opened a store! More to the
point, we opened a store with a product line that we had determined to
be in demand.
Now all we had to do was hold our breath.
And then, it happened. While Audrey and I were trying to whip up some
respectable and keyword relevant home page copy, that little “DoooDu”
sound came ringing out of her computer speakers. We rushed over to her
e-mail in box and saw a message from” Yahoo Store System”.
Yahoo Store System? Who in blazes was that? Did we do something wrong? Was
our merchant account all snafu?
Nope. It was our Yahoo Store Manager telling us that our store had just
received an order. An order for $76.00 plus Shipping and Handling. An
order for a Pair of Replica Scottish Flintlocks.
Our Store had been open for business for 29 hours. Thank You Yahoo
Shopping Network!
And those are the kind of conversations that we have when we're having
fun. Their filled with words like “Can You Believe That?” and “ Look at
Us Now!” and “Yeah Baby!”.
There is no feeling in the world like having the person that you love look
up from their computer screen and say “ Oh look! Another Order from the
Store!”...
And then exchange a High Five.
It’s our little rule nowadays. Whenever we get an order, we High Five.
Lately, it’s been that little “Hammer Fisty Thingy”, but the meaning is
still the same…
“Look at us… Were in Business”
Last week, I called Audrey on her cell phone. She was in our home office
and I was downstairs in our Home Theater. I asked her if I could call in
sick that day and play around with our video projector. She said, “Wait
a minute, let me ask the Boss”.
She came downstairs and asked if it was all right for me to call out sick
that day.
I said yes.
Do yourself a favor. Start a business today. Believe me, you wont care if
it takes you 3, 6, 9, 12, or 24 months of hard labor before it makes
enough money for you to work at home.
When the day finally arrives that you can – you will be on the absolute
top of the world.
Gotta go check the stores….
Shop You Soon!
